00;00;08;05 - 00;00;28;02 Ian Chang You're listening to plans we make. Ian Chang, drummer for Sun Lux, and this is the first of three episodes discussing the theme of the process with some of our favorite artists and collaborators. On this episode, I'll be talking with Mike Scott, who is the CEO of Blue Coats, one of the most respected drum and bugle corps in the world. 00;00;28;09 - 00;01;07;01 Ian Chang They're known for pushing the boundaries of what is possible with marching performance and developing young musicians into the lead performers. Back in 2024, Sound Lux collaborated with Blue Coats by reimagining our music for the field. They translated the songs Changes Everything Losses to trying, as well as plans we made through brass, percussion and movement into something expansive, physical and alive in a way that totally blew us away. 00;01;07;03 - 00;01;31;19 Ian Chang The performance of Changes Everything went on to win the Drum Corps International World Championship, along with top honors in brass, visual performance and overall effect. I spoke recently with Mike to learn a bit more about the world of drum Corps and a collaboration we have coming up with them for the new song, endlessly. 00;01;31;22 - 00;01;37;13 Mike Scott All right, Mike, thanks for sitting down. Taking taking some time to chat. Where are you at right now? 00;01;37;14 - 00;01;41;02 Speaker 3 I'm in Ohio. I'm in Cleveland. It's good to see you. Where are you these days? 00;01;41;03 - 00;01;54;28 Mike Scott I'm in Mexico City, so I'm home where I live in my studio right now. So you're in Ohio and you are prepping, I imagine, for the next, for this current season of Blue Coats. 00;01;54;29 - 00;02;03;01 Speaker 3 Yeah. We're getting we're getting close. We move into spring training in about a month. So this is that that like last 30 days of prep before spring training starts. 00;02;03;03 - 00;02;26;21 Mike Scott Got you. So before we kind of dive into things, you know, for our listeners who are unaware really of, like, what drum and bugle corps and like DCI and all of these things are I think a lot of people maybe have an idea in their head of like, oh, like marching band that's like related to to schools and related to to sports. 00;02;26;21 - 00;02;38;13 Mike Scott But this is independent of all of that. And so I would just like to give you the floor a minute to maybe talk about what this world is and what this community is, so that our listeners can have an idea. 00;02;38;16 - 00;02;56;21 Speaker 3 Yes, definitely one of those one of those worlds where if you know about it, it's all consuming for you. And, you know, you've been a fan your whole life, or once you know about it, it's just that thing that you know, and if you don't know about it, oftentimes you haven't heard of it. But like you said, it's a weird mix of being independent. 00;02;56;23 - 00;03;21;11 Speaker 3 I kind of, if I'm trying to explain to someone just really quickly and this concept that you're talking about of independent or school marching band or sport, I usually reference like travel soccer or like travel sports. You know, it's it's kids that love marching band that probably or certainly did it in high school, maybe did in college. They are really good at it and they want to do it in their free time in the summer. 00;03;21;14 - 00;03;39;29 Speaker 3 And so in that way it's like travel, sport. And for a lot of kids, especially high school fans, it also feels a little bit like their NCAA Division one, like it's the it's the top of the sport. You know, the kids that do drum corps are mostly college age. At least the kids that do blue coats are predominantly college age. 00;03;40;01 - 00;04;06;21 Speaker 3 But there's also drum corps for every level. There's multiple classes and so kids participate. But the bottom line is it's summer travel marching band. It's highly competitive. Thousands of kids do it. There's dozens of groups all over the world, but in the United States, it's really popular. And as you saw, you know, there's also a huge fan base to which is great because it gives the kids that opportunity to perform for these huge stadiums all over the all over the country. 00;04;06;22 - 00;04;08;04 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. 00;04;08;05 - 00;04;14;08 Mike Scott And, you know, just to put into what you said into context, son. Lux, all of us. 00;04;14;10 - 00;04;43;03 Ian Chang Were lucky enough to go to DCI, which is sort of like, I guess like the world championship. Yeah. Last year in the summer to watch Blue Coats perform and compete. And they, they, they came in second, which is awesome. And, and for you know, to further kind of paint the picture of for our listeners what this looks like, like this is not just marching band. 00;04;43;03 - 00;04;59;11 Ian Chang It's not just drum like there's, there's, there's color guard and there's, there's, you know, drums and there's brass and it's like a whole really intense production crammed into like, how long? Like a 10 to 12 minute performance, is that right? 00;04;59;12 - 00;05;28;01 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. About a ten. About a 12 minute performance. Yeah. You have 13 minutes at the very most. Yeah. You know, a lot of people try to draw in references to theater or even something like, you know, like a Cirque de Soleil type thing. It's college students predominantly. So it's, you know, it's amateur production. It's not, you know, they're not professional paid musicians, but it's all about trying to reach this sort of like ultimate level of excellence from like a marching or like you mentioned, pageantry, color guard performance. 00;05;28;01 - 00;05;53;11 Speaker 3 But then we bring in elements of, of, you know, scenery and pro audio and synthesized sounds and drum corps is also an exercise in, in physics because the stage is so big and the performers are moving. So it's all of those things kind of wrapped up in one. It's also one of those things, you know, it's it's tough to talk about on a podcast, especially for for listeners that might not know, you kind of have to see it. 00;05;53;11 - 00;06;11;14 Speaker 3 So, you know, Google, Google the blue coats and watch some ripped video on YouTube or something so that you can kind of get an idea of what we're talking about. But it's just, you know, it's this highly competitive, very pageantry oriented, competitive marching band, basically. And it was, you know, you mentioned getting to to come and you guys were great. 00;06;11;14 - 00;06;33;12 Speaker 3 You guys came to the World Championships last year. Ryan was able to come out two years ago when we won. Yeah, unfortunately we didn't win the year that the whole band was able to come out. But it's been it was great getting a couple of opportunities also at spring training for the band to get to come to see it, because it's also one of those things that you really have to see in person to believe and understand the scale of it all. 00;06;33;14 - 00;07;01;16 Ian Chang Totally. And I just want to kind of like, you know, earlier in what you were saying, you were saying like it's amateur by just for our listeners, I don't want you to be confused. There's nothing amateur about the production value that's actually put on. It's absolutely incredible. And what you all do is really amazing. And, you know, we'll, you know, maybe some people are wondering like, like what is the connection between sun and blue coats? 00;07;01;16 - 00;07;26;18 Ian Chang And we'll get to that in a little bit. But first I want to kind of talk about Blue Coat specifically. You're the director of of the Blue Coats and have I would say that within the community it's, it's first of all, blue coats is like one of the top like drum corps out there. You know, clearly one, one second place and one first year, first place of the year before. 00;07;26;21 - 00;07;50;09 Ian Chang And so I think within the community, people look to blue coats as like a beacon of excellence. But also I feel like blue coats has been come to like people know blue coats as a drum corps. That really pushes the boundaries of what's possible. And you all have really, like garnered just like a very, almost like crazed like fandom within the world is what I've noticed. 