Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 109: Brett Dennen

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

Happy Season's Finale! Ep 109 is here, and we stand with arms akimbo, wondering just how the f#c% we made it to 3 seasons and 109 episodes... Thanks for listening all these years, yall. And on the Interview Hour we welcome songwriting maestro, Brett Dennen! Andy reveals very personal information to Brett, along with his deepest gratitude. Dolav has exciting news for all you Jammers. And we welcome Scott Morrill (aka DJ Sleepy) as guest co-host to close us out. This was Season 3. 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  Get hip to Brett Dennen at brettdennen.live   Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: "Booking Agent" Shawn Eckels Dolav Cohen Arno Bakker

What's up, Andy? This is Mara Davis, booking your guests for the shit show. Listen, can you do me a favor? Can you, when I have a guest that I book for you, can you just make a little bit of effort to learn something about the guest? So I don't have to hear from you two seconds before via text saying what should I know about this person there's a Google search or I'll do a prep sheet for you this isn't hard you can hope to try I know you're in Malibu living your best life but the rest of us are working and I also have a line of good guests for this podcast you do and all this other shit, but you have to like make an effort. You have to, can you make an effort? Anyway, good luck. Bye. Bye. Frasco's a gigolo And everywhere he goes People know the podcast he's hosting

He does a barefoot dance He parties with his fans Ooh, what are they saying? There will come a day When the podcast might go away But don't worry about our Andy 2020 sucked, I know Because there's been nowhere to go

It's just the season ending Season 3 finale Season 3 finale Season 3 finale Come on! Season three, a finale. Season three, a finale. Come on! Woo! Yeah! Interviewed Susto.

Man, remember that time in the interview, Bendy Blue? Man, she was crazy, man. Talk about on. Yubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba Season 3 finale finale Season 3 finale

Season 3 finale Oh Andy Andy rocks a dead body dead body dead body. Dead body. Dead body. Won't somebody come and take a chance with Andy?

He ain't so bad. Yeah, it's the world-saving podcast. He's a divin' alley motherfucker. Woo! And we're back. Andy Frasco's world-saving podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's our heads? How's our minds? We staying out

that fucking dark crevice that they call anxiety? You want to turn on the music? Let me talk to your anxiety right now. Anxiety! Stop. Let this man to your anxiety right now. Anxiety. Stop. Let this man or girl or thing free from your treacherous,

worrying some, your, uh, your friend. No, that's it. Seriously. Shoe devil. That's what, when anxiety comes, I just say shoe devil

because it is the season three finale of the world saving podcast damn we've been doing this now 109 episodes y'all i mean i remember when we first were doing the podcast i had yeti on here convincing yeti he was um bisexual was big part in podcast history for the the show, and just getting in-depth conversations with people that are strangers, and just trying to have a bro-to-bro or lady-to-bro conversation, and try to get the most out of the hour conversation I get, because you never, you don't really get to hang out with these people more than once or twice a year. You know, being a musician, everyone is zigzagging.

Sometimes, yeah, you get to hang out at like a backstage in the catering or whatever at a festival. But it's for like two seconds and it's low-key fake. Like, hey, how you doing? Oh, cool. You got to do that shit. I got to do this shit. They have a good conversation. That's what this podcast is all about. So thanks for being part of the ride. Hopefully I'm getting better at interviewing

and getting stuff out of people because, you know, at the end of the day, the questions I'm asking them are the questions I am trying to figure out about myself. It's okay to ask the universe when you're worried. Don't suppress it. This is where anxiety comes This is where you know

Paranoia and fear of the present happen Is when we stop Is when we let our fucking brains get the best of us So take a step back Look outside I'm looking out this window I'm still in Malibu Making sketches for the shit show I'm looking out this window. I'm still in Malibu, uh, making

sketches for the shit show. I'm like, damn, it's the ocean fucking pretty. I'm in shorts in December. You know, like I could be worried about, you know, my deadlines and whatnot. But if you take a step back and just look outside, even if it's like you're got a shitty apartment, whatever, just look, find the beauty in that shitty apartment. Find the beauty in the life that you have right now, because if we can't find beauty in anything, then what's the point? And I don't mean that as finding, if you're having a depression point and your phone find beauty, fuck what I do, because that'll come back. But if we stop finding the beauty in things, then we're just standing still.

And I don't want to stand still in life. I want to, you know, even if I have a shitty thing or have a shitty conversation or argument with somebody, I need to find the beauty in the little things that I could grow from. Maybe I was an asshole in that conversation. Or maybe I was just not present and all I'm hearing is a couple things in a conversation and assuming it's one thing. And then, you know, we start thinking about the future and all the conversations and what might happen and all that shit doesn't even exist. So take a deep breath. Let's take a deep breath for this season three finale.

And realize it's all going to be okay. Even if it sucks, even if 2020 was fucking shitty, you know, I tried to make the best out of my 2020, you know, not having a job, not having a live gig. And, you know, that was, that's the biggest part of me is my performing on stage you know so to have a little existential crisis that I can't be the best of what I am and I have to evolve into other things through these transitions is fucking scary we don't like the unknown you don't like the idea that we have to change what we have. God, that sounds fucking scary. But we just did it for a year. And how did we do? We're still alive. We might've had some confusing times, might've blacked out in your quarantine. Just got fucking tanked like I did. But when we wake up from the blackout, we made it. It's going to be fine. We are a lot stronger than you think you are in your head. You might be dealing with, you know, losing your job or fucking maybe, um,

your lover. You don't just ain't the same anymore because you're fucking with them all the time. Whatever it is, take a step back and find the beauty of what you did this year. Because that's important. We need to find the beauty in the bad things, even if it just keeps shitting on you. Because it's going to keep shitting on you. And that's okay too. Because if we have optimism in tomorrow, then we can live presently today.

When we don't have optimism in tomorrow, then we start not Trying to make the present moment As best as we can So take a step back Realize you're just one fucking person That These are new emotions for you

And you're basically finding yourself It's like puberty all over again baby Think about that remember the first time you came Like damn I never knew I could feel that way. Well, pretend like this is a new form of coming. Finding yourself is like ejaculating for the first time. Because I remember the first time I beat off, it was like fucking awesome. Now, you know, I started beating off at 12, what, 18 years in, 20 years in,

doesn't have its charm anymore. But, you know, I still think about that first time. So with that being said, I don't know where I'm going with this, but finding yourself, let this be a great experience, even if it's shitty. It's going to be shitty. I know. It's okay, though. Stay focused on how you're going to get better.

Stay focused on optimism because we're going to make it through this shit. I fucking promise. Oh, there you go. Because, you know, I got to convince myself that, you know, sometimes I'll just get in a rut. I'm like, fuck, what I knew isn't, it doesn't exist right now. And I'm going crazy. Instead of thinking, oh, we are explorers as humans. We're supposed to explore. If it's exploring the outer world or exploring the

inner world, don't ever forget to explore. So that's why I am trying to make a fucking TV show, convincing everyone that I could, you know, be a producer and be this stuff. I'm convincing myself. And I actually think I did. I think we have a kick-ass show and I'm super proud of this. You know, that's the beauty of being an artist.

This is what I taught. I've got Brett Denon on the show. And this is what we talk about with Brett. Brett's going through a thing where he wants to be a visual artist. It's music is, I don't know what's going on with him on that wants to be a visual artist it's music is I don't know what's going on with him on that end of it but and the the idea that we have to be who we used to be versus the idea of who we are now and it was a great conversation I think you're really gonna dig it um but things are popping we just did the dance. DJ Sleepy's here. He flew in, got a COVID test, made sure he's negatory.

