Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
One of the coolest parts of my job is being able to speak to great business leaders. But also the best part of it is when I get to speak to people who are great business leaders that I also know from the other side of my life, which is platform in punk and hardcore bands. Today's guest is someone that I've got a lot of history with and like, very dear to my heart history.
Someone who plays in and still plays in an incredible band called the Geeks and has also gone on to have like an incredible career and is based in South Korea. So with that, I am super excited for this episode and I hope you get as much out of it as I know I'm going to before we get to it. Please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. This is one step beyond Key. Welcome to the show, bud.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: So, for the uninitiated, those who don't know, who are you and what do you do?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yep, my name is Key. I'm from South Korea, born and raised in Seoul. What I do for living, my professional career path is basically is rooted in marketing. So I've been a cmos for a lot of different companies. So for instance, I used to be a CMO for IKEA Korea, and I was a brand director for Kakao Mobility, which is more of a Korean version of Uber mobility company, and then e commerce company. And then I also started my career at American company called General Motors. I was head of brand management there. So I know a lot of different jobs in between here and there.
All in all, I'm a professional marketer.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Heck, yeah. And then also you play in the Geeks. Tell us about that.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Sure. Yes. And then I play in a band called the Geeks, and we've been together for 26 years, since 1999. So we never gave up. So we're still playing, still very active. And last November. Last November, we had our 25th anniversary show. And then we released a new EP, a new music video, and so that means they were still going.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: That's amazing, man. All right, well, let's get into it. So we have people who listen from all sorts of different backgrounds, and they might not understand, like, what a CMO is or what a brand director is. So why don't we just start with, like, the basics for someone who wouldn't know, what would a brand director do? What would that job be?
[00:02:42] Speaker B: A CMO is show for Chief Marketing Officer, Basically someone who's responsible for entire marketing and communication. Sometimes Communications, communication strategies. So you're basically the person responsible for coming up with this marketing strategy, coming up with the consumer experience strategy and how to inspire, how to influence customers and then convert the demand, drive, drive sales, drive market share and drive brand growth. That's the basically CMO does and then the highest ranking officer, fear in marketing and brand director. Pretty much the same though, same thing.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Just kind of a different name, but.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: More focused on brand side of the business, brand director.
So CMO is basically everything from brand to marketing, communications to CRM, all these different kinds, different parts of marketing.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: So let's just focus on the CMO side of things.
What would the, you know, a given day for a CMO look like? What would they be spending their time with or what did you spend your time with?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: It's a very hectic schedule and if you really think about it, the traditional functions within the marketing are tightly linked to every part of business. So you have to spend a lot of time talking to, having meetings with other peers at your level, above and beyond. So sales organizations, customers, customer organization and the CEO, CFO and all those people. But at the same time you have to run your ship. So you have to spend a lot of time talking to your marketing people and also agents people, making sure that we have, we are following up with what we promised before.
We are delivering on the promise that we promise in terms of business result.
So a lot of customer acquisitions and brands, brand scores, et cetera. So where we are in terms of social media and all these, all these different things at the same time. And I also talk about talking about the budget and are we spending it right, blah blah, blah. So many different things are happening for their life of cmo.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah, marketing is always an interesting thing for me to talk about because a lot of people think they know what marketing is, but they actually don't really understand what marketing is. Could you explain to us kind of like big picture what marketing really is?
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yes.
There are hundreds, hundreds, thousands of different ways of looking at marketing.
You can start with 4P, you know, the price, product pricing, place, promotions. But at the same time, just basically what it does is that the marketing is all about, all about is creating and shifting perception of a, of a brand in the minds and hearts of consumers and then creating demand and capturing the demand.
By doing so, you drive business and you drive brand growth.
So therefore your company, Company becomes.
The company grows and company becomes profitable, Company becomes sustainable. That's basically what marketing does.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: And what got you into it.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: It's a very interesting journey for Me because given the fact that I didn't start my career in the marketing industry or marketing sector if you will. Because back in the day when I was growing up, in late 90s and early 2000s when I was graduating and when I was in school, the most popular job in Korea was to work for international trading companies.
