Transcription Making Music Sun Spin Band & other adventures!

Speaker 1 (00:14):

Welcome to art and the raw I’m your host and Kelly. And today I’m excited to introduce you to my friend, Rob Danon. Rob is a musician and he just finished recording his album. Welcome Rob. So, so where are you today? 

Speaker 2 (00:32):

So I am, uh, in my place in Los Angeles, California, and, uh, yeah, been living here, uh, since I moved from Colorado, uh, in 2003. So 

Speaker 1 (00:43):

It’s been a pretty good place for you. How hasn’t it? 

Speaker 2 (00:46):

Yeah, you know, I mean, I, I moved out here to do music. I’ve been doing that since 2003, I’ve been in and outta bands, different bands, I’ve fronted bands. I’ve, uh, just been the guitar player. Um, I’ve all different genres from indie rock alternative rock I’ve was in a folk Americana band at one point as well. And I’m currently playing with, uh, my buddy Michael Rosenbaum, who, uh, uh, some of you might know him. He, uh, played the character, Lex Luther on the TV show Smallville. Um, he also has a really, uh, popular mental health podcast right now called inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. And, uh, we’ve been friends for over 10 years now and, uh, started playing music together probably about four years ago. Uh, we used to be in a band together called left on Laurel. We put out an album last year and, uh, decided to, uh, change stuff up a bit. Uh, when the pandemic hit, we just got into crazy songwriting mode. And probably since like April, we’ve been writing and writing and writing, and now we’re at the very tail end of, uh, coming out with this, uh, new album. That’s 

Speaker 1 (02:01):

Awesome. And this is the second album, right? 

Speaker 2 (02:03):

It’s well, it’s the second album I have recorded with Michael. 

Speaker 1 (02:07):

You said you were already shooting some photos for it. Yeah. Some photos recently, you wanna share those with 

Speaker 2 (02:16):

Us? Sure. So, so Michael and I have a friend who lives up in the Hollywood Hills and there are these basically big Hills that look over Los Angeles. And this, this, this individual has a house that you couldn’t get a better view. It’s just ridiculous. So, so this just happened like a few weeks ago. Uh, we, we had, this is, this is me and Michael or at my friend’s house. And then we did like another shoot or another. This was like when it was, the sun was setting who’s 

Speaker 1 (02:49):

The photographer. 

Speaker 2 (02:51):

Um, it was our, this guy, Mattie, um, Mattie Maun. He’s awesome. Super, super talented dude. And so, and you know, LA a lot of the times LA is super smoggy. This was a clear, clear day, which is kind of rare. And, uh, you could see all the downtown LA and the background and all that fun stuff. And then here’s a picture of us in Germany, uh, that when we were planning, uh, last year, very cool. I mean, this is gonna air in February. So by then, hopefully we’ll have our sunman.com website up. Yep. And so we’ll have, t-shirts, we’ll have our CD, we’ll have probably streaming stuff. I think we’re gonna get like coffee mugs and all that good stuff as well. So there’s like a bunch of cool merch we’re gonna get 

Speaker 1 (03:44):

So well, I can’t wait. And we’ll and how did you and Michael meet originally 

Speaker 2 (03:49):

LA is such a entertainment industry, uh, but you never know who you’re gonna meet. I was actually doing online dating, which I still do. I ended up dating this girl for a while and she was in, on, in the film industry, um, doing costumes and she invited me to a party and Michael was there and we totally hit it off shortly after. We cocreated a short film together. And I jump in to do the film score, which was my first time ever doing anything with film and with music. And since then I did two shorts and a feature length film with Michael. And then after all of that, we then decided to play music together and the rest in history. So, 

Speaker 1 (04:35):

So the new band is called suns spin. Correct. <affirmative> but prior to that, the band was left on Laurel, right? Correct. 

Speaker 2 (04:48):

Yeah. So, um, left on Laurel crazy story. I mean, it just started out where I had, I had been in and outta bands for so long, and I was the quote unquote struggling artist. I mean, just putting in, you know, any savings that I had with my day job going, putting that into the album or promotion or touring or whatever, and just not seeing any return on my investment. Like just nothing. And after doing that for years and years and years and dealing with a bunch of rejection and all this stuff, like it kind of got to the point with me where like, it was, it was really just really bad for my mental health. And I started to sort of hate doing art and I decided to quit and I quit doing music and I was, you know, I reinvented myself. I started working in non-profit, which I currently do still. 

Speaker 2 (05:44):

I work for a nonprofit that helps homeless people in Los Angeles. That’s kind of my, my day job several years, you know, four years ago when I quit, Michael got me and like a few of our friends together to just have fun and jam in his little basement rec room man cave area. We had a bass player and a drummer who were just kind of starting out. Um, it was kind, it was, it was like a total show at first. Um, and like the bass player was like, I, I don’t know what I’m doing. And I was, you know, I took him under and I was helping ’em like figure out stuff. And we were just playing. We were basically just playing covers mm-hmm <affirmative> for a good year. And after a year of just hanging out and playing covers and just having like a guy time, hanging out, whatever we started writing, we, we started to write our own songs and after, and we wrote about two songs, we had a friend of ours in LA that was like, oh my God, you’re writing songs. 

Speaker 2 (06:43):

I’m headlining the Troubador, which is like an iconic venue in Los Angeles. And he was like, I’m, I’m headlining the Troubador. Why don’t you open for us? And we’re like, uh, we only have like two songs and he is like, I don’t care. Just come up. Just, just play. We already an opener anyway, but you can just come up right before them play your two songs. So this was, you know, I had been playing shows, you know, for years and years and years I’ve been playing countless of shows, but everybody else, this is their first gig was a sold out show at the Tru BOR, which is ridiculous. And so, so right after that, right after we played that show, which, which went surprisingly very well. I mean, our, my band mates were nervous as, but, um, but they pulled it off. It was fun. 