And then he got into the Malibu house and we had a dance party. And it was fun. You know, holiday cheer by the palm trees on the ocean. It was great. It's a great last hoorah before I have to get back to Denver where it's cold as fuck. Even though I miss Denver. Actually, this is the first time I felt like a town is my home. You know, Denver, I really miss it.

And I miss, you know, I never had that in Kansas City when I was living in Kansas City. Never really had that in L.A. growing up. Maybe because I was just younger and living with my parents and stuff. But Denver feels like home and I miss it. I'm going to be there in a couple days. And I don't know if our new year's Eve shows are going to be canceled yet, but, um, we're still figuring out. So if you bought tickets to our new year's Eve show, hold tight. Hopefully it's not canceled, but it's looking like, I don't know. Fuck. We, you know, whatever the officials tell us, we will be, we will, uh, we will not, we'll do that. But

if, if it does get canceled, we'll do some sort of live stream or stuff. We'll get the boys here, whatnot and whatnot. But are you ready? I'm ready. We're going to have a great show tonight. It's the season finale. It's time to think about the year. It's the end of the year, you know.

So if you're not going home to your parents or grandparents and you're alone on the holiday, it's all good. You're all doing it together. I'm not going home this holiday. My mom got sick. Um, not COVID, but, uh, other stuff. Um, we're trying to figure out what the diagnosis is. Uh, it's crazy. Um, you know, just make sure you tell your parents, you love them. Make sure you tell your family, you love them. Even your fucking that shitty uncle, you know, that shitty uncle uncle you have or you're that shitty person in your life but you you know you're stuck with them or whatever tell them you love them because you never know what they're going through you know you never know what people are going through and if we could be compassionate instead of just hating drinking that haterade on some motherfuckers i think we're

gonna improve our lifestyle and our head and our life. And we're going to deflate the ego and try to be the most authentic self. Even though ego is good. I talked to Brett about that a little bit. Some ego is good. You know, don't let it control you. Because the minute it starts to control you, then it's narcissistic, I think. So there's a fine balance.

So stay focused on yourself. Stay focused with your family. Tell them you love them. If you've got to Zoom, I know it fucking sucks Zooming, fucking having family time, Zooming and shit. You probably drank a little too much more because you're excited the family's gone

so you're just fucking blacked out on the holiday. Then you've got to remind yourself, oh, 8 p.m., grandma's going to online you're fucking you're gonna say some shit and you know so just take a deep breath know you're gonna black out that day or know you're gonna get drunk because you're gonna be alone it can be maybe kind of sad just take a step back say other people are dealing the same thing don't go crazy don't be uh talking shit to your uh you know maybe right wing or left wing fucking cousin at the zoom table talking spicy because you're you're behind a computer screen you know let's try to be civil let's try to work on what we're going to be working on for 2021 and

that is optimism happiness and the pursuit of our fucking dreams, even through the marination of shit that 2020 has given us. So you ready to have a great show? I'm ready. And maybe I could convince DJ Sleepy, Scott Morrill, to talk about it. Because he owns Cervantes, this venue in Denver, one of the great venues in this country. And I'd like to talk to him about how the venue's doing. So maybe I can convince him after he gets out of these Zoom meetings if he wants to fucking be on the pod.

All right, guys, enjoy Brett Denon. And by the way, you smoking weed? Got to get that 14er. You got to get that 14er. I know if you're in California, you're like, fuck, you keep on bragging about this Denver, Colorado weed. But everyone comes to Denver. And when you do come to Denver or Boulder,

go pick up some 14er cannabis. They're out of Boulder. Evan is the coolest fucking dude. Talk about life. He loves fucking music. You know, he just sends me songs he loves. And, you know, we'll get high a little bit on mushrooms. I'll come into his backyard.

We'll start shooting the shit about fucking life and just how passionate he is about his cannabis. So, you know, he's a good guy, and his company is a bunch of sweethearts. So go get some 14er if you're in the Denver-Boulder area. So it's the poor local mom, pop fucking weed shops. You know,

it's a, the, the terminator of the weed is coming. Once that shit gets legalized, you're going to be smoking Marlboro weed. So think about that. So keep these mom, pop weed stores in shape and business.

Um, and, uh, we could have, you know, we got to build community, you know, or we're going to be living in an Amazon world. It's already happening.

So cherish the things you love, even if it's, you know, mom, pa, because that's important. That is important to build community. It's kind of like musicians and these small venues. That's why I'm going to get Scott in. I'm going to get Scott in here to talk about that shit. All right, guys, enjoy the season finale and I'll catch you on the tail end.

Let's have fun. Okay. And be good to yourself. Be gentle. Don't be fucking so hard on yourself. It's a new year. You know, you might be broke. Probably got some shitty present. You gave some shitty presents cause you're broke to your family. Don't take it. Don't, don't be hard on yourself. Everyone is going to be getting shitty presents this year. All right. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got Brett Denon. Remember this guy? Fucking badass, dude. I, I'm telling, Hey, Hey Chris, play some, uh, Brett Denon while I, uh, pimp him out a little bit. 2006, I was, um, oh, senior in high school. And, um, this was the song got me laid, got me laid, man. It was amazing. He's a beautiful songwriter. And, um, I just love, I mean, I share a lot of similarities with him he's deep and i didn't

know he was gonna be this deep on this conversation he's just an all-in-all good fucking guy um and you know like everything he's he's he's finding himself and uh he's he's falling in love he's always been in love with painting and visual art he's really taking a deep dive into visual art. He's got a new show where he sings and paints. It's like Bob Ross, Brett Dent style. It's really cool. So ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this interview. And it's the season three season finale of the World's Same Podcast.

All right, enjoy. If you had your way, would you lay me down? Would you shoot out the ghouls? Let's move this town. If I had my way, I'd swallow the dark. And get this party started again. Yeah. Sha la la. Sha la la. Let's be the red wine stain on the carpet The The innocence after we lost it

The ballad of everything Oh, bold Was the chrome on the motorcycle Was a chrome on a motorcycle The gold of a broken idol A babe on a riverbank Baby, that's the way Would you lay me down Would you shoot out the ghosts that struck this town?

And if I had my way, I'd swallow the dark, and get this party started again. Sha-la-la, sha-la-la. I did I'm going to get this party started Gonna get this party started Gonna get this party started Gonna get this party started Gonna get this party started Gonna get this party started Where's my team? I'm talking Brett motherfucking Denon, dude. What's up, dude?

I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of giddy about this. One of the first times I ever got laid was because of your song, dude. So thank you very much. Okay. Wow, caught me off guard. No, it's great, man. I'm a big fan of you.

I can't wait to learn more about you. Where are you at? Where are you living? I'm a big fan of you. I can't wait to learn more about you. Where are you at? Where are you living? I'm at the beach in Ventura, California. Oh, cool. I'm in Malibu. Oh, the oceans.

I mean, I don't have to tell you you're in Malibu, but the ocean every day, the beach every day. It's a great life. It's great, man. I mean, how are you holding up through this pandemic? Well, it's been great life. It's great, man. I mean, how you, how you holding up through this pandemic? Well, it's been really hard. I got to say, well, it's just,

I mean, I can't work. Yeah. So that's been a bummer. So the music that once filled my life is, it's still in my life, but it's different now. Luckily, we bought a fixer-upper that needs a ton of work, but I don't have money to pay.

