The signal is here.
This is Blood Chain Radio.
All right, we are live.
Welcome, gentle pioneers, to the Lightning Laced Airwaves.
This is the first episode of 2026, episode 144 of Pleb Chain Radio.
Today is Friday, the 2nd of January, and it is 12.15 p.m.
on the East Coast of the United States
at the time of recording.
We have a fun one ahead of you.
Noah Grumman and Lahav Cliffshark,
I'm pretty sure that's his last name,
my good friends from Scardust are here
and looking forward to that conversation.
Don't miss our Value for Value music segment
coming up later in the show.
90% of your boosts during the song
will go directly to the artist.
And all the more reason, folks,
that if you are listening to the show
on Apple or Spotify,
switch over to the Fountain Podcasting app
where you can earn some stats
and support the value for value revolution
while you listen.
And while you're there,
I would appreciate it
if you hit that subscribe button.
Your support goes a long way
in keeping my mic warm
and this podcast ad-free.
This show is being streamed live from my self-hosted streaming server and because of the magic of NIP53, is available on any NOSTA client that supports streaming such as Amethyst, NOSTA, Fountain, Primal and NOSTA.
If you've been listening to the show for a while, you probably noticed that the intro was different today.
That is by design
Over the last few weeks
I realized that for too long
This show has felt like we were broadcasting from a polite hotel lobby
Safe, clean, comfortable
But 2026 isn't about comfort
It's about signal
This year, Plep Chain Radio will evolve from a single show into a network
First, I'm launching a new show under the Plep Chain Radio umbrella called Sunday Brunch on January the 11th.
This is a weekly format where I invite a guest to be the DJ.
They pick their favorite value-for-value tracks and we just hang out.
We talk life, philosophy, and culture in the gaps between the music.
It's the decompression chamber for your week.
much like a conversation you would expect to have at brunch on a Sunday.
Second, for the builders, I'm introducing a new show again under the Plep Chain Radio umbrella
called Say What?
A fortnightly technical deep dive dedicated exclusively to Web of Trust.
Stay tuned for the first episode of that series.
And finally, I'm opening the doors.
You're going to hear new voices on this feed as I bring in guest hosts to take the mic.
I'm building a decentralized signal, and that means more than just my voice.
Of course, the regular Friday show will carry on, as always.
Speaking of changing things up, last week I launched a new segment for the show, Your Dissenting Sats.
This is where if you, the listener, disagrees with anything I say in the sermon, you let me hear it through a boost.
If you think I'm naive or I missed a fatal flaw, boost in and attack the argument.
The highest value counterpoints get airtime on the next episode.
So let's hear last week's entries.
That sermon was about how RSS and NOSTA are two complementary halves of a sovereign nervous system.
The first one, Chad F. with 33,333 sats, who says,
RSS will always be superior because it lets you do live concerts like this
and then upload them to the feed so they live forever.
The live concert here is SoBig January 9th at 7 Central
And the URL is BoostBeach.live
B-O-O-S-T-B-E-A-C-H dot live
Chad F. understands your dissenting sats
And how we're converting the boost segment into Fight Club
Well played Chad
And the second boost is from the Two Angry Cuts podcast with 2,222 sats, who says,
It's very simple. Musicians require exposure by all means.
Never decentralize oneself into oblivion and poverty.
Use all the tools, and the tools require simplicity for larger scale usage.
My two sats. Thank you for that boost.
And for our sermon today, it is the architecture of awe.
Welcome to 2026.
The calendar has rolled over.
The block height has sticked up as it always does.
And we stand here once again at the foot of a mountain called the future.
In the fiat world, this is the season of empty resolutions.
Cheap promises made to be broken by February.
It's a culture obsessed with the minimum viable product
Fast food, fast fashion, fast content
We are drowning in a sea of good enough
We're told that efficiency is the highest virtue
That if we could do it quicker, cheaper, and with less friction, you won
So we flattened our architecture into glass boxes
We flattened our money into digital entries on a central server
We flattened our art into 15-second loops designed to be consumed while scrolling on a toilet.
But the human spirit starves on a diet of efficiency.
The cathedrals of Europe weren't built because they were efficient.
The great symphonies weren't composed because they were the path of least resistance.
They were done to manifest awe.
Awe is expensive.
Awe requires proof of work.
It requires a low time preference, the willingness to plant trees whose shade you might never sit under, and lay foundations for towers you might not see finished.
So let this be the rallying cry for this year then.
Let 2026 be the year we reject the minimum viable and return to the maximum possible.
Hope is not a passive emotion.
Hope is not sitting around waiting for the world to get better.
Hope is a construction project.
It is the act of looking at the chaos, the noise, and the entropy of the world,
and imposing a beautiful, undeniable order upon it.
To create something lasting, whether it's a sovereign money, a censorship-resistant protocol,
or a piece of art that moves the soul, you have to reject the shortcut.
You have to be willing to weave a thousand threads of sound into a single harmony.
You have to look at the raw, messy footage of reality and have the patience to cut and grade and refine until the truth shines through in 4K resolution.
We're here to build the cathedral again, to make things that are heavy, intense, beautiful, things that command your attention rather than just stealing it.
We're starting this year with high resolution.
And to help us set that standard, we're joined by my good friends, two builders who embody that vision.
Noah and Lahav, welcome back to Pleb Chain Radio.
Hello.
Hello. Good morning.
It is good morning somewhere.
Yes, on the lightning-laced airwaves, which is the best phrase.
that's great so how was maybe we'll start with you know how was 2025 for you looking back
a roller coaster for sure so a lot of uh fresh starts and
uh evolution of uh a lot of my musical endeavors
A lot of heartbreaks as well.
So it was not boring, that's for sure.
I think that sums it up, actually.
Noah, you've returned from a massive tour just a couple of weeks back
where you were playing in front of, what, 20,000, 30,000 people in the audience.
How was that?
It was one of the projects I call a fresh start
because it was a first tour, hopefully, out of more to come.
Nothing official has yet to be announced,
but we all want this to continue.
It's called The Legendary Orchestra,
and it's a project by the band Sabaton,
a power metal band from Sweden
who's been around for, I think, around 25 years.
And they are the kind of bands who fill arenas,
like you say, 15, 20, 25,000 people per show, per evening.
And they always come up with these grandiose ideas
and give them life.
And this was one of them.
So they had this idea to start an orchestra.
And the orchestra plays sabaton songs.
And the orchestra has a choir.
And it has three soloists.
You have a folk musician, Patty Gertie.
You have a violinist, Mia Asano.
and you have me on lead vocals and conducting.
And so we built this, you know, full Sabaton evening
where you have the orchestra performing around 70 minutes,
then a smooth transition into a big theater show with actors
and, you know, costumes and all kinds of pyrotechnics and crazy stuff.
And then it moves on to the Sabaton set where the choir from the orchestra and myself join in.
And it's just a full three hours long evening, every single evening and all over Europe.
