Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 220: Manic Focus (A Summer Camp Music Festival Episode)

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

A special message from Prof Frasco with a healthy reminder to not overthink it... just dub it. Sometimes, on the rocky road of life, you may ask yourself: Why magic? Well. Have you tried asking yourself: why NOT magic!? Cuz on the Interview Hour we got magic-man/electronic musician, Manic Focus! Andy and Nick reveal that they don't just love magic, but also this man and his music. Listen to the bro-down and don't forget to catch Manic Focus at Summer Camp Music Festival and/or on the road near you: www.manicfocus.com Call, leave a message, and tell us how you really feel: [phone]  Watch this episode streaming now!! Psyched to partner up with our buddies at Volume.com! Check out their roster of upcoming live events and on-demand shows to enrich that sweet life of yours. Check out our new single, You Do You streaming on Spotify and Apple Music now! And while you're at it, give a big middle finger to the bigots in your life And don't forget to catch the band in a town near you 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 our good friends that help us unwind and sleep easy while on the road and at home: dialedingummies.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Dolav Cohen Arno Bakker

Hello! This is Professor Andy Frasco, PhD from EDM University, and this is a segment we'd like to call FUCK IT, JUST DUB IT! On today's lesson, we are going to be analyzing and exploring the dub potential of all things Disney music. of all things Disney music. We have our colleague Gregory Armont, a music theater professor from the college Pigeons Playing Ping Pong University, who will sing a Disney song of his choice, and we will see if we can actually dub it.

Shall we get started? Greg, you're on the clock. The world for once in perfect harmony with all its living things. Can you feel the love? La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la In short, our pal is doomed. And we're back. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's your heads?

How's your minds? Are you still going to vote for Nick Gerlach 2024 for the Indianapolis Mayor campaign? Let's go. Our guy. No, 2034. Now he's our show pony. Now you're my show pony.

2034, baby. 10 years. Speaking of Indiana, this is a summer camp music festival edition. It's in Midwest. It's right there. A hot tip, by the Indiana, this is a summer camp music festival edition. It's in Illinois, but it's in Midwest. It's right there. A hot tip, by the way, if you're flying in, don't fly into Chicago and go down. Fly into Indy. How far is that?

Roughly a little bit short of a drive, but you gain an hour. Oh, nice. And it's an easier drive because you're not getting out of Chicago's airport. Indy's airport's right on the west side of Indy, right off 74, basically. You get up there in two and a half hours. A little hot tip. Plus, it's cheaper to fly into Indy. There you go. There you go.

Summer camp. So if you're flying in for summer camp, fly into Indianapolis and drive. Or fly into Peoria if you want to be bougie. If you're rich, go to Peoria, obviously. If you're rich. But you're going to summer camp, so go to Indy. If you're rich, you'd be at EDT Vegas. I'm just kidding.

We have one of the artists, one of the headliners of the fest Jonathan Jonathan from Manic Focus He is Manic Focus How do you say that if he's one man but he goes by a name He's Manic Focus We have Manic Focus We're dipping our toes into the waters of

Matanka He's a great guy He also does a sick magic trick at the very end of the podcast You want to get on video for this one. You got to go watch this on volume.com because he is... It was amazing. I didn't know a lot about him. I dug it up.

Give me some info. He's manic. That's why his name is Manic Focus. He's bipolar. Is that the same thing? Manic is half of bipolar. Bipolar. Polar means. Yeah, yeah. Is that the same thing? No, well, manic is half of bipolar. Oh. It's bipolar. Like, you know, polar means you're on both sides of it. So you have the manic part and the depressive part.

Oh, shit. Some people are just manic, I guess. I don't know how common that is, but there's definitely people who are just depressed. But this was a tell-all. He said he doesn't really talk about this publicly, and he was very vulnerable, and I think you're going to love this. So head to volume.com and watch his magic trick.

It's so good. I was shocked. It blew my mind. I hit him up. I was like, we don't have any cards here. Can you bring some cards? He's like, I got some cards. He probably has so many cards.

So shout out to volume.com. It was a long episode, so we're just going to go straight to the plugs. Volume.com. Head over to volume.com. Our podcast, if you want to watch it on video, is there. They are going to be streaming live shows from the Bitter End in New York City. If you don't know what the Bitter End is,

it is one of the coolest venues in New York City. You're going to love all the shows they're going to put on there. Which borough is it in? I think it's Lower East Side. Lower East Side. That makes sense. Yeah. And then they also have a catalog of live shows. If you want to go watch your favorite bands,

I guarantee you they're on volume.com. And also if you want to rewatch some of that NOLA funk jazz fest stuff, those are still on there too. There's so much shit on there. Just get on there and start fucking around. It's free. And our whole podcast is backlogged there if you want to watch the video. So go to volume.com slash Andy Frasco.

You can sign up for free too if you're an artist. It's going to be good. I would if I were you, but I don't know. I'm not you. I try, so maybe you don't want to try. You just want to hope the world comes to you and it'll all work out because I grew up and everything's going my way. It's not going to work that way. You've got to try.

Get on volume. Sign up. Also, you've got to try edibles. Grab yourself some dialed-in gummies if you're in the Colorado area. There's a lot of Red Rock shows coming up. Also, you got to try edibles, dialed in gummies. Grab yourself some dialed in gummies if you're in the Colorado area. There's a lot of Red Rock shows coming up. I know people, you guys are flying in to go hang out on the rocks. So what are we going to do about it? We're going to eat edibles because it's much easier

to take around with you all day. Yeah, you don't want a whole bunch of weed on you. And they'll take your pen. They took my pen last year. Red Rocks took your pen? Dude, I almost I almost carried out on this guy. He was like, wouldn't let me bring it in because it was like together. It's a battery and a thing. I was like, dude, what are you talking about? This is legal.

Yeah. Do you know who I am? I've worked here more than you have. How dare you? I've been the sideman for many openers. I am endorsed by a weed company, an edible company. How dare you not take my freedom? I've been the sideman for many openers. I am endorsed by a weed company. An edible company. How dare you not take my freedom? I've been the sideman for direct support many times.

I've worked at Red Rocks many of times. How dare you? I know every security guy but you somehow. So grab yourself some dialed in gummies. Yeah, I played there 15 times. You probably played there. You played there 100 times. 15.

15? You played Red Rocks 15 times? Mm-hmm? That's counting the pandemic where I didn't really get to play for three years. God, you know. I was banging it out four or five times a year there when I first moved here. I am so impressed with you. Like every day I look at you and I'm like.

It sneaks up on you, doesn't it? It does. I kind of come off like a lazy bum. Yeah, kind of like you feel like you're lazy. People think I'm like a lazy guy. I'm actually, I mean, maybe a little. You are kind of lazy like you're lazy. People think I'm a lazy guy. I'm actually maybe a little. You are kind of lazy, but you do it to recharge. You do the laziness to recharge. Well, I just don't party.

No. So maybe that's where I'm lazy, but I get my shit done. So maybe people are just stereotyping you, thinking you're lazy when actually you're just tired. It's a musician thing. I'm not tired. I just don't like people. Sometimes I want to stay home and watch them play games

with my high school friends. Me too. That's not lazy to me. That's valuable. I just watched this reality television show about people who sell baseball cards.

Golden? Mm-hmm. Company who like sells memorabilia? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fucking awesome. What's it on? Netflix.

I want to watch it. Cool. Yeah, I do have this weird thing where people sort of think I'm like this laissez-faire sort of. I do have this weird thing where people think I'm this laissez-faire. I get my shit done very early. They don't know that he's just on Doubting Gummy.

I'm just so smart that I get things done so quickly. Chill, chill, chill. I do though. I'm very intelligent. It doesn't take me a long time. What you guys do takes me half the know. Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. I'm very intelligent, so things just... It doesn't take me a long time. Okay, we're done. We're done with...

What you guys do takes me half the time. Okay, okay. Come on, Colin. We're going to shoo off these hold steady people for... No, I'm kidding. They don't even know who the hell we are. I think they can tell I'm joking. I'm clearly...

So, yeah. Volume, thank you. And thank you, Dalton Gummies. We got a great interview. They're delicious, the Dalton Gummies. You got to eat them. Yes. Eat them while you're watching a live stream on Volume.