That's the fucking point. To do the work, so I'm doing a lot of it myself, and it never comes out the way I want it to. You can only do so much from watching other people do it. You really need the experience. But it's coming along. It's been a really humbling experience this past year through not being able to work and through trying to fix things in the house myself

and not coming out the way I'd like it to. I get bummed out all the time, but I feel like there's so much to look forward to. So it's okay. Are you hard on yourself? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

Yeah. Like what? Let's talk about. I'm proud of myself. I, you know, I, I'm, I float between these two planes of a, I'm really hard on myself and wish I could do better be better at things that I try or be better now without you know the work you have to put into it to get good

and then the other half of the time I'm thinking damn I am good I wish more people recognized you know it's that it's that push and pull do you think uh do you think with that idea do you think ego helped we'll call it ego it's not really ego but do you think that helped you you know fine-tune your craft into who you are now ego and uh stubborn, naivete, I think. I think when I, still to this day, but especially when I started, I think anytime someone would give me a compliment, like, oh, that's a good song. You know, your friends say, oh, man, that's a great song.

I'd buy that if it was on a record. I would take those compliments and be like, yeah, that means I'm great. And then, but having the naivete of not realizing that a lot of people are great. You know, a lot of songs are great and people just have opinions and sometimes people are just being nice, you know. But if you keep in that mindset of staying,

finding confidence through, you know, the fulfillment you get from writing a song or from hearing the feedback from it, and you keep a blind eye to the mountain that you have to get up when you're trying to put yourself out there as an artist. Yeah. I mean, it's helped me so much. I mean, yeah.

I mean, why music? Why did you start music? Well, I've always been some sort of an artist since a kid. I just always gravitated to being creative. That's how I got attention as a kid. That was sort of my role in the family. Were you insecure as a kid? Was I what?

Insecure as a kid? Oh, yeah. You? Oh, yeah. For sure, I had a weight problem. I was insecure about my weight yeah yeah well yeah i just i was shy i was chubby i wasn't good at sports i was homeschooled it was hard for me to meet friends but i always drew i always thought i was going to be some kind of an artist when I grew up.

And then guitar found its way into my life. And through guitar, learning grunge songs and playing with friends and singing, people, you know, you kind of find out that you're good at something that way. And in college, in Santa Cruz, I got into a little band band and then I started writing songs for the band and the songwriting felt so good that was the most attractive thing to me so far in music was putting words to music having a thought and finishing a song and then performing it for people that pleased me more than anything in music, uh, up until that point. So then I thought, Oh, is there a, is there a path for a songwriter?

And that's when I got really into the singer songwriters, uh, like who like Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, that, that world of the where it's more about the songwriting than it is about, you know, like the rock band or something like that. Do you remember your first moment when you made that switch in your head? Yeah, I was, it was when I was in that band, we were in a kind of a jammy band in Santa Cruz. I was playing Electric Mandolin, which is like light years away from what I do now.

Sick. But that was when, it was sort of right after, it was a few years after String Cheese incident was massive and all those bands that had those eclectic, you know, it wasn't just like Fish. It was other bands. Like Extreme Cheese had the guy, Michael Caine, that played the, I don't know what that thing was, like a man guitar. Yeah, like a man guitar.

Yeah, so that was kind of in. Or maybe it was in and then out. I don't know. Were you listening to that kind of stuff in college? I wasn't listening to it, of stuff in college i was i wasn't listening to it but i was definitely hanging around it i was going to a lot of those shows and when i go to concerts it would be either a jam band or some kind of hip-hop group that wasn't like on on mtv radio kind of thing it would like, I don't know what you would call it,

but the more rootsy hip hop, Jurassic five kind of thing. Yeah. You know, Common was just kind of blowing up at that time. So I would go to those, those kinds of shows. That was sort of the scene in Santa Cruz, trip hop and hip hop and jam

and I was in that band and we had two singers I wasn't one of them but they wrote songs and then I just wrote a song and said hey could I sing this song and that just that whole experience of writing and showing the song to the bandmates and i got hooked on that and it wasn't long after that that i knew i was going to leave the band and try to figure something out for myself performing it like the dream back then was just to play in coffee shops you know i'd see someone play at a coffee shop and i'd say i want that gig yeah you know there's coffee shops all over the country. I could just go play coffee shops. With your electric mandolin.

I got rid of that though, real fast. No, but it's that idea. I mean, what I'm trying to think about is like, you love the idea of like getting that self-gratification from others. Is that important to you for acceptance? Yeah. Yeah. Not so much now like it used to be, but I think it's because we put so much into identity and I wanted my

identity to be a songwriter or I wanted my identity to be yeah a singer a singer songwriter right now I mean that is my identity now but I don't hang on to that so much I don't care so much about acceptance that I would get from people liking my songs now I watch now I'm care more about I'm trying to build a career as a visual artist I'm care more about, I'm trying to build a career as a visual artist. So I'm trying to get acceptance from that. And I'm spending most of my time doing home improvement projects. And so I'm trying to get acceptance from that. I'm, you know,

I want somebody to say, Hey, that sprinkler system looks good. Yeah. I want to tell myself, that sprinkler system looks good. Yeah. You don't get that from me. I want to tell myself, I want to be able to look at it and say, yeah, that looks like it not be able to see like how it's just all out of whack and the nozzles aren't popping up right or whatever I want.

I want, I just want to feel good. I mean, I don't, you want to just feel good about the hard work that you do. Yeah, no, but see, I, I think that's healthy feel good about the hard work that you do? Yeah. No, totally. But see, I think that's healthy.

I think doing hard work and wanting it to be appreciated, everybody should have that. My problem is I wrap my identity up in that. So it's like that's like when you're – if you write a song and someone criticizes it and you take that criticism personally you've got too much of yourself too much of your identity wrapped up in the outcome of the song but whose identity is it is it the person who thinks that's your identity or is that your actual identity

you know well it's the yeah i don't know probably the person who thinks it that's what i'm saying so if you took out the equation of person who thinks it. That's what I'm saying. So if you took out the equation of someone who thinks it, what would your identity be as Brett Dennen? I would just be a traveling, wandering spirit who could disappear at any time. Oh, tell me about that. You like disappearing? No, I mean, I'm talking about dying.

Oh, what do you mean tell me about that well that's what is what are we we're just here having an experience it could be gone any second you don't know does that know does that scare you that it could be gone in any second no no you're not scared so you're not scared to die yeah i mean i'm scared to die but i'm not scared i don't think about i think about death all the time but when i think about death all the time it doesn't scare me it just reminds me that the little things don't matter and the big things matter what are the big things to you my kid my lady my family the people that i choose to be family yeah totally so why do we feel like we still get bummed out when we can't make when we can't do that thing like on the road like or that

idea that yeah we're losing self if your bigger picture things of what you love is family the the people you love like how do we get out of that mind state to just that's the consequence of having a brain man you ever take lsd you're like i take i've taken a lot of mushrooms in my time but i've never taken lsd yeah same here i've been microdosing for about three years now and it i've i've been i would it fought it helped me fight my depression and uh do you go to therapy no no no no i'm not not and i don't mean therapy is bad or anything it's just i don't i've never no i've never i've never done therapy I'm not struggling every day

with myself but I've taken a lot of mushrooms I've never microdosed I've never taken it for as you're taking it I've always just taking it to trip out what do you like about tripping out it's just

I like I'm an, so I like seeing colors and shapes and I like seeing things vibrate. And I like seeing when the trees have an aura around them that shakes. And when light gets broken up and put back together right in front of your face and separated right in front of your eyes, you see a full spectrum of color coming out of the light. I love that. And I love going on a journey to the highs and lows. I think it's probably my favorite thing to do, but it just takes so much time. It's my favorite drug to do, but it just takes so much time. It's favorite drug to do, but it just takes so much time.

I never really tried the micro dosing. What about the DMT? That only takes 10 minutes. I've never tried that. And I would love to try that. I'm just not in, I'm not in the circle one time. I'll send you some.

