0:20

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode

0:22

of one hundred Words or Last podcast.

0:25

I'm your host, Ray Parkins, and

0:28

I'm tired. I'm sick. This holiday

0:31

just beat the absolute living crap

0:33

out of me. But anyways, that's

0:36

not important, right. What it's important is that we are

0:38

hanging out today with

0:40

j Weinberg, professional drummer

0:43

and just all around nice dude. UM.

0:46

More about him in a minute, but property

0:48

of zach dot Com. Visit

0:50

their website find all the latest in

0:53

news, reviews, features

0:55

in depth analyses of

0:58

this music scene that's we call

1:00

home, and um, yeah,

1:03

check it out. I love what they do and I love our partnership

1:05

with them, so give them some love.

1:09

UM. No real

1:11

monologue today, I apologize,

1:14

but my brain really can't fire on all

1:16

cylinders. But in any event,

1:19

our guest today, I am extremely

1:21

excited to bring you, um

1:24

J Weinberg, who I know you

1:26

have obviously seen in the news as of late

1:28

because he recently left his

1:31

band that he was playing with against me. He'd be

1:33

playing with them for about two or so years. UM,

1:36

But that wasn't the real reason I wanted

1:38

to talk to him. UM. Basically,

1:41

he's he's just a professional drummer,

1:43

like a dude that's played with mad

1:45

Ball. Um. You may have heard

1:48

of a man called Bruce Springsteen. And

1:50

I obviously am very sarcastic

1:53

in saying that, because I know everyone who

1:55

has ever heard music has at least

1:57

a topical knowledge of Bruce Springsteen.

2:00

UM. But yeah, he's played drums with

2:02

him for a little bit, and UM, yeah,

2:04

he's he's a traveling guy, and he's always wanted

2:06

to make his uh his

2:09

money or his living with

2:11

playing drums and kind of however you

2:13

can achieve that is obviously the direction

2:16

he's going. But it all comes from

2:18

a very sincere place and so um,

2:21

that was one of the reasons that I wanted to chat with him,

2:23

and he just happened to be in southern California. Um.

2:26

This conversation was before everything

2:28

that happened with against me. UM.

2:31

Honestly, a good of

2:33

our conversation didn't even really concentrate

2:36

on that band, UM and the time that he spent

2:38

in there. It was mostly about you know,

2:40

his upbringing, kind of how he got into drums and everything

2:43

that we talked about. UM,

2:45

Because for whatever reason, I just don't talk about people's

2:47

current projects because uh, I don't know.

2:49

I just I just don't delve into it

2:51

too much. Um But anyways,

2:54

here's a conversation and I hope you enjoy.

3:09

Do want to be your friends? Don't want

3:11

to burn your dreams and visions?

3:19

Yeah? Look at that. Yeah it's

3:21

something different. Yeah, like I'm saying, just

3:23

Sony earlier listening

3:26

to uh to me up,

3:28

you know, like the interview that you did with Matt Pike and just

3:30

at to get funny because I'm meeting him later today.

3:33

Game is like you're going to come to the east Bound

3:35

show. Oh that's great, and you

3:38

know listening to just like it's

3:41

it's basically it's just like going a to be

3:43

for someone's life and like totally see

3:45

what they do now, but hearing

3:48

really how they got there and like where the idea came

3:50

from to do what they do is right, Yeah

3:52

that's awesome. Yeah that's what I like

3:55

to do too, because it's like people. I

3:57

also like to draw similarities where even

4:01

if you don't like the person's band

4:03

or what they do as a profession, like

4:05

you'll still understand that they come from a similar

4:08

world, like simral

4:10

world, so you're not just like, oh, who the funk? Like,

4:12

I have no idea where this person came from, and you're like, oh,

4:14

like they're just like me. I just found out about

4:16

you know, they started buying records when they were however,

4:19

all they figured it out from there.

4:21

Um but yeah, So

4:23

with you born and raised in the

4:25

East Coast, yeah, New Jersey in my whole life,

4:29

Yeah, I lived in a couple of

4:32

different towns but kind of stay around the same

4:34

area, based on Middletown, New Jersey.

4:36

Okay, which is five what

4:39

it? What end it? I love fourteen? Yeah,

4:43

yeah, I was always between one and nine and one fourteen.

4:45

And now we've been living

4:48

in Hoboken, which is right outside

4:50

New York. I've been there for

4:52

five almost six years. Okay, Yeah,

4:54

I go to school there. But

4:56

um but yeah, growing up in

4:58

New Jersey life and it was right

5:01

outside of Red Bank, New Jersey, which

5:03

was kind of like the it

5:05

was the strangest hardcore scene

5:10

and it's um, I guess it

5:12

was like two thousand five to seven

5:15

or it was like it was so short lived my

5:18

right experience with the Red Bank hardcore

5:22

scene. But it's strange,

5:25

and so you're obviously, I mean most

5:29

people would be able to just read

5:31

your name and understand you come from a lineage

5:33

of musicians. Like there's people that music has

5:35

been an important part of your life. It's been

5:37

everything. Yeah, And so

5:41

I think a lot of people do get jealous

5:43

when it's like they have, you

5:45

know, either friends or basically

5:48

their parents are are like hey, like here's

5:50

what music is, and like let's get you started off

5:53

right right, Whereas like, you know, I look at my parents

5:55

or other you know, some

5:57

of my other friends that were just like, you know, music was like

5:59

you know, it existed like the radio, but

6:02

there was never like that sort of here

6:04

you go. And then I also do this as a profession

6:06

and like kind of have this sort of like you know, behind

6:08

the scenes. Yet I've got a really cultured

6:11

taste in music and like here you go, son,

6:13

And so like what was your you know, your experience growing

6:15

up like you know, I mean for most

6:18

people that you know, can do any research

6:20

online would know like you know, your your father

6:22

obviously plays dramas. Was

6:25

so like how did how was you being raised

6:27

within that environment? Um, I'm

6:29

sure it was different and weird. Yeah,

6:32

it was. It was really eclectic. I

6:34

grew up. Um My

6:36

mom was really really musical and she came

6:39

from like her her dad was

6:41

really musical. It was an amazing pianist. He

6:43

was like he had kind of

6:45

both sides of the brainworking where he could play piano

6:47

really well. But he was also a physicists.

6:51

No, no, it was really weird. He worked in he

6:54

worked in signal Corps and so

6:56

he was a teacher at mom at university

6:59

and and stuff. But he but he

7:01

also had a really get a knack

7:03

for the arts and for music and right.

7:06

And so my mom,

7:09

you know, although she had been she had been totally

7:13

she was you know, she was super into rock and roll and everything.

7:16

She raised my sister and I my sister

7:18

and me on like classical

7:20

music, and that's all I knew for interesting

7:23

for the first five years of my life.

7:25

All she all she played. I

7:28

have heard the story that I was born to the song Voodoo

7:30

Child, which I think it's pretty awesome

7:32

that is that we were,

7:34

but I presume it was in the hospital. Yeah.

7:37

Yeah, So you

7:39

know, my mom was into all that, all that stuff

7:42

like Hendrix and and you know, led Zeppelin,

7:44

classic classic music like that.

7:47

But but she was also really into into

7:49

classical music and

7:51

and that's all I knew that was it was Beethoven

7:54

and Chopin and you know, right, sorry

7:56

all that classics. Yeah yeah,

7:58

but that's all I knew of music. Like, I didn't

8:00

know what rock and roll was until The

8:03

Who was doing Quadrophenia

8:06

in and uh

8:08

and that was like, you know, that was a band of my

8:10

mom and dad, I think share that

8:13

they loved and they really wanted to get my sister

8:15

and me into it, but they my mom was like, I

8:17

don't know, like, yeah, that's totally

8:19

different. They have no experience with that and

8:22

um, and so they brought me like they

8:24

gave me Quadrophenia, and

8:26

I just could not stop listening to

8:28

it, like they tell me. I don't I don't remember

8:31

specifically, but they told me that I

8:33

would like scream the lyrics

8:35

in the car when we played it. And

8:38

and so anyway, my first show that I ever went

8:40

to was five. My mom and

8:42

dad took me to go see The

8:44

Who quatro. I love that

8:47

the experience of you your

8:49

parents sitting there. I can just imagine

8:51

them sitting at like the dinner table being like, all

8:53

right, are we gonna do this? Like yeah, you know, like

8:56

are you ready to unleash this world, Like, yeah,

8:58

that's it's just funny that like because that's

9:00

not a common conversation. No, no, no, that's

9:02

so cool. It was, and

9:05

you know, considering like the backgrounds that they both

9:07

come from, like really into rock

9:10

and roll, that they just didn't show their kids.

9:12

And like my sister is three years older than me, so

9:14

she was eight at the time, and

9:17

you know that's like a bit that's like when, well,

9:20

that's when I started getting into like

9:22

finding out my own music, right

9:24

that I wanted to check out and

9:27

but yeah, they tell

9:29

me, like I have kind of a

9:31

visual memory of it, but they told

9:33

me I was on my dad's shoulders with

9:35

like my fist in the air, and I was just like

9:38

I remember they I think

9:40

they they had that this

9:43

like ocean scenery with Roger

9:45

Daltrey singing rain over Love, rain

9:48

over Me or whatever, and that's the only

9:50

kind of visual thing I remember. I think Billy

9:53

Idol was cousin Kevin or something

9:55

like that. It was a really wild show. And then that's

9:57

what like that was my first into

9:59

dry introduction introductions.

10:02

It's like guitar based music

10:04

and loud music. Yeah, I um,

10:08

you know, from that they passed down the

10:10

Beatles and the Stones right right once they're

10:12

like okay, likes he showed

10:14

an interest in this, like here we go. Um,

10:17

and so like your your home life, like how

10:19

was it, you know, how was it obviously growing up?

10:21

And like did your did your mom work? Like

10:24

she was a teacher for fifteen years, but

10:26

when she had my sister and me, she just concentrated

10:28

on like, yeah, raising

10:31

a child. Yeah, and that was it was a big help because

10:33

you know, because she was she's a history teacher,

10:36

you know, she Um,

10:38

she just was able to help my

10:41

sister and me through you know, through school of

10:43

course and studying and that was always

10:45

really important to her. It was probably like still

10:48

the the reason

10:50

I'm like still trying to plug away

10:52

at school. Yeah, you know, it's

10:54

been it's kind of it's

10:56

been hard to balance with with

10:59

the band and stuff. But her

11:01

support when when my sister

11:03

and I were younger was like that

11:06

was everything in school wise. It's

11:09

so funny because like my parents, my mom

11:11

was a teacher as well, and it's like I

11:13

think there's something that's totally unspoken

11:15

and like in our d n A when your parents

11:17

are teachers, where it's just like you know, I got it

11:19

because I dropped out of school and like I I my

11:22

promise to my mom was like I'll graduate by

11:24

when I'm thirty. Like by the time I'm thirty, I will

11:26

have graduated. And I did, and it was seriously

11:28

about college. Yeah, and I was like, I gotta

11:31

do this, and like it was just that, like you said,

11:33

that's sort of the culture that you brought up in, where it's

11:35

like this is important no matter what else,

11:37

you know, whatever else I'm doing, I should

11:39

pay attention to this and at least like figure

11:42

out how I'm going to eventually achieve this.

