Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 190: Kevin Morby

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Andy brings his co-host Nick to Europe and the buffoonery continues unabated. Find out what exactly Andy said to his German audience and decide for yourself just how insulting he may have been... And did someone say blood tests and cavity searches while driving thru Switzerland?! Now on to less stressful content: on the Interview Hour, we got rising star and absolute song licensing marksman, Kevin Morby! Oh, and we're debuting a brand new song on this episode?! Listen in to hear this new Frasco x Little Stranger collab... 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  It's Morbin' Time: www.kevinmorby.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Little Stranger The U.N. Arno Bakker

Hey guys, it's Andy. Hope you're kicking ass out there. Hope you're just fucking shit up. Hell yeah. We're gonna start the show, no voicemails, um, tonight or today or whatever time it is. I'm in Switzerland at a gas station, uh, finishing up this podcast, but we're doing a world premiere. I did a single with our boys, Little Stranger. Yes, to start this. We're about to go on tour with him. We wrote a song called What a Life. And it's about the ups and downs of being a musician and how we wouldn't want it any other way. And for special guests,

we're going to do this introduction with Niels. He is actually going to speak in Dutch to you. Are you going to do Dutch or are you going to do German? Dutch as fuck. Dutch as fuck today. So ladies and gentlemen, Chris, play the flutes. and Niels, take it away. Enjoy and listen to the world premiere of Andy Fisker and the UN,

the new single together with Little Stranger called What A Life. Enjoy. Enjoy. You can't be perfect. You've got to learn to get more pleasure out of this game. A long story. Come on now, tell me. Just a neon circus clown Ring of fire coming to your town What does that mean?

Don't know who I am when the lights go down Remember? I remember. Good time Charlie, Uncle Sam Jester John, the rock and roll man Getting paid to be who you think I am Oh, I like all the lows and the highs Life's a lullaby, shitty cocaine's in your body Yeah, I come out, I come out Spend my time with my fans and my family

But what's better than hanging with Andy? Do my best to stay away from nose candy But fuck them all if I'm taking home a Grammy Party monster when I'm at the concert I take two shots with a weak sponsor I live in two parts, I divide and conquer Who needs health and wealth And good posture

Oh my life All the lows and the highs Lives of love and life But you need cocaine to get by La la la la la La la la la la And I won't exaggerate your Oh, what a life All the lows and the highs Life's a lullaby

Shitty cocaine's in your body What a life What a life Oh, my life. Not so long ago you sent me a girl. Oh, my life. Oh, my boy. Remember? I was a cancer. I'm back here to expect you back. Oh, my life.

Back like joy. Back like joy. Oh, my life. Oh, my life. Oh, my life. We're back, baby. Wow, we are back. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco, and this is my co-host and sax player this week.

Yeah. And this is the Berlin. We're in Berlin. We are in Berlin. Hello. It's the Jewish New Year. Yeah, I was entertaining Germans on the Jewish holiday. That was funny when you told them all Happy New Year during the gig last night.

And then what did you call them the night before? During the freeze part? He does this part where he makes everybody freeze, like a wedding or something. And last night you said, in Stuttgart, which is a very German place, down there in the south. Yeah, it's pretty German. Here it's a little more international, you know. You call them all obedient. I'm like, you guys are very obedient.

And he looks back at me and I was going, No, no, no, no. That's how things start. Do you think they understand what I'm trying to say? I hope not. No, I don't know. I didn't mean it like you're obedient. I know you didn't mean it that way.

You had a dictator. To be fair, they were being very obedient. I was just like, hey, you're listening to me. They froze way better than any American crowd would have froze. There would have been like some drunk guy yelling, fuck you. Don't tell me what to do. Don't take my rights. These colors don't run.

These colors don't run, brother. These colors don't freeze. This room looks like a church, doesn't it? Yeah, a lot of stuff here looks like a church because all the buildings are old because they preserve things in Europe. Yeah, what's wrong with us? I think it's a...

Well, I don't want to use the word capitalism. It's so passe to blame everything. But in America, we don't have healthcare or a free college or any sort of... We don't get anything back for our taxes. So everybody's constantly trying to make money. So it's much better to just build something new and sell it for more than replace the windows. This is why there's the biggest hurricane ever right now.

Really? Did you hear about that? I'm so out of touch on this right now. Like Hurricane Ida or Hurricane Fiona? Coming up the coast to Florida, right? How hurricane ida or hurricane fiona or coming up the coast of florida right how do they make up hurricane names um it's alphabetical i know that i know it's like if so ida means it's like the i that's so it's like there's men however many letters that is you know a little bit of everything knows you but trivia baby no uh but climate change

because we're just building new shit when look at this this building's still dope it's probably from like the 1700s. Yeah, I don't know, but it seems like it. I don't know. Just all over Europe, buildings are older. If you go to England, there's literally churches from the 600s still standing there out in the country and stuff. Are you having fun in Europe? I'm having a great time.

Even more than I thought I was going to. I noticed one thing I noticed about you compared to last fall tour. You're way less anxious and mad. Maybe you're just doing better here. Yeah. There was like the van was all fucked up last year and stuff. Yeah, and it's like, you know, like I don't put, I'm trying not to put as much pressure on myself.

You learned that from me, I think. Yeah. Because it's pointless. What's the point? Because it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change anything. And it's just, it's the same thing every day. day it's like you're just the only thing that's changing is your mind state yep and if you change your mind state you actually become happier yeah or even

if you don't change it you can be happier just don't make it worse yeah yeah i think it's just like you just are starting to realize like you can't control everything you know i can't a lot of stuff's out of control that's why i liked coming here. It's really good for you to come here and work and have smaller shows, people you've never seen in your life having a good time, but then you realize, wow, I am really just not very important in the world. There's millions of people almost halfway around.

Jesus Christ, Nick. No, but I mean this in a good way. There's other people living their own sentient lives that I would have never seen if I didn't come over here. They have no effect on them. They have really no effect on me. So maybe just relax a little bit because there's 7 billion people on the earth.

And that's what I love about the Europeans. Everyone is kind of very chill. We are loud motherfuckers, by the way. Oh, yeah. We were out at the bar until about 5 a.m. Everywhere we go, I'm like, God damn it. We're so much louder. We were screaming loud. We were loud, I'm like, God damn it. We're so much louder. We were screaming last.

I was. Loud. I didn't realize how loud we are until you go into these old echoey rooms. Yeah. Oh, my God. Maybe that's why they're loud as fuck. Beats is like. Yeah.

And Sean's like. Yeah. And they're not even like fucked up yet. Even at like the gas station during the day, we're louder than everybody else. We're just like Americans are loud and proud, baby. Tour has been fun. Bomberg was fun. I love that city.

Switzerland, a little weird. Those people are different. What is it about them? They're just neutral. I think their whole thing is their personalities are neutral. Their government's neutral. They're very secretive. They're not very forward, just like their banks.

Their banks are very secretive. Yeah, I think it's weird how the personality kind of represents the culture and the government even. Do you think they beat off to neutral porn? Dude, that was the thing in Switzerland. I flipped on the hotel. Every other channel was porn. Yeah, they have a lot of porn out. You could have toll-free, not toll-free, but they'll charge the shit out of you.

I got drunk one time and called one of those hotlines. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Hello. No, no, no, no. Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. We're still in Germany. They're very neutral there.

But they were cool. Yeah. It took them about half an hour to get into the set. That's the thing. Americans are ready to go downbeat. You have to really earn it out here but they're moshing by the end of the night yeah do you think maybe it's because like they don't have openers here maybe a little bit yeah there's no warm-up there's no warm-up and you start it like uh like some shows we started at 7 30 or 8

p.m and we're done by 10 i really like i think bomberg's my favorite city so far though beautiful city well you're we're about to explore berlin you're, I think Bomberg's my favorite city so far. Isn't it a beautiful city? We're about to explore Berlin. You're going to love this. Yeah, no, I'm not like saying it's bad here or anything. I'm just saying that was, I just like the quaint sort of old vibe of Bomberg.

It didn't get bombed. It didn't get Bomberg'd. Jesus Christ. Well, who's there, baby? Berlin definitely did. And Stuttgart, very industrial because they got bombed really hard during World War II.

Who got bombed harder, Berlin or Stuttgart? Probably, I don't actually know, but I know Stuttgart, very industrial, because they got bombed really hard during World War II. Who got bombed harder, Berlin or Stuttgart? Probably, I don't actually know, but I know Stuttgart got lit up pretty hard because you know how they have all the car factories there now? But back then, it was like military factories. So them B-17s were coming in from London just dropping bombs on them. That's why they have all the very sterile buildings.