I got, I got offered to do a whole DMT thing. And then I even got offered to do an ayahuasca thing in Malibu, but I was, I was that I was scared. I was scared to do that. What were you scared about? Because the letter that they wrote just started off by saying that the

couple who does that holds a ceremony, they were been doing it for a long time and it's safe and anytime you start it off by saying this couple's been doing it a long time and it's safe and it's like well what do you mean why wouldn't it be safe like why does this couple have to do it a long time they're just watching me while i do a drug right and then you know bring a sleeping bag and a pillow and there's gonna they're gonna be watching you in case you throw up and then you know bring a sleeping bag and a pillow and there's gonna they're gonna be watching you in case you throw up and then you know like holding space and a lot's gonna come up and you know i it's just that all if they hadn't told me all that i probably again it goes back to being naive

if i if you would have just let me go in there with my ego and being naive, I probably would have done it and had a great time. But since you told me all the stuff I needed to prepare myself for, that's what freaked me out. Do you feel the same way about the music industry? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you? Yeah. Oh, fuck yeah.

yeah oh yeah do you yeah fuck yeah like if you were to tell me if when i was starting out if you were to tell me this is what it's gonna be like you're gonna have to pound it you're gonna have to grind it out this way this way this way you're gonna have to deal with failure here and there and there and there it's gonna be constant and then every day you're gonna have to wake up and choose to do it again and choose to believe in yourself, believe in yourself and no one else. That would just be too much to take in. That's why when somebody tells me or asks me like, oh, how do I do this? How do we get on the radio or whatever? I try not to, sometimes I make the mistake of telling them too much, but I try to just say, just worry about,

just write the best song that you can and get good at performing. And it's going to happen for you. You going to people are going to find you grab your fans are going to find out where you are and where you're playing you're going to have your own fans and then if it gets big enough people are going to start knocking on your door and calling your phone and and wanting to work with you yeah no do you think it's hard to stay relevant? Yeah. Well, we mean like,

so when you get to there, when you get to the knock on the door, like what, what year was it for you when you got the knock on the door, you got the big break. I felt like you were on tour, like Jack Johnson, like one of these big bands in oh six. Like what?

I was on shore with John Mayer. John Mayer. Yeah. Yeah. Was that your first break? Yeah. That was the first break? Yeah. That was the biggest one I had had at that point. Yeah.

Yeah. So like that, I, okay. So we got that. You got, you know, I got really lucky.

I got really lucky because I was living in Santa Cruz and I came down to Southern California to make an album at my friend's mom's house. She had a sweet recording studio kind of in the rig in her house. And I made an album. And then she started working with me, acting as a manager, helping me. helping me and at that same time the there was this club in hollywood called the hotel cafe that had just a scene it was like i looked down in time because there was a scene of singer-songwriters and they all played at the hotel cafe and there were a couple other clubs in LA and even one up here in Ventura called Zoe's where just there was going to sit down and watch people, watch singer songwriters was the thing to do. It was before people would go and listen to dubstep.

And, you know, it was like the dubstep of the time. Yeah, the artist of the round. Yeah, exactly. Listening to folk singers and so i would go and play that and i got in early before it really blew up and before it got to be uh hard to get into but it had so much of a buzz for a while that big ass artists were going in there to play surprise shows like john mayer or you know whomever were going in there doing a surprise set or just hanging out there and just seeing what kind of music is is

happening and so that's how i was introduced to john mayer because he would hang out there and uh you did your show so you did your show and from there i mean like i've you were there i felt like guys like joey ryan was yeah hotel cafe dude joey's well he i didn't really yeah he was he's a little younger than me and he came around after i left but then we then there was this other on the west side in venice there was a club that was a jean store called Stronghold. And it had a bit of a speakeasy illegal bar thing upstairs that people would play at. And that got insanely hip. Yeah.

And Joey would hang out there too. So I think that's where i know him but yeah so you you're doing these things you're doing these shows did you have a did you have any interest from labels yet or anything or you're just how'd you get into the hotel cafe I got into, this is a random story. Okay. So I made that CD and I gave it to one of my best friends, Carl, that I went to college with in Santa Cruz. And his babysitter when he was a kid was Ben Harper's merchandise seller seller i think or merchandise manager on the road and so he gave him a cd and that merchandise manager guy gave it to somebody else and then that somebody else was starting a record label with ben harper's manager which was the label that signed jack johnson i think

it's called ever loving or something like that so that guy that got the cd from my friend's babysitter he invited me to do a showcase at the hotel cafe which just for everybody listening which means you do a show in a music venue but you just do it for music or music industry people. And you usually just do it in the evening or in the afternoon, sometimes in the morning, even before the club opens. You walk in at four o'clock and there's just three people in the room or whoever they've invited. Like, Oh, I want to invite some different label people or whatever.

It's just, and they're talking while you play and you just get up and play. And so I did that. It's like your cattle. What? It's like your cattle. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's,

I think it's kind of like those auditions that people do in like American Idol or something like that you know you're auditioning for a show it's in the middle of the day there's no real crowd and they're getting drunk it's all these music business people too which in this day and age they're all sober you know yeah yeah they're drinking yeah when we were just standing there looking at their phone like oh i gotta get to a dinner meeting or I got to get to a whatever. Does that bum you out? Totally.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like. I hate the suits, man. I know. That's what I'm saying. Like, these are the people like basically picking our lives for us if we're going to do that type of thing, you know, chase a fucking record deal. And that's what I grew up in L.A. I grew up in Topanga, like Topanga, Ventura. And I would chase the tail of trying to get signed by these fucking guys

who don't give a fuck. And they're there because their buddy forced them to come. Yeah, you're kissing their ass all the time. Hand jobs and fucking, it's just a pain in the ass. You made it worse than I did. But no, keep going with this story because I want to keep going. So that showcase, you know, the guy that invited me there, he said, okay, well, you know, I don't know, you're a little too green

and I don't think we can sign you, but I really appreciate you coming. But the club owner said, wow, man, I really like you. I'll start putting you here on some nights. And I was like, really? He's like, oh, yeah. And I didn't know a ton about the scene back then but i knew enough to know that that place had some some good names coming through there gary jules and mason jennings like i knew that was a spot so then i started playing there regularly to nobody or bad being added it's kind of like the way it works is

it's kind of like a comedy club like you just go up and you do a short set and when you're if you're in the audience or an audience member you walk in and you tell them who you're there to see and you might only have five people there that night but you might be able to play to a full crowd because people are waiting to see whoever's going to be up next up up next. And they put like eight people on a night. Yeah. And, but then I just kind of kept moving up. I started becoming a headliner of that place. And it got to a point where there was a line out the alley or a line around the building.

And then, you know, I could play there whenever I wanted. And then I could move on to bigger venues. So were you, were you overweight during that time? Yeah. Were you overweight during that time? Yeah. So with that being said, going back to record labels and stuff. Oh, yeah.

Did you feel like that was the reason why they didn't sign you? No, maybe. I don't know. I'd have to ask somebody. I think I was just a little bit too boyish and innocent. I didn't have a ton of experience in life yet. And I think I was really shy. And I hadn't really, I didn't, the craft of performing was, I was really a sloppy performer.

And I didn't really care about style or anything. I just wore whatever fit, which wasn't a lot. Fucking Santa Cruz hippie, baby. Let's go. Let's get this shit. No, it's so fascinating, this songwriter world, because that shit happens all the time. From Hotel Cafe, so you're popping now.

