0:00

This episode is brought to you by FX's

0:03

Dave. Starring the one and only Dave

0:05

Bird, also known as rapper Lil Dicky.

0:08

This season, Dave is headlining his first

0:10

ever tour and looking for love along the way.

0:12

But as he and the gang crisscross America, they

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discover firsthand how often fame

0:17

puts pressure on love and friendship. And of

0:19

course, some famous friends drop by like Killer

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Mike, Jack Carlo, Travis Barker, and Demi

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Lovato to name a few. FX's Dave

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premieres April 5th on FXX.

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stream on Hulu.

0:30

Yesterday's concert is a proud member of the

0:32

Pantheon podcast network.

0:51

And

0:59

it's not like we don't like the original shit

1:01

we made, it's just like a little more in the

1:03

rock form and we're like experimenting and

1:05

we like having fun.

1:19

Welcome to yesterday's concert, a podcast

1:21

that celebrates live music. My name is

1:23

Lance Ingram and in this episode we talk to Mo

1:26

Lauda and the Humble. Team member

1:28

Shane, Jeff and Kirby discussed their new self-titled

1:30

album and their love for playing live music

1:32

together. Grab your earplugs because it's

1:35

about to get Mo Lowda, do you?

1:38

You did that? Come on, be cool.

1:47

So I'm here with Mo Lowda and the humble.

1:50

Guys, can you introduce yourselves? We got a party today.

1:53

Welcome to the party. My name's Shane. I'm

1:55

Jeff. I'm Kirby. the

1:57

party here today guys. I'm excited to talk

1:59

to you about

2:00

your new self-titled album. But before

2:02

we get into that, I want to talk about

2:04

some ice breakers first. I want to get to know you guys.

2:07

So first question, is there a city

2:09

that you guys specifically love to hit

2:11

because of the food? Because

2:14

of the food. I want to say Austin

2:17

for food or Charleston. Charleston's

2:19

food's great. New

2:21

Orleans food's awesome. Always. Do

2:23

you got a favorite restaurant in Austin or Charleston

2:25

that you love to hit? In Charleston,

2:27

I love home team barbecue. Yeah. Kind of a That's

2:30

where Zalbao is that the name of the place? Zalbao

2:33

rocks. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, the tie is

2:35

a tie.

2:36

It's like a fusion fusion. Yeah. Yeah, that's how

2:38

it's awesome What's the secret? Going

2:41

bones on oh, yeah bones Island

2:44

bones Island's good, too So how do you put

2:46

not put like a thousand pounds on when you're on tour? Like

2:48

I mean, it sounds like you're eating good. We work

2:50

it off on stage. Yeah, there you go I always

2:53

come back plus five ten That's how

2:55

it works. That's how it works. That's how

2:57

it works. Good deal. All right. So

2:59

next question. What's a vocalist that you just insanely

3:02

envy their talents that you're incredibly jealous of

3:04

their vocal pipes?

3:06

Vocalists. Paul McCartney. Ooh,

3:09

I like that one. Alan Stones vocals

3:11

are amazing. Oh yeah. Tom

3:14

York always. Yeah, Tom York's

3:16

a good one. There's someone in that too,

3:18

my time that's got a really unique voice. They're like,

3:20

that sounds weird. I

3:23

like Father John Missy's voice. Oh,

3:26

very good. That was great. Yeah,

3:29

that's a good one. I mean, if we're going old school.

3:32

Old school. Yeah. All

3:35

right. So,

3:38

last one, and then we'll jump into the conversation.

3:40

Have any of you ever met your idol? They

3:43

say never meet your idols. So no.

3:45

I don't know. I don't. I

3:48

mean, something close to an idol. Who

3:51

was that? It's weird, I would probably

3:53

say something different a long time ago,

3:55

but I get older, I feel like I don't idolize

3:58

as much. I just like, I don't know. like start

4:00

becoming the same age or like it's

4:04

not it's not like an idol it's more like a peer but

4:06

like someone that you look up to I don't just

4:08

seem so big too big

4:11

or so more like a mentor

4:13

then kind of yeah but like

4:15

not personally that's when we get like okay something

4:18

needs to go yeah yeah and so

4:20

do you have somebody like in mind or is there somebody you're

4:22

thinking of I've met Tepay from Thrice

4:24

before and I was like, I really like

4:27

looked up to him and then his whole

4:30

their whole band when I was younger. Yeah still

4:32

do. Did

4:34

he impart some wisdom or anything with you?

4:37

Yeah, it was just like we

4:39

just were kind of like playing a piano together. Yeah.

4:42

What was that? Electric

4:44

factory. Nice.

4:47

I peed next to Brian Blade once at

4:49

the Village Vanguard in New York. That's

4:51

fantastic. I'm scared to say anything, so I didn't

4:53

say anything. Was he peeing in rhythm?

4:55

He was, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did

4:58

it have a swing to it? I

5:04

got another score, actually. I met Nels Klein. I

5:06

really like Nels Klein. I made a guitar pedal. Oh.

5:09

Twelve years ago, ten years

5:11

ago, I was at the Blue Note. Nice.