Yeah. We got a great episode. I. Eat them while you're watching a live stream on volume. Yeah. We got a great episode. I'm telling you. I love this guy. As we've been getting deeper into the EDM world and interviewing. Speaking of Red Rocks, I played with him there once. Oh, nice. Yeah. So I just interviewed Bob Moses. I did manic focus and now

we did Grizz. I mean, we're to hear their stories and boogie tea taboo and taboo. We're fucking we areoo. And Taboo. Damn, we're fucking... We are in. We're pretty much DJs. We're pretty much DJs. Sun Squabby. We're podcast DJs.

Hell yeah. And Sun Squabby. I love electronic music, so... I've been liking it more and more, to be honest. It's my favorite thing right now. Yeah, I fuck with Grizz. I fuck with Manic Focus. It's just fresh and new.

There's no lyrics. I fucked with Bob Moses. Bob Moses is dope music. They're hot, fashionable, cool guys. And they're hot guys. My first Electric Force, I rode in the shuttle with them and they were just getting started.

But this isn't about our friends. This is about our boy Manic Focus. His music is also fucking badass. He is from Minnesota. Yee. And he went to Chicago. And then here. And then he came to Denver

and he's huge. This is perfect for summer camp. By the way, go to summer camp. It's Memorial Day weekend. It's coming up next week. I'm sure he's playing one and he's huge. This is perfect for summer camp. By the way, go to summer camp. It's Memorial Day weekend. It's coming up next week. I'm sure he's playing like one of the bigger stages. He's got a big stage. This is the best thing about summer camp is they develop all

these great bands and turn into these fucking huge acts. Big, gigantic, manic focus. I mean, we're not a huge act, but they helped our career. He tried to help my band, but it didn't work. Well, it was because that band's name was Cosby Sweater. It's not his fault. It wasn't his fault. I'm just saying he tried to help.

I'm giving him credit. Okay. I respect that. Yeah. I'm not dinking it away. I'm saying thank you. I'm also doing this. Cosby Sweater. It was a great name until he was a rapist. A serial rapist. Yeah.

A serial rapist. Yeah. He's on the streets again. I know. He's doing shows. How come I can't do shows? I'm just kidding. I don't want to do that anymore.

But it was... Jesus Christ, Nick. Anyway, back to Manic Focus. Manny Foky. I love his music. He's putting out a new record. Nice guy. He's super nice.

And his story is unbelievable. Yeah. About being bipolar and figuring it out later in his life. He's putting out a new record. Nice guy. He's super nice and his story is unbelievable. Yeah. About being bipolar and figuring it out later in his life. He basically found it out right before in high school. Quite the tale. It is quite the tale and he's vulnerable about it and he talks about how music saved his life. A lot of stops on the way for him to success. Right. So you're going to listen

to that. He earned it. Yeah. And while we're talking about music, download my new album or download my new song, You Do You. His sangle. And while we're talking about music, download my new album. Or download my new song, You Do You. His single. Pre-save my new album, La Optimist, that comes out August 11th. La Optimist. I did all my plugs.

Oh, and the other plug I want to do. Just be happy with yourself. Be happy with who you want to be. Be the person. Even if you feel like you have flaws, you don't. No, you do, but that's fine, actually. Yeah, everyone else has flaws too, so you don't have a flaw if everyone else has flaws too.

I always say, you know what? If you're anxious about how other people think about you, you got to remember, everybody's pretty much just obsessed with themselves and what everybody thinks of them. They're not thinking about you the way you're thinking about yourself. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Oh, Nick.

They're not. You're right. No one cares. No one cares. I don't think about anyone that's not in the room yourself. That's all I'm saying. They're not. You're right. No one cares. No one cares. I don't think about anyone that's not in the room with me ever. I'm just kidding. I overthink about everybody. Yeah, I know. That's why you think everyone's thinking about you all the time. Because you're like, I do that. Hello, everybody. Welcome to

Sports with Dolop. He's talking shit about the game. He's got a weird fucking name. It's Sports with Dolop. This week we're going to be talking some NBA playoffs. Live. Oh shit, the Celtics are down 2-0 to the fucking Miami Heat. But who gives a fuck, because the Lakers are down 2-0 to the fucking Miami Heat. But who gives a fuck?

Because the Lakers are down 3-0. The Nuggets fucking won in LA. No one thought they would win. Well, Lakers will take care of business at home. At least game three and then game four. We'll see what's up. But no, I love you. But your team fucked up.

Lakers are down 3-0. I'm sorry, AD. 23-7-12. AD showed up. LeBron showed up. Showed out. Couldn't get it done. They tried, but they're just fucking better.

Murray with 30 points in the first half, 7 in the second half. What do you say? Mile High city. Home versus home. They're just fucking better than you will ever be. They've never been in the finals. You guys fucked up. Go Nuggets.

Go Jazz. Fuck you. Fuck me. Denver Nuggets are going to the finals. 3-0. 3-0, bro. Sorry, dog. It's Sports with

Doloff! Bitch. Wee-wee! But you know what I mean. Take a step back. Relax. Relax and love yourself. Okay? Yeah. Alright. Enjoy Manic Focus. Manny. Yeah. All right. Enjoy Manic Focus. Manny.

Yeah. Chris, play some Manic Focus. All right. Let's pop it up. We never cut it yet. There it goes. There we go. There. Sympatico.

The producers always have the good time. I know. They just have... They're on that beat. J-Mac, how we doing, buddy? Good, man. There we go. It was amazing. Tell me about it. Give me your whole play-to-play. Were you nervous? You've done it before. Yeah, actually, this is my eighth time opening on Red Rocks. I played with you there once, remember? Yeah, we did the Pretty Lights. Live man. Yeah. But yeah, man, it's probably my favorite venue in the world. It's amazing.

And one thing I noticed is whenever I'm playing a show at a venue the stage is usually above and the crowd is underneath you but whenever I address the crowd I'm usually like looking up like yo what's up you know and just kind of shouting at the ceiling but at Red Rocks you do that and it's like everybody's up there so

yeah do you get like pre-show like anxiety or like are you a type of dude where you're always prepared? Are you a prepared dude? Yeah, I think I'm pretty prepared. I do get a little bit of pre-show anxiety. Mostly, it's not really like, I wouldn't call it nerves. It's more, I want to be out on stage because that's where anything can go wrong.

And I'd rather address that right away instead of sitting waiting like, oh, does this sound all right? Are my monitors good? What's the biggest fuck up that's ever happened? Man. You hired me. No, I think actually, shit, when you played with me, when we opened at Red Rocks for Pretty Lice,

the first song just glitched out. Oh, I remember this. It completely stopped. You played with me when we opened at Red Rocks for Pretty Lace. The first song just glitched out. Oh, I remember this. It completely stopped. And thankfully, I had the band. So I'm playing. That's right. We covered you. And as soon as the beat hit, the computer just kind of cut out.

It happened. And the band's still kind of going. And then I'm like, I have to do a full reset in front of everybody right now. But yeah. What did you tell the band? Keep playing, boys. We're sinking with the ship like Titanic. The band on Titanic.

That was a sick band, too. What do you like better? Being there solo or having a band play with you? Oh, man. I think I like them both. I think it really depends on the situation. I think it really depends on the situation. Because with the band, if I have a solid sound guy and a solid crew, like at Red Rocks, then it's amazing.

Because everything is pretty smooth. The mics aren't feeding back. But the thing with solo sets is that I feel like I can work on the set right up until I go on stage. I can make edits and things like that. Whereas with the band, once that set is done weeks or a month in advance, I'm like, that's the set. I get them from you pretty early.

You're one of the early guys as far as having the set done. I've definitely played some sets where they're like, yeah, day of. Usually it's a week out for you, I think. It's pretty good. You're like summer camp hero over there. How many years have you done summer camp? Oh, man. Since 2013, maybe.

2013? Yeah. You're from... Did you live in Chicago before you moved to Denver? Yeah. I'm from the Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota. And then I moved to Chicago in about 2010 and launched Manic Focus in Chicago. With Berg? Was Berg like your manager or something?

