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WEBVTT
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Hey, Street Walkers. This is a throwback episode with Chris
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Blou from the groundbreaking nineteen nineties band The Presidents of
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the United States of America. Chris first appeared on the
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show July eighteenth, twenty twenty two, and it was such
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a compelling and fun episode I decided that it needed
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to be revisited. Enjoy this throwback episode. Tell a friend
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and thanks for listening.
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Hi, this is Chris Balou from the Presidents of the
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United States of America, also known as Casper Baby Pants.
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If you have small children and you are listening to
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Fascination Street podcast.
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I believe that everybody has a story and I'm fascinated
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to hear them, So come with me as we take
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a walk down Fascination Street. Welcome back, Street Walker's. This
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week's guest. As you could tell from that blurb that
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you just heard, is Chris blow from The Presidents of
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the United States of America and Casper Baby Pants. If
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you don't know what or who Casper Baby Pants is,
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you're about to find out. Obviously, The Presidents of the
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United States of America was a pretty big band back
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in the nineties. They had a few big hits, Peaches
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and Lump and Kitty. They released a few albums, had
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a little break, got together, did some really cool things,
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and here we are. In this episode. Chris and I
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talk about all of that kinds of things and what
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it was like to work with Beck get advice from Madonna.
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We talk about all of those things, plus what moved
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Chris into the Casper baby Pants section of his life.
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It's a very interesting story about what drew him to
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Casper baby Pants and that style of music. We also
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talk about his newest creative explosion, which is yet another
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different kind of music. We talk about all those things.
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He tells great stories about Sir mix a lot, and
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even a great story about Kurt Cobain's ghost. You heard me,
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Chris Blue, super nice guy. I can't believe how generous
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he was to sit down with me and chit chat
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and let me play a couple of songs. That's right, kids,
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there's more music. You guys are gonna love it. Check
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him out at Babypants music dot com and Chrisbelue dot org.
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And this is my conversation with the singer from the
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Presidents of the United States of America and Casper Babypants.
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Chris Below. Welcome a Fascination Street Podcast. Chris Blue, how
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are you doing today.
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Man, I'm great. I'm well fed and watered and ready
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to talk.
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Well watered. Nice that means you're plant based. No, I'm
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just kidding. So, Chris, what I like to do is,
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you know, start from the beginning, man, where were you
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born and raised? Where'd you grow up?
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Seattle, Washington, Well, more specifically Yarrow Point, which is one
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of three sort of miniature peninsulas on the east side
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of the five twenty bridge here in Seattle. So I
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grew up on the east side, and it's in a
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little town called Yarrow Point.
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Very little, just so, y'all know. When he says very little,
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he's holding his fingers about two and a half inches apart.
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Just tiny like that.
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It's a small place. My daughter recently, I guess it's
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coming up on a year now, she recently moved to Olympia, Washington.
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Oh. Yeah, I love Olympia. It's a great little town.
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So does she. She visited it and then loved it
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so much she moved there, So it must be awesome.
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Nice. My son lives in sort of the northern version
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vision of Olympia, which is Bellingham, kind of smallish town vibe,
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but you know, not too far from big city if
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you need it nice.
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And I think her and her boyfriend just got a
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house in Centralia. That's a word, right, yeah, Centralia? Uh huh, yeah,
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that that's a real word.
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Yep, that's a real word. So is pew wallup.
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I'm gonna go with no, it is not, sir, And
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don't you ever
Load full transcript
call me that again.
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So I had a colon ascaby they found a couple
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of pewallips.
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Oh that sounds fantastic. So I know that from a
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very early age you were interested in music.
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Yeah, why, well it was Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts club Band. Really,
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I mean well, the very first was me banging on
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a piano with a hammer. I didn't know that you
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could use the keys. I was probably one and a half.
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I was doing a John Cage vibe at the age
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one and a half, smacking the piano. And then I
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discovered Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, which just at
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the age of two and a half, I got my
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mits on that thing. Had bought it for my parents
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as a Christmas gift that year in nineteen sixty seven,
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and they filed it away, and I took it out
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and basically listened to that for the next nine years.
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Did you say at two and a half you got
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your mits on that record?
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Yeah, I was born in nineteen sixty five, so I
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was two and a half when it came out in
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June of sixty seven, and I was born in May,
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so I that Christmas of sixty seven, I was two
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and a half.
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Let me be the first to tell you Happy birthday
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for next May.
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Thank you. I appreciate that this.
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Is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but at
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two and a half years old, you were able to
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put the needle on the record without scratching.
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It, apparently, because the legend is I pulled that thing out.
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You know, maybe I didn't actually pull it out until
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the next spring or something.
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Maybe I was oh, yeah, sure, three.
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Let's say three.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I mean that Christmas I was two and a half.
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But I don't think I actually zeroed in on the
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record until I was three. Probably that's going to this
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is the first time I'm adjusting the story now.
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Yeah, So you started off lying and all, yeah, because
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I asked how you did it at two and a half,
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You're like, no, no, I was three when I could
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put it a needle on the record without scratching it.
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Before I could put a needle on a record without
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scratching it, I was thirty. No, I was.
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I was gonna say sixteen.
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I was definitely in my teens for sure.
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Yeah, that record just like set off a movie in
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my head. I saw what they were singing, and I
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felt what they were singing. The music and the lyrics
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like all created this psychedelic experience for me. And we'll
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get to it eventually. But one of the reasons I
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made music for little kids zero to five year old specifically,
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is because they are having a psychedelic experience and I
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wanted to be involved in that world. You know. That's
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when music was really first turned on in my brain.
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So yeah, that album just turned me on and I've
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been on ever since.
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Now, your parents are they musically inclined? Do they play instruments?
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Were they in bands growing up? That kind of thing?
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None of that stuff. But my mom was a piano player,
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you know, as a hobby, and loved classical music and
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took me to the symphony a lot when I was
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a little kid and sort of turned me onto all
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that stuff, And then my dad was into hillbilly music
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and country music.
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What's hillbilly music?
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Well, you know like Bill Monroe, mandolin fiddle, no drums, okay,
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high loansome? Oh brother, where art thou am? I hitting
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any buttons yet?
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Yeah?
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Mountain music, Yeah, mountain music. We call it hillbilly is.
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Also his definition of country was if it has drums,
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it's not country. So he was not down with a
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young country.
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He needs a wash tub or a box to thump
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on or something.
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I guess. So,
yeah, that's just what he used to say.
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If it's got drums, I don't listen to it. Burt.
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So, when your mom used to take you to symphonies
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and things, did she pat you down and search you
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for hammers like.
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I was gonna get up and bang on the piano?
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Yeah?
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Yeah she probably should have. She didn't know, but I
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had a trench coach just full of hammers.
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Do you imagine that, just like a small child. It
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was just a whole shitload of hammers.
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She's taking them out and throw too.
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Oh my gosh, that'd be amazing.
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Yeah.
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So what did you want to be when you grew up?
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Obviously you're going to say something in music, right.
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Yeah, I mean I wanted to be a musician.
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Did you go to school, college, university or anything like that.
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I did. I went to State University of New York
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at purchase to be an artist. Actually I got a
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Bachelor of Fine Arts.
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Oh yeah, Why did you go all the way across
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the country.
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So I could understand the East Coast and the Northeast
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and New York and just kind of like expand my horizons,
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you know, just kind of taste a different coast.
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So is that like fine art? Like you draw and
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you paint and you do stuff like that.
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Yeah, I you know, I didn't know. I didn't have
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a voice as an art. I did visual art all
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the time when I was a kid. I drew and
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painted and did stupid, you know, little cartoons in my
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journal or whatever. We had to have a journal for school,
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so it was like every week you had to turn
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in a certain number of pages of writing or drawing
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or something. So I was doing that. I went to
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art school mostly because I wanted to avoid going to
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music school. I did want to learn all the choral
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relationships and all the theory, and I hated music theory.
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Even when I
was a teenager. My piano teacher tried
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to get me into theory, and it's just like, yeah,
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it was like biting foil. I hated it.
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Really, Yeah, that sounds painful.
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I wanted.
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I just had this feeling like what I'm gonna end
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up doing with music is being more intuitive and more
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hunting for my own particular chemistry through failure. And somehow
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that felt clear even at a young age. So yeah,
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I went to art school to avoid music. School didn't
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really have anything to say with visual art. So I
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of course formed bands in college and played around. I
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actually played at CBGB's and Hilly Crystal liked my band,
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No shit, Yeah, he told me one day, He's like,
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good job, you guys are good. I'm going to have
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you back. What was the name of that band, A
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sleep Standing. We were in college. You know, it had
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to be an idea.
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Sure what style of music was that?
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I mean it was a lot of the same as
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the really Tiki God was one of our songs, which
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turned out to be a President's song later. They were
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a handful there. It was kind of you know, like
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again like Sergeant Pepper is kind of a kaleidoscope of
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styles there where We had our country song and our
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song that kind of sounded like the Strokes, even though
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the Strokes weren't a thing. Then n RBQ. Do you
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know NRBQ, No, I don't. Their vibe was kind of
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what that a sleep standing vibe was Half of the
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set I played a clavinet and half the set I
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played guitar, so we mixed it up. It was fun,
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it was, and we lived together in an apartment on
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campus like the Monkeys and had a great time.
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That sounds like a fucking blast man.
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It was awesome. We played CBEs twice and then we
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moved to Brooklyn to kind of think, well, let's keep
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but the band didn't really have staying power. Everybody kind
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of went their separate ways eventually.
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So you still talk to those guys.
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No, I ran into the drummer every once in a
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while with your car. Yeah. Well no, with a little
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go kart, just gently hitting his ankles.
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Until he until its attention.
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Yeah, yeah, until he's like, hey stop that.
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When you put Tiki God on a president's album, did
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you have to get their permission or were you the
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writer of the whole thing?
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Anyway, I was the writer of the whole thing. Anyway, Yeah,
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I just wrote that song. A lot of my songs
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have before they there were a few, like on the
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President's album, that existed in other forms with other bands,
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And that first President's record is kind of culling a
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lifetime songwriting for the best nuggets.
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Isn't that what all first records are pretty much?
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Although the songs Lump and Peaches and Kitty were brand.
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New that's fucking hilarious and they were.
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The singles, some of the album tracks were, you know,
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road tested with other combos until they got Dave and
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Jason's hands on him and David Jason gave them the
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right flavor to make them shoot off like a rocket.
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Tell me about bull Weavil Bull Weaval.
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It started out as a weird little I think I
251
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was stoned and.
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I made Oh it ended up as a weird.
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It started out as me. It was just like I
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was playing with the pitch control on a four track
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and I made it will boot Ball. It was just
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a fragment that had nonsense lyrics, and I just sort
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of developed it and made it into something real, you know,
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just because I was like, Oh, we need another song.
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Oh here's a funky one. We didn't have a funky
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one in the set, so it became a fault. I
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love that song, yeah, And that actually was about a
262
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member of a sleep standing who was a real not
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agoraphobic necessarily, but real into being at home playing video
games, smoking,
264
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eating tuna out of a can, putting out the cigarettes
265
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in the tuna cans. And I went over to visit him.
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This is long after the band had done its thing
267
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and he moved back to Seattle. He and I knew
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each other from Seattle. We went to school in New
269
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York together, and we'd moved back to Seattle, and I
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went to visit him and he was living in this
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kind of squalor situation. And that's when I got the
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idea for the song. The message to the goal, we
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will get right out of your home.
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You know that's hilarious. I think nowadays, like you said,
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not necessarily a gophobic, but I think nowadays we would
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call him an indoor kid.
277
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Yeah, indoor kid. Right.
278
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So some of your influencers are the Beatles and for
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some reason Blue Oyster Cold right. Yes, Now, I say
280
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for some reason because even though I'm gonna guess that
281
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they are the influence of a lot of bands. Nobody
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ever mentioned them, but I heard you mention them. What
283
00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.919
about them inspired you? I mean I was listening to
284
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those albums when I was a kid too, because that
285
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was my mom's favorite band. M And I don't know
286
00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:26.879
if you're friends with but I know you have a
287
00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.960
relationship with one of the dudes from that band, Yeah,
288
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Albert Albert now his brother Joe, founding bass player of
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that band. He was on my show before. He's a
290
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super cool dude.
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Nice.
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So what about Bluish or Cult inspired you?
