Mark Crozer on Bray Wyatt Theme, Live In Fear, Performing at Wrestlemania 30, Live In Fear Versions
HI everyone!
Many of you know how important Bray Wyatt was to me as a wrestling fan. For years, Bray's entrance theme Live In Fear resonated with so many of us, as it was the perfect theme for the Wyatt Family and Bray at large. I got the opportunity to sit down with the man behind the theme, Mark Crozer, and talk about how his song Broken Out Of Love became the anthem that Wyndham Rotunda would walk out to with his family over the years, his thoughts on the adaptations done by names such as Code Orange and Reby Hardy, and how he got to play Bray Wyatt and The Wyatt Family down to the ring for his Wrestlemania 30 entrance.
Enjoy!
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Transcript
Sorry guys, I had to do that.
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:Maybe I didn't.
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:No, I had to.
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:Welcome to this episode of the Ropes and Riffs podcast.
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:I am Jon Kiernan, your resident entrance theme song composer.
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:With the thing I did at the beginning of this episode, I think you know who's on the show
this week.
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:Today's guest on the Ropes and Riffs podcast is the one and only Mark Crozer.
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:Mark Crooser is the composer behind the song that you heard for Bray Wyatt when he debuted
with the Wyatt family in FCW and on the main roster, Live in Fear, also originally called
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:Broken Out in Love.
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:We're gonna talk all about how that song came to be, how Bray chose it from the library,
Mark performing at WrestleMania for the Wyatt family as they walked down to the ring, and
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:all of the different renditions that have come after it.
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:And we're gonna talk about what Mark is currently doing in the music industry as well.
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:If this is your first time or your umpteenth time listening to the Ropes and Riffs
podcast, first off, thank you for listening and welcome back.
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:Check us out over on Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you check out your
podcasts.
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:Anyone that goes over to PayPal and donates $10 or more, which you can find the link down
in the description.
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:And you can also search R-O-P-E-S.
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:the letter N-R-I-F-F-S, we'll get a shout out on the show with any donations of $10 or
more.
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:if you head over to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube, or wherever you listen to your
podcasts, go ahead and drop us a comment on the show, drop us a review, drop us a five
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:star review.
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:And if you leave a comment, I'll go ahead and read that over here on the show.
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:Many of you on the show may know that Bray Wyatt is and will always be one of my favorite
wrestlers.
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:May God rest his soul.
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:He was somebody who, when he came into the wrestling industry with the Wyatt family, I
always really resonated with.
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:So much so too, many of you may know this who have seen me perform.
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:I actually have a pair of pants that were crafted very similar to the pants that Bray
Wyatt had during the Wyatt family where they had the birds flying around the leg.
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:So I am very much a Bray Wyatt fan.
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:I will always be a Bray Wyatt fan.
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:And I'm very excited to have the opportunity to speak with the one and only Mark Crooser
today.
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:Hope you enjoy.
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:This is an interview I've wanted to do for quite some time, because for those who know me
or those who are tuning in for the first time, it is no secret whatsoever that Bray Wyatt
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:was one of my favorite wrestlers and continues to be to this day, may he rest in peace.
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:But I think as a wrestling entrance theme song composer, for me, music is one of the most
important things in wrestling.
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:And in the last, I would even say 10, 15, 20 years, there hasn't been a theme for me
that's fit a wrestler quite as much as
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:broken out in love and live in fear as it was named afterwards, which was Bray Wyatt's
entrance theme written by you, the one and only Mark Crozer.
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:So thank you for joining me today.
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:Well thank you and sorry it's taken us a while to We've got there in the end.
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:you're a professional, it happens.
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:The fact that you're here, that's the most important thing, you know, and I appreciate you
making the time.
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:I've spoken to a lot of people within the industry on entrance theme songs, on music, on
wrestling, because that's what this show is about.
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:But as I said at the top here, your music that you've written has now become part of the
wrestling ecosystem by way of Bray Wyatt with lots of different renditions, with lots of
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:different versions created, but nothing.
