Tyler Setera-EP9

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Hey everyone, welcome to the Sound of Podcast, spotlighting Maryland's original artists and musicians. I'm your host, Steven. On the show, we have Tyler Satara. Tyler is a self-confessed pop punk guy. We had a lot of fun talking about his influences and the importance of community on Sound of Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I'm immediately hijacking this. But people need to know what is your goddamn name? Is it Scott? Is it Steven? Is it Sounds of? What do we call you?

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Uh well, my real name is Steven. My middle name is Scott. Um, Scott of the Andes is my artist name. Um because my real name is not interesting enough to be an artist name. Uh and I was born in Chile, and so I adopted that. Um but then Scott is my middle name and makes sense for the combination of that. Yeah. Um, and also I've I've never said this out loud to anybody, but the definition of Scott is wanderer.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

So you have you have that. This will all be in the master class uh behind my paywall.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Everything's everything's behind the paywall. That's where that's where it all goes, baby. You guys want to listen to the uncut version of this podcast where Scott of the Andes shit talks behind the paywall.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Yeah, you gotta speaking of shit talking or just sensationalism, this will be funny just purely for the entertainment. Let's do some right now, before we get into it, let's do some uh things you could say that'll just be taken out of context for the sake of clicks.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Say whatever. If you don't like my music, you can suck a fart out of whale's blowhole. Oh my god. Can't believe he said that. What else? What is your take on stop signs go? Stop signs. I'd love to tell you how I feel about them, but honestly, I can't read.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Let's talk about books then. What's a book that uh everybody's sleeping on, even though you can't read that you think everybody You know what?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Underrated book. I don't think it's read enough the Bible. You know, it's not getting enough attention. There are free of them. They're free they're free ones in the hotel. I find them in the my hotels in the right next to the Mormon Bible.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

And there's definitely there's definitely digital versions, there's picture versions, there's comic versions. What else? Food.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Controversial, controversial food take. Oh, I love pineapple on pizza. Okay. And that's a that's I that's a hot take. Wow. That's a hot a lot of people don't like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

You heard it here first, guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I worked at a pizza place and people make disgusting pizzas. People put sardines on pizza, and that should be illegal, and it's a crime. I've never actually had sardines on pizza. You don't. It's it's mean to make employees do that.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Does Maryland do crab pizzas? Is that a thing? Okay. I haven't had that either.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Oh, crab crab everything.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Yeah. Crab everything.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah, you you put it that's a t shirt. You put it on you put it on your food, you put it on your crotch, crab everything. That's what Maryland does.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

We love it. Jousting crab sailboats. Joust on your sailboat eating crab. While playing lacrosse. How is how is that not a thing? Have they not done that yet where they put horses on the boats and then they joust?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I feel like they don't do well on boats.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Horses don't.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

They can't. They look so clumsy on land. That's true. It's just like I feel like they would just fall over on the boat. Yeah. I know they got here on boats, like, but Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Now that we've preambled and wasted just so much time and attention to be every other podcast. Um I want to talk about like uh so would was drums your first instrument?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Uh yeah. Well, no, saxophone, I guess, would technically be my first instrument. What happened to that? Um high school and girls and skateboarding. And honestly, I didn't like I don't like being. This is a far deeper issue that I probably w need to work more with my therapist on, but um, I don't like being taught this is a common thread we have on the show, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Is it really? That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Like, yeah, I don't like learning specifically with like instruments and music. I like to learn what I want to learn at my own pace. And I was in band for years and did saxophone, and grateful I did. I I it taught me how to read music, and that's awesome. Um, but uh I man, if I had to play like I don't know, like we weren't even doing like Flight of the Bumblebee or anything. It was just like, you know, boring stuff, band stuff. We're not playing, they weren't playing like uh modern music or whatever at that time. And uh by the time I got to like high school, I was kind of fading out. I was like, first it's so funny. I've told this story a couple of times. Uh I think I eventually told my parents it I think my mom got mad at me. Hi mom, I know you're listening. Um, I was first chair saxophone and you know, did all like the contests, and we went and traveled around and it was it was great, it was fine. Um, but there was a girl I liked who was like seventh chair saxophone, and in band you could have people challenge you, and then you would have to change seats. So I went to like a sax off, if you will. A sexy sax off. And so I went to the sixth chair and I was just like, hey, challenge me today. And they were like, What? And I was like, challenge me. And they're like, I'm not gonna win. And I was just like, you are gonna win, challenge me today, because I'm tired of being up here. Uh, and I just like blew the contests or whatever, you know, and so I could get down to the sixth chair and sit next to the girl I had a crush on. Nice, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

So where did drums come in with that? Like, at what point you're like, no more of the saxophone stuff. It's drum time.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Uh my dad's a drummer. Um, my mom's a guitar player. So we had a bit of a musical family. My brother plays guitar and like piano-ish, and my sister was in like choir, and now she's in a pop punk band and doing her own thing in Boston and plays guitar and ukulele. Like everybody plays multiple instruments. Um, I think the drums were just there. I don't particularly remember like why I did it one day. Um, but I did it in secret for like an entire summer. Whoa. I would How do you do that? They're so loud. Well, I would hide drums. I would practice in my room on pillows. I set up pillows to right. It's it's a good, it's a good exercise. And I would just put on headphones and I stole some of my dad's sticks, and I set up the pillows that were in the shape of his drum set, and I would just practice there. And then when they would go out for like date night or whatever, then I would sneak into the garage and play drums. And it's so funny because I remember they came home one time and I was just like playing drums, and they were like, What the hell? And I think my mom was trying to get like uh you know, she's like, Hey, like your dad can teach you, and uh, and I was like, Yeah, that's I'm good. And I was like, I I just already knew myself. I was just like, no, like if I get put into a class, like I'm gonna lose over. Yeah, I'm gonna lose interest or I'm gonna lose focus. I don't know. Like, I just want to play what I want to play. I don't want to practice paradidals. I want to play Blink 182.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