11:44

Yeah, yeah, I mean I always I had always wanted

11:46

to do music ever since I, like I just

11:48

started high school,

11:51

you know. Um, and

11:54

it was always something that I knew I wanted to do. It just got to

11:56

the point where I couldn't balance the two. So I was

11:58

doing I was doing college and you

12:01

know, like ma Ball simultaneously,

12:05

you know, going to going

12:07

to Queen's to like write our

12:09

record like five days a week,

12:12

center six days a week, you know, and just working

12:14

on that like eight hours a day on the top of ding

12:16

an eighteen credit semester

12:18

or something like that. Got

12:21

it, got hectic, so I, um,

12:24

once some time it passed, I was just like, okay, I'm

12:26

gonna kind of do one go

12:28

back to the other and like it's yeah, it's been cool.

12:30

But anyway, Yeah, when I was younger, that was

12:33

that was kind of my home life was it was like

12:35

it was centered around school. Um,

12:38

when I was nine, I started

12:40

playing hockey and and

12:42

I was never really in the sports before I

12:45

found hockey. It was like you did you didn't

12:47

play baseball or you didn't kind of kind

12:49

of did like here and there played soccer

12:51

for like when I was you know, six or

12:53

seven, and I just I

12:56

just never got it. I don't know, it just never clicked.

12:59

But then uh went to a hockey

13:01

game, and I just I

13:03

couldn't stop, you know, started

13:06

skating, started playing hockey, started

13:08

playing the house league, and

13:11

and music wasn't even really like at

13:13

this point, I was like nine and music wasn't on the

13:15

table yet. Oh yeah, I wasn't even in my

13:17

mind. So my life

13:19

was just consumed with hockey. And I was a goalie

13:22

and that's that's an intense

13:24

position. It was it was the only but you know, what I

13:26

started was because I couldn't skate well, so

13:28

I thought like as a goal but

13:32

turns out you learned later that the

13:34

goalie skates the most, so

13:38

that didn't My

13:41

plan kind of backfired, but

13:43

but I kind of gravitated

13:46

towards the position. And you can almost kind of

13:49

draw parallels to

13:51

to being a drummer in a sense. Is that

13:53

like it's you're

13:56

on you're like the last line of defense,

13:58

and right now as as a goalie, uh,

14:00

there's like a saying that if it's if

14:03

you win, it's a team victory.

14:05

If you lose, you

14:07

know, in a lot of a lot of ways you can kind of draw

14:10

parallels to being a drummer. It's like,

14:12

well, the tempos and the drummer's hands

14:14

and the you know, the vibe of the you know,

14:17

the pulse of the song is kind of in the

14:19

drummer's hands. So so if

14:21

you if you fall apart, dude,

14:25

yeah, yeah, So

14:27

so I kind of liked that, just

14:30

the pressure of the situation and like you know,

14:32

you either performer you don't and you you

14:35

succeed or you don't. And that was kind of like

14:38

I liked it. And I played I played travel hockey,

14:41

traveled around. Yeah, yeah, kind

14:43

of like an East coast like we played.

14:46

We were based out of Red Bank, Um

14:49

and you know, played

14:51

in New York a lot, went up to

14:54

to do like the canam Tournament in

14:56

like CLASSID, and went

14:58

up to Canada a couple times, like playing

15:00

in Toronto in Montreal. But

15:04

and that that's when I like, I really loved

15:07

traveling with a group of people and

15:10

experiencing just like a place

15:12

that wasn't my own. And and in a lot

15:14

of ways that uh like, looking

15:16

back on it, traveling playing hockey

15:19

is so much like you know, touring

15:22

with your band until something like that. You know, you meet

15:25

the other team and it's all you

15:27

know, it was all respectful, like all rubber teams

15:29

that got along and hung out and

15:32

then you play and that. Yeah, but you're competitive

15:34

because that's the nature of the sport, but you're

15:36

not cutthroat. Yeah yeah, music

15:38

isn't competitive, but in a way, you know, you go to

15:40

a town and you meet the other bands

15:42

that are local to that town that are playing the show.

15:44

Of course you know you kind of create that

15:47

that little community. So that's that was really cool.

15:49

And I love to playing hockey. But when I

15:51

got to high school, that was kind of like, well,

15:54

yeah, yeah, it's always funny, like anytime my

15:56

friends have played, like you know, done

15:58

that whole circuit. It's like you

16:00

really do have to

16:02

make that sort of decision whether or not you

16:05

have the time to dedicate to that or it's like,

16:07

all right, well school is not gonna be that important. I'm gonna

16:09

be traveling, you know. It's it's

16:11

and it's tough to be able to kind of choose

16:13

one or the other, especially when you're playing at such

16:15

a high level at an earlier age.

16:17

Yeah, I really enjoyed playing,

16:20

and um, it was all that was on my

16:22

mind until um,

16:25

you know, I played guitar there and there,

16:27

like I didn't really

16:30

connect with it. It was it was cool, but I

16:32

played bass, kind of liked it whenever

16:34

hockey was just the most important thing. And then

16:38

and then for whatever reason, I just picked up the drums

16:40

and and that just consumed

16:43

my thoughts, you know that that took over everything.

16:46

So so when when I got into

16:49

high school, played high school hockey for

16:51

a year or two years, and

16:54

I remember it going up until the

16:56

last day before

16:59

like training camp for like played I

17:01

played for my school unless and I

17:03

had a good you know, coaching relationship

17:06

with my coach and uh

17:08

and I told him like the day before,

17:11

like training camp started for this

17:13

for the upcoming season. I've

17:15

been agonizing over

17:18

the choice of like, well, I

17:20

don't know anything about drums, but

17:22

I know I really really like it. Um,

17:25

I'm comfortable with hockey. But I can't

17:27

do both and

17:29

be as good as I would want to be at both. You

17:31

know, I have to have to pick up de Yeah.

17:34

I don't want you know, you don't want to just half ask

17:36

two things, um and

17:38

be okay at both. You want to be better at

17:41

one and excuse

17:43

me. And it was just a gut

17:45

level decision that I that I made that was

17:47

just like, well, this feels like the right thing

17:49

to do right now. I don't know if I'm gonna

17:51

regret it. Like I was always, you know, when I was

17:53

a kid, I was like, oh, man, I'm gonna play like

17:56

in college. I wanted to slip.

17:59

Yeah, I was, you know, and I was like, god,

18:02

you know, twelve years old, I was like, yeah,

18:04

I'm gonna go to Michigan University. I

18:06

like play hockey. And who were who

18:08

were your who were your touchdowns? As far as NHL

18:11

players were concerned really like I want to be like these

18:13

um loved martem Brod

18:15

or like Jersey growing up in Jersey, O the Devil's

18:18

fan, and you kind of have to be

18:20

yeah yeah and and uh

18:22

and you know I had that love hate

18:25

of guys that were really good and playing

18:27

on the flyers, like you're

18:29

like, dude, I can't like this. Yeah, like Brian Boucher

18:32

in two thousand three great, and you know

18:34

he was an amazing goalie and he actually

18:36

like kind of fell off the face of the earth

18:39

playing uh in the NHL anymore

18:41

whatever. Yeah, I loved watching

18:43

him play, but I hated You're like,

18:45

I like you, I hate your team? Yeah exactly.

18:48

Uh you know Patrick laugh and

18:51

and you know Johan

18:53

Hedberg and like goalies, goalies and

18:56

the only goalie I ever because I mean

18:58

I like coffee hockey for very brief

19:00

period of my life. But at Bill four from yeah,

19:03

Chicago Walks. Then

19:06

he went to Dallas. I remember

19:08

because I got into I

19:10

became a Devil's fan in like a fortunate time.

19:12

It became a fan of like two and

19:16

then watched that season they didn't I

19:19

forget if they made it into the playoffs. I forget whatever.

19:22

Um. And then the two thousands

19:24

they won the Cup. And I remember watching,

19:27

uh, the last couple of games

19:29

of that series and at Bell

19:32

four had gotten the flu, got

19:34

the flu, and he played

19:36

he didn't play well the last game at

19:39

home that we went to that the Devils could have won

19:41

the cup, but Mike Medanos scored a

19:43

goal in like a third overtime or something like

19:45

that. It was heartbreaking because we were all there

19:47

like wanted to see the cup. But

19:49

then like two days later, I remember then

19:51

saying like, oh, Bell four was really sick, but they

19:54

still played him. And that's when Jason are not scoring

19:56

second overtime and I loved it. But

19:59

that's awesome. Yeah. But and

20:01

so then when in your obviously

20:04

in your home life, like you know what,

20:06

when did you realize that obviously, like you know what your

20:09

what your dad was doing, was you

20:11

know, something that's different from

20:13

every other dad that kind of exists in

20:16

the I mean like when you're going to school and stuff like

20:18

that. Um, I honestly didn't even

20:20

know what he was doing when

20:22

I was when I was younger, so he had the

20:24

TV show right um, and

20:26

I would see him, you know, he would come back from that

20:29

around like nine or ten at nights, so I'm

20:31

going to bed. Um, you

20:33

know, I'm like doing homework or having dinner

20:35

or something. And so

20:37

I knew that was like I knew, I

20:39

knew he showed up to do that. Yeah, yeah, I knew. I

20:41

knew he was doing that. But I didn't watch the show.

20:44

You know what, I never I never watched the show until

20:46

I was like, until I

20:48

could stay up until you know, the show

20:50

was on a twelve thirty a night. I'm not staying up

20:53

mid grade school, no way. Um.

20:55

So then it was

20:58

only when E Street

21:00

Band and gotten back together for the reunion tour

21:05

that I started like,

21:08

um, I think it's something that he and my mom had

21:10

talked about, like do we bring them on tour?

21:12

Did we bring you know, j

21:15

and Ally like to the shows and stuff

21:17

like that? And they did, and you know I

21:19

would I would go watch and I didn't

21:21

get it. I just didn't. I was like, so,

21:24

there's all these people this show

21:27

and it said I'm big, well like, but

21:29

I know, it's kind of funny because I've always

21:32

reflected on that, like you know, your

21:34

experience or you know, people like these experience

21:36

where it's like you're you're you're raised in an

21:38

environment like I was just saying, where you know, it's

21:40

not you know, your dad isn't an account, your

21:42

dad doesn't do this like specific like you

21:44

know, okay, I know what that means. But

21:47

then you're dropped in the situation.

21:49

You've got no context, like you said, you're just showing up

21:51

to the show and just be like oh, like

21:53

was this Yeah, I didn't know they have records. I

21:56

didn't know that there was music. Like I was like, why do

21:58

these people all know this stuff? I never with this in

22:00

my life, but I did didn't know it

22:02

was I think I found out that they had

22:04

like put out records maybe like three

22:07

years later. It's like, oh, these songs.

