Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EMERGENCY POD! Marc Brownstein of the Disco Biscuits Responds to Former Drummer

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Mark Brownstein joins Andy for a candid conversation about the recent Disco Biscuits split with their drummer, Allen Aucoin, and the public fallout around it. Mark shares his perspective on how things unraveled, including communication issues inside the band, the challenges of long-term creative relationships, and the business realities that can complicate everything even more. Andy also connects it to his own recent breakup with Shawn, so the episode turns into a broader discussion about conflict, friendship, and what happens when personal and professional relationships stop working the way they used to. It's an honest look at how one side is processing it in real time. The conversation touches on band dynamics, touring, money, resentment, and the hope that eventually people can move forward with some respect for what they built together. A thoughtful, and very real conversation between two good friends and colleagues.   #DiscoBiscuits #MarkBrownstein #JamBand #MusicIndustry #BandBreakup

It's crazy. I'm on vacation. I love that, dude. Yeah, I'm like trying to. Well, thanks for me for me. I appreciate that. Last minute, you know. We're live, dude. It's an emergency pod with my buddy Mark.

Yeah. What a fucking week, dog. What happened, dude. What a week. I was on the plane. I was on a plane. You know what I mean? So I like came off of a flight, you know, when like big news happens when you're up on

the flight and I just like came off of the flight. Yeah, came off of a flight. It was actually I found out about it. It was like in my like, I put up in Facebook or Instagram post of like me on the plane. Like, hey, I'm heading to my mom's house, you know, Florida to play DJ show. And then there was like, I like just like got some notifications and like the comments. And I just read it. And I was like, okay, what is going on here?

What happened? And so what happened, I'm sure, you know, you know what happened at this point, which is Alan went on to do an interview. And I guess the interviewer asked some questions about the disco biscuits. And, you know, he went off, you know. And so. Was there like a non-disclosure or any of that? Or was it what was going on? No.

There was no non-disclosure. You know, everybody can just say whatever they want to say, you know, at this point. I mean, that's respectful. A lot of people will fucking hush it out. So, like, I mean, your story about this, you know? Listen, if everybody, if this went in a different way, like, you know, it doesn't matter if it's the music industry or whatever industry. when you have a split in any business or whatever it is,

and then you have a lawyer working out the details of settlement or whatever with another lawyer, it's always based off of NDA. Like it's the whole premise of that is like, hey, let's all leave and not go and trash each other. We've been together for 20 years. we can all trash each other. There's plenty of stuff to say, after 20 years, not anybody.

It's like the premise is let's leave amicably and gracefully and move on, you know, into new relationships, you know? Yeah, I mean, I'm dealing that with Sean, man. Me and Sean broke up after 15 years, you know? You guys did? I did not know that. Yeah, we just broke up, yeah, two weeks ago.

So it's like, I'm very curious about, you know, it's like, it's, however way you shake it, it's not, it's just, it's like any breakup, you know? So I was like, you know, like this ending peacefully and then Barbara throws the fucking disc track in there. Yeah, I mean. So it starts off fucking spicy. Yeah, well, that was like a response. The disc track, by the way, the disc track. By the way, the disc track, obviously, you know or people know, I think, that it was written it 15 years ago.

Like, he didn't, like, sit down and work on this thing and, like, at 4 p.m. on the day before, like, no, I can tell by the drum beat. I could tell by the drum beat that was a 15-year-old drum song. Exactly. It was a 2011 song, you know, it's like, so the, the, I think early, in that morning people had gone online from Alan's group of friends, you know, his wife's group of friends and started spreading rumors that, you know, the band had fired Alan over money.