5:14

And I made a guitar pedal. I was based

5:16

off of like a T'Clon Centaur, which is like

5:18

an overdrive pedal. And I called it the Klein

5:21

tour. And I had my friend

5:23

draw like a pseudo centaur

5:26

looking thing, but it kind of looked like a dick with legs.

5:31

And I wrote on the bottom there, like it's acidish. I

5:33

have it with me. I'm gonna grab it right now. It's called,

5:35

it says fuck nails on it.

5:39

So I like show him this, like I show him a picture

5:41

of this pedal that says fuck nails on

5:44

it. The Klein tour. Because

5:47

I was like, this guy's a man. And I just was like, yeah, I just

5:49

like make fun of him because I like so much, you know? And

5:51

he like looks at me like I'm a total idiot

5:53

and just like turned around and walks away. And

5:56

I was just like, I was just like, shock.

5:58

I was like, dude.

6:00

I absolutely ruined that for myself. I

6:02

just like, I made a fucking

6:04

laugh. That's amazing. Oh, that's

6:06

fantastic. Well, I don't see how that can be topped.

6:08

So we'll just jump into the conversation

6:10

then.

6:11

So just to get some basics out of

6:13

the way, kind of a standard question. Tell

6:16

me, walk me through the backstory of making

6:18

the self-titled album. How long you been working

6:20

on it? Where'd you start recording it? Who wrote it? All

6:22

that good stuff. We worked on it over, kind

6:25

of over the pandemic over a couple of years. We

6:27

had just released our third LP, like

6:29

in March of 2020,

6:31

and you know, canceled that whole release tour and everything.

6:34

And obviously a bummer not to get to

6:36

play those songs out live, but we did eventually

6:39

do it. Yeah, we just kind of started

6:41

thinking what would be a good move. And we did a couple

6:43

of like retreats, like one in Virginia

6:46

and one in

6:47

upstate New York, just to try to like

6:50

get in there and not worry about tracking anything, just

6:52

get the juices flowing and see what comes out.

6:56

We

6:58

started with some ideas of demos

7:01

that Jordan had started. He had already had a

7:03

couple jammers, half

7:06

finished, a couple that were pretty

7:08

true to the final form. But

7:11

more than half of it came out of thin

7:13

air, but it's just playing around and jamming in these

7:15

pretty places where we just focused on playing.

7:18

What was the general headspace

7:20

that you guys were in as you were starting to write that?

7:22

Was it, I mean, you're talking about writing into the pandemic,

7:24

was there some fear and concern, was it

7:26

just more like,

7:28

we're away, it's nice, we're at this retreat? What

7:30

was the head space? I think Jordan was

7:32

here. He used to say something different. For me, I was

7:34

just writing music. It was just something I feel

7:36

like I have to do

7:37

constantly to feed some type of

7:40

purpose or something or just itch. So

7:42

I was just ready to write more music. I

7:44

think Jordan was probably would have a better answer

7:47

based on it because he writes the lyrics. I know he

7:49

had a hard time with that. I don't want to write

7:51

about the pandemic. That's just the

7:53

way I'm going for him. So I think I think he was having

7:55

a hard time finding something that would lyrically

7:58

be inspirational. I can't really

8:00

speak on that behalf, but for me it was just like

8:03

enjoying the process of like, we

8:05

want to write some more music, come down, let's do it. Yeah,

8:08

we didn't really want to have boundaries on this one. We wanted

8:10

to maybe explore our,

8:12

or get

8:14

our more experimental flavors and

8:17

on down on wax in a way and not

8:19

be too worried about what we did before

8:22

because we've been a band for a long time and we're, you

8:24

can't make the same record over and over again and we

8:26

won't make the same record over and over again. and we were

8:29

kind of maybe being a little more boundary-less

8:31

with the genres or the sonics that

8:34

we went for.

8:36

It was overall whatever goes

8:38

kind of thing as long as it feels good. I know like

8:41

Kirby wasn't with us before and then when we

8:43

were writing those songs, there's always like a thing in the back of your

8:45

head, how are you gonna do this live? So like

8:48

that aspect of like being like, we don't

8:50

have to think about any of that stuff. Like

8:52

just kind of open the flood doors for like,

8:55

if I wanna write a song on, if

8:57

one of us wants to write on a different instrument the whole way

8:59

through, we can because we'll

9:01

be able to play whatever we need to. Because

9:03

we got this little... I'm here, I

9:05

made it. Yeah,

9:08

writing for a more expansive band was definitely

9:11

something we kept in mind. Because, yeah, previous

9:13

records, we were like, we're a three piece rock

9:15

and roll band, guitar, bass, and drums. We got to be able

9:17

to

9:18

do it justice live. And with Kirby

9:20

and his talents, the live performances

9:22

stepped up in a way. Well, I want to go back

9:25

and talk about Ready Code a little bit, because it

9:27

was released right a week before everything

9:29

shut down. It's just terrible

9:32

timing. So what was the disappointment of

9:34

not getting to promo and tour that

9:36

album?

9:37

You worked on it for, I'm assuming, years

9:39

and then everything gets shut down. What was the disappointment

9:42

in that?

