Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - BONUS EP: Próxima Parada

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Whatdya say we keep this Holiday Cheer going a little longer, yeah?? Coming at ya fast, we got Andy's conversation with our dear friends, Próxima Parada! Happy New Year ya filthy animals!  Psyched to partner up with our buddies at Volume.com! Check out their roster of upcoming live events and on-demand shows to enrich that sweet life of yours. Call, leave a message, and tell us if you think one can get addicted to mushrooms: [phone]  Check out our new album!, L'Optimist on all platforms Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out our good friends that help us unwind and sleep easy while on the road and at home: dialedingummies.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Arno Bakker

All right, and we're back. Andy Frasco's World's Leading Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How we doing out there? How's your heads? How's your minds? I thought because I'm feeling the Christmas spirit, we'd give you one more interview before we end the year.

Proxima Prada. Love this band. Hey, Chris, play some Proxima Prada. Love this band. Hey, Chris, play some Proxima Prada. Great band out of San Luis Obispo. They're popping off. They're starting to get a wave. They had a big, huge TikTok success. And my buddy Dave DeCiani, shout out to Davey.

Davey! Is managing them, and I wanted to hear their thoughts on some things, and I loved every second of it. So I'll keep this brief. But yeah, enjoy Proxima product. And shout out to Dialed In Gummies and shout out to volume.com. Go check out volume.com for all your live stream needs. And go if you need some gummies in the Colorado waiter area. Go check out Dial Dowdy Gummies. All right, guys, enjoy Proxima Prada, and I'll see you when we get off break. I picture young Robert Frostman in hand Yelling at the postman No letter has he received

Even a no would be alright Even a sorry but not today A sign of life would bring relief Even a thank you but no thank you Everyone clap. Oh, how do you? Proxima Prada. Yeah, Proxima Prada is fine, yeah. All right, here we go. Everyone clap. Oh, how do you... Proxima Prada. Yeah. Proxima Prada is fine.

Yeah. All right. Here we go. Everyone clap. Wow. The boys. Hot off... Last night, what'd you guys...

I heard you guys show up last night. Yeah. To Denver? Yeah. Oh, my God. Where were you? Santa Fe. Santa Fe.

In Mexico. Is that Meow Wolf? Yeah. How was it? Meow Wolf was great Yeah First time we've been to the actual music venue Part of it, you know

It's cool, right? Yeah, super cool You played there before, I imagine Yeah, it's nice Yeah, it's nice So tell your name to the choir Let people know who you are My name is Nico

And yeah, playing Proxima Parada. Kevin, also playing Proxima Parada. Where'd y'all meet? We met in college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Cali boys, baby! That's right.

I fucking love it. Let them know! Cali boys are coming to town. I love it. You are too, right? Yeah, I'm from Southern California too. You're Orange County and you're Sacramento, right? Yes, let them know. Cali boys are coming to town. I love it. You are too, right? Yeah, I'm from Southern California too. You're Orange County and you're Sacramento, right? Yes, that's right.

So like you said, we met in the middle. I mean, it's like a trifecta. Yeah, exactly. You got the whole state meeting in St. Louis. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. What was it like? What was that college like?

We lived in the dorms together. Freshman year in the dorms. Kevin was playing acoustic guitar. I actually didn't play music really until coming to college. I heard that. Oh, yeah. At the Nashville show, I told... That's the true story. Dislocating my shoulder led to music.

But... Is that rugby? Rugby, yeah. Jesus Christ. Yeah. You could beat someone up, huh? Have you ever kicked anyone's ass? I try not to. I try to be nice. What was it? Give me one fight. Give me one fight you got to do accidentally. Who's the last person you beat up?

Oh, man. Was it a band member? Please tell me it was a band member. No, no. I really, yeah, I really tried to water that seed, but it's in me. The way I grew up, you know, it was just very, everyone was physical. And yeah, that was like a healthy way to express your

emotions was through violence and through anger through sport yeah and sport yeah sport was the healthiest way

for sure yeah cause you don't want to be on the street beating people's ass but that's kind of how I grew up that was the neighborhood and stuff

that was the culture and so if anything now I like I really have worked hard to not feel that way and to not water those seeds you think music helped

with your anger? oh my god so much yeah and therapy but music yeah was like oh I'm feeling things and I can actually make sense of it I can get more curious about how I'm feeling instead of just being like I'm mad I don't know what to do with this.

It's like the Hulk, dude. Exactly. It seems like your partner in crime is this calm, cool, and collective. I'm the opposite. Yeah, I think I had to like... He had to learn how to get angry. I had to learn how to get angry, yeah. What was the first time you saw him get angry?

Dude, I actually remember... I don't know if we've ever talked about this. Go ahead. So him and I were I, we got real close real quick in the dorms. 18 years old. Whose car did we borrow? A lot.

We did borrow a car a lot. We borrowed this car a lot to go do things like grocery shopping, whatever. One time we went grocery shopping, came back. Was it Kyle? It was Kyle. Yeah. Thanks, Kyle. Kyle McGee. Shout out to Kyle. Thank you. I'll give him a shout out. What up, Kyle?

Thank you. Thanks for getting the boys a car. And we're carrying our groceries back to the dorms and this car drives by, this truck full of like whoever, like frat guys or whatever,

probably picking on us. No, but they like yelled something about. They called us the F word, I think. The F-A-G word. Yeah, yeah.

I think so. Oh, F-A-G? Yeah. Oh, the bad one. Yeah. And then they hit a red light

and you just like, you dropped, you dropped your groceries and like just started yelling at them like running up on them and I was still holding my groceries like whoa like is this

this guy's gonna be in my band I was like is this what is this what friendship is like dude I forgot about that I love it so much has changed I was 18 years old

but it was like you know it's like you don't disrespect people no where I grew up and so it's just like oh you just have to confront that head on. Now I'd laugh it off or whatever, you know, but 18-year-old me was pissed.