And it was, it was, the response to that before we had a chance to ever say anything, we were hoping to have an amicable split. You know, we had the announcement was set together for the next day. It was like a Saturday and we were announcing it like Sunday. our lawyer and his lawyer were like literally working out the very final details and it was and we were like okay we're gonna get through this and and um then all of a sudden same thing as like the other day it's like all of a sudden something starts blowing up online and we're like whoa what happened what happened and we traced it back to that um and and you know and that like immediately had to get addressed not um not by the band members, but all of a sudden, like, the lawyers had to address that, you know, they're talking to each other. They're trying to have, like, a settlement, and all of a sudden, all this information

starts getting spread around, right? So it just, it was just, like, ugly, you know? And then, like, yeah, yes, the distract. It was, it was, it was, um, probably, you know, there's better ways to have expressed what, what was trying to be said there. But I think, you know, what was trying, and I'm not apologizing for the way that it came out, but what was trying to be said, or I'm not not apologizing for it. I'm not like, you know, I just am acknowledging that that was what happened, but what was trying to be said was this is deep rooted. This is not about, this isn't about like a break, this isn't like one day you think

about breaking up a drum. This must have been kind of a thing you guys have been thinking about. Well, you know, Alan said in his interview the other day that this came out of nowhere. Like, he was surprised that it happened. And I just, like, feel like, I'm, like, shocked at that because of what happened. And it's like, people are like, the fans, I guess, are due an explanation, you know, which is that this didn't come out of nowhere. You know, there was a lot of issues, creative issues.

creative issues and personal issues that were coming out on stage, backstage, offstage, you know, in all different kinds of ways. But the bottom line of it was that the communication just was broken down on stage and off stage. Our communication was broken. In Summer Tour, in Indiana, we were backstage at set break. And I know that you know exactly how this is. You come off a stage, the set didn't go the way that you wanted it to go. And sometimes, like, maybe at set break, you try to, like, talk about it

and see if we could, like, get on the same page. Like, we have another set coming up. So we just want to get on the same page. And John tried to, like, do that with Alan. He, like, I was in the room. It was we, John, Alan, and our monitor engineer. We're sitting in this room together, four of us.

And John said, hey, Alan, like, my ideas are getting cut off. Whatever it was, it was just one of those things. Maybe it's not great to talk about music at set break or talk about it right after the show because it's easy to get defensive. Yeah, it's so emotional, man. I mean, this is like your fucking art in your life.

And like, you know, you can't have great shows and great gigs all the time. I mean, you know? Well, what happened was, it's so hard to say it because it's like I don't like I didn't want to be on the end you frasco podcast talking about the breakup of the disco you think I want to be on you think I want to interview Mark Brown to come on vacation this is and what yeah I'm on vacation I was at universal today like I came out and just like I'm on Hagrid going backwards an hour ago and now we're

here talking about this um but Alan started screaming at John at the top of his lungs it's like it was truly remarkable. It was scary. I was scared. And he, like eventually the conversation, it doesn't matter. Like the details don't matter, right?

But like the conversation got to like this disagreement over like listening on stage. And I just finally, after saying nothing, which is not like me, but I said nothing because I don't want to be in a fight. I go through a whole tour now at my age. I used to fight all the time. I want to talk about that a little bit too.

Now I'll go through whole tours and I'll just watch all of the stuff, like all of the little like things that boil up happen. But they were screening each other. Finally I got it and I was like, Alan, come on, dude. This isn't a conversation. What you're talking about is not a conversation.

And he turned to me and he basically was like in his, and is close to these words. possible. Fuck you. I fucking hate this band. I fucking hate being on tour with you. I quit. You

get a new drummer for the weekend and just stormed out. Now, I want to just caveat. This is what I was going to say. I am an extremely emotional person who was terrible at taking critical

constructive criticism earlier in my career to the point where I like went to therapy to work specifically on this one thing, being able to interact with people in a creative way so that I didn't destroy my whole musical career because the whole thing is based creatively has to be based on being able to listen to people who know probably a lot more than you about music and and like taking it in and just trying things out and being open to ideas. is. And like, so I, I definitely spent a lot of time working on that. And so I definitely have a lot of empathy and understanding for what it's like to, to, you know, not like being told what to play or how

to play or what tempo to play or or, or what feel to play. But it, it was in a conversation that ever, can ever happen, ever, every single time. It was like this. But this, This time, he said I quit. And then he walked out. He came back. Was that the first time he ever tried to quit? Yeah, nobody. He's never said those words before in 20 years, you know?