Because South Korea back in the day we didn't really have, we didn't really have nothing and Korea used to be the poorest country in the world because of the war, etc. Etc. So we didn't really have anything. So there are a lot of like a previous generation of business leaders who just go out there with, with bare hands. They just talk to all these different companies all over the world and they travel and then they big business deals and they bring stuff to South Korea. And also a lot of like. And then also they do. They are responsible for exporting a lot of products made from South Korea. For example, old Nike shoes were made in South Korea and a lot of caps and a lot of also like wigs were made in Korea. So all those people. So it was very popular back then. So I started my first career in the export global business side which is more of an export focused. I got my first job at market export division of gm. But the good thing is that GM Korea back then when I got a job will had a international global business and the local business, local business meeting, Korean market.
So you're selling cars, you're selling, you're selling cars and you're selling parts.
So interestingly what I did with my music before I officially start my professional career turned out to be considered as marketing stuff within the, within the traditional company.
So they thought that, oh, this guy's interesting, he's weird, he's different and he seems like creative stuff and he seems like he's done some creative marketing stuff before.
Right? You know, putting shows, creating music, you know like booking tours, etc. And then that's one thing. And then the other side is that I was a leader.
I was responsible for like booking shows and setting directions for the gigs. So that kind of like expertise and experiences will really help me propel and excel in any positions that was any position that was given at GM when I was growing up. So two things were really helped me to get me into marketing world whether I liked it or not.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really funny that you're saying that about the punk and hardcore side of it because there's a lot of people from punk and hardcore who are in marketing. So like Jason Farrell from SWIZZ being one of them, Jonathan Anastas from DYS being one of them. And they all kind of tell the same story that you just did where it's like, well, I was already kind of doing marketing for my band and it kind of found me because I'd already kind of figured out how I was doing it. And then someone in this company cost saw that in me, found out about this background and it just one thing led to another and it's so true.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: That's exactly what happened to me.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: So how much of your business stuff did you learn through like work, like work experience versus how much of it did you learn from just being like a punk and like having to do it yourself and do all those things?
[00:09:33] Speaker B: I think the.
My punk and hardcore DNA and my experiences, basically what I've been also giving a lot of lectures and speeches to a lot of business leaders. That's kind of like as part of my personal branding business.
What I, what I'm telling them is that I basically start, I did a startup, I started my own business with my music basically like hustle, like create your own music. Whether you not knowing whether you're gonna, you're gonna be successful or not, it's just that you just go, go, go and diy and then you know, and then you, you just push it forward. So they kind of like mentality and attitude, a PMA attitude, positive mental attitude.
And then also the actual experience of creating something totally new that didn't exist before and pushing it forward and making a reality. That experience really helped me in the, in the business world. So. And then, but I guess I wasn't. That I wasn't strategic before. But also what I, when I first got my official professional job and then what I'm learning from that, being professional, being more. Being more strategy oriented and will be more organized, that's also helped. That also helped me with my bench management work as well. So it's the two things, making two things, creating synergies.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Let's hit on the, on the geeks for a little bit and then we'll come back to your professional career. How did you first of all, where did you grow up? And then how did, what was your first introduction to punk and hardcore?
[00:11:09] Speaker B: I was as I mentioned before, I was born and raised in Seoul.
Seoul. When I was growing up, Seoul was very.
Korea was very close society but we didn't really have a great access to international music.
Just, just pop, mainstream international music too. So if you really think about it, punk and hardcore Was almost impossible to find. So some. Somewhat. My first introduction, I guess first indirect introduction was Duke. Punk was Nirvana. Because before then I was just listening to old K pop and also boys to man, all for one R B stuff. And then one of our guitarist, Jun, you know, introduced me to Nirvana and it just blew my mind. And then it started from there. And then Black Flag, dad Kennedy, Seven Seconds, Minor Threat, all started from there as well.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: But how were you finding these bands?
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Jun, our guitarist, he was so into it somehow. He had all these records, so he just borrowed them to me. And then there was like this one tiny record store who was special, specializing in importing all these obscure CDs from all over the world.
So there was only in Korea, there were only one or two. So we found the one. We just went there almost every week.
And I saved up all the dollars my mom gave me for my lunch and dinner and then I saved them up and to buy CDs back then.