So is that is that what your first do you remember kind of the people that you were you were moving towards? So it was Travis Barker and and the punk stuff?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Uh 100%. It was Travis Barker and Um Dave Grohl were by far like the two first drummers that I found and was just like, oh my god, this is cool. Well, I actually Travis Barker was the drummer I got into, but I couldn't play his stuff yet. So I actually listened to more Dude Ranch Blink, which was a different drummer, because I couldn't know that play more of that stuff. Um and then I got good enough to play Travis's stuff, and I was just like, okay, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

It's so awesome when bands do it when when they have a drummer change up and it changes the dynamic. And I think so many bands are they're they're willing to do that. I mean, sometimes they already have like a the plethora of their catalog and they just want somebody to to play them as is, but when they start creating new music, it it can kind of completely change the sound, and that that makes a lot more sense to me with with Blink 182 and his style. I haven't heard the whole record of Dude Ranch. I know the hits, but I'll have to go listen and see if I can tell.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Dude Ranch is way closer to like you know, whatever. There's there's a a big ethos and thought processes on like what punk is. Um I don't want to get into it, but Dude Ranch is way more of the like what what you picture punk is, at least like musical instrument-wise, I think. And then this the next album is Enem of the State, which was a massive like pop, rock, punk album and a completely different style. And uh yeah, I I did I did like a I think I did like an eight-hour podcast on Plug 32. I could talk about it so much. It's not healthy.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

No, I mean, but if if it makes it that much of an impact, then I mean, yeah, it's and and I mean their their legacy is secured. They deserve all of the accolades that they have for what they did for um punk music for for pop punk. Uh I mean it's it's all in there, and and I remember growing up with that that stuff too. So you were in punk bands as well, or or did you do the the cover scene with your newfounder? Or when did you get comfortable with being like, I guess I'm gonna play with other people?

SPEAKER_00 10:05

So I I was in the greatest band that never was, The War of 1812, and it was just a band with uh me and my friends, and we played in the garage, and we would play Taking Back Sunday covers and we would play Weezer covers. I don't know if we ever really played much Blink because I don't think anybody else was as into Blink as I was, but we were all into Weezer, uh, so that was super easy. So everybody played that. I we never played a show, we never did anything, and then I never really got into a real band until I was much older. And then uh I moved into this party house that we call Jerrytown. What's up, Jerrytown? And a buddy of mine dragged me to an open mic at the old Bowie Town Grill because we I would play in the basement with people, but it again it still wasn't playing out. And he was just like, Will you come to this open mic with me? And I was like, sure. And it's great. The footage is still online. Like if you search my name, you will see the footage of me playing at this open mic, and it is A, the greatest thing you'll ever see, B, the worst thing you'll ever see. It is so bad. I you can like I didn't know how to play in public. I definitely did not know how to play in a small room. I punished the the I went in there and I was just like, these people are going to be punished for watching me, and I'm going to play as complicated and as loud and annoying as possible. Because I just didn't know. I I was just I'd never done that.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

And then talk about open mic, it was like in a bar setting, so there's TVs and people are talking and stuff like that. Well so did you get their attention?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Thankfully, upstairs was it was just open mic. Like so it was cool. It ended up turning into the greatest open mic I have ever been a part of. Um, it would get to the point where we had almost only bands, and it was just bands nonstop, and it'd be you know, 15 bands in one night, and everybody would come and we all got really good at sharing equipment and getting on stage and off stage, and it would be shoulder to shoulder packed, and it was a decent sized room. Um and I learned a lot about how to run sound, how to play to the room, how because I started doing guitar stuff too at the same time, and so I was in a band as a drummer and in a band as a guitar player singer. So I got to kind of do both roles. Um I hosted it for a little while, but it was it was awesome. It was amazing. So many bands came out of it and like the little music scene that I was in, and it was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Um what was that transition like from because that's I mean, we had that similar um kind of path of I started, you know, kind of dabbling with guitar while doing drums, but how did that carry over work? Was it it did you take to it real quick, or was it kind of you had to, you know, move your brain in a different way?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Um well in high school I took a guitar class, which ironically enough, even though I already knew at that point that like being taught instruments was like wasn't my thing, but all my friends took the class and I was like, Well, I'll just take it. So happy I did. I I actually it forced me to learn all the basic chords, and all you would do is just practice transitioning between chords. Um I just do that for at least there was a guaranteed hour a day where I was just going like C, G, D, F, A minor. And that, and again, it was kind of a refresher on like reading music. Not that I read music now, and honestly, if you put a piece of sheet music in front of me, like, could I do it? Sure, but I need a pencil and I need a while. Yeah. Although I'm writing face and every good boy does fine, and like and please keep everything in the lines. Oh man. Yeah. Uh never learned to read drums. Um that was just I just learned by ear.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

There there's plenty of literature, I think, within that now, but it is really funny of you. I'm in that sane vein of like having friends that they know the paradiddles and the the sheet part, and I remember being in chorus, and you know, we collectively are all supposed to clap the beats together, but you would just kind of lean on the people where it was their strength, kind of in the same way that maybe you you played an instrument when you were younger, but you didn't really play it. You're just mouthing along.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I got a hot question for you as a drummer and as a drummer who doesn't really read sheet music. The hit movie, Drumline, featuring Nick Hannon. A, did you see it?

SPEAKER_03 14:33

I didn't. No. Treat I need to.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Treat yourself. First off, it's just a it's a perfect piece, a time capsule of like the early 2000s. It's great. Uh but even beyond that, it's about a drummer who's really good who can't read for shit. Really? And he just memorizes everything. I remember watching it and being like, I fucking vibe, me and Nick Cannon. I get it. I I think I'm not sure. But I was just like, oh, like, I'm not, you know, I don't like tooting my own horn that much, but I'm like, I know I'm a good drummer, but I can't read for shit. And if I if I was up there, I'd be doing the same thing. I would just memorize. Yeah. But like the other guys who were just as skilled but can also read, I'd be like, oh yeah, no, I'm definitely at a disadvantage. Like I'm working twice as hard just to like, I gotta, I'm trying to listen and memorize and play everything.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

But yeah, I mean I I go off feeling so long. And and there's times where like I, you know, I will ask the person um in in the limited jamming I do as a drummer now, but like, what do you what do you want it to sound like? Or or a lot of the time I'm just listening to how they're they're strumming it and and I try to just add in what what I think is appropriate. And maybe sometimes they don't know either, but I think that's kind of the thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Do you ever just go like they're like, oh, I want it to be like relaxed and like this band and that band, you go like, dope, Metallica. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Well, when they say relaxed, then I just hit the ride with a little bit or the brushes come out. The brushes are the the little sticky. Dal rod sticks. Is that what those are called?

