Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 106: Geoff Weers (The Expendables)

Episode Date: November 24, 2020

Andy finds himself in a burgeoning romance & also a sexy gambit as he "pops the question" about opening up to non-monogamy with a girl he really likes. Spoiler alert: it doesn't go well. But don't worry Andy, it's still a win for self-respect and honesty! On the Interview Hour we welcome California raised, Geoff Weers from The Expendables! They talk about the good stuff: reggae, weed, and Santa Cruz. Ahri reviews Thanksgiving. Aw yeah, this is EP 106. 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  Smoke a bowl with your new buds Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Ahri Findling Arno Bakker

Andy, it's your grandfather. I'm calling you about Thanksgiving with the coronavirus. Your grandmother and I don't think it's a good idea for you to come inside the house this year. I see the stuff that you're doing on Instagram and I don't have a problem. I know you need to earn a living. I just want to stay safe. So we were thinking maybe you would want to sit on the porch.

I know it's going to be cold, but we can build you a fire and give you some nice mittens and your grandmother over and you offer can build you a fire and give you some nice mittens and your grandmother over and he offered to make you a hat. So if that's okay with you, it'll be okay. We can give you the dog. You can play with him during the day and you just sit on the porch and we'll talk to you through the window.

So call me back. I love you. I hope you want to do this because i really want to see you i love you baby bye and we're back andy frasco's world saving podcast i'm andy frasco how's our heads doing today we staying out of trouble are we getting through this fucking round two of just, I feel like just 2020 is just straight fucking us. Now it's just raw dog. It's like, you know, that part of sex where it just starts hurting,

like the fourth time you have sex in a night, and you're just, it just feels like Play-Doh down there, and it's, you know, you're doing it because you're loving, you're having a great time with your partner, but it fucking hurts. And that's where we're at in 2020. Is it pleasurable or is it hurting us? But we'll figure that out.

How we doing? Everyone doing good? Being safe out there? Fucking crazy COVID streets. I'm in Denver right now. Just trying to figure out my next move. I'm working my ass off on the shit show. And we just announced some New Year's Eve shows and whatnot.

But all business aside, I kind of want to talk about honesty tonight. Or this week. On this Thanksgiving as we roll into Thanksgiving. Maybe you guys are having Zoom Thanksgivings or ballsy enough to go fuck shit up in your hometowns, whatever you want to do. I'm not telling you what not to do. I'm not telling you what to do. But if you got to see your family, you got to see your family. If you got to keep it safe, keep it fucking safe.

You know, whatever you want to be. Like honesty is why I'm thinking about this. You know, I was having to deal with kind of an existential crisis with my love life in a way. I guess I'll talk about it. I was, yeah, being honest with yourself is fucking hard. You could be honest about little things, and all the other things you want to tell people, and stuff, but when we have to be honest with ourselves, of who we are, I think that's the hardest, that's the hardest of the honesties,

because, you know, we feel bad when we're not being honest to other people, but sometimes we forget to be honest with ourselves. And I was dealing with that. I was like, I'm the type of dude, maybe I'm afraid of commitment. Maybe I'm just not born for a one-on-one intimacy. And so I was running around with this awesome girl for a couple months, and, you know, it made me realize, like, I dig it, but, like, I can't, I get so anxiety of getting trapped that I just need to float, and that's just always who I've ever been, and, like, maybe I'll never fall in love, and's okay but I'll fall in love and you know I was having this situation and and I've never had this situation where I was

completely honest with someone I'm attracted to because I'm afraid to hurt them or afraid that how I think is gonna make them sorry I drinking wine, I have a burp coming up or something. But if I'm going to hurt them with my true self, when you get into a relationship, it's all about that true self. So what I'm trying to get at is I finally just said, you know, I kind of want to just date. I kind of want to just have open relationships. You know, like when we're with each other, we're with each other.

But I also want to have that experience with other people. Called selfish, fuck it. But to me, I know that works. Because when I feel suffocated, I start curling up. And then I'm not intimate. And then what's the point of having a relationship if you can't have intimacy? So I told this to this person and it didn't go too well.

And she was a good girl and stuff, but at the end of the day, I hate to see her leave, but at the end of the day, you got to be honest with yourself. You got to be honest with what you want in life, what you need. If you need your family right now,

go fucking see your family. Take COVID tests every day on your travels. You know, isolate, quarantine. How much does it mean to you? Just be true to what you need in life, what you want in life, and what you feel fits the flow that you want to have in life. God, I sound like a misfit.

I'm like, oh, just figure out the flow, bro. But it's true. Find your flow of how you want it. Because if we're going to keep pushing and there's so much shit thrown at us, especially 2020, everyone is just coming in our, in our faces and our elbows. I'm just, I feel like I'm swimming in 2020 come. And if we can't, if all that stuff is happening and we don't have a core, a balance inside us, then we're going to start feeling all these insecurities, these mental illnesses starting to come back into figure,

anxiety, panic attacks, because we aren't strong with ourselves. Because everyone else is going to pull us and pull us and push us into all these different directions, like fucking musicians. They're getting pulled everywhere. And what are they going to do? We got to evolve. We got to figure out how through all this fucking pivoting and craziness that we're good inside. So always be honest with yourself. You know, all this new stuff, who's right, who has the truth, who doesn't. Fuck all that. right? Who has the truth? Fuck all that. Are you truth within? That's the most important thing. Do you feel that you're living a truthful life to yourself? Fuck all this other noise. Fuck the news. Fuck all that. Just for one second, just think about yourself. Think about what it takes to make you completely working in all cylinders. Is it honesty with yourself?

Maybe you got a little overweight and you got to go back to the gym. Go back to the fucking, go get a fucking treadmill. Put 200 bucks, go to Craigslist and buy some shitty ass treadmill and work your ass out

if that's what you need. Because if we keep on stalling and stalling what we love to do or what we need to do in life just because of crazy weather or 2020 dirty semen everywhere, then we're not living in the present moment. We are trying to not think about the present and hopefully the future will bring something

else. Change is right now. It's not going to be tomorrow. It's not going to be yesterday. Change inside yourself happens right fucking now. Get out there and go fuck shit up. Don't have to play the goddamn music. I will. Go fuck shit up

out there. You're going to be stuck goddamn music? I will. Go fuck shit up out there. You're going to be stuck in your houses. Go fucking clean that closet you always wanted to fucking clean. Learn the language that you want to fucking learn. Because I'm done. I'm serious. It's our time. Every day is our time.

You never know. I had my first drummer. My first drummer ever, Josh Kenyon. Great fucking guy. We had our differences. And we stopped talking. And I found out he has cancer. And I would never. And I can't.

I want to reach out to him. And I'm going to. I found this out yesterday. I'm like, fuck. You never know what's going to happen. So be honest with yourself. Be honest with the people around you. Try to improve, even if it's a fucking micro fucking inch of improvement in your life.