Speaker 2 (07:30):

The same guy that booked us. Right. That was headlining that show. He was like, Hey, so in six months from now, I’m at doing a little tour in Germany, like a little road trip in, in Germany. And I actually have like a booking company that, and I bring bands out there and blah, blah, blah, you guys should come and tour with me in this little mini tours, like a week long mini tour in Germany. And we’re when we told ’em the same thing. We’re like, we only have like two songs. And he was like, yeah, but that’s like six months from now. Just write more songs. <laugh> so, so we busted our and, uh, six months later we had like 10 songs and, you know, maybe like a few covers. And he flew us out there, like all expenses paid, like plane tickets, um, hotel rooms, all that stuff. And we did this like kind of like an D DIY road trip around, uh, uh, Germany. We, we did, uh, Berlin cologne and Frankfurt, and, uh, played in front of like 200 people per show. And it was super, super fun. And it was great. It was great 

Speaker 1 (08:35):

Not to say you gave up, but you had put your whole life into playing music and you decided to take this break. And then all of a sudden that 

Speaker 2 (08:42):

Just happens. Yeah. Well, I mean, I did, I literally gave up and it was one of those things where it was like, I, when I, right when I stopped trying, that’s when everything that I had spent years and years and money and time and energy and whatever sweat and tears to do, and I couldn’t do it right when I said, it. Can I say, can I say that? Can I say word after? Yeah. It’s okay. Right. What I said, just that all of a sudden, you know, it was just like, okay, here, here it is. So, you know, mm-hmm, it kind, it kind of worked out, so, and it’s been fun. It’s been, it’s been a blast, you know, like left on Laurel was super fun. Basically at the end of the day, there were creative differences with, uh, with, with the band members. Um, but we’re all still friends we hang out, but it just kind of got to a point where Michael and I were like, yeah, you know, let’s, uh, let’s, let’s just kind of do our own thing and, and try something new. So, so it’s been fun. 

Speaker 1 (09:40):

It’s been fun. I’ve always wondered about that with music, in terms of most of my artistic practices in my life, it’s usually been some sort of visual arts, which is usually kind of a solitary practice. So I’ve, I’ve always just kind of wondered 

Speaker 2 (09:55):

It, it can get complicated. I mean, it’s, it’s basically what, what you’re dealing with. It’s kind of like, it’s like dating or like a marriage, but instead of two people together, you got four or five people together. And when you’re dealing with art and creativity, there’s always egos and different opinions and, and direction. Whether, and, and direction can be two things. It could be either artistic direction or business direction. Um, and, and if, and if there are two opinions that are completely, you know, opposite of one another, that’s when thing, and, and there’s not really like a lot of compromise then that’s when, you know, oh can hit the fan. And, you know, I mean, you, you, you see it all the time, like bands breaking up and, and as, as, as a fan you’re of the, of the music, you’re like, why the hell did they break up? Their, their music was so amazing. Well, there’s so much complication in the background that you don’t even know about, you know, and, and, you know, bands can break up up for so many reasons. And we had so many fights, I mean, fights, fights, fights. It was just ridiculous. 

Speaker 1 (11:05):

So, well, you figure, if everybody is, is all in and just super passionate about what you’re doing, that’s, that’s just naturally gonna happen. If you’re, you’re a painter and you’re just super driven to paint the painting, but all of a sudden there’s, you’re painting it with five other people. I, I just can’t even imagine what that yeah. 

Speaker 2 (11:26):

Yeah. And, and the thing is, is that like, everybody can be just as driven mm-hmm <affirmative>, but if there’s that creative difference, like if like the paint, you know, one painter’s like, well, I want to color orange and the other one’s like, no, that’s stupid. It has to be, be blue. I wanna make a landscape. No, I want a person. I wanna paint this. And then that’s where all the creative you, both of ’em can be super driven and super motivated, but you gotta be on that same page, you know? And so it’s, uh, it’s, it’s tough. It’s tough. And, you know, Michael and I luckily, you know, like we really compliment one another and we do share a vision and that’s why, you know, we decided to continue to work together and yeah. You know, it’s not perfect. I mean, there’s been times where I screamed and yelled at him and he’s yelled at me and we raised our voices and blah, blah, blah. 

Speaker 2 (12:13):

But we, we also understand each other well enough to, you know, compromise or, you know, see each other’s views or know also when to back down too. Right. So, and that’s, and that’s another thing too. So like with a band, you know, every, there’s a lot of people that a lot of people in bands, a lot of musicians that say, you know, everything needs to be equal. You know, the three Musketeers, all for one, one for all sort of a thing, which is nice in theory, but in practice, it never really works out. And, and you really need someone to steer the ship. And usually that’s the front man, and there’s, there’s two types of band members. Right? You got, you got your front man. And then you got your backup band. And in this particular scenario in sun spin and also in Lefton Laurel, I was the backup. 

Speaker 2 (13:07):

And it doesn’t, you know, for, for, you know, some people might think, oh, that doesn’t sound too glorious or whatever, but it’s like, I know my part, I know what my lane is. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, and there’s certain times where like, I voiced my opinion with certain things, but at the same time, I know when to back down mm-hmm <affirmative> and I think I’ve, and I’ve also learned that through experience because I’ve also been the front man I’ve been on the other side of the table, and I’ve been super frustrated with band members who are just like, you know, they, they just don’t get what the pressure is like for a front man. Who’s basically the, you know, the showcase, the, the, the eyes, you know, all the eyes when you’re playing on stage, whatever most of the eyes are on that one person. And so I know what that’s like. And so, so now that I’m on the other side and I have that empathy, I just know when to speak up. And I also know when to back down, so it just takes time. It’s, you know, I’ve been doing this for years and, you know, if this, if this had been my first rodeo, I probably wouldn’t be playing with Michael right now. Cause I probably would’ve been a dumb. And so it was all about me when it really wasn’t, you know, but 

Speaker 1 (14:18):

I mean, yeah, I could only imagine, like, I mean, just maybe even one year into a band everybody’s on the same page and then somebody wakes up the next day and has this vision for something new. They wanna try. And, and I, 

Speaker 2 (14:33):

I did that. I did that. I was, I was in a banded college, um, when I was, uh, at the university of Colorado, I was in a band and it was kind of, you know, I, I was, I was just the lead guitar player, but I was, it was kind of like a Dave Matthews, Pearl jam, you know, acoustic band, um, and all of a sudden, uh, Radiohead album, kid a came out and I listened to that, the day it came out and I was like, I gotta quit this band and do something different. This is, you know, the stuff I want to do. I actually ever ended like, up doing that. Like Cade is very electronic, weird, like experimental stuff. But I did once I quit that band, I, I kind of merged more into like the indie rock type of stuff, but that’s what happens. I mean, like sometimes it’s like, you’ll hear something or be influenced or just wake up and be like, what am I doing so 

