Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 199: SunSquabi

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Andy & Nick kick us off this week alongside good friend and INSANE drummer, Emanuel "Eman" Washington! Eman's been playing with Sophistafunk for a minute, but his expertise extends beyond the bounds of any single band. He has achieved rhythmic apotheosis. Light a candle and eat your vitamins so you too, can one day be as slammin as he. And on the Interview Hour we have Denver's own funky slammers, the boys from SunSquabi! No holds barred for this convo, and certain unmentionables must be cleared at the top of the interview. Tread carefully and clutch not your pearls, intrepid listener. This is EP 199 (And if you need to impersonate Andy Frasco to get some digits, I think it's probably ok with him) New album is done AND we got a tour coming up with our buddies, Little Stranger?? Don't forget to catch the band on the road andyfrasco.com/tour Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy Frasco & The U.N. (Feat Little Stranger)'s new song, "Oh, What A Life" on iTunes, Spotify  Catch SunSquabi in a town near you: www.sunsquabi.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Shawn Eckels, Arno Bakker

Hey Andy, it's Schwartz. I'm getting calls and emails from the band and the crew and it just seems like you guys are not grasping the idea of selling tickets versus giving them away. These shows, especially hometown shows, are not a party in the sense of we are inviting a bunch of people to come to your party and drink and eat and have fun and wear hats no what this is is not a party it is a party in the sense of let's all get together a party and have a blast but it's not a fucking birthday party it's a it's a concert you are an artist your band is an incredible band we are in the business of selling tickets to your fans to come and party with you it's a little different than hosting a birthday party where

you invite your friends and family for free and you don't charge them tickets to come to your birthday party. Your hometown show and all of your concerts are ticketed events, which means we sell people tickets. If you give away the tickets, you kneecap yourself. So we're not going to have 150 fucking guests at this show. We're going to have no more than 30. And that's a lot. But the reality is you got to fucking try to help yourself succeed. And you being the fucking bro that's like, yo, dude, I got you. I got you. Come here.

Let me hug you. Here, here's free shit. That doesn't help you. You want to grow. You want to try to make a living. You want to establish yourself as a band that can sell tickets. You want to try to make a living. You want to establish yourself as a band that can sell tickets. You got to try to fucking sell them

and stop giving them away. I hope you're getting the point. And congrats, by the way. I think we are going to sell out regardless of your ridiculous guest list. That's good enough. Fuck it. And we're back.

Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's everyone doing? It's another week after Thanksgiving. Are you guys doing okay? Did you get in too big of a fight with your uncle about politics? What happened? Take a breath and realize they didn't want you in your life in the first place.

So don't even fucking worry about it, right? Even staying out of that one. Don't even sweat it. No, you know, I was at home by myself with my girl on Thanksgiving. Yeah, we did the solo. I love it. We started trying to start a new tradition, doing our thing by ourselves. So it was dope.

If you don't know that swag voice, that is E-Man Washington from Syracuse. He is still in Sophistic Funk, but he's in this biggie tribute yeah that you're taking on tour yeah it's called the frank white experience why and uh because biggie his alias was um the free called himself the black frank white uh this is movie from the 90s called um king of new york with um i can't think of the name of the actor but he liked that movie so he took his that name the character was named Frank White. And so Biggie called himself Frank White. So I was thinking, what name could we, you know,

call the band? And so it was like the Frank White Experience, bro. Let's fucking go. That's my guy. Always thinking full thought on everything. Nothing is just like, oh, let's call it Frank White Experience. No, this is why we're calling it the Frank White. Yeah.

This has been your dream to do this Biggie tribute? The way we're doing it, you know what I mean? I look up to people like Adam Blackstone, like all the MDs, like the MD from Arsenio Hall and those type of people. So, you know, and I listen to a lot of Usher and, you know, so like their shit live is really dope. So I've

been wanting to, to put things with a click track and back in track and stuff like that. Background singer. So yeah, it's been a dream to kind of do it that way. You know what I mean? Speaker 2. Speaker 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 50, 51, 42, 45, 46, 51, 42, 45, 46, 51, 42, 45, 46, 51, 42, 45, 46, 51, 42, 45, 51,

52, 52, 52, 52, 52, 52, 53, 52, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 52, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, I've literally left the house for 30 minutes. And this man is smoking blood with you, man. I missed him. Speaker 2 and Speaker 3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 40, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 45, 48, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 42, 45, 48, 49,

51, 52, 51, 52, 52, 53, 52, 53, 54, 55, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 54, 55, 56, 56, 57, 57, 56, 57, 58, 58, 59, 59, 60, 61, 62, 61, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 64, 64, 65, 67, 61, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 64, 64, 65, 63, 65, 67, 67, 68, 68, 68, 69, 67, 68, 69, 69, 71, 71, 72, 62, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 62, 62, 62, 63, 62, 63, 63, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 65, 65, 67, 68, 69, 71, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 62, 63, 64, 64, 64, 65, 65, 67, been about 10 years first ever tour we went to syracuse we played al's whiskey and wine bar yeah syracuse i still play all the time stuff sticks around in that town there's a lot of businesses that are still there yeah stuff sticks around and some new things coming up and stuff yeah

westcott you ever play the westcott no that's a cool theater there yeah it's i was wasn't big enough well you are now it's 600 cap oh you can you can kill it now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. E-Man if they can afford you, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. You got that fast. Good morning. All serious aside. So being like a single dad and going on tour and like trying to keep this dream going, it's gotta be hard mentally to like, you can't talk about my son. I'm gonna start crying. I know. Speaker 1 I'm here. I never get this. Speaker 2 Travis.

Remember that one time you and Michael Travis are about to cry together about your kids and the green, your restaurant days. What gig was that? I can't even remember, but you and him got real hard to heart about it. Cause I think his kids are on the same. His youngest kid, or he might have only one kid, but it's like around the same age as your kid. Okay.

And everybody else was like childless in the green room. And you two were having this hard time. Yeah. I'm just like the fuck. Yeah. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I'm sorry. No, as it's, I mean before, and that that's what I'm talking about seven years ago, eight years ago, years ago, we were talking about like, you know, drugs and now for, you know, I haven't seen you in five years or five years. And now your mindset is like, I'm thinking about my kid. Yeah, it's totally different, man. And you love it?

Yeah, dog, I love it. I love my son so much, man. Like, he brought me a different, you know, view of life. He really, like, changed the way I thought about life. And so, yeah, he's my boy, dog. That's my homie. Is it hard to go on tour? Yeah, is it hard to go on tour yeah it's hard to go on tour man but you know and that's how I live man you know just how I make my money so

and he's five now so he kind of understands you know daddy goes and plays music and plays drums right you know you know he knows that and so this is the only way I eat you know so yeah you have him on the kit yet is he playing yet nah he's not yet you don't like drums bro no really no maybe he's hearing too much yeah yeah yeah you know he's around all the time so he's always covering his ears that pissed you off oh i want to force his own you know what i mean but you never know there's still time he's only five oh yeah i think what i think a music teacher is going to get a hold of him and he's going to be like oh yeah actually got rhythm i can do this you know yeah there is that thing though where it's like you either really want to do what your dad does

or not at all. Yeah. I don't think he wants to do what daddy does. How do you teach your kid how to follow your dreams? Follow their dreams. I think a lot of it is them being right here with you. My mom is a singer. That's kind of how

I learned how to play music is being right on her hip every church concert every choir rehearsal everything I was right there so you know I kind of followed her dreams you know because I was there all the time you know it's beautiful yeah do you show them how hard it is to follow a dream or do you try to like sugar like make it feel optimistic well he's five so oh yeah but nah you know i just kind of i'm always you know bringing them around as much as i can and you know trying to make it fun you know yeah that's amazing beautiful yeah man oh you know you've always wanted kids though oh yeah yeah i remember those conversations i'm gonna have a kid oh yeah

i love kids man i get a soft spot in my heart so yeah how many more are you gonna have i'm getting married he's getting married i know yeah i met your wife she's bad or my wife to be yeah she's like a supermodel it's insane bro yeah she's crushing she's just crushing it man oh i love it even like they got e-man like you go to the e-man's crushing. She's just crushing it, man. Oh, I love it. Even like they got E-Man. Like you go to the E-Man's Instagram, this man's modeling now with his girl. I need to go to sleep. This man is taking something like, okay, let's go. I had to step it up. You know, when you get-

You can't be getting dunked on by your own wife. No, no, no. You can't step out and your wife is killing it. Looking like, who shot Bob? Is she a musician too? No, she's a school teacher. That's good. That's good. Oh, that's dope. What grade? She teaches reading for elementary from K through five. Oh, no, no. One through five. Yeah. That's good. Any year older, like middle school, high school, that's what you're...