I guess I got your back. I don't know. Did you grow up in like a lower income neighborhood? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you had to fight to get what you wanted? Yeah. And just, I mean, there's just so much suffering all around us, you know, and no one was getting

what they needed. Right. And so that was just, that was just life. So why'd you guys pick Cal Poly? It's a good school. Yeah. For me, it was completely arbitrary.

I'd never thought I would go to college until I was a senior in high school and the high school counselor was like, you should apply to college. I was like,

what are you a good student? I was a good student just because I didn't want to be dumb. Right. You know? And I liked learning. I liked school, but I didn't study. I didn't like really try that hard.

I just like, I enjoy, I enjoy learning this subject and I don't want my peers to think I'm stupid. Yeah. You know, is that, is that important to you to have like this self-assurance people don't want my peers to think I'm stupid. Yeah. Is that important to you to have this self-assurance people don't think of you one way versus another?

That's a good question. I mean, definitely in high school it was like that. You want to be accepted. I transferred. My mom lied about my address, our address, and I transferred to a nice high school. Me too, bro! Saved my life. Dude! lied about my address, our address, and I transferred to like a nice high school. Me too, bro!

Saved my life. Dude! I was not going to go to Taft High School. I was going to get my ass kicked at Taft High School. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I was slated to go to a different school. My mom lied. Thank you, mom.

Shout out to mom. Shout out to Miss Prada. I almost got stabbed at my middle school. This guy pulled a knife out on me and he's like, I'm going to do something to you. You'll never forget. And my mom was like, fuck that. No reason. He said I looked at him weird.

I looked at him the wrong way. I was a sixth grader. Hormones are fucking weird. My mom was like, all right, we got to get you out of this. And so, yeah, so we, I changed schools. And then all of a sudden I was around all these kids that just like really like to learn and they were smart, came from good families. Their, their houses were like, you know, their garage was like bigger than where I grew up, you know? And I was like, Oh shit, I don't want to be, I want to be accepted by these kids. These are cool,

nice, loving people. So your mom saved your life. Oh, yeah. I mean, many times over. Yeah. And then it looks like the opposite side of the spectrum is Orange County. I mean, pretty much. Los Toros, where'd you go to high school? San Clemente. San Clemente. Yeah.

Okay. So this is an amazing story. So your friendship grew in the dorms. Instant best friends. What'd you see in his songwriting? You're like, I want to do this Well Kevin we didn't really write songs Kevin was playing the Beatles

And I was like oh This is fun I love the Beatles You had no piano skills at all right now No like the very very very beginning Of like tinkering around Definitely no guitar Definitely no guitar So Kevin would play The guitar definitely no guitar so Kevin would play

the guitar the acoustic guitar that he had and I would sing songs just like jokingly I honestly didn't have any like experience singing either

but it was like oh this is fun it wasn't like oh we're so good it was like oh this is really enjoyable that's how you guys like got close

like where'd you guys meet how'd you like what was the first... Do you remember this? Very clearly. He was playing Get Back, the Beatles song, with this door open. Not singing.

I just heard the chords. And I was like, Oh, I recognize that song. And I just walked in jokingly. And it was like, JoJo was a man. He's like, Oh, yeah.

And we just started... He was wishing it was just a bunch of pussy coming through his hair. Oh, dude. Oh, I love the beat. He's like, no, no. I'm waiting for the chicks to get here. Yeah, I left my door cracked with the guitar.

I did the same thing in college. I used to play really loud, but I wasn't good. I was just like singing loud. Hopefully, I get laid. You were a late bloomer, too? I used to play really loud, but I wasn't good. I was just like singing loud. Hopefully I get laid. You were a late bloomer too? I went to SF State. Yeah, I didn't. I played.

I started music when I was 19 too. Oh, cool. Nice. And this is so fascinating because it's kind of like parallel stories. You came from low-income housing too? No, I came from Orange County style. What part of? The Valley.

The Valley. Here in Calabasas. Okay, yeah. Ventura County. You're on your way driving. Totally. On your drive. Yeah, we stop at that Air One in Calabasas sometimes

when we're driving from LA up to San Luis Obispo. It's a grocery store. They have healthy things. This relationship is so beautiful to me because you're just joking around, having fun with your boy. Yeah. Were you serious about music yet, Kev?

No, no, no. You were just playing, having fun. It's just the thing I liked to do. Yeah. Kevin loved Led Zeppelin. We both loved Led Zeppelin too. And so Kevin was like into playing Led Zeppelin on guitar. Was he a good singer? Yeah. So he always had it in you. He always had it in you. I think I was not very good.

No, you were fine. I mean, you got better, but you started pretty good. I mean, you're a badass now. How old are y'all? The same age as you, I think. 33. Oh, so it took 15 years to get to this craft.

Yeah. Okay, so give me this story of how... What was the breaking point? Like, we want to take this seriously. Oh, yeah. I mean, because that was our freshman year in college. And we didn't start a band until after we graduated. And we went to college for five years.

So you were homies, though. We lived together for 10 years. Kevin and I were roommates for 10 years. Shut the fuck up. What? No fights at all? Nothing? But we get along so freaking well. Our personalities

complement each other so well. It's crazy. When you say fights, you mean like, oh, whatever dude, that's annoying. That's like a fight for us. It's like, oh, I disagree. You know? We're not like, we never had a fist fight. We've never been like, fuck off.

I never want to talk to you again. Does he scare you? No. I don't scare you, right? Not anymore. We're not going to be fighting, right, brother? No, but see, I think something changed in me when I was 18 in the dorms. It was either you or someone else in the dorms was like, yo, bro, that scared me. Like, you got all mad and punched the wall. Like, that scared me. And I was 18 in the dorms. It was either you or someone else in the dorms was like, yo, bro, that scared

me. You got all mad and punched the wall. That scared me. And I was like, oh, what? I don't want to scare people. That sucks. That's terrible. And so then I went the opposite direction and buried it. And then now I feel like I have a much healthier relationship with it.