Speaking about getting lit up, Dialed and Gummies. Hell yeah. Dialed and Gummies, one of our sponsors. I actually miss them. I haven lit up, Dialed in Gummies. Hell yeah. Dialed in Gummies, one of our sponsors. I actually miss them. I haven't had a Dialed in Gummy in fucking four weeks. I'm getting the shakes. I'm getting the shakes, too.

Maybe we're addicted to Dialed in Gummies. I'm getting them from gummies, though. We got that little weed tincture out here. I finally got to taste that last night, and that knocked me out. I found some weed. It took me to Sleepy Town. Oh, did I tell you I got some weed? Oh, sick.

I found some weed last night. Some German gave me it. Oh, that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have weed now. We don't like traveling with any drugs on us. We shouldn't anyway. Yeah.

It is legal to have it on you, I think. I don't think that's... Yeah, but not in Bavaria. When we were in Germany... Like, yeah, southern southern if you go to bavaria like southern our old tour manager rolf um god bless his heart we miss you buddy i met him right our dutch and neil's great neil's rules dutch people are cool dutch people might be the most like pleasant people on earth i think yeah i was listening to neil's talk to his girlfriend on the phone the other day in the yeah like in the green room it sounds like the most pleasant like singy songy little it sounds like they're doing a disney musical or something yeah it's like little

yes and then i went over here and i'm so happy because i go to the doctor for free free health care makes me smile yeah yeah exactly um but yeah rolf, our old tour manager from the Netherlands, we got pulled over in Bavaria. And just because he was Dutch, the German police officers made him take a blood test. A blood test? A blood test on the side of the road. They like injected him? Like, yeah, well, they take him to like a spot,

maybe the police office. Right. And they blood test. But like weed stays in your system for 30 days. So it's basically a fucking trap. And that's like some things, you know, like everything isn't better here. Like you can't do that in America. You can't just pull someone to somewhere and stick a needle in them.

This is why we get our, this is why we rent vans in Germany. Because if we had Dutch license plates. Oh, I was wondering about that. And we're going through the border. Like last time we were in Switzerland, we had to take off all our clothes and check our assholes to see if we had drugs in them. Bro, these colors would have not run if they would have made me do that. Anyway, dialed in gummies. Dialed in gummies.

They're the best. Solvenless. Solvenless. Tastes great. Yep. Clean, homogenous. Yeah. I can't wait to have them when I get back to America.

Do you remember what homogeny is? Homogeny is like the unit oh yeah i do you told me this um it's like every piece of it has a perfect dosage equal spread there you go yes see i'm learning and they're like the best at that they are you're smart guys i mean i'm just listening now yeah you are actually i am i'm really trying to take it all in last night you asked me about my parents and my family. I didn't know you had a dad. You didn't know I had a dad?

Where do you think I came from? I could see someone thinking that I just sort of appeared one day. I didn't know you had parents. When am I going to meet them? I don't know. Maybe if you go to Albuquerque, I'll bring my mom out. Do you think they're booking agents at Repsy.com? My mom doesn't have representation right now, actually.

Maybe your mom should get hired by Repsy.com. One more sponsor, Repsy.com. Guys, are you in a band? Are you an independent promoter? Are you a juggler? What do they do out here in Germany that's entertaining? I saw a bunch of people in Leidenweizens. Some sort of dances where they kick their legs and stuff.

If you want to make schnitzel live on stage, you can sign up for Repsy.com. They'll help you out. They're the best. I think they're... Fuck. It's been a minute since I've seen those boys, and I wish...

I've been looking at their Instagram, and they're popular. They're blowing up. They're blowing up. Are you going to Birmingham next? I don't think you are. No, we declined the Birmingham. Why? Because like

Birmingham is a great city when you play on the weekend. There's a lot of cities in America that you have to say no to if you get an offer during the week because it's just not going to be tight. You can't do B-Ham on a Wednesday. Yeah, just blue-collar people like, I got to work, bro. I just not going to be tight. You can't do B ham on a Wednesday.

Yeah. Just blue collar people. Like I got to work, bro. I'm not going to get wasted. I respect that about them. Yeah. It's some,

I like that club that we played in Birmingham. Like us degenerates who does drink every fucking day. But Hey, yeah. Anyway, sign in for repsy.com. Um, what do you want to do today in Berlin? I want to eat donor.

That's all I want. But like, you can get that everywhere though. I know over here. That and i love i just love kebab but it's been making my stomach just i have to see the berlin wall i feel like you can't not see that's such an important cultural you want to hold hands go to the holocaust museum oh my god sure why not i'm gonna hold hands anywhere it's gonna be a really great museum and I learned a lot. Yeah. Because the Holocaust was fucked up. Yeah, I'd say it's pretty fucked up, the Holocaust. You know, it's like we are so isolated from the Holocaust.

Right, right, right. When you're actually here, like last year we went to the concentration camps, and that shit was fucking heavy. Heavy, dude. The energy of that probably never leaves the place. It's haunted almost. Oh, yeah. Really, when we were walking through DACA, I was like, oh, wow.

I don't... I'm just walking... I mean, and you're Jewish. Yeah. You had to have relatives that were... Yeah, killed. Yeah, for sure. There's no way you don't.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. In Dhaka, probably. Yeah, I don't know. Because my mom is... But your mom's side is Jewish, right? Russian Jew. Which makes you... Or kind of like Russian...

Ashkenazi, they call it. Ashkenazi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then my dad's Italian. So, right? Russian Jew. Which makes you... Or kind of like Russian... Ashkenazi, they call it. Ashkenazi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then my dad's Italian. So he was a bad guy. He was a bad guy. True love. That's what...

Well, he was an American, Italian-American. There's a difference. Italian-Americans storm that beach, too. You know what I mean? Italian-Americans storm that beach, too. Man. Yeah, I want to go. We might get tattoos.

What are you going to get a tattoo of? I've been really obsessed with prosciutto. Floyd forever. Oh, my God. It's getting gay. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. Talk about the tattoo first. I want to get the ham leg, the prosciutto leg.

Yeah, but I want to get the whole shank. Is that a reference to something? Yeah, it's Italian. Oh. And I wanted to get it whole shank. Is that a reference to something? Yeah, it's Italian. Oh. And I wanted to get it in Spain because we were in Italy and they just have these big old ham legs just on the walls. Yeah, they cut it real thin, right? Yeah, it's so tight. Italians do everything very nice.

Man, I want to move to Europe. You do, but it would be very hard to tour in America. Actually, it really wouldn't. No, it wouldn't. It really wouldn't. It's literally a six-hour flight. You could keep your house in Denver and just Airbnb it. And should i just buy a house in berlin i'm not gonna tell you not to i mean it'd be so much easier it'll be fun too people just like are so much i mean i'm

not dogging on americans no no americans but we're only like saying good things about europe it's not like this is like two things can be good yeah maybe that's what i need i was thinking of getting a house in Brooklyn or Buffalo. Brooklyn is sort of played out now, I feel like. But you could get a high ceiling place here for $300,000. To me, it's so weird to me that it's cheap here. I would have thought it would have been way more expensive here for some reason. Just in my mind, it seems like it's a world.

I bought the whole round. We were drinking until 5 a.m. last night. That's one thing that's great. All we were drinking till like 5 a.m last night that's one thing it's great all the bars are open till 5 a.m even on a sunday yeah it's pretty cheap here too i bought maybe three hours of drinks for everybody i only spent 140 euros i thought it was gonna be really expensive because i had like iceland on my mind from when i just traveled there that shit is expensive that was like yeah they're like forcing you not to drink how expensive yeah exactly but so i was like oh it must be just that's how europe is but really it's just iceland what were you saying about the floyd thing it's getting it's going pretty far huh guys pretty good last night uh i'm gonna break this

down for you last night the whole floyd andy being in love thing it went up another at least one notch at one point first of all first of all, first of all, other nights it's been like 10 minutes in the set, you know, a little bit here and there. Last night, I think the first half of the set you were sexually assaulting him. At one point, you guys ended up the pictures online, right? You guys were shirtless

facing each other in like the Happy Gilmore Endless Love situation. What? Friends listen to Endless Love in the dark just singing to each other. What song was that? Main Squeeze? Yeah, we were singing Main Squeeze as a duet. And we both took off our shirts.