Go after it. Go get that improvement. Because no one else is going to improve you besides yourself. So go out there and fucking figure out different ways to get out of this rut if you're in a rut or if you're happy, figure out ways to stay happy. That's life. That's being present. Understanding where we're having our unbalances And trying to figure out different formulas Inside ourselves

So we can live The most balanced life we can Through honesty Through compassion And through just being our fucking selves Alright I'm done ranting for you We got Jeff From the Expendables

On the show tonight Really cool guy I know his manager well, John Phillips And the whole crew over at Silverback I think they're Red Light now And now they're letting me interview all their bands Which is fucking cool, so thank you John Thanks John

Woo This guy's a good guy We started writing songs right away together. The next day, we had this interview, and you could tell when people are having a hard time with whatever they're having a hard time with. Being a musician, we're having a lot more hard times than being a venue owner or being a dad,

unemployed, essentially. There's a lot of stress, and we forget who we are. So let this interview teach you a little something about holding yourself stronger than you normally do, because you're fucking worth it. Like I say, I've been saying this for three years. Maybe I'm convincing myself this, and that's why I'm kind of proud that I finally said I need an open relationship. And I was never really, when I would get into a relationship with a girl, and I start digging her a lot, and all of a sudden I start feeling as much as I used to.

I always just agree with them, and I stay in these things. But I stuck up for myself, and I said, you know what? No. I'm a wild animal, and I need to be free. If you down to ride, like you want to be my Jane, I'll be Tars and we'll roll. We'll roll. But, um, you just gotta be yourself. You just gotta be yourself. All right. Let's listen to Jeff from the expendables and I will catch you on the tail end. Oh yeah. By the way, from the expendables, and I will catch you on the tail end.

Oh, yeah, by the way, shout out to 14er Weed. The best. I'm in Denver. It's nonstop. They're just coming out of my eyeballs. They're like, well, the great lockdown's coming down again in Denver. So here's a couple ounces. Thank you, 14er.

Go check them out if you're in Denver or Boulder area. Great guys. Evan, who runs the joint joint just it's that mom-pa feeling you know sometimes you feel like weed companies are just getting too commercial and getting too vibey my my buddy matt sanders too he's got a company too canawana um but these type of guys are the guys we should buy weed from because they care about themselves. They care about their businesses and they care about the product. So go and get some 14 or weed out there in the Denver border area. Um, tell them Frasco sent you. I can't say non-psychoactive. My manager yelled at me for that. Um, but it's non-psychoactive for me. So I'm a crazy person. When I get on weed,

I'm a crazy person. So take it from me. It's the cleanest you could get. So go grab some 14er. All right. Jeff Frasco, round one. Hope you enjoy. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got my new friend, Jeff from the Expendables. He's out here.

Chris, play some Expendables. Let's get these vibes going. Santa Cruz. This is a product of Santa Cruz. You know, growing up in California, doing the Warped Tour and stuff. I always saw these guys' bands on the bills. And it was great to actually meet him.

Super cool guy. Super chill. I've been to Santa Cruz. Whenever I think of Santa Cruz, Craig, he's, John Craig is from Santa Cruz too. But whenever I think of Santa Cruz, I think of dudes like fucking Hin Bongs in their fucking smoke library. And fucking writing songs about love and titties.

I think titties is the only thing I think of Santa Cruz. But he's probably gentrified now. But he was talking about gentrification and stuff in this interview. And we talked about being a dad, being a musician, and also trying to find honesty through himself. So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy Jeff from The Spinner. I'm driving real slow down a popular street So everyone can listen to the music move me

Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Standing in my DJs, I'm starting out my day Watching the trees do the windy dance this way I got me a list of my favorite songs I started at the top, twist up the volume knob The window's up, worries down Dancing in the living room with nobody around The neighbor's bed, cause he can't sleep Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me

Oh god, I'm like a mockingbird Way too loud, but I've got a beard And all I ever wanna do Is make you feel just how I feel Inside my mood And what it puts me through And I hope you can find A little peace of mind Coming from my stereo

Hot hips up, I hand them down Got everybody grooving all over this town. I play it loud, can't be discreet. Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me. Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me. Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me Yeah, everybody listen to the music move me What's up, dude? How you doing? Great. How are you? I'm living through these COVID streets, my guy. Are you staying safe out there?

I'm trying to. There's COVID all around me. COVID! COVID all around me. How hard is it to write songs about COVID? I haven't really tried. I don't want to because it's just depressing to think about. I'd rather write songs about, I don't know,

other depressing things like my heart breaking. Yeah, you got to get it out what you get out. So what have you been doing through this quarantine, man? You guys are such a live band. It must be so hard for you to stay in one fucking place for one time. Yeah, it's a total change. We've been kind of... We've definitely switched gears.

We spent some money to upgrade our studio so we created this place here where we can basically be a song factory. And we have everything here that we need to create songs. And Adam, our drummer, has become a great mixer.

So he's been recording everything and then mixing everything. So everything is in-house up until we get to the mastering level and then we send it off to a mastering guy. So the last few releases of our music has been all in-house here in Santa Cruz because of COVID. You guys are normally a do- normally do it yourself type of band. Your philosophy of your band has always been like that, yeah? Yeah, but when it comes to records,

we've kind of gone to other studios or found some producers. We recorded with Paul Leary from Ball Surfers and a couple other producers. So we've definitely used outside help. This is kind of more us being able to actually run our own sessions and edit our own parts and record our own stuff

at our house and share it on the internet and then put it all together here in the studio, come back and listen to it, make tweaks. And Adam, we've spent a bunch of money on a bunch of gears. So we have nice gear.

So we had a lot of fun, you know, tweaking all the knobs and finding the juiciest tones and then going from there. Motherfucking Santa Cruz of the Muscle Shores, baby. Let's get it, big dog.

Let's go. Self-sufficient. He said, not today, devil. Not today. I'm still going to be creative. That's great, man.

I mean, how important is it to you to be creative? Extremely important. I think that's like how I live my life is through creativity. Through COVID, like, you know, band has stopped playing. So I've, you know, started to look at other sources of income and kind of diversify like how i make my money and so i'm looking into other ways of starting businesses and and the creativity is just as fun in that in creating ideas and in in business platforms so i just love creating and being a creative person whether it's a song or or an idea yeah it's great i mean we're tell me

about santa cru. Have you lived there your whole life or did you move there for school or what's going on? No, all of us have lived here all of our lives.

Holy shit. All of our friends since, you know, at least since high school, some of us go back to junior high and even elementary school days. So,

we've been very, you know, involved in this close-knit community. And it's just affected how our songs come out, how we see the world. Our town has been changing a lot. So it's like crazy to see that.

And in context with how the world is changing, because our town is such a weird bubble that, and has its own real estate market, its own kind of economy here because so many people are moving here. So it's great. Yeah, I want to talk about that gentrification. When did Santa Cruz start getting gentrified like that?

I mean, I feel like it's been gentrifying since before I've been here. It's such a beautiful place. I feel like everybody's been gentrifying since you know before i've been here uh it's been you know it's such a beautiful place i feel like everybody's been coming here but i feel in my kind of remembering my brain or i remember like my awareness of stuff happening is was dot com era yeah uh you know that was just when i was in high school so you know it sucks that in high school you don't like get taught you know the value of like land and like land and what houses do and how to create. Just anything about housing markets or any kind of stuff like that. But back then, there's stop signs where there are now stoplights.

Four-lane roads where there are now two-lane roads where there are now four-lane roads. It's just all kinds of growth because there's a lot of money not far away in San Jose and in the Silicon Valley. A lot of those people got a bunch of cash. A lot of them are young people, like to surf, like to hang out and be near the beach

and mountain bike in the mountains and do whatever they want to do. Santa Cruz is the perfect place and it's 45 minutes away from work. Do you think gentrification fucks up artistic cities? No. I think it's just a cycle. You can't do anything about it.