And it's like, listen, there was a lot of, he said in his interview that he doesn't know what creative differences were talking about. It's like, dude, we like literally, him and I could not even agree on what genre the band was in. We were like, I'm like trying to talk about how to peak confrontation. I want to like just work on making things the best that they could possibly be. Going back, listening to old versions, listening to what the tempos were of versions that are widely regarded as great, like listening to the way that the drums are played in very early versions that are like widely regarded as great of songs.

And then trying to translate that to 2025 because, you know, it's like as a composer, or I'm just trying to make the songs what they are. And the conversation would, like, devolve to, we're not a jam band. Like, we're not a jam band. Like, we don't, I don't need to do that because we're not a jam band. I was like, so, like, the idea that he doesn't know what creative differences we had. Like, we were, like, there was constant issues with, like, how to perform these songs.

You know, and like, you know, like me going into therapist mode or whatever, like going into that type of mode, because my band's called Andy Frasco, and I get these a lot with my band. Do you feel like he was actually a true member of the band? That's why he was outlashing? Yeah. Well, first of all, yes. Like, there's four members of Disco Biscuits from 2006 until 2026. and they're always listed, you know, as John, Mark, Aaron, and Allen. Those are the members of the disco biscuits, you know.

And that's, yeah, of course. We're all, those are the members. Yeah. Well, I'm saying, like, emotionally, you know, like, whatever it is, is like, if you guys can't communicate, like, I was having hard time communicating with Sean and stuff. And then things would just fester up. We wouldn't say anything until the last fucking.

a minute, then everyone's having this big fucking blowout. It's like this... Well, that's... Things definitely faster. Things definitely faster. But listen, if you quit, if you quit the band, I want to just say, I'm the only other person that ever got fired from the disco

biscuits for what their behavior was on tour. I quit the band in the middle of a tour in 1999, and then I kind of hope that everybody forgot that I quit the band and got to New Year's of 1999. We played like this crazy four set, like 1231.99 at the TLA four set show until 7 in the morning. And then like on January 3rd, Barbara came over to my place and was like, thank you. Here's your cut from New Year's.

The band has decided to move on without you. And I was crushed. I was so crushed. Like, crushed to beyond belief. It was my whole life was the disco biscuits, because I wrote half of the songs. I was like a founding member that wrote all of these songs and like the community, like was building this community. But

also I was like kind of like having a hard time getting along with people and like getting into fights and saying I quit the band. And like so from like looking back on it was like what the hell was I doing? Like what kind of behavior was I exhibiting? I was young. I was

23 years old and I was doing a lot of drugs and I was in a band for the first time in my life and like we were doing well and I fucking blew it. I literally blew it dude and my biggest regret in my whole career is this and we'll tie it back to what's happening now but my biggest regret in my career is that I didn't fucking walk away gracefully. I tried to turn the fans disco biscuits on the three of them. I like hat. I like I just like it's my biggest for guys. I feel like I look back on how I handled myself after getting let go for my own behavior, and I didn't take any accountability for it. And I just like tried to turn with the fans on the biscuits. It was bad character. I exhibited bad character, you know, and it's like I recognize that. I've like

worked through all of these things because I wanted to be able to have longevity in my career. I wanted to be able to be with John and Aaron 30 years down the road. You know what I mean? that's what I wanted. I empathize. Like, I feel what he's, like, I truly know what he feels. Yeah. He's, he's so mad at us, obviously. He's so mad. He said, like, he's, like, some of the things he said, you know, it's hurt so much to read what he said because, um, like, he's, like, I just, like, put my whole life into the disco biscuits and the community, the disco biscuits. And it's, like, and trying to make these things work, despite all of the hardships of being in a band with four people for decades.

Like, there's ups and there's downs and there's issues, like personal issues and private issues. And I just want to, like, refocus for a second. If you, like, when I quit the band, I didn't apologize. But, like, this is where we're at now is, like, this summer, like next night was Columbus and we all showed up and nobody said anything. Like there was no apology. No like, hey guys, I'm sorry.