So it was actually me and my brother Joe had started the Manic Focus, the LLC. And we didn't have any industry connects at all. So I was making the beats, and I hadn't even really known much about the festival scene or gone to a lot of shows. I was a big hip-hop fan, big into the atmosphere, Brother Ali, that kind of Midwest Minnesota hip-hop. And then my friends in college were like,

come to North Coast, the very first North Coast. Oh, that was when it was starting to pop. Yeah, when the whole festival scene started to pop. And I went there, and I was like, oh, man, I got to be a part of this. So I started transitioning from hip-hop beats to this electronic kind of mashup hybrid thing. And my brother's like, yo,

man, let's go for it. We didn't know anybody. I moved to Chicago and he's just really good at networking. Yeah. He is good at this. What'd you see in the electronic scene that made you so fascinated with it and to move from hip hop to electronic?

Was it just like, cause it was popular? Did you like really love the scene that was growing? I loved the scene uh and honestly in particular pretty lights was really like yeah he got me thinking about music and electronic music in a different way like how uh like i wasn't really a big fan of like necessarily like the the edm scene you know like house music or dubstep like i was like yeah that's that's okay but like i wasn't really big yeah into that and then pretty lights to me it kind of made sense

it felt like a kind of like progressive hip-hop as far as like where it's like the tempo is dope it felt like a hip-hop beat with synth elements there's mashup elements. It just felt like he was infusing his own sound and style into mashups or remixes as opposed to just a plain mashup. And I really loved that. And so, especially the tempo and the vibe, to me, it was everything. Do you remember your first show going electronic like that? What was the experience like? Were like nervous like changing your sound like that and playing in front of people or like were you ready um i definitely wasn't ready i i i think too when i look back on my older songs uh when i had jumped into making electronic music, I never really DJed ever.

I was basically producing songs and then playing my songs live. So when I would produce songs, I produced them with just each song individually in mind. But never like, is this song, can you transition easy from one song to the next? Like I think a lot of EDM tracks have a formula almost where it's like, all right, the first four bars or eight bars are going to be atonal and it'll be something that if you're playing

another song, you can transition really easily into this song. And then maybe there's a bridge that you can transition out of or into. And my music didn't have that format at all. So when I was DJing it, it was just a train wreck of transitions. It's like I'm here and now

this song keeps changing every fucking four bars. It's like a band almost. I think of that as naturally talented. You're like going by a format you're not like reading a book of how to EDM you're like you're doing it yourself in your own

I think of like Sean Marion his shot is so fucking weird but he's like and it went in that's fucking beautiful man I'm very curious about... We're going to talk about it all.

Your brother managing you is so fascinating to me. How do you get shit done without wanting to fight him? Oh, we... Our fights are quick. Yeah. Why did he want to be your manager?

Are you guys best friends? Have you always been close with him? He has a great brain. Why do you want to start your manager? Are you guys best friends? Have you always been close with him? Or he has a great brain? Why did you want to start a business with your brother? Also, who's older? I'm older. You're older, that's right. I have 15 months.

Oh, wow. So it's real close. So you went to high school together? Yeah, high school, grade school. Actually, I attended. So we went to high school in St. Paul. And I was always one grade above him. So I graduated in 05 and he was 06.

And then I left St. Paul, went to DePaul for college. And he came and visited me and he loved it. So then he came to DePaul and stayed in Chicago. But yeah, I think he's always had a great networking brain and like really good at kind of connecting and meeting people and um very business-minded he went to school for marketing and so uh starting it with him i think uh you know i love him to death and we were even though we're we're close and you know

i consider him a best friend right we certainly fight. What are the fights? What are they like? He's I guess he could be kind of a troll sometimes. He'll troll you? He's a troll for sure. He could be kind of a troll. Joe will fuck with you in the green room.

Really? He rules, but he doesn't fuck with me too much. I'm just kidding. He'll pick on me sometimes And then I'll get offended And I'll pick on him He never wanted to do music? I'm the famous one We both took piano

Yeah, you get 15% of what I make, remember? Let's go Always know your worth Always know your worth, Mac Always know your worth Shit rolls downhill brother And I'm older I bet people think He's older a lot though

Yeah Well and He would always do this thing too Where like We would meet people And he's like Who's older? And he would say

And people would be like him And then I'm like man Whoever does that The other guy's older Exactly No one goes like Who do you think looks older? The older one Is like Go ask that question Do you think I look older? Like I'm gonna die man. Whoever does that, the other guy's older. Exactly. No one goes like, who do you think looks older? The older one is going to go ask that question.

Do you think I look older? Are you going to die sooner than him? That's pretty amazing. So I just love family dynamics when it comes to business because it's just like it's so hard to start any business and have business partners, then have a business partner that you're fucking stuck with forever so like you either have to squash the beef or you're gonna ruin thanksgiving there's gotta be some advantages to it yeah brother i think the advantage is that

you'll say it like yeah he well he can be straightforward yeah so as far as like a lot of my songs um i play him for him and he's always been Kind of my number one fan Yeah And so That's fucking cute I'll play him I'll play him the song If he doesn't like it He'll just be blunt Oh word

If I'm playing a beat That's cool He'll be like This is cool And then the drop hits He's like And he'll make the face And that

You know the face When it's real Yeah He'll make a face Like nah I don't like that But he doesn't know Music production

Does he live here Yeah Oh my god We should get him He's in real estate He's in real estate. He's in real estate. Both of you coming on this fucking show. When you told me he was in real estate, now I'm like, oh yeah, of course.

He's going to crush that, dude. But yeah, he's very honest with his opinion, which I kind of appreciate. It's frustrating too because I spend a couple hours on a track and, hey, check this out. And he'll be like, eh, he doesn't like it. And I'm like, man, I just spent five hours on it.

Yeah. What about, like, are you ever, like, writing, like, from scratch, and he's in the room, and he's just, like, bickering? Like, no, no, that sucks. Keep going. Yeah. Sometimes. Like, that hasn't happened as much anymore.

But usually, if there's somebody over my shoulder, and I'm making a beat I move a lot faster like I try to anyway so you like collaborating yeah sometimes it really depends on who I'm collaborating with I like being in the driver's seat because I think

especially with this style of production where you're starting and stopping all the time it can get real nauseating quick if you're not and stopping all the time. The editing of it. Yeah, it can get real nauseating quick if you're not the person on the computer. Somebody else is like, oh, start, stop. It's just like... Get the fuck away from the computer, bro.

Even though you know you'd be doing the exact same thing. Yeah, exactly. There is something frustrating about like, you know what they want to do and they're like not quite getting there. You're like, God, if I just did this, it would take three keystrokes. Step aside. Exactly yeah but also too

when i was making rap piece like in high school and stuff you'd have you know i'd have friends in the room writing raps and you get good at trying to make something and keep the loop going and just making the loop and having to tolerate it for hours on end. Yeah. So I think that kind of helped with my style and helped my production chops. Just being able to make a beat and just loop it on end. Yeah. And kind of create a vibey thing that you could write to. Does he ever get jealous that you're the star?

Because you guys both played piano together. Like you kind of grew up playing music. And then he moved to business, and you stayed with it. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't get that vibe. Yeah, I think he's... Even though he can be real social and stuff,

I don't think getting on stage has ever really been his kind of vibe. So you started playing piano. Was it like classically piano? Yeah, I did classical piano from like six to about 14. Yeah, and I had this teacher who had a PhD in piano. And he and his wife actually both did. And they both had students and we would do like concerto competitions and that kind of thing when I was real little.

What? Yeah, it was wild. It was very... Do you use any of that knowledge in your music? Yeah, I try to, especially like composing strings or any like piano stuff. I like to incorporate like that sound or like progressions like that,

especially like little runs. And you know like the basics of theory from it probably? Yeah, yeah. Did you go to music school? No. I wanted to. Unfortunately, I didn't really get my scales down. I'll clap to that.

Let's go. My man's at Red Rocks though. You don't need scales to go to Red Rocks. I think a lot of it was like my teacher would play it and i could kind of sight read because he would put fingering like one three all right right right and then go home practice it and get it memorized and muscle memory and that kind of thing right so i think any of the theory that he had kind of instilled in me was more of like a background intuition thing and that stuck with me as far as like what sounds good together what can the context of notes and that kind of thing what was

your dynamic with your parents were they supportive of you doing music and stuff yeah yeah i'd say so my dad was always really supportive my My mom is really supportive today. I think she was a little more on the hesitant side. Why? Especially starting. Music is just incredibly competitive. I think it's also competitive and it's a gamble, especially if you don't know anybody in the industry.

