Victor M. Ruiz: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Welcome everyone to the August 6th edition of the Signals From Mars livestream. I’m your host, Victor, and we are back on another Friday night. Thank you for joining us. The shows always is brought to you by the Mars Attacks podcast and by my web design work VMRIT.com. And we are joined today by a good friend of mine.

Roch. I just noticed that you had added The Roch there. It was funny. I was watching some entertaining videos. From him promoting his latest movie. And you know, it’s funny, I like a lot of what he does outside of wrestling, but then when he just gets back in the ring, I just can’t help, but not like him, I don’t know.[00:02:00]

The Roch: yeah, I’m a fan, but you know, in moderation, you know, I, I love them back to the attitude days, you know, when the, when everybody hated them and die, Rocky die, that that was cool stuff. But then after that, it became kind of same thing over and over again. Yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: right. It’s interesting. Because what I had watched today, he was giving a lot of praise to Pat Patterson, which a lot of people don’t realize that pat is really the one who kind of created that Rock character and helped him come up with a lot of the promos and stuff. And you know, in a way, and he actually said that Pat was his father figure.

He said, Rocky Johnson was his father. But Pat was his father figure. So you could almost say that without Pat Patterson, he wouldn’t be the biggest action movie star in the world right

The Roch: yep, yep. And a fellow, a French Canadian.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. There, there you go. Yeah. So I asked the Roch to come on [00:03:00] and hello to Rob Rowe. Hello, to Brad Dahl in Utah.

Or maybe you’re an LA already. I don’t know. Let us know. I’ve been telling you guys the people that I have on here. I know I have people tell me, well, you need bigger names. You need this, you need that. I just want to have cool conversations with people and Roch came to mind because he’s originally from Canada and we’ve had this during the Patreon discussions where we got to discuss Iron Maiden and we got to discuss Motley Crue .

And it was just cool to get people’s perspective on music, how they grew up and from different parts of the world. I think it’s really neat to you know, we have Jeremy who’s in the UK, Brad, who obviously, you know, let us know the other day that he grew up and went to high school with Tommy Lee and actually met Vince Neil and stuff like that before he was famous.

But it’s cool to get everyone’s stories on this stuff and rock and I have been [00:04:00] friends, you know, I dunno for probably at least a decade,

The Roch: Yeah, I mean, pretty much when I started podcasting and that was in 2010, so it was really early on. Yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Yeah. I started a year earlier. But we’d been, you know, I guess thanks to John Katic and him starting up the Cast Iron Ring. And then after that, we tried to kind of continue things with our own kind of network. It was funny the other day I found a bunch of stuff that that we’d been using for, we called it the blast beat network, if I’m not mistaken, no, the blast Blast Syndicate.

And and you know, like everything else, you, you try something. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t, but I mean, we’ve still always remained friends and Roch has always been good at walking the off the ledge. Talk about wrestling things, which we were just kind of discussing

The Roch: Yes. Sometimes you, I think you go a little too far in your conspiracy theories.

Victor M. Ruiz: I know it was [00:05:00] funny when I was writing the the thing this week about about McMahon purposely releasing people so that AWE would run out of money. I’m like, I know Rock’s gonna love this. He’s he’s going to laugh this one up to think, you know, what’s, what’s this guy drinking to come up with this one.

So,

The Roch: pretty much.

Victor M. Ruiz: But anyway, we’re here to talk about metal. You grew up in Quebec. I forget the name of the town, but what was the name of the town? Sherbrooke. Okay. I’m like, Sherburry I’m like, no, that isn’t right. It’s something else. It starts with an S H, but I don’t Okay. So Sherbrooke you had, from what you know, we’ve talked about.

Regarding wrestling. You, you guys did have an arena there where I’m assuming that there was what minor league hockey there as well,

The Roch: Yeah, we had junior hockey. We did not get a whole lot of concerts in that arena. can remember of a handful of them. And wrestling WWF came one time that I remember. [00:06:00] And it was there be show cause we were probably a, no, it would have to be a B show. Cause a Macho Man was a headlining and it was during the, the whole Hogan, you know, reign.

So yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Right. Yeah. That’s funny because a lot of people still dispute to this day, that back at the, you know, the two peaks. They had a, B and C tours because there was a high demand and that’s what they did. They had one champ on one show on or one tour and other champ and other tour. And then it makes you think, who did they have on the sea tour though?

Would they have the tag champs maybe,

or,

The Roch: I don’t know. I always hear about the, a tour and the B tour or,

the A city and the B city, but see you, rarely hear about those. So

Victor M. Ruiz: right. Because I know like on the east coast they would base themselves out of there was a place in Pennsylvania where Lennox Lewis, the boxer later trained, and that was kind of their home [00:07:00] base because it was kind of close to, I believe where the Wild Samoans had their academy for a while.

And so they use that like as a base and then they’d go out to like smaller. Towns and cities on the east coast from there. And they actually did Raw for awhile from there, like when they moved it from the, from the Manhattan center and they were in Pennsylvania. But anyway so there were no shows there, or, you know, similar to probably where, where I live now, where it was probably pop acts or things that were, you know, bigger than what we were into probably coming into, to play

The Roch: The shows that I remember there.

was a club, a big club called The Rock Palace, bands would play therthere. Like Anvil played there. Kick Kickaxe, played there Sword, not, not The Swthe current, Swordscore

Victor M. Ruiz: Or the

Canadian band?

The Roch: They played there quite a lot. But I know there was, there was some other smaller clubs that [00:08:00] smaller bands would play at, but I, I do remember, and I had a ticket for this exciter was supposed to come to the arena, was a 5,000 seater.

And it was the first, first happened when they, that when Dan Beeler was not singing anymore, you had a different singer and apparently they sold a hundred tickets. So we had to cancel the show. And then they said, want to go to Victoria Ville, which was about an hour away, they said, we will honor your tickets there.

But apparently the, you know, the, the, the turnout wasn’t great there either. So, but they were playing in the arena there, but they did play the show there. So, so I almost saw Exciter.

Victor M. Ruiz: That should be a t-shirt.

Yeah. So the, those are all mainly Canadian bands you just mentioned. So, I

mean,

The Roch: I’m trying to think. I’m trying to think, because, you know, in those days I just, [00:09:00] wasn’t old enough to go see shows and clubs. So, I didn’t one of my friends, he looked like he was like 20. And even though we were 16 and he would go all the time, he saw Anvil, he saw sword, he saw Kickaxe.

But for me, I just didn’t have the guts to even try. I was too much of a scaredy cat and a you know man. When you think about it, the worst they would have done just, they turned me around and say, no, he can’t come in. You know, then, you know, I didn’t have a car, you know, I was a teenager, you know, so I had no way to get there.

Really. I had no money. So I was like, well, how am I going to buy a ticket? So, but by the time I turned 21 18, I mean, that club was gone. It had closed down. So we didn’t have any metal shows coming. I, I know that Obliveon played at one point. You remember them. Obliveon out of Montreal with an E B L E no, no, O B L I V E O N.

They played downtown, but I wasn’t a fan, so I didn’t go. So I wasn’t into the [00:10:00] death metal yet, or even not.

that they were really death metal, but they were a lot harsher than what I liked at the time. So, but Yeah.

So yeah, by the time I was of age to, to go there that’s I was going to Montreal instead, so

Victor M. Ruiz: Gotcha. So Montreal was, I guess the, the closest hub to, well, it’s the closest city to where you were. So that’s where the majority of the shows were going. I mean, let, let’s be honest, Montreal and, and I spoke to why did, why am I all of a sudden forgetting his damn name from brave words?