Speaker 1 (15:29):

Well, and that seems like a natural and healthy thing to, yeah. And you started playing music when you were nine years 

Speaker 2 (15:37):

Old. Yeah. I got, I got forced into it by my parents. <laugh> kicking and screaming. I hated it, but they, they forced me to play to take lessons. And this would be, your parents gave me, they gave me, they gave me the choice of, you know, piano guitar. I think the island, I think those were like the three choices. And I decided the guitar. And for years I was. I hated it. It was, it was, it was so horrible. And then my best friend who lived across the street from me, he, when, when we were 13, when I was 13 years old, my best friend got like an electric guitar. And then another friend of ours in the neighborhood got a drum kit and another one got a bass and they started getting into a little band together. And I was like, I wanna be in that band with them. So, so my parents got me an electric guitar for my birthday, and then they, uh, couldn’t shut me up. So 

Speaker 1 (16:28):

At that point, you weren’t angry about it anymore. You, you accepted no. 

Speaker 2 (16:33):

And I’ve, uh, I’ve thanked them. 

Speaker 1 (16:35):

So I didn’t mention this early or, but I’ve, I’ve Rob and I have known each other since the mid nineties, 

Speaker 2 (16:44):

I would say 96 or 97. So we met in high school, high 

Speaker 1 (16:49):

School. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I recall, um, in seeing a performance you did in high school with, with this whole classical guitar performance. 

Speaker 2 (16:59):

When I was in high school, I took some classical guitar lessons. Um, and I actually, uh, majored for one semester. My freshman year of college, I, I majored in classical guitar, you know, was a lot of finger picking techniques and stuff that, uh, kind of carried over to my other, you know, rock songwriting and stuff like that. So even if it was a completely different genre, definitely, you know, it definitely enhanced my songwriting and my style 

Speaker 1 (17:30):

And well, that was a long time ago, but I just remembered feeling really kind of away. And it just having of like, that’s my friend, <laugh> you so proud? And I still am well, it’s, it’s, 

Speaker 2 (17:41):

It’s cool. I mean, like, you know, like we’ve seen each other, like with do doing our art stuff. I mean, like, I, I remember like in high school hanging out with you in the dark room, you know, developing your photos and all that stuff. So, and we both, you know, come a long ways and we’re still doing our own art and photography and, you know, you’re working up the gallery and all that fun stuff. So, so it’s good. It’s good that we’re still, you know, even now, uh, years and years later, we’re still, you know, doing our passion and being artistic, which is, which is good. 

Speaker 1 (18:12):

We’re still in it and, and we’re still in touch. That’s rare. Yeah. So one of the other things I happen to know about you cuz I’ve known you for a long time is before I think I have this right before you went to school in Boulder to study mu you got a degree in international business as well. Do I have that right? The 

Speaker 2 (18:35):

Other way around, so way around. Okay. I, uh, was a, it was an international affairs major, which is like business and economics and, you know, politics, PolySci, whatever. Um, but with sort of like an international, you know, flare to it. And once again, sort of like pressured in doing that with, by my parents, uh, after I majored in classical guitar for a semester and realized it wasn’t really what I wanna do then I was like an undeclared major for a bit. And then I was like, I just don’t know what, what I wanna do. And so, you know, my dad was involved in like, uh, investment banking in Mexico for years before, you know, before I was born. And uh, just kind of pressured in through that, you know, they were like, do this, this is what you should do. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and looking back, I feel like I should have done it completely different major. 

Speaker 2 (19:32):

I barely passed college. Like I barely passed CS. I got a bunch of CS and like a few BS and stuff like that. But it just wasn’t, I wasn’t passionate about it. I mean, that’s basically what it was and it wasn’t like I partied all the time. I didn’t go to school. Like I went to school and I studied my off. I was just like, I just struggl trying to, to grasp, you know, a subject matter that I just didn’t care about. I think that’s really what it was. So, so I mean, I did it, um, but it was really right after that, I right after college, like a few months after college, I was like, screw this. And then I packed up all my stuff and moved to LA just to do music and 

Speaker 1 (20:14):

Okay. Maybe it wasn’t your, your passion and, and maybe that wasn’t your, the career you moved into. Are, are there some, I, I would think there would be at least some things you learned in, in getting that degree that maybe have been applicable to 

Speaker 2 (20:32):

A, the one thing that I learned, the one thing that I learned was work ethic, right. Um, I mean, that’s basically it like just, you know, going to classes, doing the assignments, completing all that stuff, doing all that stuff like that’s gave me sort of the work ethic and the drive that I continue to have now. So when I moved to LA and I was, you know, fresh outta college, I was like 23 years old. I went into music school where I, uh, took a six month course called the independent artist program where they taught, taught you how to create, produce and promote, record your own music as an independent artist. And there were, you know, I, I base, I, I graduated that the course, whatever at, at the top I was the top of my class. I got like the best project award, whatever I got hired, um, on afterwards, uh, as part of the faculty, the, and so I, I worked there for like several years and the big thing that I, the big difference that I noticed there were like, you know, there, there were the slacker kids that treated this like rock and roll high school that would come the completely unprepared, wouldn’t do their work, whatever they were disruptive in class, blah, blah, blah. 

Speaker 2 (21:52):

And then there were the other kids that were, you know, just super motivated and, and got their done. And the big difference. And, and, and there were, there were always exceptions to this, but the main difference was the people that went to college and the, the people that were straight out of high school or, or hadn’t gone to college, you know? Sure. And so for me, it was like, you know, I got that, you know, wild partying, whatever out of the way and caught from college. And that when I moved out there, I was like out to LA, I was like, I’m, I’m ready to work and get everything done. And so basically what happens so 

Speaker 1 (22:31):

Well, and, and that’s a huge thing in, in art making and, and music and any sort of creative, um, direction you’re going in. I think, um, you know, I mean, there are so many talented people out there, but if you are not putting the work in and, and really just going for it, if you are not all in, you can be as creative and talented as they come, but it’s, it’s unlikely you’re gonna make it. So exactly. It sounds to me actually, that was very helpful and that, yeah, maybe you didn’t go there, but you knew what it took and, and, and you’re still doing it. So exactly. And so all of your band names are pretty interesting. Have the, well, I assume all of the titles of the different bands have been collaborative, but how, how do you, how do you get how you view arrived there? 

