Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 186: Sammy Rae

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

Andy and the boys find themselves in the middle of muggy Massachusetts enjoying some time off after recording a slew of new tunes. Just how many mushrooms did Chris & Shawn eat? Is Jaws the Shark actually named Bruce? And on the Interview Hour we have one of the best there may ever be, singer/songwriter extraordinaire Sammy Rae! Andy takes a deep dive into the mind of a brilliant artist. Wear sunscreen and stay outta those shark infested waters folks. 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 song, "Puff Break (Believe That)" on iTunes, Spotify  be a friend www.sammyrae.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Packy The U.N. Arno Bakker

Hey Andy, it's Paki from the chicken box on Nantucket. Holy shit what a big show last night, that was great. We put down some booze didn't we? Anyway, can you have your tour manager come pick up Floyd? He's still passed out in the bathroom and we need to clean it up before we open again. You might want to throw him a shower, too. He smells a little sour. Now, a message from the U.N. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here wasted with you. Let's have us some drinks and make glasses clink. I will be right here wasted with you. I wonder if we should call your guy and get high.

Cocaine. But in the end, we should get some food and go to bed instead. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here wasted with you. Let's have us some drinks and make glasses clean. I will be right here wasted with you. Let's start the show. Yeah. Oh my God, for being a bunch of musicians That was horrible, everyone clap together

One, two, three See that's fucking simpatico That's what it is Andy Frasco's World's Favorite Podcast I'm Andy Frasco, how's our heads? How's our minds? Are we staying out of trouble? Are we not letting of trouble? Are we

not letting the hangovers get us down? God damn it. We've been on one, boys. I got my band here. What's up? We got the band in town. What's up? Hello. We're in a town. We're in the Cape Cod.

We're at Ernie's uncle's house. He let us stay at his guest... Is this like his second house? His second house, yeah. Uncle G! Uncle G making money. Let's fucking go. Okay, Uncle G, we see you. Massachusetts is fucking weird, dude.

What do you guys think of Massachusetts? Chris, you know a lot about Massachusetts. It's a lot of bugs here, man. I've been itching my leg all morning. They like me out here, at least. Have you been sleeping, Chris? No. What's going on?

This is the longest bender I've been on in my life. And it's been good. And I swore to God yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life, post-bender, and then we went out and had an amazing meal. Thanks, Packy. What's up, dude? Shout out to Packy for getting us oysters and fish and shit.

And I got wine drunk. Wine? So we traded in the whiskey for tequila, then for wine. You've always been a creature at night? I've never seen you stay up this late every night. I saw maybe four, the last five or six sunrises.

It was six. It was six, okay. I lost count again. We can't count. We're musicians. Island life. That's what this is about. When you got friends like Jersey John and Lucy on your side, who needs it? You will see the sunset. You will see the sunset.

Here's feeling good all the time. It's been a week. We've been making a record together. It's the first record we've made together in a couple years, like together, together. It's the first record we've made together in a couple years, like together, together. And I think the first one, that's all in-house. I mean, Floyd producing, Jason engineering,

and then all of us just being ding-dongs. That's a first for me. I've never done that before. Floyd nailed it on the head. We're shithead Wilco up in here. We got Jason, our engineer, being the engineer for the record. And we got Floyd producing half the record. I thought, honestly, I wish Floyd was here so we could give him shit,

but I don't think I could give him shit. He did a really good job. He actually did pretty good. He did pretty good. For once, you can't give him shit. I can't give him shit. I want to, but you know. Oh, man.

It was a nice experience to just trust that we've been a band for fucking 14 years and we could do this shit without any other people telling us what to do. Or is that just being narcissistic? I don't know. What do you think? No, man, be petty. We could do anything. I like the in-house style, the do-it-yourself.

You know, it's less pressure. Like, you think about, like, getting, like, a producer that costs $100,000, and there's so much more pressure. That's how much producers cost us? Yeah, bro. Let's never get one again. Yeah. Well, we don't pay that.

I'm too Jewish for that shit. But we, yeah, there's, like, in nashville they'll charge like 20 000 a song it's crazy they don't have a floyd kellogg they don't have a fucking floyd shithead wilco but it was nice because it was the first time we didn't really um have any expectations did we or did we i mean we had a little bit of of expectation because you had a few songs already done that were kind of shaped. And we took them through our ding-dong machine and made them something else.

But then we did have two tracks that we did have no idea what we were going to do. So it took a while. But I mean, that's a part of the process. We also had the studio for 24 hours a day. So we were doing drunk sessions as well. We did 16 hours one day. What was that like, Sean?

I recorded some guitar pretty high on mushrooms and pretty drunk. I don't know. There was one time where I was fighting myself there for a little bit. I was just a guitar part. I couldn't remember the arrangement because it was so high. It was great. Not having an end of the night when some guy's got to

drive across LA to go meet his kids or anything. It was killer, man. When you don't say in Denver where we only get eight hours, it's just more relaxed to experiment. We've never really done that. It was more always, we got to get here

and then we got to leave. This is the first time we stayed in one town for a week. And we didn't get in trouble. No, we just stayed. here and then we got to leave. This is the first time we stayed in one town for a week. Yeah. And we didn't get in trouble. No, we just stayed. We were at the studio all day. Let's fucking go. I'm so proud of us.

Normally when we stay in town for a week, we do dumb ass shit. We didn't do much dumb shit. To be clear, we still did some dumb ass shit, but we got work done. That's true. That's true. And then, yeah, it was kind of tough to track And then go gig at the chicken box three nights in a row That took an expert level of degenerate

To be able to get through that Then we would eat a lobster roll 45 minutes before we went on stage That wasn't fun either Now we gotta eat, come on, hurry up No, but for real The way we recorded just reminded me of what it was like when we first started off. Just everybody together.

I mean, I was in LA in a garage studio, and we would just all just go in, record, just do our own thing, just inputting and just being... It just reminded me a little bit of the old days of how we did it. Remember when Uncle John produced our record? That was fun. That was at the house. That was at his house

and we got to go there all day and, you know, we all kind of were staying close so it was pretty much kind of like that. I'm proud of these songs, guys.

You guys fucking killed it. Sean's song, Killer. I mean, we all, we put up, we put the, we put the, you know,

the time in to not think about anything else and I think we did a good job even though it fucking killed us doing those two a days

you know like you said the shows man now I understand why people like just stay in the studio for a month

and don't work don't do anything because they get yeah having to go do the show was I mean again it was

the chicken box so we didn't really have to think about what we were going to play. We didn't have to make a set list and worry about playing the same thing twice. We just played. Yeah. Showdown. Yeah.

At 10, 15. Yeah, it was a lot like the old days, actually. No, it's nuts, man. Speaking of the old days, Repsy.com. Where we used to book ourselves and whatnot. Who knows the pitch? You had Repsy back then? Oh, my God.

When you were born. Just a little help like they can give you? I'm in heaven. Repsy. Yo, Jason's here. Jason, get over here. Our engineer of the album. Jason, get over here.

Jason. Jason. He hears us. He ain't coming in. Get in here. Jason Burd. He hears us. He ain't coming in. Get in here. Jason Burdette. QQ the Seinfeld bass line music. Our sound engineer for our live show.

First time getting him to be Floyd's backup guitar player, in a sense. Jason, how was recording this band? What did you learn about us? this band what'd you learn about us no it was um it was fun to just watch you guys work and see how quickly you guys could take an idea commit to it and then put it together just watching that whole process i think was the coolest part of it like not overthinking it yeah well i mean there was definitely some overthinking but it was like once you guys nailed that out, it was like, okay, we're sticking with it. This is our idea. That was really cool.

