Interview with: JayMoe (Guitar/Vocals)
Rock All Photography: Tell us about this Twitchtv that is looking like Glostik Willy is killing!
Twitch is an amazing platform. We have an amazing community that I never thought could be built on the internet without leaving our studio. The love and support our fans show is insane. We play 5 nights a week anywhere from 4-7 hours per night and always the full band. We have spent almost 19 months pouring all of our time into building what is quickly becoming the most extensive, active, and interactive live stream on the planet. Our viewers can chat with the band and even receive responses in the middle of songs. Chat picks the setlists, changes the camera angles, activates mini-games, and more.
RAP: How did you all get involved with a gaming platform?
We have always been big gamers and around 2016 I was somewhat of a professional gamer so I naturally gravitated towards Twitch in hopes of streaming some gameplay and picking the username GlostikWilly (of course). Twitch had recently added the Creative category and I thought if we could get all of our instruments and microphones into one output and add a webcam, I can stream the whole band. In 2016 we started doing full band streams, however, computer hardware and audio hardware weren’t able to handle the load so we took a break and focused on touring. In Sept./Oct. 2019 we had been taking time off to record our new album Hippy Metal but got bored not playing, so we said hey computer gear is a lot better, let’s go back to Twitch. We started our channel back up with 1 webcam and 4 channels of audio. 19 months later, thanks to the insane support of our fans, we have basically a full TV studio with production and audio better than most venues.
RAP: How does it work for a band?
For a band, it is incredibly difficult. It’s not one guy who has to dedicate all their time, it’s 3 guys in our case. One of the main ingredients in a successful stream is a consistent schedule and tons of content. You have to have a lot of songs in your catalog (we have about 300). There are so many people coming in and they all have different taste in music. We try to cater to everyone no matter their musical tastes. You may get Ozzy, Metallica, Grateful Dead, The Band, Slayer, Willie Nelson mashups (who knows). There are over 50 Glostik originals that cover a wide spectrum of genres.
RAP: How do you do it 5 nights a week?!
The drive for the dream! I have never wanted anything else in my life but to play music. I absolutely love it. All 3 of us are like that and a lot of bands can’t commit like we have been able to. We have been together all of our lives, it’s all we know. Not only playing music, but playing music together. It is all 3 of our biggest passions. We will not stop until Glostik is the biggest band in the world. It’s a pact we made when we were just little kids.
RAP: Do you ever run out of things to talk about?
Our chat is so insane that they always keep us laughing, joking, and interacting. When we run out of things to talk about, someone comes through with the perfect question and we usually have to tell ourselves to stop talking and play some music.
RAP: Do you run out of show ideas, or does it all just come together every night?
The viewers pick our setlist so it’s always what they want to hear, which is awesome because we never have to worry about what to play next.
RAP: What is a fan of Glostik Willy called? (Grateful Dead fans were Deadheads)
As strange as the name may sound… WillyHeads!
RAP: “Back Room” fits the whole mode, tell us about the single.
This song was so much fun to record, we had all of our friends in the studio and even met some horn players our studio provided that were amazing. It’s outside of our normal rock releases we’ve recently put out. A little funkier with a swamp kinda feel. It features Doug Wimbish on auxiliary bass and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge so I think the quality of this one makes it shine above a lot of our previous releases.
RAP: How can we find out more of your Twitch and join in?
Download Twitch and search for GlostikWilly. We are there Sunday-Thursday 8:00 pm EST.