Speaker 2 (23:29):

Band names can be super tricky. Like we’ve, you know, like, like with left on Laurel, for example, it was <laugh>. So do, do you, so, okay. So when we were first playing this, this is the funniest story. So when we were first playing in Michael’s little man cave thing, just doing covers and like had no idea that we were gonna go to Germany and play the Tudor and do whatever. Um, we were called, we called ourselves. Cause it was just a private thing. We were just a bunch of dudes having fun. We called ourselves sandwich. So we were, we were sandwich for a while. And then all, and then all of a sudden, you know, our friends, like, Hey, play the Troubador. And, and we were like, oh, we, we can’t go up on stage at the Troubador as sandwich <laugh>. And so we made a compromise to the same. 

Speaker 2 (24:26):

So for a while we were the sandwich mm-hmm <affirmative>, which half of the band was like, awesome. This is the best band name ever. Michael. And I were just like, this is just embarrassing. Like, like, Hey, I’m in a band. Oh yeah. Well, what’s your band called the sandwich sandwich. <laugh> like the stupidest name, like, like that was my opinion. It was like the stupidest name ever. And that was like one of the big fights that we had, like Michael and I were like, we gotta change our name. And everybody else was like, you guys are idiots. That’s our name. This is what we do. We’re fine. And so like we bickered and bickered and bickered, but then, you know, at the end of the day, you know, Michael’s a front man, you know, if he says the band name needs to go, that’s what that gonna happen. 

Speaker 2 (25:13):

And I, I happen to agree with him on that too. And so we came up with all, you know, it was like, we were trying all these different names and then we ended up going with left on Laurel Laurel Boulevard. Um, no Laurel came, sorry, it’s called Laurel canyon. It’s a, it’s, it’s a road in LA. And we would take a left on Laurel to go to our rehearsal space. So that’s basically how that happened. But you know, when we made that change there, like some people were, the people, you know, cuz like when we first went to Germany, the first year we went as the sandwich and we got a bunch of fans and they were, I mean, like we got letters, we got letters written out angry letters. Like I will never think of you as any other band, any band other than the sandwich and like how dare you. It was so funny. So, oh, 

Speaker 1 (26:07):

So your sound didn’t really change at all between being, uh, the sandwich and, and left on 

Speaker 2 (26:13):

Laurel? No, it was just, it was just the band name. Yeah. It was just the band name and it wasn’t the sound, uh, left on Laurel versus sun spin. It’s a, it’s a more in more, uh, evolved sound. So on know on one hand, you know, Michael has been writing a lot more since then and he’s grown a lot. I’ve grown a lot by working with him. And so our collaboration has grown a lot, but the big difference with Sunman, especially this album that we’re about to release is that we got to, uh, bring in a ton of amazing, super talented session players from violinists to a pedal steel player. We just got this amazing, um, board player, Ty Bailey. I haven’t even met him yet. Our producer slash engineer, um, work with him. And so Ty Bailey is the, uh, keyboard player for Katie Perry. And engineer was like, Hey, uh, I think these songs would sound really good with Oregon. I know this guy that plays, uh, plays Oregon and keyboards and stuff like that. Kinda like a Bob Dylan, uh, style stuff, a B3 organ, um, let’s let’s have of them take a stab at it. And I just got the tracks today and I was like, this is ridiculously good. So I I’m happy. There’s there’s a lot of cool, cool people on, on the record. 

Speaker 1 (27:35):

So in terms of the record, the kind of main musicians are you and Michael mm-hmm <affirmative>, but then you’re bringing in guest musicians. H how will that work in this crazy pandemic year? Will you all be playing in a studio, but kind of distanced or will some of, I don’t know, some of the music be added in I, 

Speaker 2 (28:02):

How does that work? So, right right now, I mean, we’ve been doing this. I mean, we actually started doing this with left on Laurel, the left on Laurel days, but, uh, we’ve, you know, since the pandemic started, I think it was since may Michael and I have been playing these online shows every month for like one Saturday a month, um, as the last Saturday of every month. And we do two shows on that Saturday do a two o’clock show and then a six o’clock show. And it’s an online show through a platform called stage. It it’s stage, then it stage it. Um, and you know, people can buy tickets, attend the show and there’s like a little chat box where, um, people can, you know, chat. And then in between songs for reading the chat thing, we can interact with ’em and all that fun stuff. 

Speaker 2 (28:47):

So far, it’s just been Michael and I, or me and Michael, um, just basically in his little, uh, man cave rec room thing, just, uh, it’s really easy. We open up a laptop, I plug in a nice USB microphone and then we just set it up right in front of a us. And we just sit on a couch and play acoustic guitar and sing. And it’s like super simple setup and it’s been working really fine. We could potentially bring in some other guest musicians, have them come in with that sort of a setup, but right now, because of the pandemic and social distancing and stuff like that, it’s like, you know, it’s just kind of tough. So I have like a very small pause of friends that I hang out with and Michael’s one of those. And so, you know, we feel comfortable hanging out together in the same room. Um, but you know, it’s just weird times. It’s weird times. So 

Speaker 1 (29:39):

Definitely. But in terms of recording, would the other musicians be in other locations and then, 

Speaker 2 (29:45):

Oh, oh yeah. So, um, basically 

Speaker 1 (29:47):

Synced together. I’m just, yeah, 

Speaker 2 (29:49):

I dunno. We, we did so, so, uh, this, this album it’s and it’s turning out to be quite a massive, uh, album. I mean, it, we, we recorded in several different locations. So first recorded what you call is the rhythm section when that’s drum space and guitar. And all we all went in and played live together in one recording studio. And once we laid that, all those tracks down, the drum space and guitar, then we were, then we started adding tracks on top of all of that stuff. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, Michael came over into my little bedroom closet of all things <laugh> um, and I set up my microphone and there in a bedroom closet has like a bunch of clothes and stuff everywhere. It actually works really well as a vocal booth. So when you’re singing and you’re not a enclosed vocal booth, um, you hear a lot of echo and if you’re in a professional vocal booth or a closet that has a bunch of clothes that kind of dampen the sound, it basically sounds a lot better. 