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:in my opinion, will compare to the first time everybody heard that song when he walked out
to it for the first time, whether you heard him in FCW, NXT, WWE, main roster, whatever
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:the case may be.
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:But that song was a piece of music before he came to the main roster.
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:So I'd love to have you unpack a little bit about either the record that that came from or
just that piece in general and how it came to be part of the Bray Wyatt ecosystem, the
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:Bray Wyatt universe.
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:So yeah, I wrote that song, as you can tell from my accent, I'm not American, I'm British.
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:People are sometimes surprised because they think the song has quite a of swampy, Southern
rock kind of feel.
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:I wrote that when I was still living in the UK, probably a few years before it ended up
being picked up for Bray Wyatt's theme.
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:And it was just like one song out of many that I wrote.
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:And at the time, it was really quite different from all my other stuff, and I wasn't sure
what to do with it.
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:So I had just discovered this new music library based in New York that was looking for
music.
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:And it was just one of the songs that I submitted to them, and they said, yeah, we'll take
that.
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:So it was in that music library for quite a while, just kind of doing nothing.
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:And then from my understanding, Bray Wyatt was looking for a piece of music and he was
very active in picking it himself.
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:And he came across this tune in the library and was, know, yeah, that's the one I want to
use.
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:And the rest is history.
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:And I love the fact too that you're like, it's a different style than what I'm kind of
known for, what you say you write generally.
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:A lot of the songs, like even as I found out about you through Bray Wyatt's entrance and
you know, through Live in Fear.
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:For me, I was always just like, okay, cool.
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:I wonder what the man behind the music also does.
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:But for me, when I've heard a lot of the pieces and you may be able to expand this too,
one of my favorite composers ever is a composer by the name of Akira Yomoka.
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:He does a lot of the music for Silent Hill, the video game all through the...
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:career of that.
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:for me, a lot of the pieces that come from that when he starts going with a band, you you
have a piece that I really like called Hard as Black, you have a lot of different music.
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:Probably one of my favorites that I actually have pulled up here because I wanted to bring
it up was A Night Like This.
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:And it's all very visceral music.
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:So we're obviously going to talk about the Bray Wyatt part of it.
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:But for those who may not be familiar with the catalog of Mark Crozer, I'll always say go
check out Mark's other work too, because if you like
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:live in fear.
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:think that there's a lot of different sounds and colors that you'll find in those.
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:for me, it was always like Mark Crooser and Akira Yamoka when it gets into that real
visceral kind of what I would call like, like kind of down tempo band music.
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:It just sounds really cool.
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:It's really emotional.
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:So, you know, anyone who hasn't checked out your work, I definitely implore them to
because it's it's absolutely awesome.
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:Oh, thank you.
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:Appreciate that.
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:Yeah, I mean, I guess I have a few different modes that I write in.
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:One is the sort of dark, swampy kind of mode.
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:And then there's the more kind of upbeat power pop.
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:But yeah, those, so that, and I like this, that's actually a song by The Cure that I did a
cover of.
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:That's my favorite song by them.
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:And somehow it ended up, I wanted to do it kind of differently.
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:And there's a guitar solo in there that I was inspired by while my guitar gently weeps.
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:That's the kind of...
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:vibe I was going for, quite different.
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:And the other song, Is Black, yeah, that's one that was actually my friend and sometime
co-writer Bert, who I was in a band with who I think he was, we wrote that together, but
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:he was the one, he initiated that.
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:And then I kind of, I think I wrote the lyrics and I recorded a couple of different
versions of that.
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:But yeah, that's sort of one mode that I write in is the dark.
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:And I have some new stuff out that is
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:gonna be the similar to that in that kind of vein and then some new stuff coming out soon
that it's gonna be it's pretty I've got a new album coming out which is pretty downbeat
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:and dark so if you like Broken Out in Love as I still call it then you probably would like
that
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:awesome.
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:And so with broken out and you what was the title of it?
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:I keep messing it up because I know it mostly is live in fear.
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:fine.
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:I know because nobody knows it as that title.
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:Yeah, it was originally called Broken Out In Love.
