Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - CAAMP's Taylor Meier on No Setlists, Recording in a Ford Dealership & Arena Shows || World Saving Archive

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Taylor Meier of Ohio folk-rock sensation CAAMP joins Andy Frasco for an unforgettable conversation about making it in music without overthinking it. From Athens coffee shops to Columbus arena shows, Taylor shares his band's incredible journey. Episode Highlights: - How CAAMP recorded their debut album in a Ford dealership with a Windex bottle counterweight - The band's philosophy of never using setlists and reading the room every night - Taylor's mentor Jesse Henry - the long-haired folklore figure who taught songs, not scales - Why overthinking kills creativity and how tequila saved their first record - Stories from the road: $700 casino wins and pre-show dice games - The journey from 200 people at Casa Nueva to selling out Columbus's Nationwide Arena - Working with Phil Cook, Waxahatchee, and other North Carolina music legends Website: www.caamptheband.com We're psyched to partner up with 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: [phone]  Check out our new album Growing Pains on all platforms 5/23/25!! Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For all things Frasco, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out our sponsor, Gardenista: https://drinkgardenista.com/

Hey guys, it's Andy. Welcome to World Save a podcast. This week, we're going to be doing something special. I'm getting a little busier, so I can't do a podcast every week. I'm trying to get you three new ones a month. For one of the weeks, we're going to be doing the World Saving Archives, and we'll bring back one of our interviews from the past five years. You never know.

It could be the Billy Strings interview. It could be the camp interview. We're just, we want to bring back the ones for all the new listeners who don't want to dig deep in the archives. So we're going to present them to you. So if you like the interview, send it to your friends. Share it, like it, comment on it. Get this thing together. All right, guys, enjoy the World Saving Archives.

And I'll see you next week with a new episode. All right. Next up on the interview hour. You have Taylor from Camp. Yes. I love this interview, actually. He seems like a great dude. He works hard.

He likes to have fun. And he's from Columbus, Ohio. So shout out to Columbus, Ohio. These guys are blowing up. They're the next band up in that world. And I'm really happy for them. They're selling out tickets everywhere, and they just have a good mind state about the whole thing.

So, ladies gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, Taylor from camp Taylor Andy what's up dude oh man nothing just lighting up

a little palisanto over here setting the vibe get the vibes going dude we're here I'm here to talk to you

I'm getting the vibes gone here we are here we are what happened last night what'd you do oh man I made about

$700 at the casino let's fucking go dog let's go that's go That's what I'm talking about. What's your game? Blackjack.

Yeah? Black, yeah, yeah. Dabbling the roulette with the winnings, you know? But, man, we like to just, we like to put on the sport jackets and go and just have a nice evening. Cip white Russians, you know. Where are you living? Columbus, Columbus, Ohio. You're still there?

Yeah, whole band lives here now. You know, I want to talk. You used to live in Athens, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You and LeBron. No, no. LeBron's from Akron.

That's what I thought, but I heard he kind of lived here. I thought he was, like, in the suburbs. How far is Athens from Akron? Far. Oh, really? Oh, man. Yeah, Akron's up north and Athens is on, like, the border of West Virginia down south. Well, there it goes.

I was like, damn, Taylor and LeBron. living out there in Athens. I got fucked there. But let's talk about being an Ohio boy. What did you learn from... I heard you're a hockey guy. Man, we love the Blue Jackets. Yeah, we're hockey guys.

Evan, the banjo player from camp. He grew up. He played all through high school. And he sort of got me into it. Weirdly enough, man, we've actually met more than a few NHL players. I think it's kind of like they gravitate towards it in the locker rooms for like, I don't know, for what would have, whatever reason. But we've ended up hanging out with some pretty cool dudes.

What are the parallels between, you know, I'm a big sports guy as well. And I feel like there's a lot of parallels in sports and music. What are the parallels between hockey and songwriting? I suppose like the obvious one is the fluidity, you know. I think that's the coolest thing about hockey and maybe the coolest thing about songwriting now that I'm saying it out loud is that you know I mean

there are only so many options so many buttons so many plays that you can make right so many chords but we all navigate them differently and I think you could liken that to hockey and that like you know there's only so many things you can do with a puck and a stick but everyone plays differently yeah so that's what I would say