Speaker 2 (30:56):

So I recorded like almost all of his vocals in my, in my bedroom closet. Um, and then we rented out a few other studios recorded, you know, violin and stuff like that. Our violin player today actually did a session at her own home. She does a recording setup. So she did that. We have, uh, our friend Emma, um, Fitzpatrick, um, who is an amazing vocalist. She lives in Nashville. So she recorded, um, some harmony is female. Harmony is in Nashville. Are that guy I was telling you about, uh, Ty Bailey, the, the keyboard player. He did that from his home. So technology now is you can do a lot of stuff anywhere and share files and all that stuff. So, and just makes it a lot easier. 

Speaker 1 (31:41):

I believe it, so, I mean, I don’t, I don’t really know is, is that, were people making music that way pre pandemic or, I mean, I could see how that would be necessary or not even necessary, but just in terms of maybe one guy’s in Nashville and one guy’s in LA and it’s just more convenient or, or do you think that’s really picked 

Speaker 2 (32:02):

Up more in? I think, I, I think it’s definitely picked up since the pandemic, because that’s the only way you could really do it. However, this technology has been around forever. I mean, not forever, but, but for many, many years, mm-hmm <affirmative> and, and file sharing and doing this kind of stuff happens all the time, you know? And it also happens not only with music, but also like anything digital, like film and all that stuff. You know, you, you do a fi you know, you, you, you do something in one studio, send the file to somebody else in another studio, whatever that it happens. There’s an old band called the postal service mm-hmm <affirmative>, which was, uh, and Gibb. I think that was his name from, um, Def cab for cutie. It was his, it was his like side project and what they ended up doing, cuz I think this was like really before like crazy digital technology where you could just like email stuff, like zip up a file and send it through you, you send it or, you know, one of those, you know, Google drive or whatever, because this was, I think it was like in the nineties or early two thousands whenever the postal services around. 

Speaker 2 (33:08):

But I think what they did was they ended up like going into a studio, you know, I think it was like a bicoastal thing. And like they went the studio and then dumped everything onto an external drive and then mailed, physically mailed the external drive over to, you know, whatever other state that the other people were and that’s how they kind of collaborated and made their album. So it happens 

Speaker 1 (33:30):

Honestly, that’s one of the things I missed the most this year is seeing live music. So it’s cool that you’ve been able to continue to play shows and other people have been focusing on that. 

Speaker 2 (33:44):

Yeah. I mean, it’s not, it’s not the same experience, you know, you know, you’re, you’re watching something on a little computer screen or whatever and you know, the picture’s not great and the sound might not be that great or whatever, and you’re also not there in person, you know? And, and there’s that that’s definitely lacking. I mean, there’s no substitute for, for the live in person experience, but it’s better than nothing. It is where it is. And the other thing that I’ve been doing actually, I mean, it’s not like, you know, live stream, but since the pandemic that I haven’t been able to see like actual shows, I’ve actually going on a YouTube and watching, you know, prerecorded stuff from like back in the day, you know, and I’m like, oh, what band do I want? What, what show, what band do I wanna watch now? You know? So, so I ended up doing that. Um, and, uh, I, I did that with like a few of my friends. Like we just like sit there and just watch like an entire show and, uh, that’s super fun. And you know, I can do that out for the pandemic too, but I hadn’t really done that before. Just like watched like an entire shows on YouTube. So, but, uh, there’s some good stuff out there. So 

Speaker 1 (34:51):

No, I, I feel like that’s a lot of people have been kind of looking back in time this year in terms of music, movies, um, different things like that, that, you know, meant a lot to us in the past that we hadn’t really given a lot of thought to recently. Is there a, a band perhaps from high school? 

Speaker 2 (35:12):

That’s funny. I, yeah, the band from high school that I ended up started watching like live stuff from was nine inch nails mm-hmm <affirmative> so, um, which it’s not, I don’t really listen to nine inch nails. I mean, you know, for nostalgic reasons, I will every once in a while, but I’m, but you know, I’ve kind of moved to different genres, but I was like, ah, I kind of wanna watch. So I started watching something from like the downward spiral tour and those guys, I mean, Trent Resner and then all the rest of his musician buddies that he has up on stage. I mean, they put on a show. So that was, that was, that was a good one. But the latest one I saw it was actually before our time it was locking heads. They have, they have this show it’s recorded show. Um, you can buy it, whatever it’s, it’s not like a Bootle or anything. 

Speaker 2 (36:06):

It’s like an actual production. There’s this big theater in Hollywood called the pans theater. And they usually do, do do musicals there. But, uh, he did a show. I think it was like in like 19 84, 19 83 or something like that, just like a full on show. And it’s regarded as like one of the best recorded video recorded live shows out there. And it was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. And that was one of those, one of like my high lights of the pandemic was actually watching this show and I was like, this is just outrageous, just outrageous, um, this crazy talking heads stuff. So I would recommend seeing that one. 

Speaker 1 (36:48):

I could definitely see that. Yeah. Super cool. No, I mean, there, there was days when we first started working from home where one day, and, and then with being able to stream music, now you can kind of just go, oh, like one day I was just working and I just started feeling like, oh, I need something different. And, and I ended up listening to bikini kill all day. Like I hadn’t even thought about bikini kill probably since high school, but it was just, yeah, I dunno. I think just kind of this like angsty part of feeling like I was on lockdown again, where I was like, I’m gonna listen to this and you know, what it made my day. So, um, <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (37:30):

Yeah. There’s, you know, that’s sometimes you just gotta go back to your roots and just like listen to stuff. So I, I do that. I do that every once in a while. I, you know, my, my, my taste have completely changed since high school, but of course there’s days where I’m just like, oh my God, what about this band? What about that band? So it happens. 

Speaker 1 (37:50):

Well, I’m curious what you think about this with, with a lot of the music I love from back in the day, I often think about if this was a brand new band. If this music was just coming out in 2020, I don’t know that I would like it at all, but I absolutely love it because it has all of those memories. Yeah. From back in the day. 