Like I said some shit last night that I really didn't mean. Like, you know I don't quit the band. Like I love this band. Like there was none of that. There was nothing. We didn't like we played the show. It was actually the best show of the whole tour of Columbus because there was like that energy of like we're not talking to each other.

And like, you know, we may as well just fucking play it as, excuse me, as hard as we can. And we did. We played this crazy cycle on this crazy jigsaw. It's my favorite show at the tour. I loved it so much. I had so much fun there because it was like such a release after this very dark thing that it happened. And really, at this point, the three of us are talking like, is he going to say something or apologize? Like, he quit.

Like, he actually told us to get a drummer. right tomorrow is he showed up today is he showing up tomorrow do we really need a new like i legitimately didn't know what to do and we've showed up friday and allan was there and we finished the door and he never said anything about it he never um said anything about it and and and when we got to the end of the tour our manager reached out to him and was just like you know what happened like in Indiana. Like we need to talk about that. The band came to me and told me that you quit the band

and like they're, they still don't know what happened. Like why, like you said some, you know, you said you hate the band, da da, da. Like,

and they had a, they had to talk about it. And then, then like the next thing that happened was our manager, like reached back out to him. We like, quick we went back out played our next like two little runs of shows which is pine creek to michiwaka um and then michiwaka was over and there was there was like some tearful

goodbyes there too like some people reached out to me and said what's going on they like they so heavy crew members reached out to me at michiwaka and was like is alan leaving the band like he he like his goodbye was different he was like gave like a tear at careful long goodbye. Like, it's like, and I was like, I, we all didn't know. The crew knew that he quit the band. They knew that there was these like, long, tearful goodbyes at Michiwaka. And they were like reaching out to me to be like, do you know what's going on?

Like, what is it? What's going on? And I was like, I don't know, but like, you're the fourth person who told me about like this long goodbye. And then we reached out to him again after that. And his response was, and, to, you know, to you. I fucking hate this. I really genuinely hate talking about what happened.

He said, she said, but the reason that I'm here is because there's, like, this is the context behind the message that he said, which was out of the blue, my lawyer got a letter that I was terminated. Like,

and I was so shocked and surprised. And that's like this narrative and that, and I haven't been paid. and like they and I was never valued and it's like oh that's a lot to hear when when a lot of process man especially when you've been living with each other forever well especially when like so we reach we reach back out to him through our manager um communication is completely broken down like you know you couldn't even call him text him nothing I mean listen I will like I'll answer anybody, dude.

People come to Instagram. I'll fucking answer anybody. Like, you hit me up, dude. I answer every single message. I see you in those chat rooms. Every message that gets sent to me. You know why? Because once I was an interview with BB King,

and he was like 88 years old, and he said that he answered every piece of fan mail he ever got in his whole entire life. It influenced me. So I was like, wait a second. B.B. King could answer every single piece of it. fan mail he's ever had and I can't take two seconds to answer each and every message that I get from a fan and so that's why I started doing that that's like why I started to like get involved with the fans I was like man I can do that I can answer people I have the time to sit down and say hello to them and so my point is like

dude yeah if Alan texted me I would be elated and I would immediately answer him or call if he called me I would answering Thorne every single time. Like we don't communicate that way. Like yeah it's you never did he's he wasn't I you know like he really wasn't the most responsive like in that way like you know he just wasn't the most responsive email. He was a little bit better on email phone he was very hard to get in touch with very very hard and so at some point you just stopped trying to communicate with somebody that way. I would email him if I had things like percent list and stuff I would email or he was also in like band text, like the band text. Like here's the set list.