It's awesome. We help each other. Right. Yes. Because we spend so much time together. You figure out how to say something, say how you feel about something towards the other person without having them get upset and vice versa. Or know when to shut the fuck up if someone's on one or i'll just say shut the fuck up you're wrong shut up but it's been nice having it was nice to um have you because you know our sound so well you've been mixing us every day and it just felt nice. Just really felt like a family environment with you engineering in it.

Shout out to Jason. Alright, you can go back to have a coffee. Go ahead. Go do your thing. Get out of here. Get out of here. Who knows the Repsy pitch? This is pop quiz. Let's see if Chris knows the Repsy pitch. He's the one who edits the podcast.

Let's do it. Let's see if he actually listens to the fucking podcast. Repsy.com for all those bands out there. They don't take a cut. Unless you got... I don't know the Repsy pitch. You edit every podcast. I don't listen to the podcast.

So if you're a band, a comedian, a live painter, a live juggler, if you perform in front of people and you book yourself, you need help. Or even if you have a booking agent, you need help to get down the road. Repsy.com. They'll help you out.

They'll get you more tour dates. They'll help you get in front of the people that want to watch you juggle. Old, reliable Sean Eccles knows everything. You can all take a lesson from Sean. You know what? Actually, while we're doing pitches, hey, Jason, get back in here. Get back in there.

Jason Burdett, one more time. Jason, while we're doing sponsorships, this is a new man into the edible weed game, is our boy Jason. So this would be a good promotional thing. You've had our dialed-in gummies, correct? Yeah, I love them. Tell me about them.

What do you like about them? They really help me sleep. Yeah. So if, like, we know it's a late night and you just have to go to sleep, I'll take one of those, take, like, a half hour, and then it's just, I'm out. Also. But the syrup is good, too. Doing the syrup in, like, margaritas. What's the syrup is good, too. Doing the syrup in margaritas.

What's the syrup? Exactly that. You do a cap full of it, and it's the equivalent of one of their gummies. You just put that in a cocktail, and it puts you in a good spot. You can add that to any drink? Any drink. Chris, also like my wife, you can just drink the whole bottle of syrup. Oh, my fucking God.

Toby drinks a whole bottle of that shit? Like a bad bitch. Hold on. You also eat like a thousand milligrams. No, I don't. I go a little in. This woman's got tolerance. How much does she eat? How many edibles?

She'll eat 200 milligrams of edibles. And she'll wake up at 6 a.m. like, boom, let's go for the day. That's crazy, man. And you're like, what the fuck? And she'll wake up at 6 a.m. like, boom, let's go for the day. That's crazy, man. And you're like, what the fuck? I mean, what I do to myself. Okay. Clap it up.

We're all honest. This is an honest podcast. Yeah, but you don't wake up, boom, let's go for the day. I sure don't. But you were never a weed smoker. It was always kind of a... He still isn't. Here and there.

Yeah. Dude, definitely not. He hit that joint and then ate the... What was that like? He ate everything in the fridge. Oh, yeah. I was going to Munchie Town, dude. It was great.

Just like eating everything in sight. And then it stuck with me that next day. You're high all next day. The whole next day. That's usually what happens to me on Dialed Incomings. That was bizarre. Never had that next day. You're high all next day. The whole next day. That's usually what happens to me on Dialed In Cummies. That was bizarre. Never had that happen before. So eat Dialed In Cummies

and if you are not really a weed smoker like Jason was, he still enjoyed them. So shout out. All right, go back and get in coffee. Get out of here. Get out.

Get out. You're done. You're done. Thank you, Jason for that. Thank you. Oh, God. Now we have six shows in a row, guys. You ready?

Yeah. No, I am stoked. Let's go. The span is ready for that bullshit. Our livers are in shape. We were born for that. Yeah, it's kind of like, you look at it and you're like, you know, can you mother fuck?

The difference is that we don't have to go to the studio and then go to the show. So it's just regular shows. We're not double divvying. Probably only one set, not two sets. Or maybe, I don't know. Who knows? One set.

But we got our two days off of rest here in Cape Cod. Isn't it funny that we don't get, a lot of bands will get tired from playing every night. That's just like in our autopilot. Yeah, I've heard that from everybody. They're like, you guys do this every night and you do it the same energy every night. How do you do that?

Because they're like, we do three shows and we're like, I don't know. They're pussies. Yeah. Let's go. No one's safe on this podcast today. Bo, get up here.

Bo, get up here. Give it up for Bo, our tour manager. Also the editor he broke he broke he's breaking the pot dude we're just we're bringing everyone in here

Bo Balinski Bo Balinski are also our drum tech in the studio what's up how'd it go I think it went pretty well

yeah yeah I had a good time yeah just hanging I don't know my job was pretty easy the whole time we were there I just the whole time we were there. I just, the whole

time we were in the studio, you were either cooking or shirtless getting a tan. Yeah. I was getting work done too while I was tanning, but why not? We're in Nantucket. Just trying to fit in with the Chads. So we, this is going

to be your one year anniversary. You and Jason. Yeah. Actually, get in here, Jason. Fuck it. Just come on, everyone. It's a big old happy family. The whole gang's in here. One year.

Okay, report card season, boys. All right, this is the one year for these boys. This is our report. Their report card's on us, right? Yeah, what can we do to help you with your life? They don't even want to answer that. Turn down. Well, that's not going to happen.

No, it's not. That's not happening. Oh, man. Yeah, I don't even know. We've been through so much. I feel like at this point, we've got a smooth sailing kind of machine. You remember the first day we saw him at Red Rocks?

We were like, oh, he's not going to make it. He's not going to make it. Brian hired him. Brian hired him? Yeah, he ain't going to make it. Brian hired both of us. And know what? I got to give it up for Brian.

He picked two good fucking... You guys do kind of look dead inside a little bit. So do we. I think I already was before this. They got those blank eyes, those lifeless eyes. You guys do kind of look dead inside a little bit. So do we. I think I heard you once before. They got those blank eyes, those lifeless eyes, doll's eyes. We watched Jaws last night as a family. We did watch Jaws as a family.

That poor shark dies at the end. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't bear to see it. Fucking human skin. God. I didn't think protagonists were supposed to die in movies. Yeah. Who's the good guyists were supposed to die in movies. Yeah. Who's the good guy?

Who, Jaws? Yeah. He's trying to kill as many humans as possible. His name is Bruce. Thank you. We've determined this. What? The argument stands still.

The Jaws isn't named Bruce? I didn't hear Bruce once in the movie. I didn't hear Jaws either. I heard shark. Oh, shit. All right, guys. Go back to work. I just want to say I love you.

Are we going to the beach today? I think we are. Let's do it. Bonding. I'm already suited up. Do we have booze and stuff, or are we going to try to be sober there? I'm going to drink water. I'm on water at this point.

Johnny's got that look in his eye. Sean's got that itch. I got the itch. I think we might be able to get a little buzz on. You know, you get beach beers. Yeah. Beach beers. Beach beers. If they're Coors Lights, that's cool.

I got that liquid mushrooms if you want to try that. No. It's kind of fun. Day off, not day on. It's so funny that when we're working, we eat mushrooms. And when we're taking a day off, we drink water. It should be the other way around. We're not having a gig tonight.

Speaking of gigs, ooh, Sean, we have another sponsor. I want to see if this interests you. It probably won't. Fandium. Fandium.com. It's an auction, right, Bo? Why don't you tell the pitch, Bo? All right. So the way Fandium, fandium.com. It's an auction, right, Bo? Why don't you tell the pitch, Bo?