What about like the concept of if it ain't broke, don't fix it? That's very, very prevalent in, I think, both hockey and songwriting. You know, like there are a lot of ways that you can absolutely bungle a perfectly good song by trying to do something too tricky. Like, you know, and I don't like, I feel like every time I make stands like the one I'm about to make in like three years later it's like the coolest thing to me but like right now i hate key changes i don't know why people put them in songs i i don't agree with like the feeling that happens through my body when a key change hits right what and keep going so like that for me that is like

you know that's taking it a little to a place maybe you shouldn't have like when you're on the ice and you're twirling around like a like a fairy and get you know smoked by defender yeah but but do you think it's like you know it's like why do we overthink life you know why can we just like always just like is it growing is growing important or is it just making sure that we're comfortable what about for you taylor oh man i that's a tough one dude because convert is so needed you know like we all have our little like our routines whatever it is like the littlest things in your day that you just like you like you like you almost necessitate to function but at the same time you know there's all those

all those things about you know if you ain't you ain't growing you're dying and you know all the bob dillon it's like don't stand in the in the path you know get out of the way yeah exactly um but yeah growth is, I mean, it's massively important. And even if it's, even if it's slow, slow and little things daily, you know, like, I don't think camp has necessarily, like, grown crazily away from its roots, but we definitely sound different and are different people, you know? Right. What did, like, three years of touring the record and seeing you guys, I mean, you guys blew up

in the last couple years, and I know I don't, you guys probably. been doing this for a while, but like throughout the progression of just going to bigger venues, bigger shows, is it the change of mind state that makes you want to make bigger, different records? Yeah. I mean, that, like, that was huge for us. Like, I think that's a pretty stereotypical path for a band to take, too, is like, you know, Evan and I, we independently released the first record. It's just a guitar and a banjo. And, like, we weren't even that good at, like our first instruments. I mean, the way we made the first record in itself

is just kind of a, it's kind of a miracle. Tell me about it. What happened? What did you do? What happened? Oh, dude. I mean, so it was just this classic, like, a music mentor of mine,

heard these couple of songs that I'd written. And I was playing them down at the open mics in Athens. And Ev came down. He'd moved down to town and just helped me hone him. Then we got this offer to go, record for free in Troy Ohio and at studio and we went and it was just it was this old Ford showroom like fully concrete no like not built out at all and like we like moved these like sound baffles kind of like in a little circle Evan and I set up facing each other my vocal mic was

counterweighted by a windex bottle we duct taped a windex bottle at the back of it because the mic stand wouldn't like the mic was too heavy right so it was like sinking down while we were doing takes and i'm like trying to chase it it was i mean dude ev played i mean he played the kick drummer with his hand because we couldn't keep time with our feet you know like we weren't drummers you and uh yeah that's it man i mean we played everything live oh this is the best part about it too so we did the whole thing in two days but it was really about two hours because we tracked all the we tracked like 10 songs right and like we played each song like three times live and we just picked the best one yeah but on the second day we were there we went and we took

a dinner break at this mexican restaurant and we kind of got loose on like tecates and some tequila yeah yeah and we came back and jesse jesse henry my mentor he was like hey well you guys you you mind tracking vagabond just one more time for me we're like yeah sure And we're kind of drunk and loose and we've been playing all day so we're all warmed up and we just nail it and he just pops his head in the door

and he's like, all right, let's do Ohio. And long story short, basically like he just popped his head in and we just did the whole record. We just ran it. Oh my God. And that's what you're here, dude. There's barely in you.

Let's fucking go, boys. See, little liquid cards. That's all you need. Isn't it funny when we stop over thinking? making things. You know, it's like, that's all it was. It's all it is. We stop over thinking things, and all of a sudden we open ourselves up, if you want to get hippie about it, open the vessel up. And all of a sudden, we're making, we're creating the music we hear in our head. Yeah, for real, man. I mean, like, and that's, that's how it goes just with everything. Like,

as the shows get bigger and, you know, maybe you've got nerves. Like, Ev used to, he didn't have like stage fright but he used to just pace before shows and it would just freak us out we'd be like hey man like we've done this a bunch of times we're gonna just go do it again you know and as soon as you stop overthinking things like now you should see us before sets people like our openers and people we tour with are always like don't you guys like warm up or like huddle up or do like a thing you know because we're just like in the green room I mean like I started this podcast with like we we love to gamble so we're like constantly rolling dice or like watching games you know hell yeah and then you know stage manager comes

in and he's like all right five minutes put your ears in when you let a rip you know that's a thing you know everyone has their own routine I mean whatever makes you comfortable you know I watch lake yeah I watch old Laker games that's what I do I love that you know I I only write to like, I write a lot to TV shows and movies that I've seen before. Oh, to explain that. So, I don't know, really. I think it's pretty, like, for me, it's just like, like, I like something going on in the background so that I'm not overthinking, you know,