00;07;50;10 - 00;08;04;14 Ian Chang Like anyone that I talked to who has heard of Blue coats, just like, oh my God, can you talk a little bit about like, what sets blue Coats apart not only in just like the excellence in what you do, but. Yeah, in any other way. 00;08;04;18 - 00;08;24;26 Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, I mean, thanks for that. The drum corps is about this. There's this this long history of, of the sort of competing interests of tradition because it's marching band and it's, you know, born out of this military identity and you're marching in, you know, there's a certain rigidity to it. And also about pageantry and finding what's new and what's next. 00;08;24;26 - 00;08;57;17 Speaker 3 And part of the competition is, you know, like, how effective is it? And, you know, how much do the fans love what you're doing? And so that there's an interesting juxtaposition, like a yin and yang between those things. And we're, you know, one thing that I love about the blue coats and why I love being here and calling it my home, is that we've always had this excitement about what's next, or how can we push the boundary, or how can we find what's most interesting for the kids these days, or the audience these days, or a new way to like all good art? 00;08;57;19 - 00;09;12;21 Speaker 3 It's it's about constraint, right? And we have these various constraints that we have. You know, the show can only be so long and you have to be able to tour it and it has to be on this field, and college kids have to be able to perform it. And we don't play to a click. You know, it's about like marching band. 00;09;12;23 - 00;09;39;03 Speaker 3 So so how can we find a way to do this amazing like electronic audio idea? Or how can we find a way to perform this thing given the constraints of the field, or to throw a toss a little higher or incorporate some new set idea? There's all these things that we're always playing around with, and I think that draws that has drawn a certain type of young performer to us and also a certain type of fan. 00;09;39;03 - 00;10;06;21 Speaker 3 And in the case of son locks, a certain type of artist. And we've had some great opportunities over the last decade or so to work with artists that may have never been performed before by drum corps, and also artists who, you know, it's easy to listen to. I don't know, you know, ode to Joy and understand how a brass you can play that as an incredible chorale, you know? 00;10;06;26 - 00;10;26;25 Speaker 3 But there's all sorts of music where you listen to it and you think, how could this possibly be arranged for this orchestration? But it's art that appeals to us and appeals to our young students. And so it was a great match for that. So yeah, I appreciate what you're saying about artistry and and innovation. And that is absolutely at our DNA. 00;10;26;26 - 00;10;37;09 Speaker 3 And it's also been enabled by relationships like this and the ability to connect our young students, our fans with art that we find interesting or music that we find interesting. 00;10;37;12 - 00;11;09;19 Ian Chang Totally. That's that's super rad. And, you know, before we dive into sort of the the multi year now like collaboration between Son and Blue Coats, I would love to just like get a sense or give our listeners a sense of since the the common theme for these podcasts is process. And why do I know that you know drum corps is the like the process is insane, basically, and it involves a lot of people. 00;11;09;21 - 00;11;29;02 Ian Chang And yeah, I just love to hear you talk a little bit about like, what the team looks like, how y'all take this on the road with so many kids. And yeah, just like all the different facets you can touch on whatever you want because I know, like, there's like you have designers, you have videographers, you have like costume designers, set designers, all kinds of things. 00;11;29;04 - 00;11;51;04 Ian Chang It's one of the things that I really walked away from being able to see y'all rehearse and then perform was just like, how meaningful all of this is to all the kids, you know? And like how like going through this process for them is like something that they'll take with them for the rest of their lives. And it was incredibly moving. 00;11;51;04 - 00;11;56;04 Ian Chang So, yeah, I just love to, you know, however long or short you want to talk about, you know. The process. 00;11;56;06 - 00;12;25;06 Speaker 3 I could talk about it for, for I know because, you know, it's so complicated and it's, you know, it's my it's my whole life. So you'll have to you'll have to guide me a bit. But drum corps is really, really an exercise in process if you really think about it. Right. Like it's, you know, you can create the greatest show you want, but that even that is a collaboration of eight, nine, ten, 12 people, not counting all the people behind the scenes that are doing pattern making for the costuming and all of that. 00;12;25;09 - 00;12;42;07 Speaker 3 And then it's 165 for formers. So, you know, you you just enable, you know, even to be able to rehearse eight counts, you have to have a process to, to be able to teach eight counts and then learn eight counts and then rehearse eight counts. That's all about process. 00;12;42;08 - 00;12;44;01 Ian Chang The logistics of it. Yes. 00;12;44;03 - 00;12;59;21 Speaker 3 Yeah. Right. And then you're doing all of that while on the road. So every single day it's a new rehearsal venue. It's a new set of circumstances. It's a new performance venue. It's a new way to take the set out of the truck and put it onto the field and put it back on the truck, and to feed 220 people. 00;12;59;21 - 00;13;29;26 Speaker 3 So that is a process. So those all also, you know, intermix and intermingle. So we as an organization have spent 50 years thinking about, you know, well, if you change the length of lunch by ten minutes, what does that you know, what does that mean for a rehearsal? And it's just so interconnected and in many ways that if you really think about it, that drives sort of a big part of the emotional connection or resignation that you're resonating, that you're talking about, because it's all consuming. 00;13;29;26 - 00;13;56;24 Speaker 3 Drum corps is all consuming. You can ask anyone who's ever done it the process, wording, how to do the process, the emotional toll it takes to do that day in and day out to reach that level of excellence while on the road is it's incredibly emotionally rewarding. But to go back to answering the substance of your question, if you were to look at the whole what is 12 months look like? 00;13;56;26 - 00;14;23;15 Speaker 3 It starts almost right away. We are recruiting for the next year of auditions before the previous season ends, so we begin recruiting. That's one thing that starts and is a whole process. We have ordered camps all over the United States as well as a video round one. You can also submit a video. About 12 to 1400 kids auditioned every year from all over the world. 00;14;23;18 - 00;14;44;01 Speaker 3 Those are the kids that sign up. And every year this is a common question we get. But every year we start from scratch. You know, students that have been in the drum corps before and are still eligible to return, typically do return. You know, we have about a 99% return rate, but they also have to audition. 00;14;44;04 - 00;14;45;23 Ian Chang Oh, they have to audition again. Yeah. 00;14;45;24 - 00;15;04;03 Speaker 3 Okay. Three audition. Now they go straight to the callback round. They don't have to submit a first round audition. Gotcha. So they go straight, straight to the callback round. But technically, yes, they have to audition. And so that makes it even more competitive. You know, the blue coats are one of, you know, as we're widely celebrated, you know, we we've meddled almost every year for the last decade. 00;15;04;05 - 00;15;31;18 Speaker 3 So, you know, we're we're unique in the in the recruitment process. So that's that's happening. And at the same time that's happening, the design team assembles. We've got this incredible team of ten designers among them. They're you know, they have a couple of Tonys and a couple of Emmys for choreography on Broadway. And they're just incredible arrangers and composers, visual designers, choreographers, costume and scenery designers, audio systems designer Aaron. 