What Heavy Metal Can Teach You About Branding

Transcript

All right, I think we are officially live. Sorry about the hold up there. I think we're having some issues with uh everything everything sinking on the back end here. Uh but welcome to uh You're Not the Audience and this is a show I'm going to start doing weekly. I'm Calvin. I'm a creative director at Parliament. And uh I think what we're going to end up covering in here a lot is kind of what uh what sets brands apart. What uh what kind of like subcultures do brands dig into? Um and more specifically, as the you might guess from the title of the show, um exactly how to not appeal to everyone. So uh I think at Parliament we talk about how who like defining who isn't your audience is just as important as defining who is. So that's where the name You're Not the Audience came from. So for those who don't know uh Parliament we are a small creative agency in Portland focusing on branding and creative strategy. Um we've done it a lot of work for brands some brands you

know some brands you don't. We do a lot of work for Rainineer Beer. We've done work for Rivian. We do a lot of work for Capital One Bank. I think I'm allowed to say that. And um and so we do a lot of uh a lot of various uh types of work, but we really focus on brand strategy and identity. So, what we're going to cover today, um, we're going to start with just some Parliament news, some background on what we've been looking at, what we've been obsessed with, what's been going on in the studio, and then our topic for the day is uh, good old heavy metal and what we can learn from heavy metal bands when it comes to branding. So, I'm a big metal head and I think that companies, organizations have a lot that they can learn from the level of consistency and uh essentially commitment to the bit when it comes to metal bands. They always speak really clearly and uniformly. And so, I think uh I think we've got a lot to learn from them. So, uh but then we'll cover a few

minutes of news. Then we'll get into our topic for the day, heavy metal. And then we'll just end with some questions. Maybe I'll ask you what some kind of metal bands you're into. If you're in chat right now, throw in some metal bands that you're listening to. Um, I also started up a uh I also started up a nice little Spotify playlist here for anyone who is really interested. Toss some in the chat and I can add them to the list. Uh, this is all just this is all an example of bands that I think have great branding. Uh maybe I'll re revisit this at the end of the stream. So uh let's just get into some news. Uh some fun news to cover right now. Uh we just sent off files to Rainineer Beer for their upcoming holiday uh work. And what we do for them every year, we update packaging. We usually do some skis. We do some snowboards. And I can't tell you a lot about this year because we're going to wait until it's all launched. But I can show you just a

quick glimpse of what we did last year so you kind of get an idea of what we're talking about. So for last year uh we worked with uh fitting to talk about today. Uh legendary metalhead Matt Sticker uh did the illustration for this. We updated the packaging cans. We also did skis which I don't have photos of in here. You can see these are photos from uh Santiago Leon that he shot for uh for Reineer. Looks great. Can's fun holiday vibes. So, the new uh the New Year's version of this is just now going out and it'll show up on shelves around the holiday time. So, I'm really excited about that. Oh, and uh Matt Sticker, I'll just give a shout out to him since he's the illustrator who did all this. Uh he has a great brand. Uh he has a a uh he has a really good Here we go. We've got he's got a really good uh metal band called Drath. And Drath is kind of a you know, we'll get into niche later, but kind of a blackened death metal band. I love the aesthetic of everything they do. Matt's

a great illustrator. So, he uh he just nails it with all of their stuff here. It looks really great. I love everything that he cranks out. So, we'll continue to work with Matt in the future. Um, other fun things, uh, we just, uh, we just also went down to San Francisco for a few days to kick off with a new client called Netifi. I'm, uh, not going to say anything about what we're doing with them because we just now started, but um, it was really great to go down to San Francisco. We hadn't been down there in a little while. Um, and so I feel like post since CO days, there hasn't been a lot of reason for traveling for work. everyone's kind of like got it locked down. So, it was really nice to just go down there, see the city. Um, still great. Met with really good people. Everyone at Netlfire are like insanely smart, but also really humble, which is just a great mix. So, uh, other fun obsessions. Speaking of relating to Netlefi, our founder Chris has behind the scenes has been

obsessively using it to create a new website that he's working on that's going to kind of become a essential tiki drink and Polynesian pop website where like we'll have everything you need. Um, I hope I'm not spilling the beans too much on it right now, uh, Chris, but it looks it looks awesome and if you're like a cocktail nerd, you're going to love it. And last, all right, last obsession for the day. This will this kind of gets us into branding talk thoroughly. So, last obsession. Uh, I have absolutely fallen in love with this thing right here. So, there's an agency on the east coast in Brooklyn called Tavern and um I think their owner comes out of uh like a lot of beer and spirits brand work and they uh I think he worked for Quaker City Merkantile which if you're in the branding world like they own Hendrick's Gin. They did a lot of work for Miller High Life, stuff like that. So, I'm really interested in their approach to consumer products, and