I think over the years of traveling and touring, I've seen gentrification. My gosh. We'd be traveling into certain areas in some towns where we'd be playing in a place like, where the hell are we? This is back alley. What the hell is going on? And over the years of being there, you start seeing the Whole Foods move in.

Then all of a sudden, the housing prices explode. And you're like, whoa, this is not the same as it was five years ago. I can think of two or three towns right now. And I don't think it's killed the music, but it made, I don't know, it kind of did. In some of those places, it made that venue at least have to move or we had to go play somewhere else and it's not as vibey anymore. But I don't know if it killed the area or killed music per se.

It just kind of moves. It's always the artists and those venues are on the forefront of that gentrification. Yeah. Right? I totally agree with you. I mean, I grew up in LA and I've never had a music scene out there.

It was always just chasing the rabbit's tail to get fucking famous. Like a town like Santa Cruz where it's so precious and it's so about the community and so about the arts. One of my favorite artists, John Craigie, used to go to Santa Cruz and used to hustle that scene, do the catalyst and stuff. I just feel like you need, like Brooklyn's a great example. Like Brooklyn was his vibe. And all of a sudden all the Starbucks and the Whole Foods came and all the artists slowly had to leave because they couldn't afford it.

You know, it's a tough thing, right? Right, yeah. I think that's exactly how it works. Like artists come in and make it comfortable for the people that wouldn't go there normally to go there on, say, one week basis. And then all of a sudden, they kind of need infrastructure to spend there. And then all of a sudden they need infrastructure to spend there. And then all of a sudden, man, I want to live next to that club.

I want to live next to that art or that weird shoe shop that opened up that can only afford to pay rent there. And then, yeah, so I think culture is weird in a way where you need a lack of a bunch of stuff for it to survive or be real. And then once you get too much around it, it kind of dies.

It has to survive in this kind of weird center zone of gentrification and slum or whatever you call it. Because you need the gentrification and and slum or whatever you call it because you need the gentrification to get paid if you're you know right exactly and if you're a town like Santa Cruz you need people coming here and visiting and thinking it's beautiful and if they do that they often

want to move here and live here it's like a double edged sword we need you we need you but please stay the fuck home. I can say, you don't have to say. Completely freedom, just like experimenting, titties, fucking surfing. The whole, I mean, the idea of freedom. What is the idea of freedom to you growing up in a town that's so free? Man, well, back then, it didn't feel free.

It was such a small town. As a kid, you were kind of the only troublemaker, so it was all the cops were looking at you. Anybody that had a skateboard was like, and it was weird. If you think it's skateboard town, Santa Cruz, it's like, what the fuck? How come you can't skate anywhere? But you can't skate downtown on Pacific Avenue because there's a law against it.

And then skate parks started to get built because a bunch of kids were like, what the fuck? We can't skate anywhere. We always have to go and skate in these back parking lots and constantly get kicked off and ticketed. And so they started building a bunch of skate parks back then.

So it's a little different. I think parts of Santa Cruz are very... Capitola has a lot of money still. A lot of that old money where people want the place quiet. It's an old beat, you know,

quiet beach community. Yeah. And as a kid, so that's, I mean, it felt like that when we were kids. So it wasn't, didn't feel very free going back to your question.

Oh yeah. But are as, but that's, you know, you know, oppression, you know, you call it,

but, you know, uh, kind of led to us to like, you know, oppression, you know, you call it, but, you know, kind of led to us to like, you know, mingle in small cracks of where we could and see someone's basement and find things that we could do on without the watch of these cops. And we'd pick and that's what kind of kept us wanting to be together and, and having fun and, and making music and finding ways to, to be loud and not get shut down.

Because we always get shut down. Find someone's place to play and then hit your first chord. You're like, yeah, everybody's set up, everybody's working. And a few seconds later, cops knocking on the door like, you guys got to shut it down. It's insane. So even if Aaron's house was up in the mountains and that would happen, people would find a way to find us

and shut us down so it was there was freedom I guess but as a kid we had a lot of non-freedoms and doing what we wanted

we were spoiled as shit being able to go to the beach whenever we wanted spoiled as shit to live the lifestyle that we had but

to play music wasn't definitely was kind of harder. Yeah, tell me about that. So was your way of playing loud-ass music a way to say, fuck you to the community for always shutting us down? Maybe in many ways now that I think about it, or that you mentioned that. Maybe, because the town was, you you know there was nothing going on we were the only troublemakers if you call us troublemakers what were you doing what kind

of bad shit were you up to nothing playing music too loud or going skating bullshit yeah i wasn't doing bad stuff like i had friends that would do bad shit you know like you know stealing beers or like drinking and staying out too late. I don't know. Yeah. Kids, really nothing like some kids shit, just growing up, being,

learning how to be an adult, right? Learning what beer tastes like. So what, during those years, what were you writing about? Like, what were you inspired by?

What were you talking about? Like what was going on? I mean, high school days we were talking, we had, we've actually put out a couple albums. We were talking about like what was going on i mean high school days we were talking we had we've actually put out a couple albums we were talking about like uh we would talk about playing sports girls learn how to drive um what else? Like, uh, Adam wrote like a really like cool song that was about some kid being kind of like depressed and oppressed. And,

but it was like, had some really like social meaning back then. Uh, it's hard to describe, but, uh, I don't know. We've,

we did a lot of covers, like a lot of Blue Earth covers, Johnny B. Goode stuff. But yeah, we didn't write super deep stuff for long. I mean, we still don't write super deep stuff now. You want to talk about love and heartbreak and stuff.

I bet you do. You're just being, you're just, you know, maybe you're just doing it in a way that your fans, you know, appreciate. Is it hard to like get out of something that you're just doing it in a way that your fans appreciate. Is it hard to get out of something that you're just like,

you guys have been together for so long. Is it hard to get out of that idea of what you think the band is? I think so. I think COVID has helped be a catalyst to get out of that. Because we honestly, up until COVID COVID happened we were just touring touring touring barely recording and it seemed like life was just on the road because that's what you know that's helps pay the bills you know yeah is that what you always wanted or no um yeah and then once you get it and you do it a lot and you get old and you have a kid and other people in your life

and you have all kinds of stuff then it starts to be not hard but it's different and sometimes you just want to be home and COVID has definitely helped me realize how important it is to be

you know present especially now that I have a child who's two years old and being here for the past, since March with her, has been great. I couldn't imagine missing all the time. Do you think you're going to take this perspective when you are saying yes to no to gigs when we come back? Yeah, for sure. I think so.

I think gigs are going to be so different. The whole thing is going to be so different. I know, it's crazy. I hear out different ways to make money with music, but thinking that maybe I might not play it as the main source of income anymore. Or like, I can't think that's a guaranteed thing anymore. Yeah, isn't that scary?

It's scary, but it's also sometimes feels liberating to think different thoughts. Think outside of like, that's my only thing. Did you feel like you were trapped? No, but maybe a little. When you're doing something so much, over years,

you stop looking outside of it or it becomes so normal. You can easily just keep doing it and not really question what's going on. It's like motherfucking Groundhog's Day, dog. That's what tour is. Basically, you see inside of your bunk, inside the venue,

and that pretty much looks the same throughout the country or the world. It smells the same. Beer, rotten beer and piss smells the same. Because the idea of touring when we first start is, oh, we're going to see some new shit. We're going to see some new fucking towns. And then you get in it. Night.

Yeah, I'm going to play every night, get laid, go get wasted with my homies. And then it's not like that. It's like 3 a.m. bus call. You get to the venue. You have a 2 o'clock fucking sound check. You know, it's different than the idea of being a frontier. Did you feel like touring was...