9:42

You want every release

9:45

to have a larger push

9:47

and get out to a wider audience than it

9:49

previously has and a big part of

9:51

that is people seeing those

9:53

songs in person

9:55

and that just didn't

9:56

happen and even if people are listening to it

9:59

you don't get to it out. And

10:01

even if on paper it doesn't fall flat on its face,

10:03

it kind of feels like like you just weren't able

10:05

to do it justice or

10:07

let it have its day. We had plans,

10:09

obviously, that we couldn't execute money that was spent that

10:11

can just was gone to waste pretty much.

10:14

Yeah, it's disappointing. But I mean, I wasn't

10:16

brought down by it, I guess maybe I had some

10:19

blind faith that this past or something.

10:22

But it was definitely like, anticlimactic.

10:25

We were playing, we were about to play like our first show

10:27

at Union Transfer Ever, which is like a big pool

10:29

venue in Philly. And we had

10:31

sold like a lot of tickets and we were like, oh my God,

10:33

we're like gonna sell this huge place out. And

10:36

it was like three days before the show. And they

10:39

were like, actually, no, you can't play

10:41

this show.

10:43

Yeah, we definitely just put a huge pause

10:45

on some important milestones that we

10:48

wanted to hit at that point in our careers.

10:50

Do you feel like you lost a momentum? There

10:53

was a moment, I think we were feeling that way for a little

10:55

bit. I mean, right now, I've been so far

10:57

now and we're like on the next- A little bit, but as soon as we

10:59

were able to do the thing,

11:01

we never stopped. We kept writing. Yeah. I

11:03

mean, I think we thought like, hey, this definitely

11:06

didn't- we were feeling some buzz

11:09

and there was definitely talks about

11:11

goddamn, like that sucks that this happened

11:13

right at this moment. But I mean,

11:15

I think at least in my mind, and I just

11:17

know that it happened. It's like, it happened to

11:19

the world. So like,

11:22

it's like lost an advantage. Like,

11:24

it's not just like that happened, other

11:26

things kept on going. It was like everything stopped.

11:28

So it was like a cryogenic

11:30

who froze. So you're gonna come back.

11:33

And we also like, luckily had a really

11:35

on top agent that's just really on top of keeping

11:38

his ear to like what the industry was doing. So we were

11:40

able to like, get back on the road as soon as it made

11:43

sense. And we were able to play venues, like I know a lot of people

11:45

struggled to get into venues

11:47

and book shows, but our guy was on top of

11:49

it and had been just really near the ground

11:51

so we

11:52

were at least able to pick up where we left

11:54

off and that first wave of like playing shows after Reverend

11:56

wave of like playing shows after everyone

11:59

was so cool.

12:00

up kind of like reinstated some

12:02

momentum, I guess, or at least if there wasn't

12:04

one, at least it was a positive experience and stuff that

12:06

like, you store confidence, I think.

12:09

Yeah, we worked on Jordan's solo record,

12:12

we did a bunch of live

12:14

streams, which like weren't our favorite things to do. But

12:16

like, we were doing multi cam

12:19

live streams that we were engineering and filming

12:22

ourselves. And that kind

12:24

of thing was really fun for our fans.

12:26

And like, you know, it showed that

12:29

we weren't just sitting around watching TV even though

12:31

we were still going to

12:33

play our songs in

12:35

some form. Did

12:38

not being able to tour it immediately and

12:40

as you're starting to write the self-titled album,

12:42

did that play into how you wrote the

12:44

songs because you weren't able to kind of road

12:47

test those songs to see how people reacted? I'm

12:49

not too sure because

12:51

we don't always We just road test everything. And

12:54

we knew that it was gonna take some figuring

12:56

out how to replicate things in a live

12:58

setting. So, I

13:00

actually did pass my mind at one point in time.

13:02

There was a time we played a couple songs live and

13:05

they didn't translate as well. And that

13:07

always can be just because people don't know the songs, this might

13:09

be the way you put in the set. And that made me think of

13:11

like, shit, like we, it's

13:13

a good idea to like play these, play

13:15

songs live for us to see which ones actually resonate

13:18

with people anyway. Like some people do it that

13:20

way. Like these songs are good the fans were

13:22

live in, people like hearing us, so let's record

13:24

these ones kind of thing. But we didn't,

13:26

although that's a cool idea.

13:28

I think it passed in my mind, but it

13:30

didn't stick. This is a problem. Yeah.

13:32

I went back and listened to all four of your albums

13:35

in succession. I mean, it's kind of

13:37

like you said earlier, there is definitely a little bit

13:39

of a sonic shift with this album.

13:41

It is a little bit different. What was the intentionality?

13:44

I mean, it's like you mentioned you've been a band

13:46

for 10 years. Was it just wanting to push

13:48

yourselves, trying to to kind of avoid stagnation

13:51

or was it just a desire to do something new? What was

13:53

the reason for that?

13:54

I mean, yeah, there's always that you always want to do something

13:56

new and

13:58

not be stagnant. Also like our

14:00

Our first record came before

14:02

Jeff had joined us and Kirby had joined us live.

14:04

And like we were like 20 years old when we made that.