I'm not like, because I write very like, I don't know, it's hard to explain because I never really feel like I sit down to write. I'm never like, I'm going to write. that sad song today or I'm going to write that catchy that catchy boy today you know I like just pop on the office or this quirky British TV show I like called Detectoris and I just kind of sit there and don't overthink it and strum the same chords I've always known and sometimes you chase something down the rabbit hole and it comes out well right sometimes you're just watching your old TV show yeah and you know and you're adding to the old TV show because you know you

you know the feeling of that TV show. So you're just adding on to it. That's a great point. That's a great point. Because you've seen it before. What about when you're like, do you ever just like put on a new movie and try to write to it?

Yeah. Well, that like that is more of like, sometimes when I'm watching a new movie and it's just not, it's not cutting it. Then I'm like, let me see this guitar real quick. And then all of a sudden the movie's muted.

And I'm, you're immersed into the song so you need both sides of it i want to i want to know um a little bit about jesse why why is your mentor and what what is he taught you about songwriting that makes him your mentor man jesse is a special special dude so his name is jesse henry and i met him my sophomore year i kind of fell in love with music and i quit i was a i played lacrosse and football just for you know, high school. And yeah, my parents were just kind of like, you can't, you can't just do nothing, you know. So I was like, all right, well, I want to do guitar. So through the great find of like suburban moms, my mom finds Jesse Henry. And he comes over and this dude is just like,

he's just iconic, man. Like he's six, four big burly dude, hair down to just about his ass and just comes in and puts his guitar case down and opens it up and it smells like weed and he's all sweaty and he's like, all right, what do you want to learn? And I'm just like, this guy is incredible, incredible. He feels like a folklore, honestly. Like he, when you hear him sing and talk, like he, and just his vast knowledge of music, he does, he feels like folklore. Like, I don't know how else to put it. But basically, started doing lessons. And I don't know, something about like music theory or me and math i just i couldn't i wasn't having a great time with like the theory of music like the scale and the actual runnings of it and so what we started doing

um and instead of discouraging me jesse was like he was just totally cool but he was like well and we're not going to run scales and learn you know harmonies like let's you got to give me like three songs a week and you got to learn them right so i just started learning like dylan's songs and Rayla Monta and Hetty shit like Trevor Hall and you know I was super into reggae for a long time so I was just learning the solo from like no woman no cry and instead of like knowing that that's just an a minor pentatonic you're like this is the solo from no woman no cry and then it gets your fingers moving and you get inspired by the sounds not necessarily the system you know right so um I guess jet that's my biggest like

like accreditation to Jesse is just like that he wasn't off put or like he wasn't condescending to me because I didn't want to learn the inner workings like I just love music and like he knew that so we just played music you know yeah we kept in touch for years and eventually it was just like the lessons are only 20 bucks so it kind of got to the point where we just started hanging out and I wouldn't even give him the 20 bucks at the end of the session he'd just be like I'll see you next week. You know, and we were just friends. Dude.

I mean, we're still friends. We just had the six-year anniversary for the first camp record. Jesse called me yesterday. We talked for half hour, you know? Yeah. He's a critic. What did you guys talk about? Well, man, he's a crazy dude.

And he goes down to, like, Mexico and Peru and just immerses himself and whatever music he's into that year. Like, sometimes it's Brazilian stuff. Sometimes it's, you know, Portuguese stuff. like and he'll just go go to a country and just come back and like sing you a song in Spanish and he's like this dude I mean he's from Lima Ohio went to school in Kansas and then you hear him just like belt this beautiful Brazilian ballad and you're just like ah he's I admire him so much he's such a he's a student of that of it all you know he's like

he's totally in love with it and like he doesn't give a shit about money or fame or anything he's just like he's just his own dude yeah I mean that's probably the most inspiring thing you know a lot of people just chase the money or chase you know the song he's chasing what music does to him

oh dude it's like and it's such a pure it's such a pure chase when you do it like that you know like I try to check myself Evan and I do I think we're super humble dudes but like it's like the moment that I start

you know, getting greedy. Like somebody, like Jesse's going to come around and be like, yo, you know, check yourself. Yeah. Just because you're making money right now, Taylor, doesn't mean you won't be making money in a couple years, big dog. Right, right, right. You know, who knows how long this train lasts.