Speaker 2 (38:17):

Well, I mean, it’s, it’s the same thing with books or movies or anything. I mean, it’s like, you know, you, as you age, you, you grow, you change, you evolve, you get different tastes, whatever. Um, and so yeah, the stuff that I listen to in high school, I wouldn’t like now there’s, there’s no way. And also conversely, the stuff that I love now, I probably would’ve hated if I had known about it in high school, you know, and it’s just, it’s just, it is what it is, but there’s that nostalgic thing, you know, that you’ll continue you to love or like something on a nostalgic level, even years and years later, just because of those memories and how it made you feel back in high school and all that stuff. So 

Speaker 1 (39:07):

Definitely I’ve definitely got some songs on my playlist that I think some people that know me from today, if they walked in, they’d be like, what, what, what are you listening to? Oh yeah, 

Speaker 2 (39:18):

Yeah. I mean, I’ve, I’ve evolved. I I’ve changed for me. It was, it was starting around when I was 13 years old. That’s kind of when I started getting into rock and roll and if I go all the way through basically college, um, that’s when it was, I would kind of reinvent myself musically in terms of what I listened to and what I liked in terms of whatever genre that was. And that reinvention there was a cycle and it would, and it would reset itself every three years, three or four years. So I’d go from one genre, three or four years to another genre, three or four years to another genre. And I kept on doing that up until I graduated college. Um, and, uh, since college it’s like, I still kind of just listened to the same kind of stuff that I was listening to in college. But I think that’s kind of where I kind of peaked in terms of my, uh, my musical tastes that I’ll probably still carry on for the rest of my life, you know, unless there’s some new chapter in my life that all of a sudden I’m like, nah, I don’t wanna listen to this anymore. Maybe I’ll start listening. That’s what happens, you know, like people start listening to like smooth jazz and maybe that’s our chapter, you know, we’ll be rocking out to Kenny G and all that fun stuff. So 

Speaker 1 (40:43):

I dunno, I dunno about 

Speaker 2 (40:44):

That. <laugh> that gonna happen? Anne? Do, 

Speaker 1 (40:47):

Do you have a few favorite bands right now? 

Speaker 2 (40:53):

My all time favorite band, which I discovered in college, um, is pavement, which is, uh, like an early nineties indie rock band. And so that’s like that, unless something changes in my life, like I will always be that behind me. There’s a, there’s a dude right there behind me in that picture. And that is Nick cave. I got into Nick cave in my mid twenties. I’m not the biggest fan of his latest work. The last few albums. I’m not the biggest fan of, but like his older stuff, I’m just, you know, head over heels about, he’s been a big influence of mine, musically. Um, Radiohead, uh, is a, a, a huge one. Uh, there’s a lot, there’s a band called granddady, that’s kinda like an indie rock band that I love. I’m more like the indie rock stuff, which is kind of like the less mainstream, if it’s not super mainstream and poppy, that’s kind of the stuff that I’m listening 

Speaker 1 (41:51):

To. And do you, you happen to remember, so, I mean, I’m, I’m assuming the first album you ever owned was a cassette tape, cuz it was for me. Do you remember the first cassette tape? 

Speaker 2 (42:03):

Uh, there’s three of ’em and I don’t know which one I, I, I got first, but uh, I just know that there’s three with, that were one of the very first ones, which was CNC music for, which is ridiculous. Um, uh, then the Simpsons had to put out an album called the Simpsons, sing the blues and it’s yeah. And it’s like, you know, Bart Simpson singing. And he did like this, there was this really like famous rap one called the Bartman. Oh, I 

Speaker 1 (42:34):

Remember that. Yeah, the 

Speaker 2 (42:35):

Songs. And so like that was like the single off that album. Ah, and so there’s one that Marge sings one that Homer sings and maybe there’s like a duet with the two of ’em. I don’t even remember, but yeah, it’s called the Simpson sing the blues and then the third one was, uh, DJ jazzy, Jeff and the fresh prince. Nice. I’m the rapper. He’s the DJ. So that was like a, I guess I was like 12 mm-hmm <affirmative>, 11 or 12, something like that. And then it was really when I was 13 was when I started getting into rock and roll and uh, started to really get into music. So, but yeah, those, what, what, what are your, what’s your tape? 

Speaker 1 (43:10):

I think I got my first tape. I started young, but my dad was super into music and it, it, it was a David Bowie tape, but I will admit that it was the Labrinth soundtrack. 

Speaker 2 (43:25):

Okay. And was, is, I know David Bowie was in the lab. Did he perform on the soundtrack? 

Speaker 1 (43:31):

Oh yeah. So if, if you haven’t seen, um, labra recently or ever, uh, David Bowie was the Golan king, the entire soundtrack of that movie is, is David Bowie. But there were songs written specifically for the LABA. I’ll have to revisit 

Speaker 2 (43:50):

It. Yeah. I haven’t seen it since I was a kid. 

Speaker 1 (43:53):

You know, it’s one of those movies where I, I can’t say I love it as much as I did when I was a kid. I mean, I think part of it is like the main character, Sarah, when I was a kid, she was like this cool older girl and now I watch it and I’m like, oh, she’s a little kid. And I don’t know, there’s certain aspects of it, but I’ve gotta appreciate it. I think I started buying tapes or I, I guess I didn’t have money. I guess my dad bought them for me. I started getting tapes when I was maybe six or seven. So I also had, um, Tiffany, I had the Tiffany cassette tape and, and Taylor Dane. Those were the first three. I was, I was serious about my cassette tapes. So nice. Super funny. Now, um, I had like a little portable tape player and I’d walk around with it, like kind of boom, boxy style, but I, in the mountains and there was, is no one around. So 

Speaker 2 (44:52):

<laugh> yeah. I mean, I, I, I had, I had a little portable tape player too, and I would do like, but it wasn’t like music. I, I would do like skits and stuff on it. Like, I, I, like, I had like a lot of blank tapes and I would record me just doing skits and weird stuff and who the hell knows 

Speaker 1 (45:09):

<laugh> uh, we did that too, but that was maybe when we were like, I don’t know, maybe 13 or so a lot of my friends and I we’d we’d run video cameras and we’d make up fake commercials and record them. And I don’t know why, but 