14:07

So it's like you're

14:08

not going to make the same music at

14:10

age 30 something that you made when you were 20

14:12

years old. You know, yeah,

14:14

you don't have the same influences or you grow

14:16

in experiences and what things

14:18

you like just always change. Yeah, the

14:20

taste change. And it's not like we don't

14:23

like the original shit we made. It's just like a little

14:25

more in the in the in the rock form.

14:27

and we're

14:28

like experimenting and we like having fun. I

14:31

mean, I noticed that it's a little, this

14:34

is probably not the correct, the new album is a

14:36

little more melodramatic in some ways, like musically

14:39

as well as lyrically. I don't think that's a bad

14:41

thing at all. Please don't hear me say it like that. No.

14:44

But I mean, I do think it is a little bit,

14:46

it's a heavier album than the other three

14:48

before it in my opinion. Is that accurate? Do

14:51

you feel? Yeah. I mean, again,

14:53

Jordan would be able to speak better on

14:55

the lyrical content. It definitely was intentional.

14:58

We had Jeff right in a lot of a lot of guitar

15:00

parts and we're leaning on him for

15:02

a lot of the ambiences and stuff

15:04

like that. And we look, we're still

15:07

fans of the wreck of like the traditional

15:09

LP, like the record. And we really wanted it, the whole

15:12

thing to

15:13

have peaks and valleys

15:15

and,

15:16

and, you know, go through the journey. And you

15:18

got to have some slower stuff and some

15:20

more ambience stuff. If you're going to create a

15:23

record that has a little part of every genre

15:25

or all forms of music? I

15:27

feel like it has to have ebb and flows, so you kind of realize

15:30

that going into it too. We didn't

15:32

shut down any slower songs or anything

15:34

because it was too mellow

15:36

or it was because we needed to curate something

15:38

specifically. It was like any song would make sense

15:41

in the context, especially if you're telling like a... It's

15:44

not a conceptual album by any means because everything's got different

15:47

themes and stuff, but

15:49

I think not being scared to play all those different

15:51

genres is really more of the,

15:53

we that sound. Play

15:55

that type of music. There was just

15:57

no like, we don't need to be something.

16:00

I think with some of the some of the mellow art tracks

16:02

too, like they're kind of like

16:04

meditative in a way when we were writing them and

16:06

playing them. Like we just liked the, we

16:08

just liked how it felt and how it made our

16:10

the hair on our arms stand up a little bit and we just play

16:13

them over and over again. It was really fun to like live

16:15

in those worlds and it's nice to bring that back

16:17

live with those memories and that

16:20

peace of mind. So

16:21

when you were going into writing these, was it like you

16:23

were listening to insert artists

16:26

and you're like, hey, I want to do a song like them or

16:28

was it more so just kind of a natural... What

16:31

was the inspiration by going into that? You said

16:33

something about

16:34

kind of in that vein. I was just curious if you could

16:37

expand on that some. I don't know if there was

16:39

anyone in particular. I think it was just a culmination

16:41

of our

16:42

influences. I couldn't

16:45

point to anything specifically.

16:47

I'm sure for me before I go right,

16:51

I might be listening something or I might

16:53

think of things that I like and imagine and that

16:57

feeling or even specifically imagine how

16:59

it's played and not

17:00

played right when I go to play

17:02

something. That's how people write

17:04

sometimes. They're like, there's some music happening around

17:07

me. What should I do? Your

17:09

mind thinks to the stuff you've heard before and

17:11

what works. It's not like you're just gonna play something.

17:13

You're gonna think of something that exists usually. That's

17:16

how it subconsciously gets in there, whether or not specifically

17:18

you're thinking of it. I don't think I personally was. And

17:20

I know a lot of times, a lot of these songs were

17:22

just like one person just noodling

17:26

another person here, like

17:28

making dinner or making

17:30

a cocktail or something, and hearing some

17:32

sound happening and then being like, I'm going to go

17:35

join in.

17:36

Was the writing pretty organic then? It

17:38

sounds like it just flowed out

17:40

of the experience.

17:42

At least most of them, yeah. Some of them would be

17:44

like, just

17:45

I would write a demo, send it to Jordan, he'd shop

17:47

it, send it back and it would be better. Then we'd

17:50

sit down and then figure that out even tighter,

17:52

and then let it marinate for a while, forget

17:54

about it.

17:56

Couple of times sat down here and just looked at

17:58

each other with guitars and I was just.

18:00

like what's the first riff that's

18:01

when he started to play and I would like just record and

18:04

chop it up and just like that would

18:06

be a more produced style and there was the ones

18:08

that were just jams. Yeah and

18:10

in the same vein there's the ones where Jordan kind of had like a

18:13

nice two minutes of a pop song that he

18:15

had in mind and then it's just like he would bring

18:17

it to me and Jeff and he'd be like what

18:19

the fuck's the part three? Let's take

18:21

it to that. Or is this like

18:24

whatever I have could this be better? We usually

18:26

go through the blender, get blended

18:28

up, make a smoothie. Yeah. And I

18:30

think, I think for one of the first times we like,

18:32

we

18:33

weren't really doing a lot of active writing

18:35

in the studio. Like when we, by the

18:37

time we tracked drones, like we'd

18:39

already written and rehearsed and

18:41

I knew what I was going to lay down. Whereas

18:43

a lot of times, I mean, we still tried out different

18:45

things, but a lot of times

18:47

in the past, we'd had to be like making the riffs

18:50

or ready to

18:50

build. Readycoast, so

18:53

it was like more studio-ish. Yeah, more

18:55

in the studio. We have the song and we

18:57

try different beats and stuff in sections

19:00

over top of this one.