We're going to do that Dolly Parton thing. Oh, no, no, no, no. Islands in the stream. That is what you are. I'm just going to stare into his eyes. And we're just going to have one mic. We're just going to freak Americans out. The people who really just don't like this band,

we're just going to dig real deep into their homophobic world. Because it's not homophobic. It's the opposite. What? No, the people who don't like all the stuff we do with me and Floyd. No, I don't give a fuck. You guys are in love. You're two men in love. I'm in love with Floyd.

You're two men in love. If you... Yeah. You would lay with that man, biblically. I would, but he smells. He smells terrible. In Shoot Guard,

I was like, did I not put deodorant on during the set? I was like, and then it was Floyd like three feet away. We were like, what was it in Switzerland

or maybe the first night? We're like, let's switch shirts. Oh, Bomberg. Well, let's switch shirts. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were like, oh, God. I put that on and it just like...

It's like I felt... It's like DACA. That sense of heaviness. What has gone on in this shirt? What has gone on over the decades in this shirt? Why does he sweat so much? He's going pretty hard. He wears the same pants.

He probably wears the same underwear. I don't think Floyd has changed clothes in six months. But why am I so attracted to him? He is a very masculine, masculine man. I know. He's got a really great jaw. He's got that pilot jawline. You know what I'm talking about?

He's got that fucking Danny DeVito jawline. He's also kind of a jacked dude. Yeah, he is. He's built to last. He's a man. He's like a blue-collar man. He's also married to a woman. Yeah, he is. He's built to last. He's a man. He's like a blue-collar man. He's also married to a woman. Yeah, I know.

That's a debacle. Yeah, but he's a good-looking dude. You know what else is attractive about him? He's got that, hey, I'm Floyd voice. You know what I mean? Or when he laughs, like, ha, ha, ha. I'm filled with testosterone. Hey, look at me.

I'm only testosterone. I'm Floyd Nantucket. All right, let's get out of here. Yeah, that's not enough, right? But let's get out. We have Kevin Morby on the show. He's awesome. We actually, it's so weird. I recorded this interview with Kevin Morby a couple months ago. Yeah, I remember that.

And he was talking, we were talking all about Europe. Oh, weird. Oh, perfect. And I re-listened the interview to get some, I'm like, fuck, we're in Europe. No, he's just then he got big in europe before he got he's from kansas city oh that happens though yeah we had we you know happened to you a little bit low-key a little bit right he had great analogies about um you know like i love comparing athletes to musicians and he's a die-hard baseball fan like royals and he gave us a good point about farm league and how it's the same as being indie rock yeah i remember i was telling you about how

you're a triple a band yeah or double a yeah yeah i think no you're double a it's better than triple a because you have a better chance to make it to the majors yeah if you're in triple a you're like and you stay in triple a you might not you might not make the major but you might make 100k a year for 10 years playing baseball you know know what I mean? I want more than that. I know. You want to be Albert Pujols. I want to be Albert Pujols. Congratulations to Albert Pujols. By the way, 700 home runs. That's like 700 more than I ever hit.

That is unbelievable. And I love it that they did it. That happened in Dodger Stadium. I also love that he's a really good dude. Did you see he gave that jersey from that game to some kid? Yeah, and he's like, I read an interview where he's like, you know, I don't care about material things.

It is a gift. If you want to give it back to me, I would like it. The ball? Yeah. That's awesome. It's so cool. He's like, if you want it and keep it, this is a souvenir sport. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's my 700th home run. And he gave away his jersey to some 10-year-old boy that was by the dugout. Kindness.

You would do that. Yes, I would. I give out all my jerseys. And then I have to go back to fanatics.com and buy the same fucking jersey. I give all my fans my jerseys. I'm like, fuck, I really love that Will Chamberlain jersey. So I just bought it again for the third time. You gave it away?

Yeah. I didn't know you did that, actually. People ask for my jerseys now. Yeah. You know what was great yesterday? You actually moved around and, like, are having fun. I'm getting more, because I know the tunes better now. Yeah. And you what was great yesterday? You actually moved around and like having fun. I'm getting more because I know the tunes better now. Yeah.

I'm not like, what's next? What's next? That was one thing I was worried about. Like, okay, we're going to have to step up the crowd. No, I dance. I dance and stuff. Your vibe is good. My vibe is better than people think it's going to be on stage.

Yeah. I thought you were going to be boring. No, because you see me a lot of times playing gigs where it's like, I met those guys three hours ago. I just learned the tunes today. I have to play this right. But now I'm like, you know, the pretentious, you know, like the pretentious Tuesday night jam or whatever.

I don't ever go to that, but yeah. Yeah, but you know, like put your pocket in your hand and just fucking just. But now I'm like learning the tunes. Plus you guys are kind of being where I can do funny shit and it's not weird. Yeah. If I did some of that shit playing with like Eddie Roberts.

I love that now me and you are fucking getting at Floyd. You just flip Floyd off. I'm like your little side piece. Always. Every day. You're my boy. I got Andy's back. Let's go. Alright. We gotta go. Hell yeah. We're gonna go to Berlin. We're gonna drink some espressos. We're gonna look at the Berlin wall. We're gonna go to

Tiptoe Charlie's. What is it called? Checkpoint Charlie's. There's a bar right next to it. You know what Checkpoint Charlie's is? It's like, yeah, where they open. It's a crossover, yeah. But there's a bar right there. Of course there is.

They got a bar for everything here. I fucking love it here. It's weird because you never see anybody fucked up, though, except for in Stuttgart, but it was Oktoberfest. And you could test for me. I know Brian doesn't believe me, but you could test for me. I haven't really been going out all week. No. I i waited i don't think i've even seen you like that drunk no what i said to you yesterday or two days ago what in the backstage um i don't remember actually i was like god my

life is way more oh yeah my life is way more boring with you in the band yeah if you ever want uh if you guys if any girls out there i should start a service where like if you want your boyfriend to chill out a little bit on partying, you just like give me like 200 bucks a night and I'll go out with him. The guy will be home by two in the morning. He'll still have fun though, you know what I mean? But you know what I mean? I'll be like, hey, let's

wrap it up. All right, we got to go. Let's get out of here. Enjoy Kevin Morby. Next week is you and me for an hour. Fuck yeah. We're going to cook. I can't wait. We're going to be cooking. Everybody, people love it when it's just me and you. Yeah. And then we're going to start this Patreon soon.

Yeah, we got to. I'm almost done with the tour. That's the thing. Once I'm done with this shit. It's set up, guys. We just haven't had time to get the content. Andy's a very important guy. He's the boss man.

Yeah, I got to be a rock star. That's his new nickname, guys. Start calling him boss man. Hashtag boss man. No, I'm a team player. I don't want to be a rock star. That's his new nickname, guys. Start calling him Boss Man. Hashtag Boss Man. No, I'm a team player. I don't want to be the boss. Well, a good boss is a team player. Every team needs a good boss.

I'm trying really hard to be a team player. I know, you're right. Phil Jackson is a team player, but he's still the Boss Man. Oh, Brian makes me feel like shit when I become Boss Man style. It's not called the UN. It's called Andy Frasco. I got it. We're not going there.

All right. Bye. Bye. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we have Kevin Morby. Yes. I love this dude.

This guy is a great songwriter hailing out of Kansas City. He's really starting to blow up. He's got that amazing song that made that Airbnb commercial called Beautiful Stranger. Hey, Chris, play Beautiful Stranger while I'm pimping out Kevin here. I love his songwriting. Amazing lyricist. He worked really hard throughout his whole career. He got big in Europe, and now he's popping in America, and I'm super pumped up. And he's dating Katie from Waxahachie, a little powerful couple over there, like Sonny and Cher up in here. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, my guest, Kevin Morby.

If you ever hear that crying in the distance like some siren, maybe there's a singer with no ring around their little finger, no love if i lose my voice if i have no choice but to go quiet won't you sing for me a melody into the night air kevin mor. It's I. How's it going, buddy? It's going good. Yeah, it's going good. Where are you? Are you in Nashville? No, no, no.

I'm in Kansas City. I live in Kansas City. Oh, fuck. I used to live in Kansas City. I lived 18th and Wyandotte. No way. Amazing. Yeah, man.