00;15;31;19 - 00;15;49;09 Speaker 3 And I know you guys have had the chance to work with a little bit. And so they begin and they, you know, we start by kind of having a little retreat. We usually go somewhere, usually New York City, but sometimes we'll want to go somewhere exciting and just try to like take in a little bit of like stop, start, keep going. 00;15;49;10 - 00;16;04;27 Speaker 3 And what's exciting, they listen to hours of music. You know, we put together a big playlist and just listen to hours and hours of music. The last couple of years we have had the list. We've gotten to listen to less because we've had direct access to your discography, which has been awesome. You know, like, okay, great, what's the sound like? 00;16;04;27 - 00;16;29;12 Speaker 3 Music. And I know we'll talk about in a minute, you know, new music also, which is cool. Yeah. And so that process begins and those two things run concurrently. The drum corps doing its recruitment and then eventually meeting about every other month, a few sections at a time and the design process happening. And slowly as music gets written, it gets pushed to the kids and the staff so that when they come to one of those monthly weekend rehearsals, they can work. 00;16;29;12 - 00;16;51;04 Speaker 3 And then we start spring training. And that's usually the the middle to end of May. And we do spring training for six weeks, and we do the national tour for six weeks. And you saw the rehearsal process. But like I was saying, you know, it's 165 people, it's about 100 staff that are teaching them and enabling the entire thing to happen. 00;16;51;09 - 00;17;16;03 Speaker 3 Eat, sleep, rehearse for about ten hours a day. When we go on the road, we drive all night, rehearse all day, and then do a show, you know, about 3 or 4 times a week at different venues, a different venue every time, all across the United States. And I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about the rehearsal process, but you you saw it as an outsider, but also as a musician and as someone who has rehearsed in a variety of different formats. 00;17;16;03 - 00;17;46;18 Speaker 3 So I'm almost interested in, in your kind of unique position. This is something that Ryan and I talked about quite a bit. It's just like you guys were drum corps, new people, but you're not new because you're professional musicians and you understand and you kind of value the same things we value in terms of like timing and rhythmic excellence and intonation and, you know, phrase and finding, you know, interest and intrigue and phrase, and those are all things that we have to rehearse. 00;17;46;20 - 00;18;06;03 Speaker 3 And so you saw a side of that marriage of the technical and the process and all of that. But as a drum corps new person. So I'm almost interested in like what your thoughts about our rehearsal process were, having seen it just a little bit because, you know, for us it's just it's so normal that sometimes we forget what is really unique about the way that we rehearse. 00;18;06;11 - 00;18;42;05 Ian Chang I mean, it's incredibly unique. You know, as a drummer, I've never touched the world of drum corps or marching band or anything like that. So like, well, first of all, all the things that you mentioned in terms of timing and like intonation and like all these things like everyone's and it shows that you're picking from a large group of people auditioning because like, just every musician is unbelievably excellent, like world class like, and not just not, oh, they're good for their age. 00;18;42;06 - 00;19;11;01 Ian Chang Like, no. Like they're playing at, like at, like an incredible level. I remember the show that we saw, like the trumpet player was hitting notes that I was just like like, like and like these high notes that were like super clean and and just how tight everything is, is for me, honestly. Like, it's shocking. Like, it's like a shocking level of tightness, which I know is something that is like, valued maybe an extra amount in this world, almost more so than in other realms of music. 00;19;11;01 - 00;19;45;11 Ian Chang So it makes sense. And then the thing that really blew my mind, and I think it was the same for Ryan too. Well, obviously all the movement involved, while executing all of these very complex musical ideas, but while still like making a flow and feel like a piece of music is wild. And then the thing that on top of that, for listeners who are familiar with the concept of latency, like basically the field is large enough, and I experienced this only a little bit when I used to play in orchestra when I was younger. 00;19;45;12 - 00;20;06;17 Ian Chang You know, like when you're at the back of the room and the conductor's at the front, like just the amount of time it takes for the conductor to, like, hit A down B and then for you, like for you to hit the drum. By the time the sound of the drum travels to the audience, that's already is enough of amount of time that, like, you could be like, it'd be very easy to be late. 00;20;06;19 - 00;20;33;02 Ian Chang You know, sound late. And that's something that you all have to deal with in real time while moving around. So the latency relationship between what you're playing and how it's like relating to everyone else and how it's relating to how it's coming up for the audience, is shifting all the time. And I honestly just don't even understand how you'll do that or like kind of, you know, deal with that while staying really, really tight. 00;20;33;02 - 00;20;51;03 Ian Chang Because essentially, like depending where you are in the field, you'll have to be playing, I guess, purposefully behind or ahead of your, your peers. Is that right? Like, is that how it feels? Because, yeah. Because coming into this world, you you played in drum corps and everything, right? Like, so like this is. 00;20;51;09 - 00;21;15;16 Speaker 3 I did. Yeah, I did marching band. And, you know, I was a conductor in the blue coats, which is actually a really interesting, like, place because you like, as the conductor, know which performers are on your hands using your hands, which aren't based on where they are. So you know that, like where I always start with someone who kind of understands this control Corps is a bit of like performing in a drum corps is a bit of an exercise of time travel, like you're talking about, right? 00;21;15;17 - 00;21;40;17 Speaker 3 Like it's all relative. If you listen to the best, most incredible, let's call it a ten out of ten music ensemble on the front sideline. It sounds incredible, right? Like it's all these things you're talking about. It's tight and it's incredible. If you then go stand on the back sideline and listen to the same performance, it's unintelligible. It doesn't make any sense because you've you've inverted the performance. 00;21;40;18 - 00;22;05;19 Speaker 3 Right. And so when we rehearse the drum corps, you know, there's a reason that we always have staff in the press box listening because that is the point we're trying to approximate where the judges or the most of the audience are going to be, and the entire rehearsal is relative to that point of reference. So when we're when they're saying when they're telling the students, hey, that entry was just a little late. 00;22;05;19 - 00;22;27;27 Speaker 3 Are you using the hands or are you listening? Who are you listening to? Okay. That needs to be played a fraction of a second, or needs to play 1/32 note ahead of where you're feeling it. And we're spending the entire season refining those assignments and listening assignments, looking assignments. And there's, you know, there's all sorts of tools that they use. 00;22;27;27 - 00;22;55;27 Speaker 3 The brass use a system called trios. They listen to their trio. So there's a performer on their right to perform on their left. If everyone's listening relative to that environment, both for intonation but also for timing, then you're creating this sort of relative arc that's no matter what's what they're doing, as long as you're about correct in your trio, then it's then it's a matter of just refining that performance from from the press box. 00;22;55;27 - 00;23;15;03 Speaker 3 Yeah. Another thing that's interesting, I think, I don't remember if I was talking with you about it or another member of the band at rehearsal, but somebody latched on to the fact that, you know, we rehearse with a metronome going through a loudspeaker. Yeah, it's just like a, you know, like a like a big, really loud horn speaker. 