And my mom's like, you don't know your skills. What are you doing? That's cool, but they never told you to quit. No. I think with my mom at certain points, and it's because the brother dynamic, like we would get in a fight and then we'd call our mom. She's like, what are you guys doing?

Go work at Trader Joe's. Joe said my beat's not hitting Joe said I'm clipping at 400 God it's so I just love I love how It does take a village to

Build the confidence of a kid To follow this dream called music If you have parents Who are just beating you down saying, you're not going to be a fucking musician. You're not going to be a fucking musician. Eventually, you listen to it. And I heard you suffer with a little bit of bipolar as well.

Yeah, I'd say it's a lot of it. Oh, yeah? Tell me your battle with bipolar. Oh, man. So I was diagnosed in 2007. was attending depaul university and i was i think i was doing the typical college thing just like drinking partying and you know classes were a background thing i would still do them did you pass your classes yeah yeah i was doing fairly decent actually uh but it certainly uh you know, spark notes and just whatever.

What were you majoring in? Oh, that was another thing. I was majoring in, I think my first major was philosophy. Me too. Weren't you a copywriter or something? Didn't you do writing too? I ended up in technical writing. That's right, that's right, yeah. But I was philosophy and English. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Uh, but I was English. I was philosophy in English. Yeah. And I think the philosophy kind of played into when I finally went manic.

Yeah. It made it really difficult to like argue with me cause I had like known all these philosophical But Freud says it's normal. Yeah. Damn. So what was, when was your first episode you think? Yeah.

Like 2007 I was at DePaul and drinking and smoking a lot of weed. Um, damn so when was your first episode you think? yeah like 2007 I was at DePaul and drinking smoking a lot of weed and like it just kind of snowballed getting these thought patterns that are that you know and it was triggering like an underlying thing

but I ended up like one weekend in the spring was just real chatty one night and it was just kept spiraling. And what, like your brain was chatty? No, like I was, I was like socializing and I would just not stop talking.

And it was going down this spiral of like, Oh God. And the meaning of life and all this stuff. And then I called my dad. I'm like, I got the meaning of life in my head. And he flew down to Chicago, grabbed me,

flew me back home. And then. Did he know it was starting to come? Did he feel it when he was a kid? I don't know if he felt it when I was a kid. My mom feels like she sensed, looking back, she thought she sensed it my senior year of high school. Why? What did you do?

I don't know. I had weird spending habits. Money? Blow cash? That is a mania thing, right? Like, yeah, that's kind of like a,

a, a man, but I was like, I had this like Nissan Altima 93 and I was really big into playing need for speed. And like one night on a whim, I bought like decals for the side of the car, but I hadn't put like a body kit on and i didn't

get them professionally put on so it's like this like dark gray nissan altima with like a big like tribal where's the vinyl on the side on both sides it looks ridiculous but in my head i was like this is awesome right yeah i got like underglow for the car too. And you're 18. And all my friends, oh, what did you do to your car? I get the weirdest looks at intersections. What is this? Because it didn't look like a custom anything. It was just a regular

Nissan Altima. Like a Hot Wheels. With a goofy sticker on the side. It's fucking wild. So now fast forward to college, St. Paul. With a goofy sticker on the side. It's fucking wild. Now fast forward to college, St. Paul. You're telling your dad about the meaning of life. I was at DePaul in Chicago.

Oh, DePaul in Chicago. I thought you went to Minnesota. I did, yeah. I was at DePaul. I was sophomore year. Told my dad. He flew me back to Minnesota. This is how delusional I was my parents took me to what I thought was like

a rock star training camp because I thought I would be like so famous I'm like okay I got to figure it out you know where's my reward and they took me

I thought it was some rock star training camp I'm signing in it was a psych ward and I know oh my god it's like intervention or something

yeah but I had no idea that I was signing myself into this hospital. And I'm around all these other patients. Were you suicidal or anything? Not initially. I was just manic. I was like riding this high of like, oh, I figured it all out. But like it didn't figure anything out. I'm just, you know, it's a manic episode.

it all out but like it didn't figure anything out i'm just you know it's a manic episode and i was in there for like a week and they you know gave me meds and eventually the episode kind of like peaked out and when i came when i realized like oh yeah there's a hospital like i was able because of good behavior i was able to kind of get out of the hospital. They wanted to keep me in there for like three weeks. But after a week and like talking to the doctor, I'm like, yeah, I'm ready to go. So what were they teaching you through this when you're learning about your bipolar-ness? Is it bipolar-ness? Yeah, bipolar. Yeah, bipolar one.

What questions are they asking you to like try to diagnose you? Like what is like all that stuff that they're're focusing in on in that week of analyzing you? Yeah, that's the weird thing. Honestly, a lot of times, if I had an episode, I'd kind of black out. I wouldn't be able to recall it later. No shit. Yeah, I could get bits and pieces of it. But yeah, I've had episodes where

like a whole month will go by and i just won't you know i'll have to be like told later like oh well this is what happened and then it's like and then because i'm because it's an episode and because i'm aware of my pulling like man i'm being gaslit right now. I actually don't remember this nap of time. But I think a lot of the times, because when I was in it, as far as breaking down, basically having a mental breakdown, breaking down my whole perception of society and that kind of thing and reality and life,

and you break it all down and then you're trying to communicate that. And rather than somebody telling you like, oh, this isn't, rather than them trying to figure out what you're saying, they analyze you based on how you're saying and what you're saying. Oh, like your tone. Yeah. Your tone. Your energy.

Yeah. Yeah. And your energy and that kind of thing. They put you on meds? Yeah. Like what do you take? an antidepressant? Yeah, well, at first it was like, I was taking six pills twice a day.

And so I was taking, I took, lithium is kind of like the main one. Yeah, that's kind of like the tried and true. So what, they're all six pills? Cal and LPM. Yeah. Could you sleep? Yeah.

That was also tricky. In the episodes, you can't really sleep. Like I'd be up for like. Days? Yeah. Like 72 hours. Damn straight.

Have you talked about this before? A little bit. Yeah. But. Let me know if I'm pushing you too much. No, no. I feel like too, that's another thing. People will say, oh, you're so brave. But it's like, if we don't have these conversations,

it's never going to heal. It's going to be this background tapping thing. And it takes the stigma off it a little bit, too. Yeah, I think that's what helps a lot. There's discussions about mental health awareness, but no, you know, come out and say what it is. So tell me this cocktail of pills you were taking. Lithium was kind of like the baseline.

It's like a mood stabilizer. It's very like lethargic and kind of like you don't care. Like if you were serious, were when I started having the downward, the suicidal thoughts, lithium was the one that's like, man, I do it, but it's a lot of work. I don't know.

So lithium just kind of defeats your fire. It just burns your fire. Or not burns it, it waters down your fire. It waters it down, yeah. On both sides, like the manic side and the depressive side?

The manic side and the depressive side. I was like glued to the couch. Were you a zombie? Yeah, I'd say so. Six pills is a lot. What else were you taking? Let's see. I was taking Depico.

What's that? I just remember the name of it. Okay. Yeah, that was... Google it, fans, if you don't. Depico. Probably antidepressant. I wasn't really big on antidepressants.

I took Welbutrin, which I guess is kind of one. People take that to quit smoking, too, don't they? That's what I had heard. Yeah, yeah. It actually did kind of curb my cravings. Yeah, there's something with it and smoking. Yeah. You were smoking a pack of cigarettes a night and shit, too?

Yeah, like a pack, pack and a half. Holy shit. Back to back. I'm so jealous. I know, that sounds awesome. You're smoking a pack of cigarettes a night and shit too? Yeah, like a pack, pack and a half. Holy shit. You're so jealous. I know, that sounds awesome. I want to smoke cigarettes. I'm going to take lithium so I can smoke 12 packs of cigarettes a day. But yeah, basically.

I love cigarettes. Yeah, so I took that. I took Risperdone. I tried to Billify for a little bit. That gave me akathisia. It's basically, that was one of the first ones they put me on was a Billify. And that made me real restless. It's like restless leg syndrome, but for your whole body.

I hate that. That's my biggest fears of restless knees. Yeah. It was like my whole body, like my hands and everything. So they took me off of that right away. Risperdal, that helped me a lot. The Motrigine was great. Holy shit. I feel like I'm taking a Latin class right now.