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:And I think that was the one thing that they didn't like about it was that I don't think
they thought the title refitted with Bray Wyatt, which I can understand.
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:So they changed it to Live In Fear, which at the time I have to say it was a little bit
annoyed about because I did it without consulting me, which is fine because you know they
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:can
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:I signed a contract and let them have the song and they could do what they like.
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:But I was just like, well, that's kind of weird because there's no point in the song that
those words actually appear, whereas broken-out love is actually the kind of hook of the
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:song.
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:But you whatever.
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:That's fair enough.
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:It makes sense of broken out and love is the title too, because even when I was listening
to it, outside of obviously watching him walk down to the ring, that's the last line
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:before it goes back into the, you know, like that intro melody, right?
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:Or the, the intro melody updated.
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:Right.
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:And so for me, I was just like, huh, where does live in fear come from?
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:And I was just like, before I knew that it was a library track, I was like, okay.
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:Maybe it's just, they named it off the vibe of the song, which exactly sounds like they
renamed it for the character, but
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:Now you're saying that the title makes sense because that is the last sticking line you
hear before it back into it.
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:Yeah.
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:Right, Yeah, that's in the lyrics and seemed like it was a good title.
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:thought it was kind of bit weird sounding.
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:Broken out in love like you like love being a disease rather than a good thing.
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:Was sort of this.
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:to us a little bit about what the song in general is about too.
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:Because obviously Bray took it and made it part of his universe.
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:But when you wrote that song, what was some of the inspiration behind it and what kind of
crafted those lyrics too?
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:Well, you know, it's a weird thing because when I write lyrics, a lot of the time I don't
really have an idea of what I'm doing or what I'm going for.
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:Sometimes words just kind of come out inspired by the sound of or the vibe.
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:And that's what happened with that.
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:It's like the first line, catching flies in his mouth just kind of popped out as I was
singing.
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:was like, that's kind of weird and cool.
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:And that sort of informed everything else really.
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:So.
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:It's not really about any sort of specific thing.
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:I guess it's sort of the idea of, you know, obsession with somebody just being something
that can kind of really take over your entire life.
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:You know, kind of being trapped in that and not being able to go out because you're so
caught up in this feeling that's very intense.
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:And for those who know Bray, I think that kind of really fits the vibe that he was going
for too.
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:And again, for me, two things.
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:First off, when you think of the character of Bray and you think of what he was in the
cult leader vibe when he was using this piece, it was a matter of, you know, he was really
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:trying to bring everybody into his ecosystem.
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:For me, I've always said, wrestling obviously is a fun thing in general, but for me, once
they start kind of getting into, okay, this guy can shoot lightning out of his hands or
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:something like that, it gets a little bit weird.
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:Ha ha ha.
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:I was always just like, what's the, I was like, what's the real life scariest thing that
you could put into this?
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:And I was like, man, having somebody who's a cult leader and has people following him at
just the tip of his word.
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:was like, that's probably the most horrifying thing that most people can really relate to.
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:Cause it could be anybody who's a cult leader.
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:And with those lyrics, I feel like it was always like, whether they were very open in
nature or whether it was poignant, like you're, you know, kind of the vibe that you're
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:talking about.
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:It always fit with what.
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:I think Bray was putting out there.
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:And the other thing also is my wife and I actually run a music school here in New Jersey
and I run composition courses.
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:And when I was taking comp courses in college, it was weird because it was right around
the time when technology was becoming a thing and a lot of educators were grappling with
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:you have to learn this specific way of music, but also you would have these kids that were
so into technology that they knew advanced things before they knew
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:you know, chords and things like that, right?
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:So you'd have like these kids knowing these advanced modes before they even knew about how
to build a C major chord, right?
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:And one of the teachers in the comp class was just like, you have to know everything about
theory before you write music.
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:And I remember hearing that and I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's wrong.
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:No disrespect.
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:But like, I remember being like, I was writing music at that point, like really heavy kind
of like metal, metalcore kind of stuff.
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:And then as I went on more film scorey stuff and just
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:now everything in general, but what you said rings true sometimes.
