Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 101: Ben NIchols (Lucero)

Episode Date: October 13, 2020

What's a band to do in the middle of a pandemic? Answer: PIck up work wherever they can! Andy catches us up on the whereabouts of the AFUN socially distant tour machine. And on the Interview Hour we welcome Ben Nichols of Lucero! Andy and Ben chat about what it's like to be a working musician in the world today. Oddly enough, Dolav congratulates the Lakers. And we close out with a special visit from our buddy, Nick McDaniels of Big Something. This is EP 101. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new album, "Keep On Keepin' On" on iTunes Spotify  Keep up with Lucero! luceromusic.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Brian Schwartz  John Bongiorno Shawn Eckels  Dolav Cohen Andee "Beats" Avila Arno Bakker

Hola Andy, ¿cómo estás? Me acaban de decir que ya reservaste por nuestro show. Me dejaste muy impresionada con tu español. Muero por escucharte cantar en español. Estás muy guapo. Besos. Andy, it's Shwet and Bonjorno. Listen, it's your work parents. It's your work parents. And listen, you can't, if you're getting hired for a private, even if you know the person involved, you can't jump in and insert detailed information without telling John and myself, because we've just spent two hours freaking out about these ridiculous requests for you adapting your sounds into Spanish. And somehow you agreed to this. And you agreed to this. And you agreed to this.

And... Definitely give us a call back so we can talk, so we can get on the same page about all the Latin elements to the show on Saturday, because Ryan and I are like, how's this even... You know, she got so granular on that email, and

yeah, I just basically sent the last few hours to you. And the debate hasn't been discussed. Andy, we love you. Please keep it spoken. Bye. John, I'll tell you about it. All right.

And we're back. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's everyone doing today? How's our hearts? How's our minds? Are we staying out of trouble? Are we not listening to the bad shit our mind tricks us into listening to? Are we living our life? Are we staying present? Are we trying to be happy? I know you walk outside or read the news or watch the news and everything is just fucking horrible. But turn it off. Why do we need to listen to that shit all the time? Turn it off. Go fucking find yourself. Explore. Be the people you want to be. young for so long. And then we're going to look back at this and be like, damn, I wish I gave it all you can, you know? But seriously, how's it going out there? How's your head? How are your

addictions? Are you holding up? You know, it's been a while since I talked to you like this. I know we have a podcast every week, but I feel like I haven't checked in on my people. How are you doing? It's not like I forgot about you or got too famous or whatever that I couldn't level with you. I just didn't really know how to be optimistic in times with such uncertainty anymore. It's amazing how fear stops us in our tracks

when we finally look up from what's distracting us. All those dreams and aspirations, all of a sudden frozen in time because we're scared. But what's so scary, you know? That's what I'm thinking about right now. What's so scary? Change? I mean, we change all the time. Why do we feel like, oh, just because it's not going our way

or it's not what we used to doesn't mean we're not living. We should take this time to be thankful that, you know, we're not just following the routine of life, you know, working that nine to five, waiting in line to die. You know, I know it sounds so fucking morbid, but it's true. Sometimes we just go into autopilot and just wait in line and we don't know what we're waiting in line for. So maybe this change is a little good for all of us.

It wakes us up. It's like fresh. It's kind of like learning a new trick move on Tony Hawk. I bought Tony Hawk just to see if I had any nostalgia in my veins and I didn't, I still am horrible at the game and gave up real quick. But, um, you know, I was, I was walking, I'm in LA right now. I'm trying to write a record and I'm fucking at

writer's block and, uh, trying to stay inspired and it's fucking hard, you know, especially, you know, when everyone's sad and shit, how do you wake up from the sadness? And, you know, not, I don't want to say dictate, but like, but intrigue people to get out of that fucking cloud and go fight for something that you love, you know? So I was walking down north hollywood i got a hotel here for five days um trying to write music i'm writing some music with eric krasno and

writing some music with kenny carkeet from a wall nation again i'm gonna try to start making my new record um while i can we got a gig we're Herbal Life in Long Beach. And then we go on tour, yada, yada. But I was walking, having a cigarette, a joint, and got a cup of coffee or something. I saw this sign out on a banded movie theater. I didn't realize shit's not sweet out here in California. Everything's locked down. You can't go inside. Denver, you could go have lunch inside if you want and do all that stuff, but shit is not sweet here. It just made me sad. I saw Abandoned Movie Theater, LA,

the city of dreams, the city of movie stars, Abandoned Movie Theater. All the signs said was good times, bad times. We'd seen them all. My dear, we're still here. You know, I related with that, you know. I don't want everything to be good all the time.

It's fucking bullshit. I want to be in the moment. I want to be present. You know, this is why I do those things with Andrews Osborne and text him every morning what I'm grateful for. You know, it wakes me up. So maybe this thing that we're going through, this fucking Corona seven months in America, this is America, is good for us in a sense, you know, not all the bad sickness, people

dying, but like the idea of change, the idea that we could survive through change. That's evolution. You know, why do we feel that we have to have this perfect idea of life all the time? We need to fight. We need to, what else do we need to do? We need to fight. We need to be present.

We're afraid to be present. We go fucking distract ourselves with all these social medias and what our friend's fucking wearing and what new fucking dance move we have to fucking distract yourself with. But are we distracting ourselves to the wrong things? Distract yourself with stuff that you love, that you're not forced to be with. Be the people you want to be. See the things you want to be. Live the moment you want to live.

Learn that new language you always wanted. Did you mendle that relationship you said you wanted to take care of in the beginning of quarantine? All these ideas that you had when you had the time. Now look at us, seven months, still haven't done shit. Or maybe you have, I don't know.

But I said I want to learn language, I didn't do shit. I want to learn a new instrument, didn't do shit. I did start a talk show, but I don't know if that was just distractions or whatnot. But go at it. This is your time. Change is good. Don't be scared to change. Change is okay. This is life. This is your time. Change is good. Don't be scared to change. Change is okay. This is life.

This is what happens. Sometimes we get bigger changes than we normally do. And that's okay. It's just accept that we're alive and it's beautiful that we're alive. You know, it's not, it's hard. Life is hard. And if we can't accept the beauty of being alive, then save that drama for your mama. Because I don't want to hear it. All right, I'm done preaching. Live in the moment. Be present.

Don't be scared. I'm telling that to myself because I've got this writer's block thing and just I can't fucking concentrate. I'm just uninspired. All the work I am getting is just whatever, but maybe I'll get inspired. But here we go. We got Ben Nichols on the show.

He's great. He's great. He's from a band called Lucero. Super sweet dude. First time meeting him. And then we have my boy Nicky. Nicky McDaniels putting out a new record. He's going to be my

co-host at the end of the show. Talk about the record a little bit. So we got a big show for you. I hope you enjoy it. Oh, I gotta promote this stuff. Okay, so first off, shout out to 14er. I smuggled some 14 or weed from Denver. Cause LA I'm not into the LA weed. Um, you know, I mean,

I realized how much I miss Denver too. You know, I'm in my hometown and I realized, fuck, I miss Denver. I miss my family's out there. Um, so go grab some weed if you're in the Denver area, um, or bold, it's in Boulder, but great weed, non psychoactive really pumps me up. So, um, yeah, that's, what's kind of getting me out of this, uh, fucking block. Every time I smoke some 14 or I feel better, I feel happy. Um, not thinking overthinking too much because some ways give me that psychoactive buzz. But shout out to 14er. Go grab some. But we got tour dates.

Some shows are sold out. We're going on tour. The time that this is posted, St. Louis is tonight and that's sold out. Wednesday, Indianapolis, almost sold out. Columbus on Thursday, sold out. Roanoke, Virginia, 16th and 17th almost sold out Richmond needs help so if you're in the Richmond area

go help a boy out buy some tickets even if you fucking hate the music I play and just listen to the podcast go support your boy we need help there Lexington, Kentucky as well we need a little help it's a smaller venue but still not that popular in Lexington, Kentucky as well. We need a little help. It's a smaller venue, but

still not that popular in Lexington. That's okay. I don't even... University of Kentucky. Anthony Davis is there, so hopefully I can come back wearing an Anthony Davis jersey after they win the championship next week. Or maybe they already did by the time I post this. That'd be fucking amazing. Nashville's almost sold out

on the 21st. Atlanta 22nd, and then we're playing Charleston on the 21st. Atlanta, 22nd. And then we're playing Charleston on the 24th. I don't know if that's a ticketed show, but I'll probably still out. But yeah, go grab tickets, andyfrasco.com, and go see us play. We're fucking, we're rocking. It's going to feel great to be on the road again. So go do your thing.

Go give us some of that love. But that's it. All right, let's get this party on the road. Like I say, guys, don't let the demons get you down. I keep telling that to myself too because I'm kind of bummed out right now. So don't let the demons get you down. Say no devil to your addictions,

especially when you're low. And live present. Do the things you want to do. Don't live scared. I know this fucking virus is scary and blah, blah, blah, but don't live scared. Live present. Live focused on how we could get through this fucking shit storm together.

All right, guys. I love you. And enjoy Ben Nichols. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got our boy Ben Nichols from the band Lucero. Yo, Chris, play some Lucero for the peeps.

Yo, cold following band. I never really met Ben's their lead singer, songwriter. I never really met him before in the band. I always just, whenever I'm in Memphis, I hang out with his bass player, John C. And he is the sweetest fucking guy. Such a good guy. These guys have been together for 20 years, I found out.

Just plowing through. Just playing shows and shows and shows. They're not a band that really got a record deal or got a famous song. They just kind of plowed through and built fans little by little. So it's a great story to hear Ben talk about his addictions, fighting, his avalism, and whatnot, to keep the dream alive. So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy our boy, Ben Nichols.

And I'm a little short on money Don't you worry about that I can tip the bartender's snack Back to mall, pay my tab Carry me home Carry me home We both know I can't make it on my own Carry me home It's time to go home Every bar I went to

Before I reached the door Before I even met you It was you I was looking for Carry me home It's time to go home All right I've been whittled down to nothing Hanging by a wire

I'm too broke to mend Can't see the wind From the pan to the fucking fire Carry me home Carry me home But no, I can't make it on my own Take me home It's time to go home

Ben motherfuckin' Nichols. What's up, dude? How you doing, man? Thanks for talking to me. Nice to meet you. Nice to... I mean, we're the same manager, so it was about time until we fucking hung out. It was going to happen one day.