But yeah. How many months were you on six pills? Or weeks? Probably at least six to eight months the first time. After my first episode. When I had my first episode, they didn't know. You're really just

trying to get it under control. They would give me... They just throw pills at it and then you dial it back to be like, okay... How your body's handling it It's like the spaghetti method You see what sticks and what doesn't work

That's so fucking weird how they do that There's no scientific Because everybody's different And that's another thing too They gave me an MRI To make sure it wasn't anything else And nothing really weird popped up on the MRI Oh like brain tumor

Yeah they put you in the machine But? Yeah, they put you in the machine. But I remember when they put me in the machine, they were like, you want to listen to a radio station? I put on just a pop radio station. So I'm in the machine and Party Like a Rockstar is playing as they're scanning my brain. It's like, party like a rock, party. But yeah, The thing that

always tripped me up is that there's no scan. I'm manic. Andy, I think you're a rock star in that moment. You're still in the rock star. I was like, it probably confirmed you a little bit. Oh my God, it's all true.

When you're manic, everything feels like there's some hidden meaning behind it. It's all true. Everything, and that's another, when you're manic, everything feels like, like there's some hidden meaning behind it. It's all connected. Yeah. Like every, every little interaction, like you go to a corner store. Man, that made me get something. Were you still manic through this MRI process and all this stuff?

Yeah, I'd say I was still manic. I think being in the hospital had kind of like dialed back the manic episode. Then when I got out, like a big part of my episode was that even though my family and doctors were saying like no this is a disease i didn't want to let go of what i had experienced like there's a part of me that had to be like no i was right like there's something about the experience that like no i was on to something and letting go of that like kind of letting go like no it's like it's an illness and it was it was a it was your mind playing tricks on you that was really tough because you're scared yeah i'd say at points um I think That first episode was really tough

To dial in And come to terms with And the second episode was What was that? That was like So then when I got home I worked a job and then I went to the U of M I got re-enrolled in school but went to the University of Minnesota

That's close to home, right? So you're like, you're home, you're kind of near your family It's right in Minneapolis It's like right in town in minneapolis yeah yeah the minneapolis campus were you writing music yet yeah i'd been i'd been making beats like basically since i was 13 like and i was always doing that in the background there's like old records and like me when i was manic yeah that's always again like have you re-listened those manic records painful yeah like what is it what is the, have you re-listened to those manic records? Oh, it's painful. Yeah. Like, what is it? What is the music like? It's just like, you know,

because there's like the God complex that kind of came with my episode, so it's like... Well, she just weren't as good, probably. I mean... Yeah, no, it was terrible. The mix was bad, but all the raps were very like...

Oh. Like biblical-esque. What is the universe? This kind of makes... You know how you're saying like the whole everything's connected thing? I wonder like this made me kind of think like these conspiracy theorists, I wonder how many of them are like undiagnosed

manic, some of them. Like, you know, these people that are like everything's, the Illuminati, everything's connected. I wonder if like some of those. That's a good point. I wonder if there's a connection between like people not getting like help they need and that. I don't know. There could be though. What was the craziest theory you were convinced was true when you were manic? Oh, man. I don't know There could be though What was the craziest theory You were convinced Was true

When you were a manic Oh man It's It's tough to say I think there's Cause I did like Drift

Towards conspiracy theories It does beg You do kind of drift Towards these really Wild theories Of like Begs for it Oh yeah

This This Like I don't know There's I had some weird conspiracies About like Biggie and Tupac's murders. Oh, man. Like, oh, Diddy did it.

And I was like. You called your dad from college. Did you know about this Diddy? I had made. I had a. Before I went home, I had made. I had this class. I had to give a presentation.

And the slides and everything were just terrible. Like, it didn't make any sense at all you're a manic at the time yeah when i was working on it it was like the project that i had to turn in right before my dad pulled me out of school and it was a group project with two other guys they're like and they were like uh and i get go to class to like put the thing in and like pull up the slides and they just wouldn't pull up and that kind of shit happened a lot too where it's like you get these little instances where like you know something was you're supposed to do something and what the universe is like now and then and then it like ramps up your mania because you're like oh no this was some guy did that yeah this wasn't meant to be

and it was like you know, those little things. I feel like you get this weird heightened sense of what's going on. It's not necessarily true. It makes it really hard to dismiss little moments. When you're going through your manic episode, was it hard to accept people loving you? Like, was it hard for like your mom? Like, I love you.

You're safe. And you just couldn't see it? Or was that not a problem? My episodes actually did have a lot of like kind of love and like that as a theme. I think other instances, there is like a paranoia that comes with it. Like you're alone or something? Yeah. Like, you know,

it's tough to believe what's going on. Right. You kind of get in this defense fight or flight mode of like, no, they're not. Right. Like I'm being gaslit. Yeah. And that's another thing.

A lot of episodes, it can kind of feel like everyone is in on some. Against you. Not necessarily against you, but like... They're just working together. They're working together and... Like you're the main character. Hide something.

Yeah, it's like... You're the main character of the whole world almost or something. Yeah, and it feels like too like you're... At times it felt like I'm on some super elaborate alien reality show and I just have to find this thing that will like pop open the matrix. Like Truman show. Yeah, exactly. Can I hold your hand?

Oh my God, bro. Why haven't we been friends yet? You didn't meet. Now we are. J-Mac, this is wild. So you just live with this? Yeah. Still?

Yeah. Still? Yeah. I mean, it's in the background. I think I'm coming to terms with the idea that, yeah, it's my mind. It's playing tricks on me. Right. And being aware of that has been really helpful. Did therapy teach you that?

Yeah. So I didn't really take to therapy as much. I did psychiatry I took to, and I had a really great psychiatrist in Minnesota who was an older guy, and he had just a lot of experience in the field. And he was really great as far as my sessions. Because it was therapy, but it was more on a

psychiatry side it was more on medical because you're on pills and you're kind of studying your brain on all these fucking and at times I would get kind of frustrated with him because I'd be saying things and I'd be like oh he's not really like listening or helping me process but he was

he was just you know observing and kind of being a little more dismissive of the content of what I was saying that was more abstract. He'd be like, how are you feeling? And how can we get this under control as opposed to what do you mean by your Jesus?

What do you mean you're John the Baptist? All that kind of thing. Yeah, like psychiatry is like it's all like formula. It's almost like psychiatry treats the whatever condition, disease, whatever. Yeah. And therapy treats the symptoms. Yeah.

Or therapy is your friend. Yeah. Yeah. She's like your homie. Yeah. She's your homie. Yeah. It treats the symptoms, you know?

Yeah. Holy shit. Like antibiotics versus a soothing cream. You know what I mean? Yeah. We'll talk about the music soon, I promise. But I am very fascinated with this. When did you feel like

you were ready to go back to Chicago? When you felt like you had your, your brain under control? I'd say it was after, so I have, after my second episode, so I went to the University of Minnesota. I was a full-time student,

first semester in, a month and a half in, had a second episode. I had to drop out. No shit. I got a job. What happened the second episode? It was a lot more,

usually episodes, I guess, my doctor, from what I had read and heard, is that episodes get worse over time. But my second one, because of whatever reason, I had read and heard is that episodes get worse over time. But my second one, because whatever reason I had like recognized it, the second one was a lot easier to manage.

Okay. So I wasn't hospitalized and it was like, I was real coherent as far as what was going on. I still had a lot of like the feelings and like the, like, Oh, I'm on the Truman show. Like,

okay, thing is happening. You're more self-aware of them. Yeah. It was more aware. So dialing it in was easier. I still had to drop out of school and holding a job was tough. But,

um, once we had that dialed in, I went back to school part time and I was working two jobs. I was, uh, at DePaul? Oh, no,

in Minnesota, University of Minnesota. I was working at the TCF Bank Stadium. I don't know if it's that anymore. Vikings? The Gophers. Oh, the Gophers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was working there as a building supervisor, basically like a janitor. Right. And then I was doing tech services for the Gophers. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, that was really... So you've always been good at computer. Yeah.

You seem like you might be kind of really smart, huh? I'm alright. I'm getting the vibe. You're like, college. I didn't go. I barely studied, but I got all A's. DePaul is a really good school, by the way. It's a really good school.

You don't just go to DePaul. I had one semester left, and that's when my college roommates at the time, I was living in a big house, and we had four roommates, and they were all like, let's go to the first North Coast, and then let's go to Bella Music Festival in Minnesota. Oh, I remember that one. Yeah, and so it took me to those, and I was hooked.