SPEAKER_00 16:06

The uh the wooden ones? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

I didn't know that. I'm a learning rod.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah, yeah, dial rods.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

Okay, yeah. Um didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Pretty see now I'm gonna like second guess myself, but I'm pretty sure that's what they're called.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Somebody in the comments, let us know what those things are called.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Oh, wait, hit us in the comment section.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

They're the regular sticks, but they got little, they're like sticks, but they have more sticks in them.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

I don't know how to read, but read the comments.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

The main going back to drumline here, um, this episode is sponsored by Drumline, uh, the release of Check It Out. Uh I I was I didn't want to watch it at the time because it was marching band. I was like, I can't relate to that. I played kit. So I was being semi-elitist. I remember when Whiplash came out. Did you see Whiplash?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

I did see Whiplash.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Does that is that accurate? Was that what jazz drummings like?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Yeah, I think you know, I I never I made it to Jazz Band one for one session, and it wasn't like that for me, but it was also high school and not like an elite college.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Um but you know, I think man, I silenced my phone. It just dinged. Here we're gonna we're gonna silence.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Is that JK Simmons from Whiplash telling you to practice drums?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Silence your goddamn phone.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Or he's telling you you should be practicing that now and on a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

He's telling you you should eat this is the sexiest fruit, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

The banana there's a banana visually here for us.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Maybe we'll I stopped because I realized I had two cups of coffee and I didn't eat anything. And I stopped and got the two sexiest foods you can possibly eat at 7-Eleven real quick. Yeah. One was a banana, the other one? What do you think it was?

SPEAKER_03 17:40

A peach.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

It was a hot dog. A hot dog.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Wow. So a banana and a hot dog for you.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

You may not know this, but I'm this is what an elite athlete looks like. Uh-huh. I'm peak physical condition. Yeah. If you want to have a bad back, some carpal tunnel, and a couple holes in your brain, this this is what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Wait, you have holes in your brain?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah. Uh we we could do like 45 minutes on all the seizures I had. Uh I there and I mentioned that the party house I lived in, Jerrytown. I was like, well, I partied hard for a couple years, and I paid I paid a toll on just like excessive excess everything. Because I was like pretty sober for most of my life, leading up to like 20 or 21, right around there. And then I just slam packed what everybody did like in high school and kept doing. I moved into a house and was like, what if I did this like 10 years of what you guys have done into like a year? And uh and I took my body took a toll, and it was I have like high blood pressure from my family just like genetics, and my body did not react well to just binging everything under the sun. And uh yeah, I had a bunch of seizures.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Did that sideline you from music, or you were still doing that?

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Or uh I was still I was still in music.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Um does it affect it in that way now?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

It affected my my memory was was screwed up for for a while. Like it was it was it it took me a longer amount of time to like just get to where I wanted in like thoughts and sentences and drums were actually still fairly easy.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Um did you worry that that was that because of the stuff going on that that was going to affect it in that way?

SPEAKER_00 19:36

I wasn't even thinking about it. I had so much, so many other things going on. It was just like I don't know. I I don't know if it like just affected like a different part of the brain or what. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

But uh I I know there's a science behind that though, of probably the repetition of music and then the presence that you need to do that type of stuff. And it's well, I mean, it the non-scientifically that's the the word that they use is flow.

unknown 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

And there's always something to be said for that. Like I was just talking with with Will on the Zoom about you know, when she plays music, the anxiety kind of goes away. I mean, it it can work both ways of music performing live can be anxiety inducing, but then also you're using a different part of your brain that's not focused in on the uh you know, the the present, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Isn't that fascinating? The I feel like every musician I ever talk to or hear from, it's like everybody's having like a panic attack leading up. But then you get on stage and at least for the most part, it everybody seems to kind of have the same. They're just like, oh once I'm on stage, it's a different mindset or different mind, like that almost the anxiety just like melts away and it's just gone. You're just like in a zone. It's just like it's almost like the lead up is far more anxiety inducing and pressure, and like I man, I do laps before shows. Um especially when I was drumming, I would do it even more, but like uh I just played like my first solo show or whatever at Cult Classic a couple weeks ago. And I d I found myself doing the same thing I did for drumming. And I was just like, oh, that's funny. I'm literally doing almost like the same warm-ups and doing the same laps. And even though it's like I'm playing a completely different instrument, but it was just like I I know that this calms me down. If thankfully there was like a big green room and enough room in this back where I'm just literally like walking around the couches and doing like high knees and drumming on my legs and practicing the songs and just like a complete overload of like excitement and anxiety, and just like I just need to get on and I'm listening to like three people go before me and I'm just like, Oh, I want to listen to you guys and enjoy you and be able to focus. It's like but I can't because all All I want to do is just get on stage and get away, get out of this mind frame so that I can just be in be in my happy place, be in the good place. And it's like, oh, this on stage is I love it so much. It's so fun. And just I don't know. Like I'm I know I'm going to enjoy being up front more. Being being back on the drums was it was a different kind of well, you know what they say about drummers, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:29

They all drumming from. Uh drummers are just frustrated lead singers.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Oh god, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

