A conversation with The Violet Exploit

Transcript from episode sixteen of the Good Folk podcast.

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SPENCER GEORGE: We find home in the places we often least expect. When I moved back to North Carolina nearly three years ago, I never truly planned to stay. I had a vague idea of what this place was, and I saw it as a temporary landing, a stepping stone on the path to greater artistry. Back then, I believed that anyone who had the chance to leave would. Success was merely a foreshadowing of an exit. And mine would come soon enough. 

That year, I spent my time wandering through old growth, longleaf pines and pretending the world was not ending. Around me, the world, virus ridden, socially collapsed, seemed to go on against all odds. And it was in the artists I found myself surrounded by that I found comfort, inspiration, and the ultimate sense that I was known deeply. I was known, and I was loved— and in that knowledge, I was found.

I moved from that small town in the pines nearly two summers ago, but I still believe there's something special there. This project, I can say with certainty, would not exist without the collaborations and relationships formed in that space. And today's guests reflect that narrative aptly. Our art is better in community. Our art is better when we let it be driven by joy. 

Allow me to introduce you to The Violet Exploit, a five-person indie alternative rock band that started in January of 2022. The band is local to Southern Pines, North Carolina, and together they bring eclectic taste and timeless yet timely sensibilities to their original music. Their sound pays homage to classic rock with alternative nuances, leaving audiences with a sense of nostalgia and energy. Their debut singles Laugh and Lay Down were released in 2022 and recorded locally here in North Carolina. Throughout 2022, they worked extensively on recording their upcoming songs and playing various shows around North Carolina and Virginia. With big plans for 2023, The Violet Exploit will have multiple music releases from singles to multi-song eps and even music videos. They are truly a force to watch and a force to be reckoned with. 

Their success builds on the close relationships they formed as a band, evident in every part of this conversation. They also have thoughts on home and the pressure to find it, to leave it, and to let it influence your work. I resonate deeply, and I hope you will, too.

SPENCER GEORGE: Cool. Well, I'm really excited to have y’all here. I'm a huge fan. Y’all are so great live, and it's nice to finally connect and do this. So I think I would love to start, since there's multiple of you here, if everyone wants to just introduce themselves and someone wants to give a history of The Violet Exploit and how you got started and where you are now.

BEN MOORING: Well, hi. I'm Ben. I'm the vocalist for the band.

VAN HORTON: I'm Van. I play bass. 

BRIAN WENDLAND: I'm Brian. I'm a guitar player. 

SEAN DIESFELD: I'm Sean. I also do guitar.

VH: We were in a previous band called Left Early, and the drummer and the singer moved, and then we found Ben. Sean knew Ben from a relationship they had.

BM: They found me in a trash can. 

SD: I like the fallen from heaven thing. 

VH: Ben fell from heaven. 

SD: Then we inserted him into the band, and, yeah, we started writing some songs. Our original drummer at the time was JP. And he's still somewhat involved with it, so it's pretty cool. But, yeah, that's pretty much it formation wise. To be truthful about it, we did a 24-hour gig where we wrote our song Soup and went and played it immediately up in Virginia. Took off, went and did it, and we were like, hey, this isn't too bad. Came back and scrambled it together. 

thevioletexploit

A post shared by The Violet Exploit (@thevioletexploit)

SG: And y’all are relatively young, right? You're only about a year old as a band. 

SD: Yes. 

BW: January of 2022. So a year and a month. Yeah. 

SG: And you've had quite a bit of success the last year. You've played lots of big shows. You've made it onto the Best of North Carolina playlists. Could you tell us—

BM: Thank you!

SG: Yeah, it's been awesome. Could you tell us a little bit more about kind of the rise into that and what that has been like?

VH: I would say it started when we were with Left Early. We kind of were in the circuit as far as, like, home shows. We were doing a lot of house shows and small gigs, and through that we met a lot of other bands in North Carolina. And after about six months, you know who is who as far as the scene in Wilmington, the scene in Boone, the scene in Raleigh and Charlotte. That's pretty much how it's categorized, it seems like. And we just linked up with these bands and when we became Violet Exploit I think we really got bigger and better and the gigs just kind of got bigger. Through connections, through meeting people, mostly through Instagram, and through Get Sad Y'all, which is kind of a collective that does a lot of emo shows. They've booked us a lot of quality gigs, like we played Cat’s Cradle.

The Violet Exploit at Motorco in December of 2022. Photos by Skylar Simmons.