Yeah, so definitely an adventure.
And I just came back like a couple of weeks ago.
Were you playing at these packed amphitheaters or theaters even on a daily basis?
Almost, yeah
That must have been exhausting
Kind of, yes and no, because you get into a rhythm
And this is what you do, this is what you're there for
So you kind of wire yourself
to this touring mode, which I love.
Yeah, well, you know, you were posting a few photos throughout
and I don't think you could play the music, right,
because of rights, presumably.
But the photos looked incredible.
Thank you.
Great. Well, congratulations on that.
Lahav, how was your 2025?
Wow. What a question. I haven't even thought about it. Well, between which war and which war? It's like the Bitcoin price, I think. It goes all over the place and then it just dies and plateaus.
then you have a huge stupid thing that sets you back in life Yeah So we had three wars and one Bitcoin Film Fest And it seems like a decade ago really
Getting into Nostra.
Was it only this year?
I mean, wow.
I mean, last year.
Last year.
Yeah, wow.
And I don't know, here we are.
we're just continuing.
We just need to file taxes for last year, I guess.
And keep pioneering like we want to.
You know, it was only last year that both of you
and then Skardust, the band itself, joined Nostra.
It was fresh from the epic music video for R.I.P.
that you'd created.
When was that? That was early in
2025, I think.
That was actually a year ago.
No, it was January.
January and then it came out in April? I don't remember.
It came out in January.
I'm almost certain, but let me
double check.
Because sometimes videos
are already ready and they sit on the
shelf for a few months.
Did you know that you...
Yep.
January 28th.
Wow. Well, time...
2025.
I think I said that last time we were on Plep Chain Radio.
I don't remember time by time.
It's only the Bitcoin price.
So there's no dates.
Block time and the price.
Remember when it was...
Well, if you remember time by Bitcoin price,
we're back in late 2024 then.
Yeah, memories, yeah.
so how you know that that video came out in january i only saw it sometime in march
i think and that was because uh our friend richard greaser featured it on his podcast
or might have been sometime in february actually and then had both of you on that's how i found
out about it and found out about scardust actually shout out to richard
richard greaser he's a good man yes yes that is for sure yes i actually had the pleasure of
meeting him in person um a few months back and uh he looks exactly like his profile pic and sounds
like it too uh so you know what surprised me most about that video which i loved by the way so if
anyone who's listening who hasn't seen that video,
you can go to YouTube, type in Scardust, RIP,
two separate words,
and I'm pretty sure the video will be at the top there.
And it tells the story, as you imagine it,
of Satoshi Nakamoto's Last Days.
And it's a brilliant song just by itself.
And I think both the song and the video go very well together.
But what really surprised me...
Yeah, no.
I said this when we had you on the show.
When was it?
Sometime in April of last year.
Well, what has surprised me is that video and the song itself,
they've not captured the Bitcoiner imagination
as much as I expected it would.
I mean, you know, we've had a few months to sort of sit on it
and think about it and observe trends and so on.
Why do you think that happened?
It's funny, you know.
I wanted to say when you said go watch it.
I mean, we do know about quite a few high profile individuals who have seen the video and are aware of it, but no one seems to be talking about it or spreading it around, which I guess is to do with the not not everyone's cup of tea of type of music it is.
But still, we do know that it has been watched by people.
But yeah.
Yeah, I was about to say when you said go watch it, disclaimer, this is our most extreme song out there.
And Scardist has a pretty wide range of, how would you call that, colors.
So we can go super pop ballad Disney Princess all the way to extreme songs like Rip, where you get time signature changes, key changes, extreme vocals like growls and screams and all kinds of technical shenanigans on all the instruments.
And so we know that this is not everyone's cup of tea, but it kind of goes hand in hand with Bitcoin for us.
So, yeah, this is why this and the lyrics, obviously, are why we picked this to be the Bitcoin video for now.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, so I'd say this might be the reason why it's not reached a wider audience, because I don't think there is a wide audience to this kind of music yet.
And I'm emphasizing the word yet, because this is what they also said about Bohemian Rhapsody, right?
Yes, like Richard said.
too long it's too complicated there is too many parts um and look at it now right it's the the
most legendary song in rock history or one of the top you know so this is why i emphasize the word
yet so you're saying no the rip was the tree you planted whose shade you might never sit in
sit on though um let's see you know but we have a lot more um ideas that you know new music that
we're working on um and like i said scardist has many many different colors and a lot of
like i said a lot of ideas so there is a lot to look forward to and you know maybe maybe some more
Bitcoin or
you know, Bitcoin inspired
songs in the future
Oh, I love that
I just still want to get back to what you were saying about
RIP. Maybe it's just because
I've been listening to this style
of music for so long that I'm
I don't notice these things
It didn't seem
extreme to me
But it's interesting that you think that could
be the reason why
why it wasn't shared
more broadly amongst Bitcoiners
because of the time signatures,
because of the strange
chord progressions or the non-standard
chord progression and the growls
and so on.
Are you saying
that Bitcoin is not metal?
Oh, Bitcoin is definitely
metal.
What are the people doing then? This is not a metal mindset.
I think they need some time.
I'm like you
I mean I heard
Scarlet for the first time it sounded just regular
normal I mean it was great
nothing odd about it
but yeah it took me a lot of time
to get to the realization
most people just find it
jarring at first
maybe you need to listen to it a few times
at least if you're not into it
and then you maybe start
understanding it which is not very
first-listen-oriented, I guess.
Yeah.
We did a little experiment a few days or weeks ago.
I don't remember.
But we asked the fans on some social media platforms,
what was your gateway to Scardust?
What was the first song who got you into Scardust?
And most of them, or a big part of them,
wrote some ballad.
So they started out with like a more ear-friendly
kind of wider audience kind of song.
But then, you know, they built their way up
to songs like Rip, for example.
Yeah, it's certainly fascinating to me.
I thought you were about to say
the evolution of the Disney princess
was the song that
was the gateway for people
for some yeah for some
for sure
oh wow I was actually joking
yeah
but for anybody who's
a little rock oriented
Arrowhead is the
gateway
and Lahav you said
something about that
So the song Arrowhead, which is on your Sands of Time album, correct, Noah?
Yes.
There's a beginning and I've heard it so many times now.
And I'd never really thought about the opening sound in Arrowhead.
And Lahav, you said that was crickets.
That blew my mind.
I said, wow.
I've listened to this so many times.
It never struck me that the song starts with crickets.
I think it was a cricket simulation, but yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
not actual creepers supposed to give the vibe of a nighttime attack or something yeah
nice well so you know in 2025 you also know you launched um through scardust right which
fair to say that's your main band right you were touring with uh with sabaton and the legendary
orchestra but scardust is your primary band correct it is yes uh you you released your
third album is that correct yeah or third and a half depend depends on how you look at it because
we also have a an ep so yeah third album third full album but fourth release
and how was how is the reception for that one been yeah so uh the title of the album is souls
and we released it in July.