Your therapist told you probably not to suppress it. Exactly. Let it flow out of you. Yeah. Create a safe container with it. Your therapist told you probably not to suppress it. Exactly. Let it flow out of you. Create a safe container for it. So you graduate college. What majors did you get? We were both science majors. Nick was a kinesiology major.

We applied to the modeling program, didn't get in. So we went science. So you went science. Why did you go science? You still didn't have an. So yeah. So we went science. Yeah. So you went science. Why did you go science? Did you, you still didn't have an itch that you guys are going to be in a band? No,

I wanted to be a physical therapist. So I went to school, studied kinesiology, was very like, oh yeah, I'm going to do PT for sure. Were you into sports still? Yeah.

With San Luis Obispo, what sports were good there? Baseball? I mean, our, yeah, our lives, our lives weren't music-based for a long time. I also studied science, was going to be an environmental scientist or food scientist, and then ended up doing that for a long time. Nick also had a full-time teaching gig for a while.

I was a high school Spanish teacher for five years. So you're, oh, that's sick. We both did a lot of sports through college and after. Kevin played roller hockey in college and they killed it. They were super good. They went to national championships.

Was it part of the college program? It was college, yeah. You're athletic as fuck. We're sports first. Same here. What did you play growing up? I was a swimmer and I played basketball Athletic as fuck. We're sports first. Okay. Same here. We always talk about you. We always love how we're like, what did you play growing up? I was a swimmer

and I played basketball, but I wasn't strong enough. Yeah, but you enjoyed it. I loved it. Yeah, I'm not saying I was super good at it, but I liked it. I liked playing football.

I played football in high school. I played rugby. So what was the switch? What year was it? Give me the switch. Yeah. 2012? No, I mean 2012, the

band started. So we actually started playing shows, but it's very much just like a group of friends for fun playing. Yeah. Our first coffee shops, donut shops. Like Slow Brew? Were you playing there yet? We got there eventually. That was years later. It took like two years to get to Slow Brew. How big is that cap? $500? $425

it was or $ 415 I think. Wow. Yeah. And that was... Okay. First song. What is it? What had you know when it was first clicking?

I mean, one of the first songs that we wrote together was Hannah Hannah, which is about a gal that lived down the hall from us in the dorm, in the sophomore year of college. So that was like 2008. We wrote that song. But again, this wasn't Proxima Parada. that was like 2008 we wrote that song.

But again, this wasn't Proxima Parada. It was like, we were just playing acoustic guitars. It was like folky, just like whatever we could do. But as we started the band, it started to get progressively more serious. And then some band members left. As things got more serious, life takes us away. Like, oh, uh, you know, life takes us away. Like, Oh,

I want more stability or like my, my girlfriend got into medical school that, that happened with one of our bandmates. So he moved actually to Colorado. Um, so, you know, things like that started happening. And then we started to find the people that were more interested in doing

this longterm. And it was just a slow progression until we didn't actually start touring full time until 2019. Wow. Yeah. And I was just a slow progression until... We didn't actually start touring full-time until 2019. Wow. Yeah. And I think by 2016, when we put out this album, Big 7, I think that's when it was like, cool, we made an album full of songs

that we're really proud of. Yeah. And it must be hard to start a band in a college town where it's kind of like an open door where people leave the college, go back to their home, you know, like it must've been hard to like have a grounded group of guys. Yeah.

It's a small town too. So there's like, there's not that many music venues. Yeah. Um, the music scene is, it's great, but it's small.

Yeah. Um, yeah. So it's just like trying to get out of San Luis Obispo was really hard. Yeah. I bet. What were the bands that like made it out of San, San Luis Obispo that you were looking up to I bet. What were the bands that made it out of San Luis Obispo that you were looking up to? We didn't really have

any big-time heroes. There's a band called Still Time that we knew about. But I think they did one tour, one national tour. And I don't know how fruitful it was for them, and they disbanded.

So we didn't really have like, oh man, we just got to do it was for them. And they disbanded. So we didn't really have like, oh man, we just got to do it just like them. We didn't have Andy Frasco. We just do it like this. So we kind of had to carve our own path in a way. Just slow. What were the learning blocks you learned from carving your own path?

That's a good question. I think one thing is just like letting other people help us. Yeah. Oh, there's stubborn. We want to do everything on our own. We always want to do everything on our own. Yeah.

Hell yeah. Because no one's going to care more than you do. Yeah. That's, that's something we found. Right. And so, but then like, like Nick saying, we got a booking agent in 2018.

It was years before that. We're like, I or the two of us were trying to just book us a show in Santa Barbara down the street and couldn't do it. No one would have us. How did booking agents get a hold of you? Was it that TikTok video yet? No. In 2018, our booking agent, Caleb, found our music on Spotify. Oh, the little

strangers guy. Yeah. Yeah. Caleb Coker. Great guy. Yeah, we freaking love Caleb. Great guy. Great guy. Huge support. And this is when we weren't touring at all. You know, we tried to do these little weekend things and he's like, you know, guys, I love your music. I would absolutely love to be of support. And for some

reason, after talking with him enough, we're like, you know, let's try it. We got nothing to lose. He kind of gave us that thing where he was like, we did like a little trial run, a few shows in California. And then he's like, where do you want to play next? We're like, what do you mean where?

Like, is there other places to play? Like we've already played Santa Barbara and San Francisco and LA so like is there more than that I don't know but then he's like California but he's like do you want to do like a whole summer

run of the whole country or do you want to just like do some weekend shows in California this is 2018 this is the top of 2019 now. Did you guys sell out Slow Brew yet? Yeah. A couple times? Yeah.