All right, so the way Fandium works, basically, is it's a donation platform. They run different contests working with artists, and the artists basically pick a charity of their choice. You can donate to it, and then that enters you to win, or enters you a chance to win this contest. And each contest is different. The amount of money you donate gets you X amount of entries, right?

Right. Raffle tickets. Yeah, yeah. It's like raffle tickets. Chances to win. And what are they going to win this week? For this week, it is the Jerry Garcia, was it like Boss Hog Guitar or something? I don't remember the name of it.

It's called the Dog Guitar. Dog Guitar. Yes. Because the wolf is the real one, right? There's a couple. Is there a dog guitar? I don't know. It's the first time I've heard, but I know about the wolf.

Maybe it's just like a remake. Yeah, it's a remake. I know we have Tiger. It's a plastic-free tribute to Jerry's wolf guitar, complementing plastic-free case featuring original Jerry Garcia artwork, a DGN-427 custom tube amplifier. I don't know what that is. Complementing the guitar and featuring tie-dye speaker cloth,

heady as fuck. And guess what? If it wasn't heady enough, guess who used it? Mahali. Yes! Let's go. Mahali, touch this.'s go. Headyness. Mahali touched this.

Headyness. All you Twiddle fans are fucking coming ropes right now knowing that. That Mahali is shredded on this guitar. But there's also six runner-up prizes as well. Oh, yes. Six runner-up prizes. Jerry Garcia Art Gisley provided by Terrapin Stationers titled Ripple. Artist, Jerry Garcia.

Jerry Garcia Music Arts, first edition, August 2018. Unframed museum quality Gisley? Sounds like jizz. Gisley. Gisley. I don't know, whatever it is. This is a horrible ad.

We're not fluid in a heady fluid. Fluid. We're not fluid in heady. We're not fluent in heady. It worked out pretty good. Anyway, last day to donate is October 8th. Uh,

drawing date is October 11th. So go to Fandium.com and then check out Dufrasco 100 and you'll get some extra raffles. We sent our pictures. God, what a week. Okay, let me pitch the shows. We're playing. We got sponsors now, boys.

Remember when we used to just do this in the green rooms? Right. Right. Now we're doing it in someone's uncle's living room. Times have changed. We're in a beach house, at least. Hey.

Okay. We went from beach house to beach house. This week, we are playing on Wednesday, Memphis, Tennessee, Lafayette. I can't wait to be back. Men's Gus's fried chicken. The original. Why isn't any other Gus's as good as the original? The OG is the one dude

It is Then we're going back To The city of The Midtown Bar Remember we used to Play there Or hang out there

All week Midtown Billiards In Little Rock Is a sacred Sacred place I've done a ton A ton of cocaine In that

In that fucking bathroom You can play billiards too They have really They have really good burgers there for real. But no one eats them because everyone's high on cocaine. Burgers are good.

And then Saturday, Sacred Rose, big fest. And then we're getting heady. Chicago. Chicago. And then we're getting heady and playing with the disco biscuits

on the 28th, baby. That's right. Ketamine and DMT. Let's go. Yeah. We're bringing the gravy from. Ketamine and DMT. Let's go. Yeah. Let's go. We're bringing the gravy. From mushrooms to ketamine and nitrous.

Hell yeah, Cincinnati. Bring your tanks. I think it's buy one, get one in Cincinnati for the disco biscuits show. Usually. Okay. We're going to have a great one. Who's going to give us motivation this week? Who is it?

I think she gave it up to maybe... Keng. By the way, Sammy Ray is on the show. Our girl. You remember Sammy Ray? She's fucking badass. Sammy's awesome. Two mice. Keng? Press conference?

God, I feel like Shaq or Michael Jordan right now. Alright. Let's see if I can do this. All right. Hey, if you ever feel down, if you ever feel like there's no end in sight, or you feel just overall just not feeling good at all,

it's all right. Everything will be better. You start feeling good again. Just ride the wave. Everything will be all right. Just keep on going on. And that's from Chang. Let's go, Chang.

That's Chang's advice. Keep going. Ride the wave. Don't stop. Don't stop playing. You know how many times this band has wanted to quit? When we had fucking, remember that last tour? How many times?

Yesterday. You had fucking, remember that last tour? How many times? Yesterday. I remember when we all, what was like the worst when we wanted to quit? Was it? When we didn't have a bass player and we had a tuba player playing the bass part. For like a week.

It was bad. Yeah. For me, it was sick tight to her. when the van started going. I was like, what the fuck did I just get myself into? When the van started breaking down. Any van problems equals bad tour. It's like quit, but you don't quit. You push the van.

What about when Yelmer got deported? Finally had a bass player. Yeah, we finally had a bass player. Everything's working out. He can actually play. He's really good. And then he gets fucking deported. Yeah, because... Kicking the ball.

I felt so bad for him, because didn't he take like 20 hits of acid or like 10 hits of... He described it as, well, Sean, I felt like I was pulling out a string of 100 yards of Christmas lights out of my mouth.

Well, because somebody handed him like a sheet, and he's like, wow, this looks really cool. He didn't believe me. I said if you handle acid, it'll get into your skin. He's like, I don't believe it. Sean, you were right, man. And then he got back. But if he didn't get deported, y'all would have never

wound up with Floyd. That's right. That's true. And we brought Chris back. And I kept coming back. Everything works out. Crazy. By the way, I don't tell this enough because And we brought Chris back. And I came coming back. Everything works out. Everything works out. Crazy. Crazy. We love, by the way,

I don't tell this enough because you're always on the other side. We love having you in the big. Oh, man, I love you. You're my brothers. You guys are my brothers. Look at his hair. Look at his fucking hair.

Look how hot Chris is. Jesus Christ. I can't get over how hot you are. I love that shit you're posting on Instagram, like hot with two T's. Oh, my God.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. I truly can't get over how hot you are. I'm so happy for you. Man, you're just so hot, Andy. I'm so happy for you. Why don't you ever kiss me, though, bro? Oh, don't tempt me. All the other baseballers.

You want that? Every single one of them. Okay. Well, yeah, that's why, though. I'm too eager. Sign up for my OnlyFans. He likes signing up for my OnlyFans. It's Daddy Shlonglegs.

Daddy Shlonglegs. And help a brother out here. Thank you. All right, guys. Thanks for being OnlyFans. He likes signing up for my OnlyFans. It's Daddy Shlonglegs. Daddy Shlonglegs. And help my brother out here. Thank you. All right, guys. Thanks for being on the show. Always and forever. Let's go get a day drunk. I mean, let's all drink water and go make a...

Not salt water. All right, guys. Have a great one. Enjoy. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we have Sammy Rae, one of my new favorite songwriters. Oh, she's awesome. Hailing out of Brooklyn, New York, I met her.

We played a festival together, 4848 Fest. And her stage presence, I just fell in love with it. And her songwriting is so good and her story this interview is wonderful i think you're gonna really dig this one um hey chris play some play some sammy ray yeah she's blowing up she's selling out, and I just can't be more proud of what she's doing with her career. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, Sammy Rae. Smoky walls, dusty halls, no one calls, and all the window plants are dying.

She'll talk it up, half-empty cup, half-hearted love, half of the time that went through crying. Wow. What an honor to be with one of the greatest that will ever do it. Sammy Ray, how are we doing? That's so nice. I'm good, Andy Frasco. I'm good, man. I could say the same of you. Here we are. It's nice to talk to you. How was vacation, first off? It's really nice to talk to you. How was vacation, first off? Oh, it was just so nice.