It will last for a while. I'm feeling my, I used to, you know, your guy, your Jesse is the guy who I started writing songs with Mike Taylor. you know him from his gold messenger? Man, Mike is a good friend. Dude, Mike's the man. I'm on, you guys, I've on 7S management where they have Aaron Ray. It feels like you work with all the bands on 7S.

Okay, yeah, no, totally. His gold messenger, Aaron Ray, rate lift. Yeah, man. Yeah, so I've got, not to like plug anything, but I've got this solo project I call Sumbuck, and I've actually been spending time in Durham tracking it with Mike and Chris Berner and Liebermento

and Nick Falk, yeah. Oh my, okay. Isn't Mike the goat? Yeah. Mike's the goat. Dude. Mike, he is,

he is the goat, man. He is such a true dude. I respect his taste in music and his songwriting. And just like, he came into the room and he laid down

just like two of the most like song changing and like evoking guitar parts on two of my songs that like I've ever heard. And then at the end of the week when I hit him up and I'm like, hey, man, you know, the other guys are sending me their day rates like, feel free to send me an invoice or I'll Venmo you or whatever you want. And he just goes, we're good, man. You'll pay me back someday. See, that's what I'm talking about. And I'm just like, this dude is so just cool. You know, he's just a cool man. Yeah.

Gardenista might have a great story about this. I went on a date. She kind of was looking at me funny because I was kept on asking for Jameson on the Rocks at this really fancy restaurant. So I saw Gardenista. These guys are my sponsors. I thought it would be cool to like say, hey, I'll grab Gardenista on ice. And I did. And she. So do you want to be a dirtbag? Fucking drink Jameson. But if you want to be sophisticated, go to Gardenista, drink some on ice and tell them Frasco sent you. You know, it's so different. Like, you know, you ever write songs in Nashville where it's all about business and it's all about fucking the percentages of you ever have to do any of that shit? Yeah, that's tough.

I have done it. I haven't done it in years. But I got into it for a second. And I don't know. It's like I know that that's a lucrative and a creative place for a lot of people who are super good at it. But for me, it just felt like I was going to these rooms.

And my personal experience was just like, I kind of felt like I coughed up, like, five real good songs that, like, you know, like I had started. I was like, hey, I got this. Like, let's finish it. And then at the end of the day, and it's nothing against the people I wrote with, they were incredible. But it's like, okay, now instead of 100%, you have 50% of that song. And if they don't want to cut it and you don't want to cut it, it just goes into a little filing cut it. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Like, I talked to, like, you know, like Brent Cobbs of the worlds and stuff

and those dudes who just write songs for everyone. Like, how do you decide when to give a song to someone else and keep it? Well, yeah, and that's funny that you even bring him up because I wrote a song with Brent and I was super pumped about it and I thought he was going to cut it and then he didn't. You're like, fuck. God damn it. I brought a heater there, too. It is crazy.

It's like, how do you decide which songs make it on the camp record? Oh, man. It's, I don't know. It's like, you know, I guess it just depends. You know how it goes. Like you record until your eyes bleed and then you kind of see how it all lays together. And for me, it's always been relatively easy to kind of lay things to the side or choose not to record something or re-record something. I like the albums to, like, to read, like, books, you know?

So if you're listening, something jars you in the wrong way, it's either shouldn't be in there or it's in the wrong order, you know? And I love that part of the process, but I love that a lot. Do you ever ever overthink that too much? No, dude. I mean, honestly, camp albums are kind of free-for-alls. Like, there are songs on the last record by and by, like, of love and life. I wrote that when I was 17.

feels like home was one of the first songs Evan and I, like, wrote together, like, together, together. Like, there are, like, 26, which is on the second camp album, was the first song that Ev, like, wrote a banjo lick for. And for whatever reason, when we went to cut it, you know, with Jesse and do that first record, we, it was existed and it was practice. We just, it just didn't fit. And songs kind of, like, they kind of show themselves at, at different times. I mean, dude, two of the songs, one of the songs on this new record is a straight up voice memo, like, of me. Shut the fuck up, really? Yeah.