But it's quarantine, so it's like this. It's on Zoom. Damn, I know. How you feeling? You doing okay? What's going on? one day. But it's quarantine, so it's like this. It's on Zoom. I know. How are you feeling? Are you doing okay? What's going on? Doing just fine. What's going on?

Yeah. I've made it this far without catching the virus. Let's go. My little brother had it down in Texas. But now me and the family, the wife and the kids, we're all healthy and happy so far and holding it together. That's great, man. I want to talk about how you cope with addiction.

I heard you were an alcoholic. Man, I drink quite a bit. You still drink? Not as much as I used to. Oh, okay. And during quarantine, it's a little different. And during quarantine, it's a little different. It's become kind of a, there's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of thing.

When I'm on the road and on tour, yeah, there's nothing to do except kind of drink every night. But then when I'm home and with the family, there's plenty to keep me busy and we've got even i got this basement bar uh that the folks that built this house they built this great little bar in the basement and it's perfect for hanging out and i got my favorite bourbons in there my favorite rye whiskeys but i don't get in there as much as i thought when i bought the house i was like oh i'm gonna hang out in here all the time yeah but um but not so much much. The family keeps me busy. And yeah, I guess maybe if you've got other stuff you care about and other stuff to do, I don't know, maybe the addictions aren't as,

they don't grab a hold of you quite so much, maybe. What year was it when you were like, I need to stop? Well, I have never stopped. I still drink. I still drink as much. to you quite so much maybe what what year was it when you're like i need to stop uh well i have never stopped i still drink or like drink as much yeah like you made you had to put a limit i never made i never have said that ever really it just kind of naturally happened um i guess maybe when i decided to get married which was 20 we got married in 2016 and so the the couple years right before that was I was turning 40 we'd been in I'd been in the band for you know almost 20 years and and yeah it was I've been you know had plenty of girlfriends all

over the place and and now I was kind of deciding to settle down so maybe that was kind of a moment where um I decided I couldn't continue going down the path I was on and it might be wise to uh I don't know if settle down is the right word but it might be time to focus on different aspects of my of my life was um was it making you sad was like you on the road were you not enjoying it like 20 i'm my band we've been together now 15 plus or 15 years uh you know it's time where it's like it shit gets boring and you don't you know right it gets um it can kind of get monotonous i I guess. And I don't know. You feel like maybe you've been down the same road so many times. And I don't know.

I don't know. I can't say that I still love it. I still like going on tour. I still love being in a band. I'm not complaining at all. No. But yeah, everybody's got to figure out, I guess, their own way of dealing with living on the road.

And yeah, mine was drinking whiskey. And I was able to kind of coast through on that. And yeah, you've got all those mornings where you've got to get up and do a radio show early and you sound like crap because you stayed up drinking till six o'clock in the morning yeah you gotta sing on npr or something and it sounds like oh you're like oh that was awful so yeah it definitely took its toll and there's some certain things i regret about it but uh but but i still i don't know I still like drinking whiskey yeah and I still do when I'm on the road maybe not quite as much as I used to I'm just getting older

and you I think maybe sometimes you naturally slow down um I don't know but but like what I was talking about back when I met my wife um I think I knew I kind of i had to make a conscious choice in uh wanting to have a family like that was always something that had been in the back of my mind um but i'd been too tied to the band and to the road and all that stuff um but with with this girl uh i don't know something was different and the timing might have been right. I'm not sure. More right for me, I guess. And she was definitely the right girl.

And I just had to have the guts to say, all right, I'm not going to run away from this one. Yeah. She's too perfect. This will actually um yeah you might think you want to stay up all night and drink all the whiskey on the planet um and just sing rock and roll songs but uh this change in your life would be good for you um and it was i i totally credit that with being alive today um i think her and the kids keep me alive. I bet, man.

What's the hardest part of not going through your routine of saying no? Saying no to love or saying no to the other things that you want in life as well. Because when we're on this one-track mind,

we're playing gigs we need to get through this you know we're pounding we have these dreams we need to fulfill how hard was it to finally say you know what there's other things i want to in life i i think it was just it's not so much saying no it's just kind of changing your perspective maybe um and just allowing a little space for some other stuff to come in. Yeah, the rock and roll stuff is all amazing and fun and great, and I never want to lose that. But I did, it's just kind of a, it's coming to the realization

that you have to consciously sometimes make a little extra space in your life and make sure that you get those things in there that will actually nourish you. Right. Maybe in a better way. I lived on rock and roll and whiskey for a long time and Pop-Tarts. That was pretty much. Pop-Tarts? Was that your move?

I lived on Pop pop tarts and grilled cheeses for like 20 20 years um and now again now i'm married and my wife and i have a great house and we cook more at home and i'm getting into cooking um so yeah i'm eating better now but but yeah it's i lived on i lived that way for quite a while. And yeah, I don't remember the exact moment making that decision. But once I kind of took that leap and decided, all right, I'm going for this. I'm going to get married to this girl. And we're actually going to have a family. And yeah, it's going to change the way I work a little bit.

And I'm going to have to focus more on new things. Yeah. I totally see that. And like, I want to talk about, you know, that chance you took when you were eating the pop tarts and you were fucking drinking, like what made you pick music, man? What made you pick songs? Like who, who was it in your life? I think it was just growing up on that early rock and roll like um i i had my dad's 45 collection which you know is your standard 50s rock and roll stuff and i played it i remember in preschool i played on a like i had a little winnie the pooh record player that played 45s

and i'd play rock around the clock and rockin' Robin. And you know, Happy Days was huge when I was a little kid. I was a big Fonzarelli fan. Let's go. And I love the Fonz and I'm pretty sure I've lived my entire life just trying to be as cool as the Fonz. So being in a rock and roll band seemed the right choice.

What'd you like about the Fonz that made you want to put that into parallel with rock and roll? Well, obviously he had great style. I've been known to wear a lot of white t-shirts and blue jeans and keep it real simple, straightforward. You don't have to worry about fashion anymore. Once you make that choice, you're just like, I wear white t-shirts and blue jeans. I dress like the Fonz.

That's all I'm going to do. Let's go. You don't have to think about it anymore And yeah He was just super cool He could Punch the jukebox and play a song for him He didn't have to put a quarter in And dial through it

He can just punch it and it plays the song he wants Do you feel like you weren't cool? Oh not at all And I'm still not and i never will be ah lesbian was no it's um it's a complete put on uh i'm still that dorky little kid that wants to be the fonz which is uh yeah it's which is i don't know it's just it is what it is and I've kind of reconciled myself with the fact that I'm never going to be cool. Who picked on you when you were a kid? All the kids or? I don't know.

It wasn't necessarily a specific bullying type situation. I think it's just that kind of general feeling of being an outcast, which I think almost every kid probably feels that way at some point in time. There's plenty of eighties movies written about that subject. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. You just,

I think everybody kind of feels like the outsider sometimes. And I just kind of took that feeling and ran with it maybe a little bit more. Yeah. And what, I mean, bullying in the eighties and the nineties, I don't know when you were born, but your band was 98. So what, in early 90s, were you raised?

Was I what? When did you go to high school? How old are you, Ben? I'm not sure. I graduated high school in 1992, actually. So you grew up legit in the 80s. Yeah. Six to 16 was the 80s for me, age of 6 to 16. So yeah, legit 80s.

So that's insane. Accepted part of life back then. There was no going to a counselor. Yeah. You just got beat up, and that was, I don't know, maybe. All I know about it really is from watching after school specials and 80s movies. Yeah. Yeah, I got beat up a couple of times, but nothing crazy.

What happened? Just getting shoved around on the playground, you know? And you don't even know what's going on when it happens necessarily. You know, it's just the bigger kids um i don't know want to make you look stupid and i don't know uh but nothing you know it wasn't systematic or uh ongoing in any way it just you know you have a few incidents here and there with big scary kids yeah um but then yeah life goes on and it's not that bullying like i said, wasn't that big of a deal. It was more just a general feeling of being a, I don't know, that feeling of being different.

Whether you actually are different or not, it's just having that kind of feeling was more the thing that got me. Yeah. I mean, the idea of being different, I mean, we should all be different. We're individuals. I don't know why we have to wait in line to be like the next person. You know what? Well, that's another thing you learned in 80s movies was that, you know, it was okay to be different.

That's why, oh man, that's what all 80s movies are about. It's about getting bullied and then, you know, being okay with being different and learning that different is good that was the whole 80s when did you feel like it was okay to be different man uh i don't know pretty early on i knew it's not like i ever uh became cool in high school uh high school is awkward as hell really oh yeah grew my hair real long know, like down past my shoulders. And thought that was cool. And, you know, it works for some people, but it probably wasn't that cool for me.

And then, I don't know. Yeah, and then I went to college and still just a goofy kid. I don't know. I think it took me all the way until, like, I was 21 and got out of college and actually started, I don't know, trying to figure out

what I was going to do with my life. I think maybe that's when I started to kind of maybe settle down and be less goofy. I don't know. Probably not. Probably not.

I mean, you always had it in you. No, I'm probably just as goofy as I've always been, actually. I mean, yeah, had it in you. No, I'm probably just as goofy as I've always been, actually. I mean, yeah, that's the beautiful thing about, you know, we never really, we always, we never really change the inner self, you know? I don't think so. I think you're right. I think that's always, I think you kind of, maybe you show up on this planet as a, you

know, in whatever little, there's, you show up as kind of who you are. There's that little core inside of you that just kind of shows up as is. And that can be shaped by your environment and your experiences and all that. But I think deep down, you're right. There's kind of a certain character that we each have. Yeah, I don't think that changes. That stays with you the whole time. Did you have a good relationship with your parents?

I did. They still live in the same house back in Arkansas where I grew up. Where? Little Rock, Arkansas. Let's go. I love Little Rock. Shout out to Little Rock. It's my favorite town.