00;23;15;06 - 00;23;44;25 Speaker 3 But when we rehearse, we have a one of the members of the conducting team, like where this speaker and just run behind the drum line so that the metronome and the snare line are always in the same place on the field. And the reason we do that is because if you just put it on the 50 yard line and you have this like fixed dough of time, so to speak, then the the there could be a latency issue between the drum lines performance and the metronome performance. 00;23;44;26 - 00;24;04;29 Speaker 3 Right. But what we're doing is we're constantly using the drum line as the center of time, because when in performance we don't have a metronome, but we do have the drum line, so we move. It's basically like a, like a moving though of time of pulse. Yeah. And so we rehearsed with the metronome, always with the snare line. 00;24;05;00 - 00;24;24;14 Speaker 3 That way we can give the performers an assignment, like when you're standing in this part of the field or playing this rhythmic figure, you need to be listening to the drums and making making your adjustments based on this like reference point of the the pulse of the drumline versus, oh, another performer. Wait, you're 60 yards away from the drumline. 00;24;24;15 - 00;24;42;18 Speaker 3 You cannot listen to the drum line. You need to be watching the conductor and then making your changes in performance based on what you see from the conductor. We all know there's other tricks to like. The conductor is a bad reference point. The drums are a bad reference point. Okay, can you see the feet of this section because we know they're correct. 00;24;42;18 - 00;25;00;25 Speaker 3 So perform based on their feet timing. You know we use all sorts of things. And then there's the number one rule in all of marching band which is never listen to the front ensemble because the front ensemble, which is the, you know, orchestral mallet percussion, the drum set, the rhythm section, they're always in front of everybody. And if you listen to them, you'll always be late. 00;25;00;26 - 00;25;18;16 Speaker 3 Right? And you learn that in orchestra, right? If you listen to the concertmaster from the back of the orchestra section, you will be incorrect, because by the time their sound goes to you and you play and your sound goes, there's no way it will ever line up. Yeah. And you know, for listeners that are, you know, that know like, you know, they perform in bands and do pro audio and things like that. 00;25;18;16 - 00;25;20;24 Speaker 3 We also have to handle that latency, that delay. 00;25;20;25 - 00;25;21;18 Ian Chang Microphones is. 00;25;21;18 - 00;25;33;03 Speaker 3 Going to say with the audio system. So yeah, we you know, that's that's another complex problem that our audio team is always solving and that's, you know, delay and latency with the microphone inputs and things like that. Wow. 00;25;33;06 - 00;26;05;09 Ian Chang So for the performer on this on the field moving around like what it sounds like is through through the system of metronomes and, and conductors and all these tricks, you're basically acclimating these kids to a very specific system of like how to play together in terms of what they here while they're playing on the field. Does it like, sound like what you said earlier? 00;26;05;10 - 00;26;12;27 Ian Chang If you like, listen from like the back like does it sound kind of it doesn't sound like they're together. Right? Like or it doesn't sound totally to them. 00;26;12;27 - 00;26;39;00 Speaker 3 Know they, they know if the performance was excellent or not based on what they've learned to sound together like. But it's not. They can't hear the whole ensemble. You know, the front ensemble can because they're on the 50 yard line and right there. So they, you know, they get to enjoy the performance a little bit more. But the rest of the performers know that their performance was excellent because it replicates what the staff has told them. 00;26;39;02 - 00;26;59;17 Speaker 3 Is excellent in rehearsal. Yeah. Wow. And that's a really you know, that's a really big challenge that our students, you know, have to learn how to do when they're told, hey, that was excellent. Print that. It should always sound like that. They have to know what that looks and feels like. Yeah. And then if they get that feedback in the performance, then they know, oh, that must have been great, you know? 00;26;59;18 - 00;27;06;12 Speaker 3 And by the end, like, none of us are really synthesizing like we're not really we don't have a granular thing, you know. You just know it just feels. 00;27;06;19 - 00;27;06;24 Ian Chang Kind. 00;27;06;24 - 00;27;24;16 Speaker 3 Of second nature and their faces, you can tell that they know. You know. Yeah. It all just becomes second nature by the end. And, you know, those last three performances end up just being like, oh God, that felt great. And you just know it was good. But you can't really tell why. But by that point, you've heard the show a thousand times and, you know. 00;27;24;22 - 00;27;25;06 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00;27;25;07 - 00;27;28;23 Ian Chang And at what point do you strip away the metronome? 00;27;28;25 - 00;27;46;22 Speaker 3 So we basically rehearse with it all the way to the end because just because. Right. And because the other thing about it is, you know, like when you're performing well, it's a little it's a little different with bands that are using sampling and audio, because you have to be on the click in order for some of those things to work. 00;27;46;25 - 00;28;10;20 Speaker 3 And that's a little bit true for us, but also the the fine motor skills required like that they're using to play so perfectly all the time. Like we always want to make sure that we're at least starting correctly. So even when we're off the mat, we start with something called eight min. So they're getting eight clicks, you know, at the beginning of an off mat rep, just so that we all know that we're starting at the at the exact correct PM. 00;28;10;22 - 00;28;38;10 Speaker 3 Right. But we do have to to maybe answer your question better. Like we do have a system of like weaning off the mat just to build the correct memory. So, you know, sometimes we'll do, you know, the met on half time or one third or two thirds time so that there is a pulse, but that it's not the quarter note, you know, or we'll do like upbeat on the quarter note or upbeat on the half note. 00;28;38;10 - 00;28;38;23 Speaker 3 Upbeat on. 00;28;38;23 - 00;28;39;25 Ian Chang The that's brutal. 00;28;39;28 - 00;29;08;00 Speaker 3 It's you know, but just so that it's there. And so you know every once in a while did your footfall land you know like the snare line using that like hey I felt like my footfall is landing on this intermittent beat. So we must be in the right spot, you know, like like from a tempo perspective. But you know, if the other, the other challenge is, you know, you don't want to train the especially the brass and performers, you don't want to train them on the met. 00;29;08;01 - 00;29;25;28 Speaker 3 The met is mostly there to for the drum line and then everyone using their listening responsibilities that they're given in rehearsal. So that's another reason it's important to wean off the mat, not because it becomes a like a click crutch for everybody, but because we also want to reinforce the listening environment that is going to be performed. 00;29;25;29 - 00;29;54;08 Ian Chang Of course. Yeah, yeah, that makes total sense. That is mind blowing to me. And I'm sure to anyone listening who is a drummer or a musician who understands latency in these things, it's a it's absolutely wild. Cool. Why don't we? Why don't we talk a bit about sort of our collaboration and kind of jump into that? I believe we started kind of working together a couple years ago now, 2024. 00;29;54;09 - 00;29;55;07 Ian Chang I think. 00;29;55;09 - 00;30;16;10 Speaker 3 Yeah, the 2024 season, you guys approached us in 2023 actually at that World Championships. And we had been, you know, we had been fans. And I think, you know, I first heard of you guys actually, when you did the collaboration with pulse a few years even before that. And, you know, had been a fan that was like an indoor drumline. 