Alex Rudinger

Unboxing my new pedals...! Will keep my text description brief & let the video do the talking for this one (since it's literally a video of me talking 😂). Full clip on YouTube! And huge thanks to / for filming & editing this, & for generally being one of the sickest people ever 🤍🤙🏼!

Guys. Look at my arm. I am SO STOKED on it! It was done by my incredibly talented friend 🤙🏼🤍🤘🏼!!! While I'm on the topic of friends, I'm gonna rant for a minute (shocker, I know... 😂). But as you may recall, I moved to Florida at the end of December. In all honesty, it's a pretty huge change for me! While I was (& am!) excited about it, I've also lived in Maryland my whole life (born & raised!) & my entire extended family is there. So it was a bit scary to up & move, ya know? But one thing that has made it easier are the incredible friendships I already have here -- in addition to the band (whom I love, & I've gotten to know their families now as well, who are all truly lovely!), I also made some other friends that I love, & am so thankful for. This especially includes , & her wife , who have truly been amazing friends as I navigate living in a whole new area. I also absolutely love Noeko's style of tattooing, & I had wanted to get more done, so it was a no brainer (can't wait to get more at some point! Lol!)!!!! But also, for real ya'll: Having good friends who are genuinely amazing people makes life way sicker, especially when you're going through a period of transition. Very thankful for Noeko & Maria (love ya'll 🤍), & am truly SO STOKED on the incredible work she did on my arm. Ya'll should all follow her. She's SICK!!!! Alrighty ya'll, that's the WHOLE story !!! 🤙🏼🤍🤙🏼🤘🏼🤍🫶🏼

Here's a quick clip of the very end of Bury Me, going into Trepidation 🤙🏼🤘🏼🥁! Wanted to post this for some of the people that were curious about the screen I've used throughout this tour. As you can see, it's initially black - Bury Me was one of the first ones that I learned, so I had internalized it fully prior to the tour starting. But after the song finishes, I look over at Derrick (drum tech/playback), & give him a cue to start the next section. When Trepidation starts, the screen comes on with my notation for that song - it was one of the last one's I started learning before tour, so I still definitely needed it when tour started. So it comes on for some, & stays off for others.

We're nearing the end now, & at this point there's only a couple parts that I really need the notation. I've opted to leave it up for this whole run, though - more as a precaution. My process at home would be.... 1) Work on something with notation until it's all sick & I think I have it internalized, then 2) take the notation away & try rehearsing it some more, followed by 3) inevitably messing something up, so I pull out the notation again for a quick glance, & think to myself: "Oh duh, how'd I forget that", then 4) do it again, repeating steps 3 & 4 until it's ALL SICK! 🤣🤙🏼.

But in a live setting, you can't really mess up & take a moment to stop & check something 😂. Sure, I could probably wing it on certain details & fills, or -- just leave the screen up for now. A comfort / safety measure, of sorts. That said: This will definitely be the only time I ever run a notation monitor live. It's been interesting - fun, in a way. But kinda weird, too. I'm definitely stoked to get these songs dialed in even SICKER without it after the tour, & then learn a WHOLE BUNCH of others (we have a "Rudi's Trivium Homework" list 🤣), annnnd, continue working on NEW material, too! It's gonna be a busy (& sick!) time!

And shoutout to sick-dude/FOH extraordinaire 🎶! The audio here is a bus he setup that sends a feed straight to the microphone input on my camera (with the drums turned up - this isn't the same as the FOH mix). But it's SICK & so is he! 🤙🏼🥁🤙🏼

Sometimes I draw the letter T on drumheads. T is for "tight" (...& Trivium) 😂🤙🏼🤘🏼🥁!