Speaker 2 (45:24):

Yeah. So when, um, when I was a kid, uh, I, I remember this, um, I, I had cuz I had my little, my little tape recorder and like we were driving, we were driving up to the mountains and it was like a long car ride and I was in the backseat and my dad was driving and my mom was in the passenger seat and I had my little tape recorder and I remember this cuz I was so proud about what I did was I hit record. I hit record on the recorder and my parents didn’t know that I even have this or what I was doing. And then all of a sudden I started like whacking my dad’s head, like the back of my dad’s head as he was driving. And he freaked out, started screaming at me like what the are you doing? Stop that. Ah, and then I just stopped recorder, re it and played it back for him. Oh. And it was the funniest thing ever. I thought it was the, uh, it was so great. <laugh> 

Speaker 1 (46:22):

Feel like I had no idea. I sounded like that one <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (46:27):

It was like this plan. I had it worked out perfectly and I was so proud about it. <laugh> that’s my tape recorder story. 

Speaker 1 (46:35):

Oh, that’s funny. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so in terms of other things that you’ve collected over the years, we’re talking about collecting cassette tapes back in the day. Do you collect anything now? 

Speaker 2 (46:50):

Well, I collect these onesies that I have. Uh, um, so do you like onesies? 

Speaker 1 (46:57):

I, I do. I have one. What do you have? I have a unicorn ones. Oh, nice. Doesn’t quite make a collection, but what, 

Speaker 2 (47:06):

What inspired you to get a unicorn onesie? 

Speaker 1 (47:10):

Oh, it’s kind a long story. It was a tribute. It’s a tribute thing for a friend. Um, a skier friend who’s not around anymore, but um, she used to back in the day, always the last day of the ski season, rock her unicorn onesie. So now we all do and yeah. Yeah. So it’s a cool tribute to her, but I gotta say they’re really comfortable and others are great. I, I can see collecting more of them because 

Speaker 2 (47:40):

Yeah. There’s, they’re super cool. So I have a zebra onesie. I have a Lemer onesie. I have a Harry Potter onesie. <affirmative> I think I have a dinosaur onesie <laugh> I may have given that one away. Cause it was too big on me, but um, I’ve attended this thing. It’s super fun. Have you heard of this thing called camp? No counselors. It’s 

Speaker 1 (48:05):

I think I heard about it through you, but I oh, oh, I, I, I, 

Speaker 2 (48:08):

I might have I, I told you about it, but basically it’s it’s anybody 

Speaker 1 (48:10):

Else and it sounds so cool. 

Speaker 2 (48:13):

It’s a, it’s a three night, three night sleepaway summer camp for adults where you stay in cabins. It’s, you know, bunk beds, you eat in this giant mess hall. And then during the day you’re doing all your regular camp activities, like archery capture the flag. Um, there’s a big talent show. There’s a color war race at the very end, all this fun stuff. Um, and then at night it’s basically a crazy costume party and a lot of people pack onesies because it’s, you know, it’s fun. It’s easy to party in a, in a onesie and it’s warm and fun and all that stuff. And so, uh, so, uh, I would go with my friends and we would always go, you know, with like matching onesies and all that stuff. So 

Speaker 1 (49:04):

Is this an LA thing? 

Speaker 2 (49:06):

Uh, they have, uh, so what they do is they rent out actual summer camps that usually cater the kids. Like for like three days, it’s all the adults take it over. But, but the, like the archery instructor is like the same instructor that would teach the kids and the cooks and the staff of the camp. They’re all the same people there. And so I went to the LA camp, which was like out in the mountains, out side of LA wasn’t in the city. I went to the Nashville camp and then an Austin, Texas camp as well. And uh, super fun, super fun. 

Speaker 1 (49:42):

Well, I think when this weird time is over, I think I’m just gonna have to do that because that sounds amazing. And I’ve never actually been to camp camp. I was, I was lucky my grandparents lived on this awesome lake when I was a kid growing up. So that was our camp, but I’ve never had the actual camp experience. So I feel like I probably should. And I already have a onesie so, 

Speaker 2 (50:08):

Well, there you go. If you already have a onesie, then you’re, you’re good to go. 

Speaker 1 (50:13):

Maybe, maybe it would be like a good reunion. Maybe you wanna meet up that <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (50:16):

Yeah, we’ll go to summer camp together. Why not? It’ll perfect. 

Speaker 1 (50:20):

<laugh> sounds good to me. I’m down. And then just talking about other kind of favorite things recently. Um, do you have any favorite movies recently or, or television shows from both past or present? 

Speaker 2 (50:37):

I just binged the Queens gambit, which was awesome on Netflix. That was a super, super fun one to watch. And I don’t know anything about chess and I don’t really have a desire to even play chess. I don’t never played it, but I thought it was awesome. Did you see that show? 

Speaker 1 (50:56):

I haven’t yet. I’m I’m planning on watching it next, watch it. I’ve heard a lot of people. Um, I’ve I’ve seen, or I’ve heard a lot of people recently were starting to play chess because of it. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (51:09):

Were inspired. It’s it’s a good, it’s a good show. It’s a good show. So I would, uh, I would check that one out. What else? You know, I’m part of like a horror movie group. Um, so Michael’s part of that as well before the pandemic, we would all like a bunch of us would go over to his house. It was like, you know, eight or nine of us in this group. And we would just watch a bunch of horror movies together. And during the pandemic, what we do is we each in our own living rooms, we, uh, we rent like on Amazon, whatever we’ll rent the same horror movie, we’ll queue it up at 10 seconds in, and then we all get on zoom together. And then Mike will get goes 3, 2, 1 go. When he says go, we all hit play together. And so we’re basically watching it all at the same time, we’re commenting and all that stuff. So we just, we watched like all of the Friday, the 13th movies, and then we’re almost done watching all of the nightmare Elm street movies. And then the final one is Freddy versus Jason, where they all get together. And I gotta tell you, the majority of these movies are. I mean, just the worst, just I’m I’m like I’m wasting my whole life just watching this crap there’s but they’re 

Speaker 1 (52:25):

Kinda the worst and the best at the same time. 