22:09

I can listen to these songs when they're not playing the shows,

22:12

right. I got and started putting

22:14

it together, and they kept touring.

22:16

You know, they did the Reunion tour. Of course, they

22:19

did a record, you know, they did the Rising Record

22:21

and uh, and that's

22:23

kind of when I was like putting it together,

22:25

started traveling with them and kind

22:27

of getting a feel for what tour was

22:31

or whatever. It's like, oh, you can go to these different cities

22:33

and you play shows, you

22:36

play these songs that you've written or whatever.

22:39

It's just getting a feel because I had no

22:41

idea ever, And

22:44

and then I started putting it together. And actually,

22:47

um, one of the guys who worked on the

22:49

tours named Andrew Courtney, he

22:52

got me into when I was that, when I

22:54

was like really young and just totally impressionable.

22:56

He gave me three records,

23:00

Um that like changed my life.

23:02

He gave me alk Line Trio, Good

23:04

Morning I was like twelve with their

23:06

team. Sure, gave me good Morning, Thrice,

23:10

Delusion of Safety and Rocket

23:13

from the cript. The dracket

23:15

was screen Racula Screen. Yeah, give me

23:17

that, And yeah,

23:19

I know that's a great that's a great like cross section.

23:22

Yeah, because he he saw like maybe some

23:24

bands that I was listening to. I forget what,

23:26

but he was like, oh, you might be into this stuff. So he

23:28

gave me. He like gave me those

23:30

records and that was that was huge for

23:33

me. But that's cool. Yeah,

23:35

but anyway, said, yeah, touring was just

23:38

you know, traveling with them was opening my eyes

23:40

to just like what he had been up my dad

23:42

had been up to. I know, I honestly

23:44

had no clue what he was doing.

23:46

For like the first ten years in my life.

23:49

Right, You're just like that that's what's my dad? Well,

23:51

well yeah, and that I think that's that's indicative

23:53

of obviously, uh, your

23:55

parents. You know, they were very calculated

23:58

and what they were obviously exposing you too. And

24:00

it's like it's it's good

24:02

that there's that you know, you were able to

24:04

exist within, you know, a childhood

24:07

that you know, you were able to be a child and not like

24:09

thinking about these like all right place place

24:12

all this in context. You're just like, I don't care. I'm

24:14

just someone to play hockey or want to you know. Yeah that was

24:16

Yeah, that was even when I was I

24:18

was you know, traveling with them. Then I was

24:20

still hockey was it for me? And

24:22

then I never really wanted to play music,

24:25

right, you know it didn't interest me. Um.

24:28

I presume your parents were pretty excited

24:30

about you being super into hockey like they

24:32

were. Yeah, yeah, they were pretty stoked on that, and um,

24:35

you know, god, they

24:37

would have to be if they were, Like my mom would drive

24:41

six like six am game and

24:43

she would watch. She wouldn't just like drop me off. Yeah,

24:46

she would be there. And and you know they

24:48

were they were really supportive and my sister

24:50

playing hockey too, play really we actually

24:53

we went to rival high schools. Um.

24:56

Yeah, she went to one high

24:58

school that had a really good performing

25:00

arts She's a great piano player.

25:04

They had a great performing arts UH

25:07

program program and my mom taught

25:09

their Red Bank Regional High School and

25:11

UH. I went to Runton fair Haven

25:13

because they had a really good hockey team. I

25:15

wanted. I wanted to out of all the

25:18

teams that I was watching, Like when as a kid,

25:20

you know, in in grade school, I would

25:22

go to UH. I would go to the high school.

25:24

You know, they were like the big, huge

25:27

and UH and I would go to them, to

25:30

the rink that I would play. I would be at Houseley Yet

25:33

and and the high school teams

25:35

would play on like a Friday night or something like that,

25:37

and there would be all these it was like packs,

25:39

yeah, and

25:42

you felt the energy and yeah, it was like being

25:44

at an NHL show or something right right, And

25:46

I thought that was the pinnacle. Like I was like,

25:48

oh my god, I want to play for RFH

25:51

because that they are incredible. And

25:53

then you know all the incredible guys that

25:55

I played with, a bunch of really good people in the year

25:58

or two that I played at the high school. All

26:00

the guys that I had looked up to, like the goalie, you

26:02

know, he obviously graduated and I

26:05

was like, I was a backup goalie for a little

26:07

while, and you know, it wasn't the same team and it

26:09

wasn't the same vibe that I thought it was right,

26:11

And that's what made me think of it made

26:13

drums are right? Well, and

26:15

and it's funny, I like, I really like

26:18

you had a very important point that I think. It's like,

26:20

as we moved through our lives like we have,

26:23

you should always have those, uh those

26:25

points where it's like, okay, this is

26:28

what the top means. And then

26:30

if you arrived anywhere in that vicinity,

26:32

he realized like, whoa, it's the

26:35

tip act. Like there's so much more to accomplish.

26:37

Oh yeah, I mean, you know, in

26:40

the context of music, like all

26:42

I wanted to do when I was four

26:44

I started playing drums. When I was fourteen, started

26:47

a band, and all I

26:49

had ever wanted to do was play

26:51

at Chubby's, which was I'm not

26:54

true, this is uh it so it sounds

26:56

like an amazing sports bar, dude, it

26:58

it was. It was a bar he was the most depressing

27:00

bars in Red Bank, telling to

27:02

keep going back to. It was in Red Bank

27:05

and it was only the main

27:07

street, and I would go to I would go to

27:09

shows there and I would watch bands that I was just like, they

27:11

were, you know, hometown hero kind of

27:13

band. And across the street was the Internet

27:15

Cafe, which is actually since closed and becoming urban

27:18

outfitters. But the Internet

27:20

Cafe was amazing. They

27:22

would have floor hardcore shows

27:25

and no and no place around there around

27:27

us like had that. There was a VFW hall that was

27:30

twenty minutes away, but there was the Internet

27:32

Cafe, which is like five minute drive from

27:34

the house, so super

27:36

safe for you to go to your Yeah,

27:39

Internet Cafe, there's you know, they

27:42

sell cupcakes and then what

27:44

harm could be done here? Yeah? Yeah.

27:46

And my favorite band

27:49

from the area, it was a band called Away from It All

27:51

and they changed their name to Goshen's Surface.

27:53

Uh and they since broke up and went

27:56

on to other projects. But I think they were around

27:58

for like a year. But I saw

28:00

that band, I was just like, oh my god.

28:03

They were really abrasive, really intense and

28:05

kind of stuff, and I just like, I

28:08

ate it up right, Um,

28:10

But I was never I

28:12

was never the guy that was like in the

28:14

pit. I just never was just observed.

28:17

I was I was just yeah, that was it was kind

28:19

of weird. That's and that's why the red back hardcore

28:21

seems so strange, because I always felt I

28:24

was on the outskirts just wanting to watch the

28:26

band and see what they did. And I was like, how could I

28:28

do that? Like I couldn't do it. I couldn't

28:31

at the time, I couldn't even fathom like

28:33

where I would start to do that. But

28:35

yeah, but I knew I really liked

28:37

it, and that was that was. Yeah, that was like my existence.

28:40

But in the New Jersey community, I was like,

28:42

I don't know any of you, and I don't

28:44

who's that weird kid in the corner.

28:47

It was. It was really like that. And

28:49

I my best like my best friend at the time,

28:51

it's still it was like my best friend. We would go

28:53

to we would go shows time, and we

28:56

were just the weird kids that were just standing on

28:58

the side of the room just like not

29:01

really participating, but justorbing

29:03

is doing. And that was that was really

29:05

important to me. And so you're as

29:08

you were going to high school and you know, what

29:10

was your experience like with that where obviously

29:12

you were involved in hockey, but you know what, because

29:14

obviously you know, just putting people into

29:16

stereotypes and sort of like you know what,

29:18

what group did you find yourself like fitting into

29:21

And did you like the high

29:23

school experience or was it kind of just something that

29:25

you were doing because obviously you know, it was important

29:27

your parents. Yeah, I didn't like

29:29

the high school. I didn't like high school. Um,

29:32

I spent most of my time by

29:34

myself and

29:36

and I you know, that's it's not

29:39

to be like, oh, I'm got kid. Yeah,

29:42

yeah, it's just like I didn't relate to

29:45

really many people. There were there were a couple of people

29:47

that will still even keep in touch with today,

29:50

but um, and teachers

29:52

that I liked, you know, And but

29:54

a lot of teachers kind of looked at me,

29:57

and I thought like, oh, he's probably

29:59

just in trouble because you know, I was a

30:02

kid when I like when

30:04

I went in my first day of high school,

30:06

I had like black nail polish

30:08

on and I and I'm

30:11

I don't know, I guess I had a weird kind

30:13

of vibe about me that just made

30:15

made teachers in a in a really just

30:18

kind of really conservative part of town.

30:21

It wasn't it wasn't really open minded,

30:23

where whereas my sister's high school was completely

30:25

open minded. Yeah, like you're saying

30:28

everything and a little a little more liberal arts

30:31

leaning, like yeah, ours was

30:33

like football high school, hockey

30:35

high school, baseball high school,

30:38

whatever, and that's great, but it just wasn't for

30:40

me. And I took that

30:42

time when I, you know, I loved playing hockey,

30:45

got to high school, it wasn't really

30:47

working out. The team was kind of splitting

30:50

apart. There was really

30:53

like a clique of people in within

30:55

the team and within my high school that I just didn't

30:58

get along with. And

31:01

I never went to parties there,

31:03

did any of that. And I kind

31:06

of that was It was when I discovered drums,

31:08

like in my first in my freshman year that

31:11

I was just saying, well, I'm going to take my

31:13

weekend time and just do this.

31:15

So like Friday and Saturday night,

31:17

I'm gonna hold up and play

31:19

the drums and that's it. And I and it was alone,

31:22

you know, right with anybody.

31:24

It was just playing. I put on headphones

31:26

and played records like anybody does, and

31:29

just do that and then I would, you know, I would

31:32

go to school spend time by

31:34

myself, and they were teachers in there. Yeah, I

31:36

think there were teachers that got that though, Like they

31:38

were they were younger

31:40

teachers who I didn't butt heads with, that

31:42

kind of got like, oh he's in the you

31:45

know, the ramones and the clash

31:47

and stuff that I was into when I was in

31:49

high school or whatever. And so

31:52

you felt, you felt that those obviously those teachers

31:55

had a context for where we're coming from, and they weren't

31:57

like, oh, like we just shouldn't even talk

31:59

to Yeah, there were there was some that were

32:01

so far that way that

32:04

it was I couldn't have a good there was no possibility

32:07

for me to have a good and and it just anytime

32:09

I hear that, it's totally because I imagine your

32:11

mom would obviously never do that to a students,

32:13

and I My mom would never like look,

32:16

I mean she she may make a judgment on a kid, but

32:18

she would never be like, oh, like, I

32:20

shouldn't teach you that kid because because kind of weird.