So it was more like, okay.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: What was the reaction to your. Your friends and family as you started to get into this kind of crazy kind of music?
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Oh, it was just. My mom was very concerned. My mom was not. Not just punk, not. Not just punk and hardcore. It's just that she. I still remember when I was getting into like alternative music, background music back then, and my mom, you know, this like this little now puppy kid who was like, you know, very good, who seemed to be a very good student, no more guy. And seems like my, my voice changing, listening to all this weird music. So one day I came back home, came home from, from, from school. And then I saw my mom and my younger sister listening to Alice in Chains on the stereo because they wanted to figure out the what kind of music that I was listening to.
And they were, they seemed shocked.
I think it at least changed the first album, the third album, it was very heavy as you know. It's like they were shocked.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: So what, what was the. What was the band for you that got you like hooked on hardcore? Specifically hardcore.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Hardcore was I guess, I think, the real hard. The, I guess gateway hardcore band for me. Surprisingly, I think Beastie Boys, when, when they came out with all these hardcore punk records, I think there was a gateway. Gateway albums. However, I think what really got me is a Minor Threat. Before that there was of course Black Flag and seven Seconds and Minor Threat really hooked me into hardcore.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: And then what about Straight Edge? Like, how did you find that?
[00:14:43] Speaker B: How I found about Straight Edge, the actual concept, because it was pre Internet, even though I was Listening to Minor Thread, I didn't really know what strategy actually meant. And so I didn't really have a lot of information before, even though there was this guru guy who kind of talked to me about it before. So he didn't really, you know, it didn't really ring a bell with me, however, when I think when I was like 17, 18 or something like that.
So I was, I went to this show.
It was around the time when punk was. Punk was.
Punk was going through his initial birth within the Korean scene. So there was this punk band called no Brain, which is like one of the biggest punk rock bands in South Korea. And then I was hanging out with the singer and he was kind of like, start talking about Straight Edge and Earth Crisis.
Basically it's is a. It's basically like, have you listened to Earth Crisis? I was like, no, what the hell is that? Oh, you don't know what the strategy is, Blah, blah, blah. I thought you listened to Minor Threat.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Blah, blah, blah.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: And then that's how I really first discovered the str concept of strategy for the first time. And then I, I start digging, I start digging in and then I realize, oh, this is the lifestyle I wanna really pursue in the future.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: So what was it about Straightedge? And I'm like real interested in the, like, what was it about this thing that you connected to also in like, in connection to like what the environment that you were in and the world around you. Like, what was it about Straight Edge that made sense for you?
Right?
[00:16:25] Speaker B: The Straight Edge was to me back then was a total rebellion thing.
I guess I was a good student. I was a kind of like very contradictory person. I guess I was a very good student in terms of grade, in terms of how I behave in the school. I guess there's a fire inside of me, the rebellious fire.
When I first discovered the strategy, because Korea back in the day was very, very, very alcohol dominant world.
And it was a uniform choice, was a very, very uniform, like being mandatory, meaning that mandatory drinking with your peers was like dominant in the Korean society. So that drinking in the Korean society, unheard of, inconceivable.
So I thought that it was like, okay, I really wanted to pursue that lifestyle because it's different. And at the same time I saw a lot of like drunken people. People behaved very poorly. And there are some people in my family tree as well. I didn't really like it before.
So when I first discovered that, I thought that, oh, there was like this clean, positive life. That's what I. That's the Lifestyle seriously. So that's what could really connect me to Straight Edge.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: So because it was such a dominant part of the culture at the time, did you ever face any backlash or pressure or anything like really negative as a result of choosing not to drink?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Of course.
I guess the first 15 years, Korea has changed a lot. Now Korea before it was the poorest country in the world. Now we are officially categorized as an advanced country which. Which was big achievement within like 30 to 40 years. Right? And then we are pretty much the one of the few countries that actually done this or achieved this, this exponential growth.
So for. For the first 15 years, ever since I became. Became strategy in 1998, 97 or 1997, for first 15 years it was tough. It was like a living hell. A lot of people got offended by the fact that I decided not to drink.
And they offer me, offer me drinks. And then I politely turned them down. Then they got furious.