they just launched their own product called Hyperblast. And I think this thing is incredible looking. It's just like it nails everything you want like the 80s and '9s to be. And it's basically a new version of Forloo. For anybody who uh remembers for Loco, I thought it was illegal to do caffeine and uh alcohol, but maybe not. I don't know. Different rules, different places. but they just nailed the look of it. Um, I've never wanted a drink of four loco in my life and somehow they just absolutely did incredible work. So, shout out to them for putting a product out where I think a lot of like places try to go this like really highbrow. I think they took a really unique stance and were like, "No, let's make like a a like nice general public like really good lower market thing and just kill it on the look and um you're not going to be able to deny it." I love it. So, let's uh All right, let's let's jump into let's jump into heavy metal today.

Oh, who we got here? Oh, got someone through Twitch here saying, "Glad you're doing this. Why did you pick metal as opposed to other genres of music?" Um, I think one reason I chose metal is just because I love metal. I think every genre of music has their kind of approach to brand and I think it's for metal. I think there's a really actually let's just talk about that's basically my next question here or like my next thing I want to get into is just like why heavy metal? Why do I think metal is so good at branding? And I think Arno says now he loves metal. Uh yes, as we all should. And so, um, I think the thing that's most interesting about metal is that metal is actually like lot older, I think, than a lot of people necessarily think. Like it goes back to Black Sabbath, late '60s, early '7s. And I think it comes out of a time when we had like a lot of bubblegum pop bands, and there was like a kind of like a system to like corporatize a lot of

bands then, give them a certain aesthetic. And so it's funny to think though that like I think a lot of heavy metal bands came out of that. They weren't in that system, but it kind of established this idea that to go the opposite of that bubble gum thing, you had to really establish establish an aesthetic that like vehematly was opposed to that. Like we are an outlaw brand versus all these innocent bubble gum stuff. And so I think that is a really really uh a really really interesting uh a really interesting like thing that came up out of this like it was an it was specifically a rebellion against them. So, I think uh the other thing that is interesting about metal bands is that like they just know exactly who they're for and exactly who they're not for. Um I think there's a really big strength in being like, you know what, we're not for you. Like, like that's okay. Because the more you do that and the more you really double down the people you're for, you

really really ignite that kind of base of of audience, that's when you get like crazy advocates and really really loud passionate fans. So, and that gets into I think one thing that I think uh heavy metal bands do well is at at Parliament we often operate under this system called brand archetypes. We apply those to brands. So, I don't know if anybody on here has heard of brand archetypes. uh let me know. But brand archetypes is this idea that there's essentially like 12 stories told throughout all of time. A really good brand sticks into one of those archetypes. For example, Nike is always the hero archetype. They always tell a story about overcoming challenges. Harley is always uh the outlaw. Like they were always against your nineto-ive job. They're always against order. And metal bands kind of accidentally stumble into having really sharp archetypes always because they always end up speaking as like one specific voice. At least these are like the good metal bands. So I think we'll talk about

some here. They really just kind of nail that um that whole kind of like aesthetic, the messaging, the voice, the tone, and it's super consistent. So, I think one thing that like I think the other thing too that like metal bands are really good about is they're actually they're very self-aware of a lot of their messaging and voice and tone. And so when they when they uh when they speak, they're kind of doing it in like a mixed level of seriousness and not serious at all. And they know that. And so there's a lot of self-awareness from metal bands. Um, but okay. So, what do um, like I said, if anybody has a metal band they're really passionate about, drop them in the chat because I'm going to I'm going to start going through some here in a minute to kind of give you give some examples of different things. Uh, so, all right, what do metal bands do? Well, I think at the end I'm gonna also have like I've got an an area where metal bands don't do as well. And I

think this is a sh thing that faces any kind of uh old genre like this. But what do met metal bands do? Well, I already kind of hinted at this and this is the idea of niche. So niche is for a company. The niche is like we do this. Our our mission is we do this. We make hammers. And our niche is for our niche is for like really tough carpenters. So, we make hammers for really tough carpenters or something like that. Like that's kind of a like uh a simple example, but so metal bands are accidentally incredible at doing this. Oh yeah, Nick put Journey. Journey legendary metal band. Yeah, good. I I think that's uh I mean, you know what? There's probably deeper ties to Journey than any of us would like to think in the metal scene, but we just don't want to claim them. And so, okay. So niche, I think the thing about niche that is really cool is it allow it is what gives you the first permission to ignore other people. Metal bands do this in awesome ways because like I the bands I'm going to talk through some