The Roch: yeah. Yeah. Jay Johnson, no. Tim Tim Anderson Henderson.

Victor M. Ruiz: Tim Henderson. Dammit. I just interviewed him like, like a month ago. And, and I’m on the spot here trying to remember his name. This is why you’re supposed to take notes, dammit and get ready for things. But anyway, Tim Henderson said flat out Montreal is the metal capital of

The Roch: is.

Victor M. Ruiz: And, and he said, you know, anyone that [00:11:00] tells you otherwise is wrong.

So 18, you were going to shows in

The Roch: Yeah. Yeah. My, well, my very first show that I went to was actually in Victoria Ville, which is a small town is smaller than Sherbrooke. then.

Metallica played there. I saw the Metallica on the master of puppets tour was one of the first few shows with Jason Newstead cause we were, we had tickets for the September show and it was no, it was November the November show and cliff Burton passed In September. of that year.

So I remember we were all freaking out. We were, cause it was our first show. We didn’t know what was going to happen. And so we were like, oh, it’s just going to happen. How are we going to get reimbursed? And then, you know, it was a whole to do. And then on the you’ve heard of Much Music. Right.

Okay.

That was the Canadian equivalent to MTV.

Well, they their own spinoff, which was Music Plus. Okay.

So on Music Plus, they had, they, they kept giving us news every week. Okay.

Well the tourist postponed Right.

now [00:12:00] and uh, it looks like they’re going to play a little bit later and then finally they set a date for December, like a month later. And I’m so glad.

well you know, no, that’s not quite to say I’m glad they postponed, but not because cliff Burton died. Cause I would’ve loved to see Cliff Burton and he was my bass hero cause I bass, but they were supposed to come with keel opening, so, and a local band. So so instead we got Metal Church. December metal church Metallica and metal church at that point where my number one and number two, and the thing on the day they would swap.

It’s like, I like metal more than Metal Church at that point was the dark was the first two albums. So I freaking love those two albums. So, and then we got lucky, they added a third band, which was sword from Montreal. And I love too, even though they’re not a thrash band, they’re just a heavy metal band.

So the first band I ever saw live, my very first concert was actually sword. When you think about it, you know, then [00:13:00] Metal Church and then Metallica was headlining.

Victor M. Ruiz: Wow. That’s incredible. Because so many people talk about Jason coming in, you know, for the injustice, for all and the monsters of rock tour. I hardly hear anyone talking and that’s so true. What you just said. He came in after died. So he, he finished the master of puppets tour. So he was there, although maybe it isn’t as celebrated or, you know, because obviously what had just happened.

So there’s less footage of him floating around as part of the band. I’m sure it’s there because Metallica, Metallica is one of these bands that for as much as people crap on them, I think that they’ve done good by the fans with a lot of different things. Like allowing people to record shows, allowing people to take in, you know, video cameras when others couldn’t so [00:14:00] on and so forth.

And even still, the other day we were talking about when Joey from Joey Jordison passed away a lot of people brought up the fact that he played at castle Donnington. Metallica. And I remember reading about it on Blabbermouth. So the first thing that I did was I went to the Metallica website and I bought the that show because they were up until about, I think two years ago they were selling all of their shows online.

Now, if you have a membership, you can just stream them. But, you know, Joey and, and Dave Lombardo, hearing Dave Lombardo played Battery was just like beyond

ridiculous.

The Roch: that. Yeah,

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. So so, you know, turning the clock back there probably is footage of Jason with them on that tour. But, but, you know, it’s just so emblematic seeing the original four guys there with the crosses and with, you know, with what little.

Show they were allotted. Well, even though they were headlining, [00:15:00] but they still weren’t, you know, a huge arena act like you’re saying there, they were playing a, a town that was smaller than your town that, which is what more known for making hockey sticks than

The Roch: You’re right. You’re Right.

Yeah.

The arena was about, it was a junior hockey arena there also just like in Sherbrooke, but there was huge snowstorm that night. We barely made it there. My sister, my sister drove us there and she went to my grandma’s while we were at the concert. And

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay.

The Roch: I say, I don’t know if it was because of the snowstorm, but I’d say in the 5,000 arena, there were maybe a thousand people in there. So at the most, and most of them were in front of the stage, like, like trying to get on stage and all that. We wish I was my first concert experience. I was like, nah, I’m not going on the floor. I’m sitting in the, on the size. I had kind of a side view. Like I’m going to be good there.

Victor M. Ruiz: Right. Cool. Can you remember the first band that you [00:16:00] listened to, or the first band that was really pushed? That was remotely hard rock or metal that, that you had heard maybe on the radio or saw on TV or anything like

that? kiss. Okay.

The Roch: when I was in the fourth grade. So yeah. what happened there the way, the reason why I even heard them. So it was the end of the year, a party that my, the teacher was holding was holding. It was like on the last day of school. And he told us you, you know, bring snacks, whatever.

And if you want to bring music, we’re gonna play some, some of your music. You know, they had a little cheap part table in the class. And so some people brought music and stuff. And one of the guys in my class were, my classmates brought his brother’s destroyer. And so everybody would get a turn to put they were allowed to put two songs on.

So when everyone, and I remember looking at the cover before the music even play, I was like, oh my God, what is this? And I was like, freaking out, you know, cause I was into [00:17:00] comic books. I wasn’t, I was like, what the heck? And I’m looking at all this and, and he, and another classmate of mine were all looking at it and he’s pointing out, oh, look at this, this looks like a like a goat head.

And then you got this and you got that, and then he’s telling us, yeah, Gene Simmons bites the inside of his mouth to bleed, you know? And I’m like, what the, you know, and my mind is just blown. And then he puts on God Of Thunder when it came to his turn, I was like, oh my God, what is this? And I was, I was just loving it.

And then he put Detroit Rock City. And man, that, that just then the whole summer after I knew nothing about kiss, I just knew what those guys told. Those two guys told me. And my sister told me that my sister’s seven years older than me. So she’s, she said, she said, you wouldn’t shut up that whole summer about kiss and you knew nothing about him.

And I was just making it up in my head. Oh my God, this, oh my God. That, and then, you know, whenever my mother would go grocery shopping, I would go with her. But it wasn’t like in the little mall, a small mall. So I was old enough that? she would just let me go to [00:18:00] the store was called miracle Mart, but it was basically like a K-Mart or a small Walmart, you know?

So she would just let me go there. And usually I would go look at toys and so I just wander around. But then when I got into Kiss. I was like, oh, let me go go the, the record section. And then I would look at all the albums and every week seemed like there was a new one, you know, like they would sell some than the new ones.

Oh my God. That just fueled my imagination all summer. And then my sister finally for my birthday was in September. Okay.

So I heard the Kiss the first time in June of 79. And then in September That’s September. That’s when dynasty came out, but that’s not what got me for my birthday. She got me destroyer.

So that was my very first album also was Destroyer. So Yeah.

it was, it was quite the summer because I just wouldn’t shut up about it

Victor M. Ruiz: That’s that’s interesting. The first, the first thing that I ever remember hearing rock wise was alive too. My brother had a too, and he had destroyer. So both of those got played [00:19:00] continuously.

The Roch: or younger than you.

Victor M. Ruiz: he’s older than me. He’s six years older than me. So. You know, I was lucky that I inherited those almost right away because by the time like the solo albums came out and dynasty came out, he was done with the band.