19:01

We worked hard on pre-production a lot more

19:03

because we record our own records and it was the

19:06

execution was definitely easier

19:08

because we knew what we were doing and what we wanted

19:10

out of it. It sounds like this was a little bit

19:13

more of a relaxed atmosphere

19:16

to writing this project than the other ones. Is that

19:18

accurate?

19:19

It's hard to say. It felt

19:22

honestly, it felt pretty similar in

19:25

a way. Maybe it's just my memory

19:27

not serving me correctly, but I

19:29

didn't feel like it was more difficult in any

19:31

way

19:32

or even more relaxing. Sometimes

19:35

it was harder because we were like, we're stiff, we're stuffing ourselves

19:37

in this, we're

19:38

like in like a barren area

19:40

of like the upstate, the cat skills and just

19:43

like it was a beautiful way of the awesome house, but we were

19:45

there and there was nothing but that to do.

19:47

So there was an obligation to be like, all

19:49

right, let's make something. All right, what can we

19:51

make now? So we were trying to work. So

19:53

that way was a little bit more

19:55

work at times because we kind of

19:58

force ourselves to do writing sessions rather. And

20:01

I guess it's hard to tell.

20:04

It's almost like I don't have a memory of the other thing. I

20:07

record so much music and I don't write it down. I

20:11

don't do the best job of documenting how it was.

20:13

I mean, sometimes if we were

20:15

up there for four days, we'd do like two 12-hour

20:18

days and come up with like three full songs

20:20

and have them finished.

20:21

And like, that was a lot of work. But then on the third day,

20:23

we're just like, let's just like make some drinks and go look

20:25

at trees. Like we did the work

20:27

and then we'd chill, you know? But I do want to, there's

20:29

one song that in particular, I think it's my favorite

20:31

on the album, this Beachtown. I think that was the first single

20:34

that you guys released from it. So can you

20:36

kind of tell me the story of that song, kind of how

20:38

you came up with that one, kind of the history of it?

20:40

That one was one of the

20:42

ones that more was like, fleshed

20:45

out by Jordan and we were just like, you

20:48

know, that's tight, let's not really do too much to

20:50

that. Like it was just programmed drums,

20:52

guitar riffs. And they were like,

20:54

you know, they were like mostly like they are now, like I

20:56

played guitar on that one and changed some

20:58

of the phrasing of the riffs during the chorus,

21:01

but most of it's the same. Just some of them, because

21:03

we oriented it, we embellished

21:06

it with two guitars rather than one. And

21:08

they're doing different things, but they're kind of doing the same thing.

21:11

If I took his idea and kind of just played

21:13

with it, rather than that, you

21:16

did a different drum group. I mean, yeah, I kind

21:18

of had to

21:20

drill myself at home into playing the shuffle

21:22

Bernard Purdy, Steely Dan style, because it sounds

21:25

like a simple thing, but it's like the last

21:27

piece I always thought as a drummer to

21:29

get in your bones, to keep that shuffle

21:31

going the whole time and sound fluid

21:34

and be able to do fills and stuff around

21:36

it.

21:37

Definitely know that there was like

21:40

a wanting to like not be scared to

21:42

play a little classic rock was kind of there too.

21:45

Yeah, call it a little chill, chill Finlizzie

21:47

or something like that, you know? I

21:49

didn't want to say it, but yeah. Finlizzie,

21:51

that song is, that shit's pretty tight

21:54

Like,

21:55

in my mind, I'm wondering, I'm wondering

21:57

too, maybe guitar music hasn't been fashionable.

22:00

a while but we were just like we're gonna make it cool with this

22:02

one. Let's bring back the

22:03

yeah

22:06

you can do the classic shit you just have

22:08

to we just want to be careful with our

22:10

colorization of the of the sounds

22:12

so that it

22:13

doesn't come off as because

22:16

it could go to radio rock really quick

22:18

if you're if you're doing distorted guitars and big old

22:20

drums. Well I mean how do you think this album

22:23

fits into kind of the the current music

22:25

scene with what's popular and everything like that? I

22:27

mean you're talking about guitars not being fashionable but you

22:29

have guitars all over this album. So how

22:31

do you think it fits in or do you even care? Well,

22:34

I had a lot of guitars, but a lot

22:36

of times the guitars are making sounds that don't sound like

22:38

guitars, you know, more sex-like

22:40

or more ambience-like. I

22:43

mean, I don't want to speak

22:45

about playlists too much, but like

22:48

all the singles like had gotten

22:51

pretty different play listing

22:53

and different groupings on the

22:55

digital streaming platforms. There's

22:59

some that are

23:00

on Chill Singer Songwriter. There's

23:02

some that are on things called rockin'

23:05

vibes, like

23:06

all new indie stuff like that. So really,

23:08

it's

23:10

a rock album. It's a singer-songwriter

23:12

album. It's an indie rock album. It's

23:14

an alternative album. I don't know

23:16

if that makes any sense. It's music, man.