today are very specifically bands I like like I like a lot of black metal which comes from like old Scandinavian black metal that we've all heard about the guys with like the face paint. So I'll take you through a lot of bands in that vein. I like a lot of Doom metal, uh, which is like this slow like methodic like melodic kind of, um, sound. And I love a lot of those types of bands. So, you'll see some of those in here. But the thing I think that is, uh, really good about those things is like that's the way to think of like a niche for a company. Like it is your genre. It is your permission to be like, you know what, I'm all in on black metal. people who are into new metal, uh, you know, you're fans of Disturbed, Mud Vein, those kinds of things. Those bands are back now. Uh, you aren't gonna like us. We make this thing. Uh, and like it's great. Like every company needs the willingness to just say you're not for us. And that's good. U the audience. So

like niche is kind of related to audience, but they are really good at picking their audiences. And the way they do that is through all the ways that a company does. You know, there's photography, there's messaging, but the big one is like logos and aesthetics. And I think one of the bands that uh I'm I think is a great example of this because every time I've mentioned to someone over the last week that I'm going to focus on heavy metal branding, the first band that comes up, everyone is like, "Have you seen Ghost? Do you know that band Ghost?" And ghost is a really unique study in um in what a metal aesthetic can do. And so Ghost is by all accounts they look like a spooky metal band. They've claimed this like evil Catholic demonic almost thing. Like it's like it's hyper it's like hyper reality metal. But then you listen to their music and it's actually kind of just like pop rock. It's like in a pop metal genre. They still have spooky lyrics. They still talk about

evil stuff, but for some reason they just like doubled down on this look and they nail it completely. So everyone does this, but so like there are they are so good at like understanding their audience for this. They're like it's like people who accept pop music but like want an edge to it. like that is their audience and they do it all through this like cool aesthetic. They and like they still have like metal like parts of their music but they're singing their like singing is generally like standard singing which a lot of the bands I'll talk about are screaming all that stuff. So these guys really connect to like a specific audience that like is okay with the sound of pop and loves the metal aesthetic and they're really good at that. And I mean their stuff is just like I mean whenever you look at all their branding it's just great. They've got one of the coolest logos in all of metal. So um so Ghost and like you know they look like this when they're when

they're on stage. They the the front man dresses as an evil pope and all of his uh all of his bandmates are like nameless followers. They all wear masks. You're going to see a lot of people with masks in this because I think that comes out of even back to like the land of like KISS even though uh all the metal heads will be like no kiss, don't talk about Kiss. So I think the they're really good at hitting that niche. And the other bands that like some other bands I really love um this is one of my favorite black metal bands. Their name is UA I think means haunted in Latin. They kind of do a similar like uh they do kind of a similar like nameless uh nameless uh face, but they understand also that like consistent uh that consistent imagery, that consistent logo. And you can even see this. I'm going to show you some of their albums here. Even their albums, all their album artwork is done by the exact same painter. Uh they're cool if you're into metal album art. Cool. But

they every single one also just has this like illusion to either a an eclipse, some kind of sun, like and that's the consistent thing. So like they know that like this is what you expect to see on a UATA album. Uh but that also then gets into like one other thing about audience that I think is interesting with metal bands and um and I think that is that They are really they're great at being okay with that exclusion of folks which sounds bad but they're like um our our copyriter Nick who's he's in the chat here he always picks on me for I love the saying of like the saying of if you know you know and a lot of metal bands have logos that look like this up here for you where it's like kind of indecipherable. There's even much worse ones like I'll show you. I've got the band uh Griema's stuff up on here. You see their logos and it's like no one can read it and it automatically creates this um this feeling that like oh you have to learn stuff about this band. You

have to be like a real one to understand it. And all that does is just like amplify uh amplify that like passionate fan base like oh I get it. I know how to read their logo. So I think there's some some cool stuff there with that. Um, oh, Sarah said, "What makes the logo so great in your opinion?" I assume you're talking about the ghost logo. I think ghost is just because it's kind of unique in in the metal world. It has the illusions to like uh let's see if I can find an actual Here, we'll click on something. This might be a mistake. Target. Apparently, they sell it at Target. So, I mean, what could go wrong? Uh, so I think their logo has a lot of those like illusions to metal type stuff, but there's just like a cleanliness to it. It's still legible. So I think that makes it also right for their like more pop oriented demographic. And it's just it looks great. It has an inverted cross in it, which you've got like a lot of people who are not normal metal people