Actually, I got my grandparents to do this little thing in Sandwich, Massachusetts, which is the younger sister of Cape Cod. And I've had to miss it the last couple of years because we were traveling. But so bizarrely, the band had this huge break where we didn't have to travel and the last festival we played was um leptate like 20 minutes away from where they were at so instead of like flying and ripping my hair out trying to make a family vacation i just like gently drove to where they were and i hung out on the cape for a couple days isn't it amazing when life does give you those treats yeah it is nice. It's pretty delicious.

Are your parents proud of you? Wow. Let's get right into it. Yes. My God, I'm dying. Yeah, absolutely. They are. Totally.

Love them. And it took them each their own journey to kind of find peace and understanding with um you know thanks for i'm really the first kid with the opportunity to go to college but i'm gonna actually be a drop out and join and make a band um and it took them each their own little journey to kind of like figure that out and find peace with it. But I'm happy to say that we have a great relationship. They're the best. They're super proud of me. They try to come to as many shows as they can. And yeah, they're great.

My dad, as I've kind of picked up on the band thing, my dad re-picked up guitar, which was a huge thing for him when he was younger. Yeah. And he's actually killing. And he's a lefty. So he gets to charge twice as much when he was younger. Yeah, and he's actually killing, and he's a lefty, so he gets to charge twice as much. Let's go. Yeah, so it's been nice as we're having this little growth to also watch him be like, look at what I learned.

So I can access him at this point on a musician-to-musician level, which is the compliments mean a little bit more. Totally. So let's go over those. I want to go over those years when you, so you were the first one to go to college out of your family. Did, did you grow up wealthy? Did, uh, was it hard life or tell me a little bit about that? Um, no, it wasn't a hard life. I would just kind of like, I grew up in the smallest, uh, city in the state of Connecticut, which is pretty small as it is. It's like three square miles,

three and a half square miles. And it's the kind of place where people would come, a lot of Italian American immigrants would come and like have their kids, raise their kids. Their kids would meet somebody at the public high school and fall in love and have their kids. And everybody kind of sticks around and does the small town thing. And then my parents had me and my brother. And I was like, I'm going to move to Brooklyn. So it was more of, it was, my dad went to a public college. I think he went for close to free. I would call us like my first couple of years, I don't want to say lower middle class,

but like blue collar, small town, woodsy East Coast. Spent a lot of time outdoors, which was a lot of fun. And I miss that a lot here in Brooklyn. But yeah, I for a second there was like, I knew I wanted to go into music, which is hard to kind of wrap your head around because nobody was really like there weren't any. Nobody's an artist anywhere in my lineage. So that was kind of wrap your head around. Cause nobody was really like, there weren't any, nobody's an artist anywhere in my lineage. So that was kind of new and interesting. And so, uh, for some reason I thought that a safe route to take would to be go to study, to be a sound engineer and audio engineer, a sound guy, if you will,

because it has engineer in the title. So I went legit legitimately. That was my thinking. It was like, what you're going to go, you have to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life when you're like 17 and a half. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that just a crazy concept? Like we have to figure out what we want to do forever when we're still learning who we are.

Yes, very well said. I read this thing once that gave me so much pause. It was like, in the United States, where you have to raise your hand to ask to use the restroom. And then two weeks later, you have to make a decision about where you want to spend all of your money and what you want to do with the rest of your life, which is just bananas. Yeah, it's wild. So needless to say, I went to the University of New Haven in Connecticut for one year. I was studying sound technology and audio engineering.

And then, dude dude were you singing were you singing or like were you like it was like not trying to make your parents happy or it was a lot of that yeah it was a lot of yeah but also it's the music industry is so like um how do I say? It's hard to know where to begin. Right. Especially when you're like, I'm going to do this and I have no idea what to do.

So I was in that program, having fun, learning about that sort of stuff. I've always been shit at math. So that got lame pretty fast. I was like, oh, this is very computery and numbersy.

And I don't know if this is it. And, and it kind of like on that campus got around that I was a good singer and I liked to sing and I had this cool voice. So the latter half of that year ended up being like upperclassmen, being like, I'm finishing, I have to make an album or whatever for class. Can you be the vocalist? And suddenly I was like in the booth a lot more than I was on the other side of the booth I was like wait this is this is it this is the one and I'm grateful for that time because now I think I know my way around a studio and I feel comfortable in a recording studio environment and in a live sound environment because that time

which is great but I kind of realized that I needed to be a musician, you know? And then somehow I decided that's not something you need to go to school for. I can do that like on my off time. Let me go study to get a real job. And I transferred to Manhattan College in the Bronx, pursuing my education degree, childhood education. That's what I want to do too. Yeah, love it, love it. And kids media, that's a whole different ball of wax. That has a whole place in my heart in my New York City story as well. But I did that for one part-time semester

and now I'm in the Bronx, right? I left small town Connecticut, now I'm in the Bronx. And I started to like catch the vibe and go see bands and opportunities to actually sing and perform started affording themselves to me. And then I was like, this is a college. Academia is not for me. It's not even just what programs for me. It's like, I can't, I don't, I, I think I have an authority problem as well. Um, which we don't need to get too deep into, but academia was just not the environment

for me to not not only to be a musician but to be who i wanted to be so then i'm like mom taking a break which was the whole thing um what was that conversation like and um i I, when I left the sound engineering program, I was telling you about the upperclassmen were recording me. This one upperclassman who I forward this great relationship with when he left and graduated, he got this job at the studio called Flux on the Lower East Side. And he gave me a call now that I was in the Bronx and he was like, why don't you come and sing some stuff? Let's get some demos together. Let's make an album. Like, let's see what if that's start to bring some of your songs to life. And I was enjoying that so much. And that was taking up so much of my time. Like that's a two hour train commute. Right. Right. And of course, um, like I couldn't afford

me in this brand new engineer, like we couldn't afford great slots so i was like recording there was this time period where i was down there trying to record this album like wednesday in the like 1am to 6am slot but then i had to take the train up to go babysit to pay my rent for off-campus apartment and also try to make it to class so there came this point where i was like i'm dying like i'm actually where I was like, I'm dying. Like I'm actually, my body is giving up. I'm dying. I can't do this anymore, but I'm not going to stop doing,

making this record, pursuing this art and like being in this environment. This is where I feel full. So it's time for me to like, not have to be in the Bronx anymore. Right. And I did my best to explain that to the parents. And they were as good as they could be. They were

like, well, it's clear. This is what you're going to do. Uh, it's what you want to do. You're making your money. You're spending your money. You're deciding where you pay your rent. Um, go for it, but please try to go back and get some stability. And there was a lot of this language of you got to get a stable job. You got to get a stable job, which I understand is a huge part of the narrative of their generation, a hundred percent. And I appreciate and I value that, but I think this is my stable job now, you know,

it just took a while. Like you can't, it sometimes you blow up overnight, but usually not. So in the last couple of years, as they see me traveling around, we're making records. We have the, we're doing very well for ourselves for a band that kind of started the way we started we're very

proud of ourselves and doing great and so everyone around us is is proud of us as well as well but it took a while especially with parents to be like if you just let me wait tables and like eat garbage food for two and a half years like i, I really have a vision for this thing. This is going to be the stable job. And then eventually they just like caught on. And we stopped having the conversation about when are you going back to school, which is nice.

First off. Bless them. I love them. Let's fucking go. Sammy, honestly. Where did you, honestly, were you always this like self-confident with yourself that if you had a plan, you were going to put it into fruition, even when you were a kid? Yes.