32:22

Look, yeah, my mom told told me a funny story

32:25

a while ago. Funny like she related

32:27

to kids based on a lot of music stuff. And

32:29

of course, um, you know, when

32:33

when John Lennon was

32:36

killed, there was a guy that

32:38

like all she and this kid talked about

32:40

with the Beatles and the Beatles were his life. And

32:43

and when John Lennon was killed, he

32:45

came into he came into school just like just

32:48

completely devastated

32:51

whatever. My mom was too, and I

32:53

think they had like a test that day or

32:55

something and he just like bombed

32:57

the whole thing and she gave him the past. She's

33:00

like, I know what you understanding through,

33:03

So so yeah, I know she would she all

33:06

right. To compare her to the teachers

33:08

that I had the cool yea, she was definitely, Yeah,

33:10

she would have been one of them. It just it just sucks that you obviously

33:13

hear about people. Just like in any profession,

33:15

you have your people they are good, and you have your people

33:18

that suck. And it's just I just you just wish that those

33:20

teachers that sucked and made judgments

33:22

on kids, like you know, would just be like all right, get

33:24

out of here. Yeah. It just always hurts

33:26

me. Um. And so

33:29

as like when you're you

33:31

know, when you started to get into like independent music

33:33

and obviously starting to get into stuff that maybe

33:36

your parents didn't have a context for how

33:38

do they react to that? Was that they were just like, oh,

33:40

what's this weird stuff? That? Yeah,

33:43

yeah, they it

33:45

was. It was, it was interesting, and it got

33:47

it like it went through layers,

33:50

you know, when it went from Who

33:53

to the Stones and the Beatles

33:55

and whatever, and then

33:57

it took a drastic like left turn

33:59

when my dad brought me to os Fest and brought

34:01

me to see Slipknot and Slayer and

34:04

what and what possessed himTo was he just like, I

34:06

think they're on the day. Well, they were on the Conan

34:09

Show and he was like, Oh

34:11

my god, these guys are super scary and they wear masks

34:13

that you're gonna love them. They're really loud and

34:15

they're crazy. And I

34:17

was in the you know, the

34:19

hardest thing I listened to was like, dude, Ranch, Yeah,

34:22

you know, so I was.

34:25

I was like, and

34:28

I went to went to see them, and it blew

34:30

my mind. That went my appetite for

34:33

intense loud getting into

34:35

more extreme things when when bombs

34:37

go off on the on the amplifiers and

34:39

all the guys are yelling and I

34:41

had no I had no frame of reference

34:44

for that. So that was all new to me, and I really wanted

34:46

to explore it um

34:49

and I was really young. I was like, I was nine years old.

34:52

And it's funny because you're I

34:54

think your musical journey was obviously

34:56

much more accelerated than what you're typical

34:59

kid would be exposed to, just

35:01

based on obviously your dad's profession, and was just like,

35:03

oh, yeah, I have all the access to this stuff, like let's

35:05

see if Jay likes this. Yeah, well my interest and

35:08

it was it was interesting because like my introduction to metal

35:11

and all that, like just heavy stuff came

35:13

from my dad. And then I had I

35:15

had a friend whose dad wasn't

35:18

really into bad religion, and so we would

35:20

drive around and we would listen to like, you

35:23

know, American Jesus

35:25

and stuff. That was the first like punk rock song that I heard,

35:27

and I loved it. So I

35:30

got into really heavy stuff and punk

35:32

rock stuff and all that. It

35:35

just kind of blended into into

35:37

it itself, you know, because well

35:39

at that time, you're at that time too, because you're so young,

35:42

you're not concerned about like quote unquote scenes,

35:44

Well, yeah, you're just like it's music.

35:46

Yeah, I mean I still don't get scenes.

35:49

What the funk is that totally

35:51

but I, um,

35:53

yeah, to me, it was like it was unpolished.

35:56

It was really just raw.

36:00

Loved it and that's what I wanted. That's I got a lot

36:02

of that in hockey, and I just stopped getting that when

36:04

I got into high school. So I wanted the

36:06

new. I wanted another fix

36:08

of that U and yeah,

36:12

so that's when I started getting into I guess, like,

36:14

you know, independent music, yeah,

36:16

quote unquote independent music, Like I

36:18

got really into Um, had a friend

36:21

whose brother was really into like the drive for the bands.

36:24

Sure got me into you know, the movie Life

36:26

and and what like Finch

36:30

was on Drive through and UM, a lot

36:32

of those bands, like accessible

36:34

bands to listen to. But still, like, you

36:36

know, it's different, it's not it's not the who.

36:39

You know, people that are into the who

36:41

might not get into that stuff. So

36:43

so it became it began that process

36:46

of finding out all

36:48

these uh yeah, you have all these

36:50

different inputs. Yeah, and this this

36:52

is when I started finding music on my own because it

36:54

wasn't something that my dad handed down to me, or like

36:57

my friend's dad dad handed

36:59

down to me. Was like, right, okay, I'm finding

37:01

this out from my friend and then we go see

37:03

this band, and and then you

37:05

know, and then you find out a lot of bands

37:08

through that, you know, or through through the drive

37:10

through Records bands or whatever. I found. Actually,

37:12

my first club show that

37:15

I ever gone to was in

37:17

two thousand two. My dad

37:19

brought me and my friend to Who's

37:22

the guy that got me into Drive through Bands?

37:24

Brought me to see Finch My

37:27

Chemical Romance and the US when

37:29

like all of their uh

37:32

Finch was on that what it Is to Burn record?

37:35

My ham was on the you brought me your

37:37

Bullets whatever whatever that almosn't.

37:39

The US had just put out their self title records. Oh yeah,

37:41

it's huge, it's a big time whatever that

37:43

music is it was and

37:47

and then and that's honestly where I

37:49

That's when I met Brandon Steinecker

37:51

who plays in Ranson now and he's

37:54

since then I was twelve or twenty

37:56

two now he's been like one of my best friends

37:58

ever since that day. And and

38:01

so that got me into that show in particular

38:05

was you know, I was twelve at the time, and

38:07

I saw Brandon playing and I

38:09

was like, I could do that. I that

38:12

looks really really really fun, right,

38:14

And I think I really want to do that and still

38:16

playing hockey at this time, but I uh, that's

38:19

when I was like, playing drums in a

38:21

band looks really

38:23

cool. Yeah, so I want to

38:25

do that. And that's I kind of meditated

38:28

on that for like two years, right right, Yeah, started

38:30

that that was the seed that was planted

38:32

and then you germinated from there

38:35

and the So technically,

38:38

what was the what was the first band that you played in

38:40

that you know whatever that you played a show

38:42

where it was like artist band that I ever played in

38:44

was We were called Sadie May

38:47

after Susan Atkins, who was

38:49

one of the Manson family men, right right, And

38:53

I was fourteen. I just started playing

38:55

drums and we were we

38:58

were just like a hardcore metal band and

39:01

basically you were playing drums.

39:04

I was playing drums, yeah, And it was

39:06

my first time I played music with other people.

39:08

But I had been playing drums for like, I

39:11

don't know, maybe like six to eight months,

39:13

okay, So as soon you're like fourteen, fifteen

39:15

fourteen, okay, And it was

39:17

with a guitar guitar player that went to my high school.

39:20

It was also like a wrestler man.

39:22

He was like looking back on it's so funny. He would

39:24

play guitar. He was like this big

39:27

dude, like straight lift or dude, and

39:29

he would play this less Paul that

39:31

the the strap

39:34

was a giant chain, like you

39:36

know, like chains that you'll like wrap around your tires or whatever.

39:38

Of course, of course it was like

39:41

that, and uh, that's

39:44

yeah, and we would We were a band

39:46

that basically just got together listen

39:49

to Lambagan Shadows

39:51

Fall and slipped not and

39:55

we would do that for like five hours

39:57

and then we would like write a riff or

39:59

some like that. You know, we just do a bunch of coffers

40:01

and we just knew that we like

40:04

loved heavy music and we love

40:06

just like sitting around and

40:08

headbanging and then oh

40:11

yeah, we have this from this too. Here's this riff

40:13

that was working on us, and uh, and we played.

40:16

We were together for two years and

40:18

we played two shows, one

40:20

show a year. Yeah awesome. Yeah. And the

40:24

first show had it

40:27

was at the Saint in Asbury Park and

40:30

that had like twenty at thirty people,

40:32

all close friends of course, of course, and

40:35

then uh, I think

40:37

they hated it so much that people

40:40

really close to us wouldn't say it. But the

40:43

second show that we played like a year later,

40:45

we asked all those people if they would want to come see

40:48

None of them came. We played to the we played

40:50

to the band that played after us. One of those

40:52

shows. Yeah, one of those shows, and you do that, you know bands

40:55

do that. But but that was our first experience

40:58

with that, being like fourteen years old and right,

41:00

so where is everybody? Yeah that was

41:02

funny, but that's incredible. Yeah,

41:04

but but so that, yeah, say was my

41:06

first band. And and so

41:09

then like as as you were, you know, getting

41:11

to the point in in in schooling where

41:14

it was like all right, like you know what, did you have any

41:16

sense of like you were you just

41:18

like I'm all in for music. I'm want to try to find

41:20

a way to like make that happen as my life.

41:22

Yeah. That was That was the day that I call my coach

41:24

and told him that I wasn't gonna because hockey was my life

41:27

right now. I just like one day I was like, Okay,

41:30

hockey is now not my life. Music is my life,

41:32

and that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah,

41:34

it hasn't. It hasn't changed since then. You

41:37

know, that was seven eight, That was eight

41:39

years ago. So yeah,

41:42

that was That was the day when I decided I wasn't

41:44

gonna And I literally haven't played hockey since

41:47

then. I've wanted to, you know, I've

41:49

skated a bunch, but

41:53

I haven't played stick. I haven't played a

41:55

game. I've had a lot of friends, like a lot of a lot of

41:57

people in bands I've found I

42:00

really like been into hockey, and I'll

42:02

yeah, you know, we'll talk about

42:04

like, yeah, we gotta play together. It just never happened.

42:06

Yeah, well it's so much I mean, hockey

42:09

is obviously so much harder than just like hey,

42:11

let's go to basketball court. Oh yeah,

42:13

yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, let's

42:15

go get the pads and

42:18

that get ice time and whatever

42:21

like and and hockey rinks are just like few

42:23

and far between. Down the one that I

42:26

think, the one that I had played out a lot

42:28

in Wall Township, I think it like closed

42:30

down. Yeah, because like nobody,

42:33

I mean, hockey is no longer on TV anymore.

42:35

Used to be on on like NBC

42:38

Saturdays you would have you on.

42:41

Now it's on Versus or whatever.

42:44

Like there's a bunch of channels

42:46

that like, oh, I can't watch

42:49

my favorite team because I don't have

42:51

that channel like that, and all of them are just

42:53

whatever. It's nobody cares about hockey. No,

42:56

it's true. YEA moved moved to Canada and then

42:58

yeah the national sport. Yeah exactly.