Speaker 2 (52:27):

Well, there there’s some that are came there. There’s a, like a few of the night on Elm street and a few of the Friday, the 13th are awesome. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but the majority of ’em is just like, are you kidding me? I actually have one it’s um, I guess it’s like the eighth one, uh, which is a remake or something like that, of the nightmare Elm street ones. Um, I’m gonna be watching that tonight at nine o’clock, uh, when we do our little movie thing. Oh, nice. But, uh, yeah. So that’s basically what I’ve been doing in the pandemic. 

Speaker 1 (53:01):

Well, like when you get, I don’t know, horror movies are kind of some of my favorite, but in, in, usually in October, I like to start watching scary movies early on in the month up until Halloween, but I was mostly watching on Netflix and it seems like most of what’s on Netflix now is, uh, I don’t wanna talk bad on Netflix, but I was looking for all the classic horror movies and I just couldn’t find anything. And I just kept watching all of these movies and I had a few good ones, but I mean, just more than anything I just wanted to, to watch. 

Speaker 2 (53:38):

Yeah. Well, you should, you should check out shutter. Shutter is BA basically it’s the Netflix of horror movies, 

Speaker 1 (53:47):

Like OK, good to it’s 

Speaker 2 (53:48):

Like five, five bucks a month or something like that. Six bucks a month. And it’s just like, it’s set up just like Netflix, but everything is horror. Hmm. So, 

Speaker 1 (53:59):

Yeah. So there’s also something about that genre or a movie, especially a, an older classic one. It can be a terrible movie and maybe it also just relates to it being a classic and us having a memory of it. But it’s like, this is an awful movie, but it’s, it’s still better than some crappy horror movie that was made in 2020 or something like that. 

Speaker 2 (54:20):

I don’t know. Maybe what’s the scariest movie you’ve seen, 

Speaker 1 (54:24):

You know, the one that just comes to my mind immediately, which I actually did see on Netflix. I think it’s called the taking of Deborah. Logan. Have you seen that 

Speaker 2 (54:35):

One? 

Speaker 1 (54:37):

Oh my God. Well, okay. So it’s really freaky because I actually didn’t seen, I meant to watch it again this year. I didn’t, but the plot is basically, I think there’s a woman who’s taking care of her mother, but you don’t really know if what her mother is experiencing is just old age or actually demonic possession. And so it’s just really freaky for that reason. Um, uh, it check it out. <laugh>, it’s, it’s pretty terrifying. It’s definitely one of those ones where, um, you, I don’t know, you realize you’re like, have been like holding onto your leg the entire time. Awesome. 

Speaker 2 (55:21):

I’ll I’ll definitely check that one out. 

Speaker 1 (55:23):

I don’t know when it was made or who made it or who was in it, I’m really bad at all those things. I think it was a little more recent, but, um, I’ll check that one out. Yeah. And the Baba duke, have you seen the Baba duke Uhhuh? That’s a good one. I love the Baba duke. Yeah. Good one. But this year on Halloween, we, we finally resorted going to our red box and renting, um, pet cemetery, 

Speaker 2 (55:48):

Pet cemetery, or the original pet cemetery. 

Speaker 1 (55:51):

Well, we ended up going for the new one cause I had already seen the old one. Um, and it was, it was pretty good, but 

Speaker 2 (55:59):

Yeah, you know, like there are some remakes that are okay. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and some that are actually really, really good. So I just saw cuz I was like a big fan of the remake of uh, Texas chainsaw massacre. But with the horror movie group, like a few months ago we watched the original, which came out in the seventies. Mm-hmm <affirmative> like the mid seventies or something like that. I had never seen it before. And I was like, this could come out today. Like it was, I was like, so blown away by how brutal and well shot it was. I was like, this is ridiculous. Like, I was just trying to imagine, like people going to the movie theater back in the seventies and like, there really wasn’t anything like that 

Speaker 1 (56:44):

Before I let you go. I’m also curious about food. So you went to Germany three times to play music mm-hmm <affirmative>. And, um, did, did you do any, uh, beer or brat worse while you were there? 

Speaker 2 (57:00):

I had a lot of brat worsts. Um, I had this really good Curry worst, which was a big sausage, a bunch of Curry sauce all over it. Um, it was amazing. I mean, I had some really, you know, just, just a bunch, a bunch of great beer, bunch of great food, you know, churn. Food’s awesome. Good. 

Speaker 1 (57:19):

So are you hoping to get, um, planning on going back when that’s? 

Speaker 2 (57:23):

Yeah. Yeah. So, so we were actually, uh, going to, we were in talks of doing another little mini Germany tour, uh, this past July, but then the whole lockdown happened and that didn’t happen. So it was just gonna be Michael and I going out there with our buddy Jason, who was the guy that brought us out there originally. So, so there were talks about it. That never happens. So, but we’ll, we will go out there again. We got, we got a nice little fan base there. There’s a good, uh, we got a network out there, so, so it’ll happen 

Speaker 1 (57:57):

Hopefully. Very cool. Very cool. Great to talk to you, Rob, do you have any shoutouts to end anybody? Um, or you feel like you’ve said it? 

Speaker 2 (58:08):

I think I’ve said it. I mean, shout out. Hi mom. Hi dad. If you’re listening here, I am. Thank you. 

Speaker 1 (58:16):

Excellent. Well in enjoy your, your horror movie streaming 

Speaker 2 (58:21):

Night, I, I looked up the reviews. It’s like 15% on rotten tomato. 

Speaker 1 (58:27):

I can log on for you and watch it and pretend that I’m I’m you. Maybe they won’t notice. 

Speaker 2 (58:33):

Cause we look alike. 

Speaker 1 (58:35):

We look exactly alike. Don’t exactly. I don’t think anybody would notice <laugh> not at all. Well, thank you so much, Rob. It’s super good to catch up with you. Yeah, for everybody who’s watching is still a new show. Do me a solid like comment, subscribe. Keep the conversation going. We’ve got, um, a lot more coming up in, I guess, 20, 21 at this point. So thanks so much. 

Speaker 2 (59:07):

See ya. 

Speaker 1 (59:08):

Thanks Rob. 

Speaker 2 (59:09):

Bye. 

Speaker 3 (59:22):

I.