And so I remember that one. It took me to those and I was hooked. I was making music. I had to set up the stats ticker for the stats people at hockey and basketball events, they need a computer for this. Like the Bly Box War?

Yeah. I would set up the computer to do that and then I would take it down. That was a lot of the job. I would do that and then I would take it down. That was a lot of the job. I would do that and then during the week it was like a call desk. Coaches would call and be like, I have a virus. I downloaded porn

on my work computer again. I'd have to wipe the whole computer. Stop using Mozilla Firefox. Keep going with this second episode. Yeah, so the episode, I'm getting back on my feet. It was easier to manage.

I'm getting back on my feet. Yeah, I went to these festivals. I had kind of like, I was going part-time. The second episode wasn't nearly as bad. But it had happened and I was still paranoid and had all this kind of stuff. But it had happened and I was still paranoid and had all this

kind of stuff. But the music, getting into Ableton and like, you know, getting, kind of upgrading my gear. I was on really old gear.

I was on an MPC 1000 and a Yamaha S80. That's old school. Yeah. And I had an EMAC. So I was using like, The 1000 was dope though,

actually. Oh, yeah. It's still, it's still a beast. Still a beast, yeah. EMAC J-Mac rocking the E-Mac Yeah exactly I'll clap to that I'll clap for my own line

I'll clap for my own joke But yeah I got the second episode under control I was working two jobs and going to school And went to some festivals and was hooked. So I started making beats, sending them to my brother who was still at DePaul in Chicago. He stayed. So I was in, he stayed in Chicago and then he graduated and I was like one semester left,

but I had two, uh, I couldn't get all the credits in one season. It was like two half. Right. So it would have been two semesters of half credits. Right. Wow. And so I would have either had to wait a year or drop out with one semester's worth of credits left and just go for it. Was your mom pissed?

Parents pissed that you dropped out? My mom was upset. My dad was kind of like, he was a little more like, go for it. He was a little more. My mom was hesitant And so then I'm moving With Joe to Chicago And Chicago just had a stronger

It's a bigger market It was really popping around then too Because Minnesota does have a dope music scene They got all those great rooms In St. Paul First Ave, Turf Club But Chicago is For what you're But Chicago is,

for what you're doing, Chicago is it. Yeah. I think Twin Cities is a really strong kind of like indie rock. It's got a funk scene. It's got a hip hop

folk scene. The EDM scene was just not. And Chicago literally was like top two or three of them. Did you like ever go with like Rhyme Sayers

or any of those guys? I was a huge fan. Never met them? Huge've met um uh i had met um slug and ant um because i had done some of the pretty lights um episodic shows they opened for him so i met him there and i met him at like a fan meet and greet uh but uh dj i was a big fan of idea and abilities rest in peace idea he was one of my favorites and um i actually got in kind of close with abilities dj abilities yeah um i saw him recently actually in milwaukee oh but uh but yeah he's he's he's really dope he's got a new album too that's like He's doing Like independent Kind of electronic Hip hop stuff

So you move back to Chicago You're probably Your mom's worried sick Like you're hanging out With your brother Your brother's in college You guys are just gonna be Fucking partying

But Joe had just Joe had just graduated Okay So he was looking for jobs Okay And he thought like This was like 15% of a brand new DJ

That's a good job He's like bro Come to my house I'll manage you Yeah Okay This is so wild So

What is What is Joe going through When he's Like when Cause that's like your best friend In a sense right Yeah So when you're going through these manic

Like Did you have Joe by your side Like helping you out Through all this And that was one of the big Things with my parents As far as pursuing it Was that if I was going to do it and I was going to go off and actually do it,

having Joe kind of be a little bit of a caretaker or at least being like a liaison between me and my parents as far as keeping them posted, that eased their mind and kind of made it more accessible. I wouldn't have been able to just kind of fly to Chicago on my own and do this. They would not have been supportive. Yeah. Like, hey, mom, I'm back. I'm king of the world again and I'm moving to Chicago. So you moved to Chicago. I also want to talk about you

being interested in magic but we'll talk about that in a second because I'm very fascinated with magic as well I love David Copperfield, I love the fucking guy Alright so you moved to Chicago Did you have, was Manic Focus a thing yet? No So you're just making beats and figuring out who you are

We had launched like online we had done I had a SoundCloud and stuff and we had a couple remixes, but nothing had really stuck yet. I had only been doing it as Manic Focus for like

three months. What an honest name too. Manic Focus? My man is Manic. Yeah, I honestly didn't like the name at first. Really? Why? Was it like you felt like you were making fun of yourself? I just didn't like the idea of just using, putting Manic in it. Oh, like

you're kind of like promoting your illness? Yeah, well, because of my experience with Manic episodes. Oh, you hated it? Yeah, initially. And then I saw the logo. My brother's like, well, hear me out. I'm like, man, Manic, I don't know. And then i saw the logo like my brother's like no well no hear me out i'm like man man i don't know and then i saw the logo and i'm like all right yeah i could see this plus it also was a name that like you could google it and we would be the first right it's phonetic and we

could get we could lock down the dot com and the email and joe is a smart motherfucker dude it's better than most DJs. And he was always on the grind on the internet, like in different chat rooms. There was a, what was it called? Turntable FM. Oh, yeah. You know, where you have the little avatars and the head bobs.

So he was in that all day playing my stuff. Did you feel like you're getting your brain, you're healing your brain when you moved back to Chicago and lived with your brother Or was it still kind of like iffy Like you're still going up and down I think it was still up and down I think A big thing with episodes

Is it can kind of like Pump your ego a little bit So like and then he would be there To kind of like pop the balloon Like deflate it. No, back to earth. This is Nick Gerlach for me, bud. Maybe I am manic. No.

Pop. He would always kind of reel me back in. He'd also, if ever I was kind of drifting musically into something a little too weird, he would reel that back in too. Oh, like tell me, give me those moments. Like what? Like you started bringing like a didgeridoo into the music?

Yeah, exactly. Like just if I was doing something a little too strange or like it was just mix wise, it didn't sound good. It's good to have a sounding board. Cause like, cause like me being by myself and not really with a band or anybody else, I'm just either in my headphones or on my speakers. But it's just a feedback loop of me making beats and huffing your own farts. It's great.

And he's not a musician, which is sort of sometimes better for you. Yeah, exactly. And he's got a great taste in music in general. And he's your bro. He could not sugarcoat the bullshit. He's got a great taste in music. He's your bro. He could not sugarcoat the bullshit. He's like, bro, this sucks. You just wasted three days of your life. If he really liked it,

then that's cool. Not only do I like it, but he likes it. There have been a lot of songs, too, that he's actually reeled in. On the Horizon is one of my bigger ones. That song, I had made that And he loved it And then I kept going with it

And kept adding things And then he was so upset He was like No what are you doing This is like Way far Oh right Like I liked it

Five iterations ago So then I reeled it back in And he was like Oh my god Thank you So you listen to Joe Yeah That's awesome So what was your first big break I'd say in and he was like, oh my god, thank you. So you listen to Joe? Yeah, for sure.

So what was your first big break? I'd say This Song is Sick, really. It's called This Song is Sick? The website. I thought you wrote a song called This Song is Sick. That'd be awesome. So yeah, this website.

My brother was in the Turntable FM. I think that's what it's called. I think so too. It's basically a chat room It's gone now They brought it back But there was a strong community there And this song is sick.com Which is here I think

Yeah it's based here Nick Garino Was in one of the chat rooms and had hosted one And my brother had been spending so much time in these chat rooms, like developing a community. He was on stage playing songs and he got like my brother, there were four people in there that were like diehard Manic Focus fans and they would play my songs back to back.

And Nick is in there listening like, what is this? And then we had sent him remixes and he started posting on the website. And that was like a period where that website could really pop you off. Yeah, absolutely. Like I know Big Gigantic and Grizz were both in his camp and huge on that. And so Nick kind of, he was really the guy that kind of broke the catalyst and really like he introduced me to Grizz and Big G. And then Big G put me on.

You did that whole tour with them, didn't you? Yeah. Before, they put me on New Year's in Chicago. It was New Year's 2012. It was Big Gigantic. No, the next year, the Aragon. Oh, cool. It was Big G, Grizz, and then me opening.