He had lost interest in them. And it was funny because we were at a store and, you know, my mother would buy us something every week that we’d go to the store. And I remember my brother wanted a dartboard and I wanted

dynasty and they both cost around the same thing. And it, it turned out that I ended up getting my way.

We ended up getting dynasty and because my brother hated it so much, my mother felt bad. That she went back and got him the dartboard the week later. So but yeah, it was funny. We had I talked to him not too long ago. I said, you know, outside of, I was made for loving you, if you really listened to that album, it’s really a [00:20:00] solid album all the

way

The Roch: a really good album. just, it’s just, the production is very poppy.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. From there though, you, you went and you’ve, we’ve talked about music a bit in the past, and I remember you talking about your sister and her musical tastes kind of influencing you with some of the stuff that you got into early on with news, the same thing, because we talk about kiss, my brother got, you know so this is obviously around late seventies, early.

Yeah. Around 80 between then he had acquired I’m trying to think what was first, but well live at Buddakan, from Cheap Trick Back In Black by AC/DC Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Ted Nugent Scream Dream. And like those albums with those first two kiss albums we had, or like on constant rotation. I mean, it was that, that was it for us.

And then little by little, you know he would get into bands and, you know, he got into Led [00:21:00] Zeppelin. So I learned Led Zeppelin and Yes, and, and things like that. So I was lucky that he was able to introduce me to all these things, but then music, he kind of fell out with music and I kind of continued with it.

So now it’s kind of well now it’s been this way for, for, you know, since the nineties where I’m turning him on to stuff all the

The Roch: Yeah,

Victor M. Ruiz: So Your sister got you kiss, but was she into kiss as well?

The Roch: my sister was not into hard rock at all. My sister was to the pop scene. So, she was into disco. When disco was big before kiss, I was, I’m still a huge fan of old school. I still listen to it. The Saturday Night Fever is one of the greatest disco albums of all time. I’m telling you Right,

now. So, but I still listen.

I still listen to Abba. I still listen to all those bands, but she did at one point I’m not sure when that came out, but when sticks put out cornerstone

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay.

The Roch: that has Babe on it. And, [00:22:00] and I think too much time on my hands is also on that album, maybe. So she, she bought that and I was like, oh, and that was Okay.

First for me from 79 until I got to high school, which was 83. it was kiss only. I would only listen to kiss. I wouldn’t listen to nothing else. My friends at that point were also into Kiss. W w there was like three of us and we all, we just listened to kiss that’s it. And then when one of them would get a new album, like one of them would get the gene Simmons solo album.

So I’ll go, I’ll go to his house and listen to it. And then I would get alive. So they’d come and listen to it. You know, it was stuff like that, that my sister that was there was a Styx. And an, I turned her on to Def Leppard pyromania when that came out.

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay.

The Roch: So, but that’s the extent of her heaviness, you know, she never got into Zeppelin.

She never got into any of those bands. ACDC. I think she liked back in black as it played on the radio, you know, that she was more of a, of a follower when it came to that. So yeah, so for her to get [00:23:00] time, he is disco.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Th those, that’s the difference between a band going platinum to just go and gold back in the old if you really think about it, you know, those casual fans. You know shook me all night long to go out and buy that album. know, that was the difference between backBack In you know, eclipse in so many of the sales of their previous albums.

The Roch: Yep.

Victor M. Ruiz: And Jeremy is chiming in from the UK. Hello, sir. Hope you are doing better this week. He says that I still like disco and funk some great songs. I think a lot of people discount the musicianship

of a lot of the players, especially as a bass plaplayer, bass held it or both styles of music,

The Roch: Yes. If you listen to a Boney M the song Ma baker and then the other one is oh, there’s two that have two hits Ma Baker no, no, there was another one. Anyway, the bass, you know, sometimes I, when I get bored, I just go on [00:24:00] YouTube. Huh Daddy Cool. That’s the one then. Yeah, I go on YouTube and I’m just watching, you know, base covers, you know, and I watch people play those two songs.

I’m like, oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s yeah. And you’re, you’re working then you’re working. You’re not, you’re not stopping at all disco That for the bass. I love that.

Victor M. Ruiz: Oh, no kidding. Okay. So Rob, Rob Rowe is saying, I play slaps a disco and funk is where it’s at, we’re inundated with bass players tonight. The ratio is three bass players, one guitarist, and one drummer tonight. If anyone else plays an instrument please please let us know. But yeah. Okay. So you started going to Montreal what’s the like first big show that you got to see in Montreal.

The Roch: Okay.

So let me just back up a little bit, because when I, when I, when I got to high school, like I was saying, I will only listen to Kiss. And then when I got there, it was a really cool school because in, in the cafeteria, they had like DJ booth that was behind glass and all that, [00:25:00] that they did not have a radio station.

It was just to play music in the cafeteria. And they played all the hits of know Sharp Dress Man and Beat It at the time. And they played a couple of the DJs were metal heads. So they would play that’s where I first heard iron maiden Metallica you know, really dark underground bands like Chateau you know, out of the UK you know, and then I was like, wow, this is so frigging good.

And I, and I would, I would talk to the guys say, Hey, what was that? You played like three songs ago. Oh, that was. Oh, wow. Okay.

They will play evil, has no boundaries, you know, in the cafeteria, you know, during our lunch break or during, during a recess, you know, and, and the teachers were fine with it, you know, as long as it wasn’t too loud, they were fine with it.

So that’s why, I’m sorry to learn about the venom. That’s when I first heard of, of venom. So, so to answer your question, the first big band that I saw in Montreal. Okay.

So I saw, I saw Metallica in 86 in in Victoriaville. My next [00:26:00] show after that was two years later in 88, and I saw Metallica on the And Justice For All tour with Queensyrche opening.

So that was my big shot. at the Montreal forum that’s now closed.

Victor M. Ruiz: Right. Yeah. Now the is it arena’s? What the bell center now, or

The Roch: Yeah, it was, it was the Molson Centre first. And then its now the bell center.

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay. What, what makes Montreal so special in your opinion when it comes to metal? I mean, what what’s like that it factor what makes the, the fans much more accepting? Cause you’re saying straight up and in high school, I mean, in Quebec, It was fine where I’m sure where I grew up.

If you were playing any of that stuff, it was like, oh no, we got to turn this off because that’s, that’s devil’s music. We can’t let listen to that

stuff.

The Roch: yeah, yeah. You know, what now that I think about something that they did not play was Ozzy, for some reason, they didn’t never, I don’t remember hearing Ozzy at the school, maybe they were told, Hey, you can play your other, your other devil worship music, but don’t play [00:27:00] Ozzy. I don’t know. I don’t know, but I, I really don’t know what it is because like even even sticks.

Okay. Harder, harder band, hard rock band. They they’re from Chicago. They said the very first city where they headlined an arena. And it was like, just like, they were touring. And that was the only arena they would play would be Montreal, you

Victor M. Ruiz: Oh, wow.

The Roch: And they said they were big in Montreal before anywhere else, like for kiss, it was Detroit of course, for Styx

It was Montreal. So I don’t know why it’s always been like that You go to a show in Montreal and the people are just rabid. They love it. They just, you know, mosh pits and you know, everything, you can, you see everything there and not the hardcore dances, which I’m glad. Cause that’s God. When I moved here into Florida and I saw I was going through shows and I saw those kids, there was a, there was a hardcore dances where they try to punch people on purpose.

That turned me off. But in Montreal they don’t do that. It’s just, it’s just a circle pit. And then people help each other up, you know? And they, so they’ve just into it. I don’t know [00:28:00] why they are rabid. They know all the words they know. I just don’t know what it is. And every concert I’ve ever seen in Montreal, man, it was, yeah.