I miss it. What do you miss about Little Rock? I don't get to go back nearly enough. What do you miss about the South? Oh, yeah. We can play there all the time. Yep. The Whitewater Tavern was my place there for a long time.

They put on great shows, and that was just a cool little venue. But, yeah. Yeah, my parents are still there. And, yeah, they were real supportive the whole time. About you being a musician? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it starts with my dad's 45s and then goes on to like the Fonz and then awkward

high school 80s stuff. And then, yeah. And then you start going to shows and, you know, just DIY shows. And I guess, I don't know. At the time in the 80s, it was called alternative. So you go to all these alternative rock band shows, punk rock shows. Like who?

Well, it was all local bands. I don't know. My first show was a band called Trusty and a couple of other, The Numb Skulls and some other bands. And they'd rented out the women's city club downtown. Um, and they,

they had a punk rock show there and I was 14 and it kind of blew my mind. That was something I'd never seen anything like that before. And I think that was kind of, I fell in love. I was like, Ooh, that's what I want to do. And then I ended up doing that for,

I'm still doing that. At 14, you knew what you wanted to do. Yeah. I wanted to get in a band or get in a van with a band and just drive around the country and have adventures. That was a romantic idea to me. So yeah.

Was it still, now looking back in retrospect, it basically was that, right? It was great. And I'm yeah i uh and still uh i i like like every time it's it gets time to leave for tour um yeah i still get excited and it's it's just that yeah sleeping on floors and waking up in the van, driving over the Rocky Mountains or waking up on the West Coast and the oceans right there. Or even, hell, the crazy times when you're trying to parallel park a van and a trailer in Brooklyn and there's no parking spots anywhere. And you're like, fuck this town. There's no place to park. And once you do get parked, it's going to get broken into just naturally yeah and but but you're doing it you're you know

you're young and you're yeah you're in one of the greatest cities on the planet trying to park a crazy van and shove stuff down the block to load into a tiny venue that yeah it's it it's awesome it's it's a great life experience do you think humans lost that idea of exploring i don't think so uh i don't know i think it's different i guess it it's probably an evolving idea um but yeah that's what i wanted to do uh i love the music and i like the feeling when a song comes together. One guy's playing one part and another guy's playing his part

and they lock together and it just sounds good and you can sing something over it. Just that musical experience. I love that. The other part is you get to explore the world. That was a big chunk of why I wanted to be in a band. but then the other part is, yeah, you get to explore the world. Um, that was at least,

you know, that was a big chunk of why I wanted to be in a band. So, um, what was the hardest part? Yeah. As a human species. Wait,

what? Yeah. Keep going. Sorry. You, you, I don't know. The wifi kept on bopping.

So I didn't hear half that. Um, sorry. Say that again. I'm just rambling. That's okay. Yeah, I apologize. I'll answer one question

and then I'll ramble off onto another question that you didn't even ask me and answer that one instead. Is it hard for you to concentrate or stay focused on things? Maybe. It doesn't ever seem to be a problem in real life. It's only in these podcasts and interviews.

Why do you think that is? I don't know. I don't think I've ever become real comfortable with talking to people. I don't know whether it's an interview or a podcast or it's just on the street. or a podcast or or it's just on the street i'm definitely more uh i think most of the time i'm more of a solitary kind of a guy um how hard was it to get to know your wife then with that idea man i don't know you get me out after a show and i've got some whiskey in me and we're sitting at a at a bar then then yeah so then it be, it's a different situation. Um, I love hanging out all night in bars and just me too, whether it's, you know, it could just be you and the bartender and you know,

you're just sitting there at the bar and they do their thing and you do your thing and then they talk a little bit and you talk a little bit and it's a great night or it could be packed with tons of people and i just love having a barstool and sitting in a bar um and that was the that's how i met my wife it was after a show uh and i saw her in the audience and uh i was like oh i've gotta i gotta track her down while you were playing while we were playing yeah she was like third third row back you know and she wasn't really going crazy or dancing or singing along or anything she was just standing there she was watching i could tell she was watching and so we got off stage and and i went out into the crowd

and you know it's just saying hi to people and shaking hands and signing a couple autographs and stuff and i saw her and i was like hey do you want to go have a drink and she's like true thing i was like all right you got to wait like 20 minutes while i say hi and can kind of work my way out of here and we'll go get a drink and um and yeah we found the closest bar and yeah it was kind of a slow night at this bar when we walked in and uh yeah we got a couple of barstools and just started talking. And that was real natural and easy. But yeah, these situations, I'm not as smooth as I was that night. You know what it is, though? Is it the confidence we need that we released our va-voom,

you know, the stage idea? What if you met your wife at the fucking coffee shop? Do you think you would have had the same conversation? It would have been a different conversation. You're right. You got a point. Yeah, when you walk off stage, if it was a good show, you feel like you're on top of the world.

And yeah, you can do anything. You can, you know know the world is yours and yeah there's a certain confidence there now there's a flip side to that when it's not a good show and you walk off stage and you're just like ah i'm worthless i'm the lowest of the low um and that can send you straight to the bar too um yeah and you can drink for a whole nother reason. And yeah, there's, so it's a, yeah, it's a, what am I trying to say? It's tricky balancing those two.

You're either on top of the world or you're completely worthless. And every night on tour is, you know, a roll of the dice as to which one that's going to be sometimes. Has the band ever made you go to the bar early? Because you can't communicate how you feel to them? To my actual band members?

Yeah. Say like 20 years. Yeah, for sure. It's the same guys I've been with the whole time. Since 1998 or so. That's fucking amazing. It crazy it's insane uh i don't hear that shit a lot it's no and like most of the bands that i love didn't exist for half that long you know yeah um you know the replacements were around for 12 years

and you read about their career and it seems like this epic, uh, you know, lifelong thing. And it's, you realize that was only 12 years and they made all these records and did all this stuff. And you're like, I've been doing this 20, 20 some odd years now, the same guys.

And it's, uh, yeah. But so we know each other pretty well. Um, you guys ever fight each other? Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Physically. Yeah. Yeah. There's been some, some tussles. What's the biggest tussle that almost broke up the band? Man, I don't know. There was a bunch in the old days. And, you know, you're drinking.

And in the old days, everybody was drinking. Now, a few of the guys have slowed down, and some of the guys don't drink at all anymore. have slowed down and some of the guys don't drink at all anymore um but when we were all drinking and you know it's oh and you're crammed into a little dodge cargo van um and it's just the four of you and there's no you know there's no tour manager there's no merch person there's no nobody it's just the four of you guys and you're just all crazy drunk driving around the country um getting on each other's nerves um yeah it's all drunk dumb stuff that you fight about who knows what you fight about yeah in retrospect it's just was it just low dopamine thinking about it

low dopamine uh you mean just not being happy yeah like waking up in the morning and you know after drinking all night and realizing, fuck all these guys. Yeah, for sure. Everybody feels that. Yeah. And then you got four guys in the van all thinking that same thing. And it's real easy to get on each other's nerves.

But what you hope for is that then, you know, the show, it comes time to play the show. And maybe you have a couple of whiskeys. And then hopefully the show sounds pretty good. And maybe the crowd's really digging it and singing along. And then your whole night turns around. Everything turns around. And, you know, then you have this wonderful, beautiful night with these guys who just a few hours ago you were cursing.

But now you're all on stage and you're having a blast. And I don't know. Yeah, it's a weird thing. It's like waking up to the dream, you know? Like once you finally do the dream of like getting on stage and connecting, you know? That's why we're in a band. You know, I have communication problems too.

That's how we communicate. Exactly. The music is, that's kind of the job of the music is to bridge that gap and, you know, communicate those things that, yeah, you can't maybe say, you know, straight out. Is that why you wanted to be a songwriter? Was it hard for you to communicate? I don't know. It could be part of it i think um like i said it was just that kind of gut feeling of when everything comes together and you hear those melodies click um

that's what really drew me to rock and roll it's just that that feeling when everything's clicking you're like ah that's that's just uh i don't know it's like it's like that sip of whiskey or you know whatever it is it's that shot of dopamine it's when when that music kind of clicks together um and then i think the communication part of it was just a a bonus uh i think when i started i started i played bass guitar and i and I was writing songs on bass, but I never planned on being a lead singer. I always figured I'd find a guitar player, and I'd find a singer, and I'd find a band.

But then sometimes you can't find those folks, and you're like, all right, this is never going to work. You were just rocking songs on the bass guitar? Oh, yeah, totally. I wrote a whole lot of songs on the bass guitar? Oh yeah, totally I wrote a whole lot of songs on the bass guitar Yep You play those two top strings, the G and the D string And then, you know You can make a two-note chord And you can write a whole lot of songs on the D and the G string

On the bass guitar Fucking Ben Nichols Oh yeah Do you like puzzles? Do you like puzzles? Do I look cool? Do you like puzzles? I do puzzles with my kid now. But I was never a big puzzle guy in the past.

No, not necessarily. Do you feel like music was a puzzle? Yeah, I definitely feel like that. Because you know there's a way for the song to fit together exactly right. There's kind of an optimal version of how the chorus should fit with the verse and what chords the verse needs to be to fit with that chorus. And there's a way to get it to all work. And then the vocal pattern has to fit in just right.

And you know that there's, I mean, there's a thousand ways for it to go together. But you know that there's a few that are better than others. And so, yeah, you're trying to find the best version of that puzzle. But yeah, I feel that way for sure. That's fucking awesome. How long did it take for your band to start selling tickets? A number of years. We bought a van in 98 and hit the road.