I was always a see things through kind of person. And I don't know. I kind of grew up with the buy once, cry once, do it right the first time, and you don't have to I kind of grew up with the like, buy once, cry once, like do it right the first time and you don't have to do it the second time kind of mentality. Yeah. Uh, and once I was like 18 doing the sound engineering thing, that's when it started to take shape as like, I love writing songs. I want to be in a band.

I want to be in a band. One day I'll be in a band. Right. Um, but then once I was like 20 and down in the studio all the time and making this thing and realizing I, I can really write songs. I can really sing. People like making music with me. So I must be a good band member. I must be personable. I'm going to start my own band that really consumed everything once I was like 20. Um, and I was just, I guess, so along for the ride of, this is a whole conversation

about the sense of community that we really try to foster in our band. But I was just so committed to like, let's try to build a community. Once they show up, however small they are, listen to them, pay attention with them, be honest about who we are and let's keep doing what works. Let's not do what not works. I kind of as we started to play these shows i had no idea what was going on i guess this like fearlessness or whatever you called it that really came into play when it was like let's just jump in and learn but more than anything it's just been like a commitment to learning um and also it's just kind of the law of the universe if you were if you're spending all this time wanting so badly and working so hard towards

this thing, you have a better chance of that thing showing up than somebody who half asses it, you know? Yeah. It just made sense. The only option was to dive head first and just learn along the way and just, okay, this doesn't work, try this, but that's what I want. So it's just a matter of how long is it going to take till we get over there. It's beautiful.

I mean, I have the same story. I was in college for a year and I just dove in and just toured and booked myself 250 shows a year for 13 years, you know? My God, I love it. You know, it's like I'm fascinated with how did you keep the band in good brain capacity when you guys are all vagabonds, you're living in Brooklyn.

It's not cheap to live in Brooklyn. How did you keep everyone just on the same path as a band leader? That's a really good question. I remember at the very beginning I had this sextet together and only one or two of them, like James and Seabass on bass and drums, have been

there since the very beginning. There was this point where it was like, if you know New York, you know Rockwood. They have stage one, which is like two festival style rooms. Stage one is free to the public. It seats maybe 40 people. Stage two is like 200 people and it's ticketed. Um,

and everybody can like, everybody can play there. If they have music all night long, seven days a week. And I remember playing this little show at Rockwood. I was so excited that we'd gotten a show. It was like a Tuesday at 7 p.m. or whatever. And nobody was there because we, you know, people that were there really dug it.

And then we played like two weeks later and they had all gone told somebody about it. Now there's like 50 people listening. And at some point I was just like, guys, by the way, free. There's no ticket. So you play for tips. Yeah. And I was like, I will give you 25 a show 25 a rehearsal and we can split the tips all the ways but i really see this thing i really know

what i'm going for i'm just i'm still learning the language on how to communicate it to you and figure out how to meet you there and have you meet me there but like please split the tip bucket with me for a little while i promise you we're all gonna eat someday are you in are you out and a lot of them were like i'm out because they wanted to they they why when i can go play weddings yeah yeah yeah yeah get money exactly get money but get money but some them, like they got it. And they were also looking to build something and like see something through and see where it went. And almost everybody else in the band plays with other projects, which is cool. And I never wanted to step on that because my thinking is like, I just think with the sense of like longevity, it's like, we're going to do this for a really long time. We've got to make sure everybody's happy.

And it's not my place to say, if you're going to play in this thing, you can't play in that thing that also makes you happy. So we do our best to be attentive to, here's where we at, this is work for everybody. It's somebody referred to, like our mixing engineer refers to us as a democracy, which I think is interesting. Very interesting. Do you think it's somebody referred to, like our mixing engineer refers to us as a democracy, which I think is interesting.

Very interesting. Do you think it's that way? Yeah. I think so, but sometimes my vote counts as two. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Let's go.

Right. Let's go. But yeah. Let's fucking go, Sammy. I'm so, first of all, I don't even know what that is but i want one i'm so i'll give you one i'll give you clap track i'll say thank you thank you that's nice that's very nice of you uh yeah i think that is true um i i think it's worth saying in the very beginning like when i first started to understand songwriting, music and lyrics come together,

let's tell a story and make people feel something. It was in like a classic rock setting. And that's my parents were listening. It's because my parents had me young. So it was like Kiss and ACDC and Twisted Sister, but also Fleetwood Mac and the E Street Band and Rolling Stones. And I love that band dynamic. I was also the kind of kid who had kind of a hard time making friends.

So when I started to imagine this is the thing I want to do, I never, ever wanted to be Sammy Rae and whoever else she could find for, to play behind her. I always wanted to be a core band with like all the time players that were as talented as the person next to them legacy let's fucking be let's start a legacy you know um so it's been really important to me that like i love you i want to be on this journey for a really long time and i want to do it with you so it's my responsibility it's our responsibility to each other to make sure we all feel seen and

and heard otherwise somebody's gonna get mad and we're going to lose somebody or whatever. And again, in that let's do this for a long time, things may change. Maybe time for people to leave they want to leave or whatever. But from the beginning, it was this, I don't want to, I get stressed. I'm only uncomfortable when I'm on stage alone or with one other person I'm sure you feel that

because your project is so collaborative in nature like I knew from the beginning I didn't want to do that thing so it's important to me that we keep everybody happy and in the on stage environment and the off stage environment so everybody takes solos this is something I love about your project is

you know, make no mistake that literally you're Andy Frasco of Andy Frasco, but I like, I know all of your players are such like full personalities and we get a chance to meet all of them in so many different capacities throughout the show. And it varies from show to show, which is cool that you share.

It's like watching, I don't know, the show's like watching a from show to show, which is cool that you share. It's like watching, I don't know, the show's like watching a bunch of people hug. Yeah. That's what I hope is you watch a bunch of people just hugging on each other. And hopefully it makes, it inspires the audience to do the same.

We got to, why are people afraid to have passion over comfort? Does that make sense? People are afraid to follow their passions because they want to feel comfortable with, oh, well, I have a house I could afford. And even though I don't like this job, this nine to five, I'm going to deal with it and not be happy inside, but I'm going to have everything I want.

The vegetables, the fucking nice white picket fence. You know what I'm saying? Right. The 2.5 children and spouse of the opposite sex. Yeah. Exactly. I think I, I, I, what I want to say this, but I have a fear that it's going to come off as insensitive, but maybe it comes from a place of like not being confident or comfortable enough to pursue the highest self because I have this fence, I have these kids, I have this house, I have this, I have that. Those are things that are kind of universal signs to other people of success and stability. And that's impressive to other people. people um but to do the kind of thing that we do you kind of have to be really firm from as early in your life as possible that you don't

really care what other people think yeah and it can be really hard um to reach that point take you a while depending on where you came from what your environment was nature nurture uh but i think it's interesting i don't want to divulge too much but i used to be in this band this folk band that i loved being in we made this great record at this great studio everybody the studio talking about like grammy winning engineers everybody was so impressed they were like how are you going to release this when are you guys going on tour when are you doing this when are you going to release this? When are you guys going on tour? When are you doing this? When are you doing that? Super randomly, we were all kind of in love with Crosby, Stills and Nash. And David Crosby was making a record at the same studio at the same time.

And we had this one random night where we ran into each other in the lounge and we shared a bottle of wine and we smoked some of Crosby's weed. And me and my band were literally passing an acoustic guitar back and forth with David Crosby, sharing our songs. And we're talking like he's our idol. The fuck? Listen, listen, listen. And he looked at all of us and he was like, you guys should quit your day jobs.