You felt like a... Not a frontier. What the fuck? You're like your explorer. The idea of exploring. Right. You have your crew. You have your traveling vessel. You're going to places you've never been most of the time.

You have to figure it out. Touring is never the same same thing every day but it is the same thing every day yeah yeah and then especially when you're you know just starting and like everything is new and you like your first national tour it's like whoa and you have so much to take in and like you it feels like the world is so huge and then the more and more you go you start to get perspective and kind of see but even the perspective is so nice because then you're like hey i can go cruise around and have places i know and people i know in these towns and it's even more exciting to like actually have you know people and places to see when you go places. Yeah. So fun.

Tell me about your first national tour. Give me the deets. What happened? Was it fun? Was it weird? Shit go crazy? Tell me about it. It was super weird. It was with Authority Zero. And we... I forget where we went.

We were in vans. And we circ I forget where we went, but we were in vans. And we circled the country in a very dirty, grungy, low-budget, seat-of-our-pants way, not knowing anything. But we played awesome shows. They're an awesome band, and we still have connections with them today. And put a lot of miles on the van. I don't know. What rooms were you doing? What size?

Probably 500 people max. That made people showing up? No, no, no, no. But that size of room, maybe 100 people. 150, maybe. Yeah, I mean, maybe, you know.

What year was that? Uh, 2000, mid 2000s, like, 2005. Okay. Keep going, sorry,

keep interrupting you. No, no, it's all good. Uh, but yeah, we, it was basically like camping.

Now that I look at it, we were like camped and, and, you know, stayed in one room a lot of times, every hotel, like, didn't camped and stayed in one room a lot of times every hotel. We didn't have budget to stay in hotels. Either half the crew or

half of us would stay in a van or we'd all split one or two hotels if we were lucky to get two. So yeah, it's great. That's fucking great. Didn't you first put out your record in 2001? So it took you four years to get on a national tour? I think so.

Dude, my mind has really bad timelines. It's okay. Who's here? You could be like, no, you're totally lying. So my timelines could be wrong. But yeah, 01 was when I believe Getting Filthy came out. At that time, we hadn't done national touring. We'd only done like a West coast tour.

Our first West coast tour was, it was with Ica mouse and that was shit, maybe 2002 or three. And that just went to Colorado and back, uh, which is really dope. Um, but yeah,

other than that, yeah, it took us, I think about 2004 to really get our feet wet in the national scene. And when Stupid and Silverback took us on, this one thing started to really escalate. So how'd that relationship build? Um, man, so our old manager, Donovan Haney, he managed us from pretty much the very beginning. I can't even tell you, I mean, maybe the 90s, early 2000s, maybe 2001. just wanted to manage us and was a big presence on

the Sublime Archive chat boards at the time. And back then, I guess, a lot of that was run by the Silverback crew and kind of Orbit. And so he kind of

somehow developed a relationship with Matt and john phillips you know and uh alerted them to our band and we had during the time we kind of built a following around here in stana cruz and been playing college towns because all of our friends from high school graduated and went to college and were populating all over California and had houses that we could play. So we'd play up and down California and got a little following doing that. And then

Donovan kind of got us into Silverback through his sort of hounding the internet and just our presence of kind of doing shows and just both of those things kind of made them notice us and, uh,

it ended up, they were interested and took us on and pretty much that's how our career got launched. Cause we started touring with stupid a bunch and a lot of their fans became our fans and the rest is kind of, you're not professional now. Yeah. I mean like, what did they teach you

about being a band? Man, many things. They taught us a lot of road stuff, stuff where if we didn't go on the road with them, we'd be stumbling, falling flat on our face everywhere we went. So we got a lot of

how to operate as a functioning, moving party of people. You know what I'm saying? Is that allowed? Yeah, you can smoke bongs. Come on, hit it, dude. We're on, I mean, oh, let's go, dog. Yeah.

I might lose track of your questions. It's okay. I'll keep you on it. I'll keep you. I mean, isn't that the most important thing is like when you, excuse me, when you become a band or become a business with your best friends, you're still going to fight like best friends. You're still going to argue.

Correct. So how do you deal with... Did you guys ever... Did you guys used to fight a lot or any addictions or any of that stuff? Our disagreements vary probably. Yeah? You guys ever almost break up? No. No.

I think we have too much at stake doing this. We have too much fun. We're too close. No. Why would we want to break up? That's the thing. It's like you make a pack in the beginning that we're going to figure this out.

Yeah. And yeah, I think so. I don't know. Our band's unique, I think, where we're super democratic. It's crazy. Like, no, not one person makes decisions at all. It's like all of us need to agree.

And if it doesn't like we drag it out until we all feel comfortable so there's no like oh this is happening oh this is happening maybe in like very uh you know desperate times or like we need to act fast someone's going like well here this is what we're doing you know but that's generally and songwriting a lot too we're very democratic I don't know how it is with other bands but maybe that just kept us together so long and I don't know man I think we just

it's a miracle y'all y'all been together so fucking long that's like like how long do bands really last I mean you got a lot of your I mean I could say that but all your, I mean, I could say that, but all your friends' bands are been still, they're fucking still rocking. Dude, it's killer.

I think a lot of the scene has a lot to do with that. And that's another thing we learned from Stupid was that kind of like that camaraderie of the tour, like the familiness of the tour. They really inspire us. And when you go out, you got to take care of your boys, even if they're not in your vehicle, man. They're part of your tribe. And you guys need to make it to the next place

or else it doesn't happen. So everybody's looking out for everybody. Everybody's making sure everybody's fed, having fun, and playing well, and getting to the gig the next day. And so that was a big influence on us. And I think we tried to pass that along to other bands when we toured. And we're doing the headlining and we're taking other bands with us. I tried to make that feeling.

It's like the idea of making home wherever you are. 100%. The more comfortable you are. For me, I need routines. The more I fall into that when i'm on the road the better because it's very tiring yeah older i get it is so tiring you just don't sleep well you can't sleeping in a bus is hard yeah i know and like staying up and you know i don't know if you drink or do anything you It's just taxing. It's not just the show.

It's the whole caboodle. On tour, you're 100% devoted to what you're doing. You can't get out unless you're sick and can't sing or play. Got a finger chopped off or arm chopped off or leg chopped off. The show must

go on. Yeah. What's fascinating to me about you, Jeff, is popped up. The show must go on. Yeah. Fuck yeah. No, what's fascinating to me about you, Jeff, is you say you love routine. And then when you're in a routine for that long, you stay like you're getting,

you know, you're like, oh, fuck this, dude, I need a new routine. What's that push and pull in your head? What do you,

what's that contra point? Maybe it's not not I love routine. Maybe it's like I feel comfortable in routine, but maybe routine can get scary if I notice that it's too much of it or I don't know. Do you like the idea of like, you don't like the idea of like,

you like routine, but not a routine where we're walking in line to our death. Yes, that sounds terrible. I like a routine to help me structure my day so I don't lose track of what I need to get done. But if I have a routine just because I need to pay my mortgage and that's what's holding me back from doing whatever I want and that's the only thing that's important is not important.