Not this year, no, 2025.
I'm so used to saying this year.
And so reactions have been great.
There is a but though,
because normally when a band releases an album,
they tour to promote it.
And then they get, you know, there is like, they build a hype around the release of the album.
And we didn't really get to do that, unfortunately.
So hopefully this will happen in 2026.
Do you want to talk about why you couldn't tour?
Well, it's been...
You don't have to.
Yeah, but we can. We can mention that, you know, it's been, it's okay. It's unpopular to be where we're from at the moment. We're from Israel and a lot of promoters and booking agents.
it's just not
it's just not financially
it doesn't make sense financially
for them to
work with
you know an Israeli band
it doesn't matter what they
feel about it
it just matters whether they'll sell tickets or not
or whether they will need to hire more
security
at their venues
etc
luckily
or, you know, I don't know if luck has anything to do with it, actually,
but things have started to get a bit better,
or so I want to believe, at least.
So we already have some touring plans for 26.
So hopefully this was just a matter of a little hurdle that we can now...
For us, it feels like another COVID.
Yeah, or worse than COVID because we're the only ones who really suffered from it.
But yeah.
Same vibe.
So you would have plans for tours and then at the last minute,
the promoter would say we're actually canceling it.
Was it that extreme?
It was even worse.
I mean, you just get cold shoulder everywhere and you, yeah.
Yeah, well, I say the world kind of divided into two types of people.
Those who just, you know, told to our faces,
we cannot work with you right now because of the situation.
And the other half were just cold shoulders
and people who started ghosting us or just you know disappeared which is worse I think
And I'd rather just, you know, hear the reason and then at least know what the problem is.
but then for
26 we
realized that
we have to
just do it ourselves for now
it's not easy but building
a DIY kind of
tour and
it is coming up in Europe
so stay tuned
because it's going to be
announced soon, this is an announcement
of an announcement
wait so when you say diy as you know maybe for my benefit uh noab because i i don't understand how
band tours and all of that work right the machinery behind so are they typically some
kind of promoters or fixers who take care of everything and when and so when you say diy
you have to play the part of the promoter and fixer and all of that basically yeah yeah so i'm
not an expert, but in most cases you have an agent, a booking agent, and they work with
the promoters and the promoters work with the venues. So the band doesn't have to deal
with any of these. They just basically show up. When you do a DIY tour, you need to have
all these different hats yourself or, you know, your team has to at least. And then
the problem is that a lot of the venues don't want to work with bands. They want to work with
the promoter and the promoter wants to work with the booking agent. So that's why it's way more
challenging, at least in Europe. I don't know how it is in the US actually, but I know in Israel,
it's pretty easy, but in Europe, it's very challenging. So it sounds like a complicated
network of intermediaries who have their own way of operating. Very fiat, no?
Oh, extremely fiat. We can get to that.
Well, let's get to it.
Wow.
Music industry fiat.
Maybe I'll start with saying that, yeah, there are a lot of plans for 2026.
If you asked about 2025 and we had no answers, I mean, everything built up to 26.
Maybe it sounds familiar.
Yeah.
So there's also the U.S., Noah.
First show in the U.S. for Scardust.
First show in Prague Power U.S. in September.
And when it sold out.
Sorry, it sold out.
is it really?
oh yeah
maybe we should try and get
invited to stuff
in the area
for sure, so yeah we are
actually, we are looking for more
shows around the date
yeah it's in
Atlanta and I cannot
wait
so wait, if I show up
in Atlanta in September
for your show, I won't be able
I'll get bounced off
Avi, you'll be on the guest list.
Come on.
That's great.
Well, congratulations on securing that US tour.
And I don't know how many promoters or booking agents listen to this podcast.
But if you are, there are any in the audience.
Scardust is looking for more venues to play in the US when they're here in September.
Definitely.
Awesome.
So Lahav, let's continue.
Yes.
Fiat.
We had a conversation about this all day, actually.
So, yes, thinking about,
remember we were speaking about how expensive it is here where we live.
Yeah.
So it's even worse here than anywhere else, I think.
Probably the most expensive country right now.
And people here have to make ends meet, right?
So doing music, trying to make a living off of music in this fiat environment is first of all crazy because you're stuck in the fiat environment.
And the second reason is you have to participate in all this fiat nonsense industry.
So you get stuck in this loop.
Maybe Noah.
Yeah, so I mean, you're a musician.
what can you do to support your family?
You can teach, you can play gigs,
you can take jobs that have nothing to do with music,
like part-time things.
So you end up having like three different jobs
and your wife has her full-time job
and you need to support your family together.
when exactly will you have time for your band?
Now, you could say, okay, so at some point the band starts making money
because the band is getting bigger, right?
Exactly.
So at some point the band will be able to support you,
but how can you reach a point where the band is big enough to support you
if you don't spend enough time for your band?
because you work three jobs, right?
And when you don't work, you need to babysit and so on and so on.
And you're stuck in this loop.
Also, if the band doesn't get recognition from the industry
and actually opportunities.
So you have to play that game as well.
Meaning you can't play authentic music?
You have to play for the crowd?
I mean, catering to specific promoters or, I mean, you need to be financially, I mean, make sense for them.
And that means you have to put in the time in the band and you have to make some stuff that is, I don't know, more for the masses.
But putting that aside, yeah.
Sorry, no.
Yes, go ahead.
Yeah, no, and it also goes back to what we said earlier, that being where we're from, I feel, you know, and I've learned it the really hard way.
I feel like I have to work like a hundred times harder than people who live in other places just to get the same kind of opportunities.
And unfortunately, this is true.
So you find yourself, just work yourself to death, basically.
Not really, but you know what I mean.
And not even able to get your band to a place where it can support you.
This is very sad to hear.
I recognize this is a fairly common pattern.
It's not unique to Skardust.
I think there's the added complication in your case, right, with Israel and so on, which you faced in 2025 and hopefully are not going to face as much in 2026.
But, you know, as someone, as an enjoyer of good music, good art, when I listen to stuff like this, it's like,
if a society wants to have beautiful things like art, like music, you know, painting and so on,
there has to be a way in which we can sustainably sustain the creators, right?
There are true talents who can produce this so that they don't have to burn themselves out effectively.
And I wonder if that's where patrons come in, right?
People who've been fortunate in life
and then they step in and say,
look, I want to see this.
I want to see more of this, right?
I want to see more art and beauty in the world.
So I will step in and help out
because is there a sustainable business model
for a talented musician
to be able to support themselves
and do what they love?
That's the big question.
Yeah, if somebody, if you get an angel investor,
how is it financially logical?
It's a big question.
I think when you get to, you know,
sides like Sabaton, for example,
then yes, then it's a really good investment paid off,
but, you know, you need to get there.
And you cannot if everybody's stuck in the Fiat prison
and the band is stuck in the Fiat prison
and everything's just a loop of you can't get stuff to launch, I guess.
