Editor’s Note: As always, it was a tremendous conversation with the boys out of St. Louis known as Discrepancies for Madness To Creation. They recently played a show at Spicoli’s Reverb in Waterloo and it was a decent crowd for a cold winter night in Iowa, especially when the venue is not the most accessible venue to get to. In this interview with Madness To Creation, Discrepancies discussed topics ranged from Nickelback to shooting the “Control” music video and mental health awareness, Fans can find Discrepancies at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/discrepancies
Madness To Creation: Hey guys, it’s been about a year since we last talked and now that you have a new drummer in tow, how has the sound changed or has the approach to the songwriting been any different?
Garrett: I think the sound has matured a little bit, not in a bad way, but a bit more of a radio sound.
Antonio: A good radio sound! *laughs*
Madness To Creation: So a more Nickelback kind of sound? *laughs*
Addison: Hey, you can’t deny Nickelback, it’s catchy.
Madness To Creation: What Nickelback songs do you jam to?
Antonio: “Photograph” is the only one I know.
Zach: They have a song off the first two albums called “Because Of You” that is super tight.
Dub Flow: Or that song off of the Spiderman soundtrack, “Hero”
Antonio: If I could be your hero baby, am I singing the wrong song.
Madness To Creation: That was with the guy from Saliva I think.
Zach: Josey Scott is his name.
Madness To Creation: I know that he was doing Christian music or something.
Madness To Creation: What was your first concert?
Antonio: It was the Scream tour with Bow Wow, B2K, and IMX or whatever it was called.
Madness To Creation: DMX?
Garrett: My first concert was Maroon 5.
Antonio: That would’ve been lit! We did see DMX last year, that was lit!
Dub Flow: My first concert was Britney Spears, I was six years old, my mom had to bring me along.
Addison: My first one was when my dad took me to Madonna, I also did see Nickelback though.
Zach: My first concert was Backstreet Boys, but my first rock concert was Nickelback.
Madness To Creation: My first concert was Garth Brooks, we won tickets to see them at the Iowa State Fair, it is still one of the best shows ever.
Addison: I’ve heard that his shows are legendary to see.
Madness To Creation: I noticed that there were some pop music responses to the question, would you say that Discrepancies brings elements of pop into the music.
Addison: The vocal lines and vocal melodies, I mean if you want it to be sung, then it’s gotta have some pop drive in it. I don’t think that we’re going pop by any means, but we definitely want it to be singable.
Antonio: I’m thinking the song “All My Love” kind of sounds like pop music a bit. I don’t know if I’m supposed to name drop! *laughs*
Madness To Creation: Speaking of new material, I downloaded the single to “Control”, what was the inspiration behind the setting of the music video and song?
Zach: We saw a bunch of people skateboarding and we thought it would be a cool idea for the video.
Antonio: There was a skatepark in the church.
Madness To Creation: A skatepark in the church?
Antonio: So the shot a while ago, it’s an old church that they turned into a skate park.
Garrett: Like a cathedral church, imagine a cathedral church, so imagine shutting down the church and building a skate park inside of it.
Madness To Creation: So is there like stained glass in this old church?
Antonio: Yeah it kind of looks like a video game.
Garrett: Something that you would see in Tony Hawk Pro Skater
Madness To Creation: If they haven’t heard “Control” yet, what can fans expect from it?
Addison: It’s definitely going to be more in your face
Dub Flow: In the words of the radio industry now, it’s “too street” or “too hood”
Antonio: You’re going to get a laugh out of it, it’s “too street” that’s what we were told.
Garrett: It’s one of my favorite tracks on the new record, it’s so sick, it’s got some vinyl scratching in it, which is so tight, it’s an absolute jam.
Madness To Creation: So is that what fans can expect, a new album from Discrepancies this year?
Addison: Fans can expect a lot of new music to come out this year.
Madness To Creation: Anything that you want to talk about or is it kept under wraps?
Antonio: We’re dropping a new album for sure, it’s to be determined on the date, we don’t know when yet, maybe it could be tomorrow, what time is it? *laughs*
Madness To Creation: Well Eminem did release a surprise album?
Antonio: Man I wish we had that kind of clout! One day!
Madness To Creation: If you had Eminem money, how would you spend it?
Garrett: I would invest half in the S&P 500 fund and the other half in the NYSE.
Antonio: We were talking about building our own warehouse and having our own merch company and stuff like that.
Addison: To be able to do everything in house, we would like to be 100% DIY on everything, have our own control, bad puns. InVogue Records has been great to us, the thing that we love about InVogue is that they’re big enough to have the plugs and connections, but they allow us to do our thing.