You guys feel confident? Yeah. We can't do this. Let's move this out of St. Louis. Yeah. And so it was at that top of 2019 where he was like, yeah, well, why don't you just book us anything you can for the entire summer, like a few months.

Book us all the shows you want. He's like, okay. And so that's when we quit our full-time jobs. That's when I had to do this for real. I was teaching high school Spanish and I gave him like six months advance. Like, okay, I'm not going to come back next year. That was so crazy.

We're like, all right, we're going to do this full-time. Yeah, I love that moment. That must have been pretty ballsy because that's a really like, to do that after you guys have like committed jobs like you fucking Oh, it was like six or seven years of What did your parents say? They're probably pissed as shit. I mean, they weren't excited.

They're supportive but not excited. You know, you go to college like everyone wants to see you succeed and their idea of success is like making a lot of money. Yeah. Isn't that weird? Yeah. The American dream is money instead of passion. Yeah.

And so it took a long time of us to be like, well, yeah, this is what we want to do. And I remember like, you know, my dad didn't get any sort of education. I think he made like sixth grade. And so he'd always like, oh, son, I found, what about, what if you taught here? What if you like, you could go teach in the prisons, you make a lot of money. I'm like, dad, that's, that's cool. But like, I'm, what if you taught here? What if you, like, you could go teach in the prisons. You make a lot of money. I'm like, dad, that's cool, but like, I'm doing music full time. He's like, yeah, but like, man, this is a good job.

Like, he'd like look things, jobs up for me and stuff, you know? He's like, no music, son. Go get a job. So it took some time. Well, yeah, like I hear you. That's cool. It's great. But there's also this. It took some time, but

everyone came around. Our family's very supportive now. My parents will come out to shows, which is just so cool. It's definitely been a journey. What was the first song you were truly proud of that you guys wrote together?

It probably wasn't until 2007. It probably wasn't together. Then separately, what were the songs? Can I answer for both of us? Sure, yeah. I think for me, which I actually did get a lot of help with Nick for this one, but the song I wrote

called Better Now I was very proud of that one What is it about? That song's about my own sort of battle with the past and nostalgia What were you going through?

I was going through a time of really feeling like i i missed my life as it was when i was in college and just after where i had specific group of friends specific lifestyle i didn't have a whole lot of like um pressure to like do anything serious. Yeah. And I just, I really thought that that, that was a better life for me. Yeah. And so it was more of like a reminder of myself to, to,

to know that I'm actually like, I'm doing okay now. Isn't it, isn't the future scary? Yeah. Like when we get comfortable in this one idea of what we think life is, cause that's all we know. And then we throw a curveball

and we're like oh shit that makes me even happier why are we afraid to like trust the future or trust our guts you know yeah it feels really bold to say that like this version of myself today is actually the best version of myself ever and leaning into that and that's why I feel like

when I'm singing the song that Kevin wrote Better Now that's what I'm choosing is like today is the best version of myself. And I'm going to keep trusting that. Cause you know, it's, it's, it's hard to trust that. Right.

Yeah. It's pretty wild. And then one time Nick brought in this song on that same album called time in a circle. And that song really just, I think blew everyone away. We're, we're like,

okay, this is going to be pretty cool. It's going to be special. Yeah, Time in a Circle was the song that I said the story about dislocating my shoulder in Nashville. I told you that story. And so, yeah, Time in a Circle was the first song that felt really, really vulnerable to write.

I remember saying, I got this song, but I don't know if we can put it on the album. I feel too naked. It's scary. The rest of us were like, for sure going on the album. Let's go. That's why you got all this.

That's why you got all this. Get you out of that fucking rut, man. Not only is it going on the album, it's the single. I was like, damn. It must have been, it's like, I'm barely getting to know you we're just starting our friendship

but like it it seems like it's hard for you to like open up in a way and it takes people to pull things out of you you know

like how you suppressed your anger before you found therapy all this stuff like you're afraid to unleash the vulnerability inside yourself yeah

I mean isn't it the scariest thing is like how, like to really show all parts of ourselves and accept all of that. Right. I mean, that's been like the journey. That's the whole thing of like anger, depression.

All of it is just for me, not accepting all parts of myself. And so like the image that I always think of is like, I got this bus full of all the parts of myself and I want to make sure that everyone's welcome on the bus. Right. And I'm going to let my best self drive the bus. Yeah.

Right? But I got to let everyone on. Yeah. You got to let the shit, dude. Let the asshole in. Get on the bus, bud. Let the child, everyone, all the five-year-old. I don't want the five-year-old to drive,

but he's welcome on. We'll put him in the front seat. Keep an eye on him. That's crazy. Let's go back to... This is a beautiful story, FYI. Thank you for this. Thank you. 2008, Caleb books you a tour.

2018. Were all the shows shitty? Was no one showing up? Oh, let's think. Some of them were, for sure. There's, like, yeah. There's a lot of bad ones, and there are a lot of good ones. Yeah. I think it was really exciting for us to just be in new cities.

Like, we lucked out. So, like, for example, the first New York City show that we played, Melt, was the opener. Oh, the opener and they were so like they they probably could have sold it out on their own so with us like it sold out and it was like wow our first new york city show is open for y'all they open for us now like we would open for them yeah they're crushing so fun to see yeah we're fans i'm so stoked to see their their journey

and so you know we that would be like a highlight. Like, oh my God, first time in Manhattan. It's sold out. This is crazy. Did the fans stay and watch it? Yeah, totally. Even though we didn't go on until like midnight. It was Mercury Lounge, you know. It's like the late show. But then we had like, what was the

low point? What was the Arizona one? Flagstaff. Flagstaff, Arizona. Best show of our lives. Nobody shows up Arizona one? Flagstaff. Flagstaff, Arizona. Nobody shows up to a fucking Flagstaff. It was a Flagstaff weekday away from everything. We do sound check and then we talk to the people and they're like,

hey, there's no tickets sold. Can we just give you like a hundred bucks cash? We'll open the doors. Yes, definitely. Anybody who wants to come in, let's do it. Did anyone show up? At one point, this group of eight people wandered in. Probably just wanted to go to the bar.