43:00

Um. And so then as you were obviously

43:04

you making the decision that all right,

43:06

I want to try to make music my life.

43:09

I mean your parents obviously understood that,

43:11

yeah, to a certain extent.

43:14

I'm sure yeah. They

43:16

they didn't understand it when I was just like,

43:18

oh, well, I'm not going to

43:20

finish high school. I'm gonna start

43:23

a band and I'm gonna just

43:25

tour because that's what people do. And

43:28

and this was that was that your sophomore

43:30

junior year, that your sophomore like end

43:32

of my sophomore year that

43:35

I am. I started another

43:37

band and

43:40

it was my favorite thing, and I dedicated, you

43:42

know, all my time to it

43:44

and became just

43:46

the like the asshole

43:48

guy in the band that just like when everything

43:51

and because anybody like I

43:54

looking back on it, I wish I had kind

43:56

of given other people that were

43:58

around us and other people in band like oh

44:01

yeah, you can do this, and you can do this. Nope,

44:03

I got everything cover well,

44:06

I'm sure, I mean to be fair, just look

44:08

hearing it from the outsider's perspective, it's like, I

44:11

mean, you had quit everything to do that,

44:14

whereas I imagine a lot of other people

44:16

that are in that situation are like, you know, they're whatever,

44:18

They're still go in high school. Yeah yeah,

44:20

yeah, So I didn't didn't. I didn't quit

44:22

high school. Yeah yeah. But but the

44:24

band it was everything to me. Every

44:28

you know, at a free period in high school, every

44:30

three period, I was designing a flyer

44:33

first show, I mean, and that that band we actually

44:35

played a lot. It's called Chaosis. And

44:38

that band we play a bunch, like we would play at

44:41

least once a month, and we would have We ended

44:43

up that was the first band I ended up

44:45

playing throwing shows

44:47

at my house. And yeah,

44:49

and and it was cool because it was like, I

44:52

mean, that's definitely such a part of New Jersey,

44:55

like having shows in houses, whereas like out here

44:57

on the West Coast, it's like, yeah, you

44:59

can have like a band played for like ten minutes into

45:01

the yeah yeah yeah. No here

45:03

here was in New Jersey.

45:05

It was it

45:07

was different, and I didn't I didn't learn about like, wow,

45:10

we really really does have a lot of shows. I learned

45:12

that way later. I thought it was like a unique

45:14

thing that we were doing. Uh yeah,

45:17

yeah, and um. And we ended up being like the like

45:20

the competition for the local promoters who ended

45:22

up like we we put it on a show on

45:24

Saturday. Had one of

45:26

the shows. Actually, I think the first one we

45:28

had Sadie Meg because they continue they I

45:31

quit that band to start this other band and

45:34

they got another drummer and I was still friends with them and they

45:36

played played this show and my band on headline,

45:38

you know, and yeah, and put

45:40

on put on at least like a show a month,

45:43

like the last Saturday of every month. And

45:45

excuse me, we had a bunch of like like

45:48

a Halloween party, and we would get you know, just get

45:50

a lot of pizza. People that were into the Red

45:53

Bank scene. Sure that we liked, people

45:55

that like we wanted there to wanted to be

45:57

there. We invited them. And it got to the

45:59

point where like everybody that would go to the

46:02

local promoter at the time, it's called Jersey shows. You

46:04

might still be around, but they

46:08

would put they put on shows and

46:10

uh and we would have one like the same night

46:13

or something like that. Everybody that was gonna

46:15

go. I remember there was one time everybody that was gonna

46:17

go to you know, expand whatever

46:19

came to our show and we packed it. It

46:21

It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. But I got

46:23

a call from that promoter and

46:26

because he had put out a lot of our shows when we were

46:28

just starting out, and and he was

46:30

like, what the funk, Like, you're taking all my you

46:32

know, all the business. And I was just like

46:35

sorry, yes, right, But

46:38

I wasn't sorry, you know, I was

46:40

happy. I was like you because you were

46:42

building something on your own that was so like organic

46:44

and just fun. Yeah, but like you said,

46:47

it was that was everything planning, you

46:49

know, making flyers and planning these house shows

46:51

and trying to get in touch with people that ran

46:53

the nights of Columbus on you know, on thirty

46:56

six where we lived. That

46:58

was all top priority. To school

47:00

was secondary completely, like it

47:03

was an afterthought. And I still but

47:05

I still wanted to like, um,

47:08

I did well on quizzes and stuff,

47:10

and like that's that's probably, like you said, just

47:12

from having a bomb in your

47:14

d n A to want to like, okay,

47:16

well, if I got like a semity on this, I

47:19

should do better and whenever. So I

47:21

wanted to be a good student. Graduated, and

47:25

that's when music was like you know, yeah,

47:27

so that the whole plan was that, like obviously,

47:29

once you graduated high school, you're like, this is

47:32

I want to find a way to make a living

47:34

off of music. I mean, I had no I

47:36

had no idea how I was going to do it. I didn't

47:39

you knew that's what you wanted to I knew I wanted to do

47:41

it. I just had no

47:43

idea of what I would

47:45

do. So to kind of um

47:48

combat that, I went to a college

47:50

where I didn't know anybody. A lot of people I knew I

47:53

went to college because they were going with like several

47:55

other people. Of course, you know, I wanted

47:57

to go. My sister got into

48:00

y U, she went there, and I would go up to New

48:02

York. This is actually to back up

48:04

a little bit from when I was like thirteen

48:07

through seventeen. I

48:09

guess like when I graduated high

48:11

school, I would

48:13

go up to New York like every weekend

48:16

and hang out, try and

48:18

find shows and stuff, and I would go to like

48:20

my sister was right in the village, so that

48:23

was around like the St. Mark's area of

48:25

music happening around there. Cb GBS was there,

48:27

Like I had to go there a bunch before I closed.

48:30

I had to play there. It was awesome, that's right. Um

48:32

yeah, But but I

48:35

was going up to New York a lot, and I wanted to. I

48:37

saw so much stuff happening around M y U

48:40

and I was like, oh my god, I really want to go there. I gotta

48:42

go there. Uh uh

48:45

submit, you know, send all my stuff. Applied

48:47

and didn't get in, and I was like, I was crushed,

48:49

but I was just like, well whatever, ill and

48:52

uh And then I applied to Steven's

48:54

in Hoboken, and I'm so much happier

48:57

there. That's where I still am. I live

48:59

across street from the school is ok,

49:02

and it's you know, it's been such a better home

49:04

because it's well

49:07

a lot of reasonszards separate from this story, but

49:10

but so anyway, I wanted to go to

49:12

to M y U and be in like the

49:15

midst of all that. Of course, you wanted to be right in

49:17

the middle of it, right in the middle of it, go to show us all the time,

49:19

and course be around you know, the

49:22

the village area and in Washington Square Park

49:24

whatever that's the thing, and um,

49:28

but I didn't know what I was going to do

49:31

musically. My band, you know, Chaos

49:33

has had split up because we all went to different

49:35

schools. Um

49:37

so I this is a total true story. I went

49:39

on my Space looking because

49:42

when my Space was like yeah, still

49:45

it's still huge, Facebook was getting

49:47

there, my Space was still the big thing.

49:49

And I went on

49:52

my Space looking at New York bands.

49:55

I don't know how I would look for it, but I would

49:57

look for New York bands and needed a drum or drummer.

50:00

And I found the one that appealed

50:02

to me the most. It was a band called The Reveling

50:05

from New York. It was like a punk band. UH

50:08

auditioned and it felt awesome. So

50:11

I was like, okay, so you just said a message. You're

50:13

like, hey, I hear I can play. Yeah, like they

50:15

had. They had a thing like hey, someone so

50:18

is going up to get his doctorate or or

50:20

something like that or going off to do more school.

50:22

So you need a drummer and we're

50:24

looking for yeah, for drummer. So that was it.

50:26

And I had just started

50:28

school the revl I got the

50:30

Reveling and we're playing like playing

50:33

shows that Um, you know

50:36

what. What I felt when I still feel was like

50:38

really important. And I still whenever I'm home,

50:40

I try and go to like random

50:43

shows in Brooklyn, you know, like at there

50:46

was one place, Oh god, I forget what it's called, but it

50:48

was a great like punker flat

50:52

that it

50:54

was. It was like a two level thing. Show

50:57

happened on the first level. You go upstairs

50:59

and you find that there's a giant hole cut

51:02

out in the floor of the

51:04

of the second story, and uh,

51:06

and there's like bikes hanging

51:08

everywhere, and every wall is spray painted. And

51:11

you would play shows here because they the band, they were much

51:13

older than me. They were like I was

51:15

eighteen and I think our guitar

51:17

player was like seven something like that. So

51:20

that was the age difference. I

51:24

yeah, yeah, So so I would go to these places

51:27

that like I'm like, wow, this kind of place exists.

51:29

And you see it in you know,

51:31

SLC punk. You don't think

51:33

that this is whatever you do. Don't think about

51:35

that kind of stuffhen you're yeah, it's

51:38

seventeen or eighteen, of course. And so but then

51:40

I would go and we play these shows, and I really

51:42

loved it and

51:44

and it was fun um and

51:46

then yeah,

51:48

once I had been doing that for like I

51:51

was in college doing that simultaneously

51:53

with with college and like, okay classes,

51:55

then I go to New York to practice and then I come back and it was

51:57

it was cool. It was a routine that I read and

52:00

and um, the scheduling conflict came

52:02

up with my dad and the TV show

52:04

that he was going to have to be

52:06

at the start of the tonight show at the same

52:09

time that one of the East three bands

52:11

tours We're going to start and

52:13

and they needed somebody to fill in, and that was kind

52:16

of what like interrupted

52:18

everything in the best way possible. Well,

52:21

of course, yeah, but hey, do you want to playing

52:23

from a few people? I don't know, maybe,

52:25

So that was that was kind of like this

52:27

this moment where I

52:30

was I was kind of you know, doing

52:33

doing the high school band stuff, doing the college band,

52:35

right, and then all of a sudden, this, uh,

52:38

this interesting opportunity came up where

52:40

it was like I didn't think nobody

52:42

thought of that this would ever, that it

52:45

would ever happen right now, and but

52:47

it just kind of happened. And

52:51

how did you how did your dad how

52:53

did your dad introduced that to you? Was you just like,

52:55

hey, how did you like? Yeah, it was

52:57

it was weird. Um, what had happened

53:00

was over years,

53:02

you know, since since the band got back together, you

53:05

know they before they got back to the other day, I'll had

53:07

kids, and you know, my sister

53:09

and me included, all

53:12

the kids of the band have like gotten

53:14

up on stage and play. Like my sister. I

53:17

was in awe of what my sister did when she was like

53:19

thirteen, she got up and played keyboard to a to

53:21

a song on when when It's incredible.

