Kataklysm - BUS INVADERS Ep. 2158

If you're on tour, you know what this is about. If you know, you know. Anti-slip, must have. If it's not Tim Hortons, it's gonna be a Dunkin' Donuts, but you know, we don't do the Starbucks. Hello everyone, I'm Maurizio from Cataclysm out here on tour with Vader. Malevolent Creation, Skeletal Remains, great tour so far, we're having a great time. We're traveling in two vehicles. My crew is in a tour bus. We're doing it in an old school sprinter. It's not really old, it's pretty new, but the idea of touring vans in a sprinter is different. When you've been doing this for so long, like we've done, we've been doing for 30 years, becomes a little bit like, hey, you're still doing it in vans? Not when if it's a van like this, it's perfect for a van like us. So I'll explain to you why. So this is a unique sprinter. It's got bunks, it's been customized a certain way to kind of meet our needs after all these years of touring and stuff. This is where obviously the driver seats and drives. Our driver right now is at a hotel, so he gets some luxury and we get to stay here during the day. But so we cover these things out so we have complete darkness in here. And then once we close this thing, it's like being in a tour bus, but in a very, very small environment, so yeah. So people that know me know that I always try to find solutions to problems, right? Like I have a management company and that's part of my job as well. As touring expenses got really high, we decided to do something that's economical, number one. And number two, caters to all the needs of a band would need, right? The biggest problem that happens with bands like this is that bands tour like this and then they're freezing at night in the middle of the winter. They gotta get three hotel rooms, they gotta do all that stuff. But we created a thing that's unique in the sense that it has in its own battery system that can go to 12 hours without any sort of being plugged in anywhere or anything. It can self-sustain itself. And if you need to plug it in into a normal volt, 12 volt Edison plug, plug it in and you got full power all the time without depleting the battery. So it's very, very efficient. It has solar panels on the top when you wanna get some stuff going on without any, with mother nature pretty much. So I got this idea. I had some guys, friends of mine that are down South Florida that we had some that could do this. They never did it before. So it was kind of an experiment. And now we have a couple of these that we've built. Some have six bunks that go all the way up here. And then this doesn't exist and it has a seater. But this one right here is the one we take because we're only four plus a driver for Cataclysm and it works. So the one cool thing is, we like to watch movies at night and chill like in a tour bus. So we created something that you can plug your own phone with your own, it tethers right off your phone. And so basically right now it's off my phone and it just, it plays all the time. And so we have unlimited stuff and so it works. So we have that, we have a fridge out here. There's definitely gonna be beer in here for sure. We're big beer drinkers. We go light during the day and at night a little bit heavier. We've got the Clamato juice as you see. I'm already started with a little imitation Michelada. I mean, I'm not doing it the right way but just a little flavor in the beer. Waters, all that stuff. We have snack areas and all this stuff we keep in here. So basically with our beer, we like to eat chips. I mean, that's, you know, traditional, I guess. So some of us like the salt and vinegar, the pickles. We can't ever agree on the same thing so everybody gets their own. So we kind of like have our own stuff. And you know, I like the spicy stuff. So, you know, we got a lot of stuff like this. Mornings when we don't have time, we got the Clif bars. So yeah, we do our thing, you know what I mean? And it works perfect for us. And then this is just extra storage right here. So, you know, the band's from Canada. So we have to do the Tim Hortons. If it's not Tim Hortons, it's gonna be a Dunkin' Donuts. But, you know, we don't do the Starbucks. But we like the Tim Hortons. Coffee in the morning. Obviously, my guitar player. That's his reward at the end of the show. I'm with this. I'm liking the tequila and sometimes we got some wine. So it's always ready. We get here, we prepare it. We have it for the day and we're happy. So this is a very unique thing. We wanted something we could brush our teeth at night and wash our hands or do whatever. But we didn't have a septic tank or anything on this sprinter. So basically, this has gray water, has clean water. And what you do is you pump this thing, all right? And then the water comes out. And then you wash your thing and use it. And as much as you need, you use it. So it's kind of a really unique thing. And if you wanna look in here, it has the, you know, if you lift it, you see it right here a