And that's the problem when we make our hobbies our business. Yes. Sometimes I don't want to do it. I know, dude. On tour, I'll be really tired and be like, fuck, I'm so tired. I don't want to play tonight

You know like And if someone from the outside can be like You fucking asshole Fuck you dude I work here everyday How can you say that I know I feel like fuck you Fuck me dude But you gotta say fuck you too man

I work everyday I'm driving I don't have a home. Go just reverse that shit to your fans. That'd be awesome. But then once you get up there, it's all good. It's like that. It's that amazing dopamine.

It's like, thank God we're addicted to that. You know, we could be addicted to a lot more things. Because it makes you feel so good for so, and everything feels great. Yeah. I could be the worst. So tired. Just waking up

like, you know, propping my eyelids up with toothpicks, getting on stage and it's like, as soon as we get there and it's like, down, gone. I forgot how tired I am. You know, what do you think that is

is that adrenaline is that dopamine is that just love it's all of it you know like it's yeah it's getting it's forgetting about

you know when you're like I don't know if you meditate I don't really meditate that much I try to it's hard I believe I know what people are going for when you're like I don't know if you meditate I don't really meditate that much but I tried it's hard believe I know what people are going for when they're meditating and

I think that's where you kind of where you hit when you get on stage and your nerves are gone because you feel like you know like it's a

it's a heavy thing to do to be on stage and people and play and you know play well and and do it for and, you know, play well and, and,

and do it for a long, you know, long period of time. So I think that type of focus that you need to do that creates everything else goes away, you know, like in surfing, whenever you stand up in our surfing,

like I, I don't ever think about anything else. You know, it's just me, you know, and trying to not fall or trying to make that section or trying to, you know, whatever you're trying to do,

but you are not thinking about anything else. And I think that's what happens when you're on stage. It just happens. It's a long period of time. And sometimes when you're on stage, you kind of pop in and out of that too. But when I feel like that tiredness melts away, I think that's the thing that comes up is that kind of focus.

And that laser focus that you need to play and play well on stage is what creates everything else to feel good or all the bad feelings to fall away. Yeah, you know, it's the idea that we're striving for presentness. Right. Exactly. And I think on stage you are forced to be present because you're forced in the music. Music is a present thing.

Like before there was recorded music, you had to be there to enjoy it because if you weren't, you didn't hear it. Yeah. No, I totally see that right so like every part of experiencing the music i think that's also why audiences love it because you have to be present too to enjoy it and that's why the beauty of music maybe is the because i've heard it you know described as the art of time yeah which is a beautiful thing Whenever I think of it You know like We have

We What we do as a music As music is like a moving target You know We're We're messing with time Frequencies over time Which is fucking sick

You know and it's basically And it's slowing time down Because we're finally present Right So we're basically Fucking time traveling bro You can replay it too and go back in time and refuel it again.

Yeah. Maybe that's the reason why you have anxiety when you're during your day when you're not on the road because maybe you're not being present. You're thinking about all these other things. You know, if you're a guy like me, I strive for presence too. I'm always in my fucking head.

Oh, what bill I gotta pay? I gotta... Fuck. I i i was being condescending to my drummer i gotta i gotta you gotta pause you know that kind of shit that tribe shit right you just and we all strive for like that those moments that were like you're not thinking of anything but what you're doing and if what you're doing is joyful, then that's kind of a small slice of heaven maybe. Maybe that's what heaven is, present. When you're finally a vessel. Maybe. But all I know is that feeling feels good and I chase that dragon. That's my dragon, I guess.

Did you have that dragon when your kid popped out? Whoa. Yeah, the focus. I wasn't thinking of anything else. But before you did it, it was like, were you like, what the fuck?

Oh, what? I'm going to be a what? A dad? Oh, what? You know be like, what the fuck? Oh, what? I'm going to be a what? A dad? Oh, what? You know, like, I'm not responsible. I'm a guy in a van. Like, what? Yeah. During the delivery it was like all, you know,

all hands on deck mentally to ensure that both women are safe and secure and happy and healthy. You're talking about your wife and your daughter, right? Yeah.

Damn. Every dad says that, or musician dad, because you've had this life. I'm going to call it a selfish life because we're selfish. We're being on the road all the time. But this idea that you had to stop thinking about yourself for one second

about how you felt about it and had to take care of the fucking child coming out of your woman's body, dog. Right. That is gnarly. And then I think that's why children change. Then the rest of your life is like you got to kind of take yourself out of you and take care of yours.

Take care of yours, your family. After that moment, is that when you started getting anxiety about how you're spending your days? No, it took me a while to get anxiety about that. I think after that

I was just like I was just blown away they let you just Leave the hospital That's crazy They don't There's way more involved in driving a car Than there is having a kid It's like good luck motherfucker

Dude Serious there's no like hey Here's the You know Here's the background check Or like You know Are you fit To be a parent

No You had it You got a car Cool Drive home Or wherever you go Yo Let's hit these bombs

We've been holding them Let's just hit them Hit them Just have a moment for ourselves For a second. Fail. Holy shit. Professional motherfucking bong.

Wow, what a goat, dude. That's some goat shit right there. How is it being in the reggae scene? See, I'm in the jam scene. So I feel like we have the same type of community, but it's a different community. Like we have our diehard fans who love our live music and they'll always be there. What's the reggae community and like the punk rock community like?

I think it's the same. It's just, I think you guys have people that travel super hard. I guess in the reggae community, they do too. I don't know. Do you guys like play the same set every night? On tour a lot of times. Yeah, because you're working out. Our fans are different.

Within our community of reggae, Cali reggae, I think our fans are different because we're a little harder edge. Yeah. We have like some crossover fans from the punk rock or metal or whatever. Harder edge music scenes. So, I don't know. I think the fans are killer. Festivals that Cali Roots kind of seen as made is badass. And there's a lot of cool people that go all the time.

And I kind of can recognize some of the fans. And it's cool to see that. your fans really care about the lyrics and the songs you know I would hope so because it comes from a very you know oppressed place like dude I feel like whenever we play reggae we are borrowing this music from people that really wrote it under extreme hardship and oppression. There's a lot of sadness in where this music comes from. It's like the blues, you know? Yeah, exactly. That's how I feel about the blues.

Yeah, that's a great parallel. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour. Welcome back to Review. I'm your host, Ari Finlay. Today, I am reviewing Thanksgiving. Now, Thanksgiving this year is going to look a lot different. I know some of you are like, I want to see my family. I'm so upset. I can't go to my family's Thanksgiving. Shut the fuck up, okay?

It's one Thanksgiving. Also, Thanksgiving is just a fucking holiday where we beat the shit and stole from Indians. Let's not act like it's this amazingly great holiday that we should be even celebrating, okay? All of the things that are great about Thanksgiving, you can do by yourself. You can get drunk on sangria on your couch by yourself. You can watch football by yourself. You can jerk off to the Thanksgiving parade by yourself. You don't fucking need anybody near you.

You want to talk to somebody, just FaceTime them, it's more important that we don't spread a fucking disease that's been going around for nine months, okay, let's just take one goddamn holiday off, think about it this way, you don't have to listen to your Uncle Rick scream the n-word anymore, okay? Be happy about that. Eat some fucking turkey in your sweatpants, on your couch, by yourself. Spend one weekend alone. Flatten the fucking curve so I can get out of my fucking house, please!

So when do you get frustrated when people misunderstand your band? Do I get frustrated? When? Like, what are the things people do that frustrate? Because we're all our own critic. Maybe don't listen to the fucking noise. And if you are, you got to teach me how to fucking do that.