Yeah, they hung out. They watched a couple songs. And then they left. And we ended a song and there's no one there. We all looked at each other like, do we keep playing? I don't know. Literally, no one here. The growing pains of a band is the best. And the sound guy was like, sounds good.

You guys are crushing it. Keep on going. I'm still here, brother. Yeah, exactly. And we were supposed to stay that night and they had an apartment above the venue and they were providing us lodging. And so that was the plan.

But after the show, we were so mortified and humiliated that we were like, let's drive home. It was Aaron. Aaron stood up as soon as the last song ended. He goes, we're going home. It was the last show of the tour. Back your shit, boy! So we drove

all night long in a storm. Dude, wasn't it a snowstorm? I think so. It was a high desert. What was that drive? It was like however many hours? 17 hours? Yeah. And we were like, we're going home. We can't stay here.

We're just so humiliated. We just win some and lose some, bro. We lost some. We definitely lost some. We definitely lost some. We lost a lot of good men out there. It doesn't feel like war sometimes when you're on a tour. Seriously?

First tours. I mean, it rhymes for a reason, I think. It's like, okay, we get to this gig because we could eat. We could have sandwiches here. They give us free food. We're doing this gig because they're putting us up. When was your first real tour? 2006, 2007.

2007? That's incredible. I've been doing 250 shows a year since 2007. Amazing. But I was booking my band for the first six years. Wow. I did one semester at San Francisco State, and then I just bought a van, Craigslist musicians for the rest until I learned how to. So you graduated high school in 06 then?

06. Okay. You're one year older than us. 07. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sick. Okay. This is amazing. I learned that. So you graduated high school in 06 then? 06. Okay. You're one year older than us. 07. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sick. Okay. This is amazing.

I love this. I can't believe you've been touring for so long. This is so cool. That's all I know. It's just like I love when band break band breakdowns

Yeah. Shitty shows. Yeah. I fucking love those. Yeah, you've had really shitty shows, right? Oh my God. Playing for, you know, Hell's Angels and playing for fucking Nazis. I've done it. Yeah, you've had shitty shows, right? Oh, my God. Playing for Hell's Angels and playing for fucking Nazis.

I've done it all. Whoa. Oh, my God. Not telling people I'm Jewish wearing a hat. Whoa. But needed the money. Yeah. Oh, my God.

Playing in Bakersfield or something. Some bullshit. Yeah, we played in Bakersfield. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude, California's armpit. Shout out to Bakersfield. Let's go. We love you still, Bakersfield. No bad luck with you, Bakersfield, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude, California's armpit. Shout out to Bakersfield. Let's go.

We love you, Bakersfield. No bad luck with you, Bakersfield. Absolutely not. Okay, so I'm very curious about this TikTok thing that happened. Okay, yeah. 2019, what happened? Oh, no, no. The TikTok thing was in December.

Three months ago. Five months ago. What? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That just happened. Before we talk about that, 2019, you put out this record, Ghost, right? We put out the record called Kind Reminder. That just happened. Before we talk about that, 2019,

you put out this record Ghost, right? We put out the record called Kind Reminder. Kind Reminder, but it must have been a ghost. It must have been a ghost on it. Yeah. Okay. 2019, you're starting to get some traction a little bit.

Yeah, a little bit. Kayla's getting you some bigger dates. Right, right. And then COVID. COVID hits. Yeah. That must have been fucked up. That slowed us down a bit.

One year in, you guys are all stoked. You guys are being hits. Yeah. That must have been fucked up. That slowed us down a bit. One year in, you guys are all stoked. You guys are being brothers. And then... Yeah, we had like a full year of shows too. So that was rough. I know that you were on tour

when things hit. Yeah. And we were too. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we, you know... And we were going to go on tour with Lawrence. Yeah.

We were going to do some dates with them. That's a perfect lineup. You and Lawrence. Great. Yeah. We did end up doing it later, which was great. But... Loved touring with them. They're going to do some dates with them. That's a perfect lineup. You and Lawrence. We did end up doing it later, which was great.

We loved touring with them. They're amazing. Yeah, COVID happened. We were just sitting on the East Coast waiting to see if these Lawrence shows were going to get canceled or not. And they did. And you drove your ass home. So what were you doing at San Luis Obispo for those two years? You guys still live together? We wrote and recorded,

mixed, did everything, a new album, Second Brother. Cool. And so, yeah, we just got to work, you know,

did what we could do. Was it, you guys were like financially okay or were you kind of living broke? Living broke. Living broke. Yeah. We still are. But still fun.

Yeah. So you guys had each other. So did everyone move into the same house or did you guys move out of it? Did you get girlfriends? We just had like tiny little places. Yeah. Little you guys had each other. So did everyone move into the same house or did you guys move out of it? Did you get girlfriends? We just had like tiny little places. Yeah.

Little like studios. Did you get jobs? Like studios in people's backyards. No. I mean, we, yeah, we just like scraped by with the bare minimum, just like paying rent. You know? Yeah.

Living cheap. Where's the band making money in 2020? Yet? Like enough to like. Not enough, but you know but it got us by. Spotify would help just a tiny bit. Give us a little nudge every month. Were you getting monthlies? Were your monthlies

looking good by 2020? 2020, we were in the 200s or 200s, maybe 300,000 monthly listeners or something. There's some dough coming in. A little bit. Did you have a label? We had a label?

We had a label for the 2019 album, Kind Reminder. We had a label. A small indie label. It wasn't like a label that was funding us. But you were getting royalty checks. Or was it getting recouped? They were recouping.

At that time, we were recouping still. So now you're out of that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's fucking go. Cool. So now you're out of that. Yeah. Let's fucking go. Yeah. We recoup and we make money, baby. Let's go. Comeback story of the year. Little by little.