little bit. I'm not gonna do too much. You can see how it works. So it's very unique. It's cool. And we use it when we need to. So we go to the venue, we fill up the water. We throw the dirty water every day. We change it. And that's it, pretty much, yeah. We do have a microwave when we need it, which gets used pretty often on tour. As you know, we got storage area. We got a cooler filled with beers, obviously. That's what we do here. And then some storage areas and things like that. So yeah, fan for fresh air. Right now it's getting a bit colder, so we're good. And then when it gets too cold, we got a separated heater system that's right here. So we use this, it shoots through the back here, and then we have a separated heater system that's connected to the gas tank. So basically, again, independent. So in the middle of the Colorado, it's cold, shoot up that heater, you're good in this thing. It's small, so basically it just gets warm real quick and we're good. So that's been the thing. It's kind of challenging if it's January, February, because when you're going into minus 20 in Canada, that's a bit of a different game. It gets really hot, really cold, so extra blankets helps for that. This particular Sprinter comes with four bunks in the back, right? It's very big sizes, like European buses. They're not gonna be like the American ones that are a bit bigger, but they're good enough for us. I'm a big guy and I'm good in it. So this is the fifth bunk right here when we need it for an emergency or the driver. We have, let's say, 12 hours and we have to do, we can't stop at a hotel for him or whatever. He uses this bunk right here. This opens up all the way, closes up this entire area. This gets taken out, goes under. Cushion, pillow, and everything, and then you have a private light. So it works. It gets a, so you can actually be five members in here and travel and everybody stays inside. So as you can see, there's also seatbelts here that are, we kind of put them in the back here, but you got seatbelts all around. You got three of them here, because we have to have, in certain states, it doesn't matter, but other states, you need to have belts for every single passenger. So you got three in here and you got two up there, so you got five. So very important. This is my experience with many spillage and breaking and glasses and everything, anti-slip. Must have, any bus, even in a tour bus. I learned it from the tour bus and I brought it here. So we drove here from Kumas after doing our burger today, and that they did over there, which kudos to Kumas for doing that for us. This whole thing didn't move. Anti-slip, must, a must. And this, when you're on tour. Yeah, so this is the bunk area. It's a little tight, so we go one at a time, right? So if somebody's here, I'll go in first or whatever, and then the smaller guys go on the top. So they use this little stair situation that I have here. My belly might be in the way. So right here, and then, so this is mine over here. So like, you know, open this, it's very standard. Like, I got my earplugs if some of these guys snore, so I use these. And, you know, light. It's got a power outlet out here, power outlets out here. And I think if you're on tour, you know what this is about. If you know, you know. So basically, yeah. So these are the bunks, and they're very comfortable. These are Tempur-Pedic mattresses. You know, we got the standard sheets and everything, and it works perfect for us, man. So we've been happy and making a lot more money doing this this way. So let me show you the battery system, which is the unique part of this truck in today's touring needs. This is what powers the entire truck while it's off. Like, you know, entire engine is off, and usually you can't do anything. But with this, we get to power the interior AC, secondary AC unit that's in the back there, and everything, the heater, everything goes off. So basically, it's a very unique Victron Energy battery system. We got two big batteries out here. We also have, it comes with this. It's like, if you know what it is, it's a Boost Plus in case you got a problem with the battery. We got an extra EcoFlow battery system as a backup. I bring that with me regardless of any situation so that I have an extra 10, 15% battery right here in case I need it, you know? So this is where it plugs right in. This is the cable we use, where you plug it right here. And it goes straight into a Edison plug, and it gots full power without burning any battery. So you got a lot of options. And you can't really go on the top, but there's a, you probably can get it from the side. There's some solar battery. So we got those that also have power with solar. So, try to be innovative. Well, thank you so much, Bus Invaders, for coming out here and checking out our van and doing what you do for supporting the scene. Really appreciate it. I'm Maurizio from Cataclysm. You can check out our tour dates at cataclysm.net and all our socials. Just follow the Cataclysm.