now wearing like logos with an inverted cross in it, which is like a very like old black metal from like Scandinavian black metal kind of thing. You're like, that's crazy. I never would have imagined that. You see like uh just like normal suburban kids rocking those and it's so cool that they can they can create that. Um, okay. So, we talked about niche, audience, the willingness to kind of like really hone in on who you're passionate about. And I think one other uh one other thing that they they start to do by like creating those like that niche and that audience, they also are really good at world building. And I think world building is like a thing that this is like a term that's becoming a little more popular as like video games and that kind of thing start uh start coming out into the world more often and like just gain in popularity. They do world building is just that like you creating the world that you want your brand, your company, your metal band to exist within. So the the best way to

kind of start that first is like set the boundaries of it. like is this a magical world? You do this with books all the time where it's like oh like Lord of the Rings, there's magic. The world is like there's elves over here, there's orcs over here and all of those different things that starts creating like that world. And so metal bands are super good at doing this. Uh like for for example the bandada who uh this is a photo of them those guys they're like a whole a whole part of their uh of their thing is like every time they speak on their Instagram it is always spoken of every concert is a communion. It is not a concert. It is like a gathering. It is like it is never just a concert. It is like followers joining them on their on this journey together. And that creates this whole like really spooky dark pagan mindset that I think is really really strong and works with them. And they have like little things like this like you're seeing on the screen now where they just have a rule that you never see

their face and anytime. Yes, Twitch. We need we need more mystery. Yeah, I think we do need more mystery. I agree. Uh, and I think this whole uh they like Yata I love they have this look where it's just a rule. This is like their part of their world building and their lore is that every photo of them if you could see their face they put their left hand over it. And so it's like you know the left hand, it's the evil hand. It's all those things. And it's just such a good detail. They're super consistent with it. everything they post online always comes from that perspective and I I just I love all of that so much. Um I think you know I think what the good thing about that like that world building does is that the more and more you kind of focus into that kind of like creating this world of mystery that you really own you you then start kind of like creating your own identity through a belief system. Like I mean we all like we're all supposed to say we believe in

something like as a company but like I mean as we know like some companies struggle with communicating that belief and by creating this world it really just steeps everything in it and it's like it roots it in like a deep belief system not something that's created by focus groups and committee decisions. And I think that that's like the huge power of world building and lore. And one example of that is for like the way we've implemented the idea of world building is with Rainineer Beer. We've done work for them for years. We did their big rebrand years ago, but and Reineer Beer had this uh they had this old uh Rainineer Beer had this like old uh old painting. I'll see if Oh, man. I Let's see if I can find it. It's it's it's a painting of a barbarian fighting a yeti. And it like immediately created this world of uh of lore for them that I think is just unbelievable. I'll try and get it on screen here. Okay, here you go. You can kind of see it. So, this is from Oh, boy. I I should

know this. Late 70s, early 80s. I'm totally blanking. hand painted in the traditional fantasy style. So, this is a legendary image from Reineer. Uh, I want every single Reineer ad to be this. But, so what we did over the time we've been working with them, we started then building this world out. So, there's this is called the Beerbarian. Uh, get it. And, uh, he's always fighting the Yeti, but we started uh they also have uh this whole this creature. You can see the uh the bottle with legs here. They call those wild reineers. They roam the mountain and forests of Mount Reineer. And we then also established this. Yes, Nick the Beerbarian. Oh, and Aaron with it. 1976. He knew the exact year. Good. Good job. Uh and so we started building this whole other world of characters. Um, and my favorite, of course, is who we call Kandalf the Gold, which is the wizard that reigns supreme over Mount Reineer. And we just kind of keep building into that world. And, uh, I'll just say

you're going to see the old the Rheads be added into the lore. If you're a if you're a Rainineer beer friend from the 70s or 80s, we're bringing back some old characters from their past and adding them into the mythology. So, that's world building. That's the lore. that is like all that stuff creates things that like passionate fans can like really latch on to. Um, and that's like that's when you start selling like swag of these things when you start getting p seeing people get like goofy ass tattoos. And I keep trying to push everyone at Parliament to get a rainier beer tattoo, but maybe we should do it someday. So, okay. some other some bands that I think I want to talk about just like lore and that world building just for a second longer because I want to give show you some examples of bands I think do it really awesome. So there's another band here called uh I showed them for a second called Griema. Assume that's how it's pronounced. I don't know. They're another black metal