Oh yeah. She's too hot to be doing that. She can't be rocking in middle school. She can't be 4. Speaker 5. Speaker 6. Speaker 7. Speaker 8. Speaker 9. Speaker 10. Speaker 11. Speaker 12.

Speaker 13. Speaker 14. Speaker 15. Speaker 16. Speaker 17. Speaker 18. Speaker 19. Speaker 20.

Speaker 21. Speaker 22. Speaker 23. Speaker 24. Speaker 25. Speaker 26. Speaker 27. Speaker 28. Speaker 29. Speaker 2. Well, my shoes only go, Mr. Washington, like I'm just not hitting it. You know what I mean? The internet has made teenagers very confident. Oh my God. Until they have to do anything in my life. Maybe we'll spend all my money on my checks to go and make sure my shoes is right. You know, it's like you're insecure for these 11 year olds. Oh my God.

I've been wearing these shoes for three days in a row. I've been a change. school boy might be the scariest person on earth he is no he's fearless they have no yeah i think who has a good bit about that um what's his face the comedian oh he has a great bit about like the eighth grader eighth grade john mulhaney john mulaney he has like a great bit about eighth grade boys they just cut right to your most insecure thing like they're the scariest people on earth that's crazy hey i want to talk about your mind state now versus you're in a band called Sophistafunk. And three-piece band. Amazing. What's the difference between being in a band like Sophistafunk where you're the drummer and stuff,

but this project where it's like you're doing programming. You're doing a whole bunch more. Do you like being in control like that oh yeah that's uh you know me with sophisticated we are all like you know we have a lot of creative you know input you know i'm saying so you know sometimes that can be like overwhelming sometimes but you know for for this one like you know i like started this one so it's just different you know it's just different to be in control and to be like you know calling shots whatever but i got a great team bro i got a awesome team so i don't i don't do that much honestly

my manager bro my manager is a beast oh really oh my god he's a beast. He's, he's like, he's taking you in the right direction. You need to be the only biggie smallest tribute act. I don't think I've heard of any other. I think we're the only, only one in the country. I really think you are. That's a good market right now. So the cool thing is, you know, we are, we are the only one and we're tied in with the state too, man. So they gave me the okay they gave us a thumbs up actually our um rapper just did um the hologram for biggie just come out december 16th he's going to be the the motion motion oh what sick they call they call them to do the the motion cap so that is really important though to attribute to have the okay like that how important are these biggie

songs people it's got to be like when you play these shows it's so emotional oh my god man people love it it's like taking them back to their childhood you know I'm saying like I said you know that's what I think that's what tributes don't do a lot you know original bands are cool and if you can build a fan base with the original band that's that's amazing you know but people want to hear stuff that they already know you know and so when you can do it in a way where, you know, we go into, we go from a song that we go into, got a story to tell,

and when that transition drops, like people are like, ooh. I mean, they're probably having memories. Yeah, exactly. You know, so it's beautiful to see. I can't wait to watch it tonight. What's the age demographic like? I bet you have a really wide range, right?

Cause like- It's a bunch of old people. Really? Yeah. Let's go. Yeah, because I mean you have a really wide range, right? Because like... It's a bunch of old people. Let's go. Yeah, because I mean... We need to get more young people. Stop listening to Biggie. You know why? Because those are the people who... Yeah.

You know, hip hop. I thought maybe there'd still be like some hip hop heads that are like in their 20s that might come out too. You know, in Burlington and Boston, I saw a couple of young kids. Yeah, like who knew Biggie, but most of it is like 35 to 55. So it's the real fans. Yeah. How can we, that's like, I feel, I don't know. I feel like I'm aging myself saying that was rap.

That was hip hop. It was, but so was the stuff now. I know, but like, how can we like, just thinking about legacy, how do we keep Biggie in the name of young kids? Like, what do we got to do? Do it in a different way. Do it, do it, biggie in the name of young kids like what do we got to do do it in a different way do it do it do it in a creative way you know like art is always um changing you know saying and and you can innovate you know i'm saying so you know what our goal is to to give

you experience that you've never seen um with biggie you know even if you've seen him in people like y'all seen him in the 90s you know but you've never seen him Biggie. You know what I'm saying? Even if you've seen him, people are like, yo, I've seen him in the 90s. You know what I'm saying? But you've never seen him like this. You've never heard the music. You've never heard the music with the drums. Yeah, he didn't have a band ever. No, no band.

Yeah, he always just had a DJ. Yeah. So, you know, just recreating it, giving it to him in a different way. I think Big would fuck with it, really. Because he studied music. i think you i think i think big would would with it you know really um because he he was uh you know he studied music you know yeah he was he he was uh he loved jazz you know what i'm saying like he had a a mentor that was a jazz jazz cat in brooklyn i mean you can hear in his beats

oh yeah it's definitely more than like tupac if you know in his rhyme scheme too it's like real real rhythmic you know yeah exactly it's smooth and rhythmic it's like a it's like a jazz player so new york yeah oh yeah hell yeah yeah without a doubt this is so exciting yeah yeah because i remember when you when you first were doing the project and you're like we got the brooklyn bull gig and you're so pumped about it yeah how'd it go like playing brooklyn brooklyn music in brooklyn oh my god shout out to the broken bowl staff for giving us a shot man and believing in us. But, you know, we put some bodies in there. It was a good show, man.

It was a good turnout. Brooklyn, you know, that's when we met C's, and we met Wayne. I can't think of his last name. I'm sorry. Wayne Burroughs. We met him at Brooklyn Bulls. So that's where it kind of all kind of got stamped at Brooklyn Bowl. So it started there.

You know what I mean? It's amazing. That's amazing. In Brooklyn. The music's from Brooklyn. Let's start this chapter in Brooklyn. 100%. You know, it's like our Brooklyn, our stamp in Brooklyn is Dowding Gummies.

Are you sure you're not high? I'm high, yeah. I smoked that blunt. I couldn't. I mean, you guys, I don't know how you smoke this. You know, I'm okay with the turn frasco smokes mids now because y'all smoke this heavy ass weed. And I'm just like having this like existential crisis. I like it. It gives me a little anxiety. I need it. Yeah. We're relaxed people, man. Look at us. I'm already, I'm already always having more going on than I have a heart attack every 10 minutes. I can't have anything that's going to smoke a lot. Doubting gummies. Once you, you want to do the pit, do you know what

dialed in gummies are? Okay. Let's let's let's try to pitch a pod head on gummies. Okay. Let's try to build up these edibles. Okay. Doubting gummies. Number one, do you like candy at all? I love candy. Okay. okay this is great tasting candy we already got them there number two do you like effective medicine let's spread evenly and you know what you're gonna get every time hell yeah and do you like when it's clean clean it's us what is it solvent free so it's just water and thc blended together in a beautiful gummy that sounds good good, right? That's okay. We need to get you some dialed in gum. Oh my God. We just might've won our, our sponsorship for next year from that fucking block.

I should be in marketing. I've said this for years. We're marketing a lot more money to do marketing. You know what I mean? Also, do you like aesthetically pleasing things? Because they have the best packaging too, I think. I don't care about the packaging. That's the other thing. Every, every, uh, Give me hot. Give me fucked up.

Each style or brand or which version of it is one strain only. And it's like a strain that people know about a popular strain. So do you have a grower? I've made a, a gummy with that exact type of weed. Exactly. And you can see who it is. There's a QR code on everything. Okay.

They're fire. So now I'm just talking too much. All I want is, all I want. I already had you. I'm just giving you, let's go. Let's go.