00;30;16;11 - 00;30;53;04 Speaker 3 I can't remember what year it must have been like maybe a long time or 19 something. But yeah, you know, it had been had been a huge fan. And then we were a little kind of like, oh my God, yeah, this would be incredible. And so we decided from the beginning that the best thing to do would be a two year residency, like as the artist in residence, just because that would give us an opportunity to, you know, get a feel for the discography and what would work and then also give us an opportunity to do the exciting things we did last year and play some new music and have a more less of 00;30;53;05 - 00;31;13;22 Speaker 3 like a, hey, let's arrange your music and more of a more of a collaborative opportunity to play new music or to integrate the music in a way, in a more organic way. And I'm glad we did that, because it was it was a really cool, I don't know, it was a really cool venture and super, super rewarding for us. 00;31;13;23 - 00;31;14;28 Speaker 3 Yeah, absolutely. 00;31;14;29 - 00;31;46;13 Ian Chang Yeah, for us as well. So two years ago, the, the, the song that you kind of centered in the show was changes everything. But you're kind of because these, these performances are so you know there are 12 minutes and but they're really like often like medleys of different things. So you're kind of like, smashing together different songs and really unique ways, trying to remember the other songs that y'all used that year, two years ago. 00;31;46;15 - 00;32;16;16 Speaker 3 Yeah, we did in 2024. We did lost to trying. And yeah, we played Changes Everything. And there was two others. You know, some of it was some of it was, you know, like some sampling stuff and then some of it was, you know, like like you mentioned like a little bit of a longer arrangement idea, but those, but those two, those changes and lost in trying where like the two, you know, the two main things. 00;32;16;16 - 00;32;38;11 Speaker 3 And one thing that was really cool about all of that was, you know, we everything we play in any year is all, you know, underlying rights. And so we don't often have the opportunity to do sync. We just do the arranging because it's harder to get sync and it's more expensive. But because we had this relationship, you know, like you guys sent us a bunch of stems. 00;32;38;12 - 00;32;39;13 Speaker 3 And so it's. 00;32;39;20 - 00;32;41;05 Ian Chang Y'all have have it all. Yeah. 00;32;41;06 - 00;33;00;13 Speaker 3 And have the real stems. So instead of, you know, Matt who's our, you know, our sound designer doing his best to recreate some idea from something we wanted to sample but couldn't, you know, now, like, it has this fidelity to your original that I think was really cool. And we were also able to use more than just those two tunes. 00;33;00;13 - 00;33;10;09 Speaker 3 And so, you know, there's like these synth sounds and, you know, sounds that are coming directly from your stems from other music that we were able to interlace throughout other pieces, which I thought was really cool. 00;33;10;12 - 00;33;40;10 Ian Chang Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's always so, you know, and I wasn't able to go two years ago, but obviously I saw a video of it and it was just like, it's a very specific feeling, like hearing something back that is like imbued with so much of the DNA of like, music that I've been a part of making. But just like in such a different and exciting and like bombastic and explosive way, it's like it's a very emotional experience. 00;33;40;10 - 00;34;08;24 Ian Chang And obviously last year when we got to see that in person, it was absolutely incredible. And so last year we did a we did a cool thing, which was we gave you an early version of or I guess it was actually pretty much there, but we gave you a version of, of, of a song that's not out yet and I believe should be coming out around the time of this podcast coming out, maybe a little right before or right after called endlessly. 00;34;08;24 - 00;34;16;08 Ian Chang And y'all build the show, you know, around that. And also Dream State, I think was like another main touchpoint. 00;34;16;15 - 00;34;50;23 Speaker 3 Yeah, we used the multiple versions of Dream State, which was cool. You know, we did like Brighter Night and Dark Days and the original. And so those three tunes kind of all culminating with, you know, we we wanted the closer to be this, this new music, this collaboration endlessly. Yeah. And that was really cool for us, especially because like, when Ryan came to visit us at spring training early in spring training, like week two or something like that, and we hadn't begun arranging the closure at all because, well, because it hadn't been written yet. 00;34;50;25 - 00;35;25;08 Speaker 3 And Ryan texted Michael and I like on his way in. He was like, I think I've, I think I've got something. I think it needs to be this tune. And then, you know, he came in and like pulled, you know, pulled out his laptop and like sang for us just like, you know, like mumbled lyrics. Yeah. Like what he thought the melody would be and like, a little bit of the, you know, well, if it's out now, you know, like there's that cool, like kind of skipping like Afro Afro-Cuban like like hitch rhythm, you know, in like the, the beginning of the intro and, and like playing like his initial ideas of that. 00;35;25;08 - 00;35;45;28 Speaker 3 And we were like, okay, great. You know, let's do it. And then at some point we, you know, we were able to connect with you as you were like building out some more. And, you know, you guys send us video, you guys in the studio doing some of the some of the early recordings of all that. And so it was really cool just we got to see your process, which was awesome during the collaboration of that, which was really kind of especially cool for us. 00;35;45;29 - 00;35;52;28 Speaker 3 It became this kind of mutual sharing of, hey, we're in the middle of building the show and you're in the middle of writing the tune and you know, at the end it's all going to come together. 00;35;53;04 - 00;36;22;25 Ian Chang Yeah. And a lot of ways, I'm glad you brought that up. Like just the timing of things too, because like, I would say that to a great extent, like this song coming into existence happened concurrently with the knowledge that it was going to be potentially something that would be arranged by y'all, you know. So I think, like in our minds, we that definitely like painted a certain picture in our heads of like where the song needed to go. 00;36;22;25 - 00;37;04;02 Ian Chang So in a lot of ways I think like just the idea of the collaboration inspired the way the song ended up, you know what I mean? Which I think is really, really, really rad. And and then, yeah, where y'all took it was absolutely incredible. And one thing I want to point out for the the music nerds who were listening was a very specific kind of live performance, electronic kind of technique that uses that we were able to share with you and you tackled and I know it wasn't easy to, to to be able to make this thing happen, which is basically and I'll try to put this like succinctly. 00;37;04;04 - 00;37;25;28 Ian Chang This idea of like and when we when we do it as a trio, it is often say like Ryan is playing something on his keyboard, or since that the audience doesn't hear and the audience only hears flashes of it when I hit a drum. And the the name of this is side chain gating. And that's the name of the technique. 00;37;25;29 - 00;37;55;15 Ian Chang The way I like to kind of an analogy I like to use for, for folks who, who I'm explaining this to is that it's almost like two people playing like one saxophone, like one person is doing the hands and picking the notes while the other person is is expressing it with the mouthpiece, you know what I mean? And it's a really interesting and particular way to kind of like play in an interactive way, musically, that is only made possible by sort of technology. 