band. Um but they're in that vein of like this is that niche thing. They're like very like eco-minded. They're all about like green earth and so a lot of their like vibe comes from this like creepy forest vibe. There's another popular metal band called Wolves in the Throne Room that is in this thing. They're a little more popular, so you might know them if you're a metal head. Uh but Griema just has this look where whenever you see them, they have these like wood face masks. Uh their singer always has these like branch hands and they appear on stage like this. And I think just like the fact that they commit to the bit, this is always their thing. It's like you always know when you're seeing Griema and their albums, when you look at all their album covers, their album covers all commit to that as well. like their paintings. They're um there are some photographs and they are really really good at just communicating this like pagan uh spooky forest vibe and really reiterating that

face. Like that face has kind of become their logo more than any of their logos is. And that's another like part of that world building is like it gives you a lot of other signifiers that you you can uh that you can point out like your brand with. So, so they're another band. They're bands that I think are great at it. I already talked about UATA. They like the way they commit to that messaging. And I think the other So, like diving further into like messaging, voice, and tone of these uh these bands. I talked a little bit earlier about how a fun thing about metal bands are like how intensely self-aware they are of the way they speak about their brand. So, you know, when you're when you're a band that looks like this, when you look like Griema, you are both deadly serious and there's always seems to be like a touch of like, are you in on the joke? are you are you if you know that whole like if you know you know kind of thing and all of these bands then are like speak from that voice of

being just like deadly serious and I it's and what that does is that just like amplifies that whole world even more so like that's what I was talking about with you like concerts are communions they're they're seances they're like they're gatherings it's not just about like hey we're showing up to your down like come blow us up like it's truly like come like join the gathering kind of thing and it just establishes this rapid fan base that you can't get by like speaking in a normal way. I think that's something that like a lot of like companies can learn from. It's like you don't have to like speak in this like super casual thing like you should double down what your brand archetype is. A lot of these brand a lot of these metal bands are definitely like an outlaw archetype. they're like against something a lot of the time. So like that's what they're always doing. Like it's not about normaly. It's not about this thing. So like it's okay to

be weird and interesting and ugly sometimes. Uh and like also to speak that way to like say things that you wouldn't expect them to say. So all of these things just like amp up that identity and communicates your belief system. I think one uh let's let's hop into then like I think one big challenge uh one big challenge I think that metal bands do face though is that we don't like to think of it but like metal is actually kind of now an older conservative genre of music and I think this is worth comparing to a lot of like old guard businesses that have been around a long time you kind of start understanding the rhythm of them. You start understanding the way they all look. When you think of like how old like corporate like tech companies all looked the same at some point, they end up running like even metal bands face a problem with differentiation from each other. They're really good at that niche part. But one challenge with the niche when you start focusing in on like we do this

type of black metal, these this there's all these signifiers that are understood by the people who are into that genre of thing. They're like if you're into black metal, you start seeing a lot of logos that look like this Grema one like this thing where oh boy that's that's a terrible image. Like this one where it ends up like looking just like a bunch of branches or something, you know? It's like there's like memes that you've seen all over the internet probably if you if you stumble across this where it's like new black metal logo just dropped and it's just a pile of branches on the ground cuz like anyone who's into black metal knows like oh that's it I might be in it. But the problem is is that like that always puts you in immediate comparison with those other bands which as we know can often be bad. Like you don't want to you don't want to be like immediately compared to someone else. So there's been a lot of bands who have

played with that like your expectations of what you think a uh of what you think a metal band should be. One example I mean honestly Ghost they showed up at the beginning. Ghost is a great example of that like that you expect them to be this like hard scary thing and they're totally pop music. That's their differentiator. And they do something that no one else has done really successfully. And it shows that you can kind of like twist the like the recipe that made you just a little bit to like get it more focused and attract more people. And I think for for companies this is always one of the hardest things that like differentiation that like positioning of like we do this for this niche of people and like this is the one unique thing that sets us apart. That's one of the most challenging things to do. And I think we're often afraid to do that because by doing that you're rejecting a lot of like, you know, like Ghost is rejecting a lot of the hardcore metal people who would only be into them