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I don't know. I think the Beatles never really like
294
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delved into arena rock, that stance of like, you know,
295
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expansive God of Thunder kind of vibe, and it was
296
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sort of maybe missing in my paint box of options. Later,
297
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the Presidents we did a song called mok Fi, which
298
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was kind of me trying to make a kiss song.
299
00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:06.440
But Bluisher called Blew Me Away because they were super
300
00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.360
weird and psychedelic. I mean, those first couple of records,
301
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I'm on the Lamb, but I ain't no sheep. She's
302
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as beautiful as a foot Last Days of May. I mean,
303
00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:18.399
there's just so many weird almost like Sergeant Peppers their albums.
304
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They're like the Sergeant Peppers of arena rock or something.
305
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They just scratched that itch and I loved how weird
306
00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.200
they were. And later when I met Albert he came
307
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to see the Presidents in New York. He's from Canada,
308
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from Toronto, and we just had a crazy bonding session
309
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and he ended up sending me a bunch of his
310
00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:37.200
solo stuff with this band called the Brain Surgeons. We
311
00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.279
stayed in touch. Back then it was pen Palace because
312
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it was the nineties. Sure, he wrote quite a few
313
00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:45.759
of those weird songs or co wrote, and so it
314
00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:49.480
was fun to you know, fanboy out on one of
315
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my childhood heroes.
316
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Have picked the brain and the guy who wrote some
317
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of the weird shit.
318
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Yeah.
319
00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:56.440
Well, and he was looking at me like, you're writing
320
00:14:56.519 --> 00:14:58.919
weird shit, and I said, no, you're writing weird shit.
321
00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:00.720
And we had a shit off.
322
00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:07.080
That sounds weird. Yeah, So at some point we're going
323
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to jump around a little bit.
324
00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:09.919
That's fine, that's how the mind works.
325
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Word.
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00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:15.080
So at some point you met Beck and started touring
327
00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:16.679
with him. How did that come about?
328
00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:18.759
Well, when I was in Boston, I played on the
329
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street quite a bit and I became friendly with this
330
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girl named Mary Lou Lord.
331
00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:25.799
I'm going to interrupt you already. What So how did
332
00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.919
you get to Boston? So after you graduated in New York,
333
00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:30.720
you were like, Hey, fuck it, I'm going to Boston.
334
00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:34.399
Well, the last semester we were at college, this visiting
335
00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:37.039
artist came. His name was Chris Janney, and he did
336
00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:41.399
large scale installations in public spaces of these like light
337
00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.559
beams that when broken would trigger sounds on a synthesizer.
338
00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:48.519
And okay, he
turned like architectural spaces into instruments basically,
339
00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.159
and he said at the end of the school year
340
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we were seniors and graduating, He's like, if anybody wants
341
00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:55.039
to come to Boston and work for me, you've got
342
00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.279
a job. And I had no real idea what I
343
00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:59.240
was going to do. So we went. Me and the
344
00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:02.639
drummer the band ahead in college, and then the guitar player,
345
00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:05.679
Bolt Weavil, followed, and so the three of us were
346
00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:08.360
a band called Egg in Boston. So that's how I
347
00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:09.000
got to Boston.
348
00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:15.600
Okay, hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors.
349
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350
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the other day, and it went a little something like this, Hey, Steve, Hey, Chris, Hey,
351
00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:26.399
you know what sucks? When I get done with my
352
00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:29.799
workout at the gym. My protein shakes not cold anymore. Man,
353
00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:30.759
It's room temperature.
354
00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.759
Weird. I haven't run into you at the gym lately, busted.
355
00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:37.960
Okay, truth be told. I don't work out, but I
356
00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:40.799
do get thirsty after a long day of podcasting. I
357
00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:43.240
just can't seem to keep my cocktails cold.
358
00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:44.639
You should use an ice shaker.
359
00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:46.000
What's an ice shaker?
360
00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:50.080
The ice shaker is a double walled, vacuum insulated, stainless
361
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steel shaker bottle with a patent twist and agitator that
362
00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:55.200
breaks up the protein powders.
363
00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:57.720
So you're saying I should switch to an ice shaker,
364
00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:00.399
Take out the agitator, stuck, can fit more in the
365
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.039
cup and it'll stay cold longer.
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Steve, you don't need more ice.
367
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368
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369
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Chris, you're a genius. I'll still remove the patented screw
370
00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:15.200
an agitator and just add more booze.
371
00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:18.480
I guess technically you could, but if you actually use
372
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.599
the ice Shaker as a protein drink cup. The agitator
373
00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:22.920
breaks of the powder and doesn't bounce around like you're
374
00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:24.319
shaking a pink can.
375
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a couple of times, like those cheap plastic ones. When
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com promo code f SP. Let's get back into it now.
393
00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:35.880
You were talking about Miss Lord.
394
00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:38.559
Oh yeah, So I'm playing on the street because I
395
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.079
was discovering that it was a really good way to
396
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:43.440
tell if a song was good or not, or was
397
00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:46.160
hooky or not. It was to play it for people
398
00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:47.519
who didn't really want to hear it.
399
00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:49.400
So like busking on the corner.
400
00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.160
Yep, I had a little battery powered am My friend
401
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.960
Phil was there, the drummer from the college band who
402
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.400
went with me to Boston. Initially he had a drum
403
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:00.440
kit that was like a suitcase for a kick drum,
404
00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.240
and then all the drums win in the suitcase when
405
00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:04.240
it was time to high tail it because we were
406
00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:08.359
being showed away by the cops. So yeah, that was
407
00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:11.119
super fun. And as I was immersed in that scene
408
00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.079
of playing on the street, I met Mary Lou Lord,
409
00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:15.599
who was also busking. You know, she was doing it
410
00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:17.519
really for a job. I was doing it here and
411
00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:20.079
there to kind of hone my songwriting and make beer
412
00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:22.359
money and stuff like that. But she was serious about
413
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:24.359
it to the point where she had like carpal tunnel
414
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.240
and you know, had to take breaks, and sometimes during
415
00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:29.319
her breaks I would take over her spot and grab
416
00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:31.799
her guitar. She'd go use the restroom because a spot
417
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:34.720
in Harvard Square in Boston is real hard to get
418
00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:36.400
and once you get it, you don't want to leave.
419
00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:39.119
So and also you can't just leave your shit there
420
00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:41.440
and go to the bathroom like your stuff will be gone.
421
00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.880
Yeah. Yeah, We had a tradition of watching each other's spots,
422
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:48.279
and then we formed a band called Strumpet played a
423
00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:51.000
few gigs. I played that two string guitar right there,
424
00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:55.359
pointing at listenings at home, and then flash forward to
425
00:19:55.759 --> 00:20:00.480
I'm living in Seattle in nineteen ninety three. I think
426
00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:04.079
it was late ninety three. Mary Lou called me and said, hey,
427
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:06.799
I share a publisher with this guy Beck, and he's
428
00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:09.480
about to get signed and he needs band members to
429
00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:11.160
go on tour with him because he's a solo guy.
430
00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.240
But he's going to put together a band and you
431
00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:16.759
should be in the band. And I said, okay, Mary Lou, thanks.
432
00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:19.759
You know, I don't know what to say to that.
433
00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:22.480
That's cool. Bye. It's like as if your phone rang
434
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.960
today and somebody said, Hey, there's this guy named Oliver
435
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:27.640
the Octopus and he needs musicians and he's going to
436
00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:29.759
be huge, and you'd be like, I don't Oliver the Octopus.
437
00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:31.559
I don't know who that is, right, Like, you don't
438
00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:34.240
fucking know beg for shit? Like oh okay, yeah, it.
439
00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:36.519
Was just a word. It was just like Beck, what's that?
440
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:39.000
And then she called again and said that she was
441
00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:41.759
coming to Seattle with him because he was going to
442
00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.319
do some residency like back and forth up and down
443
00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:47.319
the West coast, kind of stirring up interests because his
444
00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:50.359
album was going to come out eventually on Geffen, so
445
00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:52.039
I could meet him. And I was like, oh, there's
446
00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:53.319
no harm
in that. I'll go down and meet him.
447
00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:55.839
And I went down to the Crocodile and met him
448
00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:58.480
and watched him perform solo with an acoustic guitar, and
449
00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:01.119
it was like the Sergeant Pepper's or Blue Aestrac thing
450
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:03.400
movies went off in my head. I mean, I saw
451
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.519
what he was singing about, the way he was collaging
452
00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:11.279
cultural references and words free of like necessarily telling a
453
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.559
narrative arc at all, which was my songs were really
454
00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:17.279
like narrative, and he was more abstract, and I really
455
00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:19.240
admired that, and I kind of wanted to be in
456
00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.519
that world. So we talked about all that after he played,
457
00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:24.200
and you know, got along really well. And then the
458
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.799
next night he played the Okay Hotel and he was
459
00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.000
doing a thing where he's playing solo acoustic. But when
460
00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.039
he did Loser, he had a backing track on a
461
00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:34.319
DAT tape. With digital audio tape back then was the
462
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.680
most reliable, you know, way to do playback live. But
463
00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.160
it broke during that Okay Hotel show and he was
464
00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:43.079
kind of floundering on stage a little bit, like not
465
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.000
sure what to do, how to play the song, and
466
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:48.599
I got up, just uninvited, got up on stage, grabbed
467
00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:50.880
a little cassio keyboard, and he had a guitar, and
468
00:21:50.920 --> 00:21:53.160
we just started making some shit up and eventually we
469
00:21:53.240 --> 00:21:56.000
ended up stuffing as many harmonicas in our mouths as
470
00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:57.759
we could and we were wrestling on the ground and
471
00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:02.200
it was just like this absolute It was an absolute weird,
472
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:06.400
freak out, bizarre, crazy thing. And I think he dug it.
473
00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:08.319
I dug it, and a couple of days later he
474
00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:10.200
called and said, would you like to be in my
475
00:22:10.279 --> 00:22:13.680
touring band? And it was beginning of my life as
476
00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:16.640
a real professional musician, so it was a big deal.
477
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.319
How long were you on that tour? You on the
478
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:19.519
whole first tour or.
479
00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:22.240
First two tours. First one was a band tour, and
480
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.319
then we did a bus and then the Presidents had
481
00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.319
already started at that point, and I had taken a
482
00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:29.599
hiatus from the Presidents to do those two tours, and
483
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.119
our drummer Jason called one day. I was like, you
484
00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:34.119
got to come home because we're selling copies of our
485
00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:36.880
demo tape like hotcakes over the bar here where I work.
486
00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:39.960
And plus, you know, Beck was it's a lot to
487
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:43.039
ask somebody like him, who's been solo his whole life
488
00:22:43.079 --> 00:22:46.400
and kind of in his own world, to lead a band.
489
00:22:46.599 --> 00:22:49.799
And one way that he kind of was trying to
490
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:52.960
make a mark for himself was to deconstruct the happy,
491
00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:55.240
go lucky loser thing. He didn't want to put on
492
00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:58.279
a happy kind of showbiz show. He wanted to be
493
00:22:58.359 --> 00:23:01.200
Sonic Youth Junior basically, and that was fun for a
494
00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:03.200
little bit, but that's not really not my jam. I'm
495
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:06.599
an entertainer and I like to engage and interact and
496
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:08.720
really like try to elevate the crowd. And he was
497
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.720
kind of trying to cut their heads off just because
498
00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:14.400
he actually wasn't really into that Loser song, and he
499
00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:16.319
was kind of, I guess, a little bummed that it
500
00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:18.920
became the song that he was known for, which was
501
00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:20.839
a lesson for me. It was like, don't release any
502
00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:23.359
songs that you don't love because they might become hits
503
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:24.440
and then you're stuck.
504
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:28.559
Sadly, that is more common the more people that I
505
00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:32.599
talked to, you know, the hit is it's not their favorite,
506
00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:36.240
and it's hard for me to determine sometimes whether it
507
00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:39.000
was never their favorite or if they're just fucking tired
508
00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:41.319
of it, which I mean, I guess I understand that
509
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:43.160
as well. A long time ago, I took my little
510
00:23:43.160 --> 00:23:45.799
brothers to go see Pantera and that was at the
511
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:48.000
height of what it was at the Cowboys from hell
512
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:51.519
outm or whatever. It was that song Cemetery Gates. That's them, right,
513
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:52.200
I don't know.