00;37;55;17 - 00;38;18;02 Ian Chang And so, you know, I think Ryan was the one who presented this idea to you all of being like, what if, you know, the brass section would be playing stuff, but like out of the out of the PA, the audience isn't actually hearing what they're playing unless like a snare drum is hit. And so like, you can play like these, like, like, you know, snare figures and patterns and stuff that would just be like that would make the brass sound stutter like that. 00;38;18;04 - 00;38;36;07 Ian Chang And and on a technical level, I knew that that was a challenge to, you know, put into practice because, you know, it's much easier when it's just three people on stage and I'll send you some audio and like, you can use it to go through the gate. But like for, for you all, you really tackled this idea with so much gusto. 00;38;36;07 - 00;38;59;25 Ian Chang And the way it came out was just so exciting. And I think as one of, you know, the very concrete examples in which like, speaks to what we were talking about earlier as like blue coats being sort of like an ensemble that is known for trailblazing and known for trying new things. And that was that was a really rewarding thing for us to kind of like just be in dialog with y'all about and to see come to fruition. 00;38;59;25 - 00;39;01;11 Ian Chang And it was really cool. 00;39;01;13 - 00;39;29;10 Speaker 3 Yeah. No, that that's the type of stuff that just really gets us exciting. You know, it's this because it's the opportunity for the the thing that is at the heart of Drum corps, right? Which is like just really challenging, you know, rudimental percussion and, you know, excellence in brass performance in the timing and all of that. But like mirrored with this, you know, what's next and how can we make this more difficult but also more cool at the same time? 00;39;29;10 - 00;39;46;07 Speaker 3 You know, it's like the perfect like marriage of all those things that we love. And Ryan was actually kind of when he came to spring training and saw this for the first time in 2024, he was like, oh, at some point we got to do side chaining. And of course, you know, all of us are immediately like, what the heck are you talking about? 00;39;46;10 - 00;40;10;21 Speaker 3 You know, most about most of our experiences is, you know, like Phil Collins and compression, you know, and it hadn't really occurred to us. I mean, except for, you know, Matt and Aaron who live in that world on our team, that this was something that could translate using getting into drum corps. And then it took us all of a year to figure out just technically how we would pull it off, you know, using like the wireless microphones on the brass instruments. 00;40;10;22 - 00;40;28;07 Speaker 3 And they have to be far enough away. So they're going to have to be facing backfield, and they have to be in some corner somewhere so that you're not getting too much of the acoustic performance in order to create the the PA output being like the predominant idea. Right? Right. And then you're going to have to put the snare line somewhere else. 00;40;28;07 - 00;40;47;10 Speaker 3 And then we were also having to figure out like, well, should we be using a mic signal or some sort of, you know, trigger signal, like what's going to be the best input signal from the snares to create like a crisp gate opening so that, you know, that was a challenge. So there was the technical, there was the staging. 00;40;47;11 - 00;41;18;11 Speaker 3 You know, it kind of, you know, it integrated some level of every part of the design, the rehearsal, the technical aspects of the performance. And the show last year was in some way inspired. It's hard to tell, you know, you know, this like how concepts come together for albums for for the shows. But there was some level of this idea also resonated with the theme of last year, which was, you know, related to was the observer effect and related to quantum mechanics and, you know, observing and relativity in that way. 00;41;18;11 - 00;41;39;29 Speaker 3 And so there was something interesting to us about what is there can only be perceived in the performance, like, you know, like it requires the standard drums to be playing and the brass to be playing. And only when those two things are happening is what the audience observing being made real. And it's not them hearing the brass. It's not, you know, like there was something related to the theme. 00;41;39;29 - 00;41;42;28 Ian Chang That you're hearing, the entanglement between the two. That's right. 00;41;43;00 - 00;41;49;25 Speaker 3 Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You said that so much better. Yeah, that's exactly right. And and that was pretty cool. And it's also one of those things where, like. 00;41;49;26 - 00;41;50;10 Ian Chang I didn't think. 00;41;50;10 - 00;42;09;16 Speaker 3 About it. Maybe most of the most of the audience doesn't understand what was happening, you know. But that doesn't matter because there's a certain portion of the audience and you know, this to, you know, like when you're doing when you're doing this, like there's a certain portion of the audience, it's like, oh, someone's just like playing a keyboard at the same rhythm that that Ian's playing the drums, you know? 00;42;09;18 - 00;42;26;06 Speaker 3 But it still sounds cool. How great, you know? And then there's another portion of the audience that thinks, okay, well, Ian's just triggering something on like a TX, you know, and but that's so cool. And then there's another portion of the audience, it's like, oh my God, is that sidechain gating? And like, there's running Ryan signals through, you know, Ian's performance. 00;42;26;06 - 00;42;44;15 Speaker 3 How cool is that? You know? So, yeah, I mean, that's true for our audience too, but the adventure of figuring it all out and doing it for the sake of trying it and the, you know, the the enterprise of it is, is cool nonetheless, the process. 00;42;44;20 - 00;42;59;14 Ian Chang And I'd be willing to bet there's a portion of the audience to that sort of in between all of these where they're just like, oh, wait, is that being no, wait, but that doesn't seem right. Like how's that? Wait. Like, that's just the drums. I don't think that's just the the keys or the horns. Like, how is this possible? 00;42;59;14 - 00;43;09;15 Ian Chang And, like, it feels like magic, you know what I mean? I think that's like. Yeah, definitely a feeling that that we chase with this, with this concept and and we do that. The way I'll pull that off was amazing. Yeah. 00;43;09;17 - 00;43;22;19 Speaker 3 Well thanks. And you know that to like watching drum corps, one of the cool things is that it's all happening so fast that oftentimes, you know, it's over and you're like, oh my God, did I just did I really just hear that or what was that? You know, and and you can only look at so much of the field at once. 00;43;22;19 - 00;43;27;25 Speaker 3 So there's something cool about the sort of overconsumption of a drum corps show that is interesting to. 00;43;27;26 - 00;44;01;16 Ian Chang And so, you know, to continue the conversation about this single endlessly, what we've then decided to do, which has been really fun, is, first of all, take the recording that you have captured of the your arrangement of your, you know, of the piece and get it mixed and getting it sounding really good. And then for us, like, I mean, I think some has a long history of like sort of self. 00;44;01;18 - 00;44;24;19 Ian Chang Remixing and just like discovering new ways to express the same songs. And at some point, you know, we there was this idea floated out of like, oh, why don't we actually take what they did in response to the song that we sent and then and then take the stems from that and then make a remix out of that? 00;44;24;19 - 00;44;51;17 Ian Chang And I believe this. So there's, there's going to be and at the time this podcast comes out, I'm not sure when in the timeline it falls, but there's going to be a release that's going to be the Blue Coats sort of arrangement and work that y'all did, as well as this remix of that as a vinyl release, which we're really excited about. 00;44;51;17 - 00;45;13;13 Ian Chang And yeah, it was just it was just a really fun experience to kind of like taking y'all stems and to to work with that. And, I was the one who ended up spearheading the remix and, it was it was just super fun. And, and I ended up I think you've heard it right. You've you've heard it. 00;45;13;16 - 00;45;24;25 Ian Chang Yeah. You had. Yeah, yeah. And we, we, we really like I really made the effort to like I would say like about 90% of the sounds that are heard in that remix are all from the stems. 