We didn't really hit the road until maybe 2000. And so from 2000 to 2005 at least yeah it's when you're you know you're driving up to all the regular clubs small clubs if there's 20 people there you're like this is great um the hundred people there you're like holy we've we've made it yeah this is it um and but then the next night there's literally you know two people there and they were on the guest list and so there were five good five six years of that for sure five or six i would think so yeah it took us quite a while um but then you'd go home and maybe your hometown shows were maybe bigger at the time and then kind of i don't know then you i'm not sure what i know i don't know how it works um just word of mouth kind of word kind of spreads and um what was the song

the song yeah what do you think the song was it didn't work like that for us we never had that one kind of big moment it was just kind of a slow word of mouth thing where each time you came to town, there'd be five, 10 more people there. And then the next time you came, there'd be like 30 or 40 more people there. And then all of a sudden, you know, there's usually 200 folks at every show. And you're like, all right, this feels really good. Yeah. folks at every show and you're like all right this feels really good yeah um it was definitely i remember thinking i was like oh i don't have to worry about if this show is going to be a complete failure or not um like i know we're going to get paid at least enough money to get down the

road yeah this is a really nice this is a really nice feeling this this is what it feels like to to have made it yeah um so yeah i, but I remember the old days real well. Tell me, I want to know more about the old days. I want to know what it was like to tour in the 90s, early 2000s.

I mean, there was, you were doing MapQuest and fucking. Yeah, totally. In the old days, the GPS was,

I remember when we got our first GPS thing and yeah, that was a game changer. I know, I bet, dude. One time in Europe europe we were driving around

and like you've got your little guy who drives the van in europe and he's your you know your tour manager or whatever and in europe in the you know in the 90s you would just drive into town and either he'd stop and make a phone call at a pay phone or he would just find people that look like punk rockers and ask them where to go. And that's how you found out. That's how you find a club. It's just by finding some people

in the middle of town that maybe look like they might go to a show and you're like, hey, where's this place? And they're like, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's how you get there. So yeah, it was different times. It is halftime at the Enni Fresco interview hour. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Sports with Dolav.

He's talking shit about the game. He's got a weird fucking name. It's Sports with Don't Love This week we're gonna be talking Some NBA Finals Bubble baby, the bubble burst Holy shit The Lakers burst out of the fucking bubble

Those motherfuckers won their 17th championship 17? What. 17? What the fuck? Utah hasn't won one. Cocksucking motherfucker. This was supposed to be our year, dude. But Rudy got fucking COVID and shut down the whole fucking league. But that's okay. The fucking bubble was sick as fuck.

Lakers, you can have this one. LeBron James, MVP. Again, four-time finals MVP. Anthony Davis, Matt Respect, Danny Green, J.R. Smith. Nah, those fools didn't do shit. Andy, you're still a bitch, but congratulations. Worked really hard for that one.

You fucking sweated your ass off watching those games. But we'll be back next year. Utah Jazz 2021 champs, it's alright, we're coming back for a fucking championship i'll see you guys in the conference final utah jazz 2021 let's fucking go it's sports with fucking a

the idea i don't know like when i think of you ben i think of like a guy who you're like a blue collar fucking songwriter you you know your fan base you know you gotta I think of you, Ben, I think of a guy who's a blue-collar fucking songwriter. You know your fan base. You know you gotta do the work. You're not the fucking John Mayers of the world. It's a great job, though. Does it bum you out? Does it bum you out to be a blue-collar songwriter?

No. It's funny. I have to remind myself sometimes. Yeah, now with social media and everything uh everything it definitely changes the way you view stuff um you're like oh like in the old days i just wanted to be i i wanted to be uh i wanted to be in a band that nobody listened to i wanted to be one of those one of those bands, you know, and it sounds silly to say it now, but like the Pixies or the replacements are,

you know, an underground band that had no chance of mainstream success, whatever that meant in 1992. Yeah. But yeah, I wanted to be in an underground band. And then now, you know know you get you you get the manager and the booking agent and everybody's like well we need to we need to do something to get some more records and get more fans um and you're like and then you start to think well maybe i'm not doing a good enough job. Oh, why, why isn't, why, why are YouTube videos getting more likes than whoever? Yeah. And you start comparing yourself to people and you're like, ah, maybe,

maybe I am a failure. But then you got to think back and you're like, oh wait, no, you're, you're exactly in the kind of band that you set out to be in. You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing and you're you're exactly in the kind of band that you set out to be in um it's doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing and you're doing it pretty much on the exact level you want to do it uh if you'd been able if you'd had a shot to do it at a bigger level i don't think you really wanted to you probably shot yourself in the foot and drank too much yeah screw that up so you're actually exactly where you want to be and um I just have to remind myself of that sometimes.

Did you ever have any calls or talks with big labels? And then you realize, eh, this ain't for me. We did a record with Universal once, just one record. And it was, I don't know, it's kind of the same for me. If you're dealing with a small label, you're still dealing with a record label.'s you're still dealing with a record label if you're dealing with a big record label it's almost the same you're just uh a record label is a record label kind of as far as i see it well like a bank with a big interest rate kind of yeah exactly

yeah um and whether they're yeah whether they're giving you a tiny tiny amount of money or a slightly larger amount of money it's kind of all the same same shit yeah did you like do you like working with that do you think it ruins your artistic creativity when you have someone make it or giving you money to do it no not really i think um i think and we've never been in a spot where we had a manager or like a or a record label or anybody saying, you have to record a song that sounds like this or this song needs to change. We've never had any of that. We've always done exactly what we want to do.

I don't think anybody ever thought they could make us... That you're not going to pretty us up ever, sonically or physically. We are what we are why did you decide memphis so i guess little rock's not that far from memphis but it's only a couple hours um i followed a girl to memphis let's go yeah and so i moved to moved to memphis and uh i couldn't find anybody to be in a band with me in little Rock anyways. So I figured, eh, I'll go to Memphis for a while. And dated this girl, and we broke up. But by the time we broke up, Lucero had started.

And so I was just in Memphis from that time on. Who was the first guy you met? Brian Venable, just from going to shows. We went to a lot of the same shows. And I don't know. I'm not sure what show. It might have been like a Christy Front Drive show or something where I actually met him.

But it was a pretty, you know, Memphis was a pretty small scene, I guess. So you saw the same people all the time at all the, it was kind of the same crew at all the shows. And he was one of those guys. So one by one you you started getting your boys and then then you said how long did it take until you're like hey this is my work let's go were you playing locally or man as soon as i could get everybody together yeah we played as much as we could locally like the idea of over trading the market or whatever never crossed our

minds we played you know five times a week if we could, twice in one night sometimes if we could. Do you think that's what got you good? What? Do you think that's what got you good? I don't think we ever got good, but it got us, I don't know. We knew we could pull it off. We knew we were good enough. And so, I don't know we we knew we could pull it off um we knew we could we knew we were good enough

and so i don't know my my plan forever was to just once i could find the guys then all i needed was the van and then i just start calling people and booking shows and so we started booking our own shows and trying to go out of town as much as possible. What was your... Memphis a whole bunch in the early days. I interrupt you. You said you were opening for somebody? Oh, in the old days, we'd open for somebody at a club called Barristers. You know, play at 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock or whatever.

And then we'd go down the street. There was a 24-hour coffee shop that had shows. And we'd play there from midnight midnight to two or whatever and so we do more than one show a night in the old days sometimes was there ever a part where the partying distracted you from the actual music oh for sure i'd say for most of that 20 years um yeah there's a reason why Lucero is where we are today. And it's because, yeah, I don't know. I wasn't always necessarily focused on the music as much as I should be sometimes. Why?

For me, because it wasn't, I don't know. Man, I don't know. Man, I don't want to misspeak. But the music was a part of it. And I got to sing these songs that are, all the Lucero stuff is really, most of it's first person. And most of it's very personal. Most of the song lyrics are about things that I was specifically feeling at the time. And they had definite specific people that the songs were about and situations the songs

were about. And so as long as I got up and was able to sing these songs and kind of go through that kind of cathartic experience or whatever, that was, I don't know, that was kind of my main goal. I love the idea of having the songs on record, but I think it was more just the action of getting to sing the songs that really made me feel good. Yeah. And so that's what I was focused on.

And as long as I got to get up there and sing it kind of didn't really matter if it didn't matter if it was good and it didn't really matter if our career was going one direction or another i was just getting as long as i could do what i wanted to do um and so yeah we could have made different decisions that would have been better for our career trajectory um but i don't think I was ever very focused on those. I was doing the bare minimum because that's work, and you have to make unfun decisions sometimes with those choices. So as long as I could keep the band together, keep us on the road, have fun drinking bars and get to sing these songs.

That's, that's good enough for me. I don't, not very ambitious career wise other than that. So it's the idea of staying on the road that keeps you alive. Yeah, I think so. And that might be why it was such a big deal when I met my wife, um, to shift gears kind of and allow for a little bit of, I don't know, anything else to interfere with that life I'd built in the band on the road. It was definitely a major life choice. But I think I've balanced it out pretty well uh i still get i still get enough of lucero and i still get enough of the bars and the whiskey and the rock

and roll um but now i've got this whole awesome extra part too you know and you also got the fucking rolling with oliver peck by motorcycling through the fucking country. Yeah, that was, we've been doing that since I think I went on the first Bike Riders Tour in 2011. Tell me about this. How'd this start with Oliver? You know, Oliver's a tattoo artist. Oliver's a tattoo artist in Dallas, Texas.

I didn't meet him until I don't know, about the same time. Maybe about 10 years ago. I didn't know, I don't know. Well, about the same time, um, maybe about 10 years ago. And he, I didn't know, I didn't, our tour manager, Jimmy, he was a big tattoo guy and Brian, my guitar player, he's a big tattoo guy. And they know all these tattoo artists all over the country and Oliver is one of the ones that they knew. And I didn't, I don't know these guys really. Um,

I've hung out in a lot of tattoo shops. I got a lot of tattoos and all these guys I've met are super friendly. And I've met some of the best tattooers in the country. But I don't keep up with them the way the other boys do. And so I didn't know how good Oliver was or how famous he was or anything. He's just a guy with long hair that showed up at all the Fort Worth or Dallas shows. And he seemed friendly enough um but then he found out i bought this motorcycle in 2009 and then in 2011 i booked a bike rider

store where i'd leave the boys behind and i put the guitar acoustic guitar in a waterproof bag like i had to buy i couldn't find a bag big enough but they i found one for canoeing or something like a giant big duffel bag and you can just slide the guitar down and roll it up and it's airtight and you put that on the back of the bike and then bam you just go on tour all by yourself and that was a that was the concept it was to go on tour and play shows but without all the bullshit yeah and so it's just you and the motorcycle and the guitar, and you just go. And I did like two weeks that first year all by myself, completely by myself. But then Oliver found out about it.