514
00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:53.599
I don't know Pantera at all.
515
00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:56.160
I think that was the one. Anyway, they started to
516
00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:59.440
play that song, like we're talking like a full arena.
517
00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:02.319
There's you know, twenty seven thousand people in there, and
518
00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:04.200
they started
to play that song. I think it was
519
00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:08.200
that song, and I mean the crowd went bananas, right,
520
00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:11.240
and then about a quarter of the way into it,
521
00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:14.680
they stopped and the singer goes, I fucking hate that song,
522
00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:16.680
and then they didn't finish it. They just moved on
523
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:19.319
to another song. Oh that's which blew me away.
524
00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:21.039
That's rude, man.
525
00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:25.200
Probably half the people in that audience were there to
526
00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:29.240
see that song. It just blew me away. So I'm
527
00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:31.880
not saying that, you know, that's even on par with
528
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.440
Beck at all, not like a song. I'm just saying
529
00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:37.319
that that feels like sort of a almost a through
530
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:41.359
line of actually get really big, especially if it's really
531
00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:44.480
big based on you know, one or two really really
532
00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:47.799
big hits or singles or whatever. Yeah, obviously it stuck
533
00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:50.799
with me and it's been I don't know, twenty three
534
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:52.000
years or something like that.
535
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:52.400
Yeah.
536
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:54.640
Yeah, well, you know, I think too for him in
537
00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:57.480
that song, it was the narrative around the song, you know,
538
00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:01.279
the whole like you are the slacker generation guru or whatever,
539
00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:03.920
and he was way deeper that, he had way more
540
00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:08.160
ideas than just that headline. So I think that also
541
00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:12.119
kind of screwed around with his ability to enjoy that song.
542
00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:13.440
That makes sense, but.
543
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:15.240
You know, I took it to heart and when we
544
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:19.279
made our debut record. I loved every single song, and
545
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:22.160
the songs that beginning it hits I Love I Love
546
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:25.200
Lump and Peaches and Kitty and Mock Viv and Volcano
547
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.359
and all the songs that you know, kind of elevated
548
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:30.240
above the rest, are like I love them.
549
00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:32.799
I think that's a really good lesson. If it's not
550
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:34.279
your favorite, don't put it out.
551
00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.200
Yeah, it was a hard fast rule. By the time
552
00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:39.119
I got to the President's after being in a bunch
553
00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:41.720
of bands and kind of, you know, trying to wedge
554
00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:44.240
in a song that I wrote that not everybody wasn't
555
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:47.599
quite into and convince people that it was good or whatever.
556
00:25:47.720 --> 00:25:49.880
I gave up on all that, and the presidents had
557
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:53.079
this philosophy, which was, if all three of us look
558
00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:56.599
at the setlist and don't love every single song, let's
559
00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:58.720
get rid of the ones even one of us doesn't
560
00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:02.279
love and just trust that something better will bubble up
561
00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:05.720
in its place. We just self edited fearlessly and got
562
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:07.680
it to the point where it all worked.
563
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.720
It seems pretty forward thinking. If you ask me for
564
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.079
a bunch of yeah knuckleheads, that seems really really forward thinking.
565
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:17.119
I mean, no, if I'm not calling you a knucklehead.
566
00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:17.839
I guess I was.
567
00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:20.920
No, No, I mean, actually we weren't even young knuckleheads.
568
00:26:21.079 --> 00:26:23.440
I mean when The Presidents hit, I was thirty.
569
00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:25.759
Oh my gosh, you're a grizzled veteran by then.
570
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:28.880
Yeah. Yeah, I mean I spent my whole twenties flailing
571
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:31.599
around doing dumb stuff. And then by the time I
572
00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:35.039
was thirty, and it felt like this version of my
573
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:38.160
live band set up with Jason and Dave really felt good.
574
00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:40.079
It was like, Okay, I'm going to really dig in
575
00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:42.400
here and try to make this work. We just wanted
576
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:44.599
to have fun. We didn't want it to feel like work.
577
00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:46.400
You know, if you look down at the setlist and
578
00:26:46.440 --> 00:26:50.799
you don't love the next song, that's work. The year
579
00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:52.720
you play music, you don't work music.
580
00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:57.079
Yeah. There was a there was a movie called Doesn't
581
00:26:57.079 --> 00:26:59.440
Matter What Wizard of Us. Oh, there was also a movie.
582
00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:02.440
There was a movie. I don't remember what it was called,
583
00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:05.880
but in it, this guy is taking pictures. He's a photographer,
584
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:09.599
and this girl says, why did you stop taking pictures
585
00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:11.680
if you love it so much? And he said, I
586
00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:13.759
started getting paid for it, and it felt like work.
587
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:17.160
Yeah, it's tricky. Yeah, I'm kind of applied that I
588
00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:20.000
make ambient music for meditation and sort of like as
589
00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:22.640
background music for other people's creative endeavors, and I just
590
00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:24.599
give that all away for free because I didn't want
591
00:27:24.640 -->
00:27:28.279
any structure or money or expectations attach to it. And
592
00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:30.400
all this we'll get to it eventually, of course. But
593
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:32.480
all this new music that I'm making now, I give
594
00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:34.759
it away on my website for free. It just feels
595
00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:38.240
really nice to not think about that, especially after having
596
00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:41.720
been in the gristmill of popularity in the top of
597
00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:44.599
the charts and all that stuff, and feeling how unsafe
598
00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:48.200
and unstable and sort of dependent on so many other
599
00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:52.279
people's opinions happiness can be at that level. It feels
600
00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:55.920
really nice to just in spots remove all that.
601
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:58.720
Well, this question may be out of balance, and feel
602
00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:01.319
free to not answer it. But if you're giving all
603
00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:04.559
of your music away, how do you pay your bills?
604
00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:08.559
Well, the two projects that I'm not giving away are
605
00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:13.559
Presidents and Casper Baby Pants Music zero to five year olds.
606
00:28:13.640 --> 00:28:16.720
Those are money makers that allow me to do all
607
00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:18.240
the other stuff for fun.
608
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:22.759
Gotcha, Well, this is going to be a very uncomfortable ask.
609
00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:29.519
Then can I play beaches? Sure, absolutely, Yeah, you're okay
610
00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:29.839
with that?
611
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:32.480
Yeah, I mean I could play it on the instrument
612
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:33.599
I wrote it on, if you want.
613
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:36.160
That'd be fucking you know what? Yeah, do that? Do it?
614
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.880
Go ahead, let me.
615
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:40.319
Plug in an amplifier here because it doesn't sound very
616
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:43.119
good about it. This is a little seventy five dollars
617
00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:47.200
Kawhi guitar, a Japanese guitar that I got in Boston
618
00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:50.799
at a pawn shop on mass av and played it
619
00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:59.359
on the debut record. I can't remember it.
620
00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:06.359
Move into the country, Gonna eat a lot of peaches,
621
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:11.200
Move into the country, Gonna eat a lot of peaches.
622
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:17.079
Okay, and that's all you get for free. Suck at Pantera.
623
00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.920
That's hilarious. Oh my god, that's funny.
624
00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:26.400
That's good stuff. Yeah, I love this guitar. I'm actually
625
00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:32.559
still using this guitar on a daily basis. I actually,
626
00:29:32.599 --> 00:29:43.160
wait here, there's more weep. I don't even remember saying
627
00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.400
that one.
It's been a long time. We haven't known
628
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.039
it a show for seven years, so I'm a little cold.
629
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:50.519
But I did actually just play Peaches with weird Al
630
00:29:50.559 --> 00:29:53.440
Yankovic the other night here in Seattle at the More Theater.
631
00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:54.359
And it's super fun.
632
00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:56.680
The More theater is that the one where Pearl Jam
633
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:58.519
that dude was hanging off the chandelier, and.
634
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:02.559
I think so my landmark memory of the More is
635
00:30:02.599 --> 00:30:05.119
when there was a bill of bands. It was like
636
00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:08.920
mud Honey and Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Soundgarden and
637
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:10.680
they sold it out, and it was the first time
638
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.559
I think all those guys looked at each other and went, well,
639
00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:15.759
I think we have something going on here. I think
640
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:18.480
we are a thing, or we have some clout, you know,
641
00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:19.279
we can sell out The.
642
00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:22.920
More kick ass. Yeah, now I'll feel free to say no.
643
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:28.440
But right after yourself and said, I said, hey, can
644
00:30:28.599 --> 00:30:32.640
I put in that song like the studio the album version,
645
00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:33.920
or would you rather I didn't?
646
00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:36.680
Oh no, it's fine. It's fine with me, is it okay?
647
00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:38.640
Okay? I mean I just wanted to make sure that
648
00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:39.240
was cool with you.
649
00:30:39.359 --> 00:30:40.119
Yeah, it's cool with me.
650
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:59.480
I love that song, me too.
651
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:04.319
To the Country, Gonna eat a lot of peaches. I'm
652
00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:07.839
moving to the country. I'm gonna eat me a lot
653
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:12.319
of peaches. I'm move into the country. I'm gonna eat
654
00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:16.200
a lot of peaches. Move into the country.
655
00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:18.880
I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches.
656
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.240
Peaches come so I can.
657
00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:25.359
They weren't put there by a man in.
658
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:27.839
A factory downside.
659
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:34.920
And if I have my own way, the peaches every day,
660
00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:37.240
some so in bonges in.
661
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:43.039
A shade, move into the country. I'm gonna eat a
662
00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:48.079
lot of peaches. Move into the country. Gonna eat a
663
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:53.160
lot of peaches. Move into the country. Gonna eat a
664
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:57.880
lot of peaches, move into the country, Gonna.
665
00:31:57.680 --> 00:31:59.240
Eat a lot of peaches.
666
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:02.960
I took a handle that with a little so dressed,
667
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.759
swished around, little pitch in my fist and dreamed about shoes.
668
00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.799
Woman WoT my free good down inside, make.
669
00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:17.079
A little real fall hands to hide nature's candy in
670
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:18.880
my hand, dog can or.
671
00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:32.279
A pie man.
672
00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:42.400
Millions of peaches, peaches for me, Millions of peaches, beaches
673
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:48.519
for free. Millions of peaches, peaches for me, Millions of
674
00:32:48.680 --> 00:32:50.400
caches beat.
675
00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:51.960
Just for free? What house?
676
00:33:15.519 --> 00:33:24.599
Millions of peaches, millions of beaches, salt train, millions of beaches,
677
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:28.480
paches by millions of peaches?
678
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:36.079
Is now with presidence of the United States of America.
679
00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:39.000
You use some weird instruments like just now you used
680
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:41.200
what was I like to two string? Two string guitar,
681
00:33:41.559 --> 00:33:43.559
So you use a two string and a three sting?
682
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:48.440
What the heck is that all about? Who even like what?
683
00:33:49.400 --> 00:33:51.839
My dad's been in bands my entire life, I've never
684
00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:54.079
heard of a two and three string guitar. What gave
685
00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:54.640
you that idea?
686
00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:55.440
Well?
687
00:33:55.559 --> 00:33:58.559
I ended up in Boston hanging out with and living
688
00:33:58.599 --> 00:34:01.759
with Mark Sandman from a band called Morphine, and he
689
00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:04.720
played a two string slide bass. It was a full
690
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:07.240
scale bass with two strings that were raised up and
691
00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:08.920
he played it with a slide. And I was in
692
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:10.840
his studio one day, I think it was before we
693
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:13.880
lived together, and I'm pointing fans at home at a
694
00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:16.840
red guitar behind me with a white pickguard. He had
695
00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:19.519
this guitar set up as a two string, and I
696
00:34:19.719 --> 00:34:21.639
never played a two string. I was playing a four
697
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.039
string acoustic because I ran out of money and I
698
00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:26.800
couldn't put new strings on my guitar, so as I
699
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:28.320
broke them, I went down to a five and then
700
00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:30.760
a four. But here was a two string, and it
701
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:33.719
just felt like I was at home. It was a
702
00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:36.000
weird feeling. It was like I can take all my
703
00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:41.440
kaleidoscopic influences the same way. Sergeant Pepper's is kaleidoscopic and
704
00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:44.360
Bleuister cult to a certain extent, and Beck was
definitely
705
00:34:44.360 --> 00:34:47.920
a kaleidoscopic influence. And I can run all these different
706
00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:50.639
sources through a two string and it sounds new, It
707
00:34:50.679 --> 00:34:53.519
sounds fresh, It sounds primitive in a way and kind
708
00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:56.599
of like personalized. So I could wear my influences on
709
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:59.199
my sleeve and it didn't look like plagiarism.