Yeah, bands that managed to get out of this loop are,
if I have to take an educated guess,
are bands who managed to do this either early on in their lives, age-wise,
or earlier when money was easier, I guess,
because we do live in an extremely expensive time.
And supporting a family in Israel is, like I said,
it's six full-time jobs, basically.
And I also wanted to bring up, sorry, Avi,
the topic of the podcasting 2.0 and Wavelake
and all the independent stuff that's going on
with the value for value.
Maybe if that's for later, then...
I was going to bring it up just as you...
Okay, yes.
Then yes.
Yeah, so actually let me ask you a question on that.
Because with Scardust,
you're in a slightly different position.
Exactly.
You have a label, right?
But there's so many independent artists, and I've had many on the show as well, who don't have a label and maybe have made a conscious choice in some cases.
I think there's Longhi, a British musician.
So Aaron of Essex was telling me that Longhi's actually made the conscious choice not to sign on to a label because of all the things in his specific case that he would have had to compromise.
in doing so, right?
And so people like that turn to some of these new tools
that are available,
Podcasting 2.0, Value for Value, right?
Fountain, where you could put your,
I don't know if you knew this, Lahav or Noah,
but you could actually put your music up on Fountain now.
They have a separate offering for musicians.
But it's probably the same problem that we're getting to, yeah.
I think it's a very similar problem,
which is you're relying on the generosity of your listeners.
And you might find one or two people who'll zap you 10,000, 20,000 sats,
but most people are going to be at the 100, 200 sats level, right?
So at most you'll make per song a few hundred dollars.
And also there's the whole side of if you have a label,
then the label is supposed to do all the distribution
and actually agree to post stuff on Wave Lake O'Fountain.
with that model of revenue.
And, you know, that's a pitch that we're far from maybe.
But yeah, that makes it a problem.
And it creates this little chicken and egg, actually,
that you can't get masses to use the tools,
which are amazing tools.
And because they don't have who to,
I mean, the bands with all the followers
and all the fans are not on that
because of all the labels.
So you can't get masses over there.
You can't get it to actually take off.
So yeah, I think it's actually like what Baba said
that you read out early on, which is a problem.
It's a discussion, I think, we should have.
But in the case of your label,
or if you don't want to specifically talk about your label now,
or we could maybe make it hypothetical.
But could there be a scenario in which you talk to them and say,
look, we want more distribution on these independent platforms.
We want to try out value for value.
Can we work out some kind of boost or zap split?
So you come in and you take X percent,
and then the rest of it.
And all of that can be set up at the back end, by the way.
So if you, for example, onboard onto Fountain,
your label gets a Lightning address
and then you basically set up the splits there.
So every time people send you sets for Scardust songs,
they just show up with the split.
Your label gets whatever percentage pre-assigned
and then the band gets the rest Would you like to join the conversation asking them and explaining to them about the Lightning wallet I don think that the problem I think the problem is to put it out there for free
Also.
And Noah, what are the things?
I mean, you told me earlier today about labels having all sorts of different...
Yeah, well, for us, it's...
I mean, labels do a lot of things and different artists get different contracts with different deals.
But for us personally, I think the two main reasons to even have a label, because I also know a lot of independent artists and I relate to a lot of their reasons.
And for a symphonic progressive metal band like Scardust, it's very important, I think, to have the stamp of approval from a record label, especially when it's our label is called Frontiers.
It's been around for decades. It's worked with some of the biggest names in rock and metal.
so the fact that we are signed with them
it says something
before people even get to listen to any of our music
they just see, okay, it's a frontiers band
let's look at them
instead of just, oh, they're an independent band
they must be small or nobody wanted to sign them
maybe that's not interesting
and also sometimes it's a condition for festivals
you have to have a label.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
That's true.
And the other reason is, like Lahav said,
people who do the distribution work,
so both physical and digital,
but they also print out all the physical products
and they ship them all around the world.
So you can find Scardust CDs and LPs anywhere in the world.
plus all the streaming
you know the digital
not all of them but
Spotify, Apple Music and so on
which is
something that
we the five
of us the band members
we don't have the
ability to do that
ourselves in terms
of
knowledge but also
even if we
learn how to do it ourselves
and get all the tools.
We don't want to spend another five full-time jobs
distributing our music, you know?
But I want to go back to something you said earlier, Noah,
which is giving it away for free, right?
Which would be a consideration
if you were going into the value world.
So let's say one of your songs,
And again, we can make it a hypothetical example
if we don't want to be specific about your label and the song.
But let's just say one of your songs from this album
gets a million streams on Apple or Spotify.
How much does Car Dust end up seeing in value for a million streams?
Good question.
I actually don't know the answer to this question.
I know we get a statement from the label twice a year.
And I know what is our share for that period of time.
But this holds in the physical sales and the digital sales.
So I don't know the exact numbers for each.
So it's hard to say.
But presumably the label makes some money on those million streams and something is shared.
some percentage of that comes to you yeah okay as they should because they work you know right
they they work in distributing the music and printing it out and so on so i guess my question
is how is that really that different from setting them up with zap or boost splits on fountain
that's the question yeah when there is when there is revenue to to share of course that's you know
that's a no-brainer.
But I think for them,
I would guess.
I don't know.
This is a conversation
we need to have.
But I would guess that
they would not want
to put it out for free.
Well, I will guarantee revenue, right?
So if you put it up on Fountain
or let's just say Fountain
because I think that distributes
across the value-for-value ecosystem.
So, you know, in a few minutes,
I'm going to be playing
a value for value song.
The way it's set up is if anyone boosts,
so anyone is streaming the sats, right,
listening to the whole episode,
there's going to be one split leading up to the song.
Then in the song's duration,
90% of the sats go to the band.
That's how I set it.
I could set it up at 100%,
whatever number I picked, right?
So I chose 90%.
And if someone boosts during,
So that's for streaming and listening.
If someone boosts during that part of the song,
it's still the 90% formula, right?
Someone sends a 10,000 sat boost,
9,000 sats are going to go to the band.
So if Scardust puts stuff up on Fountain,
I guarantee you I will be playing Scardust songs
on a fairly regular basis on the show.
So I'm guaranteeing revenue right then.
That's super cool.
but what if no one boosts?
This is what they will ask.
This is what the label will ask.
I just had a thought.
Sorry, Avi.
Can I just follow up on that?
Isn't that the same as saying
what if no one listens on iTunes or Spotify?
What is the difference in the question?
Because people do listen.
That's the difference.
I'm advocating
the devil
here but I have to
because I have to run these conversations
in my head all the time when I think
about these things
but Lahav, you said you had an idea
It sounded familiar
because last time we were on PlepChain
Avian QW
managed to finally shove us onto
Noster after I procrastinated
on it for two years
and now we're shoving it onto
fountain so next time we're on here we're like asking about the next thing that we're still not
on it should be fun giving us the motivation to do these pitches but yeah we would need help with
these kind of pitches i mean we're not the nostre and the lightning-laced airwaves best salesman i
think to the fiat world well i'm happy to volunteer if you think it makes sense to have a conversation
with them. I'm happy to volunteer.