So much fun, you know, even though I’m the type that kind of stands in the back, because I don’t want to the marsh period. I just want to enjoy the show and stuff.

and not be bothered. And it’s, it’s great. It’s just, you know, the bands are into it most of all they say, man, you’re the best crowd ever on this tour so far, you know, so,

Victor M. Ruiz: You’re hoping. They’re not saying that on

every step

The Roch: you know, they probably do, but I feel like it’s sincere because usually the way they say it, you know, you can tell that they, they mean it, you know,

Victor M. Ruiz: again, there’s a Metallica bootleg of or not a bootleg because I bought it off of their official site where they do play. I think it’s, I think it’s Montreal. It’s either Montreal or Quebec city and they do the memory remains and the Marianne Faithfull part where she’s, you know, where she’s not even saying words, just.

Yeah, so, and it’s [00:29:00] them just repeating that Marianne Faithfull part for like five minutes after the song is done and Lars comes out and he says, wow, you know, no one has ever done that before. You know, you guys are, are one of the best

cities.

The Roch: I have goosebumps you’re telling me this.

Victor M. Ruiz: yeah, I do too as well, actually. So, cause it’s one of those things where, where where you listen to itou feel the energy of the crowd and you could, I mean, you want to think that what he’s saying is, is very sincere again, for all the shit that Lars gets.

I think when he says stuff like that, he, he really means it.

The Roch: If that’s a Qubec City show. Cause they’re huge. They’re big in Montreal, but they’re even bigger in Quebec city. For some reason, I’ve seen one, I’ve seen them one time in Quebec city and man, it, the crowd was just even better than, than Montreal. Just for that, that in general, Quebec City a little bit more subdued, but for Metallica, they, they, they lose their minds. yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, that’s, [00:30:00] that’s cool to be able to go to different, different parts of the same province and, and, you know, really in, in Tim Henderson’s case, I mean, he’s seen shows all over the world, so to, you know, be able to say, Hey, you know, this is, this is the epicenter. But I mean, for, for the most part, I’m sure that, and I mean, I’ve have I been to Quebec, I’ve never been to Quebec.

I’ve been to Ontario and that’s my extent of being Canada. But I mean, they’ve always said, you know, Quebec is different because it’s got more of a European influence. It’s got, you know, obviously the, the French influence just add something different to what the English

The Roch: and you, and it might be the, the, the, the French roots, because I know a lot of people say that the French are very passionate, you know, about, about what they love, you know, so it Could be re deep, deeply rooted from there. You know, I

Victor M. Ruiz: Could be. Yeah. Could be [00:31:00] what do you think is your most memorable show that you’ve seen up

The Roch: up there? the one that I enjoyed the most, or like the, the, the, the biggest spectacle.

Victor M. Ruiz: Either or, or if you want to share

The Roch: Okay. So there’s two of them that really popped in, popped, popped up right away. When Kiss did the reunion. In 96, I bought my ticket to go see them in Montreal. And That’s all they were doing in Quebec. At that point, they were only had yeah, in Quebec, in the province, they were only doing Montreal.

And then, you know, I, I got my tickets and those were in the days where you had to go stand in line at the ticket counter, you know? So I got my ticket and then they announced they were doing Quebec city the night before. And I already had my tickets for Montreal. I’m like, oh crap. And we had organized our little group and where we’re going, like five of us were going and I’m like, ah, crap.

I want to go to Quebec city also. You know what? I don’t know how long they’re going to tour with the original band. You know, if I get the opportunity to see them twice, we Peter and I got to go. [00:32:00] So. My mother, God bless her. She’s so awesome. She, I had to work and I couldn’t take time off. I said, mom, do you, can you go and stand in line and go get me tickets?

I’ll give you cash. She’s like, Yeah.

Okay.

I’ll do it. You know? So I’m like, all Right.

So I gave him the money and the funniest thing is, so she had to go through that little arena. I was telling you the 5,000 seater where you know, the barely got cause that’s where she had where she had to buy the tickets. That was the closest Ticketron we had Ticketron instead of Ticketmaster at the time.

So she, she goes there and she’s like first in line. Okay.

But then she’s like, what’s going there? The arena was full. It was full. And then she’s like, oh my God, it was a Jehovah’s witness thing that was going on. So she’s like, I’m there. And she was laughing to her. So she’s like, I’m there with surrounded by Jehovah’s witnesses.

And, you know, they’re doing baptisms, they’re doing everything, you know, and she’s like, and I’m here to buy a fucking Metallica tickets. You know, she stopped the irony was, you know, and I was like, oh my I’m so sorry. If I had known [00:33:00] I would have somehow taken. No, no, it was funny because I was watching the people just, you know, it was just funny to me.

Victor M. Ruiz: right.

The Roch: Yeah.

So no, I’m sorry. Not Metallica tickets were getting Kiss tickets and I’m sorry, mixed my stories, but yeah. And then, you know, cause she know, she knows, that like Gene is like the demon and all that, you know? So so she thought it was ironic that that’s where she was.

buying the tickets. You know, she still talks about once in a while, so Yeah.

so,

Victor M. Ruiz: cool. so that was.

The Roch: Okay. Cause I saw Quebec City first and dude, I was, I went there with one friend. There was only one friend in the group that wanted to go and see both shows. So we went and we got there and I swear to God. They, well, they started with deuce. They started that tour with Deuce and you know, the part where they do the choreography at the end of the song, dude, I swear, I almost cried.

I just, I was like, this was my first, it was my second time seeing kiss. But the first time with these guys and I turned to my friend after the song was over, I turned to [00:34:00] his name was Bruno. I said, Bruno, I can just go home now. I’m happy. I, but I’m not going to go. But then, you know, I could die Right,

now and I’d be, I’d be contempt, you know?

And he’s like, oh, you me too. And then we you know, and then the very next night it was Montreal. So we had, we drove back to Sherbrooke was a three hour drive, went back to Sherbrooke. And then the next day we did the hour and a half drive back to Montreal with the rest of the gang. And saw, we saw that show.

So those that was the most memorable, like, like spectacle and, and, and how I felt. But for a show that I, that Just love the performance and the crowd reaction. And just like in an intimate setting was cradle of filth. It was on the Mideon tour in 2000. They played at the Metropolis in Montreal, which is, which is a very large club.

So about 1500 and a man, they killed that. I have a bootleg recording of it on CD that I still listen to once in a while. And man, that, that show was Midian is one of my all time favorite albums. And just that [00:35:00] show was just top-notch from top to bottom. So

Victor M. Ruiz: Let’s see, JWS are huge Metallica fans. Oh, Jehovah’s witness. That’s what the prophet says. You’d think they would really be into Watchtower.

The Roch: yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: When, when did you move down to Florida?

The Roch: Okay.

So I lived in Quebec and Sherbrooke until 1999. Well I met my wife my, my wife to be she lived in Vermont, so I moved to Vermont in 99 and was there for about three years. And then in 2002, we moved down here to Florida and we’ve been here in the Orlando area ever since that’s

Victor M. Ruiz: Right. Okay. So immediately. What differences did you notice from the U S crowds as opposed to the Canadian crowds you mentioned right away, the moshing versus the

slam dancing?

The Roch: hardcore whatever they call it.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Well, w w w what other differences

The Roch: So there was that and the [00:36:00] crowd was not as vigorous as, as I was used to. you know, people would just stand there and barely react to songs, you know? So that, that was the biggest, I was like, oh man, the crowds are tame here. There’s no nothing. Except for the occasional, you know, smaller shows I saw at small clubs, you know, that, that the, the people were rabid and those were far and few between, you know, it wasn’t as the crowd was a lot more, but that may just be Orlando.

