Load-In Load_In Podcast

We're back after a brief (long?!) hiatus for a special in-person recording. Please excuse Ombler's poor audio quality as he can't face a mic properly when he's speaking. 



After a reasonable early-morning 5K, we catch up on the challenges of balancing an ever-growing gaming backlog amidst a flurry of new releases, how Dead Space compares to Calisto Protocol, tour memories and how West feels to be hitting the road with Yungblud. 

It's been a long time! But we're back. 

No guest for this episode, but West talks us through how it's been getting to (finally) tour again, and Ombler expresses his frustrations with the slow launch of Halo Infinite. 

We also chat about our struggles with Elden Ring, how Fortnite's improved with the launch of its no-build mode, and how we feel about Breath of the Wild 2 getting delayed (again). 

There's no guest on this week's episode, but after a long break over the Christmas period we've taken the chance to catch up and share our thoughts on the game releases we're most excited for in 2022. 

Outside of that, if you've ever wanted to learn about the implications of COVID on touring bands and what can happen when things go wrong, West talks us through the moment the band found out they'd tested positive for COVID towards the end of the UK tour run, resulting in the cancellation of three shows and a very long wait to get home. 

This was such a cool episode to record! This week, we're joined by Ada Juarez, Edith Johnson and Téa Campbell from the pop-punk powerhouse, Meet Me @ The Altar. They literally joined us from the back of their van as they're currently on tour with All Time Low, so what a bunch of legends for finding the time to chat with us. 

We talk about how games such as The Sims 4 and Skate introduced them to a load of different bands when they were younger (that's how they discovered All Time Low!), why their music would be a great fit for video games, their favourite games, what they're currently playing on their Nintendo Switch consoles right now and loads more. 

If you've not checked them out before, make sure you remedy that immediately by listening to them on Spotify or however else you consume music! 

We'd like to thank MM@TA's team for setting this up and, of course, Ada, Edith and Téa for joining us while they're on tour. 

Ever wanted to get your band onto a video game soundtrack? For James, who plays guitar in the metal band Mastiff, it was a dream come true when they were approached out of the blue by Cyberpunk 2077's developers, CDPROJEKTRED.

In this episode, James talks us through the process of how Mastiff's music was incorporated into Night City, what the band has been up to since signing to eOne, and all things Remedy/Alan Wake. 

Mastiff's new album, Leave Me The Ashes of The Earth, is out now and available to stream through Spotify and purchase through all of the usual platforms.

A massive thank you to James for coming on and chatting with us. 

https://www.facebook.com/mastiffhchc

As well as singing in the US metal band Dead Eyes, Zach is a successful producer/songwriter. He splits his time between writing and producing his own material, working alongside producer Kile Odell (Motionless in White, Cane Hill) and making musical mash-ups over on Tik-Tok at @Zerosentme (as well as playing LOADS of video games, of course).

This, quite frankly, was a f*cking hilarious episode and one of our favourites so far. We chat about Zach's love for competitive multiplayer games, West and Zach bond over obscure Mega Man games, and we all talk through favourite games and video game soundtracks. 

Zach also promised a metal remix of the Wii Sports melody, so feel free to bombard him with messages every day on behalf of us until it's done.

Hope you enjoy! Thanks again to Zach for taking the time to chat with us.