Me at some ungodly hour of the morning just like wrote this song. I thought the timbre and the tempo and the tones were all just awesome. So we just put a little compression on it and did a little defuzzer and it sounds fucking great. It's like the best sounding song on the record and I recorded it on iPhone 9, you know. just like cool shit man it just goes back to what you're saying about like it doesn't matter what studio you're at it's about the songs like you said you're at the ford dealership putting out your first record or whatever the for it's like yeah we got to stop overthinking that the process is being in these big studios and being you know getting that big record deal we don't need any of

that shit we need to focus on the songs man the songs and in the in the the comfortability of everything. Like, obviously you want to be pushing yourself, but like, man, I can't even like, I can't even imagine trying to cut something in like, you know, an electric lady or or an, or an Abbey Road or, you know, an Apple Steelers and just be like, I can't, I don't even feel like I can sneeze in here, you know, like, how am I supposed to sing? And, like, man, I'll throw props too to overdue lane down in North Carolina where I think Hiss has done most of his records, but, man, the comfortability of that spot is

off the charts. And it's just, it's in a strip, it's in a strip mall, dude. Yeah. Like, you're, like, there's like a massage parlor next door. And, but in our little, it's like, great. It smells like coffee and weed. And we're, we're chilling

and grooving real hard, you know? And you'd never know we were in there. I love that. Yeah. How important is, like, taking pressure out of the equation to be spontaneous? oh i think it's so important man i think that's like that's something that you learn and you grow like with your art you know like i feel like the like the way young artists or at least how we were in our younger days like you approach a record and you're like we're going to do it in order

and we're going to do these songs you know like and you kind of like you almost drill sergeant yourself out and then as you learn and you grow and you you don't take yourself too seriously and and like we said like you don't get too up in your head about the pace or the creative process like and just let it go I find that like we're at a really special place as a band I think just like maturity wise as people like we're we're decent at our crafts now you know like all of us are very not very we've got a lot of room to grow but like we're seasoned at a lot of instruments now you know like everyone in camp can play the drums everyone can play piano everyone can play guitar only evan can play banjo though we'll stick with that we'll stick with f on the banjo

yeah he's he i mean dude i wouldn't approach that he is so graceful on that instrument i've never seen anything like it but this album it felt like it just felt like easy like we we just the song you just pick the songs play the parts like we were just moving at a very cool pace and process and i think we found we found kind of like our groove where we don't overthink something and we lay a base on on a nest of songs so that way if we're starting to feel like you're beating your head against a wall on one you're just like hey well why don't we go do yeah base on fever you know like let's let's just switch gears and And then you make headway on another song and then all of a sudden you're like,

wait, I figured out the other song. Like, let's go back. I think I figured it out, you know. I feel like, yeah, I feel like when you have that kind of flow, it adds kind of just like an unconscious comfortability into the music, makes it more approachable. And like somehow the listener, like, in God, I'm getting heady. but it's just like somehow that's got to be detectable, you know? Yeah.

Like I feel that's why people like live records so much or people like, you know, all the records that they cut it, Big Pink, or any of those studios where it was just kind of like a house and a vibe and a time. And people return over and over to those records, and it's not because, you know, they were using some $100,000 mic in an ISO booth. Like they were using a 58 into a taskam in somebody's,

basement and it sounds fucking cool you know and they were comfortable so you you feel comfortable with the music it's like the idea of not overthinking and using your instincts exactly yeah instincts man i mean that's that's the that that is the most like not sought after because you can't really get it it's instinctual but like that is i think the coolest and most recognizable trait in the baddest dudes in music. Right. Is there instants? You know, it's just like they know where something needs to go and they need to hear it now. And if you do it in a cool and

calm and fucking cold way, that's how you get chills. Right. Like those dudes like, do you know Michael Liebermento? Who's that? Just through that circle? No, no, I don't. he's the he's done a bunch of cool shit man I mean but he he plays down a lot with those North Carolina guys

like he's been in Phil Cook's bands and he's Phil's a bad motherfucker dude oh Phil's incredible he's on the new record he played yeah you got the all-star crew you got Aaron Ray heard

you got Ray Lift you got cook yeah what do you got his to his is on my solo stuff but not on any camera hockey of great musicians, dude. Let's fucking go. Hey, guys, it's Andy, and I want to talk a little bit about volume.com.

Yes, volume.com. Our sugar daddy, yes, our sponsor, and we are doing a only Frasco subscription. For five bucks a month, we're going to have extended videos of the podcast. You're going to have a live stream once a month of the band. You're going to have live streams of us making the new record. So head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco subscribe. It's only five bucks. I got a cup of coffee.

today, it was $7.50. You could just spend one cup of coffee and get all the frasco you want. So head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco and subscribe. Support your guys. Maybe I'll even pay Nick Moore. You never know. I mean, the list doesn't stop there. We're going to name drop.