And then especially what during my military years been. Just for your information, every man in Korea has to do has to serve in the military for like year and a half to two years back then, in two years. So then a lot of like superiors offer me drinks and I said no and they got serious. So I got beat up a bunch of times, but I never gave up.
So. And then later on they kind of embraced me. Like, okay, you win. Embrace me. So that's why I also, I think I also kind of had to respect them in return.
So meaning that I was being, I was very social. I also respectful of their choices and their lifestyles. So also I take care of a lot take care of them after they so drunk, like, that's my jobs. I'll take care of them. And they start, they started to appreciate me and started respect me. Then, then later on they were like, they become our guardians. So there are a lot of, you know, the new group of people who are also, you know, got offended by the fact that I didn't drink. But these, these, these people, my guardian kind of, they started like defending me as my kind of like my lawyer. Attorney. Hey, this guy's fine. Cool.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Man. That's so like a lot of people can be about something and say like, oh, I'm into this thing, but when that thing, when there's stakes in it, like, you know, you're getting people angry at you. And you know, when you're young, if you piss people off, it's kind of like you're young, you kind of want to be rebellious, you know. But like when it starts having like real day Life consequences when there's violence involved, when you're like being stigmatized for it, it says a lot about the level of conviction that you'd have about this thing.
So when you did that, and I appreciate you sharing that because when we first met, you actually, you told me about this and I've always just been like, really blown away by how serious you take your commitments.
What did you learn about yourself as you went through those first 15 years?
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Well, this is a really good question. Thanks for asking. What did I learn about myself going through that? And I never really thought of it that way because I kind of. This is more like an oxygen for me now. Looking, looking back, I realized that one of the things that I'm really good at is basically knowing who I aspire to be and not letting other things get around, get, get ahead of me. Meaning that perseverance is kind of my thing. If I set my mind to something, then I can definitely be super focused and get things done. Not, not really listening to other, other people have to say.
So that's one thing that I learned and, and then ultimately I always knew that I was a weird guy, that, that I still believe that I'm a weird guy.
So I tell everyone I'm a weird guy. But I'm a very social, social and you know, down to earth guy.
But I'm, I'm weird. I'm different.
I want you to know. I think that's also how I start my conversation with a lot of people.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Is that, hey, you say I'm a weird guy and I want you to know.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Meaning, yeah, you'll find, you will find a lot of weird things about me meaning not drinking or not doing this, blah, blah, blah. So, but I just tell them straight up so I can. But I respect, I want you. It's basically underlining messages that I want you to respect me, but I'm going to respect you in return.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
So where do the Geeks start in all this? Because it's like one thing to kind of get into these obscure records and kind of latch onto this philosophy. It's a whole different other thing to start this band and do something that has actually become global, like has made a global impact. So tell us about the Geeks and where it started.
Yes.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Geeks. Officially we, we started in 1999, but we, I think the history goes way back in 19.
So basically we do. In Korea, we do have a junior school. I think it was like eighth grade, ninth grade, something like that. We do have a junior school. Three years of Junior school after six years of elementary school, and then you have three years. And then my last year of junior school, which is like nine years, ninth grade or something like that. So one of our guitarists, also founding member of the gigs, he was my table mate. So basically not sure about the American or Canadian and North American setup in class setup, but back in the day, we have like 60 people in the class. So we two people actually share one table. So. And then our guitarist was sitting right next to me and we share the table together. So basically we study and live together.
And he was the one like listening to all this music beforehand. He was the one who influenced me, took me on this journey. So.
And after that we went to different high schools and then we started stay in touch because we. Because of the love of the music, the passion for the music. And then it was just natural for us to, you know, start writing songs.
We. We basically shared the journey together, like, you know, buying our first guitar and then, you know, you come up with the new reefs and then, you know, play to the other person. Basically, back in the day, you, you know, remember that you write guitar and then you record and then you call a person and then you, you know, do this on the stereo and then they listen to this. Something kind of like that. So that' started. So it's just that very natural process for us. Looking back again, we have to do this. It's kind of like there's no other way.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: But it's interesting though, because there's that. That's that story that you're just saying. It's like, oh, you know, that story. But there's a big difference from that to touring the world and being essentially, I believe in. And correct me if I'm wrong, you're one of the first, if not the first South Korean punk hardcore band that's really gone out and done like global touring. Is that right?