I don’t know, Orlando way. Yeah. It’s more of a tourist town, so I don’t know. yeah, that’s what I noticed that the crowds were kind of quiet.

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay. You, you mentioned seeing Kiss and Cradle of filth up there in Montreal. What do you feel is the biggest shows that you’ve seen down there in Florida are the ones that have made like the most impression on

The Roch: Okay.

So, well, I saw kiss here also in Orlando like Tommy Thayer and Eric singer and that was like, visually, that was beautiful. It was just the they weren’t, you know, when the arena football was a thing. And Orlando had a team [00:37:00] and the LA kiss, they came, they came and played it. That was the the all star game.

And Kiss played the night before in the arena here. And that’s when they announced earlier that day, they announced the LA kiss. So I was, I was at the show that night. So that, that was, that was amazing. That was one of the bigger shows, but the ones that really made an impression on me when I was with radioactive metal, I got to go three years to the rockstar mayhem tours in Tampa.

So I got to take pictures in the pit and all that, and those are my best experiences, concert wise, even though it was hot as hell, you know, during the day, because you’re so humid and you know, you’re in the sun and stuff. But I was taking pictures of all these great bands, Anthrax, Slayer, and Motorhead Amon Amarth you name em.

I took pictures of him, you know, and I was doing interviews and stuff. So that’s just a whole thing, but that was because of the podcast, you know, I was able to get that kind of experience where it’s, I’ll never forget though, those, those three shows, you know, it was amazing. [00:38:00]

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay. I want to say hello to a Newton Targaryen who’s joined us. I dunno if he’s a relative of the of of the breaker of chains and mother of dragons based on that name. But so let’s jump on into your time with Radioactive Metal. Cause you were. You know, a part of a podcast that still exists now for quite some time the show by the time, and I don’t remember the history off the top of my head.

Were you part of the original foundation of that show or did you, did you join the show after I’d

The Roch: I joined the show after it started that w they started with the Snowie and Dario, Dario, psycho, and they started?

it together. And then I was his listener and I emailed them a few times. And then I was doing a podcast just for fun about Captain America, because I I’m a huge comic book And so, so Dario suggested to snowy that, you know, to have me on just because I had my own podcast and I knew metal and stuff. [00:39:00] So he’s like, Okay.

So I came on and then I started being on there regularly almost every week. And then at one point, Dario was like, Hey, you know how to do this stuff? You know, I I’m tired of doing podcasts.

So he said I said, would you, would you take my place and just take over the editing and all that? And I’m like, well if Snowie’s Okay. with it. Yeah, sure. And yeah. It worked out. And so I was there for eight years. Yeah. I did that till 2018. So yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Right. When you stopped being part of the show, I know that you would kind of ramp things up from a work perspective, but was there like any burnout on your end too, where you just needed to step away

from

The Roch: Yeah, because he was taking up a lot of time, you know, how it is the editing, you know, trying to book interviews, doing interviews, going to shows, you know, I was doing pictures on top of that and then editing my pictures and, you know, cause I would take 1500 pictures in one night, you know, and then I had to go through them and that was several hours.

And so, you know, so, and then, you know [00:40:00] what burned me, I got burned a couple of times on the interviews towards the end and I just, you know, and you know, you get in, you know, how it is you and your email is probably inundated with, with samples and, and not samples, but what’s the word I’m looking Huh promos.

Yes. Like, God, we get, like in a week we get hundreds of them. And I was lwas like, I, I just I guess like, this is too much and work was ramping up a lot. So I told Snowie, I said, listen, I can’t do this anymore. I just, my heart wasn’t in it anymore. You know? And so yeah. So what do you want, do you want to know who burned me on interviews?

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah.

The Roch: So I was supposed to talk to Nita Strauss. Okay. And had everything set up with a, with her boyfriend, you know, the, the, the drummer and, you know, I have my questions ready and all that. Literally a couple of hours before I’m going down there and I took a few hours off of work and stuff. He emails me and he says, Hey, sorry.

[00:41:00] But it won’t happen. She uh, she’s not doing interviews tonight. And it was towards the end of the tour. And at the time she had just started doing stuff fWE WTB. We would see her on NXT and we saw her at WrestleMania or something. So, and the performance center for those people who don’t know WWE has a a training center here in Orlando.

And I heard a few days later that she was at the performance center. They had invited her to go check it out. So that’s why she blew me off for an interview instead of saying, oh Yeah. we’ll do it later or whatever. And then the other time, and I don’t hold a grudge for this one, Nita Strauss, I kind of hold a grudge for it because I felt that Okay. Yeah. You had the pretty girl invited you instead of the, you know, the

Victor M. Ruiz: right, right, right.

The Roch: it, you know.

Victor M. Ruiz: There, there are other ways of going about saying, Hey, you know, something came up. Can we do this?

The Roch: Yeah. I wasn’t even,

Victor M. Ruiz: said later on

The Roch: even offered to do it at another time, You know, So, so that, that, that pissed me off. And then the the, the other one was Nile. I was [00:42:00] supposed to call it, talk to Carl Sanders. I had already talked to him once. Great interview, super nice guy. I don’t blame him at all for this.

When I got there, they he had to go that some equipment had broken. So he and his guitar tech had gone somewhere to go try and find, replay a replacement parts and stuff. So he never made it back on time. So that, that I can’t hold a grudge for that, you know, so, so, but then I was like, Okay.

and this, it seemed like it was happening more and more.

I was having a hard time booking interviews and stuff, and I was like, okay, I’m just done. Yeah. That’s that’s, that’s what broke me. This was those two interviews.

Victor M. Ruiz: Well, since I started doing the live stream, which I kind of ramped up earlier this year I’ve had that happen once a few weeks back. And this is public knowledge because, you know, I, I put up, you know the same way that I put a graphic up saying that you were coming. I, I had put a graphic up saying that Ken Mary, who is the drummer of Flotsam And Jetsam now was, was coming on the show.

[00:43:00] And after I put everything up, I get an email from his publicist saying, oh, he just realized he’s traveling that day. I’m like, ah, it’s going to be a nightmare to take everything down. Because you know, when I, when I set the graphic up and set the event up, it copies everything to 14 different social media

The Roch: Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: So. It’s a real chore to take everything down and then reschedule. And actually within the last like three weeks, they’ve changed the system so that I can now do it from one central location, which cool. But previous to that, you know, it was like, fuck it. I’m just the next one. I’m just going to schedule at the same time, because it’s just going to take me too long to take everything down and reword everything.

So they tell me, well, Michael Gilbert, the guitarist is available. Oh, okay, cool. Same as you I’ve [00:44:00] researched all the questions. It coincides that when I started doing college radio flotsam had a big album that was pushed to the moon and back called Cuatro. And and I was like, cool. So I’ll ask him, instead of asking him about Jason Newsted.

I’m going to ask him about Quattro and the fact that for example, Chris Cornell wrote a song with them album, which I’m sure not a lot of people ask. So I’m really getting amped up for the interview and I’m waiting and waiting and waiting. And I just spent an hour doing this by myself and talking to people in the chat and like looking up the, the, the, that day’s happenings.

And it, it it stinks, you know, even for me, 12 years into this, I still get people that either flake out or I get, you know well, unfortunately well, here’s, here’s something that, that I had recently, I asked the host of another show to come on and talk. And her response was [00:45:00] how many Twitch followers do you have?