if their music sounded like the way they look. And so that gets like scary for a lot of companies, but that's kind of like the great the truly great brands understand that and are like we have to make that leap. And so Ghost made that leap. Um there's some other bands I don't have any imagery up for them. There's another brand called Zeal and Aror that is great. Um I'll I'll find something for them really fast because uh you're so they also a lot of great symbolism and uh but Zealart is this metal band that fuses like American like southern uh or like American southern roots folk music. So you hear like metal music combined with like the classic folk music from like often like um the songs that like enslaved people sang in the US and it's just like inspired by that incredible mix of genres where it's like as soon as it happens you're just like what is happening here? Like these shouldn't be mixed and somehow it's like creates this really big fan base that

like is looking for something different. Um, some other bands I think that have really like that have really zigged while other metal bands zagged. Uh, there's this there's a band that's like legendary in the metal world named Sun. Sun isn't in itself just like a a great example of like uh mixing a lot of the stuff I've talked about like pop references with like pagan occult scary imagery and um Sun does it great. So Sun, a little background for them. Sun. This logo for Sun is actually directly stolen from an amplifier company, a guitar amp company that's from the 70s and 80s that a lot of just like metal head nerdy like the guys who are into tone and the and the girls who are into just like I want my guitar to do this. Um, so this was like the official amplifier of this like genre of like kind of stoner uh metal heads and and so they just straight up stole the logo, stole the name, and now they're this huge massive band. But the reason it's like a a good reference for

them, it's like pulling from pop culture and the sound of their music is they got popular because their songs are 20 minutes long and it's often just like a few notes of heavily distorted guitars like stretched out over that time like long droning like they really really like cut to the essence of like what metal music can be where it's just it's about the distortion. It's about extreme noise. And I mean, they've even shown like they mix in a trumpet. You see that on here? And but they take metal to this place where it is almost like its purest form of it. And then they do it all while like looking like these uh these spooky guys in uh Oops, sorry. Here. These they all look like spooky guys in hoods. And when they play shows, they're only ever like completely shrouded in fog. you can't see them. So, there's been a lot of consistency in like all these bands. Probably says more about me and the type of bands that I like, but they all have this kind of like alter egos where

they're like in cloaks. They live amongst the fog. And but their unique thing is just they pushed metal to a different uh to like kind of a different place it had never been. And this is their aesthetic on everything. Um they're much more like ethereal feeling in a lot of their artwork. and it really gets this like more like dronebased almost spiritual connection to metal. So that's what made them unique. And in that same vein of like what spiritual metal can be, uh there's maybe one of my favorite bands on earth. There's a band named Yob. Uh they're from Eugene, Oregon. We all love we all love Yob. So, um, Yob is just their whole thing is like I mean they're kind of a bunch of like I mean this in the nicest way. They're a bunch of old hippies from Eugene. Eugene, Oregon has this like if for anyone who doesn't know, it is like a destination college town of uh of just like that attracted this like specific genre of hippies throughout time. Oh yeah, Aaron Aaron says favorite band

name Yab. I agree. Three letters, it's all you need. Erin, your parents are from Eugene. Hippies from Eugene. Yes. Uh, and they have this whole other approach where like you go to their website is like their website is yobislove.com and but their music is still this like like it's in it's in conversation with sun. It's more f a little more fast-paced, but it is like this long droning often spiritual thing. And their their singer leans into that in the world building aspect of like every single time he comes out uh on the stage, he does like a little like prayer with his hands in the air and like kind of establishes this thing. The only thing he talks about like in between songs is like the appreciation of one another and like how great it is to have like this kind of shared communal loving experience through music. And something about that is just like completely outside of where we think normal metal goes because like normal metal like a lot of time we think like oh it's

aggressive, it's scary, it's um and I mean some of that even goes all the way back to like where metal started with like Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, like those guys were scary, you know? Uh but like it turns out that metal can also be lovely and like emotional in a way that uh and like like thoughtfully sad even. And so I think that's they've pushed it to a place where a lot of other bands uh haven't been able to go. So um but I think that's kind of like that is the one thing that then is worth uh says Aaron feels very close to Yob. Yep. I mean who isn't close to Yob? So, this is kind of then like all right, uh, if anyone in chat any questions, I've been talking a lot. Um, or if there's any any metal bands you just want to know, uh, arbitrary facts about, I've probably got those, too, unless it's like disturbed or something. But so to kind of just like do a little to do a little just like recap of some of this stuff. Uh it's okay to just like establish this