Come on. Name drop them all, Taylor. I want to hear everything. Okay. All right. Katie, Crutchfield, Wax of Hatchez. Oh, yeah. Katie's killer.

I just interviewed Kevin Morby, her boyfriend. He's fucking awesome. he's a great fucking he's it you want to talk about a musician and a producer tone chaser with instincts that's a dude um who else he got yeah like prelifts on it um matt mccahn one of the drummers for bonnie verre which is like my all-time fave um he's on it um Brad cooked helped produce uh Beatrice artola helped produce and they're just fucking insane people do you ever feel like you're not worthy to be in that room

pretty much like the entire time I was in the room yeah why is our ego do that I mean like you have made great records with the last couple years and still we go with these monsters and we're like oh shit I have no idea I would like to blame it on something like an age difference or something

but I know that even if I was the exact same age as Ray Liff or Phil or any of those dudes, I would, I would totally feel inferior, like, regardless. It's that idea of overthinking, bro. It's back to that overthinking and not just, like, the Beth athletes don't overthink a shot. They go straight instinct. Right.

Absolutely, man. And, I mean, it's like, it is cool because, you know, it's like our ego doesn't, or at least hopefully, mine doesn't. Not yet. You don't, you don't, uh, well, I was going to say it. doesn't keep you down all the time like after we cut fever dude we just had this like monster moment for me like a fucking core memory like we're in this studio out in the woods north carolina it's called betties and you're just i'm cutting a song and i'm just i'm just mick jagger

into a mic evs on guitar matt's on bass joe's on the organ fills on the keys Matt McCann's on the drums and then we got Raitliff and Waxahatchy in two different corners doing carpenties you know and I'm just kind of like moving my arms around

like I know what I'm doing and we cut this song and then we let it ring out and everyone's kind of looking at each other you know that moment where you're like and Phil just goes good song man and I was like

whoa like and then then you have those little moments where you're like yeah that is it is a good song yeah you pat yourself back and you're like I do I can totally be in this room yeah I can totally see it says breaking the glass moments you know what was your first show where you felt like the glass was broken you guys are ready to fuck shit up oh my god dude it was sorry we used to play this open mic down in Athens Ohio called Casa Nueva it's just It's kind of like incredible canteena worker-owned Mexican restaurant fucking vibe. And they've got a little stage and every Wednesday night, it was $3 house margs and $2 pvrs

and we would get to the open mic and just get wild. And that's kind of like where we were born and we raised like we honed our craft and we honed like how to, or at least how we thought, you know, to like catch people's attention and draw a crowd and get them moving. And so we moved back to Columbus, right? And we kind of like got some Spotify traction. We went out. We did a tour with Rainbow Kitten Surprise. We come back. We book a headline show at Kasa. And like when we came into town, there was 200 people like in line for the show wrapped around the whole street. We were just like, and like six months ago,

we were just college kids living in this town playing the open mic. Right. So that was like a huge glass ceiling for me. I was like, whoa, this is very real. Like, people want to see us play. Yeah. For real. Isn't it crazy?

Like, you have to like open for someone, for someone to be like, oh yeah, you're cool now. Yeah. Someone's got a grandfather, you know. Yeah. yeah you gotta get the you gotta get the sword in you know you gotta get sworn in to the fucking cool exactly you gotta get knighted i mean that's that's like a huge part like of a lot of people's legacies you know it's true like some people it's almost like you like you can't even talk

about it without saying like oh so-and-so and this is like they were brought up like like the you know the classic like ferrell for real saw a video of maggie rogers and now maggie Roger's God, you know, which, I mean, you know, she deserves to be. She's, she's got a whole fucking, whole fucking vibe going on. Yeah, she's a bad, she's a bad motherfucker, dude. She's a bad woman. Yeah. Yeah, she is.

But just like, you know what I mean? Like, there's some folks, like, that you're always, like, in tandem with. Yeah. Like, I think ours is, you know, like, Jesse is pretty synonymous with Camp, you know. He, he was instrumental. But the family's grown, you know. It's fucking beautiful. You know, I want to keep talking about this, like, spontaneous type of life living.

Do you take that same concept with your live show, or do you have, like, a set show every night? No, man. Yeah, we actually, we don't do set lists. Let's go. Boys, I fucking like you, Taylor. Let's go, dude. Tell me about that. What's your philosophy of no set list?