It goes to everybody in the band. I don't know if he gets it or doesn't get it. But like it also goes in email. But like, no, it was like, you know, I don't know. Like we didn't have that like just like that wasn't how it was. But when our management reached back out to him, his answer was at this is now after Michiwaka and it was like and the question was hey can we get back on the phone like can we just find the time to get back out on the phone and finish our talk from like the last

talk we had which was about what happened in Indiana and Alan said all future communication for me will be handled by my lawyer and oh man that must have been heartbreaking well it must have been heartbreaking so it's your friend you know it was it was heartbreaking it was It's your fucking friend that you fucking went to war with. But here's the thing. Like I'm reading his hit what he said. And it's like to him, we weren't reaching out to him. And to us, he wasn't reaching out to us.

Like, you know, it's like to me, he's not calling me. It's like, it's a two-way street. And he's like, right. He's saying in his interview, like, nobody reached out to me. I'm like, that's how I feel. Like I'm waiting for the guy to reach out to me. Like from Indiana to through the end of the tour through. one way or another just to say, hey, dude, like me and you are pretty close.

Like, me and Alan had a pretty good relationship. Like, hey, I'm sorry about what happened there. Like, it takes 10 seconds, but I do also know how hard it is to do that. Like, it's hard to muster up the will to have that kind of courage, whatever it is, to have that kind of a conversation with somebody close to you. These are hard conversations. And communication is... There's no difference between a divorce with a wife when it's...

It's the same thing, man. We've been in together for 20 years, whatever, how long it's been. Yeah. Communication starts becoming poison because you're afraid how the other people are going to react towards the communication. But I'm going through a divorce with somebody that I was married to for 22 years right now. And it's, we're friends and we know how to communicate. And we're co-parents and, like, we're still very close friends.

and were doing the process of splitting up amicably, you know, and I just like, that's what I, so I just wanted that to happen because I was not happy. Alan clearly was not happy. If you get to the point where you're just like, I hate this band, I hate you, you're not happy. And it was coming through on stage. The communication was, I heard it in the tapes like earlier in the summer. I'd like sat with my manager listening to like a whole entire show to like, talk about how how to communicate better without,

like how I could link up what I'm trying to do and get him to come and do like, just like syncopation stuff with me or whatever. And so the communication had broken down, offstage, on stage, all those places. And then it's like, talk to my lawyer. So that's it. I mean, like, it's just like a big piece of,

like a little thing that's omitted from the story that like you kind of just has to be told at this point. Do you ever think about like tax of them saying I'm sorry how things went down? Yeah, of course. You should, man, why not? He's your brother. I thought I was like, I'm coming out to DJ in Colorado this weekend. I'm playing with Adam Deidge two nights and like I was talking with somebody.

who works in Denver. And like, I said, like, I was like, man, I wish, like, I could get to the point where I could, like, have Alan be the drummer that comes out and plays with me and this thing, you know? Like, I feel like we had a pretty good relationship. I hope that at some point it could be that way, you know? Like, yeah, it's fresh. Like, the wounds are fresh.

Like, he's, like, out there, like, fucking trash talking us and saying a lot of personal shit. So was Barber. Yeah, I mean, it's like, here's the thing. You can go for everything that happened, there's something to happen right before it that caused it to happen or had some sort of energy of effect to make that happen. And you could keep doing that all the way back

to our first rehearsal together as the four of us. It just goes all the way back. Like there was a huge fight in our first rehearsal now like I think everybody was that. It was our first rehearsal. And it was a huge, huge fight with Alan. He like got really aggressive with us. And it was like, we were like, oh, what the fuck was that? You know what I mean?

And it's like, here's a thing. Well, like, I had such a bad temper when I was younger. So I have like a really like long leash for like. other, I have a high tolerance for other people like screaming and, and me not being like, I can't do this. Like, that's it. Like, I have a very high tolerance. Like, if you're going to, like, you're going to like, you're like, you're like, it's okay. Like, I get you. Like, I hear you. Like, a lot of people don't hear you when you're screaming. Like, they stop hearing what you're saying. They only hear how you're saying it. Not me. I hear them. I heard them. But like,

Still, it's hard to get yelled at it. Right from the very beginning, we saw this thing that I don't think a lot of people got to see. And it's like, that's how it is in a relationship. People see every side of you. Publicly, we're public figures. Publicly, people might only see a certain one side, you know. But that's no one's business besides y'alls. Like, why do we have to feel we have to blabber our whole fucking business out on people?

when all we are is just making art, man. Like, why do we need to have the drama? Why do we need to do all this shit? We have to promote the drama. I think this is what's so fucked up about this industry. I don't want the drama. People just, I mean, yeah, I mean, of course, like, it's all it is is, y'all didn't like each other.