53:24

Yeah, when they played a show in New York and

53:27

and I thought it was incredible, and I was just like, man,

53:30

that's just the next level. And

53:33

all the kids, I think, like everybody who had

53:36

a kid, their kid has been on stage. I

53:38

was the last one just

53:40

because well I don't play guitar,

53:43

I don't play bass, well I do, but like it, it's

53:45

not good. What

53:48

you're gonna have me some of the drums? Right, you can't.

53:50

Yeah, if I'm messing

53:52

up, you can't just pull that down in the mix.

53:55

Yeah, that's just not This is

53:57

way too obvious. If he bucks up, exactly,

54:00

it's just it's over. And like I said, that's

54:02

that pressure situation of like being a goalie

54:04

parallels to the drummers, like sure

54:07

and um

54:09

my dad, they were they were doing one of their last

54:11

shows of that whole touring

54:13

kind of cycle cycle and

54:17

and he was like, why don't you play with us at sound check to

54:19

a song? And sound check It's like, yeah, that's

54:22

easy. Yeah. So uh so we

54:24

did born to run it sound check and

54:26

uh and it sounded good, right, It sounded

54:28

like it was fun. I loved it. And I had

54:30

never played with like in your monitors and

54:33

there's a band right and

54:34

right whatever. It was a whole new

54:36

just sensory overload thing, but started it and

54:40

and so then yeah,

54:43

it felt really good. So um

54:46

that night they were like, well, why don't we just do that

54:48

during the show, And so we did

54:50

and uh and it was right before I got in to

54:52

college. It was like it was a summer before

54:55

I started college, like a couple two

54:57

weeks before, and it was

54:59

a giant adium. I did that, and that was

55:01

amazing. I mean, those are

55:03

the sort of experiences where it's like you,

55:06

I mean, obviously you can reflect on it now and be like that

55:08

was amazing, but you're just like like that you

55:11

could pull yourself together enough to

55:13

be like, all right, like this is what I'm doing. Well,

55:15

it was only for that one day I knew.

55:17

I was like, I'm going to do this to say I did it right

55:19

then and then that's it, and then

55:21

I never have to do it again. And

55:25

I've been there, you know, like I can say that I

55:27

that I did that. Yeah, and that was it. Never

55:29

thought of doing it again. It

55:32

was a moment in time and that was it. Yeah, But

55:34

then the scheduling conflict happened with

55:37

the tonight show and

55:39

then the tour, and yeah,

55:41

my dad had asked me, like

55:44

I went, I would go back home all

55:46

like all the course between like on the weekends and stuff,

55:49

to play drums because my drums are in my house and

55:52

excuse me, my dad asked

55:54

me. Um. He said like,

55:57

hey, I don't know if this is actually gonna happen,

55:59

but I think the

56:02

tour is gonna coincide with the tonight

56:04

show happening. I'll need to be in two

56:06

places at once and I can't, and we

56:08

need to find somebody to play, so

56:12

you might get asked to do

56:14

this. He's like, I don't know if it's gonna happen, but

56:17

I'm just prepping. Yeah. He's like, don't be disappointed

56:19

if it doesn't happen, but it might happen. And

56:22

it happened and yeah,

56:24

and Bruce

56:26

asked if if I want

56:29

to do it, and I did it and all right, I

56:31

said yeah. And that was like that's

56:33

that's when everything became casual, like

56:36

yeah, you gotta play a show on the weekend and or

56:39

something like that. That's when it became something

56:42

that just like took all my attention,

56:44

of course, and I was still doing

56:46

school time too, so I

56:48

kind of posed it to the school. I was like, Hey,

56:51

I really want to do school and I really

56:53

want to do this, but I also have this. I

56:55

kind of can't say this awesome opportunity. I

56:57

would love to do both, if that's okay

57:00

you, but if if

57:02

I have to choose one or the other, I hope you are

57:04

right. You may have heard

57:06

of the boss. I have to play with him. That

57:08

was kind of when it came down to um

57:10

so I they

57:13

were they were like, well, let's see if if

57:15

you can do it. See let's see if if

57:18

that's something that we can may happen, and we may

57:20

have happen through uh,

57:23

like a couple of US tours and European tours.

57:26

It was over the court, it was over two thousand nine.

57:28

Um, you know, some of the

57:31

most formative experience

57:33

that I've ever had, you know, I was,

57:35

I was eighteen. Well yeah, and I think

57:37

it's I think it's so cool because it's like you

57:39

were able to, i mean, obviously step

57:41

into something that is so massive. I mean

57:43

it's an I mean it's an empire. And

57:46

to be able to, you know, to

57:48

be able to devlote, like you said, you

57:51

took it super seriously,

57:53

and it's like you know that you weren't you

57:55

weren't obviously going to disrespect and you know, your

57:57

family, your dad, which would be like whatever, dude.

58:00

It's like you're like, no, I'm sucking showing up. I'm doing

58:02

this. And it's like that obviously will

58:05

bleed over to all of your experiences within

58:07

life and be like, no matter what I'm

58:09

doing, I'm going to do this and I'm going to dedicate

58:11

myself to it because, like you said, you didn't want to be like,

58:13

you know, half passing two things. Yeah. Yeah,

58:16

and you know it

58:18

was it was the biggest

58:20

thing that had happened in my life of course up until

58:22

then. So I wanted to take it really seriously. And that's

58:26

what just kind of like set

58:29

the stage for everything that I wanted right

58:31

that I I how

58:34

I put this, I learned that I

58:37

wanted to do this, and through doing

58:39

that whole that whole tour, and whenever I

58:42

got a taste of like, this is what it's like to do

58:44

it, and I knew it wasn't you know, I knew from day

58:46

one that it wasn't gonna be forever. It's

58:48

not your reality from here on Outum that's

58:50

so it's not reality, man, right, Um,

58:52

but but it's great

58:55

and it is my family, you know, like those

58:57

people and you you've been around him for so

59:00

for so yeah, for at that

59:02

point, I had been on the road with them

59:04

for like nine years. But even

59:06

before then, you know, my dad was still close

59:09

to everybody, so I had known those people

59:11

since I was a little baby. So um,

59:15

so yeah, it was it was a real family. And

59:17

I've been like everybody all the you know,

59:19

all the people on the tour are just

59:22

like their friends and fans still are, you know.

59:24

That's that's honestly what I'm here in California

59:26

right now, it's just just like hang out. You

59:28

know, they're they're my

59:31

favorite band, right, So any

59:33

opportunity I get when I'm off tour now, I

59:35

want to watch them do what they of course, yeah,

59:37

because like I mean, it's it's all you

59:40

view that as is it's an extension of your family.

59:42

It's like this has essentially been able to take

59:44

care of you, I mean

59:46

financially and like just basically be able

59:48

to give you the support system that you have just outside

59:51

of your immediate family. Yeah, And

59:54

and Bruce was awesome in helping me

59:56

find out really what I wanted to

59:58

do the drums and that's

1:00:00

cool. Yeah, almost like through like I'm

1:00:03

not even saying anything. It was just the

1:00:05

vibe that he projects. Sure, you

1:00:08

know it was you can't describe

1:00:10

it other than you know, it is an

1:00:12

amazing experience. And

1:00:15

and so how did you because obviously, like I remember,

1:00:17

I mean honestly, when I first became

1:00:19

knowledgeable of you is when you know,

1:00:22

when the news about mad Ball came out where it

1:00:24

was just like oh yeah, like Jay Weinberg,

1:00:26

I mean, like you know what I had maybe heard

1:00:28

of your name, but more of a fixture

1:00:31

within the independent music where it's like can you start

1:00:33

to see like you know, pumpanies that or and be like hey

1:00:35

kay Weinberg's son of Max Winbrook is playing

1:00:37

for mad Ball And everybody was like what like

1:00:40

which was everybody's reaction? Of

1:00:42

course, I imagine, I imagine love

1:00:44

that. Right, It's like during

1:00:46

that whole experience, I mean, like you said, you've obviously

1:00:48

done you know a number of interviews and

1:00:50

you know obviously you guys split off, it didn't work

1:00:53

out, etcetera, etcetera. But like when when

1:00:56

that initial experience happened for you or it

1:00:58

was like all right, I am going to join mad Ball,

1:01:01

which like it's like you

1:01:03

know what I mean? Was it was? It?

1:01:05

It was obviously because you wanted to push yourself

1:01:07

and challenge yourself in a way. Um,

1:01:10

but then you know, did did you receive a lot of feedback

1:01:13

or was just like what mad Ball Like this is such a

1:01:15

weird move? Like yeah, um,

1:01:17

because and but like to me, it wasn't

1:01:19

weird. Sure, it was natural. It happened naturally.

1:01:21

But and like I would talk about

1:01:24

people because people would ask me, you know, like

1:01:27

so what's your background, Like what kind of bands do you playing?

1:01:29

And I'm like, I'm playing metal bands

1:01:31

and I playing like, you know, your head off kind of bands,

1:01:34

and these are my favorite bands, and these bands

1:01:36

I really look up to, and they're all like,

1:01:39

oh, yeah, whatever, but you're like, you're a rock and roll drummer

1:01:41

and you play you play a rock and roll and you know, I was

1:01:44

playing with the East three band and stuff like that, so

1:01:47

so they I don't think people really took that side of

1:01:49

me that seriously, because I can

1:01:51

imagine what we people. When

1:01:53

you've done something like what you have and

1:01:55

obviously your your family, your pedigree,

1:01:58

people are going to look at you and judge you, like

1:02:00

plain and simple, and I'm sure you've experienced that through

1:02:02

I mean a lot of aspects in your life. Or it's just like,

1:02:05

oh that's that's the fucking kid, Like that's the But

1:02:08

then when you're able to do the

1:02:10

thing that I respect about I mean, this is fast forwarding,

1:02:12

but the thing I respected about you the most is

1:02:14

the fact that you've obviously been able to

1:02:18

like embrace what you've

1:02:20

been raised around, but then also

1:02:22

obviously set your own course. Because

1:02:24

it's like there's a lot of times where it's like people

1:02:27

people that have been introduced

1:02:29

to you know a nonum

1:02:33

a non traditional environment center as yourself,

1:02:35

where it's like you know, a musician family and everything.

1:02:38

Um, you know, sometimes they just become you

1:02:40

know, kind of a parody and a joke of themselves

1:02:42

where it's just like, I mean, this is a random

1:02:44

example, but it's like, um, you know, a person like

1:02:46

a comedian like Polly Shore or it's like his

1:02:49

mom, you know, was like the person of the comedy

1:02:51

store in l a. And she started that. It's like,

1:02:54

um, you know, of course he had no choice but to become

1:02:56

a comedian. And then it's like, you know, when he was doing

1:02:58

his thing, like of course he had his own unique

1:03:00

voice. But then it's like, you know, after

1:03:03

his sort of star was

1:03:05

not riding anymore, was going down, people

1:03:07

were just you know, he's a joke. And it was like,

1:03:11

I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that, you know, he

1:03:13

was he was trying to force himself into like

1:03:15

Okay, I'm still gonna be this

1:03:17

comedian. I'm gonna be this person. But it's like looking

1:03:19

at what you've done where it's just like, all right, I've

1:03:22

done this. Playing with Matt a ball, playing

1:03:24

with against me and you're just like you all

1:03:26

you're doing is what you have wanted to

1:03:29

do once he started to figure out what drums

1:03:31

were. Yeah, you know really

1:03:34

that I you know,

1:03:37

I love obviously, I love my dad,

1:03:39

you know, and he's been he and my mom and just

1:03:42

ever you know, everybody that's that's been

1:03:44

close to me, like they have have been super supportive.