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:and the other thing was you always have to have a reason behind your music.
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:Your music always has to have a reason to exist.
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:And I was like, the reason for it to exist though, could just be because you're following
a vibe upfront, right?
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:You're taking these, like you said, catching flies in his mouth.
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:Wow.
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:Okay, great.
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:Let's now we're there.
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:It doesn't always have to be.
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:I have a story about a guy who went to the store and did this kind of thing.
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:It can simply be that you have that vibe and you just run with it.
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:Yeah.
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:mean, some of the best songs are really just about an emotion or about a very tiny moment,
you know, or like a feeling, you know.
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:There's so many different kinds of songs.
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:mean, you know, you've got people like Bob Dylan who write stories, you know, like in a 10
minute song, and that's great.
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:But then you have other people who just write very basic kind of emotion, emotional things
that you connect with on an emotional level where the lyrics don't even necessarily have
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:any particular.
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:Meaning, I don't like David Bowie for example, some of his songs, you like, analyze the
lyrics, they're like, if you just read them, they're like, well, this is kind of stupid.
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:But you know, when he sings it, in the context of the song, it's genius, you know?
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:So I don't agree at all, you have to know a theory.
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:I mean, I know very, very, virtually no music theory whatsoever.
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:And when I first started playing, I didn't know anything.
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:I didn't know what chords were called.
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:I didn't even realize that G was the last note.
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:I thought after G it went to H.
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:And someone's like, no, there's no such thing as H minor.
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:Back to the beginning again.
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:So I mean, it's all about just communicating an emotion, I think.
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:you can do that without really having any music theory.
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:I mean, look at throughout history, pop music, I'd say
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:majority of those bands that came out, like the Beatles, they didn't know what they were
doing when they first started.
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:I'm sure they went on to learn a lot of that, but you know, first of they're like playing
a few chords, play a few chords.
191
:Oh yeah, they brought George Harrison and they went to meet him so that he could show them
how to play a particular chord.
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:That's how they met him.
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:So it's like, yeah, I totally disagree with that.
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:Totally.
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:so when WWE goes ahead and licenses the song from you and then changes the name and says,
Hey, we're doing this.
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:What does that conversation look like?
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:Because I know that even now, WWE and a lot of these companies, they will source sometimes
to composers like myself, but a lot of the times I deal one-on-one with the talent.
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:We work out the contract, we work out the song, they bring it.
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:And then if the company wants to use it, there's that conversation, but
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:when you have your music as part of the library and then they say, hey, okay, we're gonna
go ahead and go full bore with this, have it fully part of Bray Wyatt's entrance in
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:character.
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:What does that conversation look like from going from a library track to a completely
owned track?
203
:Well, mean, from my understanding, this was like a very, very atypical way that they go
about getting a song.
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:I mean, I know that they've had their particular composers over the years.
205
:And I think maybe my understanding was that they were not originally that keen on using
somebody who wasn't connected at all.
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:But, know, Bray was pretty adamant that that was a track that he wanted to use.
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:So then it was just a question of, you know, coming to me and saying, this is happening.
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:We really want to use this track.
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:They were, I think initially when he first started appearing on the Florida, whatever it
was, FCW, yeah, because that was when I first heard about it.
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:It was still just like a kind of blanket license thing from the original library.
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:And then, you know, they wanted to own it outright pretty much.
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:So I had to get the original library to sign off and give it back to me so that I could
then sign it over to them to use forever.
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:So, you know, was actually fairly straightforward, you know, just like, this is what's
happening, we wanna use the song.
214
:You know, we could sit down and probably try to come up with something that sounds like
that, but we'd rather use your song.
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:And here's the deal, so.
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:That was it.
217
:that also, you still, cause I see obviously it's still part of your catalog from, you
know, when you search up your name and it's connected to you and everything.
218
:do you complete, does WWE completely own it or do you own like the publishing of it and
then they own like the sound recording?
219
:Like how does that work for, live in fear?