That's what he said. And meanwhile, I'm trying to build up the friends, but I'm making this record with this band. And the other two guys are nine fivers, full-time nine fivers. Right. And suddenly the record was made literally our idol for this project. I'll say in that context,

looked at us and was like, you have the thing, do the thing. And it was time to put the record out. It's like a 14 track record. We spent months and all this money on, and they put out singles, drop the record.

Didn't even really want to play a release show. And I was like, God, this thing, it's so good. It's so good, please. And they understood it, but they were, they understood that we were that killing, but I don't think they really understood that they were that killing. Because still at the end, they were like,

you know, we don't, we're not really going to play shows. Like we're going to keep our, we're going to do the thing. We're going to make $175,000 a year to do whatever. And because I love them so deeply, because we spent all this time together in a band, I kind of got a peek into that life where like, also I can't hold that. It's okay that you want to have health insurance. It's okay that as a product of your nature and

your nurture and your goals for yourself, you really like having nice clothes and this, that, and the other thing. It's just total opposite side of, of the spectrum. And I don't know that it's because they're concerned of how everybody else sees them. I won't go as far as to say that, but, um, everybody's got different priorities yeah it's really fun on our side of the fence it's the best ever right yay but i also get how that could be fun and especially fun when you're like 65 and you can retire and do whatever you want with the twilight years of your life because you got all this goddamn money. I don't know that I'm going to talk. We're going to be still gigging, dog. I want to die

on stage. Listen. It sounds romantic. I do too. I don't want to diverge too far from whatever you want to talk about, but I was just having this conversation with my dad, which is like, I just saw Paul McCartney at Fenway blew my mind.

I'm going to see Billy Joel at MSG. And I'm watching Bruce and the E Street Band go back on the road. The Stones are trying to pull themselves together and play shows. And it's like, you have all the money in the world. You're 80 years old. Why are you still traveling the world in a bus on a plane every day, jet lag this back and forth to do this thing? You don't need to play anymore.

You could retire. But what is that thing where it's like, I want to literally be dead on stage that I want my last moment to, I'm curious. And I don't think that we'll know until we're living legends and we're 80, but it's interesting. Yeah. The passion. Yeah. It's like you could have,

you could have listened to your bandmates and quit too, but you knew deep down that that didn't make you happy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That, that we, we absorb everything. If we like it or not, we absorb the guilt trips we get from our parents. We absorb the quitting that you thought was going to be the moment that you're ever going to have. We absorb the fucking Dave Crosby smoking weed with you. What the fuck? That is awesome. We absorb all that stuff. And we decide what

we're going to take. I want to talk briefly, but you said that it was hard for you to have friends. Were you not confident with yourself when you were a kid? No, I think I was too confident with myself. I just like, you got to keep in mind, this is a really small town. And everybody's mom knows everybody's uncle.

No, everybody's grandma. Sorry. everybody's grandma sorry um but not again like a middle lower middle class community um and you like either if you're a girl you're on the cheerleading squad if you're a boy you start playing town football or baseball and you just kind of do that forever and then you meet whoever at high school you get married and you stay right but from the very beginning i was i wanted to take piano lessons we got a drive to go find piano lessons i wanted to do musical theater we had to drive to go find musical theater uh and my parents were great at that the artistic things i wanted i was learning about however i was and I was catching on to that I wanted to

partake in. They were wonderful at helping me foster those moments and doing what they could to afford what they needed to afford. Um, doing the best they could with the kid who wanted to be an artist. They, but so I, like my friends were from like other pockets and not like, you know, it's summer vacation. I didn't really hang out with any like school kids. And it's also hard when you're like 10 in the average, like third grade, fourth grade choir, wherever you are when you're 10 and like, you could actually really, you can really sing and you have a knack for it.

And the other kids are, they have to be there because they have to be there and it's my everything. So I don't think, um, I think I was so confident that nobody really knew what to do with me. And I was also never big for the, like, um,

it's a big town for like, um, like the, the, the men on the weekends for like, like the, the, the men on the weekends will like go fishing and maybe go catch a game. Like, because we're right on like the river, like go sit by the Housatonic river. And like the women will like go to the one nail salon and then like go to

happy hour with their gal pals. And I was, I was always kind of like running around being dirty, like in overalls in the woods. I found this bug. By yourself? Look, I'm going to write a song about it. Yeah, kind of, yeah.

We had two neighborhood kids who were kind of on my wavelength, lived nearby to me. We live on this, like we live kind of in the middle of the woods, and there's this hill I lived on. I grew up on this cool hill. And there were a couple of kids around that neighborhood where we would like walk to meet each other and like hang out in the woods. Maybe like two or three of us.

And that was really it. Predominantly by myself. Yeah. Were you, did you feel like, did you feel lonely? At school I was by myself a lot. Yeah. I was like that too. I was, was loneliness, did you understand loneliness when you were a kid?

Or you just thought this was just what it was? No, that's a really interesting question. I don't think I understood loneliness. And I wasn't necessarily lonely. I was on the swing set singing a song about the swings. I kind of had my own like self i was a good friend to myself i would say and like i had a little brother's four years younger than me so i was always running around after him um and i i mean i have like again my

entire family unit is like my aunt and my uncle my grant all my grandparents my parents and my couple of cousins and we all the 12 live within a couple miles of each other so i had like a well-loving family that i was always seeing but still even in that unit i was the only like artsy kid so you were i guess so yeah i mean that was basically the same i was i was the same i didn't I was the same. I didn't have like one group of friends. I had like people I kind of liked, but I could entertain myself, you know? Like I could be fine by myself and entertain myself. But I also didn't know what loneliness was.

So I was like, oh God, maybe I'm depressed. Well, do you think it was, now that you're looking back, you have kind of the language to talk about those feelings. Was that loneliness or was that being content enough with your own company? And that's kind of, well, that's what we're talking about earlier. It was like, I crave and long for and am my best when I get time by myself, you know? Right. Was it just that the earliest stages of that like i need time for myself to process my art in my brain yeah or was it lonely were we lonely or is it we don't need anyone else because we have us yeah yeah yeah yeah you gotta look out for number one yeah and like if oh fuck if i'm

bored with all my other friends i never really don't want to go to a fucking football game or i don't want to be a fucking cheerleader. I'm going to be with myself and talk to myself and just entertain myself. I was like that too. It's very fascinating. I never had anyone else be like that. That's like a minute ago. Wow, it's really beautiful.

I can't, hold on really quick because I'm curious. I can't remember where you grew up. I grew up in LA. Really? Yeah, Calabasas, like northern LA. No way. I swear, and everyone wanted to be actors and

athletes, and I just wanted to be in music. It's so interesting. I wanted to be in music so bad, but I copped out and became a promoter, and I worked at record labels because I felt like that was safe, exactly like you, engineering. That's why this is very fascinating.

Like with all our confidence, why did we still decide? With all our confidence. Because I was confident. I knew I was going to make it in the music industry when I was 13. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I just knew it. Yeah, yeah. But with all this confidence, why did we still settle with engineering and promoter jobs?

Because we were just talking because of parents. We were myself that was a huge part of it and also again i think it's a product of not to open this can't work like the united states education system it's like it's time now you are an adult must decide and then you gotta decide and it's a lot easier to go i'm gonna pick this school i like and look at this list of majors they have and go learn about that thing that's a lot easier to pick a lane that's already been lained for you right then to be like i'm gonna figure out all at once how to break into the music industry, do it well, form meaningful connections, hone my craft, and also carve out space for myself and also find a way to make it lucrative. That's a lot harder to envision when you're young.