So what's the leap from, hey, check out this riff that I wrote when you're just like little kids to doing that.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: We.
Because we. We were so into this music and we were also confident with our product, with meaning, our music. So we just wanted to.
First we just wanted to get out of Korea and then also experience hardcore scenes, different hardcore scenes in different world. That's one. It's kind of like awesome, I think. I guess back in the day, it was more like going on a tour as an excuse for us to, you know, travel the world. Back in the day when Korea was. We were a lot of people didn't really travel worldwide before, so we wanted to get out and we have our own music. And then there was interest and also there were also people, a group of people who wanted to help us. Then we always say yes to those opportunities, and then we just say yes first and figure things out. But that's how it all happened. And then I think that became our first real brand equity. And it becomes. It started compounding, compounding, creating new opportunities. And then also at the same time, Korea was so isolated before, and no one really care about or knew, knew and care about South Korea. And we wanted to change it. That's why we made a decision to bring Champion back in the day from bringing you guys, all these international bands to Korea, because we really wanted to, like, put the Korea on the map back in the day. So. And then that also created opportunity for us to start travel, start traveling and touring the world.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Can I tell you a funny. What for me is a funny story about that, that tour that we did together in Korea.
So remember, remember the venue we played? Skunk Hell.
There's like that. First of all, it's like one of the best names for a venue I ever heard, Skunk Hell. But I remember that show being packed to the absolute gills. It was an absolutely packed out show and the Geeks blew it up. And it was the first time I ever saw the Geeks. And, like, I was just, like, absolutely floored by how great your band was. Like, you guys totally annihilated. It was unbelievable. And then when we got up to play, it was like, incredible energy, amazing experience.
But, you know, I'm Canadian, and for people listening to the podcast, there's a lot of Canadians that live in Korea who teach English.
And it had gotten out somehow that, like, there was Canadians in this band from North America that were coming over. And so there was a lot of Canadians who were at the show who were not like punk and hardcore people. They were just like, weird Canadian people who were there to party.
And there was always this joke in our band that Canadians are, like, very polite people. We're just very, like, you know, like, really, really polite. And the drunkest, most annoying people at that show were Canadians. And one of them was wearing a shirt with like a maple leaf on it. And in between our songs, he kept yelling, canada, Canada.
And everyone in the band was so delighted. They all kept looking at me and I was like, oh, God.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah, back in the day. Yeah, yeah, back in the day. Yeah, we. We didn't really have like, many international touring, touring bands coming to Korea. So for. For them they were like minority. It was like my, my chance to represent my country, right?
[00:28:58] Speaker A: You know, dude, it was so embarrassing that.
Anyways, going back to the Geeks, there's something like, because, you know, I got to see the geeks like in North America. Like, you know, it was just so unbelievable to see what you guys not just did but continue to do with the band. Just with two friends who met basically in junior school and were like, we love this music and we're going to do our band. We're going to go all over the world.
It's like a story that in punk and hardcore is very commonplace.
But if you step back and I'm sure you've got, you've heard this from colleagues who you've probably told us that you've done this. That's like a crazy thing to do just to basically be like, hey, like we're just going to take this band and we have no money, we have no resources, we have no real record label behind us, we have no like booking agent. We don't have any of these things. We're just going to go tour the world and get our music in front of everyone.
So how did you do it?
[00:29:57] Speaker B: I think we were from sales and marketing perspective, if I wear my marketing hat.
I think we were also lucky that we were leveraging the rising Internet world, Internet technologies because also message board, et cetera back then Bridge 9 LiveWire. So I started participating the message board and then I start building connections there and also, also email. And then at the same time when we were, when we started getting more serious about the global outreach, MySpace came on.
So and then MySpace back then was very huge as you know. And the music was a big part of MySpace. So we were kind of like riding the wave at the right time.
So that's how we kind of like also it's really helping us and amplify the impact and creating more opportunities for us.
And then we just wanted to do it. I guess we were very focused on the one vision. Like we wanted to continue to do what we do and then we continue to tour, continue to meet new people around the world.