If they criticize me, I know I'm not that, you know. At least I try to tell myself I don't know everything My wrestling coach would always be like There's this much to know about wrestling And I only know this much But that's how I feel about music I'm where I am today

Because I know this much about this much And there's so much more to learn. And there's so much, so many more people that know so much more than me. There's so many more people that are so much more talented than me. That like, I don't know. What do you want to learn right now as a student,

as a student, as a student of music, as a student of music? Um, I'm trying to learn how to be, uh, like a better a better listener and the whole kind of producing and production of it. That's kind of my new forefront of learning. to understand my thoughts and understand ways of putting it out there and growing. I think that's also another good way to have inspiration.

It's just the growth of my personal growth. Understanding new things about myself and the world is fodder for inspiration and writing. What did you learn about yourself that you didn't know until you had to take a step back and start looking? Idiot, most of the time. Like what? Tell me, what's the most shittiest thing you did? I've learned a lot that I, like emotionally, I have a really hard time. Tell me about it.

You sound like my therapist or the therapist I did have. It's hard to be vulnerable. It is hard. I'm a stranger. Yeah, no, it's okay. And I think stuff like this, people need to talk about

because that's how people heal. Healing is by exploring the stuff that hurts. Yeah. So what hurts you? For me, the hardship for me is understanding my own feelings and coming to terms with my own feelings and being able to express them and not be scared to express them.

As a child, I was taught to be not expressed. So it was hard to learn to express, especially in a relationship with someone that's very expressive, and they demand expression. As men, I don't know, older men need to learn that emotions are okay to express and learn

how to express them in a way that's supportive to the other person listening to them and also gets them to listen to you in a way that's supportive to you. Once there's communication, I think a lot of things can come from that. And I've learned

that that too, communication is key to most everything in life. And my communication with music, my communication, my need for that and my, you know, the stuff that I didn't get in my life was music. Yeah.

Or the need to get away from it was music too. Touring is a great escape for your problems in life. 100%. We're running away from them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's a good excuse too. Oh, I'm in a band, dude. What? You got to accept me, mom. Yeah. What? I didn't. I'm in a band, dude. What? You got to accept me, mom.

Yeah. I'm in a band. I don't have to be responsible. I don't have to... I forgot to pay that thing. Yeah. Oh, man. I totally hear you on that. It's terrible. Why do you think men are hard...

I mean, I'm a horrible communicator. I've never had a girlfriend. It's rough. Why do you think it's hard for us to, I'm a horrible communicator. I've never had a girlfriend. It's rough. Why do you think it's hard for us to communicate? We've been taught. And I think generations of men teach generations of men to be a certain way. And I think

it's no fault of the people that taught us because it's just how it goes. But you need to realize, or I need to realize that that's not the case. Like there's different ways to communicate. There's different ways to be than how you were taught. And maybe how you were taught was because

that person that taught you was hurt as well. And they're just expressing their hurt onto you yeah and it's rough to realize that and they don't know they're doing it you don't know they're doing it to them to you like your kids or like to the people around you're taking out how you feel like my sister we talked about this stuff and like she's i don't know where she heard this but like she's like hurting people hurt people does that make sense people are hurting people hurt people. Does that make sense? Hurting people hurt people. Yeah.

So if you are hurting and you have hurt in your heart, something bad happened to you, you're going to hurt people because of that. Because that is the chip on your shoulder, that thing that you always just want to get out to some. And you'll just take it out on somebody or something. And until you get in touch with that hurting of you, you're going to treat people like that on the outside. So you got to deal with your own self. And I've also heard like, you can't change other people.

So you can't change people to like not be dick to you or like, or you can't change people to not respect your hurt. Cause all you want people to do is like take care of your hurt cause you're hurting. And so you got to change yourself and look at your hurt and make sure I'm like, and give them to terms with it. Everybody's got something wrong.

Everybody's hurting. Well, and it's the idea that just because I'm hurt doesn't mean you need to be hurt too. You know? Correct. And, but we don be hurt too You know But we don't know A lot of times we don't know what we're doing We don't know what we're like And taking out whatever we have inside

On the outside world Man I do that to my band all the time As I think about this And with you I mean to be real talk You realize it then you're like fuck I'm a fucking dick or like whatever

this is why I took mushrooms now I realize when I'm being it's not your fault because you've been Todd that way or like you grew up in a situation

that kind of made you half like that was kind of like your defense mechanism like you just reacting to what has put forth in front of you but if you can come

outside of that and look at yourself for kind of who you are and kind of that and look at yourself for kind of who you are and kind of get on the, you know, outer levels and kind of look down and be third person maybe and like try to look at who you are for who you are,

which is really difficult. Man, I think that's the hardest thing. Dude. It's got to be, right? Especially when you're being so diplomatic. As a lead guy, you always have to be diplomatic. You can't just tell someone to go fuck off.

You know? In any position, I think. It's also this idea, this is the only thing I have about diplomatic bands. Sure. We start just saying yes.

To get everybody, you know, because you don't want problems. If you're the only fucking guy that says no, there's four other dudes like, yeah, we gotta do this. Or is your band like that? Will you actually speak up like, no, I don't want to do this? Yes, but I think we think a lot the same,

but we think a lot the same because we've been together for so long. Maybe there's some aspects of our wants and needs that we kind of put aside just for the sake of moving the project along or just for not being

the stickler. You don't want to do that. Come on, guys. I think that not being the stickler. Yeah. You know? You don't want to be that. They're like, come on, guys. I think the... Guys, this doesn't really match the other section, guys.

You know? Yeah. How hard is it not to do that as you get older in a band? It's difficult. For me, like... Yeah. I'm all like...

This guitar town is not correct. So what's that? Why? So as like, say, not looking back, we're looking back at what we used to do. Why do you think you were doing that? I were. I am now.

Because... Looking back at this morning. I had, and I want to hear that outside of my head and in order and and just even if i hear what here i hear in my head and it's wrong out there i just want to know it's wrong sometimes yeah and that's like don't want to be that person i don't want to be the guy that's dragging everybody through my experimental. Yeah. Like, do it, Cox. I'd rather be complaining about something that's actually, in my opinion, valid or, like, has some supportive sort of reasoning behind it. Collaboration is a tough understanding, bro.

Mm-hmm. It is. But maybe that's where you get, maybe that's where you come, though. Sorry to be all drastic But you being a producer Will get your nut off What do you mean? Like you being a producer

And working on producing And like say it's not Doing that for your band But doing it for other people's bands Gets your rocks off And that idea where Then you could drag a fucking band Through whatever you want.

They're believing in you. Yeah. No, I think, well, for now we're doing the band thing. My new kind of thing is I started a lessons thing. So I've partnered with, I don't know if you know Kevin from

Stick Figure. He's the drummer. Is that the guy who does the drum lesson, dude? Yeah, backstage lessons. I like that guy. He seems like a cool guy. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to do lessons with him, but I made this website called lessonswithjeff.com,

and I'm just going to be kind of an open book of my experiences. And if you want to come talk to me, you can learn how to play guitar or like sing or talk about this stuff in life you know whatever you want because i've been in music for 20 years i must know a little bit and someone might want to know it no it's a fucking amazing idea i mean that's basically what we did uh jam or the jam scene kind of did that and it was great because during quarantine this is your chance to because during quarantine, this is your chance to meet your favorite musicians.

This is your chance to fucking pick your brain wherever you are. This looks like a dope painting place. I don't know where you're at right now. Sorry, band room. This is the upstairs. It's kind of the store. Gears up here. Oh, this is... Damn, that's tight as fuck.