And when you haven't had much experience in the industry, it's tough to go, this is how you do that thing. It's easier to go, I'm going to go study this path and have other people teach me about the thing that they really love, you know? Well, look at us now, bud. Let's go. We in here. Oh, it's so fascinating to me. This is awesome. Yeah, it is. It's also fascinating. Yeah. I'm having so much fun.

And it's also fascinating to hear you. We came up on completely opposite coasts. And I would assume that you had a little, I don't know, much of a city. What was that neighborhood like? Yeah, it was 45 minutes from downtown. Yeah, like very different experiences. And somehow we have this very similar vision, from being young and we had kind of similar trajectories and you know now we're every time i play a festival where somebody doesn't know who i

am they're go oh god you're just you're you're a little andy fresco aren't you and everyone says yeah this is so fascinating to me so with this aloneness that you need because through your growing up and your adolescence that's what you felt was comfortable is when you're getting your recharge through a being alone how do you find that on the road uh um it's tricky i'm again like a big things person i need to like i like to know where my things are but i don't have very many things because it's tricky. I'm again, like a big things person. I need to like, I like to know where my things are, but I don't have very many things. Cause it's easier to keep track of not so many things if you don't have them,

but I'll bring like, like a little candle or the same notebook or like the same, like little things where I can like, like home in a bag, like my same notebook, same candle always on every trip. I had this friend who is a Broadway person who was doing a lot of national tours.

And she was like, and those people bless them. They're on the road for like nine months doing the same show every night, getting paid to do the same thing every night, which I couldn't imagine. And she was saying that you're in different hotel every night for the better part of the year. She's like, I always put the same thing every night, which I couldn't imagine. And she was saying that you're in a different hotel every night for the better part of a year. She's like, I always put the same,

I always put a little bit of lavender on my pillow, and then every night I smell it, and I'm like, wherever I am, this is what bedtime smells like. This is what home smells like. It's time to go to sleep. So I try to find little things. I bring my favorite shirt that's fallen apart and try to put that on all the time.

I try to like plug in and the long drives and listen to my own music stuff that I really like. But it's hard. It is hard to make after a while too. This is, I've been talking to some of the bandmates about that thing where it's like, am I really from broke? I don't feel like I live in Brooklyn. Where's that sense of community?

It's also interesting to find this cool solace and every sort of hotel starts to feel the same and feel like home. When I get home here, I have this home. When I get home tonight, I'm going to have probably a queen bed, a shitty lamp, Don't know what the bathroom is going to be like, uh, a TV and like a radiator. And that's all I need hair down. Um, so I try to, I try to, I guess, to stay grounded and find that alone time on the road. I try to, um, bring some comfort stuff with me. Not very much, but, uh, it's actually an interesting

process and living as simply as possible. Because also, you don't have your clothes. You have a suitcase. So I think intentionally trying to be as simple as possible day to day and find little ways to maintain order. Yeah, that's kind of how I try to find that space. And as you are like, you know, transitioning into this new life of living in hotels and stuff, maybe the new home is making your home look like a hotel.

Yeah, maybe. Oh my God. Yeah, I guess so. My buddy did that. Really? Yeah.

My buddy, Todd Glass, he's like a comedian and he's like, basically just been touring since he's 60 now or 55. And he's been touring for 40 years. And now it's like he had that same existential crisis where like he was trying to make home his stage and home his hotels. And then now the reverse is he literally built a hotel room.

I'm dying. He just called the Marriott Inn and Suites and be like, can I get the serial number on the couch? Oh my God, that's so funny. Wait, the whole house or just like a little apartment? He's had this house forever, but he rents out now the

second half of the house because it's too big for him to be on the road so much. So his floor now that he has, he built it like it's too big for him to be on the road so much. His floor, now that he has, he built it like it's a hotel. Like you're staying at the Hilton or something. And he feels comfortable. He sleeps good. He has that

small fridge. He's got the towels, the exact towels. He's got the fucking... He's got the hotel comforter with the stripes. Oh exact towels. He's got the fucking he's got the hotel comforter with the stripes. Oh my god. I would walk into that guy's house and never met him and I would

throw my bag on the bed and I would go get the Fiji out of the little fridge and just talk to him. I'd be like, I'm home. Don't tell me to make myself at home. I'm already here. But it's the same thing we're talking about, right? That's an extreme example of something

that I'm coming to understand very well. It's very interesting. It's extremely interesting. How many shows a year have you guys been doing for the last five? A lot? Well... How old are you, Sam? I don't even know. How old are you?

I'm 28. Holy shit. Yeah, you a pup. Youngblo know. How old are you? I'm 28. Holy shit. Yeah, you a pup. Young blood. How old are you? I'm 34. You better work. You better work.

I love it. I love it. Hold on. We were talking about... Comfortability. How long have we been doing it? Oh, how long have we been doing it? Well, yes. Yes.

But the question was, how long have we been doing it? Oh, how long have we been doing it? Well, yes. Yes. But the question was, how long have you been at it? It's weird because we were just like, also there's a shit ton of people in my band, so let's go on the road costs a lot more money than taking a quartet on the road. So in the beginning, it was like, we would play a bunch in New York and then drive to Philly, drive home,

maybe play Boston. I think maybe once we played Burlington or something, maybe DC. And that was really it. We would like hit the close couple of East coast, big cities once or twice. And then we had this whole big thing planned. COVID hit, COVID shut everything down. We don't play for like two years, but in that two year period,

we released an EP on our first record label. And we worked really hard to keep the like digital community active and build that sense of like, you know, let's still keep connected. And so between the EP and what we were doing online, the fans, the handful of fans, not handful, they were there, stayed with us, but also we got all these new people. So it went from like us playing 200 caps, selling them out, but still in a nearby city to like, by the time we could get on the road again, it was a,

it was a national five week headline tour of 1500 cap rooms. So it was this really, it was this crazy learning curve of that sort of stuff. We went to the West Coast for the first time. I mean, we've been this band now for four years, four and a half years. We went to the West Coast for the first time, like four months ago. And we sold everything out. And they were big rooms.

And it was a lot of fun. But I would say we've been, really, we've only been doing it hard since, uh, the last year and a half. This was our first festival season ever. And it was crazy because it, and we still have a few more to play, but there was this, like the last four weeks have been like, I don't know how much of like going on tour versus festivals you all play, but going on tour is like,

let me lock my brain into headline mode. I have an hour and 30 minutes set or whatever. This is what we wear. This is the palette. I know when I get out there, everybody in the audience paid money to see us and they love us and they know all the words and we're going to connect with them on that. Thanks for being part of the friends world energy,

but festivals is number one. It's fly to high Sierra and on the Nevada, California border, and then immediately fly to West Virginia and then fly to Cape Cod and then fly here for 24 hours, repack, go back to Virginia, go to Texas.