SD: And Motorco. I mean, connections can be that way. And I think we lucked out with being in Moore County with a venue like The Neon Rooster opening up and starting things off. Because I think our first gig there was, like, explosively successful and it was due to the other bands that played with us, but also just the hype around that venue. So it helped us kind of launch off from there. And all these other places were like, oh, cool, so you can play here. It’s, like, oh, neat. 

BW: We started off, too, like, when we started, we were talking a little bit about Left Early and then into The Violet Exploit, we only carried over one song, I think. We carried over one song from that project into this one. So we started from scratch with Ben in the mix. And like, I always have to tell this memory. When we were sitting at my house, Ben is sitting there on my couch and it's the four of us with acoustic guitars and Van’s with the bass. And we're trying to come up with songs and kind of figure out how are we going to start this new band and try to go to the next level and play these big shows that we just talked about. 

And I'll never forget Ben's sitting there. He's like, I don't think we're going to be able to do this. We don't have any songs. [Laughs]. So I always remember that memory. And then you look a year back, like we just talked about these great shows and working in the studio and things like that. It's cool to see we started really from nothing, except one song that carried over and then into really cool things coming up this year, so.

SG: And how many songs do you have out now? Because that's one thing I've noticed. Every time I've seen you all play live, you have this great set and then there's so few on streaming services. How many are actually out there in the world? 

BM: Two. Yeah, there's only two right now. 

SD: But there's a ton more coming here in the near future. We're hopefully looking at a release towards April or May. That's the idea. We're trying to get a ton of music just out.

SG: Well, I'm really excited for that. Yeah. 

VH: We're not really in a hurry, you know what I mean? To put things out all the time. We're always writing and playing, of course, but as far as putting it out, we feel like we want it done right. We want it done the right way. We don't want to rush anything and we don't want to release unless we know it's, like, absolutely great, for sure. 

SG: That's a really great philosophy. Who writes the songs in the band? All of you together? 

SD: It's all of us. 

BM: Yeah. It is, like, kind of like a mod-podge thing. Usually somebody will come in with an idea and I'll write, like, a melody line or lyrics or something like that. And then it really is just kind of like a thumbtack board. You're just, like, adding little pieces to it and eventually it just kind of comes together. 

VH: Yeah. Most of the riffs come from Sean and Brian. I mean, obviously the two guitar players, which is great, and they both play Fenders, which is even better. [Laughs]. So it sounds incredible. But what Ben does, is Ben just kind of— they give him the chords, they give him the music, we give him the music, and he just kind of comes with lines, melody lines. 

And it's interesting because Ben doesn't play an instrument, and is not a “musician” [laughs], but he has a musician's ear, you know what I mean? He can put together melodies, he knows chords, so he's real natural with that. 

Sean teaches guitar lessons, so Sean is very proficient with guitar. Brian's been playing for a very long time and is a great songwriter in his own right. So it's kind of like a big kind of mixed bag. It's not really one person. It's not really like one mastermind kind of deal. 

It's definitely collective. We all have the same influences. We all listen to the same kind of bands, which I think is really important. Ben is a little bit more diverse than probably all of us, but most of us, we all kind of listen to the same type of music, type of bands growing up, different eras and such. But that's pretty much, I mean, our inspirations I don't know. I don't know where our inspirations are from. 

SG: I was going to ask, you have me curious. Who are some of these bands that you see as inspiration? 

VH: What would you say? 

SD: Like I said, we pull from a little bit of everything, I would say. It's funny to me, whenever people say what our sound reminds them of the most, usually.

BM: Oh, god.

SD: We've heard so many weird ones. Like, I remember, so before we ever played our first official show, we would play at The Neon Rooster open mic, and we would do— it was literally our stuff was already set up. We'd sign up randomly on the list, and we'd go up there and we'd kind of shift the whole entire night to be like, okay, this is what the show is. 

BM: Now you pay attention to us right now!

SD: Exactly. And we would play three songs that we had. And whenever we were doing that, I remember the first, I think it was the second one we did of that, an older gentleman who I've known a long time in this community came up to me. He's like, man, he's like, that was great, right? He's like, that reminded me of something from the 60s, like, right right there next to Jimi Hendrix. And I was like, what? How the hell… But we get that.

BM: We get Red Hot Chili Peppers a lot. You didn't hear that one? 

SD: I honestly, personally, have not heard that one.