Garrett: They’re not CONTROLling.
Zach: I’ve always told my girlfriend that if I ever got stupid rich, I would buy something that no one would want, this is my statue of Pee Wee Herman, a golden statue.
Madness To Creation: Hopefully it’s not a statue of him doing the deed at the movie theater. You could have some word of the day shit going on and Chairy going crazy.
Dub Flow: I’m definitely going to have a water slide and a Mountain Dew fountain in the house, I want Fruit Rollup to sponsor it of course.
Madness To Creation: 2019 was an amazing year for Discrepancies, you got to open for one of my heroes in Story Of The Year, how was that?
Antonio: It was incredible, that helped us kick off 2019 too!
Addison: We got to play with them twice last year, one of them was to celebrate the life of a friend and a producer that passed, and the first time that we played with them was a big step for all of us and that was at a place called The Pageant in St. Louis, I mean the amphitheater is awesome, but in my mind and in my opinion, The Pageant is the best sounding venue in the country, that’s where everyone wants to play.
Zach: If you ever start in the scene in St. Louis, you’re like, “if I ever play The Pageant one day”…
Addison: That’s a benchmark right, and we got to play that and open for some really awesome friends in Story Of The Year.
Garrett: They are super cool dudes, they are super nice, they introduced us to this incredible ramen place called Noodle House, it’s so good that when people go to St. Louis they have to go to Noodle House.
Antonio: Sitting in the green room at The Pageant was awesome because they have all of these pictures of everyone that have played, and you’re just in awe, it’s like Reba McIntire sat in this chair!
Zach: Jack Black shit in this toilet!
Antonio: I can feel the energy!
Madness To Creation: I’m never washing my ass again! *everyone laughs*
Dub Flow: I was lucky enough to get to tag along man, and I love The Pageant, I was the one with the mask and weapons.
Antonio: They made him take the mask and weapons out of the venue.
Madness To Creation: What’s your favorite Story Of The Year song?
Antonio: Bang Bang!
Zach: I’m going to sound stereotypical and go with the radio friendly single and go with “Until The Day I Die”
Garrett: Sidewalks!
Dub Flow: I’m going to have to be stereotypical with Zach and go with “Until The Day I Die”
Madness To Creation: Another highlight that you had was playing Rock USA fest in Wisconsin, what was your favorite memory?
Garrett: Rock USA ended up being absolutely incredible.
Antonio: It was amazing! First thing that comes to my mind is the mud though
Garrett: We pulled up in our van and security was getting ready to check us in and all of a sudden all of these tornado sirens started to go off, and everyone just ran!
Antonio: Everyone was like, “Everyone exit the premises”!
Dub Flow: The best part was the security dude just looked at him and just starts to take off running.
Zach: There was actually a tornado a mile or two away or something, there was a tornado warning.
Addison: This show was an emotional roller coaster, I organized an AirBNB and a bunch of friends to come out and basically we had like 15 people probably that we told we were coming and they were going to come and stay and see the show and be a part of the festival, I was there for maybe all three days and these guys showed up on Saturday when we were playing, and right as we showed up, they told us that it was going to be shut down and they said our set was going to be cut, and they were going to start an hour after our set was going to be. So we’re all pissed, am I livid at this point.
Garrett: The AirBNB had to be haunted as fuck! There were creepy old pictures.
Antonio: They had a ceramic model of the home in the back of the home, there was also a cross that was made out of sticks.
Garrett: In the middle of us playing UNO, we got the email saying that we are playing and that we need to show up right away, so we went in the van, hopped in, showed up and we checked in. We got to check out a bunch of bands, when we played, we were a little worried about what the turnout was going to be cause no one knows who we are, we were playing with Killswitch Engage, Disturbed, bands like that, and we ended up playing in front of 300 people.
Antonio: There were a lot of people!
Addison: We got to hang out and watch Disturbed on the main stage up close, and that was just insane.
Madness To Creation: What is one takeaway that you have when you’re support and you’re studying how a headliner does it?
Addison: Stage presence, when Fit For A King is up there, I will never miss their set
Garrett: Just watch the bass player of Fit For A King when you get a chance, he does moves on stage that I’ve never seen before and he’s so intense up there.
Addison: They are really good live and they are the benchmark, and I go to Garrett “we gotta figure some shit out”, after watching that guy we’re like, “we’re boring as fuck”
Garrett: Even with the new video, we gotta do a guitar spin or two, we gotta up this shit some.