Well, you know, it just, it just penss me up, you know? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I don't feel free to breathe with the crowd, you know, like some nights I want to start electric and some nights I don't want to put down my electric guitar. Some nights I want to be the quietest, most intimate and tight show you've ever heard. And some nights I want to flail and jump on the speakers and do crazy shit. And man, we, we try to be as genuine in performance as we can. And like, when I hear people like, you know obviously there's degrees of it but like if there is a sincere call out like and i hear someone needing a song like they need this song i mean we cape up right up and play it yeah that just like that's that's how that's how it is and i mean it's hell on the crew you should see them trying to try to light the stage and get my guitars ready and i'm just like you know it's it's but it's it's fun for that man like that's we try to keep things light and it's like that's like whatever it is you mess up just like do it full speed like let's let's let's just let's have

fun up here do you feel like you so that's no setless that's do you feel like you had to play a couple songs every show you know you do but like you you can't you're never going to please everybody and the sometimes the songs you have to play are you it's like are you do i have to play them or am I having to play them for you, you know? Yeah. Because there's both, like, there's songs that I have to play every set, you know, where like there's a solo or a vocal run that like I personally need. Yeah. And then there's songs that's like, you know, sometimes you either through the crowd shouting or just through the timbre of the room, there's some songs that you know that you should play.

Right. And we're, we're firm believers in, you know, giving the people the hits. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. Let's go.

Give them the hits, Taylor. Give them the goddamn hits. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like I'm all, I'm all for,

you know, whatever, an artist playing their new shit, plan, playing, exploring something going further into their, you know. But,

you know, whatever. It's like, whatever your song is. You go see Dave Matthews and he doesn't play Crash. You're bummed. Yeah. Guess what? Guess what?

He never plays Crash. Well, I hope you keep playing your hits, bud. How important is living in the moment for you? Oh, hugely, dude. Is it hard for you to live in the moment? In ways. In ways when you see your whole. Like, you know, in some ways, I enjoy how organized my life is.

But like sometimes when I look at the Google calendar and I see that like my life is essentially planned out a year ahead of me, I'm like, that's a little disenchanting at times, you know? And obviously, as we get older, I'm building in more time for just solo endeavors to do life. Right. know, because although this is our lives, it's not, it doesn't encompass all of it, you know. And we fully intend to do this until we croak, but like being able to, like, have your own hobbies and have relationships outside of the band, you know, I think that's like the only way

the band remains possible, you know? Yeah. Like we've all got to live and breathe on our own. So in some ways, yeah, man, like, it is tough to live in the moment because, like, my moments are planned out nine, you know, nine to 12 months ahead of time. And it's like, you know, like I got a call from my manager yesterday. And he was just like, hey, we got this headline offer for a festival next May. And I was like, it's not even this May. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that like you know and but at the same time man it's it's cool

it's cool to know that things are things are popping and they're organized and and they're out ahead in front of us and we can we can weave in our personal fancies in between you know yeah and also like we forget that we're in control you know you're totally in control the whole time yeah so we could beat we could stress out yeah exactly it's the art of saying no that makes us free you should see me i mean you should see me in the in the green room or in a radio station lobby and i'm like what what the fuck is this why am i here same bro and and they'll just look at me and be like okay dude well you said yes so we're here like like they know but you know it's not all me like you know you feel obligated in some ways you get coerced it's it's part of the game you gotta you gotta play the game

our managers know when to ask us for things when we're happy you know oh exactly oh exactly and they do it in these ways man where it's like i was like all right we're gonna do a set number of shows this year right i'm gonna agree to it at a lump sum rate and that's it and then And then what happens is they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Like, we don't want to overwork you this year. And then you agree to something. But then over months, there will just be little things where like, hey, you know, you're already going to be out in Arkansas. Do you think we should just tack on a Kansas city?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally, man. Yeah, I'm already there. Why wouldn't we tack on a Kansas city? Oh, and should we just tack on a Tulsa if we're going to do Kansas City? And then I'm like, yeah, of course we'll do Tulsa. Yeah. And then six months later, after you agreed to the original routing,

he announced the world, the world tour on Instagram, and you look at all these dates, my eyes about shot out of my head. I was like, holy shit. Like, we built out a year. Yeah. And I mean, I will say, like, I am feeling, feeling dangerous. Like, I want to play these shows, man. I'm feeling like we're in a really good.