I forgot. You used to live in Kansas City. You lived in Brooklyn and then you moved back? Tell me that story. I lived here. I grew up here through my formative years from age 10 to 18 and then I moved to New York for seven years and then I moved

to LA for four or five years and then I moved here in 2017. What made you want to come back to Kansas City? I always say it's like I lived in New York and LA. Like I lived in too much expensive cities in America while I was broke. Like my brokest, I lived in the expensive places. And once I started making money,

I was like, I gotta go somewhere where I can save this money. me tell me how long did it take to start really making dough in this uh songwriter world i would say i mean if you collect all the years of me joining woods uh they used to be a band called woods and i joined them when i was like 18 19 which is a big big deal um and kind of changed everything for me. Um, and that's the first time I started making money, but I mean, I like, I would make some money on the road. I'd only like lose a little bit of money overall, you know,

like in the early days of touring, I would work my ass off to the tour felt like a vacation. Like I'm going to work. So I'm going to have like $600 to like blow on tour and yeah you know so um like there would be money involved but i was still losing money if that makes sense like i'd get paid to the shows but it wouldn't be enough to like cover the cost um and so then i started releasing records under my own name and like i went solo um around 2013 and i would say like around 20 like like 2016 2017 is when i really started to make some money where i was like okay this is i'm making some decent money off of music i don't want to fuck this up because this this money goes away who knows you know yeah totally so let's go back to uh your first band well it

was called woods well yeah i was in a band it wasn't my band i played bass in a band called woods like i joined them they already had a couple records out and then i started my own band called the babies right around the same time so i kind of had the two bands and i would i would just juggle the two of them and i would i would tour like half of the year across both bands and then when i would be back in New York, I would be working my ass off. The day I would get home, I would go work a double shift or whatever. Yeah, because living in New York, even having two bands, it probably felt more like a vacation because you couldn't make enough money

for those two or three months off to save for that. So it's like you're basically working three jobs. Yeah, for sure. And luckily, I see a lot of people who are trying to get going in their 30s or they're a little bit later. And they're like, you know what? I'm going to give music a shot.

And I wish them all the luck in the world. But because I can't imagine getting going at any time other than, you know, when I did like in my late teens, early twenties, when you have the infrastructure and the energy to like, you know,

be broke as, as possible, not really care. You know, what was the moment? Like, what was your like brokest moment on tour? I mean,

I remember the first time Woods did this tour of the West coast. And I remember there's maybe like second or third tour with them. And Jeremy, who's the singer and songwriter of Woods, he handed me $20. He was like this for you. And I was like, what's this for? Like, why are you giving this to me? And he was like, he's like, this is the money. Like we were, we were starting to make some money. And this is split four ways. Here's your 20 bucks. And I was like, I just made me i just made

money off of playing music this is unbelievable yeah um but i broke us you know just those early days of like you just would always you meet people at the shows and you'd crash with them which again it sounds like a fucking nightmare now if i ever had to redo that but at the time it was like the it was super fun yeah um and romantic it's like that artist that vagabond thing we always wanted to do when we first became musicians yeah exactly and you're meeting people and it's so fun and you know so i mean the brokest days were like in a lot of ways like the funnest most carefree days and like what i look back on now like what i remember like in my like mind of like,

what would a typical day on tour look like in those days? And you're always like crashing on some floor where people are smoking cigarettes inside. And it's just like, yes, exactly. And you're like, where do I sleep? And people are, it's like a one room apartment. And they're like, you know, just crash wherever. And like, like the party's still going on around you and the lights are all on and people are doing drugs.

And you're like, I guess I'll just close my eyes and like throw my coat over me and just wait for pink guy to enter your, into your immune system. Yeah, man. That yeah. Do you ever tour in Europe? Oh, a lot. I've toured in Europe probably more than I have in America. Yeah. Me too. What is it about Europe that they're so fascinated with lyrics and songwriting versus America? I mean, you're in a scene where both American scenes are America and European scenes, but I really feel like Europe is all about the folk and all about the lyrics. How important is lyrics to you? Lyrics are everything to me, I think, you know, I don't have like, I'm not like the greatest singer or the greatest guitar player. And I've always been

interested in stories, you know, all my favorite songwriters. It's been less about the technicality and more about the story that they're getting across. So lyrics kind of everything. I've thought about that a lot. It's kind of evened out for me a little bit now where I'm basically like the same size in, you know, Paris as I am in New York or something. But for a long time, it was significantly bigger in Europe. And I always felt... I think in America, there's this thing of when you show up at shows or like when I first started to get written about in magazines or on blogs or whatever, When I first started to get written about in magazines or on blogs or whatever, people in Europe seem to see that and take it as truth and be like,

oh, this guy must be good. Whereas in America, I feel like people are like, we'll give him a shot. Maybe we'll see if he can prove himself. So it's just like a lot more skeptical. And maybe it's because Americans reading about an American, they're like, there's no way this is true, but I'm going to go to the show and I'll check it out, but I don't know if I'm going to like it.

And in Europe, it's like, how are you so amazing? I just wake up this way. I can't help it. Do you think the American dream made us more competitive as people? 100%. Absolutely.

Maybe that's why they don't believe it at first when it's in the magazines yeah I think there's a lot of competition in anything you do in America and I think there's a lot to be said in an unhealthy way to live

but I also think it's what produces great art you know I always say when you go to Europe and you play these places these cultural centers where they have everything and it's government funded It's what produces great art. You know, like I always say, like when you go to Europe and you play these places, these like sort of cultural centers where they have everything and it's government funded and there's money going into the arts. And man, why can't we have this in America?

And I think that it would create a better, a healthier, you know, America. But I also, you know, it's not lost on me that great art often comes from struggle. And so I think being an American musician, having to go against the grain and, you know, like these stories I was just talking about, you tour in the early days and you're broke as you can possibly be. But it's like it weeds people out who don't actually want to do it or something, if that

makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I heard you're a big baseball baseball fan it's kind of like the same thing the one percent you know the people who are dedicated to it who are gonna like work your way up i really feel like touring is kind of like a making in the music industry is kind of like making it in the majors because you have to like work your way up you start in fucking farm league towns and you move your way up to second tier towns. What do you see in relation to baseball?

What's the parallels between being in the music industry and baseball? You're asking the most perfect question for me. Three nights ago, I was telling a friend all about independent baseball versus minor league farm three nights ago, I was telling a friend all about independent baseball versus like minor league farm team towns. Yeah.

And I was literally telling him, I was like, it's like indie rock. You know, these things are like indie rock. So I think there's a lot of comparison. It's really funny you bring that up. But I think there's a ton of comparisons, you know, so in a farm league, like minor league system where,

you know, if you get drafted by the royals but they're like we're going to send you to the omaha storm chasers uh before you can come up here you're still kind of in the pipeline you know what i mean like you're still like you're a professional athlete and you are in a direct pipeline of you can then maybe make it to the majors but then there's the independent leagues which we have an independent team here in kansas city called the monarchs which is a sort of revitalization's the independent leagues, which we have an independent team here in Kansas City called the Monarchs, which is a sort of revitalization of the Negro Leagues team of the Monarchs who Jackson Robinson played for.

And if you go out to the stadium out in Kansas City, Kansas and watch the Monarchs play, it is like almost like this sad carnival. You know, like... Yeah, totally. It's beautiful, but it's like, you know, $20 gets you right behind home play

like $5, like out in the lawn. And so when I first started going out there, I was like, man, what is like, like up with these players and a lot of the players, some of them have come from the majors and they're just too old to play in the majors anymore. So, but they want to still play and some of the, but then it's a lot of kids who didn't get drafted into these farm leagues by these major franchises

who want a second chance, you know? So they're probably like the best kid in their high school, but they didn't get drafted. So they ended up in the independent leagues. And, you know, the price, so if you're in the independent leagues, the minimum you can get paid a month

is $350 a month. And- Do they house you too too they don't house you so a lot of a lot of these players stay with host families so holy fuck i know and a lot of these players you know they're not from america they're from the dr or puerto rico or venezuela and like you know so these people come and they'll come with their families they'll stay with the host family like in in Kansas city, Kansas with like, you know, some nice old couple who's like, we love baseball, you know, like stay in our, our guest room. And it's in a lot of these players drive for Uber and stuff. Cause the max they can get paid is $1,500 a month. They get paid nothing, but it's that thing.