He's like, oh, man, I'm going with you. And I'm like, and there was no, can I go with you? Or like, hey, what if I went with you? It was, I'm going with you. And then, bam bam it was the bike riders tour all of a sudden and uh he he's doing tattoos uh backstage and at different tattoo shops wherever we go and and i'm playing songs and we're all riding motorcycles and um yeah that's a party that's a good party what do you like about being alone on stage uh i like being able to fuck

up and i can stop a song completely and try to tell a joke or say something to the crowd and start right back up and and it works you try to do that with the band and everything falls apart why do you but if you're by yourself you can pull it off why um but you're the same person if you're lucero or if you're ben nichols right but with the band is i don't know i'm not the best at uh remembering lyrics sometimes i'm not the best at remembering what part goes after with the other part even though i wrote it i should know know it. But sometimes I'm like, oh, you accidentally play this chorus twice and then you go to the verse

and you're supposed to go to the bridge. But if you're by yourself, it doesn't matter. You just play it and it's fine. But if you've got a band, they all went to the part that they were supposed to go to and you screwed it up and then it's hard to save that. So if you're by yourself, you can screw up all you want and it's fun. Yeah, and I love those guys who I always dreamed to save that. Yeah. I mean, it's, so if you're by yourself, you can screw up all you want and it's fun.

Yeah. It's like, and I love those guys who, you know, like I always dreamed about doing that. Like I love those Woody Guthrie types and like who could tell stories that are funny and make you laugh and all, then go put on, you know,

those lyrics that, you know, change the world, you know, that's, that's, that's huge. And yeah,

that's what you're shooting for and i i think i've had a few nights like that where i actually kind of uh approach that level and kind of um i don't know usually uh i'm i i don't know i i still like singing all the songs that i've written um those the lyrics uh there's not too many of them that I would change, even the ones that are 20 years old. I still really like singing those every night. Do you think you'd be playing music if music didn't have you involved? It didn't involve playing for people? I think I would, because it's real fun when you're like here at home in the basement and you've got garage band or whatever.

And when you can find those little pieces that go together, like that puzzle you were talking about. Yeah. And once you find those pieces and when you, when those pieces click, you're like, ah, that's good.

And then you sit there and you listen to it a hundred times and you try to figure out some good words to sing on top of it. I think I'd still do that even if I couldn't play live. Um, but it's nice that even if I couldn't play live. But it's nice that they kind of go hand in hand. It's nice having both. Do you have that same philosophy in life outside of music? What, that you need a little bit of both?

You know, just the puzzle of finding happiness. Oh, man, that's a bigger question. That's a trickier puzzle, I think, for sure. Yeah. Because a lot of times, and you know, the thing that you think is going to make you happy isn't actually the thing that's going to make you happy. I know. That's the trick to that one.

And yeah, being willing to... Yeah, that's... I don't know. So yeah, I guess I do think it's the same kind of philosophy. You do have to make sure you make room for, you got to make sure you make room for everything. Sometimes you might be getting 100% of what you think you want but you might need to make a little bit more room for stuff that you don't know that you want or need how do you find that stuff out when you don't know?

it's tough, I'm not exactly sure I don't know, I think maybe it's a good question you know what it is though? I don't know. This is my, what is it that makes you happy or what is it? No,

like the idea of like, it's like same thing. It's like, what if you met your, uh, you know, you said, you know what,

this girl is something, this girl's special and you did it. So it's maybe it's like the, you being an open vessel. I don't know. What do you think? Maybe. Yeah.

I'm not sure how to sum it up exactly, because I met my wife and we had that awesome first night where we just, you know, we went out after the show, we hung out at this bar. Um, and it was like, like I said, it was real, a low key night and the bartender was friendly. It was just us. And then a couple of guys at the end of the bar and we didn't, we didn't really pay attention to our surroundings or it was just a quiet bar but then i guess something maybe 2 a.m came and the bartender took off his shirt and put on a cowboy hat and then all these gay guys came in and it was like a crazy wild gay bar

and and we we we just kind of sat there and had our drinks and we enjoyed ourselves and it was awesome and the bartender was super friend even friendlier now he's like dancing on the bar and And we just kind of sat there and had our drinks and we enjoyed ourselves and it was awesome. And the bartender was super friendly, even friendlier now. He's like dancing on the bar and stuff. It was an awesome night. It was a great first night. And I knew there was something special about that girl. And so what do I do?

Immediately, I start dating a totally different girl in California. And I start spending all my time in Los Angeles, which is exactly opposite of where my wife is and what I should have been doing. Why? So yeah, I found this happiness, the thing that would make me happy. And I ran away from it at first and spent a year just kind of screwing around

because maybe because, i don't know why because sometimes we don't want what we know genuinely make us happy we want this other stuff instead i don't know were you scared of happiness i think so sometimes yeah um because then you've got to then you've got to start i don't know acting right and then you've got to start taking care of it yeah you know yeah you're right you gotta you gotta be responsible with it and you can't i don't know you don't want to be irresponsible with your happiness does that phrase make sense i don't know um let's think about whatever it was i didn't want to do it and i ran away from it and then then luckily enough, she was still there

when I finally came to my senses a year later. Were you still talking to her? Or were you pimping her? Or like, what was it like? Talking, we were friendly. I would see her at shows, you know, every now and again, every few months when we'd come through town or whatever. Or, you know, every six months.

And she was very friendly and understood the type of guy i was and didn't hold any expectations to me and did y'all hook up that night maybe cool yeah yeah that's it's so funny how we are scared to be happy do you think if we're happy we we start are unmotivated to live yeah maybe and then yeah maybe and then you start to get bored and then you're like and then like you were talking about with that dream thing like once you've accomplished the dream you're like oh well well okay now i've done that what do i don't have any more dreams what what do i dream now and then you gotta you gotta think i'm something new to dream and that's maybe takes some work and some i don't know introspection and that's not fun sometimes i don't i don't have you ever had that i've never have you ever had that uh that idea um happen like with your band um like we've made it what do we do now yeah like maybe it was the

red rock show or playing fucking minglewood hall or whatever it is you know man we've had a lot of those like really cool experiences um that i never thought you know they were goals that i wasn't sure if we'd ever make it there and yeah red, Red Rocks is definitely one of those. There's been a lot of really good moments like that. And then, yeah, what do you do with that? You reach the goal and then what? How do you feel after you reach a goal? Then you got to go back in the trenches and get some more work done,

you know? No, I hate that. And it's tough, but, but I guess it's kind of like, you know, every night when you walk off stage on top of the world,

now you get to go back into the trenches with, you know, with these really good experiences under your belt. And so, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not even sure what I'm talking about now no no yeah i do you so basically the idea of like all right i reached the goal and now i gotta either adapt the goal or make it bigger and go in the trenches and fucking dirty it up a little bit i mean it kind of makes sense why you fucking go by yourself now

to fucking do smaller gigs. On the motorcycle tour, yeah. It gives you a chance to recharge. And I just like riding the motorcycle. It's a good excuse to ride the bike. But yeah, it definitely gives you some personal space. And yeah,

the shows can be a little more relaxed because I can screw up on stage and interact with the audience in a different way kind of a less stressful way but then yeah you go back to the band which is your main main thing it's my main thing

and yeah pretty much the bulk of my energy goes into the band and so do you have any kids I do I got a couple of And yeah, pretty much the bulk of my energy goes into the band. Do you have any kids? I do. I got a couple of stepdaughters, and then I've got a little girl, a four-year-old, Izzy. Congrats. Yeah, thank you.

What's harder, Ben Nichols, the front man for Lucero, or Ben Nichols, the dad? In your brain. Harder? What do you mean by? add in your brain uh harder what do you mean by just mentally just like pressure like uh like how you said ben nichols the acoustic folk guy by himself on you take is you're easier on yourself versus right ben nichols lead singer lucero i gotcha um, I thought being a father was going to be, uh, more stressful and more hard. Um, cause I mean,

yeah, in a rock and roll band, it's just rock and roll. You're on stage. You're not gonna, you know, with one bad show, you're not gonna warp somebody for life.

Hopefully, uh, whereas being, you know, raising a two year old, like, am I, am I completely messing this kid up by,

you know, the cereal I choose to feed her every kid up by you know the cereal i choose to feed her every morning or you know who knows yeah um but i think it's the other way around actually i think uh being a dad uh is actually she's more forgiving i think than a lot of the uh audiences i've played in front of before yeah she i think she accepts me more for more for who i am uh kind of naturally um does she like your music she does does she like the music is that what you ask yeah yeah she loves it um and that that always she requests songs um we just recorded uh some stuff and she's already requesting the new songs

at night night time now which is good um you're like fuck yeah it's good that's good when the audience is requesting new stuff yeah you know when the audience is requesting stuff from the album that hasn't even been released yet i love it you know you're on that's the dream yeah it's great i'm living the dream now this is the dream like and um so so now where do you go after you get you just try to stay in the dream as long as possible make the dream last um yeah and so yeah that's kind of what i'm doing up here with a toddler. Well, I'm proud of you, bud. We're already at an hour and it's been great. Oh, shit. I love it. Man.

No, but that's what it is, though. It's kind of like, man, this is what I'm going through right now. I don't know. It's like that idea of do I need to change myself and adapt to get you know the bigger dream or do I just fine tune the dream that I have now and be okay with

you know this is the cards I got dealt I'm not gonna be a fucking Justin Bieber or not gonna be you know

and do you want to be Justin Bieber no you might I don't know but I don't I don't think so the idea

no it's like it's like that idea that society says you need to have more and you need to society says, you need to have more, and you need to have more, and you need to have more. Yeah, you're not working hard enough if you're not Justin Bieber.

You're doing something wrong if you're not. And I think we've got to realize that that's bullshit. Yeah. No, I think you're doing, I think you're doing really well. But what about the idea, so do you think social media fucked that up? I think it's a part of it.