710
00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:01.039
That makes sense.
711
00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:03.960
Yeah, and it felt really good. And I'm a minimalist,
712
00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:06.760
so two strings great, two strings to buy, two strings
713
00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:09.840
to tune is fantastic. So there's a little trick to
714
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:11.599
you know, like when you look for a guitar, you
715
00:35:11.639 --> 00:35:13.639
got to look for a guitar with a floating bridge
716
00:35:13.960 --> 00:35:15.639
like all these have, so that you can move it
717
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:17.960
around so you can get the intonation right. There's some
718
00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:20.000
tricks to setting up a two and three string that
719
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.480
Mark and I kind of hammered out. We sat around
720
00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:25.119
one day with strings and calipers, he and I and
721
00:35:25.239 --> 00:35:27.079
kind of figured out all, right, we needed to be
722
00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:29.880
in this tone for my voice, and how thick should
723
00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:32.039
the strings be and what's the neck length?
724
00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:35.800
And oh wow, it was kind of scientific, sounds very scientific.
725
00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:38.760
So yeah, Mark really set me up, and now in
726
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:40.920
these days, I'm back to playing that guy. Now have
727
00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:42.920
the Mark Sandma guitar set up as a six string,
728
00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:47.159
so I'm back playing all string combinations these days.
729
00:35:47.239 --> 00:35:49.840
Oh my goodness. Well look at you, bro the growth.
730
00:35:51.159 --> 00:35:55.159
So along those lines, I heard somewhere fairly recently that
731
00:35:55.400 --> 00:35:58.079
you want to make two and three string guitars for
732
00:35:58.159 --> 00:35:58.800
little kids.
733
00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:03.119
Yes, here's my real dream. Since there is a company
734
00:36:03.239 --> 00:36:08.000
called luge Loog that I highly recommend they make wonderful
735
00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:10.639
three string guitars for little kids. I have one in
736
00:36:10.679 --> 00:36:13.159
the house. Actually I love it. I play it all
737
00:36:13.159 --> 00:36:15.559
the time. But here's my pitch. What I really want
738
00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:18.920
to do is a one string guitar for infants that
739
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:21.800
has a built in amplifier and speaker that you can
740
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.519
kick into overdrive and you can just get like mud
741
00:36:24.519 --> 00:36:29.480
Honey fuzz or Hendrix level fuzz, but with one pretty
742
00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:31.480
thick string. I don't want it to be boangy. So
743
00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:33.760
the idea with the one string is it's never out
744
00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:36.239
of tune because there's never a string to tune it
745
00:36:36.280 --> 00:36:42.079
two right, So the parents have an exponentially less horrific
746
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:45.599
experience of listening to a child bang away on an
747
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:45.840
out of.
748
00:36:45.880 --> 00:36:48.400
Tune guitar for hours unless they're hitting it with the hammer.
749
00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:51.159
Yeah, it's true, and the kid gets to feel what
750
00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:54.159
it's like to rock out and you know, play immediately.
751
00:36:54.239 --> 00:36:56.679
It's an instrument anyone can play, and I've been trying
752
00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.559
to pitch lug on doing it. They have since started
753
00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:02.719
making with pickups and speakers, but they stick to their
754
00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:06.360
three string and they make six string guitars too interesting. Anyway,
755
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:10.199
my son is a guitar builder and a designer and player,
756
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:12.480
and maybe there's a day when he and I go
757
00:37:12.519 --> 00:37:14.920
into business together and we make these things. I don't
758
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:19.079
want to necessarily make a company that's selling. I'd love
759
00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:21.760
to just like pitch it to and sponsor it with
760
00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:26.320
a company that's like Fender or Epiphone or somebody like that.
761
00:37:26.679 --> 00:37:29.119
I'll call Bob Gibson and see what he's saying. There, Yeah,
762
00:37:29.159 --> 00:37:31.960
I go, all right, rock on.
763
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:33.639
I want someone else to do all the hard work.
764
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:36.599
Well there you go. Okay, So we're going to move
765
00:37:36.639 --> 00:37:38.599
on from the presidency of the United States of America
766
00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:42.719
just because you have so many other fascinating things to
767
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:46.159
talk about. If that's okay, sure, Oh, but first tell
768
00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:47.320
me about Cleveland Rocks.
769
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:54.039
We were on the Rosie o'donald Show, who, by the way,
770
00:37:54.119 --> 00:37:56.440
is a really great drummer. She set up on Jason's
771
00:37:56.480 --> 00:37:59.960
kid and kicked ass. Rosie Rosi o'donald.
772
00:38:00.199 --> 00:38:02.440
Yeah, wow, Okay, she can.
773
00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:04.920
Flap the skins or whatever. The kids who call in
774
00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:05.400
it these.
775
00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:06.559
Days, I'm sure it's not that.
776
00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:12.719
It's not that the skins. So we're backstage for some reason,
777
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:15.519
we were in a trailer outside I don't know exactly why,
778
00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:17.960
maybe she wasn't in a regular studio or something, and
779
00:38:18.039 --> 00:38:20.559
knock at the door and it's Drew Carrey and he
780
00:38:20.639 --> 00:38:22.920
was a guest on the same episode. He came in
781
00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:25.280
with a supermodel on each arm, as I remember, it
782
00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:27.239
hung out for a while and we got along and
783
00:38:27.519 --> 00:38:30.360
shot the shit and laughed, and he got in touch
784
00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:32.239
with us. A little while later. It was like, I
785
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:35.360
want to redo the theme song for the Drew Carrey Show,
786
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:37.239
and I wanted to be Cleveland Rocks by Ian Hunter,
787
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.239
and I want you guys to record it. So we're like, yeah, sure,
788
00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:41.880
And so we went in and just did that one
789
00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:44.400
project in a couple of days. And at the very
790
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:47.760
end of that song, when it says, ohiohio, that's Drew
791
00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:48.840
doing the ohio.
792
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:49.719
Oh good.
793
00:38:49.880 --> 00:38:52.639
He phoned it in to the studio. So yeah, it
794
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:55.320
was really nice and we've played that song all over
795
00:38:55.320 --> 00:38:57.000
the place. It was in our set for a while.
796
00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:00.000
We did it not too long ago, maybe two thousand
797
00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:02.800
and thirteen or fourteen. We did it at a home
798
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:06.280
opener of Cleveland Brown's football game as a halftime act.
799
00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:08.159
Oh my gosh, how cool was that?
800
00:39:08.199 --> 00:39:10.920
And it was the only game they won that whole season,
801
00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:14.559
No kidding, it.
802
00:39:14.559 --> 00:39:16.639
Was kind of that's really cool.
803
00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:19.440
Yeah, it was a great experience, and that opened my
804
00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:24.199
eyes to licensing music for commercials and television shows and
805
00:39:24.440 --> 00:39:26.639
movies and stuff like that. And actually, because of that,
806
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:28.760
I started doing that. And this is a segue to
807
00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:31.320
what I did after the presidents. I did that for
808
00:39:31.639 --> 00:39:35.239
a good ten or fifteen years after the President's writing
809
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:39.199
custom songs, scoring video games. I had a huge eight
810
00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:42.800
hundred piece library of just incidental music that I licensed
811
00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:46.880
to whoever wanted it through Getty Images and Getty Music anyway.
812
00:39:46.920 --> 00:39:48.559
So yeah, I did that for a long time just
813
00:39:48.599 --> 00:39:51.920
because of that New Carrey thing. So thanks Drew, Thanks Drew,
814
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:52.760
Thanks
Drew.
815
00:39:53.119 --> 00:39:54.599
Keep doing it. I think that's great.
816
00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:58.480
Yeah, we still get little checks from syndication.
817
00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:01.000
And all the other things that you've done. I'm sure maybe.
818
00:40:01.239 --> 00:40:04.199
Yeah, it's one of my favorite activities is opening checks.
819
00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:08.880
You're a waiter, you wait by the mailbox for Texas
820
00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:16.840
show exactly high street walkers. Here's a word from our sponsors. Now,
821
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:19.280
I didn't know how good I had it till I
822
00:40:19.320 --> 00:40:22.440
met some other whiskeys from the city. It turns out
823
00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:25.960
a small town and an even smaller batch made me
824
00:40:26.119 --> 00:40:29.880
the most headstrong spirit. Both sides of the pekas call
825
00:40:29.960 --> 00:40:35.880
me critical batch Texas Bourbon raised by a sailor in Bulvardy, Texas.
826
00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:39.159
Bottled at one ten proof. They took me out of
827
00:40:39.159 --> 00:40:41.760
the barrel and didn't know which end to slap. So
828
00:40:41.840 --> 00:40:44.800
why don't you come taste the pure definition of bourbon,
829
00:40:45.320 --> 00:40:48.960
grain to beryl to bottle and join our little rebellion.
830
00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:51.840
You may all go to the liquor store. I'll be
831
00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:55.960
at Chaplain Distillery three oh seven nine oh Blanco Road
832
00:40:56.039 --> 00:40:59.280
in Bulverdi, Texas. Ask for c B in the tasting
833
00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:02.599
room and I'll see you soon. That was the bourbon
834
00:41:02.679 --> 00:41:07.960
talking streetwalkers. Chaplain Distillery is proudly veteran owned and operated.
835
00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:11.480
Follow them on Instagram and Facebook or go to Chaplain
836
00:41:11.519 --> 00:41:15.199
Distillery dot com and maybe I'll see you at the
837
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:22.920
tasting room. Let's get back into it all right. What
838
00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:26.079
is a Casper baby pant?
839
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:30.400
So when I was with Mark playing that guitar as
840
00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:34.079
a two string, we had a live band called Supergroup.
841
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:36.639
Mark played a three string and I played a two string,
842
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:39.119
and we had a rotating set of drummers and we
843
00:41:39.159 --> 00:41:42.039
improvised all the songs live. People could write down on
844
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:44.800
a napkin what they wanted us to make a song
845
00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:46.480
out of and we had to do it. So it
846
00:41:46.480 --> 00:41:51.079
was super fun and weird and improvisational and experimental. And
847
00:41:51.480 --> 00:41:54.519
my stage name at that point was Casper Babypants because
848
00:41:54.679 --> 00:41:56.880
I had gone by the name Casper making these weird
849
00:41:56.880 --> 00:42:00.320
little cassettes throughout the years. And actually Bet and I
850
00:42:00.360 --> 00:42:03.400
did a split seven inch single called Casper and Mollusk.
851
00:42:03.599 --> 00:42:06.599
He was Mollusk, I was Casper, which is very rare
852
00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:10.039
and weird and hard to find. So one winter I
853
00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:12.119
didn't have a hat. It was cold. I went to
854
00:42:12.199 --> 00:42:14.519
this co op food co op. They had a bin
855
00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:17.280
of free clothing for the needy. I reached in and
856
00:42:17.280 --> 00:42:20.119
picked out this pair of hand knitted baby's pants and
857
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:22.000
put them on my head and they were like thick
858
00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:25.079
and fuzzy, perfect hat. So the kids in my neighborhood
859
00:42:25.079 --> 00:42:27.719
started calling me baby pants, like wait, you going baby pants?
860
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.039
And so I put Casper and baby pants together and
861
00:42:30.079 --> 00:42:32.679
became Casper baby Pants for this band that Mark and
862
00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:36.199
I had. And years later, when I finally landed on
863
00:42:36.280 --> 00:42:38.840
making music for zero to five year olds and their parents,
864
00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:40.920
I sat there for a minute, thinking, what do I
865
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:42.639
want to call it? Do I want to make up
866
00:42:42.679 --> 00:42:45.239
a band? Do I want to call it just my name?
867
00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:48.320
And all of a sudden I remembered I'm already Casper
868
00:42:48.360 --> 00:42:52.320
baby Pants, so I'll just use that. So it was
869
00:42:52.360 --> 00:42:54.159
sort of like a breadcrumb to myself.
870
00:42:54.519 --> 00:42:57.559
Why did you decide that you needed to make music
871
00:42:57.599 --> 00:42:58.679
for sero to five year olds?