And history's full of those. Some people stay behind the drums, but they still do the lead singer thing. And hats off to those people.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Uh what the hell does it um I would say Paul Simon? It's not Paul Simon. Um Phil Collins. Phil Collins, thank you. Almost like Paul Simon. Um but yeah, like I years ago I was in another band and I got to play guitar and sing. And actually, I was like last to join the band. I think it was just meant to play rhythm, really just helped fill it in. And I wasn't gonna sing at all. But I started writing, which I hadn't really done. And the songs I wrote, I was just like, oh, like people liked them, so we started playing them more. And then I got to like, oh, I get to kind of be play front man a little bit, like on songs that I'm singing, I get to run around. And I remember I used to I this guitar I have, it's um I think there's photos of it on my Instagram. It's an old, like one of the original like Tom DeLong uh sea foam green uh strats. And I bought it at Atomic for like a hundred dollars back in the day. I think they sell for like a thousand now. Wow. Um I immediately I was just like, oh, this guitar is awesome and I love Blink 182. Now I get to be like him. Day two, I gutted it, sanded it, stripped it, and painted it with like acrylic paints and made it into like a black and white checkered ska guitar. And and I like routed out for like another, I like completely changed it. Uh which I look back now, I'm like, uh, the guitar is actually worth money. Not anymore. Um because I did all that, I wasn't afraid to like be rough with it. Uh so I used to just run up on our drummer and just smash his symbols with my head stuck. There's chips and stuff missing out of it. And he'd be like, God, stop hitting my symbols. Like, this is pop rock.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Now, is this gonna be like a real bass question, as many of my questions are on here. But did the drumming inform how you wrote songs? Like on 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Because I'm writing it all at the same time. Um, like I'm I'm think when I'm writing guitar stuff, I am thinking about how the drums sound and how they're written. And like I'm really bad about showing. I was trying to film myself and show my process a little more, but honestly, I'm ah man, content creating. It's it's just a whole other career. And like who cares?

SPEAKER_03 24:57

You just you just vomit up whatever. That's what I'm even.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Yeah, I know. It's just like you know, it's it's so funny. It's like sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. So like sometimes I'll just set up a camber and film. I love what you do. Like, I'll watch your videos, I'm like, perfect. It's like that because like that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

Well, there's a lot of editing that goes in it many times. Like it's take 30, whatever that I decided to film.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Oh god, I'm so I've done the editing thing, and it's like, can I do it short? Do I want to do it? No. Just need to find myself like a high school kid who's sure, you know, you don't have to pay. Nope. Exploit the shit out of it. Yeah, that's it's look, I this is this is capitalism. Um, but yeah, uh guitar informed by drums, 100%. I write it at the same time. I'm writing all the parts, and I'm thinking, I was like, oh, how does this look on stage? How does it sound on stage? What type of venue do I think this song belongs in? Especially when drums. Um, the last I was in a band called Wise Eyes for many years or two years. Um and I would the the it was really funny because me and uh the bass player that I was in at that time, he we were in that band uh before, and then we both moved on to this band because the rhythm section had moved on AA or got kicked out and uh we we definitely changed we the whole band, the music, everything changed up. The album, if you listen to they had like three albums, and if you listen to all three, you're like, oh, you can tell when something changed because the music got so much bigger in the last album we did. And that's how I was like, I was like, oh, I was meant to be an arena rock drummer and die at 25. That was all I was all I wanted to do. I was like, I loved I loved Travis, I love Foo Fires, I well, Dave Grohl. I loved all these drummers, but I loved 80s hair metal glam rock bands. I thought it was just I don't, it was so entertaining. And just big stage presence and fireworks and the drummer playing a 30-piece drum set, he probably never touches any drums. Oh, yeah, the giant uh gong behind you. You're up.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

He's gonna play it for one song. Or not play it, he's gonna hit it.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

The intro to the whole set. Yeah, you're up on a 50-foot rise. It's like so. I was writing a lot of drums and songs for that. So when I'm writing songs, I'm thinking about that. I was like, oh, what venue do I think this should be played in? And how big do I want everything to be? Typically, I want everything to be bigger. I want every song to have like a full orchestra and a choir.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

And just like so in my head, you got the biggest of the big, but then you gotta downsize it to well, that leads into what I want to talk because when I first saw you, um, you had the what's it called? It's like the harmonizer. The harmonizer pedal. What what brought the harmonizer pedal at this point? It's amazing. No, because when I first saw you, I was like, this is cool. I've I mean, I think I'd seen people do it before, but um it's uh it's it's unique to that. So what what brought that in?

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Uh I think because I want everything to be so much bigger, and I was just like, I'm by myself, how do I get things to be bigger? I was like, I have the loop station, but honestly, I don't know. I like I don't love like the loop station stuff.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Or maybe I maybe I just think it's a slippery slope.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Yeah, and like and I've seen so many other people do it and do it very well, and I'm just like uh that's not what I want. Because my also my goal is actual full band. I love playing in a full band. I just have to uh get to that point because I know that I'm going to be in charge, and I've never really been in charge of a band, and that seems daunting. I've just like I was like, oh, I'm gonna have to like get people together and do the or I was always I was always like maybe like number two in a band. I never had to be actually in charge of anything. It was great, it's a great position.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

You're like, sure, yeah, I'll show up.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Okay, sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

You got it, boss. I didn't have to book, but now that's you. You're the boss. Yeah, you will be the boss. And so it always requires a certain amount of grace, I think. I mean, when when I had people, we were Scott of the Andes and the Nomads, and I was incredibly blessed with the players that I got because they were wholly unique. Um, we had a a keys player, Shayna, and a lead guitar player, Ari, and uh Chris the the bass player, and they added so much to it in that way, and I didn't feel you know a an authority that I was an authority figure on how how I wanted them to play it or sound. But I kind of came in that and and that's probably different for you and what you want the sound to be like. But for me, it was kind of the presence of kind of the way that Dylan does it of if the song sounds different than recording, whatever. I'm asking them, the players, to bring what they're gonna bring, and as long as we're in the same fucking key, um, then then that's what matters. But if it's a little bit slower, it's a little bit faster, like whatever. Um But I mean, those these are you know, that's different in terms of like that uh since I was the the only songwriter in that regard that that it was understood that they were my songs, and and I don't like saying that either. Like I'm very hesitant and I mean I didn't I never liked using the the phrase uh my band. It's not my band. These are three other individuals that are bringing something to the table of songs that I happen to write, but I d I I don't own them, they're not my property. Um that's that's where there's a you know, it's it's a collaborative in in that way.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah. And I think it also kind of depends on what the band dynamic is of like who is writing. I I mean I've been in a couple different bands, two of them really only one person wrote, and then in one band, all there was all the three people wrote. And so it was all it was very different vibes as to like how we wrote stuff or and how stuff got brought to the table. And I was in like Irish rock band and there were six of us in the band, so you know the the guy writing the stuff, he was very uh very good at like I all all of you know your instruments. I don't know your instruments. Here's what I'm going to bring. What what can you bring? And he he's very good at organizing songs too. Once he like he has a sound in his head. Um and so it's very good. He uh he actually wants to uh play bass with me, which is nice because Did he ask or did you ask?