Okay. I know I got to be on an airplane in 20 minutes, but I have a couple more things I got to talk about. I do want to talk about the TikTok thing. I do want to talk about how important singing in Spanish is. Because I know you're putting out a record with English and Spanish, right?

Yeah, it's just one song in Spanish, but I do really love that song. So why did you decide to put that on the record? Well, I absolutely love languages. I love learning languages and studying them and just fascinated by other cultures.

Yeah, so with the Spanish song, it was the first song that I wrote that just came out fully in Spanish from not trying to translate anything. It just feels like a cool way of showing other parts of ourselves. Like kind of what we've been talking about is like trying to show all of us. I'm obsessed with languages and I wrote a song in Spanish and I like it and I want to share that with

people. You're going to learn French? I'm studying Brazilian Portuguese. That's the thing I'm into right now. No big deal. That's what I'm into right now. And then I'm trying to prepare for our Japan tour. So I got to take that more seriously. No, no.

It's not happening. I'm manifesting it. I like this. Manifestation, baby. There's zero plans as of now on Dukes Jack. It's going to happen. We will tour in Japan

and I will be addressing the crowd in Japanese For sure That's my dream I love those entertainers I don't doubt it I must One of my favorite artists is Damien Rice

Oh cool yeah And he knows like five languages So he goes out there worldly And just starts doing jokes in different languages That's the shit That's what I want Me too dude Yes

But you have a better brain than I do. I have two brain cells left. You have like 10,000 of them. Keep it strong, Big Daddy. That's awesome, man. Spanish is such a beautiful language to sing, right?

Absolutely. Have you guys ever toured in Spain or Mexico? No, we're working on it. We want to. Maybe we should do a tour together in Mexico? No, we're working on it. We want to. We really want to. Maybe we should do a tour together in Europe. 100%. We're pretty... We've never toured in Europe.

We've been trying to work it out. Just trying to figure out the right way to do it. Most of our listeners are in Europe, which is crazy. Yeah, let's pop off. I'll talk to Dave. Maybe we'll do a run next year. That'd be super fun. Yeah.

All right. Tell me about this TikTok thing. What happened? Okay. So we played our last show of the year, December 2nd of this, just last year, 2022. 2022.

And Kevin and I, it was like a longer, more arduous tour. And we're like, okay, cool. After that, we get a little break,

you know? And then it must've been December 9th. Five days later. A few days later, I get a text from someone late at night. I was just coming home from dinner and get a text

from an older... One of our hosts in Louisiana. They're like our Louisiana parents. And sends us this TikTok. I was like, I saw y'all on TikTok or like my son saw it

and sent it to me. And I'm like, oh, that's okay. Let's see it. I look at it. I was like, oh my God,

it's got a million views. It just came out today. I'm like, what? This is bonkers. And it's basically this guy just saying like, this is, in so many words, check out this song. This is's basically this guy just saying like, this is,

in so many words, check out this song. This is a song I think you'll like. Yeah. And it plays like, I don't know, seven seconds of Must Have Been a Ghost. Of course.

Yeah. It just plays like, the whole video I think is what, 13 seconds or so. Yeah. 13 seconds long. He's just promoting your song. He's just saying like,

hey, here's, he's a music curator. And he's just like, hey, here's a song I think you should check out. Never met this guy in our lives at the time. Never heard of his.

We don't, I'm not like active on Tik TOK or anything. And we're like, let's check this out. Like, Oh my God, this thing is blowing up thousands of comments and we're just watching it. And then the next day it's like,

did you have a Tik TOK? Like we had an account. Yeah, we did. Yeah. Not much activity or not many followers or anything. But what people were doing is they were going to Spotify and they're going to Apple Music.

They're like, oh, I like this song. I'm going to go listen to it. It's like action converting, yeah. And so we were probably in like the 300,000 monthly listeners when that happened. 350 or something thousand. Just about 400. Almost 400. Okay, almost 400.

And then all of a sudden, it just like jumped to like 1.3 million, like really fast. In like a week. Yeah. From this dude? From this dude. Yo, shout out to this dude.

His name is Matt. Yo, Matt. Yeah. His tag is Fuego Stein. I love it. Yeah. So his last name is Fire Stein. So Fuego Stein. Oh, my man's Jewish too. Shout out to Stein. I love it. Yeah. Fuego. His last name is Fire Stein. So Fuego Stein.

Oh, my man's Jewish too. Shout out to Matt. Our guy. Give him a voice. We've said this. We've said this a lot. He's a good dude. And what's cool is that it's by far the most popular video that he's ever had too.

I don't know what it's at now, like 20 something million views. Holy shit. Did your TikTok blow up or no? Not really. No. People, I don't think they were like, let's go see what TikTok has. Probably won't. Dude, I don't get TikTok.

But we knew it was big when all these people, like my parents' age, people who definitely don't use TikTok, were sending me the video. And then the song became the most viral song in the United States of America. And it was the third most viral song in the world for a while.

Are you in tune? Our song from 2019, three years later, America and it was the third most viral song in the world for a while on Spotify. Our song from 2019, three years later, is the most viral song in the country and the third most viral song on the planet for like a while, like a month. A couple weeks. Yo, you need to send this guy flowers. You better be kissing him on the forehead.

Dude, we are so appreciative. And what's cool is it's by far the most popular thing he ever put out. That's so cool. So, he would get something with like a million views, couple million,

and all of a sudden he's got this like 20 million thing happen. And it brought him like, His TikTok followers were like crazy. His TikTok is almost a million followers now.

And I think it was at like 500,000. I think it easily doubled. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? So, we're mutually like, fuck,

dude. We love you. Thank you, each other. I love you. He's such a sweet guy. Amazing. Because I've heard like sometimes Spotify numbers

don't resonate to ticket sales. Right, right. So how's that been resonating? It's definitely not one for one. That's for sure. Trying to navigate that right now. That'd be sick. A lot of those followers are in Europe.