spot as a band and we're playing well and I'm excited and we're all healthy. So like when I looked at it, I was like surprised and kind of intimidated, but then I was like, oh, this is going to be so fun. Right. You know, play the most beautiful rooms in the country and some of the most kick-ass bands and music are, you know, playing with us. And it's, yeah, and then you just get lucky. You feel lucky. Yeah, you know what? And it's also like, well, it's like going back to living in the moment. We're not living the moment. We're looking at what we have to do next year. Let's just worry about this week, you know? Right. For real. You know, which is crazy, dude, because you can be like, people can be like, yeah, man, what you, whether it's what did you do yesterday or what are you doing

tomorrow? And I'm always like, I, you know, I've gotten no idea. Yeah. But you can also ask me what I'm doing, you know, November 21st, 2025. And I'll, I'll pull up the Google Cal and tell you, exactly. what I'll be doing. So maybe we need both, in a sense, to keep us balance. You just can't, you know, get too caught up in either of them. You ever get caught up in the moment two months where you started just taking too many drugs or fucking too many one-night stands or getting that world?

Absolutely. I mean, luckily not, like, either of those things, like, to an extreme. But we, I think we all have very, like, you know, semi-addictive personalities and like it's easy to just like right I mean

it's it's kind of hard to I mean it's with everything dude like you know I smoke too much weed I smoke too many cigarettes I drink too many drinks it's like I mean it's

and but we're all like you know we're all healthy and we're all Happy. Sammy young. We're happy. And I don't know, man. Like, it's like, I always get caught up and like, what, how do I express myself without, like, turning kids on a fucking smoking weed at 10 years old?

It's like. Same dude. Do what you want. You know, like, don't deny yourself anything that makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else. You know, like, do what you. That's, that's, like, we try not to be too hard on ourselves, man. Like, we might have a few too many drinks or play a few too many hands at the blackjack table or or stay up too late or, you know, whatever it is. I mean, people have fucking weird addictions like, you know, how are you going to criticize me for smoking when you're drinking three Starbucks a day?

Yeah, exactly. You're prying your nerves in a different way. So it's like, let's fucking go, Taylor. I fucking love it. We're pretty tame dudes. But we like to let it rip, you know. Yeah, same, bro. We used to play Woodlands Tavern.

That was like our first. Dude, that was our first. Dude, what is it about Columbus, Ohio that lets you, there's, I feel like there's a, the music that comes there and just like it's, for a college town, there's like that, there's Lawrence, Kansas. But I feel like Ohio State, there's something about that Columbus, that really. I love that you, man, we try to like preach that to people. And it's like Columbus doesn't have notoriety as like a music city, but I'll tell you what, dude, there is a fucking scene. There is great music being made here. There are great rooms to play. The food is fucking awesome. Hell yeah. I mean, I could gush about Columbus all day. I'm glad you like that. Man, Woodlands Tavern's a great little spot. It is.

Yeah, you guys food. There's that nice separation to where you can be at the show or you can be on the patio or you can just be the bar side. if you're loud, you know, it's like, man, it's, that's so cool that you play. Yeah, and we last week, or two weeks ago, we just played Bluestone, which is a beautiful room, too. With Stone sweet as well. So are you always going to play in Columbus, even if you get too big? Yeah, man. We just announced, we're playing at the arena. Let's fucking go, dude.

Our dude. Holy sh-tail, you guys are fucking, this is, this is exciting. Are you scared? is this like this is a big year for you all i'm scared dude that same hockey team we were talking about at the beginning of this podcast plays there you know like we evan and i just went and toured it and we're like down on center ice like so sick freak it out so sick so sick well bro thank you i hope you just like come all over that fucking place dude just destroy it oh come on come on do it not not physically emotionally i want you to fucking put it all out there put your dick out there it's gonna be

emotional. I'll tell you well, man. Man, it's beautiful, man. And it's success stories like that is the reason why you know, we keep doing what we do and play a big hometown show and play at the biggest place in the fucking town. And it's like all the hard work's paying off.

And I just want to say I'm proud of you, bro. I don't even know you, but I'm proud. No, I appreciate you. Yeah, I do. Keep the dream alive. Have fun in Columbus. Good luck on the record. When's the new record come out? Has it came out yet? uh june 24th

perfect all right we'll post this closer to june so uh we'll get even more push but um taylor thanks to be part of this show and uh fuck yeah i'm glad you uh thanks so highly of mike taylor like i do oh absolutely man all right thanks and have a good one bro appreciate you later later hell yeah there it is that was fun fucking camp they're blowing up