I’m like, excuse me.

She’s like, well, if you don’t have enough Twitch followers, I’m not going to do your show. I’m like okay, well not for nothing, but go scratch. You know, if, if that’s the, if your whole thing is, oh, well you’re not big enough or you’re not this or whatever, then I’m sorry. You know, not then obviously my show isn’t for you.

So so, so, so that’s it. When did you start getting into, you know more extreme metal, like death metal and and black metal and stuff like that. Cause you mentioned cradle before. And obviously being in Florida, Tampa is more or less the epicenter of death metal, you know, for as much as people want to say, no, it was, it was Gothenburg Sweden.

Well, before the Gothenburg sound, it was Morrison Sound

The Roch: yeah, And they’re two different sounds completely. So see for me. Okay. So I wasn’t too more of like the, the hair bands for quite a [00:46:00] while. And you when, when grunge started really taking off, I oh they are, I really did not like any of the grunge stuff going on. I barely liked us, Smells Like Teen Spirit, barely, you know?

And then the rest, I heard a little bit of it. It’s like, now this is not for me. And at the time, one of my close friends who I’m still friends with, Right.

These days, he still lives up there. He was really heavy into death metal. And, and every time we were in his car, he’d say, you say, I’m going to make you like it.

I’m going to make you like death metal. And I was like, ah, come on. Yeah. I was like, ah, then he would put a song, but it was always like the seems like it to me, like, it was always the same three songs he would put on. And then, and then I became a fan of those songs and then I was like, Okay.

well I like this.

So let me go buy the album. And then, so the three songs, first one was martyr by Fear Factory off the first album.

Victor M. Ruiz: Right.

The Roch: Absolutely. My all-time favorites pull the plug by Death [00:47:00] and then incarnate solvent interviews by Carcass. Those were three songs that he seems like it was always those songs. He kept playing and I just became a fan so.

I remember buying a carcass carcass, I think was the first one that I bought. And I was like, wow. Yeah.

Then I really liked it because yeah, there was, there was the low growls I wasn’t a super big fan of, but I liked Jeff Walker’s higher pitched screams, you know, so I was like, Okay.

So then I got into carcass and then I, then I got used to the low growls and I went and got Fear Factory.

And then I got Death, Death took me quite a while to get though it wasn’t until oh the album after human individual thought patterns. That’s the one that I got into. So then I started going back, but yeah, so it was, it was early nineties, like maybe 92, 93 that I got into the extreme metal. And then I liked it so much that I just went deep underground.

That’s when I got into cradle of filth and I got into, I got into Nightwish also, which is totally different, but they were so underground [00:48:00] the time. They only have the first two albums ocean born. And I can’t remember the name of the angels falls first that I was like, wow. And it was so different, you know, that I got into that too very heavily.

So so yeah, so early nineties and then I just went deeper and deeper and then I would not listen to any grunge Slipknot I, to me, I considered, I know, and I know I’m totally wrong, but to me, Slipknot, I considered it to be a grunge band, even though they had nothing to do with grunge, I just did not want, because they were too mainstream for me.

Anything that was mainstream, I would not listen to at all. I just stuck to my, my underground stuff.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah, that’s funny that you mentioned that because again, one, one of the things that that I saw somebody say was that Joey Jordison was kind of responsible for bringing in a lot of like death metal playing into more like mainstream

metal. Yeah, it’s funny because for me, similar kind of thing, where for me up until up until mental health, by quiet [00:49:00] riot, for me, it was kiss all day, all the time.

And then I, you know, navigated towards a lot of the, you know the hard rock, the glam bands that came out in the eighties. And, but the thing was for me, My neighbor through wrestling WrestleMania three, Alice Cooper came out with Jake, the snake and he says something to the extent of Jake’s DDT is gonna, is gonna be more impactful than a Megadeth or an Anthrax concert or

along lines.

And we were like, wait, Anthrax, Megadeth. What’s that? And, and my neighbor went out and he got peace cells and he got State Of

euphoria. So that was like my gateway into thrash. And that, you know, after that, I, I took off with, I still liked the other stuff, but, you know, I, I was one of the people that I was going to school with that [00:50:00] could listen to both.

And, and didn’t, you know, you’re poser you’re this you’re that, you know, because I heard that as well. If you still listen to Kiss you’re a poser, I’m like, I will listen to whatever I want. I don’t need to abide by anybody’s

The Roch: the people who are, who were into Kiss and Aerosmith, when they heard anthrax and Megadeth, they were like, well, that’s just noise.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Right, right. So the, yeah, similar situation for me the first time. I mean, I, when I got to college radio the outgoing metal director, his favorite band was

cannibal

The Roch: okay.

Victor M. Ruiz: And I remember him giving me this whole lecture on well, if you like Queen, then you’re not truly a metal head. I’m like the hell does that have to do with anything.

I can like, you know, the, the analogy that I use all the time now I can like hamburgers and spaghetti. I don’t have to choose one or the other,

The Roch: Yes. See

Victor M. Ruiz: know, I can like both doesn’t mean that, you knodon’t like one, a littleittle more than the other, you

The Roch: Is, is that that’s [00:51:00] an elitist point of view, you know,

that’s like your guy, who’s just purist, elitist like like Snowie likes to say on Radioactive Metal. He’s true. And he’s cult, you know, it’s like, you know, but you know, the older I get and I’m listening to these interviews with some of these rock stars or, you know, the guys that we, we used to worship when we were growing up and they taught you to say, oh Yeah.

I love thin Lizzy.

I love sticks. I love, you Henry Rollins. Sometimes some of the stuff he brings, I’m like, I believe he likes that stuff, but makes sense that he, because of the type of music he’d wind up doing, which was really kind of weird, hard rock, you know, in these stuff. It makes sense because you hear a little bit of all that stuff in there, you know, so.

Victor M. Ruiz: right. Yeah. No, I definitely agree with you. It’s it’s funny because I’ve had a lot of conversations with true and elitist metal fans here in Spain who were big, you know black metal or big death metal fans. And they’ll [00:52:00] say, well, you know a band that I can’t stand. That gets too much credit is Kiss.

I’m like you’re wearing a Celtic Frost. T-shirt you know, that Thomas Gabriel’s favorite band is kiss. And that’s why he plays a, an Ivan as ice man, because of that. No, that does, it has nothing to do with kiss. I’m like he wears Kiss t-shirts all the when when he’s not on stage, why they’re paying him the t-shirt come on.

So it’s, it’s just ridiculous. And we talked about this last week, I had Brad who’s in the chat on and and I was talking about Mastodon, how a lot of people have said, oh, you know, I want them to go back to what it was like with the first few releases. But the band has said, Hey, we grew up listening to Thin Lizzy, Kiss, AC DC led Zeppelin.

So the older we get, the more we’re going to gravitate towards those sounds. So With with music now, you’ve, you’ve actually said that you haven’t kept up with a lot of stuff since leaving [00:53:00] the podcast. I mean, it’s, it’s hard, like you said, you know, you’re, you’re used to getting all of this stuff and there is so much out there.

I mean within most of the people that are in the chatter, in my Patreon group as well, and I mean, I’m posting anywhere between two to sometimes eight videos a day from just stuff that’s sent to me. And I mean, at the end of the day, some of the stuff, I like some of the stuff I don’t like some of the stuff, for example, I posted a Jeff Scott Soto video the other day, and I’m not a fan of his voice.