220
:They own the publishing and the song as an entity and I still own the songwriter's
percentage which is pretty much something that is just a legal thing that you have to
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:actually sign that away to give that up.
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:So yeah, that's good.
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:I still do see royalties coming from it which is pretty amazing considering it's been...
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:13 years now that I don't have any other songs that have keep generating money for me.
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:It's great
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:And it's great too that you can continue to use it, you can continue to perform with it
and just again, it's part not just of WWE's legacy, but your legacy.
227
:And I think that musicians always wanna have something like that, including their whole
catalog.
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:But when you really have that one sticking thing, it's like man, it's just really cool to
see that.
229
:And so that song has gone on in so many different ways, even to where you were able to
perform it live at WrestleMania for the Wyatt family as they walked down to the ring.
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:How is that experience being able to be part?
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:of WWE backstage and then be able to perform Bray Wyatt down to the ring.
232
:I mean, I have to say that that was probably one of the most incredible things I've ever
done to be involved in.
233
:was just, you know, I got flown down into New Orleans and put up a nice hotel and treated
very nice.
234
:You got to meet everybody backstage and, you know, everyone I met, wrestlers or, you know,
people behind the scenes, like, were just, like, really friendly and very welcoming, which
235
:was really nice.
236
:got to meet Mr.
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:T which was the highlight.
238
:We were all big fans of his and he was very friendly.
239
:yeah, the actual performance, it was so brief, it went by really, really quickly.
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:It was like two and a half minutes I think.
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:But it will remain in my memory forever because it was just so...
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:I've played a lot of shows in my life.
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:I've played some big venues but nothing like...
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:that place was just huge.
245
:Walking out onto that stage and just not being able to even see anyone's face.
246
:was just like a sea of people holding up their camera phones or whatever and like a roar.
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:I mean, it was really amazing.
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:And then when Bray came out with the other two guys, yeah, it was wild.
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:awesome.
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:And when you got to, when you got there, I'm sure you and Bray had a little bit of time to
talk as well.
251
:How is that with Bray being able to connect with him and being like, Hey, this was a
library track and now it's like the thing that is part of your universe.
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:How was that?
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:Yeah, it was great.
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:I mean, I had met him once before.
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:They did an episode of Raw, think, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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:So I met him then.
257
:He was, you know, super excited and friendly.
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:And the same again.
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:Like, was just, he was beaming from ear to ear, like from the beginning and then
afterwards to, you know, he was like such a nice guy.
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:It was cool to have that moment.
261
:He was very excited and he was obviously excited for me as well.
262
:realised that it was a big deal for me as much as for him.
263
:And I keep bringing up Bray, obviously, because it was really tied to him.
264
:But obviously, the whole Wyatt family by extension, right?
265
:At that time, again, God rest his soul, Luke Harper, Eric Rowan.
266
:You you had that whole family who was part of that Braun Strowman at the time, and they
all were able to come down to that theme, which was really cool.
267
:And again, I think that for me as a fan, seeing you being able to play it down to the
ring, I thought that was probably, if I'm being honest, one of the best musical
268
:performances.
269
:in wrestling of somebody performing somebody's entrance live because yeah, and again, no
disrespect to other performers who have done it, but there's a lot of different things for
270
:those who have or have not performed that we know that go into a live performance.
271
:Things like in-ear monitors, things like, okay, cool.
272
:Do we have everything that the song represent?
273
:Do we have all this different stuff?
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:Right.
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:And I feel like when I, and I'm sure everybody else listening and watching this episode
here goes back and watches that or watched it in the moment, we were like, man.
276
:This is a performance.
277
:We weren't even thinking about the performance.
278
:We were just thinking about, okay, cool, this totally sets the mood, this sets the scene,
and we're good.
279
:And I think it's pretty amazing to see that that was probably one of the best performances
that's happened in live entrance history, in my opinion.
280
:And also you had the plague mask on, all you guys had that set up.
281
:Something also I wanted to bring up because of what you brought up a second ago.
282
:This wasn't originally written for him.
283
:but being able to then have this presentation that's kind of created in post, right, for
when you guys are performing.