Addison: Definitely production, I mean stage presence is a big thing but production, but if you throw some dollars and sense in there, if you put on a good show it shows that you care.
Garrett: 100%, I feel like we learned that at Warped Tour in 2018 big time, we definitely learned how to turn that crowd of nothing into something
Madness To Creation: “Not Alone” hit over two million views on YouTube, what can people take away from that song?
Garrett: We’re speechless.
Addison: Hopefully the message, I feel like a lot of people, that song has helped and it’s awesome.
Antonio: I will randomly go and read the comments and people talk about how it’s changed their lives and helped them get out of really bad states and stuff, whenever I feel like I need a little pick-me-up.
Garrett: YouTube is so powerful, people are very personal on YouTube comments, they’re very open to share their story and stuff like that, and SpaceUntravel was nice enough to upload that video for us, and so many people around the world have commented on that video and it’s crazy to think about how many people it has impacted. I remember when Addison literally brought that into my dorm and he was like, “just hear me out, this is a cool idea”, and “I was like, okay this is pretty cool”, and to see where it is today is phenomenal.
Madness To Creation: We switched gears on our site to address mental health awareness and to normalize mental health conversations. What are some things that help you get through when times get tough or what advice do you have for our readers?
Addison: That’s a deep one. That’s a really good question. There’s a lot of different things, for me, having my son has definitely helped me look at life differently, he’s only a year old or about a year and a half old so having him in my life definitely doesn’t make me take things for granted nearly as much.
Antonio: Wait until he turns 12 years old then it’s the complete opposite thing. Quick tangent, he likes to eat whatever is left in the rest of the box and then puts it back, he loves to put it back, empty! I’ll literally come home from work and there are multiple things and they’re all empty and I’m like, “why would you put this back”
Zach: Just think when you grab that box, your brain is like, “oh that’s going to be real good” and then you trick your own brain where you’re like, I don’t even want this
Antonio: We got off track, accomplishing goals, I create a list of tasks, that’s just a day to day thing, and music, writing and just listening to music.
Garrett: Not to copy Antonio, but accomplishing goals has been, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve built a daily schedule, I really feel like that helps me to make sure that I accomplish certain goals every day, I previously have had this issue where I forget things or forget to write things down, and not necessarily get them done because they would be written in different places, I hate it when I forget things, it just messes with me all of the time, I just start taking better notes and keeping a better schedule and sticking to it, it’s been good, and hopefully 2020 stays that way and keep going up.
Zach: For me, I’ve been pretty sheltered my whole life I guess, a few years ago, my mom got cancer and that just changed my life totally, and you just kind of humble up and kind of cope with things and I never really had to growing up and my parents divorced last year and a bunch of stuff gets messed up, I mean I’m really big into video games and that just kind of takes me away for awhile.
Madness To Creation: What’s your favorite video game?
Zach: I like the horror games, I’m big into horror movies in general but afraid of anything that crawls, I’m not a fan of bugs, but games like Resident Evil 7 is really tight and I just got the VR on Playstation and that’s like it takes you to a different place, it’s so sick.
Madness To Creation: Would you rather get drunk from one drink or drink all you want to and never get drunk?
Addison: I would drink one drink and get drunk.
Madness To Creation: Would you rather have the police hunting you for a murder you did not commit or a psychopathic clown hunting you down?
Antonio: Dude I’m black you know which one I’m picking! *laughs*
Garrett: I’m taking the second choice.
Madness To Creation: Would you rather be constantly tired no matter how much you sleep or constantly hungry no matter how much you eat?
Antonio: I’d rather go with the hunger, being tired all day would just suck. I feel like when I’m more tired it’s when I’m depressed.
Addison: You don’t get anything done. I’d rather stay hungry for sure.
Madness To Creation: Would you rather never get angry or never be envious?
Addison: Never be envious. I can get angry, whatever. Envious is like greed though, I can cut greed out of my life.
Garrett: I feel like jealousy sometimes can turn into motivation for some people, they see competition.
Antonio: When I think about basic people that do know much about the world and what’s going on around them, those are the happiest people on the planet, ignorance is bliss man!
Madness To Creation: What else would you like to add?
Antonio: New music coming soon!
Addison: Add “Control” to your playlists!
Garrett: www.discrepanciesmusic.com Please go to the website!
And there you have it! Check out tour dates below:
Fri. 3/6- Whiskey’s Roadhouse in Rockford, Illinois
Sat. 3/7- Back Bar in Janesville, Wisconsin
Sat. 7/25- Pipestem Spa, Mountain Chalets & Event Center in Pipestem, West Virginia
For tickets and further information, click here.