I didn't say I was a salesman marketing. And we might as well talk to her about our other sponsor. Our guy, our NASCAR of podcasting, deep Eddie vodka. I don't drink. I knew that about you actually. That's okay. You don't have to drink. No alcohol. But if you were going to drink, you were going to drink you, man. If you were going to drink, I think you'd like deep Eddie vodka. You know why? Why is it's flavored. It's not, you i mean you like a little flavor a little flavor what's wrong with a little flavor ain't no wrong flavor i got a little flavor this flavored vodka though it doesn't it's not overwhelming it's not it's not loaded with uh refined sugars or any sort of mix it's it's um infused with the fruit

that it's flavored by or the vegetable god damn you can also get it non flavored if you'd like. It's my favorite vodka. Even before they decided to sponsor us. You'll see I'm wearing the deep petty socks. I'm also wearing the hat. I'm NASCAR ring out a little bit. I need someone else. You sound shut up. I'm not done. Andy mixed a little bit. Take a lemon one, put a little water in it. That's all you need. It's a perfect summer or winter drink because they got some nice minty ones too. Speaker 2 and Speaker 3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 41,

45, 49, 42, 45, 48, 49, 42, 45, 49, 42, 45, 49, 42, 45, 46, 48, 49, 42, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 51, 52, 52, 53, 52, 53, 53, 54, 55, 54, 55, 55, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 57, 57, 57, 58, 59, 59, 60, 61, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 65, 65, 65, 67, 68, 68, 67, 68, 68, 69, 69, 69, 71, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, here. Speaker 2, go get yourself some deep Eddie. Go get your, I'm going to write a deep Eddie trivia game for them. God, God, you're turning me on with this fucking juice to get another

season. We're at, we've done this podcast 199 times. Not me, just Andy has. I've done it. That's amazing. I've done killing the dog. It's crazy. I looked, I started almost at the 200 episode. Next week is the 200th episode. We're going to do something special. We're going to kill someone. Yes. We're on podcast to kill somebody on camera. It's going to be like ASMR. We're going to think it's not illegal because it's our 200th episode for some reason. And we're going to think we're all going to go to jail. That is not a thing. You are a narcissist. So I'm I'm pre thank you everyone. Who's been with us since the beginning um this has been an amazing accomplishment and i thought this was just going to be me because i

remember talking about the podcast with you really and and jack brown was going to be my co-host yes his lead singer in his band he did it a couple times right yeah and then he started acting like a yeah he made you i was telling him didn't he make you cut a bunch of stuff out because he he was scared right he made you cut everything no i'm I'm not going to pull. I'm I'll plead the fifth on that. I'm talking, I'm talking about guilty people say, not me. I'm like, leave it in, turn it up. Speaker 0 5th, but like I was saying, you were the band that grew up with us. We, we wrote together for sure. through the beginning years of both

our careers. We were there together with the same agent, Brad Rafa nod, shout out to Brad. Speaker 2 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, Oh, Brad, I'm happy for you. My first agent. I should hit him up. He's a man. That's a good agent for you. Yeah. And for people who don't know this weekend, this weekend, um, E-man is actually backing up the kitchen dwellers. They're doing a bluegrass Biggie. Yes. At Frisco. So if you you'll hear, if you, when you see the pictures and the first dollar shows, this is actually E-Man's band backing them. So what do you got? This is my manager. This feels like a pimp right now.

Something like that. But we've been working hard. We've been working hard together. You know what I'm saying? So I wanted to land. So we got with the dwellers. We're doing like a Grateful Dead, Biggie mashup one night. Love it.

The first night with Seas. Then we got a show with a giant panda back in rochester 30th then we're in brooklyn january 6th yeah yeah let's go january 6th the two-year anniversary oh january six two-year anniversary of both the podcast no anniversary. Oh, January six. Oh, January six. Oh, Oh, Oh, wow. Well, at least you're playing biggie music on January six. Hell yeah. All right, guys. Thanks for being there. I love you. Be safe. Um, do you have any motivation for the people? Yeah. Yo, keep grinding. Don't stop believing. Do what do what the fuck you want to do life is too short

believe in yourself and that's all I got alright enjoy Raylan Baxter or Sun Squabby, whatever one we pick for next week and drink deep eddy vodka and eat out of the dummies goodbye

alright next up on the interview hour we we have from Denver, Colorado, Sun Squabby. Yes. Hey, Chris, play some Sun Squabby while I pimp them out a little bit. I love these guys. They're instrumental. They're badasses. It's kind of like a funky EDM. It's hard to explain, but you're listening to it now.

I really love it. They're one of my favorite instrumental bands out there. And we talked about it all. They were in Hawaii making a record. Talked to Josh about him being my doppelganger and how he gets people's phone numbers by pretending he's me. I'm on to you, by the way, Josh. So this is a great interview,

and it's perfect to be for the episode 199 and the year in the studio. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, Sun Squabby. All right. Here we are. Sun Squabby. Hey, Andy. How you doing? Doing well, man. It's good to see you.

So, I have a lot of questions. Oh, boy. Who beats off the most in the band? Probably me. Probably Josh. Yeah, where do you do it? Wherever. Yeah?

Where's the weirdest place you've beaten off? I mean, no. I mean, I don't know. It's a tough one. Yeah, I guess so. It goes by so fast. Yeah, I would say it's more about the quantity, less the location. Okay, I'll clap for that. Let's go.

All right. SunSquabby, how we doing? Everything's good, man. It's good to see you, Andy. It's good to see you too. You guys have been working your ass off this summer. A lot going on. Was it hard to get back into the rotation after COVID? Definitely an adjustment, for sure.

I think we were also conditioned to it before, you know, going around the country and doing it every weekend. But it felt really good once you get in the swing of it and you're seeing all these friends you haven't seen in a long time. And it feels like a tour when you're going festival to festival. Each show is getting a little bit more complicated and the music's getting deeper and yeah it's nice but definitely an adjustment for sure is it and it's nice to enjoy the the labors of our fruit or whatever that says i believe it's the opposite of that the fruit of our labor yeah yeah definitely um you know you guys been working your ass off for years to finally see you get on big festival time slots and like, this is your time to really fuck shit up.

It feels good, man. Yeah, it feels good. I mean, especially knowing you, as long as I've known you, we've been playing music all over the place since 2008, 2009 was when I met you and you've been doing it longer than that. It's fucking crazy. Yeah, it feels great. It feels awesome. And just to see that much love out there for music and it coming back and growing and it's awesome,

man. Do y'all still like each other? Definitely. Yeah, we hang out all the time. You ever almost breaking up? Not this three, no. No, no, no. Me and Chris lived together for a while in Boulder in the hills. So I think we got a lot of that out. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, don't cook fish in the house. That's awesome. And how many years have you guys been a band? 12 or 13? This is the 12th year. Yeah.

So like as years go by and you guys are becoming like producers as well. Amazing producers. How hard is it to like keep navigating through touring life when you guys also want to be producers yeah i mean it it's hard like sometimes it's like oh i feel like we should be spending more time on this but it's like uh having those outlets to work with people is really nice and it keeps it fresh when you do get together and you know, you learn from all these other people you're working with. Yeah. You stand sharp and learning things from other people.

And then when we get together, like we've both been working on different projects, so we'll just come together and write a song and it's like, I'll check out all this like cool new tricks that I learned and like did this the other day. Let's try it with our song. Yeah. So,

uh, it's definitely a balance though. You're in the studio recording people and doing stuff five, six days a week. And I've got a solo project as well. I'm writing on all the time and it's like finding ways to... Sun Squad is definitely the project. Everything funnels back to making that stronger yeah but uh yeah it's a balance it's a balance it's crazy how do you guys decide which songs go for your solo projects versus which songs go to sun squabby it's tough man i try to take as many of kevin's songs as we can get yeah and you get it and whichever he's the guy whichever the best ones are those are the ones i want yeah

Whichever the best ones are, those are the ones I want. Yeah. And it works out pretty well. And any song that I make, I'm down to give the band if they like it. So it's kind of like just making Sun Squad be the priority. Who gives the final go ahead in the band? Or you all have to decide for what? If a song makes the record. I mean, I think that's a collective decision for sure.