And I don't know how exactly. I think human beings are, we're always kind of wired this way to, I don't know, think that we should be doing more like whatever the Joneses are doing doing or whatever the justin bieber is doing i don't know yeah um i think we're just kind of wired that way naturally whether there was social media or not i think social media might kind of exacerbate that uh but yeah i think um yeah i think becoming comfortable with the path that you're on is kind of the main thing.

Were you like that ever? Or do you like the uncomfortability? Yeah, I screw with that for sure. Yeah. Thinking that, I don't know, because it makes you feel like you're slacking off, like you're a complete screw up. When that's not necessarily the case. It's like, no, you're not a screw up. when that's not necessarily the case it's like no you're not a scrub you're just not justin bieber which might actually be better actually is um and it's just how you view what you've got is that's a i think that's uh maybe more important than we

sometimes remember is um it's not what you've got or what you're trying to get to. Um, it's how you view where you're at and what you've got. And if your attitude is the right way and if your perspective is right, then yeah, it's just, that's what it takes to make the most out of, uh, I don't know where you're at right now. You know, who's your guy? I'm not saying Justin Bieber's the guy that I get pissed off about. I know what you mean. I don't know where you're at right now. You know, who's your guy? I'm not saying Justin Bieber is the guy that I get pissed off about. I know what you mean. But like, who's your guy? I don't know if I have one.

You're not competitive like that? No, of course I am. Oh, yes. Very much so. In a detrimental kind of way. Yeah. I don't want to be because I love music and I love musicians. But then I'll be like reading about

somebody that I'm a fan of and I'll be like oh man I'm like why am when I what I did why didn't that guy interview me why didn't uh why didn't I get that um I do that too and that's that perspective thing I've got it it doesn't I've got to remember to look at it the right way um and and then you can be yeah then you can be satisfied and happy with where you're at um so yeah i don't know i don't necessarily have there's not one ultimate uh kind of person like i mean like what david bowie or something like we're all supposed to be yeah exactly this is like david bowie and if you're not david bowie then obviously you're not a genius and your music is crap.

And it's like, well, not exactly. Because I'm a fan of a whole lot of people that aren't David Bowie. And I think they're amazing musicians. And I've got to remember that. We don't all have to be David Bowie. Yeah, and the idea that you started this, it's like, don't wish for something

because it's going to come true you said you wanted to be an underground band exactly that's what i wanted to be one of the cool bands yeah exactly not one of the justin bieber bands yeah same here and i've got to remind myself of that sometimes i'm like oh wait no this is exactly what i want and um and so now i consider myself very lucky uh that when i actually do finally do finally smack myself around and get myself in the right frame of mind, I'm like, oh, I sit back and look at where I am. I'm like, oh, okay, no, this is good. This is right where I want to be. Do you think it's just the idea of just making more money?

I don't know. That really wasn't a big thing for Lucero ever. We lived all in the same house for a while, a long while. We had 600 bucks a month rent for all of us. I had the van and that was all. Nobody else had a car. Nobody else had another place to live. We had very few expenses. And we just lived like that. And it was, and we had a blast. It was great. And nobody, like once you have a family, maybe money becomes definitely a bigger issue. But, um, but no, I think personally for me, uh, uh, I can go out and make money. I can play a few more shows a year and I can make, I can make money if I need to. Now for me, it's more, ah, it's writing, it's, it's finding those lyrics. It's writing that song.

It's like, um, trying to be productive and put out good material. That's, that's stuff you can't buy, you know? Um, is that where you put all your pressure on yourself yeah i want to be i want to be known as a good songwriter for sure um and so i want to live up to that um and you know i know i'm not going to be a towns van zandt or you know uh whoever the pinnacle of songwriting is i know i'm not ever going to reach that but but I want to play a good game. I do want to be competitive there. That's kind of one of the few places where I've really embraced that competitive kind of spirit.

Do you think songwriting is a sport to you? I don't know if it's a sport, but being in a band is kind of like a sport yeah um but the songwriting is the songwriting is the that's the real deal like being in a band is crazy and fun and all sorts of stuff but the songwriting is kind of that's yours that's kind of the personal part and that's kind of the i don't know it might sound silly but that's kind of the pure the pure part of it yeah i i know i totally agree i mean why why did we do the first 10 20 years of sleeping on floors and fucking you know figuring out a way to find a place to sleep or or drinking at a bar till 4 a.m if it wasn wasn't all for the songs. Yeah, it's for the songs.

As cliche and cheesy as that sounds, I think that's exactly what it is. I mean, even if it sounds cliche, I mean, like, fuck. We don't make any money. Who gives a fuck? We're drinking all day. Nobody gives a shit.

It doesn't matter what we say. Nobody gives a shit anyways. So yeah, I'll say some cliche shit. Yeah, go for it, Ben. Fuck it. And I'm totally happy about it. Yeah. I love say some cliche shit. Yeah, go for it, Ben. Fuck it. And I'm totally happy about it. Yeah. I love the late nights in the bars,

and I love the songwriting. Yeah, it's a lifestyle that I always kind of thought was romantic, so I'm glad I get to do it. Yeah, and why not spend... I mean, that's love too. Oh, for sure. I think so. You think that's your first love?

I was going to ask you what your first heartbreak was, but I want to find out what your first love... Yeah, tell me that first. You got time? Rock and roll could be definitely... Yeah. Where you... Yeah, you found something that you can't exactly describe

why it makes you feel so good um and you're not exactly sure what it is um or how it works but you know that you need it or if it's healthy just yeah yeah you don't know if it's healthy or not necessarily but it's you want it yeah and you need it um yeah that's how i felt about rock and roll when i was three or four years old, for sure. That's fucking awesome. So yeah. Yeah. The fact that I still get to have that happen and I'm 46 years old and I still feel that way, that's a pretty good run. Yeah. And you still love it.

I'll take that. And you're still in love with it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Does this quarantine make you more in love with it? Because you miss it? Does what make me? Did this quarantine make you fall more in love with it

Because you miss it? Man quarantine I think Yeah quarantine made me appreciate Traveling And I miss going I miss going to those random venues

all across the country and eating at those weird little restaurants that you find along the way and those little bars that you always go to after the show. I miss seeing those friends and seeing those places and that interaction. Yeah, that definitely quarantine took that away for sure. and i missed that quite a bit and can't wait for that to come back um i bet you haven't been a dad this much ever in your life you know it's tough man it's definitely i i missed the bars yeah like i said i got one in my basement but it's not the same when you're when you're your own bartender it's not the same yeah so

yeah the atmosphere is nice but we search for the perfect bar i love it that's yeah that's still hold on you broke up say that again yeah froze you froze up on me too say that again uh yeah i'm i'm still on that journey is all i said well that's great that perfect bar You froze up on me too. Say that again. Yeah. I'm still on that journey is all I said. Searching for that perfect bar. Well, it's like the idea of the bar, not the bar itself. I think the internet wants us to stop. I think so too.

Ben, thanks for being on the show, buddy. I appreciate you. I've been managed by Schwartz now for five years and how he speaks so highly of you. And I'm glad we finally got to talk because he loves your ass. That's nice to hear, man.

Thank you so much for inviting me on the show. No problem, man. Let's be friends soon. Hopefully see you real soon. Yeah, buddy. Thanks for being on the show, Ben. Have a great night, buddy. Later.

Bye-bye. Bye. Ben Nichols, everybody. Good guy. It's the first time I ever talked to him, really. And, you know, like I was saying before, my manager manages him and speaks so highly of him, and I was looking forward to that talk.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed that. All right, a couple words or a song maybe, and then I'll catch you on the tail end. Now, a message from the UN. One, two, three, four. I've been working here. One day it'll be a year. And I can't recall the day when I didn't want to disappear

I keep showing up, helping on growing up If it takes a lifetime I'm learning how to be alone Fall asleep with the TV on And I fight the earth to live inside my telephone Keep my spirits high Find happiness by and by If it takes a lifetime I got too far from a race

And I forgot where I come from And the line between right and wrong Was so fine Well I thought the highway loved me But she beat me like a drum My day will come If it takes a lifetime I don't keep no liquor here

Never care for wine or beer Working for the county Keeps me pissing clear The night's all dry as dust I'm letting my eyes adjust If it takes a lifetime I got too far from my race And I forgot where I come from

And the line between right and wrong is so fine. Well, I thought the highway loved me, but she beat me like a drum. My day will come if it takes a lifetime. Yes, it does All right, what's up, Nick? Oh, you know, just hanging out Another day What's good? Yo, what's your life looking like right now

Through quarantine? Man, it's been interesting. I just moved into a new place. And we've been spending a lot of time in our recording studio. The band has been hanging out a lot. We've been working on new music and doing a lot of live streams. Does this feel like a first date again? Can you even believe that like we,

the Royal Rumble tour happened like months ago? Like, holy shit. What are we doing right now? I know it's so fucked up, dude. That was like one of the best times. Me too,

man. And to go from that into this, it's just been like the craziest year ever it's so bipolar like what the fuck is going what like why why is um why my question is what are you escaping from well um that's a good question so it's the album itself is kind of more an examination of that concept of what it means to escape we recorded the album

actually a year ago before any of this happened and then all this started happening and then the name of the album just kind of took on a new meaning of its own. But I'm always interested in concepts like that, with things that can mean something positive or negative, like escape can be meant in a positive way or in a negative way.

And all the songs on the album are kind of related to that in how it can be interpreted in different ways. But what about you? What are you escaping from? Escaping from the harsh reality of the world we live in today. Sometimes it's good to get away from it, but other times it's a bad thing too. You don't want to be ignorant to what's happening. You want to be informed and um you know facing it head on and you can't just pretend it's not there but but it's also a

form of self-defense in a way too you know to to escape the constant onslaught of misinformation and all the negativity and hate that's happening out there. You know, it's a lot. You know, it's a lot for people to process. There's so much going on with mental illness in this world. And, you know, it's just people need that escape from art and music. And, you know, you've been doing a great job with that. And it's just we're doing what we do, you know? Yeah. a great job with that and it's just we're doing what we do you know yeah i mean like i'm thinking about you know you you wrote this a year ago what did by the way that was a great response uh

for right now but i'm thinking about when you when you wrote this album a year ago you're going through the death of uh one of your best friends your your writing partners. And this is the first record where you had to write all the lyrics. Is this true? So, yeah, this was a crazy project to take on. The first time trying to write and record an album after Paul died, the album actually has the last song that we ever wrote together. It's towards the end of the album. It's called Machines.