It really reminds me of music. Cause I'm like, a lot of these kids are in their late teens, early twenties. They're doing the thing. They're doing their equivalent of sleeping on the floor, making it work in whatever way they can possible in the hopes that, you know, they can make it. And if they don't, if they don't, um, do that, you know, there's 400 people behind them who will gladly do what they're doing. So I actually made friends with the player. He was really cool. And, um, I, I started talking to him in the crowd one, one, one evening at one of these games and he had just, he's from South Carolina. His name's Cody Mincy. Shout out to Cody Mincy,

but he had come up from the, he had come from the Mexican leagues. And I was asking him all about, you know, how the infrastructure of these independent leagues, but then he got drafted he's so now he's in the farm farm, um, like pipeline. He's like playing for the uh for the rays uh like single a team or something like that but it's a fascinating world and i think it's very comparable like i say if you're on the royals it's based like the royals are like the foo fighters and then you know the omaha storm chasers are like you know i don't know uh the war on drugs or something yeah yeah or even like and then

like labels too like you say like the royals is like atlantic and then there's all the sub sub labels that you sign on first to see if you have uh see if you could sell this many units and see if you could sell and they'll keep moving you up the fucking ladder it's like a rat race exactly exactly that's it that's maybe a better analogy for it and then the independent leagues is like i'm putting my shit on band camp really just trying to get myself so i mean technically the farm league to you let's talk back to your career the farm league to you was europe right you kind of grew you said you were touring europe just as much as you were touring america in the

earlier years and that was catching on more as do you feel like you've developed your sound through touring through europe more than you toured through uh america that's a yeah i was playing european baseball that's where i did my time i um that's a great question and that's that's very insightful because it's very true um yes because i was able to get gigs over there it'd be in the early days you know i could play los angeles or new york to like 50 people yeah at like a record store and have to be like a free event but then i could go play paris or play berlin or london and i would sell out like a 200 capacity place it felt legitimate you know right um so yeah like like this guy um you know this this pitcher friend of mine

where he he was telling me he's like in the mexican leagues you know all these games are always all sold out he's like then i come up here and you know this place six seats six thousand people and there's probably never over a thousand you know it's a different thing and it was very it was exactly like that for me in europe. Yeah, it felt legitimate. And I felt like the beginning iterations of my band really took shape by touring over there. And I was really figuring out how to be sort of a solo songwriter over there. What'd you learn?

What were you learning in your head to make you feel more confident in yourself? I think the biggest thing that happened was actually sort of a financial logistical thing where I did a couple tours in the States, sort of unsuccessful tours in the States where I was taking out like a four piece band and coming from Woods and the Babies, I was just from this infrastructure where there's these, you know, four people on stage playing music. So that's what this should look like. And it just, the bands were fine, but I just wasn't quite getting it quite right. And then I was going over there for my first ever European tour and I could only afford to take one other person. So I took my best friend, Justin, who plays drums and us doing the two piece forced us to sort of break the songs down to their

parts and make it less about like, let's just go out there and rock and more like, let's go, let's go out there and sort of get inside the songs, kind of break them down to like the most basic elements and go from there. And it learned, it taught me this huge lesson of how to use space in live performance and how to like make at times, the quietest song be the loudest song in a way. And sort of demanding a crowd's attention probably made me better with things like banter or just dealing with the crowd because I had less to hide behind.

And so, despite the fact that I did a couple of these full band tours in America, it really wasn't until I did that two-piece in Europe where I was like, okay, this is the basis. I've broken the band down now and I'll build it up from here. And since then, it's like, I just keep tacking more people onto the band, but it kind of began with that two-piece. Yeah, it's kind of like the saying, vulnerability makes you stronger.

If you're like naked on there, it's like you got nowhere to hide. No bass, no fucking second guitar player. It's you and the songs, you know? Yeah, exactly. And it made me a better singer, I think. And it just, I think our first inclination going over there was like, let's just play loud.

You know, it'll be just like two-piece thing and play loud. But we're like, actually, I think we need to go the other way and be really quiet. And yeah, so I don't know. but we're like actually i think we need to go the other way and be really quiet yeah and yeah so i don't know i i think when you got like so much of doing music and being a musician and the early days is like you really just have to do it like it's a really like you know to use a base a famous baseball uh um phrase if you you got to build it you know you if you build it they will come sort of thing yeah and

sometimes it's not the people who's coming but it's it's the lesson that's going to lead to the next thing that could then perhaps lead to people eventually one day coming to see you play music so the idea of just doing the work is important yeah and at the time especially and you know there was a certain comfort that i got with woods and the babies like those bands got to a certain size where i'd played majored festivals and you know played to at moments thousands of people and headlining shows to you know a couple hundred people and you know there was moments towards the end of both those bands where i was making somewhat of a living um off doing them the time. And by giving that up,

I knew that I was, it was a gamble. You know, I knew like one of the last things that I did with woods, I remember we played like a big festival in France and the show was really good. And they had like free, free massages backstage. And I was getting like a massage and I was like, I'm going to quit this band. I may never be back in France. Getting a massage, just thinking of pondering life, just relaxing. I'm going to quit this band actually.

I was like, I may just be forbidding this kind of like cool, funny thing that like this band has, has led to. And I got to just be okay with that. And there's, there's moments on those early tours where i was like wow like i'm really i may never get the french masseuse ever again um but you know i remember on one of my first american tours we played at the auto bar in baltimore have you ever been there yeah which the auto bar is great and it's one of those weird venues where like i feel like big bands play there and small bands play there yeah and i got booked there like oh this is cool because like woods played here and we opened up for big bands

here and wow i'm gonna play here and you know that club despite the fact that some big bands will play there it's not that big it like can probably fit like 300 400 people and it's a dive bar yeah and i showed up and they're like oh you, you guys are upstairs. And I remember being the auto bar has a upstairs, like it has a smaller room. And I went into this like upstairs, like this weird part of the auto bar played to, you know, whatever,

literally three people. And I knew the people and at least you got in there. At least you get in there. Yeah, exactly. You can, you know, on Instagram,

you can make it look like, you know, you, you, you sold the place out. Yeah. My, my buddy, John, you know, John Craig, you at all song look like you sold the place out. Yeah, my buddy, John.

You know John Craigie at all? Songwriter? I don't know. He has a great thing about... Everyone talks about being sold out, but no one asks the capacity. It's so true. That's a great point because I always... My booking agent and I, we're really close.

And we kind of have this... And same with my European booking agent. We all have this philosophy of like, well, let's just get into the bigger room and make it so a sellout is going to be impossible. I mean, we don't do this all the time. But we've booked tours this way where it's like, let's get into a bigger room. It's not impossible, but we probably aren't going to grow that much. But we get in the room of the place. You know, a great example would be back to Europe, you know, the Paradiso, the legendary Paradiso. You work your way up between stages, you know, small, middle, big.

Exactly. And I remember playing the small stage on that tour I'm talking about, where's the two-piece. And Annie DeFranco was playing the big stage at night. And she had like a big show at the church. What's that? You guys, you did Del Nord. You did a Paradiso to Nord. And then she was doing the church.

She was doing just the big one, the big one, the like 1800 capacity one. Yeah. And, and I was doing, it wasn't even Nord. It was the smaller one, like 200 capacity. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. And so I was playing that, you know, probably like 60 people. And then they let me go on the like the third balcony to watch her show and it

was packed. And, um, I remember thinking to myself, like if I could ever play here, you know, if I could ever just make it here once and, you know, two years later, two years after that, my booking agent was like, you are selling the amount of tickets, like the bare minimum to get into that big room. If you want to do it, it's like 600 capacity, or we could sell out Paradiso Nord at 500 tickets. And I was like, get me in the big room. I was like, he's like, they'll close off both balconies, but you'll get in the big room.

And I remember it was so huge for me and it was so good. And so I kind of like that philosophy of like, just get in the room and you know you can it's not you don't have to sell out every gig if you want to sell out every gig you can literally just book it to the to like i could tell you exactly what venues i'd have to play to just guarantee is sold out to her but i rather i rather play these venues that i want to play yeah and it's also you know it it keeps it tricks your brain to keep working harder to fill that room you know we could get we get comfortable in life you know, it tricks your brain to keep working harder to fill that room. You know, we get comfortable in life.