00;45;25;01 - 00;45;27;20 Speaker 3 It's really cool. I'm excited for them to get to hear it. 00;45;27;21 - 00;45;47;01 Ian Chang Yeah, I'm excited for them to hear it too. And hopefully, you know, it's listening back for them. They'll they'll be able to hear like, you know, the patchwork of like how I like took the stems apart like just like, oh yeah, that's totally from this section of our arrangement or like that's like totally from from this part or that part. 00;45;47;03 - 00;45;56;06 Speaker 4 We finding this conversation. 00;45;56;08 - 00;46;26;13 Ian Chang So, so like as the song opens, what you're really hearing, that's all frontline like marimba, those mics on the front line. And I grabbed sort of those chords and put them in a sampler and kind of built the world around that verse. And it's one of my favorite things about it is that as it starts out quite like, kind of muffled in a way, and it opens up slowly. 00;46;26;13 - 00;46;44;25 Ian Chang And what you can here, sort of in the background is slowly come in. It's almost a bloom, but if you pay attention, you can hear like the Glocks and like the higher mallet stuff, like almost sparkling as it comes up a little bit. And then those kicks that come in are all sampled from, from the drumline and like, process and stuff like that. 00;46;44;27 - 00;46;46;09 Ian Chang Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I was. 00;46;46;11 - 00;46;58;10 Speaker 3 When I, when I first listened to this, the first thing that, you know, I was like, oh well that's the that's the front ensemble for sure. Like the you know that like that Rosewood sounds unmistakable. Like even, you know, even after you've mixed it all in its. 00;46;58;12 - 00;47;07;26 Ian Chang Yeah. And just the way it's the way that y'all start your piece to with like the way it starts with like marimba and kind of like in the mallets and stuff. 00;47;07;28 - 00;47;16;20 Speaker 3 Yeah. And the reason we had to start there too was also because like, we're having to stage the brass, like we're trying to get the brass as far back as we can so that we can do this. The side chaining idea. 00;47;16;21 - 00;47;18;00 Ian Chang Yeah. Amazing. 00;47;18;04 - 00;47;20;21 Speaker 5 Okay. Keep listening. 00;47;20;23 - 00;47;26;19 Speaker 4 You play time so far. 00;47;26;22 - 00;47;31;10 Speaker 4 Just a dream on the hope. 00;47;31;12 - 00;47;41;29 Speaker 4 You try harder not to notice. But you see yourself. 00;47;42;01 - 00;47;44;14 Speaker 4 From another time. 00;47;44;15 - 00;47;46;27 Speaker 5 Not right there. 00;47;47;00 - 00;47;56;28 Ian Chang That. That moment right there. Another time and place moment. That's all. Just like process in reverse. Like clock glockenspiel stuff from. Oh, cool. From that zone as well. 00;47;57;00 - 00;47;58;22 Speaker 3 That's cool. I think I realized that that's awesome. 00;47;58;23 - 00;48;12;14 Ian Chang Yeah, yeah. And you could in that last like little chunk, you could definitely also hear just like the slight sparkle of like feels kind of coming through a little bit. Yeah. It's really nice. Cool. 00;48;12;16 - 00;48;16;28 Speaker 4 Don't fall in line. 00;48;17;01 - 00;48;23;08 Speaker 4 About then to the light. 00;48;23;10 - 00;48;44;28 Speaker 4 Love what you love, what you feel eventually. So again again I'll be with you to be loving more. Nothing that I said. Yeah, you can go. 00;48;45;01 - 00;49;14;20 Ian Chang We can pause it. Can talk about this course. Yeah. So for the chorus zones, I think it's quite clear. You can hear like, the drum line and like brass and stuff. Varying degrees of processing, but not like, so much that you can't tell what it is, I think. Yeah. Right. You know, that kind of thing, like the first thing that comes in, it's like I put it to like, I think like a granular synth or something to get that specific kind of sound. 00;49;14;20 - 00;49;34;11 Ian Chang But it's all of that stuff is just from straight from the samples, from your stems. And it was interesting working to with something that wasn't recorded to a click and like negotiating that with like the vocals which were all to a click, you know. So I did have to do something like stretching and kind of like moving things around. 00;49;34;11 - 00;49;42;28 Ian Chang But overall like I was like, wow, like, these kids are playing super tight and super in time. Like regardless of whether or not they're on a click or not. Yeah. 00;49;43;00 - 00;50;03;15 Speaker 3 Yeah. No. Yeah. One of the, one of the things that was that's cool about listening to it is, you know, hearing like how you married this sort of live and somewhat raw, you know, I mean, when you listen to like, the individual. Yeah. You know, my mic tracks like it's pretty raw. I mean, they're moving around and like you mentioned, it's not perfectly on a click. 00;50;03;17 - 00;50;20;05 Speaker 3 And like the marriage of what you did there with, you know, this like studio sound. And it's such an interesting marriage of the two that like, it creates this cool texture that I think it's interesting. And I was laughing when I was talking to talking to you guys and someone asked like, hey, what's the what's the PM on the click for this performance? 00;50;20;05 - 00;50;36;07 Speaker 3 And I think it was Ryan who stepped in and was like, oh no, don't ask drum corps people what their click is at because, you know, they're very proud of the fact that they don't perform on one because we're not allowed, you know, we would we would get disqualified in the competition. But yeah, I mean, more power to you to figure out how. 00;50;36;12 - 00;50;38;24 Speaker 3 I'm sure you had to make some adjustments to make that all work. 00;50;38;25 - 00;50;50;23 Ian Chang It was it was fun though. It was fun. And and coming up after this course is is the I like just pulled a straight quote from the from the, the side chain gating thing that we were talking about earlier. 00;50;50;23 - 00;50;52;03 Speaker 3 So the best. 00;50;52;03 - 00;50;59;03 Ian Chang Part of the card that. Yeah. 00;50;59;05 - 00;51;03;04 Speaker 4 And the sleeve. 00;51;03;07 - 00;51;23;03 Speaker 4 Guys now and I mean, yeah you got me and. 00;51;23;05 - 00;51;35;17 Speaker 4 How are you having this conversation. 00;51;35;19 - 00;51;40;29 Speaker 4 You want to get open. 00;51;41;01 - 00;51;46;12 Speaker 4 You want to be heard. 00;51;46;14 - 00;51;51;20 Speaker 4 You want it to shut. 00;51;51;22 - 00;52;08;18 Speaker 4 Learn to. For system love. You can be who you are endlessly okay. 00;52;08;20 - 00;52;19;21 Speaker 4 Who you are. 00;52;19;23 - 00;52;31;21 Speaker 4 You are. 00;52;31;23 - 00;52;39;05 Speaker 4 Step out of my. 00;52;39;07 - 00;52;47;19 Speaker 4 Love. What you love, what you, you you been to yourself again? 00;52;47;21 - 00;52;49;23 Speaker 5 Cause pause here. I'll just say one. 00;52;49;23 - 00;53;11;20 Ian Chang More thing. Which is like, as we listen to the rest of this, there's. I started to sort of do take elements that already existed in the remix, like, like that sidechain moment I took, like just the horn feed of that and pitched it up, I don't know, like 1 or 2 octaves. And that's like, anytime you hear like these, like sparkling textures, that's what that is. 00;53;11;21 - 00;53;12;18 Ian Chang Okay, cool the horns. 00;53;12;19 - 00;53;26;03 Speaker 3 Like that was one I was wondering about that. And some of the, some of the like background padding, like it feels like the brass ensemble a little bit too, like there's, there's so many different like little textural hints that, oh, like, I could see how that was born out of the performance. Yeah. 00;53;26;03 - 00;53;49;29 Ian Chang Cool. I think a lot of the padding is still from the marimba. Like there's some like reverses of roles and things like that. Oh, cool. Yeah. But I think the second half of the second verse, there might be some brass that creeps in and then, yeah, there's those sparkling textures which come from the brass. And then and then towards the end of the track, there's like, you know, like I take some of the snare figures and stuff and pitch them up in octave. 