So we had the most viral song in the UK, in Norway and Sweden and all this stuff, but it doesn't necessarily... We didn't tour there. Because a lot of these Spotify listeners aren't necessarily looking up your tour dates. They're just hearing your song on a playlist or on Spotify or on one of their

Discover Weekly things. But on this run that we've been on right now, we're touring with Wildchild right now. They're great, man. They're a great band. And we've definitely noticed there'll be like, you know, a 13-year-old in the crowd singing Must've Been a Ghost. I'm like, okay. He's from TikTok.

So when you got the viral hit, did like the fucking Record label wolves Start coming out Of the fucking Woodwork Everyone Oh that shit is so annoying Fuck those people

Yeah Oh now we want to Give you some love Oh yeah All these people So many Zoom meetings You know What do you guys

What are your plans And what's funny too Is like yeah We have a Whole new album Done Ready to go. You guys want to work together?

And they're kind of like, maybe. Such hoes. This record industry is such a bunch of fucking hoes, dude. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Maybe. Let's see if you get another TikTok hit. Yeah, dude.

Literally. Seriously. Literally. Well, it's like everyone's threatened because the record business doesn't make any money. So like if you can't find a band pre-hit, it's fucking wild. Yeah, you fucking hold your cards, boys. Don't fucking sell your soul to a deli. We did not.

We didn't jump on anything. We got a couple offers that we didn't accept. They weren't entertaining? Yeah. I mean, there's some things about them that were like, that would be cool. That's tempting. Money.

That sounds nice. But it wasn't the deals. Yeah, it's not worth it. Hold your goddamn cards. So yeah, we're holding our ownership of our music.

You know, so we won't be signed. We have a new album that we're putting out this year. We put out the first single, So Many Ways to Get Downtown. And we're just working with a distribution company.

It's awesome. And it's great. Secretly Canadian? STEM. STEM, cool. Yeah, because I remember when Dave, because Dave DeCian is one of my close friends. Yeah.

He's like flying out to go see this fucking band. They have this big TikTok thing going on. And he was super jazzed up about you. Oh, awesome. Finally, a band out of the fucking jam scene. Right. And you're not really a jam band. We're not a jam band. You write songs. And I love that becauseed up about you. Because it's finally a band out of the fucking jam scene. Right. We're not a jam band. We're not a jam band.

You write songs. And I love that. Because I write songs too. I'm like, I'm in the jam scene because of my live show. But we write songs. Yeah. Yeah. And to see Dave so excited that he has a band that has songs.

Yeah. Is so cool. That's cool. Yeah. We had to talk with him. We're like, so Dave, like, what, do you think we need to like become a jam band? He's like, no, no, no. Please. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no. Please no we had to talk with him. We're like, so Dave, do you think we need to become a jam band? He's like, no, no, no. Please, no.

Please, no. No, no, no. He's my son. He knows what he's got. He knows what he's got. No, we're so happy working with Dave and AJ. Great guys. 11-11.

AJ's great, man. Yeah, we're super happy with them. I mean, the fact that they didn't fly out to see us that day was pretty rad. Yeah. Pretty cool. It felt special. Yeah.

We really connect with them, too. I mean, everything Dave touches turns to gold, too, so you're good. You're down. It felt special. Yeah. We really connected them too. I mean, everything Dave touches turns to gold too, so you're good. You're down. We're down. Yeah. We're only like a,

you know, what, a month or so into our relationship and it's feeling good. It'll be fun. Yeah. Okay.

So, you got a new record. Especially the confidence in Dave. I like that. Oh, Dave's the best. Yeah. You have no like,

you have no vested interest in saying that to us and I like that. No, Dave's my guy. Yeah. I've, you know, he's my age and he's kicking ass as a manager. Kicking ass, yeah. We root for each other.

It's cool when we met him. Kevin and I talked, we had this Zoom meeting with him. And it's not like he wasn't trying to say everything we wanted to hear. We've been fed enough bullshit by now that we know when someone's just saying, he was just being himself.

And we're like, man, we really like this guy. It just felt good. It was like, let's work with him. I think my favorite thing about it, we had talked to a few other management companies and some people. And this one question we got from a lot of people, which I don't think we've talked about this,

but a lot of people asked, do you have anything you're interested in working on outside of music that we can help with? Yeah. Amazing. Which is cool, but at the moment it's very much no. And Dave was like, let's work on your music.

That's the thing. Why is there a question of what else we're doing right now? This is the thing. It's like, do you guys want to open a hotel? I'm like, no is the thing. It's like, do you guys want to open a hotel? Yeah. No. No, we'd like to. Do any of the things.

We have nothing. Yo, we got some NFTs we're working on. Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Manager. But he's like, how about we like get you touring up? Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. Let's play more shows.

Let's do Jam Cruise. I always trust a guy who's a diehard New York Giants fan because that team sucks all the time. And he still roots for him like the underdog. You know? Hell yeah. That's my guy. Yeah. That's my show pony. Okay. One more clap for Dave. Yeah. New York Giants fan because that team sucks all the time and he still roots for him like the underdog, you know. Hell yeah. That's my guy. That's my show pony.

One more clap for Dave. Yeah, absolutely. And AJ. We're not forgetting about you, Big Daddy. We love you too,

AJ. Yeah, absolutely. Now, AJ's getting stuff done. Yeah, he's the man. You need a day-to-day

because, you know, Dave's got, you know, Goose and all these bands that keep him busy, but he's still thinking about y'all,

but you need AJ to be your fucking workhorse he's got great ideas yeah he like yeah it's like he he's solid yeah he's really solid yeah so you got a new record out you're putting out you're going on tour i see you're um you're you're doing a headline tour right in the fall in the fall we haven't announced all these dates yet but we're doing this cross-country headliner tour. This comes out in August or late July, so let's talk about the fall tour. Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, great.