I like his voice on the first Yngwie album. But I don’t like a lot of what he does now. A lot of the AOR music. But I know that there are people that enjoy that stuff. So I still post it. And there’s some, like I said, there’s some stuff that I post that I don’t like. There’s other stuff that I absolutely love.

And then I know that others don’t like, so I just throw it out there to see there’s just so much going on. I mean, to me, [00:54:00]

The Roch: Okay.

Victor M. Ruiz: I almost prefer someone saying what you, you know, that saying, Hey, you know, I stopped because it was just too much as opposed to you run into people that arms folded nothing good ever came out after 89.

You know, you found something that interests you after that time period, you know, there was other music that became popular, but you went a little more underground and a little, you know, more extreme with that stuff. To me, I mean the first time that extreme, like guttural vocals made sense to me was Testament after the ritual.

They put out the album Low and Chuck Billy started incorporating guttural vocals. And with each album, he progressively added them more until they kind of like reform that classic lineup where he still does it now, but not as much as he did during that nineties time period where it was, it was funny because Testament [00:55:00] to me, you know, a lot of people will say, well, nineties metal suck.

But to me testing, it was kind of the litmus test because they got progressively heavier, but still put out interesting music at least.

The Roch: Yeah. I followed a Testament for years and years and years, even after their, their heyday. Yeah, I, yeah, especially when they put out the Low and was it D emonic. Was it demonic the next one after that, where he really went therethere’s one album where I think it’s demonic.

So yeah. And I remember interviewing Chuck, Billy, and and I hadn’t even thought about it because I had listened to the album so much. It didn’t even Dawn oeven dawn on me. It wase a death metal album. It’s just that the voice was, but not the music. So I was interviewing him and I said, Hey, would you, would you ever do a project with a death metal?

Well, and he goes, well, I’ve already done that. I’m like really well. Yeah. And says Demonic is like, I think, I think death metal, what was the whole thing? And I was like, oh yeah, you’re right.

It’s just that the music is not like blast beats and, and you know, not [00:56:00] what you’re used to hearing, but the vocals are, so I felt like, kind of like a fool.

There like, oh, sorry, one of those times.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah, it’s Low, Demonic and The Gathering or the three that

they were

The Roch: And demonic the one he was referring, referring to. Yep. Yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Well, that’s getting back to Flotsam back in the college radio days, we, we split the the interviews, the metal interviews Chris, who does galaxy of geeks me was the he was the one that took over as metal director and I was his assistant. So the internet didn’t exist back then.

And he was going to interview the drummer of of flotsam Kelly, I forget his last name, but there were two questions that kind of pissed him off because we were like, oh, thrash band. Oh, they must be, you know, they must be from the San Francisco bay area you know, and obviously they’re from Arizona [00:57:00] and, you know, 18 and 19 years old and not, you know, not having the information you have today.

He kind of flew off the handle with ASIC. We’that wfrom San Francisco, we’re from Arizona or whatever. And then after that, he asked him about what his take was about having to replace two bass players that went on to to bigger bands. And he S he said something to the extent of, well, we applaud Jason Newstead because he’s still a brother of ours, but Troy Gregory didn’t leave a Flotsam And Jetsam prongs in a bigger band than, than flotsam.

And, you know, he went off on Prong and he went off on Troy Gregory and all this stuff. And like, the, the interview was like very abrupt. And he was like, like snooty after

The Roch: that. sucks when that happens.

Victor M. Ruiz: like I said, no, internet back then, what, what did we get information once every, like once a month? And it was already like three

The Roch: yeah. If [00:58:00] you happen to have a magazine that has an article with them and they happen to talk where they’re from, you know, it’s like, how am supposed to know, you know,

Victor M. Ruiz: right. Yeah. Social

media,

The Roch: they send you a press kit. You know

Victor M. Ruiz: right? Yeah. You know, they, they sent, they would send flyers, but it was Play Never to Reveal by a flotsam and jetsam and get it up on the charts. That was it. That was the extent of what they would send us. It was just stuff to pump up the music and, and do that sort of thing.

So you’ve been heavily involved in graphic design stuff as well over the years. Well you mentioned obviously captain America podcast, and you mentioned your interest in comics. Did seeing destroyer. Do you think that that helped amp things up for you?

The Roch: you?

mean what?

Victor M. Ruiz: The graphic design side of things did that kind of fuel your interest more in, you know, getting into maybe that side of things

The Roch: well, come [00:59:00] from an artistic family. My mom paints, she doesn’t paint anymore, painted for years. My uncles also, you know, they, and, and I always had an interest in art in general, you know, and then, you know, when I was in high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I really loved the art classes and stuff like that.

You know, and then I was like, well, how can I have a career in art? I was like, I’m not going to be a professional painter. You know, it was like, so it was like researching and then talking with a guidance counselors, like, oh, there’s graphic design and stuff. So I was like, okay. I’m going to try my hand at that?

And then I got in and, and that’s been my career my whole life, you know, I never, I never got out of it, you know? And I used that when I was doing Radioactive Metal, I was doing all the episode show cards and all this social media and the, the, the, the Facebook page. And at one point I was, I was the one running the web page.

And that was cool because I got to learn how to use a WordPress and stuff like that. So, so, yeah. So I, I don’t think that [01:00:00] it was a band. I mean, even back then, I could tell you if it was a bad cover or not. I like, oh shit, that one sucks. So, you know, but then I saw some stuff, like, I distinctively remember, you know, when I was a little kid going to that, the store Miracle Mart.

And looking at the albums. And I remember seeing the was it Queen? Heart Space

Victor M. Ruiz: Okay.

The Roch: I was like, wow, this is cool. And it’s just colors, you know, it’s just likfaces on there. I was wow, thisis is a really cool cover, you know? And I, and I was like, what? Eight, eight years old, seven years old, you know?

No, it was nine years old. Yeah. Then I was 91. So I was like nine years old, you know? So I’m like, so I don’t know. I’ve always had an interest in art and, and that’s the topic we often talked about on radioactive metal. When we talked about a band, you know, we do like a spotlight episode on a band. So we would pick our favorite songs and we would talk.

And if we did interviews with them, we were talking about the interviews and then there was always the artwork section. The episode which you know, so [01:01:00] Roch what’d you think of the covers? What’s your, is your favorite guy? So then I would just go off on rants on, on the covers, you know, so it’s just always been a thing I’ve always been interested in art, you know, so,

Victor M. Ruiz: Makes sense. Okay. What do you work with the most illustrator now

The Roch: It’s a mix of illustrator and in design and design is more for page layout

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah.

The Roch: for many years when I was doing it for a while. I was doing a textbooks layouts. And not now I’m in the trade show world. So I use a lot of a lot of both very rarely do I use Photoshop. So my, my Photoshop chops are very, very limited.

Now I haven’t kept up with it as much as I should. So, but Yeah. illustrator is a big, big part of it. Yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: I know the feeling because I, I have a, theoretically I have a certificate in in graphic design and during the course that I took, you know, we had to learn [01:02:00] everything that Adobe was, you know, had available back then. And I had to learn InDesign and illustrator and Photoshop. I, out of all of those, I use Photoshop the most, but I mean, I use.

Audition and premiere quite a bit now well. I’ve been spending hours with premiere yesterday and today.

The Roch: I used to use our first website was with page mill, Adobe page mill. And that rough. It was rough. Oh my God. It was awful.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Things, things have come a long way. Even their Dreamweaver is they’ve had it for years, but it’s just so heavy and cumbersome. It just

The Roch: I was just so happy learn WordPress. I was like, oh, this is a godsend. This is so easy.