We've cut songs from albums we've wrote the last two or three albums. But yeah, it's definitely a cohesive three-part process. You know what I mean? But yeah, I mean, I'm writing ideas all the time. He's writing ideas all the time. We got to go to Hawaii seven times together

the last year year which was crazy what what are you guys doing out there well we'll go out into the jungle and stay at our friend's house a coffee farm y'all taking drugs and like living out there well you know you smoke some weed eat some mushrooms uh you go during the rainy season and you're just sitting there with this beautiful view of a jungle and it's raining all around you and uh like we recorded a bunch of foley in the rainforest in Hawaii for this last album there. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Backtrack, backtrack.

This has been a part of your guys' life for a while? Over the last year, yeah. The first time we went there was June of 2021. We were invited out there for a private party. It's crazy, man. It's such a beautiful place. You've been going too? The first time we all went together.

And then you went back with Jenner. Last December. We're going all the time. Shout out Big House Productions. They're the guys that brought us out there. Let's clap to them. Big House. Yeah, they showed us the magic and we can't get enough.

I want to deep dive into this shit. I heard there's some, some weirdo artistic shit going down in Hawaii. Like a lot of art. Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's just a very,

very inspirational place. Um, the climate there lends itself to all kinds of life around you. So you're just constantly inspired by like, Oh, I've never seen this plant before. You're like, that's fresh fruit.

Just falling on the ground all the time. You know what I mean? um, the artistic community there is, very very strong and i feel like everybody being on an island in this kind of remote way finds their passion and focuses on it so to go and be immersed in that kind of culture has been really really good for us like creatively and just like hanging out too and um like i i don't even know where to begin man it's crazy so like the gigs though yeah very interesting gigs what is it all right so the first one was a private party at this dude's house obviously is how we could afford to get out there and we're

playing at this dude's house they built a stage in the kitchen so they got caught got called into set one and we were done yeah they like they literally modified the whole kitchen to build go-go dancer cages like built into the walls hold on and like that day and and these guys are they drug dealers or what's going on uh probably he was an art dealer i mean he was an art dealer pretty sure He was an art dealer. He was an art dealer. We were pretty sure. We're putting cages in the kitchen. We're putting a band over the front of your three arms.

The guy's really, really nice. We were pretty sure there was an actual Van Gogh in the front entranceway. Just to put it that way. It was a very, very cool setting. It was like an anniversary for his construction company or something like that. How did he find out about you guys? Big House Productions reshot us. Just by putting your music out to the world

like that, these guys found us and had been listening to us and brought us over for that. And then we started playing at this gay bar, my bar, because that's the only place in Kona that really will have live music, loud and go late. Yeah, we've played there a bunch of times. It's right across the street from this brewery. Yeah, we've played there four or five times.

Are you doing a gig out there? I mean, every time we've gone out there, it's gone well. It's cool. But I think, you know, not everybody has gone out there. Do you make enough money? Like now that you don't have a private gig and you're just going there to write? Well, each time that we've gone to do that, you stay for a week. Then you play the gig at the end of the week. It's like, hey.

The gig helps facilitate. We just love going out there. Do you stay in the jungle? Sometimes. Our friend at the Big House Productions, they also have a Kona Coffee Farm. This is up in the mountains out of town.

So it's raining there all the time. It's much more isolated and quiet at night, except for the frogs, which are also in a track on the album. Yeah, there's this whole song that has rain and different bird sounds and then koki frogs all in one thing.

And it's just immersive, but it's cool because we were actually there walking around with a backpack recording it. Yeah, and it's just like immersive but it's cool because we were actually there like walking around with a backpack like you know like recording yeah and there's different there's different islands so the reason why it's complicated is because there's so many different scenarios so like on oahu we have like these burner friends oh yeah and we like stayed at their place but their place is like someone else's place that they look after with the you know so it's like don't look and we're like yeah and we're it's like, don't look. And we're like, you know, and we're like staying there. The sugar daddy of the sugar daddy. Yeah, so we're staying there, and then they're like,

oh, we got to go play this party in the North Shore. And we go up there, and it's like a festival where they're like, only psychedelics, no cocaine, no alcohol, only psychedelics. Hold on, what? Yeah, and it's like, and we get there, and it's like, I mean, it's Bush like i mean it's bush like vibes like they're like yeah we got the speakers i'm like where's the monitors like this there's 4 000 watts dude i'm

like uh-huh like are there monitors they're like dude it's so loud and i'm like okay they want you to put it back in the jungle so the concept of monitors is like okay whatever we're in the jungle it's fine whatever and it's but then it like, so we're like, what's going on? It's Jurassic Park vibes. Oahu is like Jurassic Park, crazy mountains. And then the entire festival gets in a circle around the fire pit, like literally everybody.

That's actually really cool. And set positive intentions for the fest and for each other. And this whole ceremony before the fest starts. And then it was awesome and they had like cirque de soleil dancers and fire spinners and so that's like a wahoo vibes and then like our friends there like burner guys and uh and then we have maui which is where our buddy dave sheldon lives and he he's like in and melon camp they, there's like a scene that they're developing there.

So we play out there with him and Maui's like, this is beautiful island. It's like a little more like touristy where it's like, you know, sandy beaches. It's beautiful and it's like, that's kind of like the, I don't want to say cushy but it's like, it's like what you imagine

like Hawaii would be like, oh, it's beautiful and nice. Big Island is like a mountain town on an island. It's sick. Everybody knows each other and does two or three jobs during the day, either working on farms, picking fruit, or working in town. And then everyone's a

DJ or a yoga teacher or a fire artist or a sick painter like your friend. And you're going to all this stuff too? Not all. Chris has a baby so the whole thing about one i'm i'm new dad so let's go bud let's go um and then the money doesn't always work out yeah so they can go do the solo projects still get the name out there yeah and sick i'm not i'm not really bringing my baby to go sleep on them how is it being a dad just dope is scary yeah what's the scariest part of being dead

just a bunch of literally just everywhere everywhere no it's it's been great man did you like wake up one day and like have to to shit or get off the pod about being a dad? I realize it doesn't hit. I'm not a dad, I hope. But I hope we're all not dads yet if we don't want to be. Did you just wake up one day, you saw the baby coming out of the vagina, and you're like, oh, fuck, I'm a dad. Oh, yeah.

What was first going through your mind there? Well, I don't know. oh yeah what was your first what was first going through your mind there uh well i don't i don't know that's i was just kind of zoning in and yeah just kind of happened real quick and i was like holy this is literally that's what i said oh man to see like your person go through that experience has got to be pretty spiritual, like connected you guys in a completely different level. You know? Yeah, it was wild. Shout out to my wife, Jenna. Yeah, shut up. Let's go.

Women are bad. Bad bitches out there. That's fucking awesome. Yeah, man. Okay, so I need to go, let's go. I want to talk about you being a dad. I need to go back to this Hawaii thing just for a couple of seconds.

Okay, you're in Oahu with the hippies doing burning you good the burners giving you good vibes yeah okay let's go to this area first yeah so you see all these hippies yeah and they're all just giving you good vibes you're like and you're like you know i wouldn't say pessimistic but uh you're just you're a nice guy but you know it's like sometimes just like oh okay cool cool did you really absorb what they're trying to do yeah has it helped you grow in your mind as a person yeah i mean i think so it's like that's why we keep going back because it feels good what are they teaching you in like not physically teaching you but like what have you learned about yourself that's changing i mean i've felt a lot of lifestyle change in the last year, man. Just the idea

of self-worth, self-esteem, self-value. In order to appreciate where you're at, you have to appreciate what's going on inside of you. You know what I mean? So if you're in a place like Hawaii, you're surrounded by beauty. There's nothing to complain about all day. And you take that attitude back into your daily life. I remember the first time I came back to Denver, I'm like, I live in a beautiful place. I have so many cool people around me. I have so much going on.

Like I got to focus on what I have around me and appreciate that. And yeah, it's just, that's definitely a feeling that I've taken away from just meeting really cool people out there and spending time in the sunshine, swimming in the ocean. It feels like a meditation.