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Well, he just started coming to every open mic. Um uh is hi John. Uh don't amazing, and I was in band with him for so many years. Uh, but it's funny because he's not a bass player, and my bass player friend, who I've been in multiple bands with, he was just like, he was like, wait, who's playing bass here? And I was like, Okay, so hear me out. Yeah, it's like John really, really wants to do it, and he went quiet for a minute. He's like, Okay, John is the only one I will allow to be this position. He's like, but that's it. If it's not John, then it's me. And I was just like, okay. I was like, he's just been he's been at every single one, man. He he's he's really into this. I was like, and I was like, I haven't seen you in a little while.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

You got the blessing, though. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

It was nice.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

Yeah, when you were um Do you remember? I asked Willow the same question, um, but do you remember the first song that you wrote that you deemed worthy of because I know for so much of us it's like the first song you write, this is embarrassing, and I never want to share this with anybody. Do you remember the first song that you wrote where you were like, I like this, and I think that I think that I want to play it in front of other people?

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Or yeah, yeah. Um it was um it's called a song called Safety Net. It's actually it it's online on Spotify. The the band called Nine Finger Discount. Um I think you have to like actually spell out nine. Nine. Um and it's it's called Safety Net. And that was the first one. That this is the band that I got came in as like a backup guitar player or whatever, just rhythm. And I brought this song, and it was about me and the other guitar players, like our best friend had committed suicide. And I wrote a song about it just on a whim, kind of a thing. And I I hadn't really written anything. Yeah, I've I wrote stuff like in high school, t terrible, tons of terrible stuff. And and I like stuff I recorded on like Garage Band, and like I made a mixtape for Christmas one time and gave it, gifted it to my family. Oh do you know how that is? And they loved it, right? I've never heard a peep about it since. I'm assuming they all got thrown out as they should. Um, but yeah, it was a song, and it was from the it's funny because like I've gone back and dabbled or you know, back and forth, like, do I want to play these? I had three songs in that band. I was like, do I want to play them now? Because I very much think those like, well, they were my songs. Like I wrote them with I wrote them by myself, but the band brought a lot, but like, whatever, I'll I have no problem like taking them with me. I took one with me um to this new venture that I've kind of played at Open Mics. But that one I kind of left there because it was interesting. It was a song about suicide, but f really from my perspective, and I was mad. And it was I was not empathetic towards it. I was not uh understanding of it. It was it was I wrote it when I was just like, I'm pissed at him. I didn't understand suicide. I you know, it was like I that had never crossed my mind, so I didn't have like a grasp on it. I'm just like, what? Why would you do that? And so I wrote a song from that perspective because I was like, well, this is how I feel, and there we go. And so I've uh many, many years have passed. I now have a vastly different understanding and opinion on suicide, and even just like whether you do it or not, even just getting to that point. And so I went to go like play it, and I was like, maybe I'll play this open right. And I was like, I don't necessarily agree with my own song that I wrote with anymore, but I I still thought it was a valuable position of a song because I'm just like okay, I don't necessarily agree with it now, but I'm not gonna like shame it because people feel this way. I know people feel that way because I felt that way. I was like, suicide it affects so many people all at once. And I was just like, okay, I was like, no, I was I was legit like mad at him for a long time for that. And then, you know, many years of therapy and just living life, and I've come to a much uh different place on it. But that was like the first song, which was like a kind of a fucking heavy hitter of a topic for me to like be like, all right guys, like I wrote a song I'd like to share with everybody, and but it's very poppy and like like singing it with a smile kind of stuff, which is most of the stuff I write. Um it's typically all most of the songs I'd rather just relationships stuff. Um I'll occasionally delve out. I think at that open mic at 49 West East time, I think I played like a a sl it wasn't political, but it was kind of political. But it was about my journey with politics, not about politics in itself, really.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

That was an interesting song I remember because you don't you don't explicitly talk about this side or that side. I I forget the the lyrics that you use, but part of me as a listener, I was like, Yeah, but which one's he talking about? Yeah, which one like I mean if anybody knows me or like it's like no, but I mean I I mean I don't I don't know, man, because like these days you hear plenty about like people get offended when they realize that rage against the machine is political and Bruce Springsteen's it's like I don't I don't know what to tell you, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

How do you how did you miss that? Especially Rage Against the Machine.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

Yeah, um, but there there's also something to be said for like the ambiguity of that of whoever and whatever you're supporting. And I mean, that's really the power of music in that way, and you can see why one side might use somebody's certain song, and then you find out later, they're like, yo, don't use my song. Um, because they're coming at it from a political spectrum that does not align with their values. And we see more of this now. Um, where was I?

SPEAKER_00 38:25

I was somewhere recently where it was Rage and it was uh some of those that were uh some of those workforces are the same as the burn crosses. I can't remember where I was, but there was a lot of like cops and military, and they were oh, everybody was screaming this song, and I'm just sitting there like, this is amazing to me.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

That's so funny to me. I can't remember where I was, but it was it was great. Uh just like I just sat back and just like I was like, I don't know if rage is like I was gonna say, like rolling around the grave. They're not dead, but um just like it's like do they find this funny or sad?