Perfect. Well, we're doing a headline run of the whole country, basically. Go, boys! Probably two, two and a half months. Yeah. And you guys are doing big rooms. Yeah, like the Brooklyn Bowl in New York for the first time. For us, it's big. It's a huge thousand cap.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah. Is it like a 900 or something? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're just super excited about Andy.

Yeah. He played a couple of shows. I know. I heard you another podcast. You'd say like, oh yeah, yeah. I'm 415. Yep. Yep.

I love that. I love the music. You've got the booking brain. I love it. I love numbers. I love that so much I love the music business you've got the booking brain I love it I love numbers I love strategy I love it so you're going on a fall tour you have openers yet we will by the time this airs we'll just like put it in there

we're opening the guys are opening are like damn that's a great band. Damn, damn, they're really doing well for themselves. We're so excited to see them. Regionally, a very strong band in the Northeast. So you put out your record in fall, what, September? We don't have a release date yet.

Cool, so you're just going to do a headline by the time this airs. Yeah, definitely in the fall. So you'll have an album out. We'll have singles out, more singles. I think we'll have... We'll have another single out soon, though. Yeah. Before this podcast comes out. We'll have singles out more singles I think we'll have we'll have another single out soon though before this podcast comes out definitely

so let's say so many ways to get to a mountain is already out and also tunnel through a mountain is out this is exciting and everyone

everyone loves tunnel through a mountain yeah in this future that it's already out it's doing so well it's out now

it's doing so well people are listening out now. It's doing so well. People are listening to it. It just bumped up Spotify numbers. I can't believe TikTok finally... TikTok loves it. See, put it into fruition. Our parents finally accept us. Yeah.

My dad loves me. My dad loves me. He stopped asking me to be a teacher. I'm doing Fuji Rock this summer. All my dreams are coming true. Boys, thanks for being on the show. We got to do this more. And we're going to play shows together.

We're doing part two. Because I want people to... The calm before the storm. Because I really feel like you guys are going to blow up. I really love your songs. I saw the energy in the room. I saw just the vibe. And I'm really... I'm team. Appreciate your belief in us. Thank really love your songs. I saw the energy in the room. I saw just the vibe. I'm team.

Appreciate your belief in us. Thank you. Let's do it. So my last question before we leave for now is, when it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? Damn. Damn.

Damn. You could do it individually or as a band. Yeah, probably individually. Man, I don't know if that's something I think about. You think about death? Yes. Think about legacy? I always have this weird feeling like I'm going to die young.

I do too. And it helps me to really take advantage of the time I have. I'm amazed. I'm so happy young. I do too. And it helps me to like really take advantage of the time I have. Yeah. I'm amazed. I'm so happy. Like it's funny, I live very healthy

and like I take good care of myself, but I thought I would have been dead by now. But here I am 33. What I want to be remembered by, I mean, I think what about just

encouraging people to accept all parts of themselves let everyone on the bus I love it I'm practicing that through my whole life in every way and it's hard, it's a long ass journey but maybe I'll encourage

some others to do that I'm stoked for you, what about you sir? I hate to have a non-answer but I feel like encourage some others to do that. I'm stoked for you. What about you, sir? Man, I hate to have a non-answer, but I feel like I've had to do so much work in my life of not worrying and stressing so much about that exact thing of what other people are going to think about me or do think about me and how that dictates the way I live my life

that I have to just be okay with whatever it is. That is an answer. That is an answer. Well, boys, I like that. What about you, Andy?

I'm sure you've answered this a lot on your podcast, but what comes up for you today? Maybe it's slightly different. I just want to make sure I, I, I gave a fighting effort for people to inspire them to be the exact person they want to be.

Yeah. Cool. I'm I'm completely myself. Some people I'm not for everybody but I'm in I'm myself.

I appreciate that about you. It's refreshing because we're you and I are very different but I respect the hell out of you or you. And like I see that.

It's like you're not trying to be someone else and it's really refreshing to see that. It's like, you're not trying to be someone else. And it's really refreshing to be around. It's like, it allows me to relax and be myself. Yeah. It's like, what's the point of like, you know,

who are we hiding from? Yeah. We're trying to impress these people who won't give a fuck who we are. Yeah. As the person we actually are. So we're going to like morph into a person they want us to be. It's exhausting. It's exhausting.

Yeah. Fuck that. Fuck that. Fuck that. Don't fucking sign your soul to the devil. We won't. Wait till the next TikTok hit and then fucking cash out. Let's go.

Go get them. Go get them. Oh my God. Boys, have fun out there and I'm rooting for you. So keep going. Happy flying. Where are you off to? I'm in Florida. Florida. Sugar Shack Sessions.

Oh, hell yeah. Oh, cool. We want to do that. I just met some dude who does that in Austin. That's how Little Stranger blew up. Tell Caleb to... Oh, what's up? Tell Caleb.

Yeah. Come through. Yeah. All right, boys. Great. Goodbye. Pleasure. Bye.

Yeah. You tuned in to the World Cypher Podcast with Andy Fresco. Thank you for listening to this episode produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo and Chris Lawrence we need you to help us save the world and spread the word, please subscribe rate the show, give us those crazy stars

iTunes, Spotify, wherever you're picking this shit up, follow us on Instagram at world's saving podcast for more info and updates, Fresco's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfrescott.com. And check our socials to see what's up next. Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert, that crazy shit show, or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain.

And after a year of keeping clean and playing safe, the band is back on tour. We thank our brand new talent booker mara davis we thank this week's guest our co-host and all the fringy frenzies that help make this show great thank you all and thank you for listening be your best be safe and we will be back next week no animals were harmed in the making of this podcast as far as we know any similarity instructional knowledge facts are fake it's purely coincidental