I don't want to speak for
my friend, Open Mike, but I
suspect if I mentioned it to him, he'd be happy
to join the call.
And maybe he's
a better guy to be part of such a
conversation. Well, we can try. I mean, we
don't even have direct connection.
It's through our lawyer always.
But yeah, we can try.
I mean, ask again.
I've already asked twice.
Yeah.
It will be cool though.
It would.
And pioneering.
Yeah, the first label, think about, yeah, exactly.
The first label on the value for value ecosystem.
Is it?
Isn't there any like little label that already came on?
I'm not, well, you know, if anyone's listening
and they're aware of a label,
boost in and tell me why I'm wrong.
Yes, so that's that.
We did find a middle ground with the stream, sorry,
with the live stream.
We found this middle ground where we did get into
a little conversation with them,
and anywhere with that, we share with them.
But because it's live and it doesn't stay,
so it's more of a, let's call it, exposure thing.
But, I mean, they were open to that.
Well, okay.
Let's leave it to that, yes.
Okay.
We were willing to take the chance on that.
After a little conversation, yes.
All right.
Let's switch tracks.
Noah, you've been posting on X.
I actually just deleted X from my phone
because it was ruining my life.
Even if I just log in for a couple of minutes just to see what's up, it would ruin my mood.
Just scrolling past 10 posts.
Noah's ex is hilarious.
Yeah, I was actually very close to doing the same today.
I posted a...
Sorry, were you about to ask something?
I was leading up to when Noster, but...
Oh, I'm on Noster, but I don't post anything.
Skardust is on Noster.
So I just, it's too many platforms for me to operate.
I just, you know, copy paste everything on X just because, you know, just to have it on X, I guess.
But it is funny.
Like I just posted a video today on Instagram and got 33K views and 2,500, over 2,500 likes.
How many on X?
Let's see.
I think there's like one there or something.
Like two.
It's completely ridiculous.
Yeah, I don't know what's going on.
I'm just blindly copy pasting everything to be honest.
You know, to be honest because managing so many social media accounts,
It's just, I rather spend my time, you know, writing music or practicing vocals or coming up with more creative ideas.
Well, if you delete your X app, Noah, and just instead of copy pasting to X from your Instagram, you do it to Nostra.
I will boost
whenever I see a post I will repost it
I'll zap it
and we'll get your numbers up on Nostra
do it
we also
you had the zap stream thing
that you wanted to bring back
yeah I will
I will for sure because I loved it
it was super fun
I did this a couple of times
where I just do my
vocal practice
but on ZapDot stream.
I just put on my camera and click go live, basically,
while practicing my vocals.
And then there is the whole fun thing with talking with the people who hop by.
And yeah, I stopped because I had to start the Sabaton project full time.
and I just, I had to do this
like, you know, not even
eight hours a day, but more like 16 hours a day for a few months.
But I'm back now and
yeah, I'll definitely
do that. That could be a very nice lightning waves,
laced airwaves, zap stream
into your stream, into your zaps.
So I remember there was one time you did it.
No, this must have been five or six months back.
And yeah, that was lots of fun.
You were taking requests, right?
And you were, I don't think you were singing all of them
because you didn't take my request on that one.
Was it Pink Floyd?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's still one that I need to take on and do the next time, maybe.
Yeah. We just have a comment come in on the live chat, Noah, from Shadrach, friend of the show,
who said, Nostra is hard right now. Anything to boost visibility is great.
We will all pitch in. I don't want Nostra without Scardust.
You heard it here, Noah.
Wow, that's great.
You know, I remember a tweet by Odell
that you should repost more on Noster
because there's no algorithm
and you just need to repost more people's stuff.
yeah so that that zap stream would be great actually lahav let's speaking of zap stream
right we didn't actually address this because there was no 24-hour live stream when both of
you were last on the show now there is and i think it's a in a nost of there have been other 24-hour
live streams i've seen but none of a band uh that's been playing non-stop what like what
inspired you to do that and how's that been?
Well,
that was my first Nostra Tinkerer
project, which I had a lot of fun
with and it's still going live, which is great
as long as there's no DDoS
on Zapstream, because I, like you,
I'm not running a sovereign node,
a sovereign
streaming
server.
Why not?
Why not? Well,
DMCA,
I think it's called,
If I'm streaming copyright music on my own server,
I don't want to get in trouble, basically.
And on Zapstream, it's fine.
Because nothing is saved there, it just gets deleted.
So I was trying to figure out and tinker with a personal server.
And I was already getting there installing Zapstream,
and I also tried my own little hack to host HLS streams
off of a regular web host server
that might be in a off jurisdiction hosting.
But it was too much and then the DDoS stopped
and Zapstream started working great again.
So just put it on pause.
But yeah, that's the story.
if your node or whatever
is on DigitalOcean
does the DMCA
things still apply?
yeah
but that's
something that could work for
NOAA's vocal
training
we could do that
but also ZappStream
as long as the server is good it's great
you can have a contingency plan
I guess. Maybe I'll just call Avi
and I'll ask him for his stream key
and I'll use his server
if that stream goes down.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not sure my setup
can handle concurrent streams.
One at a time
I think is what
what's going on.
Yeah, let me actually look at the dashboard
and see what we're at.
It's probably the two cores or something.
Not enough.
Yeah, it's two cores. I'm at 50% right now.
So I think we've had a second stream.
Yeah, it's not enough.
And also for video.
And also you're using a tunnel.
We talked about that.
They don't like it on, what's their name?
Cloudflare.
That you use their tunnels for streaming video
for a long period of time.
And 24-7 is a long period of time.
So you need, I don't know, reverse proxy.
It's all tinkering and setting it up.
I'm not even from this world.
I'm not a dev, but it's fun.
Yeah, and your videos are not transcoded, right?
I think you're using the basic endpoint of Zapstream.
Well, because I'm transcoding it when I'm sending it,
so I've already set the quality,
and then it just defaults to the same thing.
You get one quality, which is optimized.
I think it works great.
I mean, you tell me.
Yeah, it works great.
It looks good.
Yeah.
I didn't realize you were transcoding it at your end
and sending it over.
It's just the stream settings you can adjust.
All right.
So maybe this is a good time to listen to our value-for-value
independent track of the day.
and we're keeping it in the family for the segment.
One of the best feelings in the world
is when a friend hands you a track
and you press play and you realize,
wait, this is actually incredible.
So this song is by my friend Joe Martin.
He's managed to capture the very specific,
lonely feeling of chasing a dream
that might not exist anymore.
It's got that classic 90s, almost alt-rock nostalgia
that feels like someone's lived in it.
The track is called Empty Passenger Seat.