284
:It's obvious, like, he's in the bayou, he's coming down.
285
:When you put together a song like this, just in general, are you thinking that this is
eventually, like, the visual representation of what it could be?
286
:Or later on, when you're like, okay, cool, this is what it's been turned into, does it
give the song new purpose and new life to you?
287
:Well in terms of the visual, I mean wasn't really involved in that other than, you know,
they had a couple of different ideas for the way that we would appear for the performance
288
:and it was actually fairly like late in the day that they decided to go for the kind of
boiler suits and plague mask because one of the original ideas was that we would dress
289
:kind of like Bray wearing the Hawaiian shirts and...
290
:I think I remember saying, I don't know, I'm not sure this is that great.
291
:I think there were two options and I didn't really have any say in it, but I did say I
think this one's better.
292
:And they also wanted me to wear the mask too.
293
:And I said, well, it's gonna be really difficult to sing with a mask on my face.
294
:So that was when they ended up going for that sugar skull thing, which I thought was
really cool.
295
:So yeah, I mean, it was kind of interesting to see like how, and I feel like this is
probably true of all the times I've done any shows, like there's a lot of planning, but
296
:there's also still kind of like a little bit of winging it even to the last minute, like
where that was, I think probably the day before when we did the run through when that was
297
:actually decided that we were gonna wear that.
298
:It's not like it had been planned for a long time in advance.
299
:I have to be careful what I'm saying because
300
:I did sign a non-disclosure agreement at the time.
301
:I'm not sure what exactly that covers, so I probably have to be a little bit careful of
what I'm saying about the way it's all put together, because I don't want to end up being
302
:taken to court.
303
:So I think that's probably okay for me to say that.
304
:There's nothing scandalous in that.
305
:Cool.
306
:And it totally makes sense too.
307
:And again, everything kind of happening where you know what you're doing, you know the
song, but at the same time, it's like that last minute, like, okay, cool.
308
:Here are those little adjustments and changes there.
309
:now, you know, Live in Fear, Broken Out in Love, all of this has been taken now with the
legacy, right?
310
:And before we got on, I was telling you, had Matt Hardy's wife, Rebi Hardy, come on.
311
:And we talked about when she had done her rendition of, I'm going to call it Live in Fear,
because that's where it was at the time, right?
312
:live in fear to basically create her own piano rendition of it.
313
:And in the interview, she was like, I love the song.
314
:The song's beautiful.
315
:right before I went into the studio, was basically putting it together in the car.
316
:got into the studio and I'll send it to you after it's, it's really beautiful.
317
:but she created a piano rendition of it.
318
:And she was just like, I was just hoping that I did respect to Mark.
319
:uh So I thought it was a really great one.
320
:And then after that, code orange did their version of.
321
:Live in Fear, which has now let me in, when the Fiend became the big part of wrestling
then too, when he ended up doing the Fiend persona.
322
:When Code Orange goes ahead and does their version, did they let you know, hey, this is
something that's going on, or did you find out after it was released and once you heard
323
:that version, what were your thoughts on the Code Orange version being a bit heavier?
324
:I'm trying to remember exactly what happened because it was quite a while ago now but I do
remember getting a phone call from the guy at the WWE saying so this is happening we're
325
:probably not you know the brace character is changing and we're probably not going to be
using your original song anymore and we've got something in mind for it but you know if
326
:you want to have a shot at coming up with something new then
327
:then do so I mean I came up with a couple of pieces that you know were kind of crap that
they didn't go with but then I think again with that that they also that was kind of a
328
:last-minute thing too where I think they'd had Code Orange was doing something but then
they did that came up with that sort of cover reinterpretation and again you know they
329
:liked that so they decided to go with that one but yeah
330
:I had no idea that that was happening until I knew the song was going to be changing and I
was like that's shame because know it's been good and then when they actually went with
331
:that version of my song I was pretty surprised because I didn't know it was happening and
I thought this is interesting it's like now we've got a whole new take on this song it's
332
:like the song that won't die which is good you know I mean I'm just so surprised really
333
:that that, you know, out of the many, many, many songs I've written, you know, if you'd
said to me at the time, this is going to become, you know, successful and pretty popular
334
:in a, in a particular, you know, with a specific group of people, I'd be like, really?