1:03:46

And I love that. Um, but I

1:03:48

and I it's

1:03:50

surprised that some people when I say I'd never like

1:03:53

I didn't take drum lessons or anything

1:03:55

like that, and um, just because

1:03:57

and I find that the most valuable thing that my dad

1:03:59

gave me was just freedom to do

1:04:02

whatever find out you know. Yeah, I found

1:04:04

this on myself. You'd find it so

1:04:08

so that's what it was. And I just had to find out

1:04:11

what I wanted to do music and with

1:04:13

music, and uh, and I just gravitated

1:04:15

towards different things. You know, I grew we grew up in

1:04:17

completely different ages, you know, where my

1:04:20

version of the Beach Boys and

1:04:22

the you know and and Dave Clark five

1:04:24

or whatever music that's you know, still as

1:04:26

relevant and cool or whatever. Uh,

1:04:29

those bands that were like my

1:04:31

dad had, those bands I had, you

1:04:34

know, massed on, and

1:04:37

I had like all

1:04:39

all these just bands, these aggressive bands, and

1:04:41

I just gravitated towards so when

1:04:43

I was doing all these bands in high school and then

1:04:45

I went to do the Eastreet Band. So yeah, I love

1:04:47

rock and roll and that's everything

1:04:50

to me, just as long as it had

1:04:52

a heart and I had a soul to it and had a purpose.

1:04:55

That was just it resonated with me,

1:04:57

and and that's all the stuff that still resonates

1:04:59

with me. But it all that all made sense

1:05:02

and then they go to mad Ball. It made sense, but

1:05:04

it didn't make sense to some people, And well

1:05:06

it doesn't make sense to people that are on the outside looking

1:05:08

in. You're like, because they can't. They don't

1:05:10

trace you contextually

1:05:12

to where you ended up. They just thought it's like,

1:05:14

oh yeah, this like mad Ball

1:05:16

hired a session drummer. I'm

1:05:19

sure that's a lot of people were just like, oh yeah, like this

1:05:21

this kid, this this is just like a publicity stuff

1:05:23

for mad Ball. Yeah, well it happened in

1:05:25

like the most natural way, you know, like we've

1:05:28

we've been mutual friends, we've

1:05:30

were we've had mutual friends through

1:05:33

h two. Oh you know, like I've excuse

1:05:37

me the um the wife of HDOS

1:05:39

guitar play Rusty. Her name is Debby. She

1:05:42

worked with my dad for like probably

1:05:46

more years, and she got me into punk

1:05:48

rock, you know. She she handed me down like all

1:05:51

these all these great records and got me in H two

1:05:53

O and uh and stuff like that. So

1:05:55

through H DUO and going to H two shows, I

1:05:58

became familiar with mad Ball because they're so close. We

1:06:01

had a lot of mutual friends, met,

1:06:03

you know, met with miss the

1:06:05

mad Ball's guitar player. And I

1:06:08

was doing the this drum off thing.

1:06:10

This is like kind of shortly after the h

1:06:14

the Eastreet Band tour, it all wound down,

1:06:16

and I was kind of like, all right, now, what's

1:06:19

my next chapter? And I was still doing the Reveling at the time.

1:06:21

I was doing that simultaneously doing the Eastreet

1:06:23

Band and the Reveling at the same time, So

1:06:27

I was already busy, but I was kind of looking

1:06:29

for like, wow, man, I kind

1:06:31

of want to be more occupied and

1:06:34

well, and I'm sure you also wanted to obviously be able

1:06:36

to you know, contribute creatively

1:06:39

as well, like even more so because like

1:06:41

the Reveling, you obviously joined up as they were going,

1:06:43

Yeah. But that's the thing is like I since

1:06:45

high school. Uh,

1:06:47

Like I was just like joining bands whenever.

1:06:50

Like I joined the Reveling because

1:06:52

they needed a drummer. And I looked them up and they needed a drummer.

1:06:55

You know, played with the Eastreet Band because

1:06:57

they needed a drummer, right

1:06:59

and uh and you know then

1:07:01

Matt Ball needed a drummer. So

1:07:04

I was doing this this drum off thing with my dad

1:07:06

and and mits saw

1:07:08

who I had like just seen like a couple of weeks before

1:07:10

then and had talked about hockey. Is a big hockey fan,

1:07:13

and talked a lot about hockey,

1:07:15

and and like exchanged the information.

1:07:18

He saw that I was doing this drum off thing, and he sent

1:07:20

me an email like, Hey, do you know any drummers

1:07:22

that are out there that would want to play with Ball?

1:07:24

Because like we you know, we need a guy

1:07:27

and and let me know, let

1:07:29

me know if there's anybody out there. And I

1:07:31

emailed them back. I was like, what if I did

1:07:33

it, I'll do it, and

1:07:35

and he was like, yeah, you'd be into doing that. And I was like

1:07:38

yeah, So that's that. And

1:07:40

that's just how bands got together get

1:07:42

together, you know that it's the simplest of stories

1:07:44

where it's just like yeah, like you know friends

1:07:46

and you know people, and it just it's a simple question.

1:07:48

Yeah. Yeah. So so to me,

1:07:51

like drawing the lineage between

1:07:54

the Easter Band and mat Ball is is

1:07:56

different. Of course, maybe it's not predictable,

1:08:00

but to me it was natural. Uh

1:08:03

so yeah, did uh you know, oh

1:08:06

man, I had a horrible audition. I remember

1:08:08

that because

1:08:12

it was it was really short notice, like the tour, this

1:08:15

was the Rebellion tour that we were talking about. This

1:08:18

was maybe like two and a half

1:08:20

weeks after I had just exchanged emails

1:08:23

with them. So he sent me like, you

1:08:25

know, twenty something songs like the set.

1:08:27

Yeah, and it's not like that Ball doesn't have a lot of songs to

1:08:29

choose from, Like here's this library

1:08:32

of of music, how would you learned a few?

1:08:34

Honestly? That was that out of you

1:08:37

know, all the performance experience and all the

1:08:39

all the amazing things that always

1:08:41

cherished and carry with me from the Eastreet Band,

1:08:44

one of the most one of the things that I found most important

1:08:46

was the ability to learn

1:08:48

a song really quickly because

1:08:50

it's um

1:08:53

what we would do typically is

1:08:55

uh, there were like five songs there

1:08:57

was. There was like fifteen,

1:09:00

maybe like twenty songs that would stay in

1:09:03

the set list, and then like another

1:09:05

fifteen or something that would like switch changeable,

1:09:08

always always changing, always keeping it fresh. And they

1:09:10

still do, they do that more than ever now, right.

1:09:13

But but you know

1:09:15

I would be learning like five songs a

1:09:18

day while we were on the road going like driving

1:09:20

to the show. I'd have my iPod

1:09:22

on and and like Bruce would give me a list of

1:09:24

you know, five songs. Learn these on the way to the

1:09:27

sound check and when you play those, and that was and

1:09:29

that's and you know, it's not like

1:09:31

poly rhythm crazy crazy is going

1:09:33

on, but it's it's it's it's a

1:09:35

song you need to learn. Nonetheless. Yeah, And

1:09:38

and so that helped me with

1:09:40

like, okay, mad Ball tour coming up in

1:09:43

in two weeks, I got twenty five songs

1:09:45

to learn. I can do this and uh.

1:09:47

And so I was in California at the time flew

1:09:49

back, did a show at the Reveling and

1:09:51

then the next morning I had my audition with

1:09:54

mad Ball and I

1:09:56

was jet lagged. I was tired, and then up all night

1:09:58

doing this show with the Red Wing and

1:10:01

Uh. I played horribly.

1:10:03

It was it was bad, but

1:10:06

but I think I showed enough like drive

1:10:08

to make them the It

1:10:10

was it was me Mits and uh and Paul Delaney,

1:10:13

um it was a good friend and played bass and I

1:10:15

played in Black Ambos um

1:10:18

and I played horribly, but I

1:10:20

think I was like, yeah, like I really I really like

1:10:24

my enthusiasm. I think it maybe that

1:10:26

compensated for like for what I just

1:10:28

could not do on drums. And then it came back like the week

1:10:31

after or whatever. I practiced all the stuff and

1:10:35

then um, yeah, then they were like, all right, here

1:10:37

we go. Yeah. And then I met Freddie

1:10:41

the day They're like maybe like two

1:10:43

hours before my first show. You're

1:10:45

like, it was Freddy will be playing together.

1:10:48

It was it was, yeah, you

1:10:50

just got thrown in. Yeah. And then UH did

1:10:53

the Rebellion tour and that was my first European

1:10:55

tour where I wasn't like in my comfort

1:10:57

zone, you know, not not with people

1:11:00

that I've known all my life. It's

1:11:03

your first touring experience outside of what you've know. Yeah,

1:11:05

you know, I've done I've done tours like the Reveling tour

1:11:07

it out to Chicago and back and with Chaosis.

1:11:10

We went to Florida and back when we were like

1:11:13

we were like sixteen or whatever. Our guitar

1:11:15

player, his dad ran

1:11:17

a Dodge dealership and we couldn't rent cards.

1:11:21

Yeah, yeah, we so we rented like

1:11:23

a you know, like a van and you

1:11:25

know, but we couldn't you couldn't eleagally.