And it was time to fucking end it. Well, that's, thank you for saying that. And as somebody who's going through a breakup, like, you know, sometimes it just gets to the point where that's it. It can't go on the way that it is anymore. You have to make a very hard decision. This is what we have to do now in order for this to even continue. In order for us to even continue on, something needs to happen here.

So, you know, I don't think, like, Alan is, like, a bad guy. I think he's, like, a good guy. Like, we all have, we're all good guys, I think, and we all have our faults, you know. And, like, sometimes, you know, it's like comes down to being a bad guy. Being in a band is really hard. It's so fucking hard. Being in a band with the same people for 20 years is almost impossible. You're marrying them and you can't fuck them.

They say that. I've heard it said many times. You're married to four dudes. You can't fuck them. You can't have sex to relief the pressure. You're married to four dudes, dude. And everything that comes along with that, you know. But, you know, sometimes those relationships do, you know, come to an end.

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and Jason's huge hog sent you. All right, goodbye. Enjoy the interview. Can I ask you like an existential question? Like an existential question? And then we can leave it on there. know it's the hard thing it's not first of all i love you mark this is a tough topic thanks for being vulnerable and you know like i said this is about brothers this is a brothers thing this isn't about

pointing the finger it's just more about the chain reaction of it and uh you telling your story about this would is probably going to give some people some clarity but you know as like a 20 year of band members 20 year being in a band do you think money fucks up the relationship with a band um i i I really don't think that it has to do that. But it's a very complicated situation, like, when, like, it's always been complicated. It was complicated before Alan was in the band. Because, you know, like, you have one guy that does,

writes most of the songs and does most of the work. And, like, how, but we're jamming, like, how do you make, like, from day one, we said, that we're going to find ways to acknowledge and compensate the songwriters of this band for the work that they put in outside because it's just just as an incentive to get songs. And so, you know, yeah, like it's hard. You have like one song that gets a sink and it's written by one guy and all this money comes in and it doesn't, you know, it's like how do you split it up? do we get it. Yeah, it's up your relationship a little bit. We never really, you know, let that happen. We've been in the band for 30 years. Like, we acknowledged on day one that

there's going to be times where songwriters make a little bit more money because they wrote the songs. Um, you know, we have a complex formula and disco biscuits for how that gets basically like disseminated. And this is just industry standards. It's not just you guys. Everyone does this. For people who don't know that, people who don't know how business, music business works, that's just basically always like that. It's always like that. Yeah.

And like here's the thing. I want to address something. Alan said that like he hasn't been paid all of his money from Thumbentor. And like a lot of fans have been like coming at me and like saying like, Alan, pay Alan for the shows that he played. And I just want to like clear something up. he's been paid for every single show that he was played that was played because that like that is how we pay him right through through the show grosses but um he's right when he says that he hasn't been paid for some of the summer tour stuff because as you know like streaming

and and like merch and stuff like that gets settled up months after the fact especially streaming stuff comes in way after the fact from third parties and then has to get disseminated and so when I read that I like went to our manager and business manager

is this true? Like to we owe it's like is there any truth to what he's saying like he's saying he hasn't been paid for summer tour like what is that like how can that be pay him for summer tour like literally was my text it was like what do like if he hasn't been paid you need to pay him

right now. Like, and basically in the morning, because that was like Sunday at like 9 p.m. or something, right? The morning, they reached out to me at a normal time and we're like, dude, he's been paid for everything for summer tour, like, except for this, this and this, which nobody's been paid for yet. You know, you guys are also waiting on that money, but like it's coming soon. And like, this is how much it's going to be. and I was like, okay, good.