872
00:42:58.920 --> 00:43:01.119
You know, it's funny. I didn't decid. The entire time
873
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:03.239
I was in the Presidents and rock bands and stuff,
874
00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:06.440
I had this nagging feeling that there was some other
875
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:10.159
approach that I should be exploring, and it was no
876
00:43:10.280 --> 00:43:12.920
more clearer than that. It was just an impulse. There's
877
00:43:12.920 --> 00:43:16.239
something else, There's something else. There's something else on the side.
878
00:43:16.280 --> 00:43:19.039
As the Presidents did their thing, I formed other bands,
879
00:43:19.079 --> 00:43:23.480
the Giraffes, the Tycoons, the Feelings, Hijackers, all these bands
880
00:43:23.480 --> 00:43:26.960
that were completely different vibes, trying to find this other thing,
881
00:43:27.199 --> 00:43:29.000
and none of it was right. This went on for
882
00:43:29.079 --> 00:43:32.039
like twelve years, twelve years of like hunting and pecking
883
00:43:32.119 --> 00:43:34.320
outside the band, trying to figure out what this voice
884
00:43:34.360 --> 00:43:37.679
in my gut was trying to say. Eventually I
started
885
00:43:37.719 --> 00:43:40.159
making music that was kind of acoustic and quiet, and
886
00:43:40.199 --> 00:43:43.559
still didn't know what to sing necessarily or who was for.
887
00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:45.719
And then I met my second wife, Kate, and her
888
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:48.760
artwork just completely spoke to me, and I realized I
889
00:43:48.760 --> 00:43:51.559
wanted to make music that came from the same planet
890
00:43:51.599 --> 00:43:54.440
as their artwork, which was the artwork I don't have
891
00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:56.440
one here actually, but it was the artwork for the
892
00:43:57.039 --> 00:44:00.880
Casper Baby Pants records. It's really well done right, it's funny,
893
00:44:00.920 --> 00:44:05.039
it's well crafted, it's got animals, it's you know, silly,
894
00:44:05.320 --> 00:44:06.800
and I was like, that's it, that's what I want
895
00:44:06.840 --> 00:44:09.079
to do. So I made some songs inspired by her
896
00:44:09.199 --> 00:44:11.559
art and then when I listened back, I was just
897
00:44:11.599 --> 00:44:14.360
struck with a solution. It's music for zero to five
898
00:44:14.440 --> 00:44:17.920
year olds because they are psychedelic individuals, and I want
899
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:21.119
to give them psychedelic musical experiences like the Beatles gave
900
00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:23.440
me when I was a toddler. So that's how I
901
00:44:23.519 --> 00:44:26.960
landed on it. I didn't really decide, I just solved it.
902
00:44:28.280 --> 00:44:30.719
I solved for cast for baby pants.
903
00:44:31.039 --> 00:44:33.559
Oh there you go. I like the where you put that.
904
00:44:33.559 --> 00:44:37.599
That inspiration that you got from your wife's art reminds me.
905
00:44:38.119 --> 00:44:42.159
Have you heard of an actor named lou Diamond Phillips.
906
00:44:42.400 --> 00:44:45.719
Sure, he played Richie Valens in the movie La Bamba.
907
00:44:46.079 --> 00:44:50.079
He did and a bunch of other things. His wife, Yvonne,
908
00:44:50.400 --> 00:44:53.639
she did drawings and whatever, and maybe even paintings, but
909
00:44:53.760 --> 00:44:56.679
she did art kind of like you're talking about, and
910
00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:01.679
he was inspired by her art, and he writes books
911
00:45:02.159 --> 00:45:04.760
based on that art. Wow. I think it's called like
912
00:45:04.800 --> 00:45:07.880
the Tinderbox series or something like that. So that's what
913
00:45:07.920 --> 00:45:09.840
it reminded me of when I heard you tell that story.
914
00:45:09.880 --> 00:45:13.280
And I think that's really cool to be inspired by
915
00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:17.400
I mean anybody, but particularly your wife's art, to then
916
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:20.280
build on that art and make your own art. Yeah,
917
00:45:20.320 --> 00:45:21.920
as a result, I think that's super dope.
918
00:45:22.079 --> 00:45:25.639
Yeah, then the whole project really revealed another purpose, which
919
00:45:25.800 --> 00:45:31.440
was
to reduce stress for families in stressful situations, because
920
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:36.480
I took the parents' aesthetics very seriously. Also, in fact,
921
00:45:36.519 --> 00:45:38.920
my joke was I didn't make kids music. I made
922
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:43.039
parents music. But there's no genre called parents music. I
923
00:45:43.079 --> 00:45:46.199
was trying to really really make songs that a toddler
924
00:45:46.440 --> 00:45:49.960
and a parent could genuinely enjoy together. So I was
925
00:45:50.079 --> 00:45:53.239
using like my history as a grown up musician to
926
00:45:53.559 --> 00:45:59.159
sprinkle enough harmonic complexity or rhythmic complexity or lyrical complexity
927
00:45:59.559 --> 00:46:03.320
into these very simple songs so that an older sibling
928
00:46:03.519 --> 00:46:06.280
or a parent would be entertained as well. And all
929
00:46:06.320 --> 00:46:08.360
the feedback I got is that it worked, and I
930
00:46:08.400 --> 00:46:10.960
did it, and I made nineteen records of that stuff,
931
00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:12.119
so that is.
932
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:12.920
A lot of records.
933
00:46:13.079 --> 00:46:15.920
Yeah, I was on a volcano after all that waiting
934
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:18.920
and then wondering, I had actually left myself with a
935
00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:21.800
ton of breadcrumbs with songs that I'd written that I
936
00:46:21.960 --> 00:46:23.599
didn't know what they were for at the time. It
937
00:46:23.639 --> 00:46:26.079
turned out they were Casper songs. So but yeah, it
938
00:46:26.119 --> 00:46:28.880
became a piece of the puzzle for families to really
939
00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:32.079
genuinely reduce stress. I used to imagine when I made
940
00:46:32.119 --> 00:46:34.159
the songs and I was listening, like is this done?
941
00:46:34.239 --> 00:46:37.400
I would put myself in a car in August at
942
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:40.199
Yosemite National Park with a family of five and they're
943
00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:42.599
all hot and hungry and tired, and they all have
944
00:46:42.679 --> 00:46:45.840
to pee and they're all mad. Will this song help
945
00:46:46.159 --> 00:46:48.800
or will it hurt? And I inevitably ended up taking
946
00:46:48.840 --> 00:46:56.440
the mandolin out. The mandolin, the tambourine, the banjo, they
947
00:46:56.440 --> 00:46:58.320
are all like, really fun to play and put on
948
00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:00.679
those songs. But when I put myself in that car,
949
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:03.440
I was like, that mandolin's like a buzzsaw. It's not
950
00:47:03.480 --> 00:47:06.360
going to help. It became kind of altruistic, I guess,
951
00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:09.920
or a way to participate in helping families feel good,
952
00:47:10.239 --> 00:47:13.159
which is more valuable than look at me. I'm a
953
00:47:13.159 --> 00:47:15.880
clever songwriter, so I kind of got to transcend my
954
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:18.639
ego a bit for that project. It was nice.
955
00:47:19.039 --> 00:47:22.079
That's an interesting approach. I don't know if I've ever
956
00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:27.440
heard anybody quite attack the problem from that direction. Yeah,
957
00:47:27.480 --> 00:47:30.679
I love it, Thank you all. You're welcome. How do
958
00:47:30.760 --> 00:47:34.119
you see the world like trees and objects have secret
959
00:47:34.159 --> 00:47:36.119
lives and shit like that? How do you see the world.
960
00:47:36.280 --> 00:47:39.159
It's in a live place. Really, When I look outside
961
00:47:39.199 --> 00:47:41.000
and I see a plant or a tree or a bird,
962
00:47:41.119 --> 00:47:43.159
I think of it as the same as me. Really,
963
00:47:43.480 --> 00:47:46.159
you know, there's a perception you can sort of foster
964
00:47:46.360 --> 00:47:48.719
where there is no up and down or in and out.
965
00:47:48.840 --> 00:47:52.440
We're living in a brick of matter. Air has molecules
966
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:54.480
in it, just like my body does. In fact, my
967
00:47:54.519 --> 00:47:58.079
body has more space between the molecules than molecules. But
968
00:47:58.679 --> 00:48:00.679
we think of it as like, cause we're tethered to
969
00:48:00.840 --> 00:48:03.920
this sphere gravitationally, that there's an up and a down
970
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:06.800
and in and out. But there really isn't. We're really
971
00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:09.960
just in a brick of matter, and we're a different
972
00:48:10.119 --> 00:48:13.840
density of matter than a guitar or a tree. So
973
00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:17.000
I guess I feel empathetic. I always look at the world,
974
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.559
and I look at anything I'm looking now, like at clouds.
975
00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:21.559
I'm like, oh, I look at that little cloud, you know,
976
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:24.519
and I can imagine it's somehow I want to project
977
00:48:24.559 --> 00:48:28.840
an interior consciousness onto inanimate objects. I don't know why.
978
00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:30.800
It makes me laugh. I think it's funny, you know.
979
00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:33.119
I did write a song for Casper called Mister Cloud
980
00:48:33.199 --> 00:48:37.119
about a cloud. Yeah, I just see the world as alive.
981
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:39.920
When I was a little kid, I have this very
982
00:48:39.960 --> 00:48:44.480
strong recollection. I sat down, I was looking at my clothes,
983
00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:47.400
you know, I'm like, oh, whatever, I'm over my closet
984
00:48:47.400 --> 00:48:49.039
and I'm like, oh, I've got all these shirts or whatever.
985
00:48:49.599 --> 00:48:52.079
And then i started counting out the days, like of
986
00:48:52.159 --> 00:48:54.559
the week, and I'm like, well, I have more shirts
987
00:48:54.599 --> 00:48:57.559
than I have days of the week. So that means
988
00:48:57.639 --> 00:48:59.400
that some of these shirts are not going to get
989
00:48:59.480 --> 00:49:02.880
worn every week. And that made me sad because those
990
00:49:02.920 --> 00:49:04.559
shirts were gonna feel left out.
991
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:09.079
Yes, exactly, yeah, man, exactly. I worked in an amusement
992
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:10.480
park and I used to feel sad for.
993
00:49:10.440 --> 00:49:13.719
The riots, really because some aligance were longer than others.
994
00:49:14.039 --> 00:49:17.000
No, because they're just stuck there, just moving people around
995
00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:20.440
all day and they can't go take a break or
996
00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:24.119
go to a movie or it's just like, yeah, they're stuck.
997
00:49:24.559 --> 00:49:27.119
I heard you say once, and this is a quote.
998
00:49:27.679 --> 00:49:30.559
Life is not something to be one it's something to
999
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:31.239
be one with.
1000
00:49:32.199 --> 00:49:32.880
I said that.
1001
00:49:33.320 --> 00:49:35.519
You said that. You were so proud of yourself when
1002
00:49:35.559 --> 00:49:37.519
you said it too. When you said it, you were like,
1003
00:49:37.719 --> 00:49:39.800
holy shit, that I just come up with that. That's
1004
00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:40.480
pretty awesome.
1005
00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:42.920
Knife isn't something to be one, it's something to be
1006
00:49:42.960 --> 00:49:45.559
one with That sounds like a lyric from the music
1007
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:49.800
I'm working on now. Boy. Yeah, well, I think the
1008
00:49:49.840 --> 00:49:52.599
core of that idea is attachment. I remember as a
1009
00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:57.000
little kid feeling the thrill of Christmas Day and opening
1010
00:49:57.039 --> 00:50:00.119
a present and then immediately being struck by an emptiness
1011
00:50:00.400 --> 00:50:04.239
well almost like a message from somewhere else saying you
1012
00:50:04.239 --> 00:50:08.440
can't depend on acquisition of things for happiness. I don't know.
1013
00:50:08.519 --> 00:50:12.360
It was an involuntary sort of follow up emotion to
1014
00:50:12.639 --> 00:50:16.039
the thrill of getting something for Christmas that was hollow
1015
00:50:16.159 --> 00:50:20.920
and dark and like a void. So from a really
1016
00:50:20.920 --> 00:50:23.559
early age I had this idea, this thing like, well,
1017
00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:26.000
there must be some other way to relate to the
1018
00:50:26.039 --> 00:50:29.159
world that isn't about acquiring or winning.
1019
00:50:29.559 --> 00:50:29.760
You know.