Did you get a deal after this yeah well i i got a deal for that first uh record that i made the first cd i got a distribution deal um and it was a it through universal it was a small imprint called flagship and they didn't have any option that was just that one thing and then i played enough that i i got the uh attention of a dope label in nashville called dual tone yeah and at the time they were really small really independent but now they're much bigger they have the lumineers and shovels and rope and shaky graves and you know i don't know i don't know who maybe mandolin orange or maybe not um so you're one of the langhorne slim

yeah he's sick um so but at the time it was it was much smaller and i signed to just a standard a typical record deal with them where they get like three record option and but as soon as I made the record with them because I they gave me a real budget to make us the sick record I recorded it in 2006 2007 I think 2006 yeah that was late 2006 I recorded at Jackson Browne studio in Santa Monica with a lot of his band Scott Thurston from the Heartbreakers

Greg Lees I mean it was it was sick I mean the record still who produced it Kevin McCormick who actually lives here in Ventura he produced some what's her name uh the i'm the only one

oh yeah um he produced some of that he's done some a bunch of jackson brown stuff he plays with stephen stills and david crosby and all he's he's a sick bass player um he he produced that record and the minute like before the record even like i made it matt got it back to dual tone they're starting to work it to radio and right away warner brothers calls me up and says you know i'd already taken a meeting a couple years before with warner brothers and they said you know we really like you but we can't sign you because you're just too inexperienced you're not there yet but you know someday they said someday when you're ready to sign a record label when someone else fucking signs your door please choose please choose us i'd be like suck my dick dog like whatever i suck my dick dog like before but as soon as i made this record with dual tone then they called me up again said

we know we want to take a meeting with you and they said we love this record that you made we think you're ready and we want to upstream it i'm like upstream what what does that mean i don't know okay so found out my manager at the time she and i found out that that means that the label partners with a small a big label partners with a small label pours a bunch of money into it and uh then when it reaches a certain amount of sales then warner brothers takes it over and it becomes a warner brothers record yeah like a sub label yeah they throw out a bunch of money to do the groundwork to get the record to a point where they can just take it and blow it up. So that was the plan.

So then I did it dual-tone, and Warner Brothers started partnering together and working on it, but then something happened there. It all fell apart. I don't know. You'd have to ask both sides. I don't know. He said, she said, but I know some money was invested and then that relationship dissolved and the Warner Brothers went away unhappy. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour.

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I feel bad for these labels, because you develop these bands, and then right when you sell whatever X amount of units, it goes to fucking the machine where they don't give a fuck about you. You're not their baby anymore. You're just a fucking number. Mm-hmm. I i mean do you feel like that's where you were well i i have i yeah my heart goes out to those small labels who who work with those big labels in that capacity and then just

get overlooked and then their their their little logo on the back of the CD gets smaller and smaller or it just disappears and then it just says yeah Atlantic or whatever um but I think the small labels especially now when you you don't really have to print records anymore and it's it's really all about the DSsps and the playlists and working radio and so much at least the radio world that i'm in so much of it is about a homemade homegrown connection i think the small labels are still just the place to be at yeah i think they're they are the most in touch with at least about giving people the music that they want, because there's so much music out there. And if you just listen to the radio, you're not really going to hear any of it.

You're going to just hear the mainstream stuff. And we really need those small labels to be able to find the music that we like and to work with the radio stations to make it so that you can discover music. Yeah, it's true. Hey, let's go back to, so you're popping with that deal. You got what, were you getting a bunch of AAA plays or you got some mainstream plays? Like what was going on?

No, I became a AAA guy right away. I just hit all those stations and yeah, in there just meeting and greeting. So this is when you went on tour with John Mayer or is this after? This was when I released that first record. I went out and did a four month tour in an RV all around North America and just worked it as hard as I could. And then that summer I went on tour with John Mayer.

So after the Mayer thing, what did, so Warner Brothers just dropped you after that or what was going on? No, they never signed me. They had entered, we had entered that, that upstream deal. And then I think they invested some money, but I think it just something happened and Warner Brothers just walked away and counted their losses and just said,

screw it, we got it. We got to move on. Dude, is that heartbreaking? I was a little bit, but I don't know. I wanted, I was just, of course, I wanted to be on Warner Brothers because it was just a big label. And you don't, when you don't know anything about the music business and you think oh okay I'm gonna be on Warner this is great you know and you're seduced by that building and all

the people there and but I don't know it's going back to that night where some people get dropped and just they can't release their music and i i've been very lucky so i don't complain about that do you think the music industry got you jaded you think i'm jaded no i'm just asking do you think you're jaded i think no i wouldn't use the word jaded i could i could sometimes i can be a bitter old man but i don't think i'm jaded I'm 40, 41 you always look so young thanks dude

you're like a baby angel child over here but okay no I don't think I'm jaded at all I think I'm pretty positive I get down on myself and I get down on the world but I'm not, I don't think I'm jaded why do you think we can't go back to being naive like when we used to be?

Because we have brains. Sucks. It's the setback. The brain is a sharp sword that cuts both ways, man. It helps me to achieve so many great things, but it holds me back in so many ways i'm sure it's the same for everybody if we could be naive about life then maybe it wouldn't be we should be right if we're more if we could be naive about life i think we could be happier people absolutely but that i mean are you naive about love that yeah yeah but i separate love in love is a different

is different than a relationship like i know tell me about that every time i've been in love it's just been pure and it still is and it's beautiful but relationships are a different thing relationships sometimes have nothing to do with love. It just has something to do with two people coexisting, trying to not step over each other's boundaries too much. Is it hard? I've never had a relationship before, so I wouldn't know anything about this.

It's hard, but it's amazing. Yeah. Okay, so tell me about it so what's hard about it and why and why is it amazing well it's especially hard for me because I'm an artist and I'm a solo artist right so I am a singer songwriter so I do things the way I want to do them I don't write I I don't like when I go to make a record or write a song it's my song it's my record I choose to collaborate with people because I see something in them that I know that I'll never be able to do and I admire them and I love them and and I want whatever they do so well i want that to shine that's light on my song but it's

the end of the day it's just me me me me me so having checking that at the door is hard i fucking bet dude it's really hard and i never do it because i'm stubborn also. And, but I also chose the right person because she's, she's headstrong. She's resolute. She is a powerful person that can easily, easily put me in my place. And even if I don't want to be put in my place, I know it's, it's good for me. And then I think there's ways in which i compliment her so but it's not always that give and take complimenting it's just like it's it's most of the time it's we admire each other and we're trying to figure out how to live together yeah but it's it's it's we're we do it really well most of the the time. Can you, uh, is it hard for you to coexist with your ego?

Shit. I'm going to say no, but what does that mean? What? That means that I'm not coexist. That means it's my ego taking over. You know, that's the thing.

It's like, you talk about being stubborn is, is stubborn something that's poking at your ego. Stubborn is the ego. Stubborn is the self-centeredness. Stubborn is the me before everything else. But stubborn is that's it's naive. It's a naive way to be back when you said, wouldn't life be easier if we were all naive or wouldn't we be happier if we were all naive? Of course, ignorance is bliss.

I mean, look at, look at our country, man. Yeah, you're right. Look at where we are. Look at how many people don't give a fuck about anybody else. anybody else. So much so that they'd vote for a man that they typically would hate, but they don't care because that man tells them that they can continue to just go on caring for themselves before anybody else. And that's okay. And you don't have to feel bad about that. And if you think that America should be this way, that other people don't agree, fuck them. We don't have to work. We're great already.