Okay. What? Yeah, show me a Damn, that's tight as fuck. Okay. Should we go on a tour? What? Should we go on a tour? Yeah, show me a tour, bud. I love that. While we're talking about it, I mean, it's got to be nice to have your whole band

in your fucking town. Dude, 100%. Through this shit? Yeah. Holy shit. That's... When other bands tell me, like, oh, you know,

like, we barely practice or, like, we, like, you, we barely practice or like, we like, you know, get together like the week before the tour, like rehearse and then go on. Like what? That's so weird to me. Yeah. You know what? And it's also weird. Well, now, I mean, I'm talking like successful bands. They go get, they find their girl in fucking Kentucky or wherever they fucking went to, you know, and they move in and then all of a sudden the band starts spreading out.

And now you've got to like plan practices and plan. And we didn't plan a pandemic, so we can't figure that out. I know. Yeah. We're super fortunate. And it's weird that, you know,

that we've been able to, not weird, but it's a trip that we've been able to stick around and like, we've all formed and like, we knew each other and you know, when we were in school and stuff like that, just, yeah,

there's a lot of benefits to our situation that sometimes I take for granted for sure. Yeah. You know, we got it. Like you said, we got to step back sometimes. We're going to fucking overthink all the bullshit.

At the end of the day, we're musicians. We're still fucking shit up. the bullshit At the end of the day We're musicians We're still fucking shit up That's what I'm talking about You're fucking shit up Jeff I need to pump you up some more Let's go give us some audience crowd Yeah

Fucking some shit up Fucking some shit up You know it's like the idea of getting out of your head for a second And realizing we're alive We're not sick You know we might be broke but we're figuring out ways to still have our passion in our life just we just have to evolve it's like darwin said we're just evolving as musicians i mean i don't know there's i don't

know i watch youtube i watch i i absorb whatever's out there in the world. Some people say we're in a big, like, transitionary moment, you know, like, we're in a new technological age. There's a lot of, you know, technology has taken us into worlds we've never even thought of. And it's going to just get crazier and crazier. And our lives are going to change faster and faster as time progresses, I feel. In my opinion, I think nothing's slowing down. It's just going to get more and more technologically

gadgety. I feel like cell phones are just the start of it. You're going to have all kinds of help digitally, whether it's implanted in your brain or AI doing shit for you all day long or whatever. So with that being said, if that's inevitable, which it probably is,

then how do we keep passion in our life? How do we keep goals, dreams? Goals and dreams, harness those things, learn to understand those things, not be scared of those things and have them work for you. Yeah. I'm going to tell Arnold Schwarzenegger to

fuck off. He comes into my house with his fucking Terminator shit. You could take give me two hours and that's on the fucking stage. That's the best thing. We're not on our technology. We're not worried about marketing ourselves.

Like, that was the question I wanted to ask you, but we went on this tangent. We haven't even talked music, and I love it. This is what I'm talking about. But I wanted to know, like, because I'm a little younger than you. I'm 32, and I started touring. I tour heavy like y'all.

We do about 250 shows a year or so as well, like, last 15 years. And same thing, John Phillips is my dog. He's always been a fucking fan. We're homies. We're fans of each other. He's a wild motherfucker. That guy's wild.

Yeah. Charlie's wild. Oh, dude. Those Phillips boys, so good, man. They have not, dude, I can't believe they believed in us for so long. We're like, I don't know. Well, it's the idea of family. It's what they taught

stupid and stupid taught you. It's like that. Yeah, no, we're so into those guys. We have so much love for those dudes. It's cool. What's the difference? Okay, this is my question. I got two more. Are you good? You got time? A little time? Yeah. I got a show tonight. I'm playing a show.

Fucking weird. You're playing a show? Lucky you. Dude, Southeast is open like shit sweet, dog. Insane. I've been on tour for three weeks. And they've all been like drive-in shows, socially distant. But each state is different in how they do it.

But you're getting to play and it feels like playing. It doesn't feel weird. Yeah, why don't you do some drive-ins? You do some drive-ins? We've been looking at them but nothing's panned out. California is weird, dog.

Yeah, California is weird. I love California though. I don't know. Yeah. Even though I love it. Always. I mean, that's where our home

is, our roots, man. That's our vibe. So I was going to say what was the difference between touring one of the the difference between touring? One of the major differences between touring before social media and after social media?

Oh, man. Just the fact that you're always on your phone. What about directions? Like, how do you fucking get to a town? How do you know someone's promoting the show? Right? No, like, I remember, how did we get to places?

I think we were touring when we printed out MapQuest. Yeah, dog. That's sick. We had tour books that had all the information in there so you can, I don't know, call places. We were touring

just when you could map started, but we definitely had a Garmin Or whatever TomTom But yeah Before social media Or technology Yeah like

I mean We started in like the early Late 90s early 2000s. So Facebook was a big part of our getting out there. MySpace? Yes, MySpace. Sorry, MySpace. And even LimeWire maybe too.

And those, Napster. So I don't think we would have been anything if it wasn't for technology. So how'd you know? How'd you know? Like, did you have a song that was just getting recorded or played pirated like millions of times? No, I don't. I just, people knew our stuff. Yeah.

We would go to a place and it wouldn't just be our friends that would be at the parties it would be other people and they'd be like and other people would know our music and so i was assuming they were getting it through line wire i don't know we didn't have that many cds yeah you're looking at your hundred dollar royalty check like what the fuck there was at least 20 000 like i did i had so many like sick bootleg bootleg things I wish I saved it all cause it's like kinda cool me too

like old janky mp3s like why does it sound like crap cause I downloaded it illegally on my wire trying not to get arrested you know

shit's sick yeah you know that yeah I love that you know I'm thankful we are we made a business

or our we are in the music business when the opportunity of do-it-yourself is even manageable. We got lucky and started right when it all became possible. We literally got a call from an A&R guy, old old school style, like A&R guy, like scouting us out. Maybe, you know, like, you know, or, you know, what his words were like, oh, man, like listening to a song and saying, oh, man, it's not the next what I got. And it's so offensive. Oh, it's so offensive. Sweet. But then all of a sudden,

you know, then we were able to play, you know, a bunch of sweet shows and parties, you know, spreading our music for free. You know, like we didn't do it all for free.

And the reason why, and it's the reason why probably we started a little fan base. Or it was a big helper, I think. I think so too. I mean, man, that community, it's awesome.

I tip my hat to you for fucking doing it, dude. I mean, 20 plus years? How many years do you know? Well, I don't know. It can be debated, I guess. I think our first show was in 97 though it was 97 as the expendables because we were uh played the new year's eve kind of like community party they have here in santa cruz and we played like boys and girls club and boys that was the girls club

yeah i think that was in like the eve of you know, 96 turning to 97 and What explain that or describe that show to me like well y'all were we were probably you know, I was 16 years And we played wipeout and we played Johnny good and we played a couple of originals a couple of originals. Yeah. Yeah. Did you know then that you guys are going to be a band

for this fucking long? I feel like I did. Yeah? Yeah. What'd you see in it? Your boys laughing, having fun, smiling with each other.

Yeah, and I think once we developed our sound, I was like, man, this is a little... No one's doing it. Fuck. But I like it. That's dope, dude. this is a little... No one's doing it. But I'm liking it. That's dope, dude. We used to tour with Fishbone and I felt that like,

damn, this band is so original. Such an original band. Touring with Fishbone, I think every band needs to tour with Fishbone. Yeah, it's true. That's a passage. They will make you appreciate what it means to be energetic on stage. What it means to bring it.