uh establish these boundaries of who you want your brand to be. Like nail that like nail down that niche like we target this kind of passionate fan. Um, I think there's like a great example that we've talked about in the Parliament studio a lot of uh there's a story about Q-Tips the brand we all know Q-Tips and like they are so good about their niche and knowing their audience but they at some point figured out that like you know they sell millions and millions of products but they found there's like one super consumer that like buys like 90% of all their product up and so like that's all the person they focus on like everyone else is just like it's nice that people buy it, but they're like this is for this one hardcore Q-tip user. Like this person is passionate about using Q-tips every for every cleaning and every possible thing in their life. Uh and that is like them nailing their niche. And so a bunch of these metal bands have done the same thing where it's just like you know what

we are this like pagan occult scary uh metal band and that's like we do not want anybody who's not into that cuz like the more you focus in on that the stronger your base gets. And then think about how like your brand can get into world building as well. It's like once you get into that like that style of uh that style of world building, you can start creating this whole like imaginary place where your brand exists and you start creating rules about like how to communicate, what to communicate. You can like create uh like narratives that your like hardcore fans become obsessed with. Oh, Aaron asks, "Which well-known metal band could use better branding?" Oh. Which metal band could use better branding? I mean, I think there's for me, I think there's a lot of like the era of like new metal bands where um but they also still nail it, but that's more my own personal preference. Um, but I think a lot of metal bands, that's one of the challenges. Like, you

know, I'm talking about some people here who are kind of like in the upper echelons of metal, whatever that means. You know, that just means they maybe just quit their day job. Nobody's getting super rich playing a lot of the types of metal I just talked about. But they it's their job. Like there's beneath that there's a whole like local like music scene just like with every like company. Like with companies, there's always this few who rise to the top and there's just a whole slew where it's like this company looks like this company looks like this company. They're trying to riff off of this company and just none of that works. They don't stand out. And I think a lot of a lot of like that applies to just branding everywhere. when it's whether it's metal bands, whether it's tech companies, it's like when you're too when you're too concerned about referencing your own competition rather than creating your own world and creating your own

identity, that's when you just start becoming this blah nothing. Like for every one band I've shown you here, there's like a million other metal bands of these genres that just kind of like do the bare minimum, kind of reference other bands, don't really look like they own their own image. And um I should know I was in one of those metal bands when I was young. So um okay, Nick asks, "Do you know of any metal bands that have changed their niche? Like when Taylor Swift went from country to pop?" Oh god. Um I mean there's some there's uh which they have a really intense name. There's a band that I really loved for a long time uh named Heave Blood and Die. Uh they certainly have a name. Heave Blood and Die. I think they're a UK based band. They put out a couple albums that are in that like doom metal slow droney screaming genre and then they switched like at some point they didn't put out an album for like two years and then they switched and now

they're kind of totally this like indie rock band. Like something happened. There's like dancy elements. There's normal melodic singing. There's not really screaming anymore. It has almost this like occasionally screo emo whisper to it now. So, I don't know what happened there, but they're they're a really interesting band where their whole aesthetic changed everything. I think they put out like three albums looking like this severe metal band and they completely switched it and now they looked almost like an indie band. Uh, so I think that was like a really interesting surprise to me. And I mean, who knows? They're probably bigger for it now. Uh sir asked, "Did their branding change when they changed?" Yeah, absolutely. Every every aspect of them changed. Their name is the same. They're still Heave Blood and Die, which is hilarious, but now there's like their album covers are colorful and it looks like more of that like maybe millennial era indie

rock aesthetic. So, uh so I think that's kind of like I think that was just a very interesting change for them. I mean, I know there's definitely been like a lot of like uh there's definitely been like metal bands. Even like Ghost in this as an example, like Ghost in their first couple albums actually sounded a little more metal. It was still pop, but as they've gotten bigger and bitter over time, like Ghost is selling out arenas now, which is just also insane to me. I can't imagine like the fact that there's like a guy dressed like an evil pope on an arena is just crazy. Uh, but I think that's like the uh that's the fact that like something about them they knew like to get to that big upper echelon of like popular bands, they had to just push a little bit like their songs are a little bit more like pop hookbased. They're a little bit more uh just a little bit more like straightforward in a way. They're a little less screaming, a little less angryish feeling.