BM: Wow. I've heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers the most. Literally. People going, you guys sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

SD: As far as, like, influences go, we're kind of all over the board with that. It would be hard to pinpoint anything particular. We could all say the bands that we like, but I don't feel like that's the same for any of us. 

VH: We all listen to different stuff. I mean, Ben definitely has more of an R&B influence in his writing. That's pretty standard for him. And Sean is more riff-based rock, I guess you could say. Then Brian is more like 90s, kind of. 

BM: He listens to butt rock. [Laughs].

SD: Van listens exclusively to the Rolling Stones or Tame Impala. 

VH: Yeah, I’m more classic. I love the Beatles. I love Motown. I love all the great bands. Led Zeppelin. The Who. 

SG: Y’all are all  just naming my favorite artists. I think you see that kind of mix and diversity of artists and everybody's different styles that come together in this really unique way in the band. And when we talk to bands on this podcast, it often comes up that because everybody likes different things, everyone's bringing something different to the table. 

And as you've been talking, two things that are coming up for me, I want to talk about The Neon Rooster obviously, I'm so glad you bring that up, and we'll get to that in a second. But really, this element of community, in that you have this community together, that you each bring individual interests, but also you're very entrenched in a local community, and I'm wondering how you feel about that piece and if that's been important in both your formation as a band, but also your rise to success. 

BM: Well, I think it's definitely something to note. Even since we've started, before that, and then just over the course of time, Southern Pines is starting to really come into its own as far as a significant music community. I think Sean would probably be a little bit better equipped to answer that because he leads a good bit of that. 

SD: Yeah, I mean, as far as, like, the local community goes with that stuff, it plays a big role for me, just because I work at a guitar shop here called Casino Guitars. And a bit of the history to that is that the owner, Baxter, he taught lessons for about fourteen years. And he started a lot of really cool things in this community that I felt is cause for what is happening now, a decade on. 

VH: Oh yeah, absolutely.

SD: He did these things like Pinestock, where all these kids would put together bands a couple of weeks before, and they would get up and they would play three songs on an actual stage, with sound, in front of people, all kind of stuff like that. 

VH: He was in Bond Incorporated? 

SD: Yeah, he was in a band up in New York. He kind of pushed that influence down to me a bit and then through that also into this whole community. So there's a community here of people that I think, not only whether it's older folks who their kids did music from Casino Guitars or younger people who went through that process, it's just people who really love music and especially original music. There's something needed there in this community, and I think it's what's bred stuff like this. 

Then also the fact that me and Van are from this area, but Ben and Brian are not from this area. Brian being brought here via alien ships and then Ben just bouncing around too. [Laughs]. Same kind of situation. And this is a unique area to end up because of that. So it's really cool.

SG: I'm really glad you bring it up that way. I lived in Moore County, I actually lived right off Indiana Street in Southern Pines for a year during Covid and I found, obviously, an arts scene that I met Victoria [our podcast producer], I met many of our other friends, but didn't have as much of a local music scene, partly due to the pandemic. And it's been really cool since moving away, kind of seeing how that has grown and seeing places like The Neon Rooster pop up, which was not there when I lived there. 

Have you been kind of involved in that scene yourselves, especially growing up there? And I know, Vic, you might want to chime in here since you're also from the area. One thing that I think about a lot, I grew up in North and South Carolina, but not here, is the pressure that in order to be an artist, you have to move away and you have to do it somewhere else. And I don't know if that's something you all felt. And then the gratification of coming back and doing it where you're from, and it's almost like inner child healing. That tends to happen throughout that process. 

VH: Well, yeah, right. Going back to The Neon Rooster thing, Sean does sound there. He works at The Neon Rooster, so he's very involved with that and actually a big part of creating a space for the community to come there. Like you said, we didn't have that four years ago, and that's really promoted original music in Moore County. And that's what we're really thankful for because it's given us that venue.

As far as your other questions, what was the second part?

SG: Yeah. Thinking about— did you ever feel any pressure that you couldn't do this here or that you had to go somewhere else to do it? And then what has that experience been like, coming back to the place that you are from and choosing to stay here? And I don't know, maybe as a band you are planning to move, but you all seem pretty entrenched in the Southern Pines community these days. 

BM: I don’t have any desire to relocate. I don't know about everybody else, but when as a kid I moved around like a lot, we just kind of bounced back and forth from a bunch of different places, experiencing some big cities. When I moved here, it was like the furthest thing from my radar. You really do have this kind of concept that things like that don't really happen in smaller town areas. 