We used to be greater. You know, there's so many people who might not even believe any of that, but they vote. They've 70 million people voted for Donald Trump because they wanted somebody to tell them that it's okay to feel the way they're feeling. Yeah. And they're, they're the people that you're talking about that

wouldn't life be better if you were naive? That's them. And they probably are having a great time being naive. And they're good people. They're great people. It's not a ton of racist people out there. It's just people who

want to feel good about being themselves. I mean, that makes... I mean, so community is important to you. Nah. What about community? I'm a loner, man. You put me in a room with a guitar and a bunch of pencils and a computer, I could stay there forever. I'd only get out to explore nature

because that's the, my other thing is I love wild places. Yeah, tell me about your relationship with nature. Much more than I like people. Let's talk about that. What's your relationship with nature? I just have always been a hiker, backpacker, explorer, wanderer. I love it.

Just my parents raised me to spend a lot of time outdoors. It's just, I don't know. It's just my, I never was a sport guy. I love watching baseball, but I never, I didn't do any of that in high school. Have you ever almost died on any nature adventures? Yeah. What's the, give me one. Well, I've almost died surfing. I i've been held under but that's just being dumb you know what do you mean trying to surf in waves that are too big for you to surf

and not being a very good surfer to begin with damn so you you're confident as fuck, Brett. I am, dude. That's fucking great, dude. I can walk up and say I can do anything, but then I fail all the time. But it's so funny. Like your dynamic is your confidence. And I get bummed out when I fail. Yeah, see, that's what I'm saying. But like you're confident and you can do everything, but also you're like an introvert.

I'm an introvert. So Christina is the opposite of me she's like loves community loves people loves to entertain gets energy from people people suck my energy they suck it out of me right yeah but she's ridiculously talented but she'll never do anything until she can do it perfectly it's she's a perfectionist she wants to be really good at something before she shares it with anybody me i'm like look at this thing i made like look at this clay pinch pot that looks like a turd i made it and i'm done i'm great i'm gonna polish this bitch up and put it on the internet and dog. And then, yeah, I'm going to sell it for 400 bucks on Etsy.

Yeah. And I'm going to tell people I used it as a, I don't know, put my balls in it. Do you feel like, do you feel like you lost your confidence in your music? No. Uh-uh.

I have before. Yeah. I've been through phases where so many people have told me what they, the kind of record that I, that they think I need to make in order to chart or have it on the radio or to get back some of the fans I might've lost when I went in a different direction that I've just been, my head's just spun off my shoulders and I didn't know what to do.

But right now I'm in a great place. I don't feel like I have to prove anything other than I just want to write good songs. I just want to make a record. All I want to ever do now is just make any kind of record just as long as it has good songwriting. So what changed in your mind state to make you be okay with that? I don't know.

I listened to a bunch of music that came out and it's all crap. And I'm like, well, if people think this is good, then my music should be good too. And I don't, I mean, it sounds like a dick thing to say, but it's, it's true. I mean, I, there's a bunch of great music out there and there's a bunch of music that's not for me. So then if that music's not for me, then the music I write, as long as I'm proud of it, it's going to be for somebody. Somebody's going to like it.

Yeah, I agree, man. It's like, um, maybe God, I keep on going back to being naive about my fans and stuff why why do you think you you said you lost a lot of fans and you're bumming yourself out why well i mean i don't know i i can't sit still with the what i've done before i always try to do something a little bit different i can't just keep writing the same song over and over. So I try on different genres and styles and production, types of production. And I made a name for myself early on as just a real straight ahead,

folky singer songwriter. And then I've gone in a bunch of different directions since then and i'm sure you could argue that if i would have stayed on that original course maybe i'd have really locked down those that audience you know but who knows maybe i'd be a depressing nashville guy i don't. Who knows where that would have taken me. You know, that's the same story with Damien Rice. I mean, he was in Juniper, a pop band in Ireland.

And then he said, fuck all this. I'm going to do my own thing. And look at him now. So it's like, it's the idea. I don't know. I'm just so fascinated with how do you keep your brain on the right path, even through all the fucking shit thrown at you? Well, I think luckily for me, music is a meditation and art, which I've always done as a meditation.

If I didn't have those meditative aspects with music and art, I probably would have gotten way too distracted. Does that make sense? Yeah. What do you think? Because when I sit and play guitar, when I'm writing a song, I'm staring at a wall, but I'm not, I'm in the room, but I'm not in the room. I'm like letting my mind wander. And then my mind stops wandering and I'm not thinking about anything. I think when you get to that place where you're just tapping out and you're by yourself and you're digging deep and you're just exploring your thoughts and then quieting your thoughts, that's kind of like a meditation. It's kind of like mindful meditation. And I think that writing a song is a way to check in with yourself, at least for me.

I sit there and I tap into my emotions. I tap into my memories. I think about, I write a story and I'm spending alone time, quality time by myself. And I come out of it, even if I don't write a song that day or finish a song that day, I come out of it with a better sense of self. Have you replaced that meditation from your music with now painting and visual? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Because if I don't, I know it for sure. Because if I don't paint for a couple of days, I start getting edgy. Yeah. That's how you were about writing songs? If you haven't wrote a song in a couple of days, I start getting edgy. Yeah. That's how you were about writing songs. If you haven't wrote a song a couple of days, you get edgy. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it was so hard in the beginning too, because in the beginning I fell into a trap of I'd write, write, write, write, write to make an album and then I'd make an album and then I'd turn off the creative, the songwriting part of me.

I would just switch it off like a knob and then i would lean in too hard on the performing outgoing aspect so the songs come from the brett by himself introverted brett shy guy insecure guy and then the performance comes, is the confident, like, you know, outgoing Brett. But that's really not who I am at my core. So when I lean in onto that too much, I just get way out of whack. And I get unhappy and start eating too much and drinking too much and, you know, being a dumbass. Yeah, I mean, that's fucking tough. It's like trying to be right in the middle

of both worlds to make us happy because there's they're two completely bipolar fucking you know like it's like oh that's yeah i mean for anybody to think that their one thing is ridiculous right we can i mean we're a work in progress right we are changing throughout the day every day i mean to we have to we have to explore every aspect of our being and um honor that. Do you think people aren't doing that? I think people are actually now. I think now that people are home and they're stuck with each other and they're, I think they're working on themselves. I think they're working on their houses. I think they're getting outside into nature more.

I think, I think people are better off I mean it sucks that people are losing their jobs of course but I think a lot of people are better off mentally than they were before

are you a jealous person? yeah I'm extremely jealous what are you most jealous person? Yeah. What are you most? Yeah. I'm extremely jealous. What are you most jealous of? Oh man. Well, I get jealous of other musicians all the time, all the time.

Yeah. Like why them and not me? But then I remind myself, well, because they're making music that people really want to listen to. And I'm like too stubborn to do that because I want to make music people really want to listen to and i'm like too stubborn to do that because i want to make music that i want to make for myself so so is it kind of like this idea that we can't make music for ourselves we gotta if we want to

get popular in it no because ed sheeran writes songs that he wants to write for himself and they just happen to be the songs that everybody in the world wants to hear. It's like he's not just saying, oh, I'm just going to compromise myself and write this hit song. No, he's writing music that he loves. I'm sure of it. Like, I've never asked him. I don't know him really.

But you and I make different kinds of music that, that pleases ourselves and the few people that are pleased by the same thing. Some, some people, there's some of us on earth who are just tapped into a greater consciousness of what the world, the music that people want to hear. And those people of course are going to be massively successful. And then I'm sure there's a few that don't care. They just luck into it and they have success. And I don't know who those people are, but I'm sure that happens too.

So maybe it's the jealousy is that they're tapping into something that we can't see. Yeah, but then that's never tangible, right? Yeah. That's like when people say, oh, I didn't write the song. The song just came to me and it came through my head and out my mouth. And I don't know where it came from. I like it hearing when people say that, but then I don't like saying that because then that means, well, you could never have that again.