What a fucking lineup, dude. And then Big G put me on the winter tour where it was me and Joe in a car following the bus. And it was like 12 shows in 13 days. You drive with them at night?

Yeah. We would do the first show We'd hang out on the bus Time to go We'd drive We'd get a hotel or sleep in a car Or sleep at a random fan's house

Fucking awesome Just drove the whole way Thanks for letting us on the bus guys They eventually A year later I was on the bus That's that's the thing where they do that in the edm world they'll like take their openers on the bus with them yeah well and i think too though they had they had big g kind of they had taught me so much oh yeah but they did the same thing with sound tribe yep so like they followed the bus and to me i think they just... One, they didn't have room on the bus.

That was third support. And then two, it was just like, well, if I can do this part, it's like the paying the dues part, and really stick with it. This would kind of determine if I was cut out for it. And it's fun to look back on that, honestly. Those things are...

I'm glad I did weird, dumb stuff like that. And it was about... Joe and i were both on it together and so he was we were driving all the shows and um that's good that was kind of like the brit and then that summer like i you know i'd gotten an agent and um and i had gotten some festivals that summer and then that we met berg yeah yeah i'd met berg right around that time um and then uh fall i did a grizz tour yeah um and then uh which was which was just me grizz and a tour manager in a rental car oh how big were the venues? Yeah. I think the biggest show we did was Webster Hall. Holy shit. That's big, right?

Huge. It's like 1,500 cabs. I thought it was like three. And that was the first show. And then the rest of them were all pretty small. This is when Grizz was still on the come up, kind of? Yeah. Yeah, like 14, 15.

I think he had gotten, he graduated to a bus like the next year. It's like 14 or 15? This was 13. Okay 13 okay okay or 12 what keeps you inspired to keep growing your music and keep thinking differently about how to adjust your set and how to adjust like your music so you don't feel like you're just playing the same shit all the time oh man i say as far as sets go and playing different sets, just watching other people

play sets and seeing how other musicians design their sets, that helps a lot. You do go to a lot of people's shows, I've noticed. Yeah. More than almost anyone I know, I'll notice that you'll be at another guy's show. Your TikTok's my favorite TikTok.

Oh, yeah. Of your day in the life. It's fucking hilarious. I went to see a DJ. Look at the lights. Yeah, you're at Red Rocks. I love that. You got to keep doing that.

I want to continue. I need to reinvent it a little bit. I stopped saying, like, hi, I'm a DJ. Now it's like, hi, I'm John. But I do like that format. It's really cool. John Wilson how-to. Yeah.

And it just shows how good of a dude you are. You're not just like sniffing your own ass. You really do support. You really do support your voice. Yeah, you go to a lot of stuff. Yeah.

Well, and I do love seeing guys that I've toured with in the past or homies on festivals, just crushing it. But seeing how they've evolved their sets, I think kind of keeps me on my toes and really thinking differently about it. Because my sets used to be,

I would, in an hour, play maybe 20 songs. I'd play a song for three minutes. And now I'll play a song for 30 seconds minutes. Yeah. And now, I'll play a song for like 30 seconds or a minute. My sets are like, like real fast. Like, when I was,

I had done a whole tour with Liquid Stranger like in 2018, I think. You signed his label, right? Kind of. Like, I had a release on it. Yeah.

But, but, watching him, like, I... Is he big? He's pretty big. I don't know. He's been around for a long time, too.

But now he's finally kind of getting his... He'll play like First Bank. Holy shit. Really? I think he played First Bank. He did Three Nights at Mission and he sold out. Oh, that's right. That's fucking 15,000 tickets.

He's doing his first Wakan Red Rocks Man it's so crazy How sneaky The music industry Is much bigger than people think Oh my god I was just talking Who do I was talking to

Oh Hutch My buddy Hutch Yeah yeah yeah Oh by the way You know Andy Westby Shortgasm I think so From Chicago

Yeah Yeah he says hello He's like best friends with Berg He said he was raving about you. But it was like so funny. Like all these bands I'd never heard of are like Subtronic. Oh, yeah. He's huge.

All these cats. It's way bigger than people realize. I'm proud. I'm glad you're fucking in this shit, dude. Go keep fighting. I've been selling tickets I'd never heard of. It's on the other side, too. That's true.

The one world that blows my mind that I don't know anything about is country world. I know I can name like maybe two country CDs. Even this is the guy that said the N word. Oh, Morgan Wallen. Oh yeah. I know him huge. Yeah. There's got to be like at least 30 acts that can sell out probably most of them. Honestly,

you mean the one that got caught? I know who do the blowfish in the country scene. You had Darius Rucker. Hell yeah. All right. Magic. I can't wait for this. This is the only reason.

Why magic? So I was, I don't know. I was like when I was real little, like eight, seven or eight, the Mall of America just opened in Minnesota. And I went. Mighty Ducks. 7 or 8, the Mall of America just opened in Minnesota. Mighty Ducks. Was it just like an overwhelming thing to see a fucking huge-ass mall like that in your town? Especially one with a theme park

in the middle of it. You're like, what? This is Minnesota. It's just like Camp Snoopy. You go on the rides and I'm like, I never want to leave. But they had a magic shop there and I was hooked. If you go to a a magic shop there and i was like hooked because you go to like if you go to a good

magic shop like there's there's a guy there and they're always trying to sell you stuff but they'll show you trick after trick until you buy something and or or they'll gauge that you're not going to buy anything and they'll just stop but like oh yeah i was hooked as a kid and then um then like later like my mom when i was for like my 13th birthday went into that magic shop and was like hey can can my son work here for a day it's his birthday so i worked there for a day that's awesome and then uh and then when i was like 18 i went back there and got a job there like i've already got experience yeah but like and the cool thing too about like working at a magic shop especially one at a high traffic area like mall of america is

that you get you get to practice so much because the big tricky thing about practicing magic is like you learn a new trick and then who do you show you show like your friends yeah but if you screw up then it's like all right well that i gotta burn that or like find new people to do it on but the mall of america i was able to get so much practice. Somebody's come in, show them a trick, and I'd perform for like 40 to 50 people a day or 50 groups of people. So it's not a hobby. It's like an art form for you. Oh, absolutely.

I love it. It's just like really like… It should be a VIP set at Summer Camp. Oh, my God. You should be doing that pre-show every tour. But I like the close-up stuff. I like the stuff where it's at a party and you pick up a deck of cards

off a table that has a little bit of beer on it and it's just messed up and you just mess with people. I like playing to smaller crowds and trying to work that into a stage show or something bigger can be real tricky. Especially when people are like you're at a party

and everyone's all fucked up and you're like oh watch this. Oh shit! Give me a balloon! Some of the stuff you get away with in those settings is wild. What is your opus trick? Make your tour manager disappear. I don't know if I have

an opus. I just have like... He's got the cards. He's got them. So there's like... Here, you can open them. There's like a... Oh, and they're fresh. You're going to do a magic trick for us? I can. Oh my God. The listeners... It's video. Check on

volume.com if you want to watch this magic trick. I love that they're unopened, proving that they're not tampered with before he brought them. I like how you gave them to me, too, saying, I did not fuck with this. Wow. How many deck of cards do you

have to have for people to not think you're full of shit? I have a lot. I just moved recently and Kaylee, she was packing up some of my magic stuff and had a whole big box of cards. She's like, these are just cards, just decks of cards. Most of them are, you know, all like loose cards.

What other magic kind of like tools do you have? I like, you know, I have like a couple of gimmick things, but I'm mostly like, like cards are kind of like. That's your thing. Yeah. I've been trying to do more like coin and small. Oh, yeah. You can mix them up and take all this stuff out.

Shuffle it, baby. I've been trying to do more coin and like small object manipulation. That stuff is way harder. It is? Just because like, you know, if it's not in one hand, it's in the other.

So how do you like... I'm so nervous right now. I love magic. My grandmother used to take me to David Copperfield like once a month. Isn't he like a weirdo? Yeah, I lived in LA, so Vegas was right there.

He's a little bit of a weirdo, but he was such a great magician. What was his thing? He was like taking girls to some weird island or something? I don't want to talk about that, man. Why? Because I love his magic. I'm not taking anything away from him.

I heard that he would do like 400 shows a year. Yeah, he was a workaholic. He's probably so rich. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's like a billionaire magician. Have you ever seen Darren Brown? He's my favorite. This dude is like a British guy.