So they kind of did that big switch as well. Um, so then I think then like you know other things to just be mindful of is that like that messaging voice and tone aspect like none of these bands are afraid to speak the way they want their fans to hear them sound. Um, you know, they aren't trying to sound like professional buttoned up. Like people expect them when you look like a scary band with your left hand over your face all the time like you ought to. they expect you to be like come to the gathering as opposed to like hey guys come to our concert like I think uh that just kind of like they like their fans are such fans it's given them permission to do that and that's because of the whole identity and the whole world that they built. So definitely don't be afraid to just focus your messaging in that way. Like go a little further than you think you should because like your niche, your audience that's like really passionate about what you do, they're going to get it. Um, so

that's always just like I mean we always we always talk about our our motto at Parliament is be brave, stand apart. And I think that's like an perfect example of where it happens is like sometimes you push up to that edge and you're like should we go there? And like usually it's good to just go a little step beyond that. Just a little. You know, this is this is also basically a conversation I feel like I've had with Nick, our copywriter, many times and be like, we we can go weirder. It can get it can get more distinct. It can get a little a little bit crazier. All right. any anything new in chat over here? Aaron Aaron saying he now has a bull cut. We need more We need more metal bands with bull cuts. I think that's a thing we could we could probably all get into. Just uh imagine just like the most brutal heavy band, sweaty, gy, but then it's just like the nicest little like '9s bull cut. I mean, that's probably a thing now. I don't know. I mean, I think that's like an

interesting thing too of like the genre of metal. I think I I mentioned this earlier is like the genre of metal is like old now. It has like a tradition and so anything you're doing is like both accepting that tradition and also trying to deny it to separate yourself from it. But it's crazy to think that like this type of extreme metal is, you know, 50 years old. So, it's like blues music where there's like standards that you uh you align with and like this is the same way with branding. Like there's best standards uh and like gold standards for things but then what what actually separates you from those is like how you delineate yourself from those best standard or best practices and gold standards. So that's always that's always like uh we give that advice to brands all the time. It's like, you know what? We we hear you. We hear that you say you want to like align with best practices, but nobody ever did anything innovative by sticking to best practices. You always

have to put like your little spin on it, and that's how you stand apart and differentiate yourself. Aaron, if Parliament was a metal band, what would it be? Uh, if Parliament was a metal band, I feel like it would be we have such like you I mean we have such a group of mixed music in a I feel like it would be like if you mixed yacht rock with spaghetti western and then distortion. So, I'm trying to think of like what what kind of band would that sound like? Uh, it's like somehow you're like chugging Bud Lights on a yacht somewhere. I feel like that's the that's kind of like the aesthetic of it. That's like the There's a uh there's a band uh for anyone who knows they're they're a Portland band. There's a band named Red Fang and they're in the genre of like stoner metal. Uh I'll show you here what they look like. They're in the genre of stoner metal and their whole aesthetic was that they're just like uh I mean they're they're just like normal party metal

heads who just like all their music videos were them like driving a car through massive stacks of PBR cans and stuff like that. So like their their aesthetic was like, "Yeah, we're just like have fun good time stoner metal band and uh like everything that comes along with that. It's just like we're stoners. We like to drink cheap PBR. We like to party and we make metal about it." And I mean they're incredible. Look up Red Fang. I should actually add them to it because they like they nailed their aesthetic. They had great music videos. Look up Red Fang. You'll you'll have an amazing time. So, all right. I think we just we just covered a lot. That was a lot of stuff. Um, so I think let's get into then I'll give you a little tease on what we're doing next week then. So, uh, I think this will kind of be the the vibe of the show. We'll just take it easy. We'll talk through some fun things. Um, but so next week I'm going to a completely

different world that I think I'm going to talk about. And next week I want to talk about the the grayification of fast food or let's use the hip term everyone is using right now about the internet. The inshitification of fast food. And this is something that I have been uh my wife makes fun of me because I'm notoriously grumpy anytime I go into a fast food place and now it's just they're all tech companies. They're all boring. And so, um, we're going to dig into that, what happened, and, uh, kind of remember the good old days when there was a Play Palace at McDonald's and all of those things. So, that's going to be next week. Talk about if there's anybody doing it right. And, uh, there's definitely, I think brandwise, a lot of people doing it wrong and kind of like losing their heritage there. So, we're going to talk a lot next week a lot about like heritage, brand equity, and what happens over time as you, uh, inshitify your product. So, um, all right. I think that's I

think that's going to be all for everyone. So, uh, thanks for coming. That's You're Not the Audience. We're going to do this every Thursday. It'll probably be noon every Thursday. Uh, do the whole like and subscribe thing, uh, so you get updates on it. I'll always put up a little preview for it whenever it uh whenever it starts at or to give you a little alert when uh it's going to happen. And so I think uh I'll see you next week. Thanks for the stream everybody. I think this was this was a really good time. Thanks a bunch.