SPEAKER_03 39:06

I can't probably angry, but I mean for them at that level, it's like, hey, as as long as we're getting the royalties and the checks are coming and it's uh I mean who is it, Michael Jordan? Michael Jordan as the or as as they quote Wood, he was when he had the deal with Nike and they were saying, Well, why aren't you, you know, serving this more community or this this demographic? And he was like, Well, this side biased choose to. And, you know, that gets a little dodgy for me. I mean, and I'm in no position to, I think, uh pander in that way to both sides of the aisle and ideologies in that way. Um it's I mean, it I think it's more relevant now, though, in that way, but you know, in a larger way of the the the sheet's been pulled off in terms of the accessibility and who gives to what cause is uh is more apparent and out in the open now, and it's up to people to make their own informed decisions about where that aligns with their goals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Um yeah, and like I think like with like kind of like the political song I wrote of just like because it was kind of not about any certain side, more just about me. I I tried. I well, I have, and like I've tried writing like stuff that was more just like to one yeah, one cyber radio. And like honestly, like it felt for me, it felt um I don't know, not maybe not pandering, preachy preachy, or and I was just like, and even just like how like the lyrics are coming out, and I'm just like, uh, I'm just like it's it's funny because like I believe in this stuff, but even like even just like singing about it, writing a song about it, I'm like, uh I don't know. Like I I don't know if like my heart wasn't in it. So I was like, okay, let me pivot the song and like how do I make it just how do I make it about me? Um and that's what I was like, okay, well maybe maybe it's just my journey to you know with politics. Uh like the end gets a little more preachy even, but uh yeah, just like I don't know. It's I think I have found I used I've written a ton of songs. I've written a ton of bad, bad stuff that will never see the light a day.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

I've got a whole why do you demon as bad? Oh, it's it's like is that from your thing, or you've you've demoed it, previewed it for people, and they're like, does it both, both stuff?

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Uh man, the open mic, so I go to firm open mic, and every month for the last um well now a little over a year, I gave myself a writing prompt, and it was write one song a month and go and perform it, no matter what. And it's been that's been great. I've loved it. And it's been really funny to see like, oh, what songs actually stuck, which ones were wild. I played an eight-minute adventure of a song. I was so I remember show I showed it to my buddies like, dude, this song is like oh, it's journey, it's so good, it's so great. It's got all these cool parts and all this thing, it'll be so good. Big I played it live and midway through playing it, I'm just like, I hate this. Why did I think this was good? Like, I'm bored listening to it. Why did I think an eight-minute punishing song was gonna sound good? And I was just like, this was done. I've never played it again. I actually already bastardized it and I just took my favorite parts out of it. And I'm just like, okay, let's take this. This was actually good, and it's just sidelined right now, and I just have it like sitting in a in a Google Drive, just like this will be something one day. I have I have a Google Drive where I just have all these ideas where I just like on my notes on my phone, uh just like as I'm I do a lot of driving. I do construction, uh so terror electrical contractors for all your electrical needs. Uh I am licensed and insured. Please give a call. 240 720 7000. Uh so I do a lot of driving. And so there's a lot of notes. You can hear like the traffic going by. We're just like, okay, I think it would go something like this. And then like maybe the bass boom, boom. It's scattered brain hysterical notes. But whenever a new month came and I had to like write a new song, I was like, well, I don't have anything. Sometimes I did. Something's like was going on in my life, and I would write a song like immediately, but a couple months where I just didn't.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

So that is your your process that I was gonna ask about is it'll come to you out of nowhere, and then you you have to sing under you have to, you know, you you gotta have that recording device there because you never know when something's gonna hit.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

I I was in the shower yesterday and something came to me and I grabbed my phone. I'm like in the shower, like recording. And my phone's getting soaked. But I'm just like, no, no, no, better.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

You gotta get a bag for that, dude. They got the water bags. I know.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Well, I didn't think I'd be I didn't think I needed it, but I knew if I waited, I would I would forget it. And uh so yeah, I have to have that constant like device on me to just record. And but honestly, I mean I tried to write during COVID, could not write. I tried all sorts of different methods. I was like forcing myself to write and try to play and write guitar. Man, I wrote like two kind of guitar parts and couldn't do anything. And I was trying to find songs to write about and topics, and I couldn't do fuck all. And then uh and then I got into therapy and I had to start working on stuff and working on myself and working on my relationships, and uh they wanted me to journal. And so I was I was doing journaling, but I didn't love it. Honestly, like I didn't love it just from a standpoint of like it actually physically like hurts my hand. Just from like I'm just like, oh, this actually just like hurts, and I just don't write much. Um so I was just like, well, okay, maybe I can take my journal entries and let me just try to put it to a song. And then I took an old song I wrote in high school. Um, and I just like I was it was finished. I had all the lyrics and I had all the stuff, and it was a song that was me blaming uh like an ex that I had. It was a very outward song, and I'm like, it was all like nothing's my fault. It's all why did you do this to me? Why did this do that to me? Blah blah blah. And I was like, okay, writing exercise, let me bring it inwards. Let me just literally reverse it and uh go back over the lyrics and be like, okay, what if let's pose the question that maybe I was part of the problem and I ended up writing uh a whole song about it and I finished it in really quick and I was like, oh shit. Huh. It's like I was honest with myself and I it unlocked this like floodgate in my brain. And I've been able to now do that every month for like the last year and a half of just like whatever's going on in my life, good, bad, horrific. I just like nope, just journal entry in a song. Stick around on guitar, whatever you have riffs or whatever, you know, you'll find the riff. And so I just kind of started doing that, and that's been my process. So most of my songs ended up turning about like just different relationships I have. And because I was just anytime I could try to write stuff about anything else, I was like, oh, I'm not in this, or it felt preachy, or it felt it's like, oh, it's not necessarily like about me. I don't know. I struggled to write. I was like, no, I think I just have to write about myself and just say the things out loud and say the shit that I talk about in therapy. And that has again opened up the floodgates. It has been so much I've never written this many songs in my life. Uh since high school. Like I tried. And I I like tried. And now I'm just like, oh shit. I don't know what happened. Something clicked. And it's been it's been very nice.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Well, I think with high school, it's something that you're tapping in on here. Is in high school, I think we've we're unfettered in that you we are these walking emotions, and it's everything is super raw and can be volatile in that way. And I mean, that's why you hopefully have these outlets of like sports and uh you know theater, whatever you have to kind of um uh have an outlet uh to to express some of these things that are happening. And as we get older, I think that kind of can shrink in its way. And and whether you would identify as a creative person or not, we as human beings need to have an understanding and a form of expression to understand what is going on in our lives and to process it. And unfortunately, in this super fast highway speed train world that we live in, I feel like these those margins have gotten smaller and smaller. And I think what you were speaking on too of taking the song and kind of inversing it is is like an accountability on your behalf, which is um which is important because I think about that with songwriting stuff in terms of sure this this happened to me in that way, but also what does that look like from the other side? And you know, there's there's plenty of songs out there, and plenty of great, great songs out there where it is framed as this is your fault and this is your, you know, which was in that reasoning.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