23:19

I don't know, man. There's so much shit out there.

23:22

So I don't even, that'd be straight up. I

23:24

don't even, I don't really keep up with anything.

23:27

I think what's popular. I don't know what medium

23:30

to go to look at and or

23:32

check out music from. I usually just,

23:34

I listen to old shit, I think. A lot of times,

23:36

like I'm still catching up. I'm listening, I'm catching up with what

23:38

was hit in 2012. Yeah. Oh,

23:41

that was cool in 2012. I wasn't cool enough

23:43

to get that now. Yeah, like. Jeff

23:46

and I did a two hour, did a two hour drive

23:49

of Pink Floyd the other day, but like of like their

23:51

early 70s like soundtrack material.

23:54

Like, you know, we weren't, we weren't ripping all the hits,

23:56

though we ripped some, so.

23:58

Yeah, I mean, I thought I knew something. Bye-bye. I knew a little

24:00

bit about Pink Floyd, I don't.

24:03

It's so dope. I think it's up

24:05

to the listener where they want to place it. I

24:07

mean, isn't that the benefit of modern

24:09

music is that we have, what, 60 years

24:12

of recorded music now to draw inspiration

24:14

from? I mean, in this conversation,

24:16

I've heard references to Steely Dan, then

24:18

Lindsay, Pink Floyd, all these classic

24:20

artists. But I mean, you guys are making music in 2023, and

24:23

you're still drawing inspiration on them and saying you're finding

24:25

things about them that

24:27

you never knew about. It seems like that's still

24:29

pretty profound and impacting and influencing

24:31

you. Yeah, absolutely. There's

24:35

an endless pool of music

24:37

to draw from and enjoy.

24:39

Going back to challenging yourself sonically,

24:42

that reiterates the point of why

24:44

you want to push yourself to continue doing something

24:46

different. All this stuff has been

24:48

done before to some degree, so you might as well sample

24:51

some other stuff, right? We weren't trying

24:53

to sound like any of those artists. We were or

24:56

maybe more so in the approach or

24:58

the ethos or the colorization

25:01

of the Sonics. Weren't shooting to sound

25:03

like anything. Just wanting to sound like

25:06

us and do something new. And

25:08

it was always weird though. Like you're like,

25:10

I'm always striving to not sound, not

25:12

do the same thing I've done before. And

25:15

if I, it's hard to sound fresh

25:17

because all of these things haven't done whether or not you

25:19

know it or not. Like I was listening for that Floyd

25:21

example. I know

25:23

Floyd loves psychedelic sounds

25:25

and a lot of tape delay and stuff. And, but

25:27

when I was listening to that, I was like hearing a lot more

25:29

like aggressive in like,

25:31

I remember making a reference

25:34

to like a Kurt Belude drum sound. I was like, these

25:36

drums sound like Kurt Belude would have done, which is like really

25:38

kind

25:38

of, he does metal music. And

25:40

I never thought Pink Floyd sounded like

25:42

that. And I always thought Kurt Belude's drum sound

25:45

was very original. And at that moment I was like, well,

25:47

I guess that drum sound had already been done. It was

25:49

just done in

25:51

a monitor and so I didn't realize that. So that's what happens

25:54

constantly. It's good and

25:56

it's bad. Sometimes you feel like you discover something new and

25:58

that's really exciting and then to you. find

26:00

out that someone else did, you know, like, damn, it's

26:02

actually not new. But you have to look past

26:04

that and just be like, it was new to me. I

26:06

didn't realize it. You know what I mean? I was

26:08

influenced by someone that probably realized that, but

26:11

I didn't, you know, I didn't draw the connection. Well,

26:13

I mean, speaking about like comparing yourself to classics,

26:15

like how do you think this album stacks up

26:18

against the previous three? I mean, what, what's

26:20

something about it that really excites you that

26:22

that's not on the other three albums? So

26:24

more patience involved. The

26:27

journey is a little more spread out

26:29

for the listener and us the player. The

26:32

patience is rewarding, you know? You

26:34

got some more loles, not

26:37

in quality, but in energy. And

26:40

that allows the ears to take a

26:42

break in your body to take a break

26:44

from pounding rock music. And

26:46

then when you get back to the boppers, it feels

26:49

that much better because you took

26:51

some time to get there. This

26:54

output is significantly, I

26:57

first of all, at least from my mind, look at it like it's a

26:59

significant increase in quality. And I still think the

27:01

other songs we've done are actually

27:04

really well done for what they were and I don't

27:06

find like,

27:07

I don't feel like I've seen a significant improvement

27:10

personally and what I've written or helped

27:12

contribute, right? It's just that these songs

27:14

are newer, you know, and this is what they sound like.