335
:I can't see that.
336
:But great.
337
:So yeah, the fact that, you know, I mean, I'd love to hear that piano version.
338
:There have been all these different versions of this song.
339
:And I've seen, know, because people
340
:people friends of mine have a particular friend Bruce back in the UK who's sort of more
interested in my career with this song than I am and he's constantly coming up he'll be
341
:like talking to me like hey did you know that your original video of that that is now has
had like 25 million views or something like oh that's amazing so you know I hear about
342
:these different versions or covers from from people sometimes like I'm amazed you know I
mean I'm amazed how many different
343
:uploads there are on YouTube and people covering it and doing their own take and I mean
it's very it's still you know exciting for me that people actually know my song and I
344
:remember like one time there was a video of some like guys doing a cover of it in a bar in
Russia like there's a band in Russia playing my song I was like the craziest thing you
345
:know would never ever have thought that would happen you know so it's been it's been
amazing yeah
346
:And it's for me, you know, as a composer, one of the things that you can tell when you
have a really great song is when it can be manipulated in all these different ways.
347
:And it still keeps the same charm, so to speak.
348
:Right?
349
:I think the rule in composing is like, you know, it's a good song.
350
:when you're just doing it on a piano or you're just doing it on acoustic with vocals and
it's great there, then you know when you scale it up with the instruments or change the
351
:style or whatever, it's still going to be great because the core of it is always really
good.
352
:And I think that, you know, when you listen to all these different versions, even if it's
like the heavy coat orange version, the original one of yours, the piano one, like, man,
353
:it always keeps that.
354
:It always keeps that main kind of flair.
355
:And I've always loved that too.
356
:So.
357
:It's really cool even for me to be able to see, you know, when I see my pieces go
different places and people do different renditions, to be able to look at other musicians
358
:such as yourself, such as accomplished people and be like, man, it's cool just to see that
all these different pieces take on lives of their own.
359
:So that's awesome.
360
:Yeah, yeah, know it's a strange thing as well to watch that, know, because sometimes I
don't even...
361
:It's not that I forget, oh yeah, I wrote that.
362
:It's that I, it's just become its own thing.
363
:It's just out there as, it's sort of outside of me now.
364
:I mean, when you were talking about music school, like I teach at the School of Rock.
365
:That's my other sort of part-time job that I do.
366
:And I was doing a...
367
:band thing there with one time this kid came in he was like probably nine or ten years old
he's wearing a Wyatt family t-shirt and like wow this is really interesting and then
368
:recently I had a lesson with him and I thought I'm gonna I'm gonna tell him he doesn't
know anything about me and I said hey you know that he didn't know and I said you might be
369
:surprised to know that you know that you know the song that
370
:that those guys came out to, I wrote it.
371
:he just, don't think he believed me.
372
:I think he couldn't equate the fact that this guy, know, silver haired, 50 something year
old guy from the UK who's like, just happens to be teaching him in a rock 101 class was
373
:the person who wrote that song.
374
:And I showed him the video from like WrestleMania and he's like, well, I guess you can't
really tell that that's me either because I'm wearing all this makeup on my face, but
375
:that's me.
376
:And he's like, hmm.
377
:I think he just thought, this guy's crazy.
378
:He thinks he wrote a wrestling song.
379
:So that's kind of funny.
380
:singing it and he's just like, my God, all right.
381
:Right, I guess so, yeah, maybe just do that next.
382
:But yeah, it's quite funny.
383
:Now, a lot of the times when songs like this do end up becoming connected with somebody
else, some wrestlers will obviously reach out to the composer and be like, Hey, can you do
384
:something for me?
385
:Since then, have you had other wrestlers say, Hey, I'd love you to put something together
in that vein for me.
386
:No!
387
:I was kind of hoping that they would.
388
:I would love to do something for somebody else, for sure, but no, that hasn't happened.