You know, it's like, oh, I could just do these. I love comedy. And I think of like the people who just stay in the comedy rooms instead of like trying to move up to the theaters because it's comfortable. I feel like it pushes us a little bit, you know? Definitely. You know, and so like Parodies are just as best example so i did that time and it was like 600 tickets and i was able enough to feel the fill the bottom floor and then the second time i went back there like you've sold 850 tickets so we can open up the second balcony the first

balcony and that felt huge you know i was like oh my god last time i was here there wasn't no one's on the balcony and those people on the first balcony and then the last time i played was with in 2019 with the oh my god band and it was like 1100 tickets or something like that so they opened up the second balcony and it just feels yeah it just feels great and i still haven't sold it out and i'm like someday i'll sell that fucker out and that'll feel like a celebration and then you know maybe i'll go back after that and i'm like you didn't quite sell it out this time but it's still good i think in music music, people get so caught up in, especially in this age of Instagram and numbers, like these numbers that mean nothing, but we, it makes us also

competitive with ourselves and with others. I think like the real test is not like, if you can sell out a show or whatever, it's just, if you can keep going, like if you want to, if you want to prove yourself as a lifer it's just being able to take the heat taking take the hits and then like also take the wins and not let those wins get to your head and like i think as an artist you know there's always moments where you you have the big sold out show super quickly and you'll have that and then that's putting you on a peak that's putting you on a mountaintop and then if you fall from that a little bit you got to be able to take that heat you know right and that's to really prove a peak. That's putting you on a mountaintop. And then if you fall from that a little bit, you got to be able to take that heat, you know? And that's to really prove

yourself as someone who's, who should be doing this. Let's fucking go. Kevin Morby with the fucking advice, baby. Let's go, dude. I'm like that too. You know, it's like, it's step by step. You know, we can't just think of the big picture and get overwhelmed. We need to take, you know, we need to keep moving forward. This isn't, you know, we, we keep forgetting that life isn't a finish line, you know, we need to really not really do you ever, are you competitive? I think I'm, you know, I think that I'm competitive in a very healthy way. I think I did play sports as a kid. And I think that sort of trained me to sort of... I consider myself a good sport.

I consider myself... When the Royals were playing the San Francisco Giants in 2014. And it was bottom of the ninth. Runner on third. Alex Gordon on third. Salvi Perez at bat. Full count. And he could have hit a walk-off.

Or he could have ran Gordon in. And they would have hit a walk-off or he could have, you know, he could have ran Gordon in and they would have tied the game, but he ended in a pop fly and San Francisco one. And I was, I was at a bar in LA and it was all giants fans around me. And I'm the type of guy when that ended in my like soul was crushed in that moment. And I was so upset that my team lost. Like I forced myself, like I take a breath and I'm like,

congratulations, San Francisco giants, you know, I'm like buying your land. Yeah. They earned it. They played the game and you got to shake the other team's hands. So I do consider myself,

I think honestly, like sports trained me in this way to be healthy, have healthy competition and, and, and make in this way to be healthy, have healthy competition and, and, and make it more about like, well, was it a good game? Like, was the series great? Then that's all you care. Like that's, that's, what's great about it, you know? So I think healthy competition is good, but I think when competition gets in the way of what you're making in a negative way, then it's, then it's bad. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I'm a diehard basketball fan. I love the Lakers. And I know I'm in a band as well. So my mindset's always like an athlete,

just to give everything I can when I'm out there or if I'm working or if I'm doing my career. I was thinking about this when you were talking about like you're having a massage and you're about to break up with your band, which is fucking hilarious to me. I don't know. I'm like, maybe I should be contemplating breaking up with my band while she gets that lower knot in my under back. But when you're thinking about decisions like that, how hard is it not to think about the other people in the situation that you're about to leave versus doing something that's good for yourself? Were you guys fighting?

Was it just felt like the band was plateauing and you needed to get out? How did you make the decision from saying, I don't want to be in a band anymore. I want to do this solo. Well, in the case of Woods, I just played bass. So, you know, it wasn't really my band. I didn't see any room for

growth. There was no real room for growth for myself. Like, there's growth for the band, but I just felt that my... It's not like I was going to be able to make a good living off of just playing bass in a band. You know? It felt like I'd always have to have a second job doing that. And, like, you're at the whim of someone else's decisions. And, um, which is, you know, what

being in a band, like I was more of a hired gun in that band. It wasn't like, like, like an equal parts band or anything. Um, and those guys are like my brothers, like my best friend still. And then in the babies where it was more collaborative and was more of an equal effort, it was just kind of falling apart. There was a couple in the band who it was more collaborative and was more of an equal effort. It was just kind of falling apart. There was a couple in the band who are two very good friends of mine. Oh, fuck. They were breaking up. We were like, let's try and do the band with you guys broken up.

And we all quickly were like, maybe that's not a great idea. And so... Drama. Sorry. Well, it was more like we were making sure there was no drama with them. Well, it was more like we were making sure there was no drama with it. But even in that, as much as I enjoyed my days in that band and learned so much in that band, like Cassie Ramone, who was the other singer and songwriter in that band,

and co-fronted it with me. She had a band called Vivian Girls, and she's such a natural star and great songwriter. And I really learned a lot being next to her. And Justin, who i was mentioning who was drumming with me when i began my solo career he drummed in the baby so we learned a lot together in that band um but still being in like an equal parts democratic band just didn't didn't fit for me you know i wanted to be able to like call in different different players and call the shots so

um yeah it was kind of plateauing and and just it felt like there's no real room for growth in either band and it was but i felt people responding to me in both of the bands if that makes sense so i was like i think maybe i could take my efforts and put them into my solo thing and maybe that could that could grow um again it's a big gamble yeah and it's also you know it's a it's it's it's also like you instead of like taking only 25 of the blame if things fuck up now as a solo artist if things fuck up it's all on you which is kind of the thing that you really it's wild it's a it's it's a lot of responsibility and i think when you get into it you yeah you just look at the like uh you know the sunny side of the street where you're like i'm gonna be able to make it sound like whatever

i wanted to sound like and i can always take different people on tour but then on the other hand you're like oh wait but like if the tour loses money only i lose money i have to pay people all this responsibility comes on you and you're like and i have to find a band and who's gonna want to play with me and so it is a lot it It's definitely a lot. And I mean, it's even, it all falls under your name. You know what I mean? And now at this point, it's like I have such a big team and so many bandmates. And sometimes I'm like, man, all these people are out here doing this thing in my effort, you know, to help me with my thing. And sometimes it makes me feel kind of crazy, that sense of responsibility. But yeah, it's a lot to take on that you kind of don't think about in the beginning until it starts growing. Do you ever get overwhelmed from all the micro delegation?

100%. I have an amazing team. My manager, Asia. Shout out, Asia. She's the best. Shout out to Asia. Let's go, Asia. Hell yeah.

Caroline, who works with Asia. She's my day-to-day manager. My label is great. My publicist is great. Everyone's great. I think for me, because I came from DIY and I came from these smaller scenes, I have a hard time not trying to touch everything

and do everything and, and make sure everyone's happy. And what I've had to kind of learn in the past couple of years is, is like, I have a manager, like I, I have people to do these jobs, let them do their job. And like,

I, I should sort of just maybe take the role more as the artist and the performer and not be trying to take on everything. Um, and that was a big lesson for me to learn because I think as things were starting to grow, but it's still sort of early days, I was still trying to do 100% of the work and I've really had to learn how to step back and sort of just do my role the best I can. Yeah. How important is it to get out of your own way?

You know? It's so important. And know, it's, it's, and it's something you learn trial by fire because yeah, it's, you gotta, you gotta make the mistakes to, to, to understand, okay, I won't do that again. And again, this all goes back to, I'm so glad that I started doing this when I was young, you know, because I was learning lessons when I was like 27 or so, you know? What was the biggest lesson you learned at 27? Like what was the biggest hardship from the band or from your career? Well, I don't know.

I don't know if there's any one like career defining thing. I think what I was just touching on has been like the biggest lesson. And I've sort of slowly learned it of, of you've created this thing and it's it's showing growth and it's it's um and because of that growth you're able to to bring people on board to fill specific roles so just let let yourself be the artist and entrust the people that you've sort of surrounded yourself with to to do what they're going to do as well. Does that make sense? Totally.

I'm in that same way because I used to manage bands before I used to play music. So now that I have a manager, I'm always butting heads with him because I think I can manage when really I've been playing music for years. So it's like kind of like, it's an ego thing, right? Letting someone control your life and being okay with it. For sure. It is an ego thing. So it's a little bit of like a slow ego death and like letting some of that stuff go.

And I apply that to a lot of different facets of life. But yeah, I think it's all a learning process. And there's so much that I've learned, I've learned helping steer the ship of this thing and being a songwriter. And that's one of the major lessons, I think, is letting some stuff go and trusting in other people. true. I'm going to clap to that too, Kevin, because fuck yeah. People are afraid to get out of their own way. I don't know why. Are they scared of trusting people?