Turn it up.
Big city lights are shining down on me
Death from walls and yesterday
And although they don't spell my name
I know that they will someday
Drinking all the backstage beer
Trying to drown out your tears
Man, it's been a long time
Since I've been home
God, it feels like it leaves
Forgive me for my confusion
I got sold a rock and roll delusion
Now it's taking its toll
It's catching up with me
Got my foot to the floor
Going nowhere fast
Don't see how I can make this last
Was convinced
That my life would be complete
Beside an empty passenger seat
Another service stop
Oh, another train to hop
Another corner street busker
Singing in the rain
Stringing my J45
I've stinks, I've nerves, make me feel alive
But I think of you to try and keep me sane
Oh, forgive me for my confusion
I got a soul to rock or roll illusion
Now it's taking its toll, it's catching up with me
Got my foot to the floor
Going nowhere fast
Don't see how I can make this last
Was convinced
That my life would be complete
This island empty passenger seat
Forgive me for my confusion
I got sold to rock and roll delusion
Now it's taking its toll
And it's catching up with me
Got my fault to the floor
Now I'm nowhere fast
Don't see what can make this last
Now I know
That my life won't become free
Beside an empty passage to see
Beside an empty passenger seat
That was Empty Passenger's Seat by Joe Martin.
I have to talk about that chorus.
The line, I got sold a rock and roll delusion.
that hits hard joe i suspect is singing about the music industry there but that sentiment applies
to everything right now the promise versus the reality musically is just solid comfort food
it reminds me of those driving songs you'd play with the windows down in 1998 thinking you're the
main character in a movie.
Since Joe is a friend of the show,
let's show him the
power of value for value.
I've got 90%
splits set up in the chapter.
If you've ever felt
that delusion he's thinking about,
send a boost
and let him know.
So, have you,
Noah and Lahav,
have you heard Joe Martin
before?
I have a few times in the past
I haven't heard this one
I was listening to this
it was great
I'm already imagining how the music video looks
don't know if it has one
I imagined it exactly like you described it
with the windows open
driving
yeah
no, it was great
yeah, great singing
and it had the iconic break on the last chorus,
which is like a kind of moment.
Yeah.
Great.
Awesome.
Lahav, you are the videographer for,
the filmmaker, I should say,
for all of Skardust's videos, right?
Including the iconic Rip one.
In the past three years or so, yes.
In the past three years, gotcha.
Yeah, what's the next one that's lined up?
We have plans, we have plans, yeah.
We're working on it.
Which cannot be disclosed in a public forum?
Not yet.
Is it from the current album?
No.
No, no.
No, we're working on new music.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Nice.
Because we do have music videos for almost all of the songs from this last album I just realized that Baby Long Forgotten isn on the live stream but maybe it is And I just don remember Yeah so I can maybe only say that it going to be a video before the next album at least
I mean, something.
Yeah, because we have talked, so producing new music takes time.
especially like I don't want to sound like a broken record but especially when you're stuck
in this fiat loop and everybody is so so freaking busy um we're now trying to to find solutions out
of this loop but so far you know we're still this is still our reality so things take time
and we are an albums kind of band for the most part we we love you know releasing
I call it chapters so it's like a chapter in a band's life but in the meantime we're thinking
what music can we release in the meantime before we release this album that will take time so
we have a lot of
ideas and plans
and I personally
I came back from this tour with
Sabaton a few weeks ago
super motivated
to do
you know
with so many creative
ideas because I watched this
awesome group of people
I'm talking
about the Sabaton band but also
the entire crew and
And, you know, basically everyone on this tour, but especially the people in charge of this whole thing and how they work.
And it's just so inspiring to see how they always think outside the box and how they always aim to do bigger things or things nobody else thought of.
It's a really pioneer mindset.
and I'm drawn to it
and it just gave me a lot of inspiration.
This was a very long answer to a very short question.
One thing I noticed
is that also those people
really appreciated you for being real.
I mean, for being authentic.
it's like real people not NPCs
because in the music industry
you get a lot of kind of
people who try to
take advantage
yeah but also
fit into
a box right
and I think they appreciated that
I don't
yeah but also you personally
yeah
So Noah, you know, we didn't get to see too many videos from that,
presumably for obvious reasons, right?
Which is, I guess you can't, it's copyright material, whatever it is, right?
Funny, I'm not sure.
Sorry.
There was a TV broadcast piece on the national TV channel here
just three hours ago.
It was aired about Noah on this Sabaton tour.
It's in Israel, it's in Hebrew, but yeah.
Yeah.
There is actually some live footage out there.
So if you check the legendary orchestra,
I think it's just on Instagram and that's why maybe.
But if you check the legendary orchestra on Instagram,
there is quite a bit of videos with audio and on all.
And also on the Sabaton channels, which are everywhere almost.
I don't think they're on Oster, but...
Maybe that's why I missed it.
No, because I saw a few of the photos that you'd posted on X
and I had to use my imagination based on those photos to think what the show...
But it did look like it was, you know, incredible coordination to put, you know, to talk about this mythological type or, you know, grand.
I guess it's not just the music, right?
There's more to it than just the music.
It's the.
Yeah.
It's a whole theater act.
Yeah, that is.
I can imagine how something like that is inspiring.
I think on New Year's Eve, I went with my family.
We were visiting New York City for the break.
And we went to one of the local theaters here.
And there's an acrobatic dance and theater company,
might be the best way of describing them, called Momix.
And it's reasonably famous, actually.
The creative director is a guy called Moses Pendleton.
and they did their version of Alice in Wonderland.
I mean, it's completely their version, right?
But it's like a combination of a circus act, ballet,
and amazing music.
And to see that level of coordination,
that was proof of work for me, right?
You cannot pull something so coordinated
where even the slightest change
can throw the whole piece off.
Someone could die in this case
because there are people jumping from ropes and stuff.
But this is incredibly elegant dancing.
And really, the word that keeps coming back to me
is coordination and performance art.
And it was truly inspiring to see
how much human creativity can push the envelope.
That was one thing.
And I've been thinking about how can I, you know, obviously a podcast is a very different medium from theater.
But is there a way of, but at the end of the day, it's a medium, which means it can be an art form, right?
So I'm just thinking about how performance art via podcasting can work.
That was the one thing that struck me.
But the other thing was watching something so beautiful.
it almost gave me hope
which is
in thinking
is the culture reviving somehow?
Because a lot of things
over the last few years
have been incredibly nihilistic
in the name of art.
And I wonder
if there's a push
into creating beautiful things again
or maybe it was a one-off.
I don't know if you
have you noticed that
a sort of a revival happening?
that's a good question I think
yeah that's a
that's a very nice point to make because
with all the you know AI era
now you want to see
real things and
And there is nothing that can, you know, no artificial thing can replace a real live experience, right?
Yet.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I can relate to the coordination part is very inspiring.
and witnessing this every single day for five weeks.