It's so all over the place. Um, and also every festival is so different. Again, it's our first year at festivals. So we're kind of like, we're on funk lineups and like jam lineups and also a handful of like bluegrass lineups we've found ourselves on. And with festivals, what I'm, what I'm coming to learn is you never know what you're going to get out there. And maybe like 40% of the audience knows who you are and maybe 10% of the audience knows who you are. And maybe all of them are going to get it and vibe with you and love it. And maybe 60% of them are like, not going to catch the wave and not for them. That's okay. I'll catch whatever's on the same stage at 8 PM or whatever. So it's's you learn a lot about yourself and it's uh kind of

it's very different than a tour obviously um but i think it takes the traveling too is more intense it takes a little more out of you because there's less kind of continuity night to night i guess so it's routine you like routine and i know that And I know that you all are huge. You play huge in the festival world and you play festivals all the time. How much of what you do for an audience? Because something else I like about your set is you guys are damn tight, but there's so much room for improv. Somebody bought me a shot in the front row. Somebody's wearing this. i'm bringing up all

these different people i love how you carve space to have people sit in is that generally the vibe where always every show is kind of just feeling it out and yeah organized chaos you know like i'm very i like a routine i know exactly what i'm gonna do do, but I also need, I can't just do that. Like you said, like the same philosophy as like someone doing musical theater every day. Like, I don't know if I, I've always wanted to try to do that theater thing, but like, I need a little bit of improv. I need a little bit of space to be free, you know? But yeah, it's just fascinating. Like I am a creature of routine and like we're at that point now where we're doing headline tours we're not as big as you guys on those on the level but

and i understand like getting out of that routine it's kind of scary when you're in a festival circuit because like you're not with your group you can't build a i i like rhythm you know i need a rhythm yeah yeah yeah that's it's crazy 100 what you said about continuity brought something interesting up that i've been meaning to ask you because another thing about festivals is like sometimes you're playing with literally the elements like earth you're playing with earth and sometimes it's gonna pour rain and it's gonna be cold and sometimes you're gonna play the 8 30 set and you get to deal with the light show and have fun cold. And sometimes you're going to play the 8.30 set and you get to deal with the light show

and have fun with that. And sometimes you're playing the 4 p.m. set and it's like the sun is exactly beating on just your stage and you're like sweltering and dying. So I never know what to wear. Like I never know what the hell do I wear before I get on stage and that stresses me out. And even on Headline, and the last headline tour it was like we played something like 26 shows in the

course of 34 days or something crazy like that um i brought like five outfits and i would just wear what i wanted every night but going back on the headline tour and being in festivals in my brain i've been meditating on this thing of like what if in a weird kind of superhero way, I just like, we all just got like a costume and I never have to think about what I'm going to wear on stage. Cause that's a logistical thing. That is a lack of order that stresses me out.

And then I was like, that's what Andy, you're in your Jersey. Yeah. Like all from you're like I don't want to worry about what I'm going to wear It's a logical thing that is the absence of order I live and

That's the rhythm Yeah and it's that same Unless I'm totally wrong Unless I'm 100% wrong No you're totally 100% right It's the same idea that you have with the lavender on the fucking pillow You know Yeah Yeah Same idea that you have with the lavender on the fucking pillow. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. We just need, we need some sort of normality in this crazy life. And if it's me wearing my Laker. I need something. Yeah. God,

this has been beautiful. I need something for myself. God damn it. I know. God damn it. Full circle conversation, Sammy Ray. Thank you for this. Yeah. I love this. This has been beautiful. I need something for myself, goddammit. I know. Goddammit. Full circle conversation, Sammy Ray. Thank you for this. I love this.

This has been wonderful. I was looking so forward to this. I'm so grateful for this. This is really fun. I'm sorry we didn't even talk about music. We talked about your family. We talked about your personality. It's okay.

This is really our first conversation because we just had text conversations. I'm thankful you're in my life, Sammy. This is going to first conversation Because we just had text conversations And I'm thankful that I'm thankful you're in my life, Sammy This is going to be an awesome friendship I'm thankful you're in my life, Andy I mean, that means a lot It really does, those words sit heavy And I feel the same way

And it's been nice to get I think I get to know your personality a little bit more Because I've been checking out your Monday Motivations And that whole stuff And I've been listening to the podcast, which has been a cool peek into who you are. And I really like the kind of person you are and I appreciate you. Well, let's do this. Nice to be in your orbit. Likewise, queen. And I, and don't, don't forget about me when you get fucking huge. Okay. Please. I'll always be there for you.

Don't, don't, don't. Yeah. Oh no, you're stuck with me. That's really nice. You're stuck with me, bub. For as long as you'll have me. I appreciate it. Yeah. Play that clap track. Do it. Let's fucking go. Sammy, thanks for being on the show.

I'll let you go. You go, go find your vegetables. Go, go remodel your bedroom into a hotel room and find normalcy because we need you around until you're 80 because I want to see you have that 90-year-old heart attack on that stage, baby girl. I love that. Listen, to quote Willie Nelson, roll me up and smoke me when I die.

Whatever that means, whatever the hell he meant by that. Yeah, man, thank you so much. I appreciate this. Go wash your Lakers jersey. And I'll see you soon. I'm sure I will see you around. Happy trails. You will. And while we're at it,

your new single, Chef's Kiss. Nice work. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It feels like it's a stripped out, more stripped down version of you. It is, definitely. Yeah, it is. What did you, what was the process? Why did you want to do a stripped down version for the single? Sorry, I was going to say bye, but now I was just going to say, I was just going to say, I love the fake. I love the fake out. I love it. Um, uh, honestly,

this is just kind of a very, it's a departure. It's a bit of like a meditative mantra sort of reflection on the current moment and how things can always change and be grateful what you've got for what you got while you got it versus some, most of our songs are so story driven, so detail oriented, so many words. Um, so this just, it felt like it needed to be a little more stripped down and um we had never played it and then we had this big show coming up at brooklyn steel and we were like let's just do that thing we've been doing acoustic just that's all we have time to put together is acoustic and we did it they loved it and it it rang so true to the subject matter of the song we were like this is how we have to keep it so then we took it to the studio and kept it

acoustic um and it's good it feels like a nice deep breath i'm i'm really we're all really proud of it i like it a lot fucking bad you bad motherfucker i love it i'm so i can't wait this is just the beginning dude you're about to be fucking huge i'm just gonna be rooting you on i'll be like you drink a water putting that lavender on your pillow you better be you know gotta keep it yeah yeah because it's like when you think about everyone else all the time. And then I'll call you up. And then you can come on stage and we can sing your very cool version of I Would Rather Go Blind, which I was totally not prepared for

and immediately caught on to and was super funky. And we can sing it together. People were vibing that very well. It was dope. I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. To be continued, Sammy Ray. I got dope. Yeah. I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. To be continued, Sammy Ray.

I got one last question and I'll let you go. When it's all said and done, when you're 95 or 106, just kicking ass on that stage, when it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? I brought people together and, uh, I helped, I brought people together and I was a positive example of how good it is and how rewarding it is to just feverishly be your

most authentic self. I just, I just want to move through this world in a way where I am so vehemently myself that people can't help but do the same. You'll make me cry. Let's go. Sammy Ray, thanks for being on the show. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day, Sammy.

You too. Bye. Bye. You tuned in to the World's Health Podcast with Andy Fresco. Thank you for listening to this episode. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo and Chris Lawrence. We need you to help us save the world and spread the word. Please subscribe, rate the show, give us those crazy stars.

iTunes, Spotify, wherever you're picking this shit up. Follow us on Instagram at world saving podcast for more info and updates. Prescott's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfrescott.com. And check our socials to see what's up next. Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert, that crazy shit show, or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain. And after a year of keeping clean and playing safe, the band is back on tour.

We thank our brand new talent booker, Mara Davis. We thank this week's guest, our co-host, and all the fringy frenzies that help make this show great. Thank you all. And thank you for listening.

Be your best, be safe, and we will be back next week. No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast as far as we know. Any similarities, interactions, or knowledge, facts, or fake

is purely coincidental.