Is it a trust thing? Why do you think people are scared to get out of their own way? I don't know. You do see it a lot. You see it in everything. I certainly see it in music. I've seen bands self-destruct because again, I think it comes down to ego and trust it's it's those issues that um

yeah people get in their own way i think it's insecurity i think it it comes from a sort of deep rooted insecurity maybe a lot of times when i see people get in their own way maybe it's a little bit by design because they're afraid of failure. So they think if someone's going to fuck this up, let it be me. And I have control. I'm controlling the fuck up. And I feel like I see that probably more often. That form of self-sabotage, I think it happens a lot. is pretty, you know, it happens a lot. Well, it's kind of the same thing of like letting go of delegating your life as well. You know, it's like you want to be in control, it seems like, in every asset of your life. So assuming, you know, you're trying to control your fear, what other fears do you have?

You know, I think the main fear that every artist has is that it's going to go away at any moment you know that people just stop caring and it's funny you know i i'm doing this rollout i'm really happy with how the press is going and i'm getting stuff that i'm i'm you know stuff that i'm interested in and i'm glad that people want to talk to me from certain outlets. But there's my seventh record and if we count the baby's records, it's like my ninth record and the Woods records, it's like my 14th record. I've

seen so many press cycles and each one, you're terrified no one's going to care. I'm the same fucking way, dude. Same way. Everyone's the same, you know what I mean? Unless you're bigger than God. Obviously obviously there's a line where you know if you're of you know a fucking huge band you're you're you know some bands get so big that they don't do any press or whatever because they don't need it you know their fan base is just so big that no matter what

they put out it's going to be met by tens of thousands of people but i think until you're to that point there's still this element of is anyone going to care and by tens of thousands of people. But I think until you're to that point, there's still this element of, is anyone going to care? And so when someone does care, I'm not the type of person, I'm never like, people need to care about this.

And if they don't, what's wrong with them? It's, I'm more, I'm very Midwestern in my ways of like, oh my God, you want to ask me about my album? Like,

I can't believe people still want to ask me. So I'm very grateful for all of it. But I think that's the like the common fear of every artist you know is is that or i'm never gonna write a good song again i don't really worry about that honestly like i'm i i write a lot and i write all the time and i just i you know knock on wood i i never have that that fear but i know that's a common fear with people. And so, I don't know. I think my fears in the past couple of years have been more rooted in war and climate change and virus. Well, hell yeah. What about... That's fine. I'm a pussy too about that kind of stuff as well.

I'm a pussy too about that kind of stuff as well. You talk about this competitive nature and then you also talk about this grateful nature in your brain. Do those two ever fight with each other when you're thinking about things? I think they sort of work together, to be honest with you. I think it's once you're in the arena, it's okay to be health with you. I think it's, um, I think it's once you're in the arena, it's, it's okay to be healthfully competitive, but I'm also have such gratitude that I've made it into the arena. You know what I'm saying? So, uh, like I think any competition I would have with any peer of

mine or any friend, or maybe even someone I don't know would be just because we're both sort of doing the same thing. Like what I would be complaining about. It's funny even thinking of a press rollout. Like I've been doing great press, you know, but still I'll see someone do like something. It can be some weird corner of the internet no one even knows about. And I'll be like, why'd that person get that? And I didn't.

Yeah, this motherfucker, I swear. Yeah. You know, that's how the brain, you know, they're doing like, you know, some fucking obscure blog.geocities.net. Your publicist would have said no to that, but here's like, I still want it. I still want it to be sent to me. God damn it. Yeah, exactly. Or you get like a big look and you're like, well, you know, but why isn't this, I don't know. It's just the human brain and people, especially in these sorts of things, it's like high school, you know, it's like people are so vulnerable and everyone wants to,

everyone, you know, everyone wants to be seen and heard in these certain ways. And it's like, you got to not let yourself latch onto these things because it's bottomless, you know? Totally. And it's like, you can get the biggest thing but then the person next to you is going to get the other biggest thing and you're like well why didn't i get both big things and then there's great yeah it's a funny thing i've been around long enough and there's enough bands and um i've seen so many hype bands come and go and i've been through my own sorts of press cycles where i i'm like in the hyped thing. You know, I felt that in woods.

I felt that in my own career. And again, it just comes down and it comes back to just continuing, you know, like you just keep going. You look at anyone with a respectable career and you realize you see the dips and you see the waves and you see the rises and you see the falls and it's all part of it. You've got to just take pride in the whole thing and be glad that you're on the journey at all. Back to that Midwest values, big dog. Let's go.

That's what I'm talking about. Let's fucking go. I want to talk about competitiveness. You briefed about it a little bit, but you have a weird, not weird, but you have a particular situation where you're dating a girl, Katie, from Waxahachie, who's in the same business

as you. Is there any competitiveness when it comes down to who's getting more success? Who's on the bigger festival bill? Do you guys have a little love fights about who's popping more? We have a great system where we talk in this voice and this is a thing that's kind of um we've done in my band for years and my friend justin i keep mentioning and my friend cyrus he's in my band we do this voice where it'll be like cool you got like we so you know we do it to each other and it's so funny and you know the tables were really turned because when katie and i started dating i remember i was going out on this tour on my record City Music. And I was selling out shows and going into double nights and venues and stuff.

I remember I had two nights sold out, Barry Ballroom and two nights, The Troubadour. She would be like, cool, you sold 1,200 tickets and I sold 900. Cool. And then St. Cloud came out. She dropped that bomb. I'll be like... We were going on a tour around the same time last year. And we're playing a lot of the same venues, but

she'd be selling them out and I wouldn't. And I'd be like, cool, the tables have turned. So we have this great way and it's like it always... I love it. I think it's great. And I do see in the ways in which Katie and I push one another in our competitions and, you know, like to be transparent, we've had moments of, of real, like the other one gets upset, you know, better for having had that conversation. And, and it's like any insecurity, if you just talk about it, you won't beat yourself up about it. And you, you realize it's just kind of silly. You know, if Katie and I sit down and have an honest talk of honestly, it's just kind of hurts to see that this person said a great thing about you.

And they said a hurtful thing about me. And then, you know, Katie's like, I don't know this person and I can't control this, you know? And then you're like, oh yeah, of course, duh. You know? And it's great to have these sort of honest talks, but also the voice helps a lot. Cool.

We're constantly doing... Yeah. Like, oh, that's cool. Pitchfork gave you a seven. They gave me a five. Cool. Fucking so fucked up. There's plenty of that. It's so funny.

It's so fucked up. I know. It'll be like... What was the biggest fight y'all had over something fucking silly? And then you realize, what are we fighting over? Some journalist from fucking Rolling Stone? Yeah, something like that.

I don't know if there's any huge blowouts. It's more just a bunch of small like it's all, yeah, I don't know. Ticket sales, whatever. There hasn't been any huge blowout or anything like that where it's like we stopped speaking or something because someone outsold the other one by

a couple hundred tickets. Yeah, there hasn't been any blowout. Because i think at the end of the day i mean kate and i talk about all the time we're like indie rock is embarrassing this is like it's like high school it's amazing it's fucking embarrassing you know like we're also self important i know it's so stupid and so i think we have a good understanding of that we love songwriting and we love songwriters and we love music and we want to be a part of that legacy of, you know, the American Songbook. And that's like a really great thing. We both know enough to know that it's, again, all about just continuing on and doing the work and being able to like take the dips and take the rises and not take either of those things too seriously. And, uh, we know at the end of the day,

these blogs, these, whatever, it's like, it's all stupid. And no one knows what they're fucking doing. Like, you know,

sometimes with a writer, as we get older too, it's like, Oh, this writer said something bad about me. And you're like, I know, you know,

like, like now writers are, a lot of them are younger, you know? And I remember when I was like 18 and just joined woods and I was living in Brooklyn and there's all these like pitchfork writers or stereo gum writers, or, uh, you know, there's this blog hipster runoff, like all these people are Brooklyn vegan and they were all like in their mid

twenties. So they seemed older to me. Like they, you know, like, Oh, these are real adults, you know, who are, who have these opinions. And now I'm in my mid thirties and I'm like, man, these are real adults who have these opinions. And now I'm in my mid-30s and I'm like, man, it's like some hungover kid. They're doing their job and they're just trying to make a buck and they're hustling like anyone else. And we're all just, it's an ecosystem. Well, yeah. And it doesn't help that our society is based on shock value so like they're gonna get more views when they talk shit about somebody like be a fucking troll you know

then versus like giving so kissing someone's ass about a record dude i had this thing so my record oh my god got panned by pitchfork and it was one of those things where it was like universally acclaimed by like everyone else by the universe and then Pitchfork came in kind of hot with this like well we're going to be the ones to say that this is not what we think you know we think this is bad and

fucking weirdos so it's one of those things where I was like you know because up to that point they'd really been praising me and I'd gotten Best New Music like like, two records before that. And the record before that got a good review. And I liked the writer, Laura Snapes, who wrote that review. And I thought it was very thoughtful.