It's like when you're in the ocean every day and you're swimming with dolphins and you're like... Some other kind of... Yeah, and this one day I'm in the ocean with my buddy and this... It's called a bait ball, but it's like

thousands and thousands of fish come and like surround us and are just literally spiraling around us and he's like lived there forever and he's like this never happened like i don't like that was like some magical shit and i was just like oh my god so it's like it's like it's just like crazy like that and then it's like a meditation because you're literally just appreciating everything yeah you know and you're like wow and so it just changes your perspective a little bit and like when i'm having a hard time i like remember to like try to appreciate more like what i have and what i'm like where i'm at yeah and i think you know it's not

totally due to hawaii but like hawaii can remind you of those things and that's why i don't when i i'm out there i can like just be my true self and not have to worry about shit, except for making music and being like, oh my God, it's so beautiful. It's nice. It's amazing when we stop distracting ourselves with our phones and everything else that we kind of want to do,

but just have to do to make money or whatever. Maybe sometimes you have to record shitty bands or something. I used to have to do that. You don't have to do to make money or whatever maybe like sometimes you have to like record shitty bands or something or like you used to have to do that you don't have to do that anymore you're now you get to take your battles but like you know those things that keep us kind of in our zone of our dream but not fully in our dream yeah and then when you get to hawaii disconnect through all that you get to be the person you want to be yeah with all these people probably you're probably tripping dick or something. Just having fun. Sometimes. I mean, yes and no.

You know what I mean? It's a great place to have fun. Yeah. But it just feels good being there. You know what I mean? Yeah. I feel like some of my closest friends now live out there. Yeah.

Which is crazy. Yeah. Just being like almost 40 and being like, I have new friends and I love them. Did you guys hear Dave Watts' story about living in one? Oh yeah. We haven't found the old place yet. But one night in Denver, I asked him, I was like, dude, I'm going back to Maui.

So cool. And he showed it to me on the map. So shout out, Watts, for sure. Someday we will find it. But everyone, it's like it feels like- He lived in a cave. Yeah. That's cool. Like actually.

Yeah. You can do that. It's this cave. You can get there but you gotta go through that and I was just like oh my god this is crazy I feel like it's so important to go and isolate yourself to heal yourself yeah so like now that you talked about in the beginning like how this helped you guys reconnect as a band in a way of like just like bonding and being closer and closer do you think

isolation helped that? Because you're not distracted with your lives at home? Yeah, I mean, the island aspect of it itself. But the first time that we went, we all went and got a big house together and stayed in a house together for a week. And there was party nights. There was chill nights.

We would just lay out in the sun all day and just hang out and eat fruit and like you know uh yeah those kinds of experiences they're so rare these days once you really are touring and traveling and and everybody has their own things going on uh to spend that kind of time together it's like it's just awesome so we're looking to do something else like that josh is actually about to go on another trip to Iceland, and he's been spending a lot of time there. I've heard about this too.

So we're trying to take our band out there, but I'll let Josh talk about Iceland if you want to. Gerlach told me y'all went to Iceland. Oh, yeah, I made Gerlach go to Iceland. That was your record. No, Analog Son. Analog Son. That was your record.

I made Nick go to Iceland. Oh, my God. He never leaves the fucking house. I made him go. Don't let him tell you different. It was me. I made him go. He could be from there. He doesn't like to be. Did you go to iceland oh my god he never leaves the house i made him go don't let him tell you different it was me i made him go he doesn't like did you go to iceland no we're trying to go soon but he's been we we're gonna get out there but we were gonna go and then we got like uh some gig opportunities that we couldn't pass up okay let's um like preface like the iceland situation in colorado so people understand what's going on so there's like a venue

no there's a venue in Colorado that the guy owns so there's this guy Chad that owns 11 Experience and they have the public house in Crested Butte that's what it is and like there's a lot of ins and outs

I'm mostly involved just as an engineer and a producer. I've got to make a new Match Sounds record out there and George Porter's record out there. He built this amazing place. I saw pictures of it in Iceland. So he put all amazing gear in it. Everything.

He's hurtling the Denver musicians. Not just Denver, but just he loves funky music and he likes different styles. But of course he did a new MASH sounds record because Eddie Roberts is kind of like the catalyst from the new MASH sounds. He's got his hands in a lot of shit. Yeah, like him and Chad were skiing together and it started as like, wouldn't that be crazy? And then six months later, we're out there, I'm like started as like, wouldn't that be crazy? And then like six months later, like we're out there.

Like, I'm like, Oh my God, like we're, I'm in Iceland. And like from like them, like skiing together and talking about it. And it became like reality.

So basically Eddie and there might've been a few other people. I wasn't there. I don't know. But like Eddie is a huge part of that happening. And me and Eddie have been working together for a long time. So did they fund, they funded the record. Yeah. So that you can rent it like a normal studio or you can get a record deal with them and the records that I've done so far have all been on a record deal like label

style yeah uh but it's like it's just a testament to Chad because he's like one of the legacies he wants to leave like obviously he's a wealthy dude like building Studios whatever is that he wants to like help make cool music yeah and he and it's mostly everything i've done there is analog like tape machines like old school yeah and but like so he finally you know new mcdonald's big international band george porter jr like legend and then he's like oh analog son he's like yeah let's go and i was like okay like small band he's like this is funky i like it so like we basically got to make this record because we're funky yeah and he's just like yeah it probably isn't even about the music it's

about him helping the homies out yeah i mean he loves music yeah he's a music but like he loves you josh and like i mean like he loves your crew yeah we're getting there that's so cool man yeah okay so it's so funny how you guys have these dope-ass studios in denver and you're like fuck that we're going to iceland yeah we're going to wide record stuff what do you like about recording outside of your home i mean it's just cool to be it's kind of like what you're saying about the distractions and the isolations like when you go somewhere to make a record it's like you wake up with a purpose each day and it's just more focused yeah you're in there like for a purpose every day and yeah yeah the goal is a lot more clear and we've been talking about doing like i think we have enough right now to we're we're about to

put out an album we have enough right now to record another album and uh we really want to go either to iceland or somewhere here in the united states, like New Orleans, just post up for a week. And you have the woods around you. You have an environment around you. You can explore, get inspired by it, and then go right back in the studio. And you have all your tools right there. So cool. So getting that process of writing is the best.

Obviously, we can record for free here. I don't know if it's obvious to everyone out there, but I run recording studios in Denver and produce records. So it's like we can make music for free here, but it's more about the experience and taking the time. So the next album we're trying to get out either to Iceland or New Orleans or wherever. That was my question. You guys recorded this new record in Denver? Yeah. Yeah. And parts of it in Hawaii. Parts of it. Yeah. Like the guitar and the bass parts, we did a little bit there.

But mostly here in Denver at Josh's studio at Scanhope. In my house, yeah. And at your house, yeah. It's fucking tight. Yeah, the place we recorded. The new Master Sounds record out in Iceland, right? Yeah. So they just released that record, which is the cover art is sick.

It's like a glacier falling into the ocean. And there's like a picture of ATUK, you know what I mean? They just released that as a companion digital collectible, like an NFT. And we're about to do the same thing with our album. So that comes out this week. Let's get into the NFT world. What is it? What is it? It's Golfing with SunSquabby. Okay. So that's- Do you want to Golf with SunSquabby? Buy our NFT. It's really cool.

And you might get to. I think the New Master Sounds one is the first one that they did. Let me understand this. What is it? The company is called Lively and it's Mark Brownstein and our friend Gary Mulaney really helping us get this going. And basically, I think the New Masterjohn is one of the first ones. Umphreys did this as well, though.

And it's a piece of digital art that's on OpenSea or wherever you can get NFTs, right? And within this digital art is actually an HTML code that you can play the album, the entire, so it's combining audio and visual media into one thing,

which hasn't really been done yet in the NFT world. And when they first started coming out, I was like, this would be the coolest thing ever. If you can make your album one little clicker thing. You know what I mean? So they figured it out. The coding guys, thank you guys. And we had a piece of digital art created and animated.