I love pop punk emo music from the early 2000s. That's that was I was when I was high school. That's my bread and butter. Not one of those bands went to therapy or had any accountability when they were writing those albums. They were all so that's how I wrote. Like when I go back and look at like the stuff I wrote, it was all outward, just no accountability, all outward. And so I think it was funny when I go back and like read that stuff, I'm just like, holy hell. I was like, that's not that's not me. That's that's not like this isn't a good person who wrote this, and like, but it's so I love that stuff. I love Taking Back Sunday and brand new. Oh, it is the top most toxic fucking music. And I love it. I love every every second of it. It's it's so good.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

Just in terms of the toxic music, what what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Uh just um very the the the well, it's their side, yeah. It's all their side. It was always the girls' problem. Okay, uh, and they're just so so dramatic. Um, what's the goddamn the most emo line ever written? Uh take it back Sunday. Um oh god, it didn't if you should slit my throat and with my one last gasping breath, I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt. It's the most emo line, and it's so that that's what I mean just by it's so it's so whiny and so funny, and just all that stuff, and like pop punk, emo scene was notoriously horrific to women. Uh so you know it's to love all that stuff, there comes some baggage with it.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

It's it's complex and and there's always I think a lot to unpack, and that's that's a that's a decades thing too. That's uh I mean in in the music. I mean also of like the 60s and 70s. Like my dad always talks about this of he um you know the differentiation uh way back when of but the Beatles had the song I want to have uh the Beatles had I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and the Rolling Stones had Let's Spend the Night Together. Which, you know, back then, like, whoa.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Beatles also have uh what's it uh god why don't we do it in the road?

SPEAKER_03 51:30

They have that one too. I mean, that was when they were they were smoking the hippie lettuce a bit more.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

I forget the line uh if you know you know what I mean. Like it was like an underage girl line. It was a weird line.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

I remember hearing 17.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

If you know, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

There's an SNL skit about that with Will Farrell. Is there like this guy? I think his name is like Bobby Bird or something like that, and the joke in being is that he keeps changing the age to the song to be younger and younger, and it's it's funny, but it's also like Jesus Christ. Um has it been interesting of that you've uh you've done the drumming thing, you've been in these pop punk things, and um how how does that feel in coming from that background and then you're doing the acoustic stuff with with the harmonizer and and everything like that? I mean, I know that you um you you want to have the the full band experience and everything, but it has has it been interesting of like you're in your brain thinking, like, man, I was bashing the drums away and like we were in this yeah, it does it feel familiar, you feel at home doing it.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

Yeah. And but even then, like it's it even just as a whole, just like what I'm writing, uh coming from just like oh I I always wrote in very poppy and specifically pop punk kind of stuff, and even just how I'm writing now, I'm just like, oh, that's funny. Just like you know, you you watch bands and you watch musicians you've loved for forever, and you watch them and like grow and like their music they get old. Yeah, they get old, and I'm just like I was I thought for sure that when I put a band together, I would get off the acoustic and would go play just my electric. And I had one band practice, um, sans drummer, uh, but with my brother and on guitar and my buddy John on bass, and we did we practiced a little bit, and I played on my electric. And when I was done, I was like, I don't know if I want to play this, maybe on a song or two. I was like, I think I actually want to stay on acoustic, which was interesting. I never thought I would want to do that. I was just like, oh, am I getting older? I was like, oh shit, like, okay, interesting. That it was, it was a I don't it was an interesting feeling. I didn't think I would do that. I thought I would go back to like, no, crank the electric, crank the distortion, let's fucking kill this. And I'm like, I played it that way, and I'm like, oh, I didn't like how that sounded. It was like, I kind of lost a little bit of I think be just starting out writing acoustic and performing at acoustic has kind of changed my perception on what I thought I was and maybe how I want to go moving forward and just getting older. Um but yeah, it's been it's it's been interesting. It's been I I've never played this much acoustic or like thought about how my stuff would sound on acoustic. I'm I've a basically abandoned power chords. That's not what I do. I'm a power chord guitar player. I I say it all the time. I'm not a guitar player, constantly. I said it uh the other day at an open mic to somebody and they're like, oh, like you're so good at guitar. I was like, I'm not, I'm a drummer. I was like, I'm not a guitar player. And they're like, um, you just played most of your set using like jazz chords, and uh and I was just like, I was like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't I think because of my brother, um, my brother is a very, very, very talented guitar player. So when I look at him, I'm like, no, he's a guitar player. I'm uh uh faking it to to get the songs that I want to hear up on stage. I don't know. It's like I have to practice so much. I felt bad. There was um uh a guy who asked to jam on stage at like one of the open mics, and he's like, Oh, he's a bass player. And he's like, meaning I got the drummer, and hey, you want to go up and like jam with us? And I was like, you know, I was like, jam on what? He's like, I was like on guitar. No, just jam. He was like, Yeah, yeah. And I was like, oh no. And I thought about it and I was like, I bet I came off like a dick. But it was just because I'm like, oh, I'm not like a guitar guitar player. Like, if you want to go up there, like I'm not gonna jam. I have nothing to jam on other than what I have specifically written and have spent months memorizing, like even lyrics. I'm so bad with lyrics. I have to practice all day and night. Uh so those recordings I make, I just drive around three hours a day and I would just sing the song, sing the song, learn my lyrics. I mentioned earlier Blink 22 is my favorite band. I barely know their lyrics, and I've listened to them extensively.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

And I'm the same way with certain bands.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