And then comes this review that's so unthoughtful. And it seemed so out of place. Like, they had been talking about that record a lot. And then suddenly this guy, you know, is taking pride in tearing it down. And I remember being so upset by it the night it came out and I was at rehearsals, like I was at rehearsals in Brooklyn and I put together this eight piece band and we were projected to lose money on this tour because of the expenses were so high. And that review came out. I remember being like, Oh my God, like I fucked up. Like

I, no one's going to care now. And no no one's gonna come to the shows and um i remember i you know it was like i had to sell a thousand dollars in merch every night to break even you know and i never really and so i was like like that would just give me a break even and so i just remember i was like, I'm so defeated. I'm so exhausted. I'm like losing my voice at these rehearsals. And now Pitchforks, my album sucks. Like, wow, everyone's going to return, want a refund, you know?

And then the first show was at the Ace Theater in LA. And it was like the best, to this day, the best show I've ever played. It was incredible night. And again, it was, it was, it was one of these nights where I think that holds like 1300 people or something or maybe like 1500 and we sold 1300 tickets sick and i remember there was a moment where i was like oh man i didn't sell this out but then i was like i've never sold 1300 tickets it's fucking incredible that i sold this many tickets and anyways i played the show and it was so great it was like so it just i couldn't believe how how well it went it's the mind bro it's the mind you gotta not let you can't you can't let it uh you can't let it get you i it i just remembered

laying in bed that night with this feeling of like i did it and like imagine how i bailed imagine how and you know the first the first record i ever did was with the babies and like that was you know we had like it's a 12 song record and 10 of them were my songs and pitchfork gave it like a 5.8 and this was in the era of mid mid 2000s where bands would just break up if pitchfork gave them a bad review i know so many bands from brooklyn who are like we're done we quit you know they get that five and they'd be like we're out we're you know i i got job I'm going to just go door to door and try to sell Bibles now. But it's good to get hit in the face every once in a while. I truly believe that because it shows your worth.

Yeah, totally, man. I think of it. Remember when Michael Jordan retired from basketball, went to baseball, and then came back? Had a shitty year. Everyone thought he was done. And then he had the best year of his career the next year it's like sometimes you need that motivation from those haters to like give you that best show or give you that best performance and i'll say that there's moments too that then when you do get that praise like when you've been

on both sides of it and you've gotten the teardown and then you get the build-up you don't take the build-up as seriously as you need to either because again you're like the veil's been lifted you're like these are just people out in the world it's really amazing and flattering that this person got such a high opinion of this thing that i worked really hard on and i'm great for it but you can't get too attached to that either you can't get too attached to the negativity or the positivity. You got to just remember like, I'm a songwriter and you know, this is all like, I really, you know, in that era of, oh my God,

I got really into reading shitty reviews of, you know, legacy artists, Leonard Cohen or whatever, and people just been dragged through the mud and, you know, the music outlives a fucking article, you know? Exactly. That's why i'm saying i'm gonna pump you up right now kevin fuck pitchfork don't even worry about them this is all about you

big dog don't let these journalists tell you that you're fucking good or not don't let that fucking ruin your moan because you are a fucking legend you got the airbnb money now baby let's. Let's go. Let's go. We got Stranger Live. Dude, A Beautiful Stranger. I mean, that song is everywhere. Everywhere. Nice. Thank you. Yeah, that's a very delicate song to me and I had a hard time syncing to that because

that song has always been for charity. It's been like a charitable single. We've always given the profits away. And with that Airbnb single we said no this is actually a big this is a back to career defining sort of advice i've just gotten to a place where i've i that airbnb commercial is the first time i ever said no to something with music that wasn't because of a logistical reason where like i can't play this, you know, because I'm already playing another show or something. This was the first time where I didn't feel it was right to sync that song to Airbnb with the fee that they sent me.

So I said, you know, this is a charitable song and this is a good fee and I appreciate it. But if you were to give me this fee, I would donate all of it or half of it, or maybe I'd pay myself out for the first time. I don't know. But any of those things, I just don't think I can do it. So I said, no. And then they came back a second time and they were like, can we work something out? And then we're like, you know what? No. Thanks, but no thanks. And then they came back a third time and they were like, we really want to... Can we just ask you why? And we ended up talking it out. We really talked it out with them and they were great we really want to like can we just ask you why and we we ended up talking it out we really talked it out with them and they were great they were amazing and we basically got to this place where we paid ourselves out for the song for the first time but in order to do so i was

like i'm going to need i'm going to need more money to donate to charity than i'm going to get paid and they were so cool about it they gave us a whole lot of money um to donate to charity than I'm going to get paid. And they were so cool about it. They gave us a whole lot of money to allocate to charities that we wanted to. And we got to drop these charitable bombs on everyone. It was fucking amazing. And it was a great process, man. It was really... And it was the first time that I ever said no and I got met with such reward. And it was just a beautiful experience all across the board. We ended up hiring this wonderful woman to help us allocate the money of the funds. And that was a whole learning experience. And I've been in contact with a number of these funds that are a number of

these organizations that we donated to. And two of them were here in Kansas City. And they didn't know about each other, but now they're linking up. And it was a really great experience, the whole thing. Little Mother Teresa over here. Kevin Morby. Hell yeah, dog. Good for you, bro. Isn't it powerful saying no? It's so powerful. In that case, it was... Especially saying no to that much money. That's crazy. I know. I know. And it is a crazy thing. And I'm lucky in that I've been able to save some money and I live in an affordable city where I don't have to worry about it too much. But that was definitely, it felt powerful to just for the first time ever be like, thanks, but no thanks. I appreciate it, but I just can't do it. And then to get to a place

where we could work on the terms to where it felt good. So it wasn't just on someone else's terms. Well, that's amazing, bro. I'm so happy for you and you're doing great things and you keep writing great music. I know we got to get out of here. And I got one last question. By the way, this has been amazing. Thanks, bro.

I really appreciate it. I know we didn't really talk about music too much. I know we talked about the business side and your personal, but I really appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate it. I hope you and Katie live this beautiful life together. Also, two things. I got two things.

You know, you talk about, you saw the relate, you saw like how a band kind of was getting fucked up with a husband and wife as a bandmate. Would you ever be in a band with Katie knowing that? You know, people are always asking when we're going to make a record together, when we're going to tour together again. And up until now, we've kept it all very organic. We

will collaborate in the studio or on stage. But it's all very like, oh, this will work out. I can be in that city that day. And I don't know. It would be cool to push it to the next level because I think people would really like it. We're doing those Instagram shows during the pandemic and people seem really grateful for those and kind of taking that out into the world could be cool. But if it feels

like the natural thing to do, we'll do it. And if it feels unnatural, we won't. Well, Kev, I know you got to go. Thank you so much, bro. A new record also has featuring our girl, Aaron Ray, fucking tight. I heard she's on the new record oh yeah she's yeah she's she kills it she's the shit dude she's like one of my close friends um so go grab it kev and then i got one last question i'll let you go what do you want to be remembered by i will want to be remembered by you know um i want to be remembered just just being a i want to be remembered by being a good good a good person a good person who uh i don't know i take pride and katie always calls me the mayor because she's like you know everyone and you're always introducing people to other people i take pride

in that i like i like that um i i kind of create the party a lot of times i want to be remembered as the guy who uh who who you know got the people together in one room and had a good time. Like Bill Murray, baby. Let's go. Yeah, exactly. Kev, go do your thing. Go make some beautiful hits. Go have fun with your girlfriend.

Go fucking enjoy Kansas City. And tell Kansas City I say hello because I really do miss that place. I will. All right, buddy. I'm literally going to the dentist right now. Where are you going? Not nearly.

The dentist. Oh, well, clean those teeth, baby. We need, you know, use that Airbnb money, baby. Let's go. All right. Later, buddy. Take care. You tuned in to the World Selfie 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. Fresco's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfresco.com. And check our socials to see what's up next Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert, that crazy shit show

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