00;53;49;29 - 00;53;54;17 Ian Chang So they're like hyperspeed and stuff like that. So we can, we can listen to the rest of the track with that in mind. 00;53;54;17 - 00;53;58;22 Speaker 5 But yeah. 00;53;58;25 - 00;54;08;10 Speaker 4 To want to be nothing more. I've been blessed. 00;54;08;12 - 00;54;19;03 Speaker 4 Now that you have me and it got me and. 00;54;19;06 - 00;54;31;29 Speaker 4 Now you. 00;54;32;02 - 00;54;40;21 Speaker 4 You can see. 00;54;40;23 - 00;55;03;23 Speaker 4 Now how she was and and. 00;55;03;26 - 00;55;05;12 Speaker 3 It's great. 00;55;05;15 - 00;55;06;11 Ian Chang Yeah, yeah. 00;55;06;14 - 00;55;27;14 Speaker 3 It's so great. And you can't and you can't end. Drum corps shows that way because it has to be, like, loud and bombastic at the end, you know, something like full out brass and all that. And I love, like I love listening to like a performance that includes all those elements but gets to end in like a more like creative, creative way, like it's so great. 00;55;27;15 - 00;55;27;21 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00;55;27;23 - 00;55;33;26 Ian Chang And I definitely ended in a very, like drum centric way. Yeah yeah yeah. 00;55;33;28 - 00;55;41;15 Speaker 3 Yeah. Great. I'm kids are gonna they're just gonna think it's the coolest thing to get to, to get to hear their performance like that. So thank you. Thank you for doing that. 00;55;41;16 - 00;55;57;18 Ian Chang That means a lot to for me to hear to I hope I hope it's it's fun for them. And yeah, one of the other interesting sort of challenges doing the remix was like I was like, oh yeah, this, this 12 minute piece of music. Nothing repeats like it's just, you know what I mean? It kind of just. 00;55;57;19 - 00;56;21;06 Ian Chang And so like when grabbing from things, I was never able to be like, oh yeah, I'm going to grab multiple iterations of this. Like one idea to like, you know, like I like to do that sometimes when remixing to give like certain loops or whatever, like more slight, almost subliminal variation. But for this was very much just like, okay, this happens once, like, let's grab the samples and then like figure it out. 00;56;21;07 - 00;56;22;05 Ian Chang Yeah, yeah. 00;56;22;06 - 00;56;40;24 Speaker 3 I mean that's and like getting to that point for our Rangers is such a challenge because, you know, it's a 12 minute show. But you know, in any given year it's 5 to 12 pieces of music. And so you have to create these, you know, moments. But in a live performance and a drum corps like the audience only cares for like 30s at a time, you know? 00;56;40;25 - 00;57;04;14 Speaker 3 So you're not, like, finding some new idea or restaging it, or changing the melody to a new piece of source material or something every 30s. You know, so I think endlessly in the show, you know, it's only. Yeah, it's, you know, maybe 90s including like a build and all of that. It feels like the whole closer, you know, it's so interesting, like when you're watching the show, you're like, oh, this is great. 00;57;04;15 - 00;57;12;29 Speaker 3 Like it's the whole closer. But I hadn't thought about the challenge that that poses for you. Just the amount of material. Material that you got. Yeah. 00;57;13;01 - 00;57;28;21 Ian Chang Yeah. No, but it was it was really, really fun and fun to kind of also get deeper inside of y'all's process by poking around the stems and seeing, like, in a way, like how it's all put together and how is recorded to, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00;57;28;21 - 00;57;54;09 Speaker 3 That was new for us, you know, from the very beginning. In fact, we two years ago, we put off switching the whole system to Dante because of expense. And then when we started talking about this, we're like, oh, wait, we're going to need to make we're going to need to do this and migrate to Dante so that we'll have the capability to capture all this and capture multiple performances and have it in a way that wasn't, you know, that wouldn't be super cumbersome. 00;57;54;09 - 00;58;06;24 Speaker 3 So we did the we did the migration. And for a lot of reasons, you know, it's great to do just because the system and the way it's set up, as you know, but that was one of the things that made it easier to is the ability to just capture all this stuff and stem it pretty easy. 00;58;07;00 - 00;58;17;08 Ian Chang Yeah. And actually, I don't think I'm even aware the recording that y'all sent through was that from a rehearsal? Was that from a performance or was it like an edit? You got several. 00;58;17;09 - 00;58;31;00 Speaker 3 Yeah. You got varieties of, of a few different things and also a few different Mike sources. You know that some of the instruments are individually miked. And then there's also some field microphones that we, you know, like that we put up that are wide area. 00;58;31;01 - 00;58;31;17 Ian Chang I definitely. 00;58;31;21 - 00;58;33;06 Speaker 3 Got a combination of that stuff. 00;58;33;10 - 00;58;35;10 Ian Chang Yeah definitely use the field. Yeah, yeah. 00;58;35;13 - 00;58;39;24 Speaker 3 Oh you didn't use the one trumpet player running and gunning across the field? 00;58;39;26 - 00;58;40;11 Ian Chang Yeah. 00;58;40;12 - 00;58;41;10 Speaker 3 I wonder why not. 00;58;41;11 - 00;58;55;27 Ian Chang Yeah, well, you know, thank you again so much for taking time. I know, you know, you're in the midst of a lot. And it was really wonderful to chat with you about all things blue coats and. 00;58;56;00 - 00;59;23;16 Speaker 3 Yeah, great to catch up and great to. Yeah. Great to celebrate the collaboration. You know, I mean, not for nothing. I haven't said it yet. The collaboration with you guys in the middle of, you know, doing like Marvel movies and new albums. And yet it wasn't just like, hey, here's some of our music. Could you play it? You know, I mean, you guys came to spring training, you came to see the kids perform at the World Championships, you know, twice. 00;59;23;16 - 00;59;43;20 Speaker 3 And, you know, you were always you guys. Anyone on your team was always just a text message away. And you also took the time to talk to our kids, which just melt, you know, felt so meant so much to us, the staff, the performers. It was such a wonderful partnership that has now turned into a friendship beyond the two years. 00;59;43;23 - 01;00;03;04 Speaker 3 And we're a niche thing and not everybody knows about it. So sometimes it's, you know, it's very validating and awesome to to get to like, find creative collaborators that are doing such incredible things, but that also, you know, see the value in, in something like this and that was so meaningful to us. 01;00;03;06 - 01;00;36;28 Ian Chang Know that goes both ways. Like what y'all are doing is absolutely incredible. And I'm so happy that I've been able to be a part of the Blue Coast world, and to experience it firsthand and to meet the kids and all of that. It was it was like really meaningful to I know all three of us to, like, be welcomed into your community in that way and to sort of just engage musically and find new life in our material, you know, through multiple iterations. 01;00;36;28 - 01;00;51;03 Ian Chang And it's been a very rewarding experience for us. And we we're very grateful for the partnership. And like you said, the friendship now and we'll be keeping an eye on on blue coats moving forward and rooting for y'all. So. 01;00;51;04 - 01;00;52;08 Speaker 3 Well, thanks. Yeah, thanks. 01;00;52;15 - 01;00;54;15 Ian Chang That's awesome. Yeah. 01;00;54;20 - 01;00;58;17 Speaker 6 Thank you. 01;00;58;19 - 01;01;11;01 Speaker 7 Thanks so much to Mike Scott at Blue Coats for joining me. Head to Blue Coats for more about their work and follow them on all the usual social media networks. If you feel so inclined. You can also listen to the new single endlessly. 01;01;11;01 - 01;01;30;18 Ian Chang Wherever you listen to music, and keep an eye out for the Blue Coats remix of the track coming out soon. Online plans we make was created by me, Ian Chang and my son Lux bandmates Brian Lot and Rafiq Basha, and was produced and edited by Chris Jacobs. Special thanks to our executive producer, Michael Kaufman. Once again, I'm Ian Chang. 01;01;30;19 - 01;01;40;18 Ian Chang Thank you so much for listening. New episodes with my bandmates Ryan Lot and Rafiq Basha will be out soon, so stay tuned for those on our YouTube page or wherever you listen to podcasts.