Just moving around a bunch, we lived maybe in two big cities. I was born in San Diego and for a certain period of time I lived in Detroit and there is obviously that gravitation towards the big city thing. But when I came here, you know— I've done more music here than I think I've done anywhere. And I think that's kind of not what people expect to hear. 

VH: Because there's nothing to do here. [Laughs]. You have to make your own fun. You have to make your own. That's what we did. They opened up Neon Rooster and it's like they need all these bands to play, so it was almost perfect timing. They need artists. 

There's more open mics at other businesses, too. Swank has a great open mic scene where it's very embodying. And obviously all this has come out, just blown up after Covid and everything. So it's great to see it back, and come back and be where we can go and see live music and congregate and be with other musicians in the community. 

I think that's what it's really been like from the last two years. People are just hungry for that. They crave it, they miss it. They didn't even realize how much they missed until it was gone. 

SD: Yeah, I think that's a huge point to the shows that were planned over the last year. We kind of feel that, especially at a place like The Neon Rooster where it is kind of in this community, where there's not a whole lot really to do. But it's growing in that way where I think people don’t realize what it means until they've been kind of indoctrinated into it. Then when you come to a show and you're like, oh, yeah, I do want to jump around and be sweaty and yell and just have a really great time listening to really great music. 

BW: I think to cap it off, like, the whole, like, do we need to go anywhere to make it or move further with our music or gain more success? I don't really think so. I think I speak for everybody, I don't really think that's necessary. Especially in today’s age where you have bands like 723 that put a song out and in 24 hours, it’s 10,000 streams or something like that. If you build up and you build up like that and you grow your local area… There's a lot of famous people that say musicians and athletes and things like that, if you master where you're from and you build that bubble out…. That's something that Van’s spoken on quite a bit— you master the Southern Pines area. You move to Raleigh, move to Charlotte, then you move to the state, then you move to the East Coast, and then you move out that way. 

So if you can master where you're from, that helps tremendously. Everybody talked about the community and the support here with the rooster and all those things, the open mics. That's another reason why we want to stay here. We don't really need to go anywhere. 

VH: There's so many great places to play in North Carolina. I mean, it's insane. And I really don't understand why the music scene hasn't really gotten more attention on the national level just because there's so many great places to play. The Pour House. Cat’s Cradle. The Haw River Ballroom. I mean, that’s a majestic place. I mean, you name it. And it's all sizes, too, like DPac (Durham Performing Arts Center) all the way up. There’s all kinds of levels. 

SD: I feel like with what you're saying there as far as, like, going to that next level— the things that propel that, I do firmly believe are kind of interesting sounds and artists that start to populate that area and start to come out. Bands like 723, bands like Raygun Superstar. You know, Boy Named Sue. Caffeine Daydream is another one. They just dropped some songs. We love those guys, too. 

But tons and tons of artists. And there's just, like, weird art here that I think it's got its own space to be. It's not as influenced. You know, you go to a city and we played with bands that come from big cities, and it's so… like, we played a set where it's two bands on the same bill from the same place, and the sounds are right there. You're like, okay, yeah, cool, I get it. They're from the same place. And it's because it's so concentrated here, you know. We can disappear to the mountains and write ten songs and, like, come back and be like, no, we're on this end of the spectrum, and we can play a show with Logan Duke and 723 and stuff. And it's really weird and cool and awesome, you know?

SG: I love the way you describe it, that you kind of have to make your own fun and go inward with it. I completely relate to that. I think I had this fear my whole life that I wouldn't be an artist if I didn't leave, and then I left and found I didn't make art for years because I had no idea what I wanted to say. 

There's a writer who I really like who talks about not wanting to write in an elegaic mode and wanting to be able to see it up close and to be there and to really understand the place and the way the place would influence her. And not from this lens of, like, I'm following it through social media, but I'm actually living in it. 

I find, at least for me and across the South, that's so important to my work. And I've made more art and had more success being back in small town North Carolina than I ever have anywhere else. I think the community piece is so important there because you are kind of forced into close proximity with other people who can either challenge your work or who can grow upon it or who become collaborators. 