1020
00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:32.440
I grew up in a Catholic environment. I was an
1021
00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:35.159
altar boy, and I did that whole thing. It was
1022
00:50:35.400 --> 00:50:38.119
very intense. It was Roman Catholic Mass. My mom was
1023
00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:41.039
into this kind of faction that was sort of shunned,
1024
00:50:41.079 --> 00:50:43.360
I guess by the Vatican or something, and we had
1025
00:50:43.400 --> 00:50:46.360
to say do Mass in like you know, Ramada in
1026
00:50:46.599 --> 00:50:49.800
meeting rooms and weird places because we
didn't have a church,
1027
00:50:49.840 --> 00:50:52.159
and eventually they got a church, and it was supposed
1028
00:50:52.159 --> 00:50:54.039
to be the mass that was said when Jesus was
1029
00:50:54.360 --> 00:50:57.159
freshly crucified, and it was a brand new.
1030
00:50:57.119 --> 00:50:58.079
Hit for.
1031
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:03.880
Anyway. I guess I kind of eventually figured out or
1032
00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:08.039
realized that the mythology around Catholicism didn't answer the question,
1033
00:51:08.440 --> 00:51:12.159
and things didn't answer the question. I think music answered
1034
00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:14.079
the question more for me than anything else. It made
1035
00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:17.440
me feel more like connected to other people and connected
1036
00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:20.760
to something that I couldn't articulate, you know, something vast
1037
00:51:20.840 --> 00:51:24.320
and timeless and cosmic. I guess my whole life has
1038
00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:26.840
been just like looking for ways to relate to the
1039
00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:32.360
world that don't depend on the thrill of attachment. And actually,
1040
00:51:32.400 --> 00:51:34.360
since the band broke up and I've been doing this
1041
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:38.719
new music and artwork, I've really cultivated a sense of
1042
00:51:38.800 --> 00:51:40.320
like just doing it.
1043
00:51:40.199 --> 00:51:41.119
For the day.
1044
00:51:41.320 --> 00:51:43.360
I'm working on a song all day because it makes
1045
00:51:43.400 --> 00:51:47.679
the day interesting and fun and challenging, and it makes
1046
00:51:47.719 --> 00:51:50.440
time evaporate. I turned into what I think a dog's
1047
00:51:50.519 --> 00:51:53.800
experience is, where there's no time. It's just a series
1048
00:51:53.840 --> 00:51:56.440
of moments that are either pleasurable or not pleasurable, and
1049
00:51:56.480 --> 00:51:59.000
you just go from one to the next. So music
1050
00:51:59.039 --> 00:52:01.199
does that mostly for me. And then, you know, when
1051
00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:04.000
the band became a big deal to President's that was
1052
00:52:04.039 --> 00:52:07.039
another time that feeling reared its head, like you've just
1053
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:09.519
been nominated for a Grammy. Oh my god, my god.
1054
00:52:09.800 --> 00:52:13.599
So what it was just like this very short little hit.
1055
00:52:13.960 --> 00:52:16.119
And I could tell that if I were to continue
1056
00:52:16.119 --> 00:52:19.039
on the trajectory or try to continue to have hits
1057
00:52:19.039 --> 00:52:21.159
and have a career in the sense of like a
1058
00:52:21.239 --> 00:52:24.360
legacy kind of thing where you just continue to chart
1059
00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:26.880
and chart and chart, I could tell that that would
1060
00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:29.519
be like chasing up phantom, you know, be like trying
1061
00:52:29.519 --> 00:52:32.000
to dance with a ghost. There's just no way I'd
1062
00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:33.599
ever feel relaxed.
1063
00:52:34.079 --> 00:52:34.159
Now.
1064
00:52:34.280 --> 00:52:37.280
Some people can't, you know. Some people are the rolling stones,
1065
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:39.280
and they just keep going and going and going, and
1066
00:52:39.519 --> 00:52:41.199
although I don't think they've had a hit in a
1067
00:52:41.239 --> 00:52:44.840
long time, but they keep trying anyway. I think that's
1068
00:52:44.840 --> 00:52:47.480
the long version of that answer is just I've been
1069
00:52:47.639 --> 00:52:50.960
very wary of attachment and the thrill that it brings
1070
00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:52.599
in how quickly it evaporates.
1071
00:52:52.920 --> 00:52:55.639
Gotcha. I just want to give credit where credit is due.
1072
00:52:55.679 --> 00:52:58.559
You said it five years ago on a podcast called
1073
00:52:58.599 --> 00:53:02.000
Strangers and Friends Nice, and it was life is not
1074
00:53:02.119 --> 00:53:05.000
something to be one it is something to be one with.
1075
00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:07.320
And I thought that was so profound that I just
1076
00:53:07.400 --> 00:53:08.079
had to bring it up.
1077
00:53:08.119 --> 00:53:10.519
I love it, well, I appreciate that I might. I'm
1078
00:53:10.559 --> 00:53:13.039
going to jot that down as an idea for a song.
1079
00:53:13.519 --> 00:53:16.480
Do it well, it's your idea, that's true, Yes, yeah,
1080
00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:19.519
not gonna get something right. Also, I only want to
1081
00:53:19.559 --> 00:53:23.400
mention this out of its bizarreness. You were a guest
1082
00:53:23.559 --> 00:53:27.559
on a podcast and it's literally the most bizarre podcast.
1083
00:53:27.599 --> 00:53:29.480
I've ever heard in my entire life.
1084
00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:30.239
What's that?
1085
00:53:30.480 --> 00:53:34.320
It was called twenty five Minutes of Silence and this
1086
00:53:34.519 --> 00:53:38.360
was a podcast. The episode is about twenty eight minutes long,
1087
00:53:38.760 --> 00:53:42.440
and there's an intro which is, you know, hey, guys,
1088
00:53:42.519 --> 00:53:44.960
this is Chris Balou from the President's the United States
1089
00:53:44.960 --> 00:53:46.960
and we're going to sit in silence with him today.
1090
00:53:47.079 --> 00:53:49.880
And you said, Hi, it's me, blah blah blah. I'm
1091
00:53:49.920 --> 00:53:51.440
ready for this. I've been looking forward to it all
1092
00:53:51.480 --> 00:53:54.079
day or whatever. And then the people listening are going
1093
00:53:54.159 --> 00:53:56.400
to think that I'm pulling their leg. But this is
1094
00:53:56.440 --> 00:54:00.800
a real thing for twenty five minutes. You guys didn't
1095
00:54:00.880 --> 00:54:04.159
say a word. The host was reading a book, and
1096
00:54:04.280 --> 00:54:06.039
you do you remember what you were doing?
1097
00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:07.440
I don't actually what.
1098
00:54:07.679 --> 00:54:12.440
You were packaging CDs for a charity event, all right,
1099
00:54:13.119 --> 00:54:15.719
And so you hear the noise of you packaging CDs.
1100
00:54:15.800 --> 00:54:18.199
You hear him turn a page every now and then,
1101
00:54:18.320 --> 00:54:21.000
every now and then, somebody clears their throat. And then
1102
00:54:21.039 --> 00:54:24.400
at the very end, twenty five minutes later, he says,
1103
00:54:24.440 --> 00:54:26.400
thank you so much for sitting with me, Chris, do
1104
00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:28.440
you have anything to plug? And then you plugged a
1105
00:54:28.440 --> 00:54:31.000
few things and then that was it, and I was like,
1106
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:35.159
what the fuck is this? But that was a real thing,
1107
00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:36.840
and so I just wanted to buy to know that
1108
00:54:36.840 --> 00:54:38.920
that was the thing that was out there. And there's
1109
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:42.400
about fifty or sixty episodes of that with different guests,
1110
00:54:42.960 --> 00:54:45.360
and just wow, that was a real thing.
1111
00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:49.079
I've completely forgotten about that. So thank you for reminding me.
1112
00:54:49.119 --> 00:54:53.440
You're welcome, You're part of a very odd time in podcasting.
1113
00:54:53.480 --> 00:54:56.199
That was. Yeah, I've never heard of anything like it,
1114
00:54:56.280 --> 00:54:58.079
and it kind of blew me away when I found it.
1115
00:54:58.079 --> 00:55:00.800
It's incredible how much there is to for get. That's
1116
00:55:00.840 --> 00:55:04.039
what I've been learning about my own life, like you'll
1117
00:55:04.079 --> 00:55:05.800
remind me of something like that, Like, God, I did
1118
00:55:05.840 --> 00:55:09.840
that too, the list of like weird places I've been,
1119
00:55:10.039 --> 00:55:12.960
people I've met, things I've done. I need to really
1120
00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:15.119
make an actual list because every so often a new
1121
00:55:15.159 --> 00:55:16.320
one pops into my head and like.
1122
00:55:16.360 --> 00:55:19.960
Well, you need to write that book. Yeah, speaking of which,
1123
00:55:20.199 --> 00:55:23.480
you got some great advice from Madonna one time. What
1124
00:55:23.719 --> 00:55:24.920
was it and did it help?
1125
00:55:25.239 --> 00:55:31.559
The advice was, don't expect critical acclaim for your craft
1126
00:55:31.760 --> 00:55:34.960
because you are funny. If you're making music that is
1127
00:55:35.320 --> 00:55:41.320
perceived as positive or light or uplifting or silly in
1128
00:55:41.480 --> 00:55:44.440
some way, that the work that goes into making that
1129
00:55:44.519 --> 00:55:47.280
music is just as much work that goes into making
1130
00:55:47.320 --> 00:55:52.519
something heavy or intense, but critically, you'll never hear a
1131
00:55:52.559 --> 00:55:56.880
peep from writers or whatever. Music writers acknowledging that there's
1132
00:55:56.880 --> 00:55:59.920
a craft to music that is happy And she was,
1133
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:02.360
that's right, and she saved me a lot of stress.
1134
00:56:02.599 --> 00:56:05.719
I guess you know. There is also that attachment to
1135
00:56:06.159 --> 00:56:09.239
critical acclaim that can also screw you up. So it's
1136
00:56:09.280 --> 00:56:11.480
not just being attached to things. You can be attached
1137
00:56:11.519 --> 00:56:13.840
to the rush of like a good review.
1138
00:56:14.960 --> 00:56:18.199
Well, in her saying that because your music is funny,
1139
00:56:18.199 --> 00:56:21.800
it won't get critical acclaim, as evidenced by the fact
1140
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.320
that there is not Academy Award category for comedy films.
1141
00:56:25.760 --> 00:56:30.280
Right there, you go. Wow, I didn't realize that that's interesting.
1142
00:56:29.880 --> 00:56:31.639
Now that you think about it. I'm right. Tell me
1143
00:56:31.679 --> 00:56:33.320
about Kurt Cobain's ghost.
1144
00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:40.079
Oh man, Kirk Cobain, I don't know this is a funny. Okay,
1145
00:56:40.280 --> 00:56:42.480
here we go. I got a call from a president's
1146
00:56:42.480 --> 00:56:45.079
manager saying that he had had a call from a
1147
00:56:45.119 --> 00:56:47.880
place called the Museum of the Mysteries, and the Museum
1148
00:56:47.880 --> 00:56:50.960
of the Mysteries had had a seance the night before.
1149
00:56:51.119 --> 00:56:53.480
They claimed to have been contacted by the ghost of
1150
00:56:53.519 --> 00:56:57.719
Kirk Cobain, who sent lyrics down from somewhere with the
1151
00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:01.199
instruction that he wanted Chris Blue to sing this song.
1152
00:57:01.639 --> 00:57:03.800
And then he had a little code. It said, ask
1153
00:57:04.159 --> 00:57:08.840
Dave Groll about the odd shaped Mexican beer bottles in
1154
00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:11.760
the avocado green kitchen. That was some sort of key,
1155
00:57:12.039 --> 00:57:14.079
like if I doubted that it was true, I could
1156
00:57:14.119 --> 00:57:18.159
ask Dave Grohl to verify through that little image. So
1157
00:57:18.280 --> 00:57:21.559
I got the lyrics and they were not exactly rhyming
1158
00:57:21.679 --> 00:57:24.079
or anything. They were just kind of like blobs of lyrics.
1159
00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:27.280
And I called Chris Novacelic to ask him. I don't
1160
00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:29.000
have Dave Roll's phone number, he's too big of a
1161
00:57:29.079 --> 00:57:31.079
rock star, but I can call Chris Novselic.