27:17

To me, if I look at this and I don't

27:19

see it as necessarily better than

27:21

the other album, because I can listen to other songs that I find really

27:24

dear, maybe I'm nostalgic about still. I

27:26

can imagine how I felt when I was writing those,

27:28

so I don't try to

27:30

see them as better or worse at all.

27:32

They're just new right now. The new is exciting.

27:35

The new is exciting for me. I

27:37

really enjoy novelty in general. There's

27:39

something about just

27:41

it hasn't existed before, so now it's new

27:43

to me. In five years, I

27:45

might look back and be like, maybe the Readyco

27:47

was our best record. I don't know, maybe for

27:49

right now, best one's the current one, but

27:52

who's to say, you know? Does that give

27:54

you kind of an excitement to go out and play them live

27:56

more so then? Oh, it's nothing better than

27:59

playing the room.

28:00

Yeah, for

28:02

sure. If you play it less, you want to learn what it

28:04

is like, how it feels, and show people

28:06

it, you know?

28:07

And see how people will react to it. Because

28:10

the other ones you've played enough, you know, like,

28:12

we know that this song usually gets people

28:14

excited and this one will be a lull. So we'll

28:17

use it in a spot that makes sense to relief,

28:20

add a real little relief in a set list, if you will,

28:22

you know, because that song works that

28:24

way live. It's new and we

28:26

don't know yet how everything's gonna work. We played two

28:29

shows the other two

28:30

Soul Dots shows and our Greg

28:33

release shows. And the first one, we

28:35

decided to switch the settlers up

28:37

because it felt like

28:39

it wasn't moving fast enough. But

28:41

then again, it was a Thursday night and it

28:43

was rainy. And it was like, you

28:46

know, a more subdued crowd. Maybe that had

28:48

something to do with it. Maybe it wasn't our songs. Maybe it was just

28:51

new songs, subdued crowd.

28:53

We don't know. So we have to play it like 10

28:55

times before we start getting an idea, like a little sample

28:57

size of like how these songs work, how they

29:00

when to play them. And that is part

29:02

of the fun part. It's like learning how people

29:04

are going to react to them live. So

29:06

I mean, in that small sample size, how

29:09

have crowds reacted to the new songs? Were they loving

29:11

them? Or are they still kind of figuring them out? How's

29:13

it going? Yeah, a little bit of both, I would say. Yeah.

29:16

I mean, it was a downtown show. I

29:18

mean, it felt great to play all of them. There

29:20

wasn't crickets.

29:22

No, there wasn't. We're

29:24

talking about our just personal threshold

29:28

from what we feel it's and doesn't.

29:30

Sure, yeah. Like being on a

29:32

show, I think like

29:34

we have a pretty supportive town city.

29:37

So it felt like everyone was having a great time both

29:40

those nights, although the first night was a little sleepier

29:42

as well. We also, you know, we

29:44

started releasing singles like six months ago. We

29:47

did a single every month and the

29:49

full record came out a

29:51

little over, or three weeks ago ish.

29:53

We wanted to make sure that people

29:55

had the songs in their head and in their bones before

29:58

they came out to see us live. you know, and we

30:01

hit the record comes out like a month before the big release

30:04

show. So it was important to us that everyone,

30:06

everyone had the songs before they came to solace,

30:08

you know, there

30:10

does feel like a more, uh, you

30:12

used the word melodramatic

30:15

before, I would not that, but there's

30:17

a theatrical essence to

30:19

like some of these new songs, like, because like the

30:21

opening song of the record has, it's

30:23

almost like

30:25

an over, it's not an overture in a sense, but

30:27

it is just just like a piece that just

30:29

pulls you in. It's like very cinematic sounding,

30:31

right?

30:32

You're starting a movie and you're watching the, or

30:34

you're watching a TV show that's got an

30:37

intro music thing before

30:39

the drama starts or the show starts.

30:42

And that's kind of like that song, Find Me.

30:44

And that adds like, it does add like a

30:46

little bit more of a drama to what it

30:48

feels like the live show. There's more of this

30:51

like storytelling that's happening. More

30:53

like we've arrived rather than here's the first song.

30:56

Yeah, yeah. here's this song, here's that song,

30:58

here's that song. Like a hip hop

31:00

show is just like, it's like 30

31:02

seconds of a song, another song happens. There's

31:04

never like a story being told. So we're not all

31:06

of them, but like a lot of 90s was done that

31:08

way. And that's how watching

31:11

some bands can play doesn't have this like,

31:14

I don't know, journey that they take you on, but this new album

31:16

has the ability to like string people

31:19

along and make songs feel like they're part of like

31:21

a full concept, even

31:24

though they are just individual songs. I

31:26

didn't bring it up since Shorten wasn't here to

31:29

speak to it, but since you brought it up, that

31:31

was something that I picked up on. It's a very

31:33

grand start to the album because it's

31:35

got the strings and it's the

31:38

big thing. Then he says, what's he said, I can

31:40

finally start breathing again or something like that. It

31:42

really sucks

31:44

you in right from the beginning

31:46

and it takes you on. There's definitely an arc

31:49

to the songs on the album. You

31:51

can feel like he's taking you on a story

31:53

even though there is no linear story

31:56

to it. I definitely feel that.