Which is a great fucking song. Thank you. But yeah, I actually went. It was therapeutic for me. And I couldn't bring myself to write for such a long time after he died. It just didn't feel normal. I just couldn't do it. And so that was hard for me to get over that hump.

And then I finally was able to do it. And when I did it, we talked about this before, it was kind of like the floodgates opened. And I started looking through all of his old notes. So there are actually several songs on this album that have little lines and little ideas that he contributed. But then I also started working with some other new writers that helped out with some of the lyrics on this album. So it's been a super collaborative

process. And it's been really therapeutic for me and helpful to get back in the swing of things. And I'm really proud of it. I think we did a good job. Did you think you're not good enough without Paul? I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to do it without Paul. Yeah. But part of me still feels like I've still got him with me. to do it without Paul. Yeah. But, you know, part of me still feels like I've still got him with me,

you know, and, and, um, fuck yeah, you do. You know, I can, I can hear,

hear that little voice in the back of my head, you know, hear him singing along to the ideas and, um, brainstorming and, you know, thinking of how he would do things. I never thought I wasn't good enough.

It was just such a special experience to write music with him. And to lose that, it really hurt. I still miss him a lot. I bet. It's like when someone who's your best friend that you're inspired by so heavily, lyrically, or just being a friend, and then for him to just disappear like that out of your life. This is me overthinking our friendship. It's so beautiful that you named the record Escape because you're escaping from this idea that you could be your own man too. And it's fucking cool, dude.

I'm proud of it. It's got a lot of different meanings. There's a lot of layers to the name Escape and to how that theme plays out in all the songs. I appreciate it, man. Thank you. It's been kind of an emotional roller coaster this year and even recording the album before all this started happening. We as a band were kind of wondering what our future was and everyone was like, what do we do?

Hold on, really? Y'all thought it's over, apocalypse now, stop? No, but you know how it is being a musician. You're constantly putting yourself out on a limb, wondering if people are going to accept you and wondering if you're ever going to make it or be successful. It's just a constant battle being an artist, trying to figure out how to balance

all these things. Is it because we're insecure? I think everybody's a little insecure when it comes down to it. Why are we so insecure about the things we really love, you know? It's a very vulnerable thing to create something and share it with people and put it out there. And you want to tell yourself you don't care what people think, but at the end of the day, you do care what people think. And it's just natural.

It's a natural part of being an artist and a musician, I think. And also just trying to be an everyday normal person. You deal with all the opinions that are out there and you know stay true to yourself just is what it is what's what's the hardest part about being a musician songwriter or like a guy putting out a piece of art it's probably different for everybody. What about for you, Nicholas? The hardest part might be that blank canvas. Oh, the beginning? Yeah, the beginning. The blank canvas. Like, what do I do?

And I felt that, dude. I heard the electric strings strings in this. Like it felt like a hip hop record. Starts off like that for sure. Dude. But even throughout the ending tracks, like, hold on, I have it right here. First off, we're going to talk about The Breakers. I think that's your best lyrical song. Dude, that shit's heavy. And it's sad.

Maybe I'm interpreting sad. I want to hear what your interpretation of that song is. But I also thought what was beautiful is that silver chord interlude. That shit was pretty, dude. It was just like... What was it? You wanted to make instrumental tracks

for the record? Or did you want to get your homies involved in the songwriting process i mean i love getting everybody involved you know our band is so collaborative and that's one of my favorite yeah that's what i love about y'all y'all are like a fucking 10 arm monster so that interlude you're talking about is actually something that josh wrote and yeah and it's i love it. It's just, um, it's very, it's almost like a meditation. Um,

and we wanted to give Josh just a little moment to shine on, on the album because he's kind of always in the background. Let's go big dog. Let's go big dog. Um, but that name silver cord interlude, uh, if you, if you that means the silver cord it's um it's kind of like the it's like a metaphysical concept it's like the life force that that binds us all together and when you die um your soul and spirit is released up through through this thing that they call the silver cord. It was something I found on the internet that I thought was interesting. Look at you. To the album.

But yeah, the Breakers, that was an idea that came from Paul. He struggled a lot with his own issues. You could tell, dude. Swimming outside of the breakers. That shit is dark Swim out past the breakers Was an idea that he and I had been kicking around For a song for so long

And I finally wanted to make it happen On this album But yeah, it's definitely like He's struggling And he wants to get out past all the Waves that are crashing in his life Swim out past the breakers, get away from it all, escape the craziness,

escape what you're struggling with, find peace and solitude. And that's definitely a very heavy song. So that one was kind of like a combination of his ideas with my ideas. So I had to kind of take that first little seed that he planted with the idea of swimming out past the breakers and then finish it and write verses around it and the rest of the words around it. He also had that line, you can't rewrite the ending, which I thought was such a great line. So I kind of just took some of his ideas and tried to finish them as best I could

in a way that he would be proud. Yeah, because it's cool and it's... Okay, so my interpretation was that you had a more friendly, happy version. I was like, swim past the breakers. Man, how can you get to the breakers? It's like going into suicide in a sense. So that, to me, felt like that's where peace is.

Yeah. So both interpretations are so fascinating. You wrote the verses on those? Yeah. It's hard to say. I mean, it all starts to get blurry in my head as who's writing what, because I'm looking through all these old notes

that I have from sessions with him. Is that how you start songs? It's different for every song. I'm working on some new stuff now where it's just completely different song. I'm working on some new stuff now where it's just like completely different from that. But, um,

man, it's when I'm struggling to find inspiration, I will often listen to old recordings of Paul and I, or, or look back through some old notes. There's still a ton of stuff that we haven't even scratched the surface on. So. Do you ever listen to that stuff and cry?

Absolutely. Oh, yeah. so do you ever listen to that stuff and cry absolutely oh yeah it's like finding inspiration through the past i actually uh just found this dvd that i have of an old vhs tape that we put on dvd of of uh paul and i playing together in middle school our first concert together what song was it? I think I told you about it before. We had this little band where we did 90s covers. And we played at our school's Cinco de Mayo assembly. And I was on drums, he was on guitar.

And it was just really, really hilarious. I'll show it to you sometime. Oh, man, I love that. What's your favorite part about creating this record? This one was special. We went into it for the... So usually our albums, we have all the songs written ahead of time. We've played them out on tour and we've flushed it all out and gotten, you know,

we go into the studio with a plan. This was the first time we went into the studio with a blank canvas. And as a band, we sat down together. And really, the goal at the beginning of it was to just put out a couple songs, you know, we were just like, okay, let's see if we can write and record a couple songs. And we went in and it something just clicked um and we ended up creating this whole album in the span of a couple weeks you know over a year ago from nothing from nothing yeah we and we we sat in there with our with our um producer john and our new friend bill who engineered the album and it was just one of the coolest, most fun experiences I've ever had in my life, you know,

sitting and writing, creating something from scratch with my best friends, you know, and. You ballsy motherfucker. I'm too cheap to do that. I'm like, I'm not going into the studio until we got some shit rocking. It was a huge risk. And when we were all at the time wondering as a band, like what direction we were going to go in next, you know, is this really working? Should we keep going?

And then we put up, you know, we put this album together, this collection of songs together, and it was just kind of a magical moment for us. It was really, I would say that was my favorite part of it is just you know figuring it out from from a blank canvas uh it was the first time we've ever tried writing an album on the spot in the studio and it was really fun you know that's crazy i mean like you prepare for these moments because you guys you know you improv all the time you know you guys every show is you guys all right we have a structure but inside the structure we're gonna

do the fuck we want and that's fucking metal as fuck and i think that's why you put your dick out there and say you know what fuck it i'm gonna drop some g's because i trust my boys it's like coaching dude you know you know what your boys can do. If you guys got two weeks together, you're going to make something dope. And it's fresh, because it didn't feel like a big something record. There was a couple songs that's like,

all right, cool, this is the roots, but there's some shit you're doing. Home, you're rapping. I love hip-hop, and I've always wanted to to throw some beats together and do something a little bit more in that vein our good friend who um he actually sat in with us on the royal rumble tour in detroit he uh he came out and rapped for you while you lip-synced actually he he helped write um some of the some of the

rap verses in some of the songs and uh how hard is it rap? It's fun. I started out on drums, so it's a very rhythmic way of singing. I love it. I listen to a lot of hip-hop and rap. It's hard to write the verses, but it's really fun to perform. Well, the production

kind of feels like a hip-hop record with all those analog synth strings. I love that shit. And we were going for... That's kind of the thing with our band is we aren't trying to sound like any style of music or any band in particular.

We just put out stuff that... We just write music and songs that we like. And on this album in particular, there's, you know, there's hip hop influence. There's heavy metal. There's a heavy metal track. You know, there's a more of like a synth pop track on there. There's a Pink Floyd sounding stuff on there. There's, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of all over the map and that's, that's part of the something and big something, I guess.

Wow, the something and big something. You heard it first. Nicholas McDaniels, the something and big something. No, it's, I mean, yeah, you guys are such great musicians and you guys love each other. That's the most beautiful thing about it. What's your favorite song on the record? Breakers is definitely one of them

it's the dopest dude the lyrics bro i'm like i felt that shit i felt the relationship you had with paul in those fucking lyrics dude like i'm like damn nick is singing and he's talking and i was proud because i i thought um at first i thought, oh, dude, this is the first real song lyrically that I heard. I was like, he's finally opening up. Yeah. And now that we've done... Fucking cool, dude. Look at you.

Let's get it. Let's get it, Big Dog. Let's go. Come in this hood. It was definitely like an icebreaker. Let's go! Come in this hood. It was definitely like an icebreaker.