1162
00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:32.480
I'll give it to you offline.
1163
00:57:32.559 --> 00:57:37.400
Go ahead, it's if I have. So I called Chris
1164
00:57:37.440 --> 00:57:39.679
and went over the whole thing with him, and you know,
1165
00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:42.559
he gave me his opinion, which was, I don't know.
1166
00:57:42.840 --> 00:57:44.599
His opinion was basically like, I'm not going to say
1167
00:57:44.679 --> 00:57:46.119
things like this aren't real, but I'm not going to
1168
00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:46.760
say it's real.
1169
00:57:47.039 -->
00:57:47.280
You know.
1170
00:57:47.360 --> 00:57:49.920
His big advice was just don't do anything that sort
1171
00:57:49.920 --> 00:57:52.519
of puts you at the center of the Nirvana thing,
1172
00:57:52.679 --> 00:57:56.519
because there's a lot of darkness in that zone. And
1173
00:57:56.559 --> 00:57:58.079
so I got off with him and I was like,
1174
00:57:58.079 --> 00:57:59.719
I don't know what to do. Well, you know, I
1175
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:02.239
kind of I realized he said sing the song. And
1176
00:58:02.320 --> 00:58:04.760
initially I was thinking I'll record it and release it,
1177
00:58:04.760 --> 00:58:07.679
it'll be a thing. But I eventually realized none of
1178
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:09.760
these instructions are to sing it. So I said it
1179
00:58:09.760 --> 00:58:12.320
to music. I went out in the backyard and I
1180
00:58:12.360 --> 00:58:16.199
sang it, figuring if it is from the ethereal version
1181
00:58:16.199 --> 00:58:20.079
of Kurt Cobain, he'll probably hear it. So I did
1182
00:58:20.159 --> 00:58:23.119
that and figured, all right, I'm done. And then six
1183
00:58:23.239 --> 00:58:25.519
or seven months later, I was walking in the wintertime
1184
00:58:25.800 --> 00:58:28.199
and I was looking at the you know, like muddy
1185
00:58:28.280 --> 00:58:30.519
leaves and stuff, and I was imagining bugs kind of
1186
00:58:30.519 --> 00:58:33.159
curled up in muddy leaves going to sleep like a lullaby.
1187
00:58:33.719 --> 00:58:36.159
And I wrote a song called even Bugs Are Sleeping
1188
00:58:36.239 --> 00:58:38.280
in my head, and when I got home, I said
1189
00:58:38.280 --> 00:58:41.599
it to the music that I used for the Ghost
1190
00:58:41.599 --> 00:58:45.239
of Kurt Cobain's lyrics, and it clicked. And so the
1191
00:58:45.320 --> 00:58:48.199
Casper Baby Pants song Even Bugs Are Sleeping is secretly
1192
00:58:48.320 --> 00:58:51.239
a collaboration between me and the ghost of Kurt Cobain.
1193
00:58:51.440 --> 00:58:55.639
And that's the story. Whoa and scene.
1194
00:58:56.480 --> 00:59:00.000
Wow, I'm so glad you told that story. That's fantastic.
1195
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:02.760
Yeah, and who knows, I mean, if it was real.
1196
00:59:03.360 --> 00:59:05.280
You know, I got to sort of use an element
1197
00:59:05.360 --> 00:59:08.960
from the quote unquote collaboration in a song that but
1198
00:59:09.079 --> 00:59:11.320
you know, so I wrote the music and the melody
1199
00:59:11.400 --> 00:59:14.280
and the lyrics to even Bugs Are Sleeping. The other way,
1200
00:59:14.360 --> 00:59:17.199
the other one, the one he supposedly wrote I'll never
1201
00:59:17.320 --> 00:59:18.559
release or anything.
1202
00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:21.360
Is just sure private, but you still.
1203
00:59:21.079 --> 00:59:23.760
Have it, right, Yeah, I still have it. I recorded it,
1204
00:59:23.920 --> 00:59:24.760
but I'm not.
1205
00:59:25.039 --> 00:59:27.880
Gonna do it. Sure. Yeah, No, that's awesome. That is
1206
00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:29.880
so cool. And that's even bugs are sleeping.
1207
00:59:30.280 --> 00:59:31.440
Even bugs are sleeping.
1208
00:59:31.559 --> 00:59:34.320
Yeah, Oh my gosh, that's dope.
1209
00:59:34.639 --> 00:59:35.480
Yeah, I dig it.
1210
00:59:35.800 --> 00:59:38.360
Well I play that one. You could say, no, yeah,
1211
00:59:38.400 --> 00:59:39.559
you can play it? Is that cool?
1212
00:59:39.639 --> 00:59:39.719
No?
1213
00:59:39.880 --> 00:59:42.239
Yeah, I mean it's such a great story. I would
1214
00:59:42.239 --> 00:59:43.719
love to play it totally.
1215
00:59:44.079 --> 00:59:46.320
I love it, and I'm very proud of that recording.
1216
00:59:46.400 --> 00:59:50.360
It's one of my favorites. Even bugs are sleeping.
1217
01:00:08.239 --> 01:00:14.000
Tired bugs get in their shells. Ants find a hole
1218
01:00:14.239 --> 01:00:23.239
to sleep as well. Spiders stop spinning webs, centipedes make
1219
01:00:23.360 --> 01:00:28.719
up long beds, and even bugs are sleeping.
1220
01:00:30.239 --> 01:00:42.159
Under leaves, dozing low. Even bugs are sleeping under leaves, dozing.
1221
01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:43.280
Low.
1222
01:00:52.000 --> 01:01:00.920
Butterflies fold up tight, fireflies turn off their lights. That
1223
01:01:01.239 --> 01:01:09.320
grasshopper's got to go. Took in his friend mosquito, And
1224
01:01:09.559 --> 01:01:19.800
even bugs are sleeping under lee, dozing low. Even bugs
1225
01:01:19.920 --> 01:01:25.880
are sleeping under lee, dozing.
1226
01:01:26.760 --> 01:01:27.079
Low.
1227
01:01:35.800 --> 01:01:42.639
Water bugs move to the shore. Crawlers don't crawl round
1228
01:01:42.639 --> 01:01:50.039
no more. Lady bugs fold up their wings. Antennas droop
1229
01:01:50.599 --> 01:01:52.440
and don't feel things.
1230
01:01:53.360 --> 01:02:03.679
Even bugs are sleeping under lee Stozy low even buts
1231
01:02:03.679 --> 01:02:09.719
a sleeping underly stove sing.
1232
01:02:10.800 --> 01:02:13.039
Love love.
1233
01:02:14.639 --> 01:02:17.400
Love love.
1234
01:02:19.519 --> 01:02:26.159
Love love love, love.
1235
01:02:28.320 --> 01:02:50.159
Love love love even so sleeping even sleeping.
1236
01:03:08.679 --> 01:03:09.119
Love it.
1237
01:03:09.559 --> 01:03:10.239
Yeah, it's great.
1238
01:03:10.480 --> 01:03:12.880
What is your relationship with sir? Mix a Lot? What
1239
01:03:13.320 --> 01:03:15.239
do you know? Everybody? Is that how this works?
1240
01:03:16.480 --> 01:03:19.320
I know, it's so weird. We had a band together.
1241
01:03:19.679 --> 01:03:22.280
It was Mix and the President's. Initially we were going
1242
01:03:22.320 --> 01:03:24.320
to cover a Jimi Hendrix song for some sort of
1243
01:03:24.320 --> 01:03:27.440
compilation album. We got together for dinner and we all
1244
01:03:27.519 --> 01:03:31.039
hit it off so well, I think quickly the idea
1245
01:03:31.119 --> 01:03:33.400
shifted to let's make our own songs, and so we
1246
01:03:33.440 --> 01:03:35.960
did a studio session,
did two songs, and we loved
1247
01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:38.039
how they came out. So we just kept working and working,
1248
01:03:38.039 --> 01:03:41.000
and eventually we did a West Coast tour and that
1249
01:03:41.159 --> 01:03:42.719
was very hilarious fun.
1250
01:03:43.079 --> 01:03:44.880
What was the name of the band that you toured under?
1251
01:03:45.199 --> 01:03:48.440
Subset? We just never finished the record. The whole project
1252
01:03:48.519 --> 01:03:51.039
kind of collapsed under the weight of its own expectations.
1253
01:03:51.039 --> 01:03:54.199
You know, we got caught up in that attachment thing
1254
01:03:54.280 --> 01:03:56.679
to like success, and you know, it was interesting too,
1255
01:03:56.800 --> 01:03:59.719
trying to find a common a subset where we all
1256
01:03:59.800 --> 01:04:02.800
felt like the song was good, you know, like Mix
1257
01:04:02.880 --> 01:04:05.119
had his sort of aesthetic. I had mine, Dave and
1258
01:04:05.199 --> 01:04:08.199
Jason had their own, and finding that little patch. The
1259
01:04:08.239 --> 01:04:10.760
little patch got smaller and smaller until it really didn't
1260
01:04:10.800 --> 01:04:13.639
exist anymore. And that's when we kind of went separate ways.
1261
01:04:13.719 --> 01:04:16.519
So and that all happened while the Presidents were broken up.
1262
01:04:16.760 --> 01:04:19.239
You know, between ninety eight and two thousand and three,
1263
01:04:19.599 --> 01:04:22.400
we made a record and we had a band with
1264
01:04:22.400 --> 01:04:24.360
some Mix a lot, so we weren't sitting around. We
1265
01:04:24.440 --> 01:04:26.960
just weren't the Presidents. We were just guys making music.
1266
01:04:27.360 --> 01:04:29.920
I love that. Everybody is like, whatever happened to the Presidents?
1267
01:04:29.920 --> 01:04:32.239
And then you, I mean, you guys didn't stop. I
1268
01:04:32.320 --> 01:04:34.599
mean you've put out I don't know, thirty albums since
1269
01:04:34.639 --> 01:04:36.119
then or something crazy like that.
1270
01:04:36.239 --> 01:04:37.039
Something crazy.
1271
01:04:37.119 --> 01:04:38.599
Yeah, Yeah, that's so cool.
1272
01:04:38.840 --> 01:04:41.239
We were banned from ninety four to ninety eight, and
1273
01:04:41.280 --> 01:04:42.880
then we had a five year break during which we
1274
01:04:42.920 --> 01:04:44.920
did this other stuff. And then from two thousand and
1275
01:04:44.920 --> 01:04:48.400
three to two thousand and fifteen we were a band,
1276
01:04:48.519 --> 01:04:49.599
so we had two acts.
1277
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.159
Nice, Yeah, tell me about this new music you're working on?
1278
01:04:54.199 --> 01:04:57.159
This Ethereal Meditative.
1279
01:04:56.920 --> 01:04:59.480
There's the meditation music, which is like ten to twenty
1280
01:04:59.519 --> 01:05:03.440
minute long, just cloudy things. And then there's this other
1281
01:05:03.519 --> 01:05:05.679
music I'm doing, which is way more kind of rooted
1282
01:05:05.719 --> 01:05:10.880
in psychedelia fuzzboxes lyrics very much inspired by like that
1283
01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:13.199
saying I said, where life is not somebody to be one,
1284
01:05:13.320 --> 01:05:16.119
somebody to be one with. It's kind of that attitude
1285
01:05:16.159 --> 01:05:19.440
and the lyrics enlightenment what it means to be human,
1286
01:05:19.519 --> 01:05:21.239
to have a brain, to have an ego that you
1287
01:05:21.320 --> 01:05:25.000
have to negotiate with, to feel love for all humans,
1288
01:05:25.079 --> 01:05:27.880
not just for the ones you happen to interact with.