Simple mission.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: So at what age were you ish when you were doing this kind of bulk of touring with the geeks?
[00:31:17] Speaker B: From 22, like 20 step 20th, 22 to 26.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Did, did that time that you spent committed to doing the band, did that have a, any kind of negative impact on your career and your career progression?
[00:31:38] Speaker B: Around the time before I started my professional career during my university era, so I spent a lot of Time touring. So which is good.
So they didn't really have a negative impact because it really helped me because I also as I mentioned before, I started my first career at General Motors. But also luckily I got other offers from other companies. One of them is one of the biggest fashion companies which I didn't go.
It was more like domestic sales job, sales position. So when one of the, during the interview and they wanted to like you know, you know you go through all these typical questions and they were like any last words? And I was, it was a fashion company so I was wearing the geeks T shirts that we produce for ourselves. Seriously, this is like a real deal. So it was also. But it was like a shirt and a T shirt underneath. So then any last words? And here is what I did like a superman. Other than that. And this is the teacher. This is T shirts that we made for ourselves for, for a band.
I really wanted to do this, you know the. I'm a fashion guy, I've done this. I know, I know this. So true story. That's how I got a job at there.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: That's amazing man. That's so crazy.
Okay, anything else you want to say about the Geeks before we go back into the business side of things?
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Right. I think one of the. Also one of the things about the gigs is that we never we. So after I start I and the rest of the band we started our professional career journey around in like late 20s.
That's the one of the things success factors for us that we had a really strong vision shared by all members. We didn't really have to talk about it discuss. It's just that we didn't applaud.
So we never, we never stop. If you know the five guys having full time jobs, if you really think about it and those early 30s, you're going through like girlfriend stuff, you're going through like work stuff and they're going, you know, marriage and kids. We never had a trouble agreeing on what we do, what we want to do in the future. Let's go to Japan or let's go to South Asia. Let's go to, let's go back to the US and everybody was like let's do this.
And then they feed and then all of us, we just figure things out to make it happen. So I guess the process was sometimes very painful and then you had to go through a lot to make sure that you battle all these naysayers within your circle of friends. However, we never stop. And then that's I think the key success of the gigs, we were like five full time full timers. We just never stopped touring, never stopped producing music. We never stopped playing.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Which is great if you were to say now. And I know it might be odd to have someone ask you this, like, what kind of legacy do you think the Geeks are building or are going to leave behind when eventually you're no longer playing?
[00:34:47] Speaker B: So there are some Korean national sports, Korean sports players doing well in the more like higher mainstream leagues, for example, like in baseball, in soccer, etc. Etc.
I think we, what we did is that we better impact on Asian hardcoge. So we, we not only we were the first one doing the serious America, like serious tours within, in Europe, the US and then North America and Europe is just that we were the one of the first few Asian band that actually done this and then in a larger scale and then heist at the highest level. So whenever we tour, whenever we start touring in Southeast Asia. So a lot of kids have told us that you inspire us, you inspire us. So they kind of like we inject the idea of possibilities and hope into a lot of Asian Harcourt kids. So. And not only Korea was basically, it's just not only the Korean horror scene, but also like Asian horror scene in general.
So that's the, I guess legacy and the impact that we had on the world.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you kind of gave people the proof of concept and the ability to dare to dream because someone else did it and showed them that it was possible.
I think like, because the other side is like the Geeks are actually really awesome too. Like you're a really great band, like insane live, great records, like cool merch, all of it. So it's not just like you were lucky, you're actually like a really, really good band that works hard, has cool records, great live. So I think that impact is so cool to hear that in, in Asia in general. But I also just say from like proof of concept for anyone, anyone who's kind of felt marginalized and punk and hardcore and being like, could we actually do this? I think the Geeks are a great example of like, yeah, you just got to, you got to do it yourself, right?
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Totally.
Thank you for saying that.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Oh, dude. Huge, huge inspiration to not just me, but like everyone who see the Geeks is like, the Geeks are sick. Like totally. Like just totally. There's nobody that leaves a geek show not smiling. Everyone's smiling, everyone's stoked, everyone feels good.
And very few bands can pull that off. Stay tuned for part two, this interview next week on one step beyond.
One step, one step, one step beyond.