Now, not only on stage, but actually especially off stage,
the way everything is just ticking.
And also watching it kind of evolve into that
because it's a one-of-a-kind kind of production.
Nobody has really done anything like this before.
So, and we had to build, we, I say we, I mean, they had to build a freaking castle every single evening in a different arena, in a different city.
And then you have all the pyrotechnics and the, you know, different outfits.
And I don't know what else, you know, goes in there.
Like all the light, sound, there is a bridge.
The bridge.
LED screens. There is a bridge that floats on the ceiling. There is all kinds of stuff. And there is, you know, the musicians, the actors, the instruments, the tech people. Like, it's a huge machine that every single part of it needs to be coordinated with all the rest.
And it took a few days for this whole production to figure itself out.
So the first few shows I remember were like, where should I go?
What's happening now?
Things are delaying.
Oh, my God.
I remember the second show in Berlin.
I didn't have my stage outfit on until seven minutes before the show.
And it takes me 35 minutes to get into costume.
Wow.
because, you know, times changed and nobody let the right people know about it.
And people were already in the venue and it was just a whole thing.
So I found myself with three wardrobe people all over me behind the stage,
seven minutes before the show.
And I somehow made it on time with, you know,
like a little piece of jewelry hanging off of my hair or something.
but it all somehow came together they pulled it off it did yeah definitely definitely
so is that just practice and repetition that gets the that level of coordination or is that
something else it's also it's also in my opinion a very good eye in selecting people
and uh you know people you work with it's very good management
Yeah, and that was, to me, one of the most inspiring parts, just seeing how they operate, the people on top, how they work, how they operate, what do they prioritize.
They prioritize, for example, good behavior, you know?
that was incredibly surprising in a good way to see
because that creates like when you have a nice work environment
everybody is more motivated and then things just work smoother right So this is something I actually i actually did not expect um who made the who so when you say management is that the band sabaton or is it someone else actually is
yeah it is they own their own thing they own their own production and stuff
wow so i have to confess i'd never heard of this band until you'd mentioned that you were going on
with them.
So you said they're a Scandinavian,
Swedish, I think you said,
symphonic metal band.
They call themselves power metal band.
They sing about
historical events mainly.
So it's all very epic and cinematic.
Got it.
And that's why they need an orchestra
just to create that grandeur.
I don't think they need it.
I mean, they've done pretty well
without any orchestras.
to this point, but, um, it's a, it's a whole different thing.
It's like, it's like a different project.
So the orchestra plays their songs without the band.
It's not that the orchestra joins the band.
It's that the orchestra is a standalone thing.
It elevates the music to a different thing altogether.
I see.
Yeah. And, and there will be, uh, there will be video content coming up.
So like official video content.
I know they're working on it.
so the orchestra so for these shows you would go and you were the conductor of this orchestra right
and you were singing as well yeah i was both i had uh i had two roles i had three roles actually
it was the half the time i was facing the orchestra and you know my back was facing the
audience and i was conducting and then half the time i was facing the crowd singing the lead parts
and in between the songs, I talked to the audience.
I did the whole, good evening Berlin and make some noise and all that.
Who was conducting the orchestra when your back was turned to them?
The vibes.
Sometimes I would conduct a little bit while singing,
but we picked it in a strategic kind of way that less conducting is needed when I do the lead parts
got it so you'd so you and the orchestra would come on you'd perform and then the band would
come after that and they would play their thing is that how the concerts worked so you had the
orchestra act which was 70 minutes then it transitioned into a theater act because uh they
they were um they had to promote their they they still are promoting an album called legends
that talks about different legends in history so you have napoleon and you have caesar
and all those you know big characters in history so you have actual actors that come on stage and do
their act.
And this transitions into
a Sabaton show
where after
around
nine songs,
the choir from the orchestra
and myself go back
on stage and perform the second
half of the show with Sabaton.
I see.
So this is, what are we talking,
three hours? Yeah.
Around three hours. Wow.
So that's a dedicated audience.
And right for them to be able to see.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
But they get a lot of different things in those three hours.
It's not boring.
Not even for one moment.
There's also cannons going off in the middle.
Oh, the pyrotechnics are insane.
Yeah.
You know, I mentioned this in a comment, unfortunately, it must have been on X.
I might have said it on Nostra too.
But, you know, you posted the photos.
There were 20,000, 25,000 people in these packed arenas.
You're probably, Noah, the first Bitcoiner to be in front of that many people.
I don't think even Michael Saylor, when he's spoken, has spoken in front of that many people.
I'm not sure.
I would argue that maybe there are more Bitcoiners hidden, you know, in different groups of people who perform in front of many people, but they don't, maybe they don't speak out about it.
It's still taboo.
So you're the most, you're the first out of the closet Bitcoiner to perform in front of that many people.
Actually, let's go back to something we were talking earlier.
I think Lahav, you and I, this is not on the podcast,
but I think a couple of weeks back we were chatting about this,
which is about accessibility of music, right?
I personally like songs like Rip.
I like songs like Searing Echoes on your latest album.
But I guess I can understand when people say,
well, you know, this is too hard for me to listen to.
There's too much noise.
Why is the beat not regular?
why there's so many instruments.
I mean, whatever reasons they have.
And that, in theory, could make the music inaccessible.
Is that...
So what are your thoughts on that?
Well, this is just a realization that hit me, actually, lately.
I was a bit naive up until a few weeks ago,
maybe during this Sabaton tour, which I visited,
just a weekend of.
And yeah, and it struck me that
when you try to
make it financially
logical, you have to cater to a much bigger
and wider audience.
So you have to capture them
and not like push them away right at the beginning
and things like that.
You have to take that into account.
And I'm not saying you have to sell out and be, you know, slop.
But you can have some normie introductions into the music,
then you can do whatever you fucking like.
Sorry for my French.
I think the stream is down, Avi, but we are still connected.
Is the stream down?
My Amethyst, it's like dead.
On Zapstream, it's still going.
It says it's still up.
On my Zap, well.
Oh, yes, yes, it's still up.
Yes, it's back.
No, it's loading.
Okay.
I'm looking at my dashboard,
and dashboard says all is well.
Well, we're still recording, aren't we?
Yeah, we're still recording, yeah.
Yeah, that was my answer.
What do you think, Noah, as one of the people who actually creates this music, on the idea of accessibility of music?
It's an interesting question.
Because I'm the kind of person who likes the over-the-top complicated stuff, but also the very simple and eye-level stuff.
and I could love, you know, the two extremes equally.
So it's hard for me to have an opinion.
What I can say is that I do think it's much harder
or I don't really like this word hard,
but maybe more challenging to write a simple song
that really hits hard.
You know, the complex ability gives us endless options to express ourselves.