And there's bonus tracks on the album. It makes it like an exclusive version of the album. So there's alternate versions of songs. Josh and I both did remixes for it. You get remix stems for the album, and then having this is kind of like a VIP club pass. So if you own this NFT, we're going to throw certain events throughout the future,

like live in-person stuff, virtual stuff, that if you hold this, you get access to. So it's a way to kind of like engage with your fans on a very direct level and also be able to create one of a kind collectible thing. So the basic NFT is you're cutting out the middleman. It's from source, you're going straight to the source. It's decentralized it's it's yeah and it's like you could buy the album for 10 bucks on itunes and own like a higher quality version you know higher quality in spotify or whatever and you could do that for 10 bucks or for like 25 or i don't even know what the prices are whatever the money is you get this cool high quality player the art, the art, like, different art,

but you get access. So you're getting, like you said, like, these remixes, like, they're not being put on Spotify. They're not being put anywhere. So if you want to press play on this music, you have to buy the NFT. And then also, like, the access comes where it's like, we'll do, like, meet and greets, and we'll, like, someone's going to get to go golfing with us.

I was joking, but it's, like, also not a joke. joke so you buy the nft and we might all like go hit some balls like you know what i mean let's go yeah so it's it's great it's like it's really you buy the nft we might go and hit the boss yeah yeah so it's more than just the music, but it's like the music and the art that goes with it is like the tangible thing you're purchasing. Yeah. But it's also so much more than that. You're basically trying to get more personal with your fans. Yeah.

And trying to give the real fans who really love your band the full experience of what Sun Squabby is. Yeah, totally. It's awesome. That's the idea. They used to have these fan clubs or whatever. Yeah like it's it's not necessarily like fan club vibe but it's like some of the function is the same you know what i mean where it's like he was saying like if you buy this nft we're going to announce a digital passcode like yeah we might not announce

like a uh like an underplay right yeah a show that's gonna sell out yeah but the whoever owns the nft will get first access to buy yeah tickets so it's like a fan club yeah it's kind of it can be similar into a fan club right it's also golfing it's also god i mean i'd just i'd buy it just to go so we're putting one out with this album as a companion to it and we plan to create more of them because it's been really fun just the whole process and um-Lo's been making a bunch of money doing this. It's a cool way to have your fans directly support the band. Like you were saying, cutting out the metal man. So if you're out there and checking it out, that helps us continue to go on tour,

continue to get in the studio and go on these adventures to where we can keep creating music. Do you think that's the future? We don't need record labels anymore. Do you think we just have to be a self-sufficient machine and basically think of this more as a business instead of handing off all the work to other people? I think that it's been leaning in that direction for years now, for sure.

And you see a lot of the really successful artists like Chance the Rapper. I really think his model is really amazing and he's been able to stay true to his music. King Gizzard. Those guys are the greatest. And what they're doing is awesome. Just putting out so much music and so much different kinds of music. They're staying really creative and keeping it fresh in that way. So yeah,

I think it's absolutely sustainable to do it on your own. But you have to be involved. It's a gray area. Yeah, it's a gray area. Because you need good people around you as well. And you need help. Not anybody can just... Because you want to be focused on the music and keeping that pure. But you could have your manager run the marketing for the...

Yeah, I think where the label thing, I'm a little biased because I work for three different labels now. Oh yeah, you can't really talk shit No, but like what I've seen with the labels that I work with aren't major labels Yeah, they're people that love, that want to give people opportunities. So you have the Floki Studios, the Eleven Music, the guys in Iceland. It's like Analog Sun plays once a year. And they're like, hey, we're going to...

I don't even want to say how much money it costs. They're like, you guys have this opportunity. So all of a sudden, the label gave the opportunity for us to get together, do the thing, and then promote it. We don't have to worry about it uh color red is another label i work for and those guys are like yeah you can't afford a studio like come to the studio record your stuff and like so they're giving people these opportunities to create

and and then perception records is another one i work for and it's the same type of thing it's like they're funding these records for artists that they actually care about and actually want to see succeed and giving people opportunities to use cool studios and use because yeah you can make stuff in your house or whatever but it's also kind of cool to go to a like a really nice studio and a lot of musicians are like okay so if we get a million streams after everyone gets their piece we made 400 bucks yeah exactly Yeah, exactly. Which is half a day. Yeah. So it's like having the labels, these boutique labels,

I think as far as that conversation goes, is more the future because they actually care about their artists and the music. But I've never really had a conversation with you guys. We've never really been like friends yet because we've always been busy in our own lives. We are. We weren't.

200 shows a year over here. We weren't friends. You too. You guys are gigging hard i thought we were oh we're gonna have a conversation about you saying you're going to fight franco i love it i someone you gave your number to a fan oh i gave your number really all right explain this first. I mean, we want to get into this? We have this in Boston. We want to get into this?

I do, because I tell everyone I'm Josh Fairman sometimes. First off, I don't believe you. No one thinks you're me. Everyone thinks you're you and I'm you. There's two of you. There's only one of you. Maybe. No, you guys are big in the Midwest.

Yeah, of course. Alright, well, so basically everyone thinks I'm you. Literally. Really? Everybody. yeah yeah yeah of course all right well so basically everyone thinks i'm you literally really everybody like on jam cruise like one of my favorite stories was on jam cruise there was like i don't know roughly i'd say like 98 of the people decided to come up to me and like tell me how much they love you thinking i was you like it might have been 99 of the people i know it's like 2 000 3 000 people came came to me yeah and like they're like Andy Andy Andy but this and I was just like hi man yeah I'm Jewish did we know oh

yeah everyone so I guess all right that's a side note. We'll get to that. I've been called scramble Greg, special Greg, which was my favorite. But anyway. Does that hurt your ego? No, I don't give a shit. You don't give a shit. So anyway, my favorite part of this Jam Cruise thing is finally, it's like, I don't know, it's like the fifth day or whatever. Like we've all been up for like the whole time.

Five days. Five days. And this chick comes up to me. She's like She's like Andy and I'm like, what's up? She's like why did you pour that beer on my face and I was like I was like, you know what Andy doesn't give a fuck and she's just like

Like speechless I'm like and then of course it's me. So I felt bad, but it was like, I thought that she was hilarious. Yeah. And then I'm like, no, I'm not Andy. She's like, what do you mean? Like even so, like, she didn't understand what's happening. Then I like made a shitty joke and then I explained to her I'm not you. Yeah.

And then she still was like, like, didn't even even know what I'm telling her. She's just like, you're Andy. I got a text message once like, so good to meet you at Cervantes bro. I'm like, I'm in Indiana. Fair man. We're doing the boat again this year though. This coming year.

What? You're on Jam Cruise again. Yeah. We're just going to get to do all of this again. Yeah. It's level two. My other favorite thing to do is like when I'm at a restaurant and someone's like Andy Andy I'm like then I like going to full asshole mode I don't tip I like a bunch of we should

I'm like off menu menu I'm like make sure to tell him Andy's here take a picture and put it on the wall I sent half the shit after i ask for it and i'm just really out here to fuck with you this place is a prison yes no i love you josh it's awesome i love that we look we're yeah we're kindred spirits kindred jews yeah there's only like four of us in denver so it's like people just get really confused let's look at the camera awesome i want to talk to daddy daycare over here for a second. What's happening? You're a dad.

How hard is it to like, you guys tour a lot. Is it getting harder now to like take gigs unless they're important? A little bit. Just making sure it's worth it, you know? But we got to get back out there and sell tickets. Got to make money. I give Chris credit. The only gig that he has turned down was like when he was having a baby oh let's go let's go he's like i just don't know if i could do it

soon i was like yeah yeah we almost did it you're literally yeah we almost did it still but so that's the you know but we're conscious of what did you want to do i don't want to interrupt but chris has been killing that would have been a good paycheck. Oh my God, look at you. Got to put some food on the table. You're lucky the kid loves drum and bass, though. It's working out pretty good. I feel like she understands that daddy is a drummer and she's going to be real cool with that.