1289
01:05:28.280 --> 01:05:32.199
All these kind of ideas about connectivity and emotions and humanness,
1290
01:05:33.280 --> 01:05:35.000
And I'm trying to take all that stuff and not
1291
01:05:35.039 --> 01:05:38.280
make it preachy or instructional. I'm trying to make it
1292
01:05:38.320 --> 01:05:41.679
more abstract, kind of impressionistic, play with words in a
1293
01:05:41.719 --> 01:05:44.480
way I've never played with them before, like the way
1294
01:05:44.519 --> 01:05:47.039
Beck did really like, you know, using words to kind
1295
01:05:47.079 --> 01:05:50.519
of abstractly paint pictures, rather than like Casper Baby Pants,
1296
01:05:50.559 --> 01:05:52.679
where I was telling a very clear narrative, or even
1297
01:05:52.719 --> 01:05:54.679
a lot of the President's songs. Actually, that's one thing
1298
01:05:54.719 --> 01:05:57.639
I love about the song Lump. It is lyrically like
1299
01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:00.760
what I'm doing now, because it's an abstraction, although it
1300
01:06:00.800 --> 01:06:03.159
really is describing a woman in a house code. I mean,
1301
01:06:03.159 --> 01:06:06.119
it's it is what it says it is. But yeah,
1302
01:06:06.159 --> 01:06:08.480
it's really fine. I've got to obviously get my elevator
1303
01:06:08.480 --> 01:06:10.920
pitch condensed because I haven't quite figured out a way
1304
01:06:10.960 --> 01:06:13.639
to talk about this stuff that's like a sexy forward
1305
01:06:14.000 --> 01:06:16.320
this is what it is thing I'm I'm still working
1306
01:06:16.360 --> 01:06:18.800
on that. My third record of this new stuff is
1307
01:06:18.840 --> 01:06:21.559
coming out a week from today, actually.
1308
01:06:21.519 --> 01:06:22.039
Oh sweet.
1309
01:06:22.199 --> 01:06:24.400
Yeah, And you can go to Chrisblue dot org to
1310
01:06:24.440 --> 01:06:28.000
have it all for free. There's meditation music for free there.
1311
01:06:28.079 --> 01:06:30.519
There's drawings to look at. There's a whole bunch of
1312
01:06:30.679 --> 01:06:33.880
archive stuff like my little Casper cassettes, you know, the
1313
01:06:33.960 --> 01:06:36.840
Dukes of Pop which is a proto President's Band. Gosh,
1314
01:06:36.920 --> 01:06:40.280
all kinds of stuff is up there for free to download.
1315
01:06:40.360 --> 01:06:42.960
So and that's it. Chrisblue dot org.
1316
01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:46.440
Dot org, B A L L E W dot
org. Yeah,
1317
01:06:46.480 --> 01:06:48.440
but I'm really excited about this new music I've got.
1318
01:06:48.519 --> 01:06:52.119
It's another eruption of a volcano of stuff. It's funny,
1319
01:06:52.159 --> 01:06:54.920
about a year and a half before this music started
1320
01:06:54.960 --> 01:06:57.440
happening for me. I had a feeling. I had this
1321
01:06:57.559 --> 01:07:00.440
like abstract vibe, like I'm going to be making some
1322
01:07:00.519 --> 01:07:02.920
new music and it's a psychedelic and it's for grown
1323
01:07:02.960 --> 01:07:05.760
ups and it's free form lyrically and it's weird. And
1324
01:07:05.800 --> 01:07:08.320
I remember telling a couple of friends like, I feel
1325
01:07:08.440 --> 01:07:10.800
something's coming, and then and then it went away and
1326
01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:13.079
I couldn't find it. And then about a year and
1327
01:07:13.079 --> 01:07:16.880
a half later, it's just like came into focus and
1328
01:07:17.199 --> 01:07:19.400
I'm looking right now in my computer. I've got three
1329
01:07:19.400 --> 01:07:22.719
albums done, a third one coming out, and eighty songs
1330
01:07:22.920 --> 01:07:27.239
in pretty much finished states ready for subsequent records. So
1331
01:07:27.480 --> 01:07:29.000
I'm going to be doing two of these a year,
1332
01:07:29.199 --> 01:07:33.079
July and January for the foreseeable future. So settle in everybody.
1333
01:07:33.599 --> 01:07:35.559
Wow. Yeah, very prolific.
1334
01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:38.239
Yeah, it's just what I do with my day. It
1335
01:07:38.440 --> 01:07:40.320
just makes my day. I kind of equate what I'm
1336
01:07:40.320 --> 01:07:42.800
doing now too. I'm a hobbyist. I'm a guy who
1337
01:07:42.840 --> 01:07:45.400
works at a regular job and on the weekends I
1338
01:07:45.519 --> 01:07:48.800
make chairs in my garage. And I'm just making chairs,
1339
01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:49.559
you know what i mean.
1340
01:07:49.599 --> 01:07:52.000
I'm just like, that's funny. I was gonna say, you're
1341
01:07:52.039 --> 01:07:53.800
like that guy who comes home from work and goes
1342
01:07:53.840 --> 01:07:55.039
to his shop and whittles.
1343
01:07:55.239 --> 01:07:55.840
Exactly.
1344
01:07:56.119 --> 01:07:57.119
I'm just you're whittling.
1345
01:07:57.199 --> 01:08:00.719
I'm musically whittling, putting it out and really attached to
1346
01:08:00.760 --> 01:08:04.760
any outcome. Just it's what makes my day feel good.
1347
01:08:05.039 --> 01:08:05.880
That's really sweet.
1348
01:08:06.199 --> 01:08:09.000
I'm also retired from performing, so I'm kind of doing
1349
01:08:09.039 --> 01:08:12.440
a experiment in sort of quieting that part of me
1350
01:08:13.039 --> 01:08:15.119
that used to be kind of hooked into that.
1351
01:08:15.599 --> 01:08:16.479
We'll see about that.
1352
01:08:17.039 --> 01:08:19.439
Yeah, you never know. I love the phrase never say never,
1353
01:08:19.560 --> 01:08:22.119
because I love it. If when the presidents
broke up
1354
01:08:22.119 --> 01:08:23.960
the first time, you told me we'd get together again
1355
01:08:24.039 --> 01:08:28.840
for another thirteen years, I'd be like, you're crazy love it.
1356
01:08:28.880 --> 01:08:30.960
Does your fleece still have dogs?
1357
01:08:33.319 --> 01:08:38.680
Yes? Absolutely, in a metaphorical sense, totally.
1358
01:08:38.279 --> 01:08:42.560
Of course, totally. Okay, Well we're going to wind up here.
1359
01:08:42.680 --> 01:08:44.159
I have taken up so much of your time, and
1360
01:08:44.279 --> 01:08:46.920
I appreciate how generous you have been with it. Chris,
1361
01:08:46.960 --> 01:08:48.680
Where can people find you on social media?
1362
01:08:49.159 --> 01:08:52.960
The best place, I guess is Instagram, just at Chris Balou.
1363
01:08:53.159 --> 01:08:55.359
That's a real good one because I put all sorts
1364
01:08:55.359 --> 01:08:57.520
of stuff that's happening up there. I'm not very good
1365
01:08:57.560 --> 01:08:59.760
with Facebook. I have it, but I don't really look
1366
01:08:59.800 --> 01:09:01.720
at it. I'll look at it twice a year, so
1367
01:09:01.800 --> 01:09:05.479
don't expect anything snappy. And then my website, of course,
1368
01:09:05.600 --> 01:09:11.239
Chrisbaluu dot org. And there's Babypants music dot Com for
1369
01:09:11.439 --> 01:09:14.479
Casper Babypants. So really it's Instagram and websites.
1370
01:09:14.920 --> 01:09:18.439
Do you say babypants music dot com. Yes, And that's
1371
01:09:18.479 --> 01:09:22.039
where we can go to buy Casper Babypants Music.
1372
01:09:22.520 --> 01:09:24.479
Not necessarily to buy. I don't sell it through there,
1373
01:09:24.520 --> 01:09:26.239
but you can go there to kind of check out
1374
01:09:26.279 --> 01:09:28.039
what's going on. You can get it in spot if
1375
01:09:28.119 --> 01:09:30.119
you can get it in all the okay, But yeah,
1376
01:09:30.119 --> 01:09:33.159
that's just where I've actually put up during the pandemic
1377
01:09:33.159 --> 01:09:36.039
when I couldn't do shows, I did single serving live
1378
01:09:36.119 --> 01:09:38.399
videos from my studio of all my songs. So there's
1379
01:09:38.399 --> 01:09:41.520
like fifty five live performances up there that parents can
1380
01:09:41.640 --> 01:09:43.960
use to kind of check out so that they can
1381
01:09:44.199 --> 01:09:46.119
see what it was like when I did play live.
1382
01:09:48.159 --> 01:09:49.680
Oh, that's cool. That's a great idea.
1383
01:09:49.760 --> 01:09:53.039
It's like I archived all the performances so that you know,
1384
01:09:53.119 --> 01:09:54.039
you can check it out.
1385
01:09:54.399 --> 01:09:57.960
Dope. Yeah, Chris, is there anything that I didn't ask
1386
01:09:58.000 --> 01:10:00.319
you or we didn't talk about that you want to
1387
01:10:00.359 --> 01:10:03.039
talk about today specifically, Did I miss anything?
1388
01:10:03.560 --> 01:10:07.319
No, I think we've covered it all pretty darn comprehensive.
1389
01:10:07.359
--> 01:10:10.359
I'm going to say, yeah. I mean there's always other stories.
1390
01:10:10.399 --> 01:10:13.600
There's you know, stories about weird Al and Little Richard
1391
01:10:13.640 --> 01:10:16.840
and the Captain from Captain and t'anil, and there's lots
1392
01:10:16.840 --> 01:10:18.840
of stories. But we'll have to do a volume two.
1393
01:10:19.119 --> 01:10:22.520
Yeah, I'll have to ask you again in a while. Chris,
1394
01:10:22.840 --> 01:10:25.119
you have been so generous with your time. I really
1395
01:10:25.159 --> 01:10:28.159
really appreciate it. I can't believe I got to speak
1396
01:10:28.159 --> 01:10:31.520
with you. I'm patting myself on the back metaphorically because
1397
01:10:31.560 --> 01:10:34.640
I didn't nerd out and just act like a little fanboy.
1398
01:10:34.760 --> 01:10:39.079
Thank you so much. You obviously, much like my entire generation,
1399
01:10:39.760 --> 01:10:42.439
your music is part of the soundtrack of my life
1400
01:10:42.439 --> 01:10:46.880
and my influential periods. Shall we say so thank you
1401
01:10:46.960 --> 01:10:48.640
for all of that you have done and all that
1402
01:10:48.680 --> 01:10:51.279
you can continue to do, And most importantly, thank you for
1403
01:10:51.319 --> 01:10:53.319
sitting down with me today and letting us get to
1404
01:10:53.319 --> 01:10:55.079
know you a little bit better on Fascination Street Man.
1405
01:10:55.079 --> 01:10:55.960
I really appreciate it.
1406
01:10:56.359 --> 01:10:59.520
Oh, absolutely, thanks for having me and I appreciate your patience.
1407
01:10:59.680 --> 01:11:01.560
Oh, by the way I'm supposed to tell you that
1408
01:11:01.720 --> 01:11:04.000
Chuck Shoot from the Chuck Shoot Podcast said to tell
1409
01:11:04.039 --> 01:11:04.800
you hello.
1410
01:11:04.920 --> 01:11:07.479
Oh okay, awesome, that's nice cool.
1411
01:11:07.880 --> 01:11:10.079
Thank you Chas. Now go and enjoy the rest of
1412
01:11:10.079 --> 01:11:11.279
your day, dude, I appreciate it.
1413
01:11:11.520 --> 01:11:15.239
All right, rock on, yeah, all right, thanks, take care.
1414
01:11:15.159 --> 01:11:25.760
All right, Thanks man, Bye bye. Opening music is the
1415
01:11:25.800 --> 01:11:29.720
song Magnolia from the two thousand and one album In Transigence,
1416
01:11:29.880 --> 01:11:35.159
use with permission from Douglas Miles Clark. Closing music is
1417
01:11:35.199 --> 01:11:39.319
from the song say My Name off the twenty twenty
1418
01:11:39.359 --> 01:11:44.800
one album Underdog Anthems, used with permission from Jack's Hollow.
1419
01:11:45.600 --> 01:11:49.479
If you like the show, tell a friend, subscribe and
1420
01:11:49.600 --> 01:11:52.800
rate and review the show on iTunes and wherever else
1421
01:11:52.880 --> 01:11:57.279
you download podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
1422
01:11:57.880 --> 01:12:01.119
All the episodes are available there as well. Check me
1423
01:12:01.159 --> 01:12:05.039
out on the video at Fascination Street Pod and TikTok
1424
01:12:05.479 --> 01:12:09.079
at Fascination Street Pod. And again, thanks for listening.