Yeah. That makes me sad. That's the shit that makes me sad. Knowing that I can never have something again. That was so precious to me. But yeah, you can. Yeah. You can have it again.

You can have everything you've had again. So with that philosophy, can you, with your music? What? With that philosophy, you could have everything you had back in whenever it was. Absolutely. So do you feel that way with your music? Yeah. Cool. was absolutely so do you feel that way with your music yeah cool yeah because for the last two or three records that i've made including this new one i've set out to to make it to write it in the

mindset of like what if this is just my first record because when I made my first record, that feeling is so like, it stands out. I remember it so well. I felt like I was an outsider looking in. I felt like I was wanting to be into, in a world and the way to get into that world was to write songs. And so I thought, okay, if I'm going to write a love song, what's my love song? If I'm going to write a protest song, what's my protest song? If I'm going to write, you know, an angry song, what's my angry song going to be? How would I do it? And I keep going back to that now, every time I write.

going back to that now every time I write. Really? That's great. What's the way that I and unique... What's a song that I can write just for me? Uniquely me. Yeah, and that's growth

from 19-year-old Brett, right? Yeah, I think so. I hope so. God, I hope so. I I think so. I hope so. I would think so. I mean, looking back at Brett when, you know, Hotel Cafe years.

Having to deal with all these bullshit-ass A&R people coming to your fucking 4 o'clock show and having that deflate the main purpose of why we do music is to do things for ourselves. Yeah, but we don't, yeah, I know, but it's, it's really, we're lucky because most of the time we don't have to play music in those

scenarios. Like we're not making music for those people. We're making me, I don't know who we're making music for, but cause it's hard. I say, I don't know because we're making music for I say I don't know Because we're not playing live shows But when you're playing in Fort Collins or something You know who you're making music for And it's not a room full of music Business suits

It's real people Yeah you're right Well this has been great Thank you Brett I know we didn't talk anything about fucking... Fuck, man. I was supposed to promote my album, but it's not even out for a while. Let's talk about it.

No, it's just, it's not. I think my manager told me to talk about it in case he thought we didn't have anything to talk about, but clearly we have two things to talk about. Yeah, man. I didn't have anything to talk about, but clearly we have to talk about. Yeah, man. I mean, I, it's nice to come up to Ventura, bro. Or I'll put you surf or hike. Dude, I'm in here. Um, when, when we're done recording, I'll give you when we stop recording or shoot me a text or shoot you a text.

I would love that, bro. I'm, I'm here. And, uh, you know, let's just be friends. I think we're both just dudes trying to live naively. Yeah. Well, I do have an album coming out sometime probably

in late May. It's called See the World. What's it about? It's a lot of songs about life, like wondering if you're living the most fulfilling life you can, like comparing the way you view, the way you look at life now to the way you thought life was 20 or so years

before. But it's pretty youthful. It's pretty upbeat um you know it's uh i made it last almost a year ago now i finished recording right before the pandemic um do you wish you waited so you had something to do during it i know i know well it's amazing how the songs they take on new meanings do you ever get that dude i just put out a record in april it's called keep on keeping on and oh my gosh see i have a song on the album called kumbaya life goes on life rolls on that's the type of shit that makes

me think that we're all connected because it's the same it's it's the same stuff we have to be we have to be because otherwise how how do trends form in different places and movements happen all around the world you know different and slaying you know like i'll meet somebody and that's grew up in New York and we'll talk about childhood slang or something. And they have the same childhood slang I had. Yeah. How? Like, it's not just I didn't watch that much TV as a kid.

Like, how did I know these same words? You know, it's just we're all on the same. We move through. We evolve. Humans evolve through things at the same pace. So no matter where we are, I mean, excluding the pygmies and where... But it's true. I mean...

We're on a wavelength. Even listen to those 1500s folk lyrics and folk songs from Ireland and Scotland. And it's all the same shit. It makes me kind of sad that we haven't evolved a little bit. No, but it's, it's, it's, I think we're all, I mean, that's the human nature. I mean, if we stop thinking that we're too individual and we are, you know, one species or one, then maybe we could are you know one species or one then maybe we could you know get back to what it used to be a community like you said america's so thinks that everyone is so fucking solo and shit

yeah if we were if we if we remember that we're all connected even though we're divided we're all connected, even though we're divided, we're still all connected. We're still going through the same stuff at the same rate. Amen to that. Brett, it's been a pleasure, buddy. I'm thankful I get to know you because honestly, like for real. Yeah, man. Thank you. I don't want to like, you know, stroke you off too much, but you know, in 06, 07, 08, man, you were my guy.

Like for real, for real. Thanks, man. I thought you were dope as fuck and I related to you. I related to what you're talking about and the person you are now. In retrospect, now we're older men and same shit I was thinking then. So thanks for that, buddy. Man, that means a lot to me. Thank you.

Thanks for having me on your show. No problem. I'm going to finish recording this. I'm going to press pause on this. I'm going to get your number. I'm going to send you some dick pics and stuff. No problem. Don't tell the wife, though.

Thanks, Brett. Appreciate it, buddy. Now, a message from the UN. The UN. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be frasco. Don't let them drink whiskey or eat lots of drugs Let them be doctors and lawyers and such Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be frasco Cause they'll never be home, they'll be beaten off alone Even with someone they love

Frasco ain't easy to love, and he smokes lots of weed He'd rather give you some shrooms than something you actually need. Birkin socks, sandals, and old Lakers jerseys. Each night begins a new day. If he doesn't text back and he don't die young, he'll probably just crowd surf away. young, he'll probably just crowd surf away. Mamas

don't let your daughters grow up to date frasco. Cause he'll cuss at Thanksgiving, smoke pot with grandma, and stink up your whole goddamn house. Mamas don't let your

daughters grow up to date Frasco. They'll have lots of sex and get HPV and blame it on her ex-boyfriend's mouth. And there you have it. Another great episode, Brett Denon.

We have the GOAT, Scott Morrill, owns Cervantes Venue in Denver, Colorado, and is my DJ for the I Want to Dance with Somebody dance party. How are we doing, Scott? We're doing good, man. DJ Sleepy. DJ Sleepy in Malibu. In Malibu.

How do you like the digs? How do you like my setup? I mean, this is amazing. It's really good to get out of Colorado for a couple days here. It's been a while. It is. It's been on lockdown for a bit. How are you doing?

I mean, how's Cervantes doing? Cervantes was doing okay. I mean, we were forced to be closed March through August, and then we were allowed to do 50 capacity shows where we were doing two a night. But tell how many people your capacity. Yeah. Normally we're a thousand in the ballroom. So 50 that's, you know, 5%. How do you make that work? It doesn't really work, but we were able to make enough money to basically just cover our expenses for the month which is still great and it's also just a big morale boost for the staff and for musicians and for me and for the fans to see some live music during these times that are you know

everyone's jones yeah i mean we i go to all your shows or a lot of them and I sit with you and, you know, it's like seeing that joy back in your face. You know, that's why you were, that's why you started a venue, right? Yeah. Yep. And that's, that's what you really realize is how much people need it. You know, the fans need it. The musicians need it. It's all such a big part of our lives that without it, I think we feel like there's a big void and it's much easier to be depressed than when you don't have that energy of live music.

I know. So what's this year going to look like, 2021? Well, I've just tried to remain optimistic through this whole thing. And I'm optimistic that the vaccine will be available to everybody. Some are saying as early as March. I think April is probably realistic. And then it'll probably take a couple months for people to take it. And then I'm really hoping we can be back to full capacity outdoors in the middle of summer next time, next year. And then indoors in the fall. Yeah, you know, people don't know that you also are a talent booker for AEG.