So writing a more simple song, you kind of limit yourself to less tools to express yourself in a way, but you still want it to have a strong impact.
so recently
I've been challenging myself
into writing simpler songs
just because of that
because I like challenges
and I'm not saying
I write simple songs
but simpler
and
we recently had
Ole leaving the band
Ole was the co-writer
with me up to, you know, basically until he left the band. So now it's kind of the entire
dynamics of writing and composing music in the band has changed in a way that fascinates me
because it's the five of us, but I kind of, I'm the person who gives the final word or the final
stamp of approval. So, um, I tried to let the music dictate the music, if that makes sense.
What does the song want? And it creates a simpler, I'm not, again, I'm not saying simple
because it would still be proggy as hell and epic and all that.
But maybe more ear-friendly kind of music.
That was, yeah, the idea.
What does the process of songwriting look like for you?
Do you just sit with a guitar or a piano, just start strumming chords?
How does that work for a brand new song?
It depends if we work as a group or if I work alone or if I work as a pair, you know, because the dynamics change the way, you know, the work method.
But it would normally start with, for me, it would normally start with lyrics, melody and basic harmony.
and sorry, before that,
before that it would start with a spark.
I have to have a spark.
I have to have like a wow moment in my head
where I am so passionate about a lyric or a line
or a chord progression that I have to make it into a song So there has to be a spark And then it the lyrics melody and chord progression or harmony
to a part of the song.
I put that into either a phone recording with just vocals and piano,
or straight into Cubase, which is the DAW I work with.
And then everything else evolves around that.
It's kind of an organic process.
And so for a simple song versus a complex song,
how would that, is the thought process different?
No, it's exactly the same.
We can take Dazzling Darkness, for example,
because that, I think, falls into the simpler song kind of category, right?
I knew, like, the spark was the chorus for me.
I had this chorus in my head and I had to make it into a song.
So I had the chord progression, I had the lyrics, the catchphrase,
the dazzling darkness, that was the spark.
um yeah i just put the i think i recorded a simple uh phone recording uh with vocals and piano
then transferred it into cubase then um it evolved from there and then normally we would start with
drums and bass but not always not always but you know normally drums and bass and then build
everything else around that.
Unless we have, you know, like an idea for a very cool piano line
or a very cool guitar riff, and then that would come first.
So there is really no rules.
That's great.
Every time I hear about it.
Yeah, now I recently wrote a song just by myself
or like a version of a song right by myself.
and it was super chaotic.
It grew into the Cubase gradually
with no actual rules.
It just happened.
Amazing.
It's just fascinating to hear the creative process
and I suspect it's completely different
for other songwriters as well.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Yeah.
Lahab, for filmmaking, what is your approach when you are, yeah, to creating?
Well, you know, maybe not the post-production part,
but let's say for making one of Scott's videos.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How do you approach that?
I have a mental process I do with everything I approach video-wise.
if it's a song, I listen to it in loops and learn it and listen to the lyrics
and basically meditate and imagine what it could be, what it should be, what it wants.
And if the idea is good enough, make it happen.
On other things like, for example, finding home,
it builds itself, but it's not like you have no vision.
You lay everything and then you start sifting
until you have something very pure.
So that's a different process.
Also, you match it with music and you build it up.
That's just intuition.
Can't explain it.
Oh, yeah.
But it all magically comes together, right?
But you have to start somewhere.
I mean, it's either with meditation and trying to envision something, imagining it,
or either having everything in front of you and having to cut it down.
That's awesome.
That's the process.
All right.
We should wrap up soon.
But Lahav, do you want to talk about Serbia?
what to look forward to
has it been
announced
no it hasn't
nobody knows about Serbia
maybe this is the opportunity to talk about Serbia
is this an
announcement of an announcement
if we don't
say anything further Noah then yes
but we can make it a real announcement
yeah
be my guest
alright well
We are planning a live NOSTA streaming value for value show in Serbia, in Belgrade, on the 18th of June, if I'm not mistaken.
I'll get the dates right, but it's the week right after BTC Prague.
Scardust is going to be a headliner.
And there's going to be several other bands.
We're just working through some of the logistics.
it's open mic
he's part of the team
we have our good friends in Serbia
who are helping us
with the logistics on the ground
and of course really happy to have
Skardas
Lahav and others
all participate
in the show
and be part of the core team
we should start hyping it up
it's in a really cool venue
it's floating on the river
it is a really cool venue
we will probably be in Prague as well
maybe not all of Scarlett
but I think me and Noah
are planning to
as long as no ballistic missiles
from the sky prevent that
oh god
well I cannot wait to
play in Serbia
it sounds like such a fun
event
hopefully
first
out of more to come.
But yeah, very looking forward to it.
Excellent.
What else do you have planned?
We talked about the new album that's coming up.
But what else do we look forward to
from you, Noah, for 2026?
And then Lahav, we'll talk about your list
if you have one.
So, 2026 is the year where Skardest is back on the roads.
Yeah, we love our local audience, but we really missed the audience abroad.
So, we finally get to play outside of Israel.
So we're planning a little tour in Europe in March, which will be announced soon.
I think I mentioned that at some point.
We have the Serbia event.
We have another festival booked in Poland.
I don't remember the exact date, but it's like late July.
And we have the Prague Power USA in September in Atlanta.
Yeah.
And then personally, I really want to go back to doing the live streams here on Zap.Stream.
and keep growing my two projects, my choir, Hellscore,
that is now also preparing for a big concert
and new arrangements and new upcoming recordings.
And Skardest, like we've mentioned already,
yeah, that sums it up.
Awesome. Lots to look forward to.
Lahav, what about you?
Well, apart from tagging along to all of those events,
filming and documenting,
I hope 2026 will be the year I finally start a Bitcoin podcast.
What is stopping you?
the doxing situation
but you could do an audio only one no
well
we will see
well looking forward to
that well will that be in English though
probably not probably cater to a
market that hasn't been tapped yet
there's a vacuum here
in that case I'm not
looking forward to it that much.
But I hope you do it anyway.
That'd be great.
Awesome.
Well, Noah, Lahav,
thank you for coming back to the show.
This was a fun conversation.
I'm sure we'll get you back
again
at some point. Maybe this year.
We'll see. Well, you know, I am launching that
music show on Sundays
where it's just
you come with your five favorite
independent songs,
which we can actually play on the show.
And then we'll just play them in chat.
So maybe you guys could come for that one at some point.
That'd be cool.
This was very fun.
Yeah, super fun.
And thank you for having us again.
Always happy to be here.
Awesome.
And thank you to our live stream listeners.
I think, Lahav, you were right.
The stream did die at some point towards the end.
We lost the last 10 minutes.
So, I mean, I'm going to thank them.
but there's no one to hear me, at least on the live stream.
And then thank you to our listeners of the podcast.
I hope you are listening on a podcasting 2.0 app like Fountain.
And if you are on Fountain, we would appreciate it
if you hit that subscribe button.
It helps keep this podcast ad-free.
Don't forget to support our value for value artist of the week.
Joe Martin hit that boost button
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thank you everyone
and I will see you next week
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