1:11:28

So so you rented a van

1:11:30

and drove down to uh,

1:11:33

like all did shows all the way to Florida and stuff,

1:11:35

and that was my first appearence touring. So

1:11:37

then I did all this stuff and then

1:11:40

I went on tour with with Matt Ball did

1:11:42

that and it was amazing. I

1:11:44

mean, you know, went to all these countries and saw this

1:11:46

culture and so much

1:11:49

stuff and uh and really got

1:11:51

into I was like, yes, this is the music

1:11:54

community I've been dreaming of, this community

1:11:56

that's based on like aggressive music, and

1:12:00

it's just like I felt so good about it

1:12:02

and right, and

1:12:06

then yeah, they went to Greece. That was awesome

1:12:09

because you played with them for about like a year year

1:12:11

and a half a little lesson a year, but

1:12:15

did that and we basically came home from that and

1:12:17

then like the week after that, I was like, all right,

1:12:20

we gotta make a new record. Let's start running

1:12:22

a new record. And it was

1:12:24

at that time I was still doing a full

1:12:26

course load of of of stuff

1:12:29

at school and still

1:12:31

doing the Rebeling, So it was just kind

1:12:33

of like, you know, doing

1:12:35

a lot of stuff and I I

1:12:38

unfortunately had to leave the Rebeling and I wanted

1:12:40

to keep doing it. I've

1:12:42

been with it for so long. Yeah, yeah, and you

1:12:45

know it was it was a bummer, but I had to make

1:12:48

the make the decision to like, well,

1:12:50

Maball's gonna be really active and I feel

1:12:52

really good about it, right, And you're in the process

1:12:54

of getting into record with them, and like, yeah, you feel part

1:12:57

of it, right. Yeah. And we were getting together like

1:12:59

every day, jamming in in our

1:13:01

practice space and made a record

1:13:03

and then, um, you know, the

1:13:06

this stuff that happened, it's whatever. It's in the past

1:13:09

and move on. But yeah, I mean, and it's

1:13:11

like you, like you were

1:13:13

saying earlier in regards to Um, you

1:13:15

know, people come from different cultures, and it's like the

1:13:18

in all the professional dealings

1:13:20

I've ever dealt with mad Ball um, they

1:13:24

I mean, they just come from a different world, like

1:13:26

from either from what I've come from, but when you've

1:13:28

come from um and so when

1:13:31

you have it's already

1:13:33

difficult enough to be in a band, but when you are

1:13:36

combining people from

1:13:38

completely different walks and are trying to have

1:13:40

them all be creative, be

1:13:42

business minded, it's difficult. Yeah,

1:13:46

it's um and uh and

1:13:48

not to mention, I'm like at this point, I'm still

1:13:52

yeah, and and

1:13:54

so I mean that's not far from

1:13:57

where I am right now, but right but

1:13:59

you know, it just

1:14:01

got to the point it didn't work out. It doesn't work out, you

1:14:03

know, and uh, and I look back on it as a great

1:14:06

experience. I traveled a music

1:14:09

I was I was really proud of of everything that

1:14:11

we've done. And it was a chapter in my life that you

1:14:13

know, came to a clause of course, that was it

1:14:17

and uh yeah, and

1:14:19

then the the transition

1:14:22

point into against me was

1:14:25

the I mean that it's once

1:14:27

I heard that obviously you were playing with them. To

1:14:30

me, it seems like it just

1:14:32

makes sense. Cool. Yeah,

1:14:35

yeah, I mean it just feels like it's like, not only do

1:14:37

you stylistically fit in

1:14:39

with them, just like from a drummer perspective, and just

1:14:41

like yeah, obviously your own upbringing, um,

1:14:44

but it's just you know, the way that the band, especially it's

1:14:46

going now where it's like, you know, a lot

1:14:49

more control is falling directly

1:14:51

into their hands. They're your

1:14:53

guys hands, um, and so it's

1:14:56

just you know, it's it's exciting, like yeah,

1:15:00

um uh, it

1:15:02

happened in a really natural way.

1:15:04

I you know, I left mad

1:15:06

Ball and I was gonna focus

1:15:08

on school and just do that, you

1:15:12

know, moved back like uh, I

1:15:15

was in Hoboken for a while and I was

1:15:17

gonna concentrate on school, and

1:15:20

then the whole just

1:15:22

that, you know, whatever ugliness had gone

1:15:25

online or about the mad Ball stuff happened.

1:15:28

And literally, like the day that got

1:15:31

became public, our bass player,

1:15:33

Andrew Um, he called

1:15:35

me and uh and we've

1:15:38

been friends. To back up a little bit, I have.

1:15:41

I've been friends with uh, you

1:15:43

know, with Laura James and Andrew

1:15:46

and Jordan's since I

1:15:48

was thirteen or fourteen. You know,

1:15:51

we met really young. And Against Me was the band

1:15:53

that towards so often that they they

1:15:55

would be in my area four

1:15:58

or five times a year, and so it

1:16:01

was like every now and every like every couple

1:16:03

of weeks, I would go to it Against

1:16:05

Me show and bring and bring my friend or

1:16:07

something like that. And and it was a band

1:16:09

that I just got the closest to just by nature of

1:16:11

like we saw each other. So of course,

1:16:14

you know, I'd see I'd see other friends bands every once

1:16:17

every two and a half years because they were tour as

1:16:19

much, or they were they're off wherever,

1:16:21

I don't know, whatever, but

1:16:24

they would be in New York or New Jersey all the time, so

1:16:26

I would go to their their shows and we ended

1:16:28

up we would do this thing like

1:16:32

Warren jumped in front

1:16:35

of the drums during the last song at

1:16:37

a show in New York, and I was like,

1:16:39

I was standing right behind the kit, like

1:16:42

off the side, and I was like, he's not coming

1:16:44

back, and so I got

1:16:46

up and finished. It was it was we

1:16:49

laugh at danger and break all the rules and

1:16:52

it has that clapping section and then uh,

1:16:54

you know, we talked about me like oh yeah, like jan

1:16:56

won the last song or whatever, and it happened and it was awesome

1:16:59

and came this like fun thing

1:17:01

that we would do occasionally when you were there, and

1:17:03

everyone was like, yeah, yeah, I mean it would be it would be a fun thing

1:17:05

and and so we did that and we

1:17:08

just became friends, kept in touch and whatever,

1:17:11

and uh, and Andrew called me and

1:17:15

and he was like, hey, are you gonna be around for these

1:17:18

shows? Because I know you don't have a band anymore.

1:17:21

And I was reading a yeah,

1:17:24

I'm aware, yeah, and uh, and he was like,

1:17:26

are you are you doing anything because because

1:17:29

we need somebody and you know, we'd

1:17:31

like like I would, I would want to jam with you. And

1:17:33

so I was like, yes, yes, without

1:17:36

you know, hesitation, I just I just knew it was

1:17:38

gonna be awesome. And

1:17:40

so then like I meditated on that

1:17:43

for a little bit and and like I called

1:17:46

my best friend who who like the band we

1:17:48

got together on was like

1:17:51

against me and we

1:17:54

we would go to shows all the time whenever it was awesome,

1:17:57

and so I called him. I was like, dude, and and

1:18:01

so anyway, I I called

1:18:03

Andrew back the next day and

1:18:06

I was like, do you just say no? I really

1:18:09

really want to do this, So like, yeah,

1:18:11

I'm pretty serious about like, dude, yeah, like I really

1:18:14

want to play with you guys. So and and I

1:18:16

was just gonna be to these three shows. Weever

1:18:20

a couple of radio shows in radio

1:18:22

festivals in Florida and went in California,

1:18:24

and I was like, I really want to

1:18:26

do this, like I would love to play a couple of shows we

1:18:28

do you guys, and and

1:18:31

so he was like, okay, cool, I'll you know,

1:18:33

pass it on and we

1:18:35

um, you know, talk through email and stuff.

1:18:37

And then I got down to Florida

1:18:40

where they all are, and and we

1:18:42

jammed. I got down there and I thought we were just gonna like

1:18:44

go out, get some food or whatever and jam

1:18:47

the next day. But we went out. We went

1:18:49

to the practice space and jam from like ten

1:18:51

at night till like four in the morning, and

1:18:55

and it was just so much fun that

1:18:58

because those are the song to my childhood,

1:19:00

you know, those are those are songs that I

1:19:03

remember, you know, it

1:19:06

was it was it was awesome. Yeah, yeah whatever, it's

1:19:08

nostalgic for you to like you're like, wow, I had actually

1:19:10

played these songs that meant so much to me so

1:19:13

much exactly, and that was I

1:19:15

mean really, it's it's kind of like a common thread

1:19:17

that you know through like the eas

1:19:19

Street Band and math Ball. It's like these are all

1:19:22

parts of my

1:19:25

just learning music that like the

1:19:27

the East Street Band, like you

1:19:29

know, Bruce Springsteen and the Eastreet band was

1:19:32

my music, that was my upbringing. It

1:19:34

was around those songs for for so long,

1:19:36

so to be playing them felt like second nature. And then to

1:19:39

be playing against me songs felt like second nature

1:19:41

and it felt so good that the next morning

1:19:43

they were just like, you don't just joined the band. Yeah,

1:19:46

so that's what it was. That's what we've been doing.

1:19:48

Yeah, that's what you've been doing. Yeah, that's so cool.

1:19:50

I I really do like how, you

1:19:52

know, sort of wrap this up in conclusion.

1:19:55

Um, I like how you're you're

1:19:57

pulling on this the threat of like there

1:20:00

is a commonality between all of these because

1:20:03

obviously, like you said, most people would look

1:20:05

at these and just be like, oh, these are like you know, maybe you

1:20:07

could put mad Ball against me in a somewhat

1:20:09

similar world, but obviously your experienced with the Eastreet

1:20:12

bands something completely different. But it's like essentially

1:20:15

all, you know, all musicians start

1:20:17

out with obviously similar

1:20:20

goals and similar contexts. Um.

1:20:22

You know, there there are very few I mean,

1:20:25

even though you could look at the musical

1:20:27

culture right now and think that there are a

1:20:30

lot of people that are just simply starting bands

1:20:32

or playing music to make money, there's

1:20:34

always gonna be an element of um.

1:20:37

But with everything that you have experience,

1:20:40

that's like, you know, mad Ball

1:20:42

wasn't starting off, and like, all right, we're going

1:20:44

to make this a thirty plus your career you

1:20:47

know against me is the same thing. And I'm like, no, we just want

1:20:49

to play all the living rooms and across across America

1:20:51

and um, you know Bruce Springsteen

1:20:54

like you can easily trace back to where he was

1:20:56

when he started, and it's like those

1:20:58

are all common theme sames and like the

1:21:01

fact you've been able to kind of experience all those different

1:21:03

worlds um, just

1:21:05

like you said, makes it all all the more clear

1:21:07

to you, But to another

1:21:09

person might be like, oh, it doesn't make sense. Yeah,

1:21:12

yeah, it's um. Yeah. To me,

1:21:15

it just it makes sense. It's all, it's all

1:21:17

one big thing. Sure. Yeah,

1:21:20

I'm very glad that you were able to hang out.

1:21:22

Yeah, laid us all out because

1:21:24

I was. Yeah, I was just excited to talk to you about all your

1:21:27

different experiences because you've got a lot

1:21:29

of them. Thanks, thank thank, thank you very much for

1:21:31

having no problems. All

1:21:33

right, So there you have it, everybody. I definitely

1:21:36

like in the middle of the interview where he says Bruce

1:21:38

and I didn't even bat an eye, and upon

1:21:41

listening to it again and editing it was like, oh,

1:21:44

yeah, that's Bruce Springsteen. I

1:21:46

never thought I'd have a person on the podcast that

1:21:48

would be able to refer to Bruce

1:21:51

as Bruce and not be like he can't

1:21:53

say that, you can't call him that. It's

1:21:56

like calling Dave Matthews Dave like

1:21:58

you know him. J will

1:22:00

obviously land on his feet somewhere

1:22:02

else awesome in the near future. Um

1:22:05

yeah, visit property of zac dot com and

1:22:08

one words podcast dot com and

1:22:11

until next week, be safe everybody.

1:22:16

Yeah.

1:22:38

M