Right. That's a big company. Right. Yeah, the second biggest promoter in the country. And we've been working on a lot of the word for the year is pivot. So pivot. So we have, it's, it's about creating different options for artists. So you might have a show that we do up in Wyoming that maybe the restrictions will be lifted there before they will in Colorado.

So maybe that'll be an option for a show in May, whereas Colorado won't be able to be open until August. And the same with around the whole nation. There's going to be a bunch of states that open up before others. And it seems pretty political, which is a little crazy, but it's like the red states, the Republican states, are the ones that are going to be opening up first. And then the blue states are going to be waiting. Is that going to be hard? Do you think a lot of venues are going to be opening up first. And then the blue states are going to be waiting.

Is that going to be hard? Do you think a lot of venues are going to go down? A lot already have. I mean, there is some rumors going around that there is going to be some federal funding for independent music venues. So we're about to find that out. But a lot of the smaller ones couldn't make it through this.

I mean, that's too long and then it's been a year almost yeah yeah it's good coming up on a year and yeah doing the reduced capacity shows just doesn't make sense for anybody really like i said you can limp along and and kind of get by but it's it's not sustainable yeah i mean and for you to even do these it's not about the money it's about building music into the community. Yeah. Yeah. And giving all these musicians, I mean, that's the one good thing about these socially distant

shows is like just kind of some of the musicians that really count on that live income as part of their, as how they get by. I mean, being able to help support a bunch of local musicians by doing these shows has been really rewarding and makes me feel good especially in Denver everyone moved here like it's like the fucking it's like the musician plague right now dude like we all moved out here and you know I moved here in March so I haven't even get to experience like the Denver music scene I mean you guys built I mean before Cervantes I mean you had Coyotes too yeah well I started Cervantes with I mean, you had Coyotes too. Yeah.

Well, I started Cervantes with Jay Bianchi who started Coyotes. And then Coyotes ended up moving next to Cervantes. And you guys dispersed like Tupac. And then you got your own joint, Cervantes. And it's been such a staple to my music. I mean, you guys helped me build my career. Yeah. And I mean, I think the obvious reason

that all these musicians are moving to Denver is because the fans support live music. Right now, I mean, you could have three or four or five different shows in a night that all are successful because everybody is going out and supporting music, whether it be local bands or national bands. Colorado has just really been welcoming to, to new bands.

And it's not like people just go see the same bands over and over again. They want to see like new bands that they haven't heard yet, which is unusual. You don't really see that in a lot of communities. Not that much. There's a couple of, you know, there's obviously some other markets in that country that have that as well. You know,in portland and yeah and some places like that but it's yeah it's few and far between so i feel very lucky that the

city i grew up in just happens to be one of the best i know it's pretty amazing and you grew up here yeah it's and it wasn't like that in the 90s it just kind of it really started taking off in the in the early 2000s, I'd say. That's fucking amazing. And now look at you now. You're a venue owner. You're a booker at one of the biggest booking agencies. And you're a fucking DJ.

DJ Sleepy in the building. I just want to say, I mean, we've been doing the I Want to Dance with Somebody dance party for like, what, we've done 20 of them? When did we start? We started in April. We started in April. That's a great story. And it's December now. Yeah. It's eight. It's been eight months. Scotty texted me. He saw my first one and I was just doing the DJing for my fucking Spotify playlist. And he shot me a text right after the streams, like you need a DJ. And I'm like, okay. He's like, I'm your DJ. And yeah. And luckily for me, you texted me

back in about five minutes and hired me like sight unseen. I was like, this guy's got some, yeah. I trust everybody. You didn't really trust me at first though. You were, you were kind of like controlling the music a little bit. And then after a while you let go and you're like, wow, this, you actually know what you're doing. You know what it is too. too it's it's like uh i think like i have a formula of what is good and i had to get out of my head and realize there's different there's different versions of good yeah well there's so many different so much different tastes out there and opinions and just because you think something's good doesn't mean that there's not so many other things out there that you haven't even heard yet. Yeah, it's so true.

You've opened my eyes to so much music. I know we play a lot of 80s and 90s music, but there's some stuff you bring in the 70s and new stuff. Like Teske Brothers, you got me into them. I'm just thankful there's people like you. Because when you think of promoters, you're a promoter. When you think of promoters, you're a promoter you think of promoters think like slimy fucking you know la greaseball and you don't look at the other side of why people become promoters because they love fucking music yeah that's definitely

true i i love music so much but i also love turning other people on to music yeah it's really what i get off on it's like when like when somebody maybe comes and sees a band for the first time that I already knew about and they're just blown away and it might brighten their day or even change their lives in some way, like that to me is the ultimate. I mean, yeah, you make experiences.

And that's my favorite part about what I do is just being able to let people forget about their everyday worries because people are stressed out. And music is just such a great release and it kind of makes you realize that we're all human and we need to enjoy what this life is. You heard it from the source.

A guy who runs an independent music venue. They're limping. Support your boys. Support the people that have supported you when you first got that first hand job or your first real trip on acid and you had that experience with that band and remember that. And the reason why you had those experiences are people like Scott.

So thank you for everything. Thank you for being my friend. You're one of my first friends coming into Denver. Yeah, man. It's, it's amazing what we've how, how that made the quarantine just so much better.

Just having a small little crew that got together. We did the dance party. Yeah. And it really just kind of made the time go and made you kind of forget, at least for the moment, how crazy it was in the world. I know. So yeah.

Thankful. Thankful to have you as a friend. Thankful for everything you've brought to my life. Thanks for letting me sleep at your house when I rent out my Airbnb I appreciate it all ladies and gentlemen Scott Morrill this is the season finale Scott season 3

I've done 109 episodes of the podcast that is amazing isn't that insane I'm the last one we're getting cancelled I wanted the world to know what the last one yeah we're done we're getting canceled it's amazing the grand finale I wanted the world to know what I've been living with for a year

at the call the stamp that is 2020 yeah I feel like I'm a better person when I hang out with you thank you man

that makes me feel really good you're so fucking loving and you I mean I could see in your eyes why you care you're not

you know it is a business, but at the end of the day, the business is friendship. Yeah, it is. And the experience that you can create together with other people. And you made me feel the same way, man. You made me feel so good.

Yeah, look at me now. You're sitting on my talk show couch. You watch me all grow up. It's been amazing, man. I can't wait till we come out of this thing and you know people that appreciated music before are gonna appreciate it that much more when they haven't had it in so long okay well i look forward to those days all right guys that's it thanks for uh being on this ride 2020 thanks for um being part of this experience with me and getting through my fucking manic ups and downs that I

fucking verbally vomit all over this podcast and I'll leave you this before we're taking a couple weeks off like we always do at the end of the year don't forget to focus on yourself don't forget to focus on your insecurities and figure out ways to take out those little knots

so we could be an open vessel. Because at the end of the day, all we have is ourselves, our mind, our heart, our love. So go get it. Go fucking fuck shit up for 2020. We're going to fuck shit up. Right, Scott? Right, Scott?

Let's do it. Let's fuck shit up. All right, guys. Have a great day. Have a great holiday. Tell your parents. I love them. Give your mom a kiss on the mouth for me.

And, uh, I'll talk to you soon. You tuned into the third season of blissful blah. Andy Fresco's war. So 91 produced by any fresco, Joe angel. I want 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 worldfamouspodcast 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 shit show, 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 JubaGigs 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 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 unite, for it will be a long road ahead. See you next week.