Victor M. Ruiz: yeah. Yep. I think, I, I think our extent of InDesign was like three days out of class. Cause we were running out of time and it was like, okay, well this is how you, and what I did in class actually was I [01:03:00] set up a brochure. I’m using InDesign. And what I’d done was I’d taken a picture of Charlie Benante.

And then did like some duo tone. It was a black background with like duo circles. So it kind of, I kind of made it look like a comic book, like comic book

The Roch: okay.

Victor M. Ruiz: behind him. And I did, like, I was going to do a whole thing with listing out all his album, all the anthrax albums this. And I was like, wow, I’m going to do this for, cause this is around the time I started podcasting.

Like I’m going to do this for all my guests. Yes. And then I ended up, you know, it took me forever. I’m like, wow, cool

example. But

The Roch: When you start, unless you do it a lot, it’s just, it takes a You know it, if you’re used to it, you can whip them out fast. You know, like all the show cards I was doing for every episode, the first few took me a while, But, after a while I got a method, it was like, boom, boom, boom. Okay. Did I do this, this, this, and they’ll okay.

This looks good. Let’s move the picture a little bit or not, you know, [01:04:00] but yeah, in design I’m in the company I’ve worked for, and we’re an international company, but on the east coast here if anybody has an InDesign question, they come to me, I know it out. So Yeah.

because of all my years in doing textbooks, you know, it was all heavy texts and you

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah.

Yeah,

The Roch: yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Awesome. Have you ever had the it’s to podcast again?

The Roch: Not really. And actually we were talking about Radioactive Metal. It’s either released today or it’s about to episode 666. And they asked me to come in and record with them because they will put the band back together for one episode. And you know, because I remember when I think when we turned to 500 around that time we were talking, said, Hey, we need to think about something for 666, you know, it’s far, but, you know, and then I saw them saying, Hey, we’re recording it.

So 666, you have this ideas for songs. You know, I was like, well, shit, I want to be on there. And we talked about it so much back in the day. [01:05:00] So recorded with, them and, you know, it was fun. It was great. It was a lot of reminiscing, but I don’t really miss it. You know, I, once in a while I record a, a, a French Canadian wrestling podcast with some guys up in Montreal.

So I do, I do that once in awhile, but that’s like once every three, four months, you know, for one episode, when they want to talk about NXT. So I, Yeah.

so that’s pretty much it. Oh, and Snowie, also has a wrestling podcast on the side, Called Wrestling Night In Canada. And he wants me to come on there to talk about NXT, you know, and all that stuff.

So that’s the extent of my podcasting these days, you know, people invite me and I, as long as I don’t have to hit record myself know, I don’t miss, don’t work. I really don’t.

Victor M. Ruiz: Yeah. Well, I want to thank you for coming on and sharing some stories

with us

The Roch: we go, I know that this has been going on for awhile, but can I show you some of my old vinyls bands that you’ve probably never heard of that are very influential for me [01:06:00] to

Victor M. Ruiz: No, no problem. At all. I post I posted a video before in Patreon, which was, I do an album

of the week and and I posted actually, it was an Anthrax We’ve Come For You All was what I selected

this So, but

The Roch: So when I was growing up, when I was a teenager the albums in Canada that we would get, they were all on a label called bonsai bonsai records. And if you’ve ever listened to radioactive metal, me and snowy would talk about it a lot because we both bought Bonzai records. Metallica the first two were on there, Slayer the first two were on there Venom, you know, so all that stuff.

So I still have some of my original Bonzai records is my Kill Em All. Okay.

And in the back at the bottom, let’s see, it’s a little dark, I don’t know if you can see, it says Bonzai records Right. there. Okay.

Victor M. Ruiz: I just

The Roch: Yeah. sorry. And anyway so these are very hard to find they’re Canadian pressings, you [01:07:00] know, so I still have that, but really what I wanted to show you I talked about Chateau briefly.

There are, they’re a British band from the new wave of British heavy metal and this album firepower. Excellent. If you can get your hands on that and listen to that, it is amazing, amazing. The, the, the guys at the that school at my high school that played music during recess, they played there’s two songs on here that they played all the time.

And that’s what had me buy this album. I had to pay, back in 80, we’re talking 85, 86. You can only get it as an import. And I paid $60 for this in 86. So today would be over a hundred bucks, you know, so, and then the other one, the last one I wanted to show you, this was a local band that sang in English.

They were from Magog, Quebec, which is really near Sherbrooke. And they put out this five song EP. It’s a band called DDT. [01:08:00]

called Lift The Screw, and then you turn it around and it says, turn you on, let the screw turn you on. So basically, you know, you can kind of see what’s going on here.

You know, Okay.

Well, this man was a local band and they were so good. They played a lot at the rock palace that club I told you about. And they only did like 500 copies of this, of this vinyl. And I still have it’s an EP five song EP and a few years ago, some company I guess, bought the rights and they put out a CD of it to reissue CD that has an extra 20 something songs on it.

So it’s all demos and live tracks and all that. But this band, if you ever get a chance look them up, they’re called DDT out of Canada. And it’s amazing stuff. They’re there. They’re, there are five songs, the five song EP, very influential to me. It’s it’s. It’s it really steered me to going into metal a lot because one of my [01:09:00] friends told me about it in high school.

Cause his brother was friends with the drummer. Well then word of mouth and then my friend got it. And he’s Oh, you got to buy it. And he brought it into school one day and I was looking at it as like, okay, Okay.

So then I went to my local independent store and they had a couple of copies left and I bought it.

And like I said, there’s only like 500 copies of this in the world. So, and I still have mine, you know, from, from back in 80 something. So,

Victor M. Ruiz: Very cool. What does DDT stand when it

The Roch: it’s, it’s the actual, you know, that DDT is actually poison it’s poison and that’s that’s it’s, it’s not a acronym for anything it’s DDT it’s

Victor M. Ruiz: It’s it’s DDT. It’s

agent

The Roch: yeah, basically.

So yeah.

Victor M. Ruiz: Gotcha, cool. Yeah, we, we have to talk about Canadian bands the future.

The Roch: Advinvil, all

Victor M. Ruiz: those guysabsolutely. Awesome. Again, I want to thank you for spending the [01:10:00] last hour plus with me here and everyone who joins me every week and in the chat here always fun to catch up with you and and you know, different than we usually talk via you know, Facebook messenger.Yeah..

again, we talk

The Roch: Conspiracy theories on wrestling and my NXT spoilers.

Victor M. Ruiz: And you’re NXT spoilers, although now with them live all the

The Roch: Yeah. Yeah. It doesn’t happen so much. Yeah. I’m I’m I’m going next, next Tuesday. I got my confirmation to go, so,

Victor M. Ruiz: cool. Hold, hold on one second. I’m going to end the show and then I’ll catch up with you one second. All right.

The Roch: You guys. Thanks for having me.

Victor M. Ruiz: Guys that wasi awesome interview there with rock the rock is he called himself during tonight’s episode. I want to thank everyone that joined us in the chat. The last week’s episode [01:11:00] will be released tomorrow. I’ve been working on the transcribing side of things trying out a bunch of different things to try to help take the podcast and the live show to to the next level here.

And if you’re on Patreon, you guys already know what I’m talking about. If not then you guys will see just follow on social media and all that, and you’ll see all the stuff that I’m working on in any event. Thanks guys for spending your Friday with me. I appreciate it. And we will see you next time right here on the signals from ours live stream brought to you by the Mars Attack.

Podcast. See ya.[01:12:00]