So I just want to say, like, he's right. He was paid for every show, all of that, like that deal from us. Yes, but he still owed some money. So, like, I don't want to like, I'm not like out trying to be like Alan's lying. Like he's like some of like Shug Nite him. I'm no. Like he's saying, oh no, dude. I know.

That's what I mean. People think, they think you're a gangster or something. Like you're not going to. No, the protocols. How much you spend on buses? How much you spend on hotels? Everything gets paid. I mean, like, people don't realize the business of fucking music.

And this is what frustrates the fuck out of me, dude. Like, calm down. I don't know, dude. I'm sorry. I'm going to be the therapist now. I'm going to turn it to me being a therapist. It's okay, Andy. It's all the business is, you know, part of the issue is that the business is upside down from where it was 10 years ago.

it's just the economics are different so like if you're getting paid on the gross or percentage on gross um it's it's like the how that all boils down is different 10 years yeah managers get their cuts business manager gets their cuts agents get their cuts before we even touch money so you know it's like well he said that he hadn't gotten a raise and so however X many years but like he was on a percentage he had like a percentage of gross so like the raise is the band getting

bigger like the growth's going up that's like where all of our raises is caught when you're like when like you can't have it both ways you can't want to have a cut of the gross rather than a salary but then then also want a raise

it's like one or the other and like it goes with with the bands gross goes your pay when that's how you get paid and that's how all of us get right right like that's how are we supposed how we're supposed to profit when everyone's inflating our prices like the bus drivers are inflated in their prices the tour buses are inflating their prices so like they think we're making more money than we are but really we're still getting paid the same guarantees so it doesn't it's not like we're profiting we're just fucking floating on a boat with maybe a little hole in our

boat into the fucking pacific ocean dude Yeah, well, and like part of the thing is then it's like people don't understand exactly what you're saying. Like people don't understand that that's true. And I think that sometimes like within the business people don't even understand that that's true. You know what I mean? It's like not it's not their job to look at the expenses and know what's left over after the day. It's like our job to ensure that our business is profitable. It's our job to make sure that we can like turn the lights on at the end of the day.

but it has gotten harder and harder to do that. Like, I'm talking pre-Alan leaving the band. It's like, you know, like going from, you know, just and not the disco biscuits. Everybody. Like, what's the girl's name from Garbage? Shirley. Yeah, yeah. Shirley McLean is it?

Whatever it is. The girl from Garbage, did you see her speech that she gave at the Mission Ballroom at the end of their tour? She gave a speech basically and it was like, we're done. Like, it was like the mission ballroom is back to the girls. And she's like, this doesn't work anymore. Like this is not affordable. It doesn't work. Like the business is like the business of music for bands even at that size.

She was like, we can't tour in the United States anymore because it just doesn't make sense to go out and do it. And it's like, we're making it work. Like we're like working our asses off to like to to make it work to like to find ways to find ways to make it work like from you know just like sometimes the crew goes in a bus and we drive an SUV from from Seattle, Washington all the way to San Diego, you know, from stop to stop. And we're like driving with a crew member and the rest of the crew is on the bus. and that's because two buses isn't doable. We were doing two buses, but it's not doable. And we see what the numbers are. And we're like, all right, we'll just give us a GMC, Yukon or something.

And we'll drive ourselves to all these shows just to make it work. Like whatever. Like we do things to try to make it work. We're really like, we want this to be sustainable. Like we really want the disco biscuits to like, survive, you know? It's like we're, everything that we're doing over the last bunch of years is about survival. We want to be here for, we want to be here, we want to get better.

Like, we want to rehearse. We have Marlon. Like having Marlon in the band and he's in Philadelphia and like, like, the ability to be like, hey, on a Monday night, like, hey, do you guys want to get together like tomorrow afternoon and go over a couple songs and everybody's like, like yes and we're at John's basement working on songs the next afternoon is, I mean, we practiced more in the last as well we should. We have a new drummer, but like we've, we have the ability to practice and have practiced more in the last couple months than we had in 15 years all combined. Because all you guys live in Philly, right?