Just being able to get myself to a point where I could feel comfortable doing it again. And now that we've got this album under our belt, we're back in the studio already working on new stuff. Fucking psychopath. What are you doing? Take a break! No. You're already in the studio working on new shit? I mean, I guess're already in the studio

Working on new shit I mean I guess You're in the studio every week We're doing the live streams there And you know It's kind of become like a home base for us We can't tour I mean we might as well get together

And make some music you know It's been kind of fun actually I wish my band lived in the same town It's tough I'm sure It's tough How are the guys doing? I miss them all They're doing good I think Actually everyone's getting stir crazy

We haven't talked in like months I think it was our time Because we've been on the road for a fucking 13 years Same as y'all So like how long did it take You guys started talking to each other right off the bat Or you guys take a couple you guys started talking to each other right off the bat, huh? Or you guys take a couple of weeks off from talking? Um, it was all, now we're doing a zoom call every week where we all get on a call every

week and we just, you know, between shooting the shit and making jokes and talking about what's coming up next and what we want to be working on and practicing and writing on, you know, it's, it's cool to have that as part of a routine it gives us a little bit of structure in this crazy uh you know moment that we're living in but uh when we first started off we definitely you know it was weird it was like it was like uh you know you're missing your best friends. And seeing them and talking to them. And I bet they're jealous as fuck because you're doing all these solo live streams.

I started. What was fun about that was I did the first one by myself. And then each member of the band came over for a live stream throughout the early part of quarantine. And that was really cool. That got heavy in a way, too, because it brought us all closer together in a way. I got to learn a little bit more about each member of the band and the songs that they picked that they wanted to play. It was cool. It kind of gave me a deeper appreciation for everyone's influences as a musician and gave each band member

a platform to showcase a different side of their musical story. When do you ever have one-on-one time with your brothers it's always in a group like that's when you get to know your homies like i'm getting close to a sean because we live in the same town but um yeah it's like when you get that one-on-one time that's when you they become your brothers again you forget when you guys are all fucking walking a mountain you know just fucking head down i'm sure you know this better than anyone but just the daily grind of being on tour it happens so fast that there's no time for stuff like that and now that there's time

to actually sit and just appreciate the company you're with you know it. It's really eye-opening and it's therapeutic. It's been great, honestly, for us to have a little time to refocus, re-energize, and just make the best we can out of a shitty situation. I know, man. I've been getting bummed out lately yeah I think everyone has man this is hard there's so much

going on right now it's I know it's just heavy yeah it's it's it's a crazy crazy

reality out there between all the information that's being fed to everybody and what's happening in the world what are you most afraid of?

Right now? Yeah. Honestly? You know, there's these two sides living in their own alternate realities. And, you know, there's a lot of extremist hate and, you know, just a lack of willingness

to understand and have empathy and decency. And I'm just worried that the more that that's encouraged how it will lead to shitty things happening um you know i don't think there are people out there that want a another civil war you know i've seen that um what like what like fighting like what are we gonna do punch i don't know like that it's it's want another civil war. You know, I've seen that. Like what? Like fighting? Like what are we going to do? Punch each other?

I don't know. It's so crazy, man. Some of the internet, all the... You watched that Social Dilemma documentary? Yeah, I did. That shit fucked me up. I'm like, I'm one of these guys. I mean, we all kind of have to be sometimes.

Especially in our industry. Especially now. It's so hard to keep your band relevant when it's social media based. It's not like we're playing live and getting that instant gratification. I just would love to see some more decency, some more empathy, playing live and getting that instant gratification. Yeah. I, you know, I just would love to see some more decency, some more empathy, some more understanding all around.

Um, it's such a tense, hateful, um, you know, vibe that's just happening right now. And, and it,

and it just, it really sucks. It's hard. It's hard to, there's so much mental illness and so much misinformation and just, you know, when we can get back to getting out there and playing music and, you know, focusing on making things better and being in a better place.

I know. The world went to shit when the music died. It kind of seems like that, yeah. Yeah, there's no release. That's kind of, you know, there's been underlying problems going on for a while, too, I think. And, you know, people have time to really look at it closely and see it for what it is, too. Yeah, what about, yeah yeah it's pretty crazy i mean it's like the same thing of releasing music through a quarantine yeah you know it's like should you do it should you not do it you guys said fuck it we're doing it

well we we recorded the album um a year ago and we're planning to release it. And then this stuff all started. And we're like, OK, let's wait till we can tour again. And then because we, I mean, I didn't think it was going to last this long or be like this. And now it's like, when are we going to tour again? And so we were like, okay, fuck it. Let's put it out. Let's do what we can with it.

And, you know, we're making the most of it. I know you put out an album not too long ago. I'm sure that was kind of weird. It was weird. But the people need music. You know, it's like the people need to be entertained. We can't just have all this sad shit. This is why we're putting out records.

This is why we're doing fucking live streams. This is why, you know, because we in our hearts deep down know that our fans need us in this time. I think it's just a matter of putting out the right message and giving people something positive to look forward to. Yeah, optimism.

Right. You know, sharing music is such a crazy thing, man. It's so good for your brain. It's so good for bringing people together, even as a listener, but also as a musician and playing it. When you're in a band or even when you're just playing with random people, you get to know someone in a deeper way playing music with them than you would just talking to them you know it's like it creates this level playing field where where nothing matters like you know politics religion race creed sexual none of that matters when you're playing music with somebody you're just on this level playing field where you know you're speaking the same common language and that's what's so great about music and um you know that's what's so important about continuing to put it out there. It gives people a safe, positive place to express themselves and to get away from the craziness out there in the world.

Well, I'm glad you're fucking playing music. I'm glad you're fucking speaking from your heart, Nicholas. You're a great guy. The boys are doing good, I'm glad you're fucking playing music. I'm glad you're fucking speaking from your heart, Nicholas. You're a great guy. The boys are doing good, I hope. I talked to Ben today. He said, go Lakers, which I was pumped up about. He's like, I'm a Laker fan. We're all Laker fans.

Give me some shit. Let's go, big dog. He wasn't a Laker fan when the Nugs were playing. I gave him that shit. I'm like, this bitch over here. Yeah, I'm stoked.'m i love the record bud and i got i've listened to it once now and i can't wait to keep listening to it because you're you're talking now thank you man not like you weren't always talking but like i could tell from now being your friend

for you know we're close i think you know i love you bro you're like a big bro to me and um for you to start talking about the shit that we talk like when we talk about and you're saying it publicly now i'm like that's my guy let's go so go grab the record escape it comes out uh the 10th or no the 9th the 9th okay i was i fucked up twice um, the 9th. The 9th. Okay. I was fucked up twice. October 9th, Escape. You can grab it, but go support these guys. When do you guys do it in your lives? You still do it every Saturday?

So the release day, the 9th, we're actually doing the grand finale of our Escape from the Living Room series that night. So it's going to be like a big old album release party online. We hope you can join us. It's going to be fun. Yeah, so that's the last one for now. And then we've got some other cool stuff coming.

Yo, what are you guys doing the 24th through the 28th? Of October? Uh-huh. No plans? You guys doing anything with the band? Are y'all getting together? We've got a Halloween thing that we're working on, but we haven't announced

anything yet. Oh, you're going to just give us a little tease. You're going to not get as hard. You're just going to try to get us flaccid here. Just cock-blocking son of a bitch. Okay. Well, I'm going to be in town.

So I might just, I might come. Bring it on, man. Come, come hang out. How far away are you from Charleston? South Carolina?

Yeah. Uh, about four or five hours. Done. I'll be there. Bring it on, man. Come stay with me at my new place.

Oh yeah. You, tell me about that. Moving in, falling in love it's pretty it's pretty nice man well i mean you know better than anyone you know what it's like being on the road and uh you like you like living in the house so far it's awesome um i was living in an apartment for like five years and it was really just a place to keep my stuff when i wasn't on the road you know it's like it just got kind of depressing and um it really is nice to uh to to move into a house and and uh but spend a lot of time with my girlfriend and our cats and uh let's go nick Nikki's in love. Let's go.

Let's ride. Yeah. I think the experience of quarantine, uh, really kind of brought this, brought this on. And, and,

uh, it's been a great thing for me personally. And, um, I'm just, uh, did you fall in love in quarantine? Good place right now. Did you fall in love in quarantine?

Uh, I may have fallen in love prior to quarantine, but quarantine was definitely an eye-opening experience. Damn. Can't wait to hear the new record. It's going to be all happy, lovey. You're coming. It's making me...

You're relaxed. You're chilling. You got a house. I'm proud of you. I'm glad. You're living your best life, making the best out of the shitty situation or the cards that we got dealt. But like you say, optimism. That's how we're going to win this race, right? Thanks for being on the show, bud.

I love you. Miss you. Hey, one last question. I miss you too. One last question. At the end of time, what do you feel this record, what do you want this record to be to people? Man.

I try not to think about it like that. It's such a like, I can't control what other people think. I can only control what I think and what I do. So, you know, I just want people to hopefully enjoy it. If it helps them in any way in their life, then awesome. And if not, it is what it is. Well, God damn it. It affected me.

So go buy the record, Escape. And Nick, I love you, buddy. I'll talk to you soon. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Later, bro. I love it. Nick.

Big old Nick. Big dick Nick. Puts it out of the record. Go and listen to it. All right. We'll catch you on the tail end. You tuned in to the third season of Blissful Blah at Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast,

produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angel, I'm Chris Lawrence. Please subscribe, rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. For more info on the show, please head to Instagram at WorldSavingPodcast. For more info on blog or tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. Check out the new album, Keep On Keepin' On, or let Andy entertain you at a Thursday night online shitshow, or at this crazy Saturday night wanna-dance-with-somebody dance party.

Oh, right, summer season is here, no festivals, no music, so instead of trying to keep the lip going and hoping to find some shitty paid trombone at jubigigs this summer i decided to reroute building closets and wardrobes build a tiny summer house and do some painting it will be october in no time and yes i sort of hate it compared to the wonderful life i live but i'm also thankful that people trust my skills or my good looks or whatever they have my back and i managed to make some money. The big danger in this line of work actually, it pays a lot better than being a musician.

All right, how are you doing? Making ends meet? Worried? No work? Putting on a virtual dance party every week? Let's make sure to carry each other, get one another's backs, keep each other safe,

keep each other sane, keep each other healthy. Let's other sane. Keep each other healthy. Let's unite, for it will be a long road ahead. See you next week.