You should check him out on Netflix. Darren Brown. He does a lot more like kind of mentalism and stuff, but some of his Netflix specials, holy shit, they're wild. There was a guy in Hulu I watched that was super cool. They did something real mentalist like that. What about Eric Gaines?

Who's Garth Brooks alter ego? Oh, Chris Gaines. He's like a magician. No bad-mouthing David Copperfield around Andy. That's it. Kobe, if you know what I mean. Hey, calm it down. Seeing a common theme amongst all your favorite heroes. They're not all rapists.

Shut the fuck up. Not all, just Kobe. You said not all rapists. Shut the fuck up. Not all. Just Kobe. He said David Copperfield was a rapist too. No, no. I know. But he had something where he just had some island where he was taking women. Who doesn't? Who wouldn't? Okay. We're not talking about this. Who wouldn't have an island? This is about J-Mac. It's not about my Well, maybe they were going. I don't know. Maybe they wanted to go.

I don't know the details. Google it. J-Mac, don't let him fucking convince you out of this. What? I'm not doing anything. I'm just talking about David Copperfield. I know. I just wanted to say that. Google it. J-Mac, don't let him fucking convince you out of this. What? I'm not doing anything. I'm just talking about David Copperfield. I know. I just wanted to say that. I just like how it's making you uncomfortable. So we had an island.

I don't know how to shuffle. I noticed that you didn't. I can do it. Will you shovel? What is this trick called? So here's the thing. At a certain point point I stopped learning real like tricks.

I haven't done it in a while. I stopped learning tricks and you start learning like moves. Okay. What do you mean? So like there's a lot of like magic routines and tricks and you know you can buy books and stuff. It's like here's this trick and they all have names but at a certain point you learn different

sleight of hand stuff. So you learn different ways to this trick and they all have names. But at a certain point, you learn different sleight of hand stuff. So you learn different ways to present cards and find cards and stuff like and control cards. And then you can just kind of jam.

You can just make things up as you go. And like, that's kind of more like what I like to do. I'm a little rusty. Like over COVID, like the quarantine,

I had like gotten, I was like, I got, you know, everybody was picking up hobbies. Yeah., I got, you know, everybody was picking up hobbies. So I got way back into it and started buying like books and videos. Did you ever do like magic live streams? No, it's tricky for, especially like my magic to translate on video. Like there are certainly

like video things you can do. You're not like sawing a chicken half. No. Like I can do. Sawing his brother in half. Actually, YouTube really kind of crippled the magic community for a little bit. Kids would just go on and reveal secrets and that made it really tough.

A big part of magic is you're presenting a trick and you're playing with somebody's memory of the events that happened. Before YouTube, you show somebody a trick you're playing with somebody's memory of the events that happened right and so when you you used to before youtube you show somebody a trick and then they'd go home and it would still be in their head and then you know i would show somebody a trick and then months later see him and they they would tell me what happened and it totally fucked it up it was abstract it sounded way

doper than what i actually did dude he put he put flames over the fucking car. You're fucking nuts, bro. I died and came back to life. I love playing with somebody's memory. Pick anyone you want. Pick a card. Any card. Close your eyes, J-Mac. I want no cheating. Okay, here we go. He doesn't need to cheat. He's magic. I'll show. I don't even know.

This is fun. All right. Perfect. All right. All right, say stop whenever you want. Stop. Right there? Yeah.

All right, you can put it right there. Okay. You got it too, right? Yep. All right, cool. What if I just set it? It's in there. You want to give it a cut?

Yeah, sure. Right here? Yeah, and you can put it here? You want to give it a cut? Yeah, sure. Right here? Yeah. You want to cut it again? Yeah, I don't trust you. Ooh, after all the talk he just had about his whole life. I don't know about you, man.

I don't know about you, man. I don't know about all this, man. Can I open for you sometime? It's somewhere in there, right? Yeah. about you man I don't know about you man I don't know about all this man can I open for you sometime yeah it's it's somewhere in there right yeah alright let me see if

alright no okay so we were talking about let me see your hands are you right or left handed I'm right handed you're right handed

put your left hand on top of the two. Okay. Hold on. Make sure it's there. Okay. Don't let go of it. All right. Now, Nick, whenever you want, say stop, stop right there. You can keep going if you want. That's good. All right. So it's a one in what chance that you landed on Andy's card. There's two jokers too. So there's 53. Take the jokers out no oh you didn't so there's 54 cards yeah so 53 one in 53 right cause he yeah cause he's got cause he subtracts one he's got the two are you surprised I did he's got the one so it'd be cool if you stopped

on hit one in 53 that'd be crazy that'd be crazy right if you stopped on his card but what if it make it a little crazier I could take it and switch it with the two wait what what the fuck what the fuck? What the fuck? Yo!

How did that even happen? You're the devil. You're Satan. I like how he made it look like he did it wrong at first and then he flipped the script on you. He got my car. But then he made me stop on the car of the other car that was wrong the first time he gave it to you. So it's like two tricks. Yo, fuck music.

This is what you need to be doing. This is amazing. I love magic. Oh, I love magic so much. That was insane. Thank you. I think this is a top five interview. Thank you so much.

Thank you, buddy. So you got any new music coming out? Do you have anything to promote? Yeah, so I have my album I just dropped called Never Not Blue. Fuck yeah. I dropped that. Congrats. Thank you.

And that's actually probably one of my more personal albums where I actually talk about mental health. The whole thing is like the first track, I kind of discuss a little bit of like what my episode felt like. And then the rest of the album proceeds bit of like what my episode felt like and then the rest of the album proceeds to have like these interludes of like kind of like a siri voice and machines right like it's like a i try to make kind of like a manic stimulation like a brief like you know like there'll be interludes and like this is this is the first stage in many and there's a second

third oh so you're talking in it no i got like a robot voice ai voice to kind of like say some stuff um but yeah there's interludes that kind of were able to tie the album together so like these songs fit this vibe and then there's there's stage two and then it's like it goes like this in stage three and then for the last stage rather than going to a depressive point, I tried to make it come to like a... Uplifting. Yeah, uplifting, but bring people back to reality in a positive way.

So it's a full-length album. Yeah. And it's coming out on vinyl. Actually, we dropped the vinyl. The link is going to come out tonight, as well as vinyls of the last two records. Two of the records I dropped last year which was Feeling Bright in August

which was like a house album and then I had a lo-fi inspired album in January called Coastline Mind Volume 1. So all three of those are on vinyl now. My man is just pumping out music, bro. We're doing the pre-order.

And then I have there's a remix for Maddie that just came out. Oh, yeah. Maddie O'Neal? She's doing a whole remix album. She's blowing up, too. I'm so happy for her.

She's killing it. She's got Coachella. Working on another album. Oh, she's on Coachella. Oh, nice. She's doing an after-party thing. Or maybe she's doing a big deal.

Still a huge club. Yeah. That's perfect for her, too, because it's like that LA. She's going to blow up. She's already starting to blow up. Yeah. She's like a really good DJ, too. She's been grinding a huge club. Yeah. That's perfect for her, too, because it's like that L.A. She's going to blow up. She's already starting to blow up. Yeah, she's like a really good DJ, too. She's been grinding a long time.

We got to get her back on the show. Yeah, it'd be different because she's in a whole different place. She's a homie. J-Mac, thank you. Thank you for being vulnerable. Jonathan! Thank you. You know, go check out Manic Focus at Summer Camp.

This is coming out before Summer Camp, so go. You're playing the big stage, right? I think Moonshine again. I'm doing the pre-party. Is Colby on? I'm not sure. You're just doing your solos? Yeah, I think I might be doing just DJ sets for that. But keep your eyes

open for a tour in the fall. I can't say yet, but we are working on that. Go have fun. Talk to you soon. Most of the time. Thanks for having me. Cheers, man. 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 Prescott's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfrescott.com and check our socials to see what's up next

might be a video dance party a showcase concert, that crazy shit show or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain and after a year of keeping clean and playing safe, the band is back on tour. We thank our brand new talent booker, Mara Davis. We thank this week's guest, our co-host,

and all the fringy frenzies that help make this show great. Thank you all. And thank you for listening. Be your best, be safe, and we will be back next week. No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast. As far as we know, any similarity, instructional knowledge, facts, or fake is purely coincidental.