Yeah, and we're all four of us are in Philly now. And it's, it's, you know, it's, that's great because, you know, having four of us in a room working on shit together is what we're doing. And that's what we want to do. And that's like what the future is going to look like for us. It's like four of us in a room working like as a team creatively to try to make the music the best that it could possibly be to make it to keep it around for as long as it could possibly be. Well, keep it around, buddy. I appreciate you being honest with me.

You know, it's tough stuff. I know the last thing you want to do is talk to me on this podcast. I love talking to you so much, but I'd rather it would just be us catching up his friends. Getting drunk and talking about this, not having to make a fucking public statement, but I hear that. Well, you know, just, you know, my, you know, set like as a sendoff for us growing as people for the future, you know, when the dust settles. And I'll do the same with Sean. When the dust settles, you know, maybe just shoot a text saying, I love you, brother. I'm sorry it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to.

I'm sorry, this escalated the way it did. Because at the end of the day, you know, business aside, they're still our brothers, you know. It's the best advice anybody's given me in five months. You know, through this whole thing, it's the best advice anybody's giving me. It's just let the dust settle and say, I love you. You know, I'm sorry.

Say your peace and tell them you love them, you know. Yeah. Because, you know, it's, you know, all money aside and fuck the money. It's about fucking having your brother and, you know, someone you could call when you're seven years old and say, you know, what a wild time we had. You know what I said? I hope that's how it could be. Like, I really do.

It will be. Let the dust settle, but you're the one who's got to initiate it. Say, I love you, man. I'm sorry how this was approached and let's just grow as people. And hopefully you could forgive me and hopefully I could forgive you. and we could just move on to just be friends, you know. Yeah, I agree with that, man. I agree with that.

Well, I love you, Mark. Get out there. Go enjoy your vacation. Thank you. Have some fun. Epic universe tomorrow. We're going to Mario, Super Mario, Nintendo World, and like Donkey Kong World, Donkey Kong Country.

Yeah, tomorrow's going to be wild. Today was crazy. Get out there and... Harry Potter's World of Wizardry today. It was bad, dude. It's... Yeah, hufflepuff. That's just crazy.

You were taking mushrooms and just fucking roamed around those theme parks are kind of fun. Maybe. Maybe I have. Well, get out there, buddy. Go enjoy your vacation. I love you. I'm thinking about you. Love you, thank you.

Keep going. Keep fighting. Same. I know deep down you're a good person, man. And I know you think Alan's a good person. It's just. I do think he's a good person. Yeah.

It's a good person. It's like we're just, you both are scorned. That's all. And I hope the same. I hope everything goes with you and Sean and you guys are able to do this in an amicable way and just get past it and be friends. That's what you need to be. Yeah, that's all we're trying to do. You know, I just, you know, we're all, you know, we forget that we're human.

We're not perfect. And we, and sometimes we don't know how to react to emotion. And we just got to take a step back from ourselves when the time's ready to humble ourselves and just say, brother, you're my brother, and that's it, you know. I love that. I love you. I love you, buddy. All right. Get out there.

Go have fun. Talk soon. Hey, everybody, it's Nick. You just listened to another great episode, hopefully featuring me of the World Saving Podcast with Andy Frasco. Also produced by him. He wanted us to say his name twice. It's also produced by Joel Angel Howe and Jack Gold,

and it's edited by the very attractive Brian Rowe. Please help us save the world by subscribing and rating this show on volume.com, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or whatever drek of a streaming service you're using besides those. Also, follow us on Instagram at World Saving Podcast, so you don't miss any of our amazing reels that we spend hours editing. For tour dates, merch, and whatever crazy special event Andy thinks of next, check out Andy Frasco.com. There's a lot of penis t-shirts on there. Special thanks to this week's guests, our talent booker Mara Davis, and most importantly you, for spending an entire hour listening to us talk. Be your best and we'll see you next week for another great episode.