And, yeah, I definitely have to shout out 723 here. They are some wonderful friends of mine now and really talented, and they don't even all live in the same place. So that's a great example of how you can really utilize all these different interests in different places to really come together in one. And especially with the North Carolina music scene. I'm so happy to hear you talk about this because I live within walking distance of at least, like, four different live music venues, and I wasn't even trying to do that. It's crazy. It's everywhere, and it does not get the national attention that it should. And there's just so many amazing North Carolina bands these days. 

BM: Yeah, I mean, I've been literally all over the country, in a bunch of different places, and I don't think I have ever been anywhere where there has been just this kind of… it's almost like it's like a hyper focus, especially in certain areas. You can't go far without finding somewhere to listen to somebody play or go see a concert or this and that. North Carolina is just dense with creative juices. Like, there's art galleries and  music venues, and there is just, like… I swear, it's like a state pastime. It really is. 

SD: I feel like it's dense with people who give a damn. 

BM: Absolutely. 

SD: That's a whole nother part of this equation, is just people who give a damn. They care, and they're not so much picky about what they hear, but they want to hear something they want to hear it done well, and they want to hear that somebody cares, I think, more than anything. 

I’ve been to places like Nashville and stuff like that. I remember the first time I went, I had this expectation of, this is the place. This is the place where people go and they do music all the time. Right? This is it. This is Music Road. This is Music City. Right? And I was really let down that it all just felt kind of more like a tourist stop. It felt very trinkety, like everything just felt kind of cheap. And it didn't seem like anybody really gave a damn about the music. Especially whenever there was, like, music in the McDonald's, there's music at the airport. It's like okay, cool. But nobody's playing because they care. They're just playing because, well, I'm in Nashville, and that's what I do. 

And that's the thing. It's more so that than it is here, where I feel like there is so much of, hey, this is my art, I really care about it, and I hope you do, too. Here it is. 

BM: To clarify, we are trying to get big like the rest of them. We don't want to be, like, isolated in the hills making music down here. [Laughs}.

VH: We want to play to the most people possible.

SG: It's a balance, right? 

BM: Yeah, absolutely. I think Sean kind of put it pretty eloquently. There is just a genuine vibe. People really listen. They want to hear it, and not because it's like, oh, well, you know, like they're doing something with the way they dress or something like that. Like, it really is like there's just this focus on, like, emotion and authenticity and genuineness in the scene that you just don't really see a whole lot of places. It's really kind of heartwarming, in a weird sense. 

SG: I'm really interested in the authenticity piece. As a folklorist, this is something we think about a ton. And North Carolina has this vast music history, especially in Appalachia and up towards the mountains, but it also has lots of people, journalists and folklorists, who are coming in and saying, this is real music. This is Americana. This is the place where, because you are kind of in these secluded rural areas, you exist outside of the influence of, like, Nashville, of Hollywood, of New New York. 

That can be problematic at the same time, because then you have a lot of people who suddenly are realizing, like, authenticity and Americana is its own aesthetic, in a way, and people who are then trying to capitalize on that. I gave a lecture last week talking about Jamie Campbell Bower, who's become a folk musician and is making, like, Southern Gothic folk, but is from London and lives in L.A. 

I'm wondering how you think about that in the context— like, this authenticity piece is so important. And I also think that authenticity can become commodified in a lot of ways. How is that something that you navigate in your own work, or is it something you think about? 

BM: Well, I think the best way that we can approach authenticity in that fashion is just to really kind of analyze where everybody individually is coming from. When we sit down and we make a piece of music, it is like a healthy mix of trying to appreciate where they come from and what they appreciate musically. It's trying to build on each other. 

And I think, more importantly, North Carolina does have a very rich history in Americana. But anywhere you look here, it's dense with just little subcommunities. It's a very diverse kind of crowd. Anywhere you look in this area, you're going to find somebody that appreciates a certain style. 

As far as, like, Jamie Campbell Bower and things like that… I think everybody wants a little piece of something that feels like home. And as somebody that's lived a million places, I think I haven't found anywhere quite as close. There is just something very wholesome, very lovely about North Carolina that I think just kind of trickles down from the mountainside.

SD: To build on some of that too— it's funny, I have a friend of mine who has moved down here from L.A.. And we've had a few conversations on what the music is like out there and what people are like and stuff. And it goes back to the authenticity of bands and stuff. We were sitting and talking about it, and she's done it all out on that side of the spectrum, everything you can imagine in L.A. Music and making it and teaching. Every realm. Well, she did all of that and ended up coming back here. And she was talking to me about it. She's like, people don't believe in what they're doing out there. What you do out there is for the sake of, oh, well, this will sell this many…

VH: Yeah. Commercialism.