I will still make up songs, and then I like actually look at their lyrics and like, oh, this song's about something completely different. It's like that's wild. So it takes me a lot of many hours to get up on stage and like and practice just what I say in between songs. It's like, oh, what do I want to say? How do I want to say it? How do I want to intro this song? Like, I'm thinking about the whole, I'm not thinking about just the song, the whole stage presence. How do I stand? How do I where do I hold my guitar? Just like all and I'm sure like everybody kind of does this, but I think because of my love of big stage shows and uh I don't know, probably like musicals too, and all those 80s hair metal band. I'm like, I'm thinking about what the big picture could look like. Whether I can accomplish that or not at all times. It's just like I want the big show. It's a show, it's a live performance. It's like the music is a part of it, but in my head it's only that's 50%. The other half is like people got their ears, but they got their eyeballs. So it's like when people aren't putting as much into what they look like on stage as well. Not that I'm like an expert at it by any means, or just as entertaining as I could possibly be, but I was just like, oh, you're like you're forgetting about the other half of our senses that people are using. It's just like, yeah. I want like fog and uh fireworks and just run around and uh Yeah, I I appreciate that you you are looking at it from the big picture.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

So wrapping up, I want to um I want to kind of speak on that as well of uh just asking you the question what what is the importance of of a a a music community from a a scene community?

SPEAKER_01 58:21

Importance?

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Uh not a not a large, I mean you know, just a small question.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

Yeah, it's fine. No, no stakes. I so as somebody who has had a very music community that was very important to me and lost it. Um I I think it it it's tough. It's a so much it's friendships, it's it shouldn't be, but it's there's self-esteem built into it of people just supporting each other. Like especially musicians, man, we're all broken little souls, just like self-deprecating in our heads. So I feel like we're better at giving other people compliments than we are at giving ourselves compliments. So I think having a music scene helps that with uh just with our like mental frame of it becomes like a you know, whatever a safe space uh to express yourself and like uh you know, especially most people are playing pretty personal songs. And bringing that out into the world is tough. And especially when you play like bars and stuff like that, most people aren't even always listening too hard. So when you find I found that people other musicians are tend to be the ones who listen the hardest, and they're the ones that come up and kind of be like, hey, like I I saw you, I heard that. Like I want you to know that I saw that and I heard that. It's like I'm really I'm bad at communication. We were talking earlier. It's just like I'm by no means the mark of perfection with communication. Um, but I've been trying to make it a point because I realize for me, I think in the small music stand of people being noticed. Be everybody wants to be important, just in some way, be noticed, be of value, be of value is a in whatever sense you know that is to people. It's I don't know. So I've been trying to when I go to open mics, like when somebody comes off stage, it's just to say one thing. Be like, hey, I there's a guy at Crooked Crab. I've seen I've seen him play twice now, and he came off stage. Or when he went on stage, he gave this a ton of like um stories and bravado, and and he's he's an older gentleman, and he was so energetic that captivated me. And he came off stage and I was like, hey man, I loved what you just did up there. And I was like, the songs are great. It was like, but I'm not even talking about that. It was the in-between stuff. And we talked for a minute, and he was like, Yeah, man, like that, I think that's important. Skip ahead to the next open mic I went to. He's up on stage and I'm talking with somebody else. And she's and then she was just like, Oh my god, uh, this guy, like he's so good with like this stories and stuff. And I was like, Yeah, like I told him that last week, and she was like, Yeah. He's actually been working really hard on it. Um, he's been working at home and like training, and like he she she had the other half of the story that I, you know, that I I just saw him go up and I was like, Oh, this dude's charismatic. And she came up and was just like, No, he's been working really hard on this, and like this is it was very important to him. And so I was just like, Oh, I'm so I'm so happy I said something to him now to let him know that like your hard work did not go unnoticed. And I I don't know if you know, outside a music scene, if people are always gonna notice that or say that. And so I think having like a nice community of fellow musicians that support each other is important because we're all little neurotic messes. And I don't know, I rambled a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

Uh well, but it's the connectivity that you're talking about there.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Connectivity, purpose, friendship, safe space to share.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:41

These are human things.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:42

Yeah. I had it. And it was it was great, and then the scene absolutely imploded in on itself for so many reasons. And then COVID happened, and then I really didn't it was just that it's just gone. And like that it it was already getting destroyed anyways, but yeah, I think like COVID played a major role in everybody's ability to connect with other humans. And we will find out what exactly that means for years and years to come. I mean, I have a 16-year-old that I can very clearly see how it affected him and friendships and communication. And that's just him. That's that's not even everybody else. I'm like, my friend group went from 20, 30 friends who I could call up at any point and have everybody over to like I got like six now. And I and I struggle to call them, struggle to text them, struggle to ask for help. It's just like that's I don't know. I think it's important to have a good supportive scene.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

Lovely. Thank you so much, Tyler.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

Thank you. Oh, I have gifts for you. Oh, gifts? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

Okay. What are they?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

My my son reminded me to bring you gifts. So I have a sticker for you. Thank you so much. I have a pin.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:05

This is a lovely sticker and a pen.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

And then I have a thumb drive. What? I remember those. I bought thumb drives and I put files on all of them. And so my son grabbed a random one, and this one is my favorite fonts. Okay. So your favorite fonts. So you have a thumb drive.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

Oh, it says fonts.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

With with with some of my favorite font files on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:26

I appreciate it. This is lovely. This is a sound of presents first. I've never been given a gift on the on the air, on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:33

Well, I wanted to say thank you because I think what you're doing is amazing. You throw these shows and the podcast. That's I love that. I I know I told you like in text and like to you directly, but I was just like, and I know you, you know, you're very much an artist. You came back with like, uh, nobody really listens to the podcast too much. But you know, I was like, I love it, and I'm doing it for the scene.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:55

Those that do, we thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:57

I listen to every episode. Appreciate it. And I don't know, it's just a great thing what you're doing. I mean, I I appreciate it, and I want I hope everybody else sees it too.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

Oh, thank you. And I and we have it on record, so maybe if I get sad I can listen to this end. You're gonna feel better.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:13

Thank you, Todd. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

Thanks so much for listening. You can follow us on Instagram for show announcements and other episodes. And if you dig the artist stuff, give them a follow up. Give them a like. And if you want to go the extra mile, check them out at one of their shows. Buy their merch. Keep the scene alive. And I'll see you out there. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Seal our souls and drift our eaters