31:58

Has that been something

32:00

trying to work on incorporating into

32:02

the live set then? Yeah, it's different though.

32:04

Like we listen

32:05

to the journey on an album is different

32:07

than seeing it live. So we're definitely like, we're

32:09

not, we're

32:10

playing all the new songs, but not in the same

32:12

order because it's just a different energy life.

32:15

That one's nice to start out with though, because it does kind of

32:17

like, it's like a walkout. The intro sounds

32:20

like almost walkout music in itself. You know,

32:22

so it does work well nicely to like

32:24

walk ourselves out, if you will,

32:26

I think. Especially if you're in a bigger

32:28

venue,

32:29

You know, you have really nice lights and you can

32:31

create like an ambience.

32:33

That's the idea. I have not

32:36

had the opportunity to see you guys live

32:38

yet, but I do know you've had one of my

32:40

other favorites, Illiterate Light, opening

32:43

up for you guys lately. And I have been

32:45

able to see them. And the one time I saw them, they

32:47

were opening for another band and they completely wiped

32:49

the stage with them. It was just shameful

32:52

that they could even come out after them. I

32:54

mean, has that kind of been an approach that you guys

32:56

have always had as well? I

32:58

know you guys are headlining now, but is it just leave

33:01

it all out on the stage?

33:03

Go beyond putting on just a good show

33:06

of we want to make sure you forget the

33:08

openers and that standpoint. Yeah,

33:11

absolutely. Maybe not intentionally. We

33:13

just always try to go out there and just give it to them.

33:17

We've never really been in an opening band. We've

33:20

been

33:20

a band for a while and

33:22

always ended up just headlining our own shows or

33:24

doing co-headlines. and maybe

33:26

that says something about them. I'm not going

33:28

to say that when we support, we

33:30

wipe the stage for

33:33

other bands. That's not something I would ever say

33:36

or want to say. That'd be cool if we

33:38

heard that though. Yeah. Someone's like,

33:41

we never had you as an O-Grinner because you would have wiped the

33:43

stage. Having

33:45

those guys out is just incredible. They might

33:47

wipe the stage. They

33:50

might wipe my ass. Actually

33:54

there was a girl

33:55

that came up to me after the show, our hometown

33:57

show Friday, And she was like. Did

34:00

you guys play in the band? I was like, no, I didn't play. And she's

34:02

like, I heard that opener was way better than the. But

34:04

I remember that. Oh, wow.

34:06

OK. Yeah. Nice. Very

34:08

cool. So, yes, apparently they do.

34:10

So they do. They do do that. You seem like a cool person to

34:13

hang out with. I'm

34:15

worried about why I saw it. Well, I remember like

34:17

I've interviewed a literate light and the

34:19

way they framed it was not so much like we're just

34:21

trying to be better than the headliner. It's more so

34:24

we're trying to elevate their game. We're hoping that

34:26

by putting on a great show that

34:27

they're coming out and doing a better job because they

34:30

see what we're doing out there. Absolutely. They're

34:32

inspirational. It's been their homies now,

34:34

and I want them to go out there and fucking

34:37

kick ass. Their opening set gets me amped

34:39

every night. Yeah, it's way better to watch something that

34:42

you're like actually hyped on. Yeah, yeah, totally.

34:44

You're stoked on it. And you're stoked on those people

34:46

too. They're such good dudes and have

34:49

been working their asses off for years. So it's like cool

34:51

to share the stage with them and we're

34:53

gonna get to travel with them coming up too, which is awesome,

34:56

so. That's kind of where, you know, That's kind

34:58

of the scope of the conversation that

35:00

I was looking to have. So I mean, like, you got some

35:02

dates coming up. What's on the schedule

35:04

for this year for you guys? You got a lot of shows, more

35:07

albums in the studio. What you got? We

35:09

got a lot of shows. We got

35:11

a lot of shows. We

35:13

got a bunch of weekend shit, but in like two weeks

35:15

we're going out for a little

35:17

over three weeks, just to

35:19

Denver and back with the letter of light, Midwest

35:23

and some Southern stuff. And

35:25

then June and July are kind of like a

35:28

festival weekends and like

35:30

summer stuff. And some, we're

35:33

hitting some places we've never hit before, like

35:35

Toronto

35:36

and going to Canada and then

35:38

once August comes, we're going to go out for like two months

35:41

and do the whole country again. Well, that sounds, uh,

35:43

so do you love the tour life or is that just,

35:45

is this going to be hard? I mean, we love playing.

35:48

We

35:48

all have a good ass time together and it's

35:50

nothing better than playing music with friends. There's

35:53

no better way to end it than that statement right

35:55

there. I mean, that's perfect, right?

35:57

the reverend has dropped the mic. That's

36:00

great. Well guys, I appreciate your time today. Thanks for

36:02

chatting with me. Love the new album. I appreciate

36:04

you guys. Thank you for your time

36:10

Thanks for listening to another episode of yesterday's

36:12

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36:14

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36:17

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36:28

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36:46

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

36:48

are back on the road in 2023, and Set Listing Bruce

36:52

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36:54

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36:58

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37:00

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37:02

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37:04

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