SD: Yeah, exactly. This will sell this many SKUs. And Americana is in right now, so let me shift gears and change it up and go well. I'm just going to do this. A lot of people push for that solely just for that success factor. And so many musicians are artificial. 

And she said— and her exact quote on it was— the great thing about this area is that this area in general doesn't get any credit from North Carolina and the South, but they believe in bands. They believe in music, they believe in originality. 

It's not made up like out there. They grab five people and they shove them together, and they're like, all right, you all look this good, so and so wrote the music, so and so is going to play the instruments. We're going to have tracks behind you. Here, hold this instrument. Dance around on stage and act like you're playing. Good. You made it. Now stand over here while we collect the money. That's the machine out there, to where the authenticity of what this brings is that we all believe in what we're doing to the point that there's going to be times where people get frustrated, but we fight through it and we figure it out and we work our way through things and sort it. And that's real. Versus shifting gears to be whatever the trend is, right? 

BM: We like what we do, and we're damn good at it, so all we want to do is it. 

SG: I agree with that. Y'all are damn good at it. When you think about being a Moore County based band, specifically, one thing I feel like I've experienced, having spent time in Moore County and now being in Durham, which is very well known as a music city, and I spend a lot of time in Carrboro and Chapel Hill as well— the music scene in North Carolina does tend to get a lot of recognition, but I feel like that recognition is often concentrated around, like, Asheville, Charlotte and the Triangle. Has that been different for you all being not based in those areas? Like, do people know Southern Pines when you tell them that's kind of where you're based and the music scene that you work within? Or is that something that you feel like people tend to know more of like the urban areas?

VH: The Raleigh scene has really taken us under their wing, for sure. With Get Sad Y’all, bands like Raygun Superstar, Boy Named Sue, playing with them. And they kind of understand that we're from a very small town and we have no other place to play besides The Neon Rooster. And then they want to come down here and play.

SD: I feel like they're almost always—

BM: Oh, they love the environment. 

VH: They love it!

SD: They're like, what the hell is this doing here? They're like, what is this town? It's Aberdeen. It's Southern Pines.

SG: It's such a great venue in such a random spot. 

BM: Absolutely. It's just like a hole in the wall a little bit because you drive and it's just like, what is this doing here? This weird, perfect little microcosm environment. I think the philosophy is they don't know it yet, but they will. As we continue to play around, we want to bring people home, show what it looks like a little bit. 

VH: But we're in a great location. I mean, we're two hours from Charlotte, so we play in Charlotte a lot. We've got some gigs coming up there. It's a nice location because you can just be central too. You're central to everything. I mean, we've played in Boone as well and that's three hours away. 

BM: Chesapeake, Virginia. 

VH: Yeah, we played in Virginia. So we can get to a lot of places from where we are. It's a great place to be and place to make music, for sure.

SG: It's almost like what you're doing is creating this bridge between Moore County and these other already existing music scenes. But it's mutual. Which I love that you described it, like, they want to come here and they want to play this. And I think there's so much discussion right now in North Carolina of these urban areas that are really rapidly expanding, and they're very much changing a lot of the more traditionally— so North Carolina has a hundred aunties, seventy-eight are classified as rural, which I find really interesting, Moore County being one of them. Yet most of them don't really feel all that rural because you're, like, 45 minutes to a major city. 

I think there's this kind of pathway that's happening between the two of which it sounds like music for y'all is part of that. Art can be a bridge through a lot of things, and personally, I think it's just really important, especially in a state that's changing so rapidly and that has kind of this ongoing divide between these very urban areas and these more traditionally rural areas. So it's really cool to hear the way you describe that. 

BM: Well, yeah, nothing connects like, culture. I mean, you want to get across to somebody, talk about things they like— art, music, anything like that. It's the best way to get across to people. I mean, that's what humans have done for centuries. 

But, yeah, every time we play somewhere, we always kind of brag about The Neon Rooster and kind of Moore County and the scene, because I think we owe a good bit of our success to Derek, who runs the Neon Rooster, who kind of gave us a space to really kind of thrive in. He gave us a rehearsal space. He let us play shows there. We practiced at open mics in front of people. We really do owe the man a lot.

So any chance I get, I'm like, it's the greatest place you've ever been, and I want you to come and have a merry old time with me.