Yeah. Every night, Angel. Every night. That's what it's meant. And that's, I mean, that's why I love ska music. That's why I love punk music. I mean, like, it was like that idea, you know, when we suppress, like, you're a suppressor,

I'm a suppressor. Sometimes, you need to get that out. And you gotta fucking, you gotta push it out. Right. And music's great. Thanks to Getter Outer. Yeah. Music, oh, totally. Especially live. People can see it when you're doing it.

Or I see it when other people are doing it. Like Angelo, man. Yeah. Dude, I get mesmerized by his passion and his like, his just putting it all out there in front of 10 people. Yeah. Just like he put it out the night before in front of 200. Or whatever it would have been like back in late 80s, early 90s in front of 10,000.

Yeah. Do you feel sorry for bands like that now i do but i'm that band now too we've had big shows back in the day now we have small shows yeah that's part of i just look at it like you're just another store that has less customers yeah wow that. That's actually romantic in a way because eventually if you keep doing it, you're just going to consistently have your thing. Right.

And now it's content if you have a backlog of shit. Yeah. It's accessible to anybody. That's awesome. Jeff, this has been great, bro. I'm really glad I met you, bro. You're a really good guy. Thanks for having me, man. It's been a great conversation. It's so easy to talk to, man.

Dude, we got to be friends. I got your number now. We're going to be homies now. We should be FaceTime bong hitters. I'm in. I just won't even say anything. We'll just go straight to it. You know what? I'm calling you. We're going to get the bong.

And if I don't answer that, that means I'm calling you. We're going to get the bomb. And if I don't answer that, you say, I'm not around the bomb. That's fine. This is what friendship is. Thanks for being on the show, but I got one last question for you. When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by?

Be remembered by? I want to be remembered... I don't know. That's hard to think. It's hard to tell you exactly,. I want to be remembered... I don't know. It's hard to tell you exactly. But I want to leave an impression on the world that feels like kindness, that feels like light,

that feels like learning, that feels like opportunity, that feels like fun. So whatever that is, I don't know whether it's a foundation or a piece of land or a bunch of songs or whatever.

I feel if I can strive towards bringing that and leaving that, then I think it's okay. I do too, bud. You're a fucking good guy. And I'm rooting for you, dog. Let's go. Thanks for being on the show, bud. You're a fucking good guy. And I'm rooting for you, dog. Let's go.

Thanks for being on the show, Jeff. That means a lot, dude. Have a good one. I'm going to send you. We're going to do bong hits later. You got a new friend. New Jewish kid. Named Frasco as a friend.

Later, buddy. There you have it. Great. That was great. Never, ever met that guy in my life. Felt like I Just met a new friend He's a good guy Alright I'll catch you on the tail end

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Terms apply. Offer expires 1-11-2021. Go get yourself some Amazon motherfucking music. And there you have it. Good guy. Good interview. I felt that was a good one. Sometimes when you don't know or you're complete strangers and you do these, uh, what I call cold call interviews where, um, we both like we're on FaceTime. We don't, we don't know each other and we're trying to make a conversation

right away. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And this guy was open to talk and it felt natural. So shout out to you, Jeff. Thanks for being honest with me, buddy. It felt natural. So shout out to you, Jeff. Thanks for being honest with me, buddy. Life's hard in these streets. It's fucking hard. But that's it, guys.

I hope you had a good show. Hope you have a great fucking Thanksgiving. You know, make the best out of it. You know, these holidays are going to be weird with the fucking corona and our old ass grandparents and fucking old mom and dad and maybe some people who are hurt or have some immune uh disease

and they might not trust your uh ratchet ass uh wherever you're whatever city you're in you know maybe you moved away from your home and you're having a great time out there i'm talking to you the south and um or the midwest or even denver um we're denver's pretty locked down um but you're having a great time and now people are getting concerned and you might be you know coming coveted everywhere if you fly and stuff um just be safe wear double masks just if you're gonna go if you have to go see your family and you know i know it's important family Family's important. Probably haven't seen your family in eight months. And Thanksgiving and Christmas are days where you got to see your fam. You got to go fucking laugh and hear your fucking parents be racist or whatever it is. Or hear about politics that may not be yours and your family.

It might be not your opinions and your family. But just remember something. If you go out this Thanksgiving, or even if it's a Zoom Thanksgiving, you're all hanging out Zooming, and you maybe take some mushrooms and start getting a little too honest or something in the Zoom chat with Aunt Patty or something.

Just remember, everyone is going through the same shit, and everyone is dealing with their insecurities completely differently than you are. Maybe Aunt Patty hasn't got laid in three weeks or hasn't gotten pussy in six years. Just be considerate. Maybe your parents' election people lost or won. Just be considerate just focus in on love compassion and honesty and not the honesty that's gonna piss off everybody and let's we need each

other's backs you know it's time to reunite whatever way you think and it's time to um get compassion back into uh the veins of this country. I sound like a politician right now, but it's true. We need compassion. We need to know that we're all in this together and we're not selfishly just trying to figure it out alone. So be calm, be patient with fucking your racist grandpa or whatever, and just try to love the things you love about him or it or things

or whatever you're doing. And let's just have a great Thanksgiving. Let's try to remember the end of this 2020 is, all right, we learned a lot from this shithole, but one thing that I learned most about is just being compassionate to people in need. So that's it, guys. I love you.

Be safe. Wear condoms if you're going out. You probably shouldn't go out. I mean, they're probably telling you not to go out. But if you get the urge to go back to your hometown and fuck your high school, you know, fuck buddy, your ex-girlfriend. Make sure you take COVID tests, both of y'all. Once you're negative, not positive, once you're both negative, get your fuck on.

Go get it. Go bust a nut, but keep it safe. Wear gloves. Wear protection. Wear a condom. You don't want to be going back to your hometown fucking the girl you met and you loved 20 years ago and all of a sudden you're pregnant

then you're back in your hometown then you're going to be sad unless you want to do that unless that's your plan I'm just on one tonight but that's it love you, be safe we got Susto, My boy from South Carolina

This guy's Fucking killer Songwriter He's gonna be on next week And then we got about Three more episodes To finish off the season It's been a great

Another season Wow Barn Burning Interviews Killing it I'm gonna We are so pumped out

To show you the shit show We got the New Year's Eve shows I think They're pretty much sold out. But if you want to, I think we might add another night or maybe there's more tickets. I don't know. It's like 60. It's going to be awkward as fuck.

60 people each night, New Year's Eve. But we're going to make the best out of it, you know, because we can. Because we're alive. We're breathing. We're focused on trying to be most honest we can with ourselves. Fuck you, 2020. And fuck yeah to our hearts and souls. All right, guys.

Be safe out there. I'll catch you next week. I'm not taking breaks. I'm not going to take a break from the podcast until the season's over because we need each other. So go out there and fuck shit up out there. All right, guys. Love you. Be safe. All right, guys. Love you. Be safe.

Have a good night. You tuned in to the third season of Blissful Blah at Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast, produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angel, Iwan, 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, please head to Instagram at worldinfantpodcast.

For more infant 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 shit show. Or at this crazy Saturday night wanna dance with somebody dance parties. 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 Ubergigs this summer,

I decided to reroute. Build in 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 manage 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 unite, for it will be a long road ahead. See you next week.