She came out to her first show a couple weeks ago in Boulder. She's raging. All the way through Encore. Five months old. You put little baby headphones on it she saw sound driver we're finger dancing I was like so do you have any kid you guys touring a lot it do you feel like it's the right time and to finally have a kick because

you guys are finally pop in and making money like real money and yeah we didn't think it was necessarily gonna happen that fast yeah oh you were planning for it I mean not you know I wouldn't say it was a plan not really but you know yeah they took the goalie out of the goal or something like that yeah it's crazy he's so much stronger now yeah he just has dad's it was like crazy like yeah no neck yeah just like we're like hey it's a two and a half hour set he's like i've been waiting for this brother in a row a couple weeks ago we tried to write through him that's good dad's strength yeah have you ever it's something else so is it most of these guys writing

songs well most of the time, yeah. But sometimes we'll take an improv from a show, bring it to the studio. Yeah, I don't even know if it's... I mean, it's kind of complicated. We do a lot of stuff. But as far as pre-writing stuff, it was us. But on this new record, it was like three or four songs came from... Just jams?

Like a third of the record was created together on the spot like the inspiration for the songs like from a show yeah yeah are there from shows and this was like during covet or a couple of songs we did on streams in my basement record and we and you're like okay we're gonna do an improv with these chords and this key like go and then you record that and then you go back and re-engineer that. But you came up with it on spot. Okay, so when you're getting into these moments and these jams and do you all just

kind of click like, oh, this is tight. And y'all look at each other like, what the fuck? And that's the shit. That's where you have all the rehearsals for and all the like, because when you hit those moments and we're all just like... Okay, tell me about this. As a jam band. I keep forgetting you guys are guys are dope yeah because i always think of you guys like dance music and like just like a party yeah but i didn't realize you really do spread

out yeah yeah okay let's talk um because i don't i'm i'm new to this jam world i got you I'm new to this jam world. We're on nugs.net. Let's go. Okay, so you get to these moments. So do you plan like, we're going to spread this part out? Or is it always like, you just take the eye?

Like when you're making the set list, like say, we're going to spread this song out. There's like, at this point, two or three ways to play every song. You see that synchronized head tilt there? There's like two or three ways to play every song you see that synchronized head tilt there yeah um oh we're gonna there's like two or three ways to play every song uh like versions of it and it's definitely like depends on the set how long we have yeah depends on the moment sometimes it's like let's not do it that way this time but uh we've definitely like you know you'll play a song

live for a year or two years or whatever and be like i'm tired of this version of it so then we do rehearsal and it's like what if you did this here we'll try it out and then like make new clips and be like okay now this has this alternate part to it uh there's some songs that just have a chunk that's built into it where we're like we're gonna do a jam here every time and it's different every single time and then you go back into like something's gonna happen you know okay so when you're going do you ever just like fall on your face on some improvs no it's happened oh yeah no i don't think so like when he's playing bass it's like if it's really getting really wily over in my world i'm like what keyboard part of my looping then like he can just say hit that one like

when he starts getting crazy well the class is ising goes like this boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom . I'm like, what about you? What's going on? He's just killing it. He's just killing it he's better just in the zone but he's holding on he's holding on you've been playing to a metronome for so many years now your time is just like she's just like yeah he's just killing so you're live looping like program stuff as well yeah yeah yeah so it's like i've got i've got six outputs coming out of ableton now two are guitars two are keyboards and then a stereo and i've got all that matrix and stuff and then i have like so i'll make like drum loops percussion loops and then a stereo. And I've got all that matrix and stuff. So I'll make

drum loops, percussion loops, and then Chris will lay in with that. He'll send a bass line, and then I'll put a keyboard part down, lay a little synth over it, and then start playing guitar. So you have a click in your ear? Yeah, and then we each have mics that we can

throw little audibles to each other. That's kind of newer stuff, though. Well, he's had the click for a long time but like since I've been in the band it went from like way looser like no click and all the stuff was vibe to like being like hey we're really trying to do some shit yeah like let's and then we start so many little tools we're like when I got the click all sudden was like oh my god my life. I love this because now I know what's happening.

You can make these big silent parts of a jam. You don't have to keep playing. Yeah. And that helps the jam probably. Let's say it's more cohesive. It feels like you're live writing a song, which is why we can take some of these improvs and go back and be like, it's at this tempo. You can take parts of what you recorded in the live part and either sample that or re-record it but have it actually lined up.

You're recording all your samples. We've been recording everything. This is time, dude! The talkbacks is a newer thing too. Now it just keeps opening the doors further into how deep you can go because Kevin can do a really complicated progression and usually our ears are fine.

We can play whatever. Sometimes it's like, what's the third chord like is like what is going on because there's so much happening and he can just be like yo we're doing this and then let's build it up and do something and then all of a sudden you're like literally live producing yourself oh this is why you guys are fucking high yeah as producers now this is all opening okay holy you guys are doing a lot of work yeah so have you ever like up with the metronome with the programming and like don't know where the y'all are at no i mean yeah because he's over there playing bass you kidding me i have definitely never totally up in front of thousands of people.

What's the worst fuck up? Where were you? There's a couple of nightmare things that can happen. I have to stay really focused. We've been drinking less at shows. I can tell. You have to. We've been drinking less at shows. When you're recording this shit every night,

I've been uploading the boards to Nugs and everything, so I'll listen to everything. It's like watching the tape. You're like, oh, that part was kind of... There it is, Joff sipping the tequila again. That's usually me. You got to be kind of straight. When you're running a computer and metronome shit, I realize that too.

You got to be on it. It's a sequence. Lately, it's been really smooth, for sure. There's a couple of nightmare things that happen. If I hit one button wrong, it's going to launch eight clips at the same time in a different song. You're like, fuck. You can get out of that real quick, but

the reflexes have definitely become... I have a whole system of knobs and buttons that I hit that I could explain it to you if I had it here, but it still wouldn't make any sense. If I'm in panic while I'm pressing all these like, oh my God, there's like a panic knob. You know what I mean? That's like fade everything out.

Yeah. And then reset. I've definitely gotten lost and played an entire wrong part. You did. Wow. Wow. We don't talk about it. Wow.

Literally knowing it's wrong and like still going, it's like the worst. It's like the existential, like you're standing in front of yourself. Just like, what have I done? Here we go. And then I'm like, I know I'm fucking up. I know I'm fucking up. While you're playing? Yeah.

And I'm like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. How do I not know what to do? I always know what to do. I don't know what to do. And then it's like, gets to the next part. I'm like, I don't know what to do. I always know what to do. I don't know what to do. And then it's like, gets to the next part, I'm like, oh, I see what I did. To be fair, it was a new song. You get to the part where you finally do know, you're like, oh my God, I just fucked up for like a minute.

Yeah, but you know what? The next rehearsal- Where was it, Sigur Rós? No, that was an incredible set. It was a festival. That was good. I watched that show. No, that was a- That was fucking good. It was a good time.

I don't know, we don't have to talk about it, but- Talk about it. That was an incredible set. That was good. I watched that show. No, that was... That was fucking good. That was a good time. I don't know. We don't have to talk about it. But the important thing is, we came back and we had a rehearsal in the next week. And Josh goes, let's do that song first.

Oh, yeah. Because that's what it's about. You can make as many fucking mistakes as you want. Oh, see, it bothered you for a week. It still bothers us. It still bothers us. I literally don't... Dedication. I feel like you do know me. it bothered you for a week it still bothers me I literally don't dedication

I feel like you do know me it's never going to end I'll be like 70 years old I can't believe that that's what I was saying you're a different man since Hawaii I'm trying to let it go I won't make that same mistake ever again

this is really good let's go to that moment when you find that pure nirvana moment that you're recording this I won't make that same mistake ever again. This is really good. Let's go to that moment. When you find that pure Nirvana moment that you're recording this, do you all look at each other like, what the fuck? Or what's it like? A lot of times, yeah.

Those are definitely like, you can just tell that it's all clicking and that we were all teeing up an idea and it was lined up. All the ideas line up at the same time. You're like, it's happening. Dude, we're doing the thing. That's what we say all the time.