389
:Maybe that song is just so idiosyncratic and it is very different from the majority of the
music that I've heard anyway.
390
:When I first heard this guy on Facebook, Steve, I think his name is, send me message back
in:
391
:Because this wrestler's been using it.
392
:just thought, no.
393
:mean, must just be the same title because I don't think that can't see a wrestler would be
using that song.
394
:It's just nothing like the kind of music that I associate with wrestling.
395
:And then it's like, actually it is.
396
:So you know, I think it's perhaps so different that maybe just, I don't know.
397
:But yeah, for anyone who's listening to the podcast and wants to get in touch about that.
398
:Please, absolutely, yeah.
399
:Mark Crocer is available, just so you all know.
400
:So I love that.
401
:So two more questions before I let you go today.
402
:And I asked all my guests on the show.
403
:If you had to put together a three-match card, so if you had to put together a wrestling
show, but it was only with musicians in the matches.
404
:What would they be?
405
:Musicians wrestling each other or competing musically?
406
:Musicians wrestling each other.
407
:Now I will say I've had people on the show like Ben Eller, who's a professional guitarist.
408
:And we talked all about things like Steve Vai versus Joe Satriani in a battle of the
teacher versus the master, so to speak.
409
:But then I had someone on the other day who we were talking all about metal guys and it
was totally about the physical aspect of it.
410
:So however you take that, my friend, you could do a three match card.
411
:Well, I tell you, one of them definitely wouldn't be me because I would get creamed in
about like 10 seconds.
412
:Oh my God, that's a question I've never thought about before.
413
:Well, I kind of feel like Jack White probably would be able to hold his own in a wrestling
ring.
414
:And...
415
:Maybe...
416
:else in the guitar vein would be good maybe jack white the guy from the black keys
417
:Yep.
418
:Dan Auerbach, Jack White, and...
419
:Another guitarist in that same vein likes, you know, that would be quite a good one.
420
:Three bluesy garage rock guitar players.
421
:when you were saying that, I was thinking of the documentary, this might get loud.
422
:So you could probably throw in, you'd be paid to be up.
423
:Yeah, exactly.
424
:think, you know, Jack White has the age advantage, so he probably would, you know, he'd
probably win that.
425
:But I feel like Jim, Jimmy Page might have some secret, you know, secret strengths.
426
:Yeah, that would be an interesting thing to watch.
427
:That would be funny if that documentary, if they suddenly in the middle just went through
the guitars down and went into like a rumble or whatever you call it.
428
:down, the ring comes up like, what the hell is this?
429
:then the riff from a whole lot of love starts playing.
430
:Yeah.
431
:I brought you all here today.
432
:That'd be cool.
433
:So.
434
:So I got one more for you then, and this is the one that everyone says is always the
hardest here.
435
:what would be three songs that you would put on a Spotify playlist that would represent
the man of Mark Crooser?
436
:Right, well I mean feel like know, Living Fears has to be one of them because that is such
a big part of who I am.
437
:I would pick a Beatles song, I think probably Here Comes the Sun because that was very
influential, I mean they were like the most influential band on me and that's probably my
438
:favorite Beatles song and it encapsulates so much about music in that one short song and
also you know the lighter side of my personality.
439
:And then probably something about the cure like Charlotte sometimes.
440
:That would be good mix of dark and light.
441
:Yeah, I would go with those.
442
:like too that it's all over the board on that too.
443
:And it ties up with the fact that you did the cover too.
444
:So I love that.
445
:The cover of the Cure song.
446
:mean, so I love that.
447
:Well, Mark, thank you so much for having some time to come on and chat with us.
448
:I know you're a very busy person and I appreciate the fact that it, you know, being able
to have you on the show, being able to converse about music, Bray, live in fear, broken
449
:out and love all of this.
450
:Just being able to have some time to chat with you today.
451
:So thank you.
452
:No problem at all, I'm glad it worked out and yeah sorry it took a while, it's more to do
with me just being incredibly disorganized than anything else.
453
:But yeah we got there in the end and this was fun.