We're doing the thing. It's the thing that we practice for. It's happening. And there's people here. We're sharing it. When me and Chris, we're jamming, so we literally don't know how long it's going to go. We're all making educated guesses

of what everyone else is thinking you know what i mean like like we've all played together like i think kevin's gonna do this maybe yeah like i think they're doing it and like so it's like because it's not oh we're not like in the talk about mike's like now this happens now this happens now it's like very much intuitive yeah and so when you're jamming you don't know what's gonna happen and me and chris are like locking up on levels and it's like yeah and then Kevin's like oh we're doing it and then like we're all like I think we're peaking and then like Kevin like looks up we're like yeah and so like those are the when like, no one said anything and everyone was

on the same page and it's improvised and like, we don't even know what's happening. Those are like, And then you like walk over the mic after and be like, Oh yeah. Yeah. So like that's what we're striving for, you know, and those that's been happening more and more, which is dope. Do you ever, that's dope. So do you you ever forget to look at each other at a dope moment and then after the end of the show, you're like, yeah, that song, that part, and you're like, yeah, bro!

And all three of you are like, yeah. Yeah, definitely. God, this is very exciting. This is interesting. I think the reason, the telepathic stuff is because of sharing a couch or sharing a fucking van for 10...

People forget how important those years are to make a band click yeah you need those years of fucking doing shitty cocaine in kansas or grinding sleeping at someone's house on the floor yeah or sleeping in the van and then going playing the next day to no one yeah you need those days to click because that's when you guys are the happiest right when you're all three clicking yeah yeah my first gig with these guys got cancelled and we were on our way to Salt Lake City and the promoters like oh I got a new venue it's called the loading dock loading it turns out it wasn't the loading dock, it was a loading dock. We literally showed up to an abandoned building, like garage abandoned building, and set up on a loading dock to the outside.

And it's like cold. They're like, we're going to bring in heaters, don't worry. And we're like, uh, and we played for like, I don't know, like five people, kids. I mean, there was kids. And then it was like, we got a new venue like the loading dock and it was like you made just a loading dock and that was my first gig with these guys where i was like i was like i'm in sun squabby now because i've been was it five years six years six five or six years now but like that was like the first run with them and like i had seen them like we had

worked in the studio and like so you guys are the ogs yeah oh geez oh my god i'll always be the new guy oh yeah and you showed up when they started popping dog these guys have to rough it out for i was roughing it myself okay many i've been when did it start getting what were you in before that i play in a band called kinetics you're kinetics yeah i used to see you guys yeah poster everywhere yeah so we we were going like 12 week tours yeah i remember you guys digging hard yeah i've done all the shitty gigs yeah okay yeah okay see i don't know you guys i've been doing shitty gigs my whole life i love it so well still man what shitty gig do you remember the most oh man i mean the loading dock was pretty epic it was honestly not even shitty i wasn't that shitty no just yeah straight train

the shittiest gig is oh i know my shittiest gig what we're in nashville of my kinetics first trip to nashville and we're like we're in nashville we're sick now and we go to the ball and we're like oh yeah and it's like wait, does it suck? I think maybe this place sucks. I don't know, whatever. Yeah, we're in Nashville, man. We made it. And we play and no one, like, you know, it's empty or whatever. And like, it's getting closer and closer to the gig.

We're like, okay, it's still empty. And then we play and literally there were three people there. And at the end of the night, the sound guy's like, hey, don't worry about paying me. Just get your tab. And we were like, we were supposed to pay you like, like, apparently we were on the hook to pay the sound guy. And like, he's like, don't worry about it, guys. And we were like, we didn't even know he had to pay you. And like, yeah, and he's like, just don't skip out on your tab. And so like, you know, we made negative 300 bucks, like drove all the way to Nashville. And like, I think that might be my shittiest gig. One time we played a, this was before you were in the band, but we played a frat party

in Oxford, Ohio, University of Miami. If anyone doesn't know Oxford, Ohio is the craziest, weirdest fucked up college town I've ever been to. Shout out. Shout out. Anyway. Shout out. We were playing outside. is like the freshman up on

the it's just like there's kids passed out on kegs and one shout out uh so college baby they had the freshman up on the roof holding the uh cinder blocks for the tarp roof of the stage that we were playing under and one of them got too drunk and dropped his and it fell off and it hit me literally like in the back of like center of the back like i was standing like like six inches back top of the dome literally like hits me we like stop it was like like out of a movie everybody's like oh that was like i'm good but like dude uh they were like you guys you guys can you guys i think we slept at some fucking rest stop that night because they were like, woo. But like, dude, they were like, you guys can, you guys, I think we slept at some fucking rest stop that night because they were like, you guys can crash in the frat house. And they're like, oh, it's just like the showers are right here.

And you're like, don't do that. I did that. I've done that. Hey, thanks man. That was a good time. I'm just now remembering a bunch of shitty gigs. Thanks for the natural light. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. The punch. It was adderall what the punch their guy you know their guy they said they said there was going to be a bunch of drugs in there

they fooled all the kids it was just adderall they're putting adderall in the punch jungle juice I don't know man the is wrong with kids dude well i wish that was they were they were incredibly athletic for the next two hours after this that was a very rowdy uh party but again i got hit with a brick yeah i don't think we got paid that guy i saw an entire i got it i just saw an entire house literally an entire home destroyed yeah and like was this like one of your first big markets? You know, it's a party school. I've been there a lot of times.

Where are you guys from originally? I'm from Longmont, Colorado. You're a Colorado boy. Boston. Columbia, Missouri. You might know it from the Blue Note or Mojo's. Sean from Springfield, my guitar player. So that's where I saw you.

You guys were all over like Waka Rusa and Harvest Fest. You played Fayetteville a bunch at George's Majestic. Fayetteville is so awesome. That was like the first market that popped us. I think you guys too. I think that Waka Rusa. I mean, that Waka Rusa, Magic Waka Rusa. Yeah.

Were you on Harvest Fest too? No, we never did that one. Yeah, you might're my too heavy for that yeah but waka that's a that was those days were we were young yeah it was like summer camp in waka rusa yeah ten thousand lakes that was my first oh yeah yeah yeah so you were like midwest band no we're from denver oh but we're now i'm talking yeah yeah we were just all over the country we toured coast to coast i mean it was like a 12-year extravaganza shitty gigs look at Oh. No, I'm talking Canucks. Yeah, Denver. Yeah. We were just all over the country. We toured Coast to Coast.

I mean, it was like a 12 year extravaganza of shitty gigs. Look at you now, guys. You guys are getting records. You got sugar daddies paid for your records. Yeah, this band is going great. Sunsquabby. Sports. New record.

Yes. What's it called? It's called Arise. You excited? Yes. Like really proud of this? We're very proud of it. Very proud.

It's taken two, almost three years to finish. Are you sick of listening to it? We're sick of listening to it, but we're very proud of it very proud it's taken two almost three years to finish are you sick of listening to it we're sick of listening to it but we're so for you guys yeah out there um you also got some exciting news for all the denver homies you are going to do uh yeah we're going to be at the ogden and that's going to be february the 17th and 18th two nights Ogden let's go oh my God big show you know what's next boys yeah you know that pathway yes yes one step to Red Rocks yes you already do Red Rocks but like to have your own show yeah I saw two nights at the Ogden I mean I don't know it's really hard to get out keep playing in our hometown and that's people. I'm just really proud of you guys. You guys have been working your ass off and now it's all coming together.

And to see you guys find inner peace with yourself through going on these spiritual trips and having kids and just keep growing because life happens really quick. And we'll wake up one day and our little afros will be gray, Joshua. I don't have gray hair, dude. Not yet, brother.

You're getting closer. No, I don't. Getting closer't have gray hair, dude. Not yet, brother. You're getting closer. No, I don't. Getting closer to the gray. You can't see it, can you? You're going to be like Albert Einstein up in this bitch. Yeah, I'm going full crusty like as this goes. I'm going to keep this. Just start wearing the hat and let it stick out.

Please. Please. Promise me. Promise me. Go for it. Just go like mad scientist on it. Yeah, I haven't had a haircut in 16 years. Don't. Not for another 16.

Alright, boys. Thanks for being on the show. Good luck with everything. Go to the Ogden. Go listen to their record. They're really proud of it. Before they get sick of it and make a new one. I already made a new one, huh? It's in the works. Alright, get out of here.

Go work. Later, guys. You fucking psycho. All right, get out of here. Go work. All right. Later, guys. You tuned in to the World's Heavy 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 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 helped make this show great. Thank you all. And thank you for listening. Be your best, be safe, and we will be back next week.

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