Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 286: Aron Magner (Disco Biscuits)

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Andy is joined by long time friend and bassist Nick Chamian for an IN DEPTH discussion on The Hippy who lives in all of us. How did he get in there? What does he even WANT... and how to hold on tight for dear life whilst on the road with the Frasco band. But! On the Interview Hour, we got the keyboardist and founding member for the LEGENDS who are the Disco Biscuits: Aron Magner! Is Aron the greatest of them all? Methinks he may hold dark secrets that thou wouldst like to know... We're 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. Call, leave a message, and tell us if you think one can get addicted to mushrooms: [phone]  Check out our new album!, L'Optimist on all platforms 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: Shawn Eckels Travis Gray  Mara Davis

Hiding in the bathroom with some shady dude that I've never met He makes hat pins and wears drug rugs He's a flow artist, I've never heard of that Hands me key bumps He's got an LLC And he had pins Just one bump and I swear I will go to bed Line after line

It's the most poignant thing that I've ever said Line after line Just one more thing I swear I will go to bed Line after line Line after line Line after line Line after line After line after line After line after line

After line after line After line after line There's gotta be more, right? It's gone? It's gone? It's gone? Wow. We're live.

Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's your heads? How's your minds? You staying out of trouble? Are you not letting the demons of playing the same set get you down, Nick Gerlach? Nick Gerlach. Nick Chameon. Hold on.

I know. Gotta hold that in. Okay. Hello. I'm Nick Chameon. Nick Chameon. Yeah, Gerlach. You did that on stage last night. I mean, I like Nick Gerlach. I just met him.

Great guy, but don't ever confuse us again. Nick Chamian is playing bass with us again this trip. I feel like you're getting into real band camaraderie now. It feels good. It feels good. I mean, these things take time and practice and,

you know, the set is an hour. There's another 23 hours. You guys, yeah, you guys are up for those 23 hours.

Nobody sleeps. My question is, is it all about the music? Mmm. You know why he's asking me this? Because when we first started, this fool got drunk. Yeah.

You tell, you tell it from your perspective. Tell it from your perspective. We got drunk. We were getting drunk on the bus. It was like a late night bus hang. Just me and Nick, you know,

we haven't, we haven't really had hangs like that since middle school or high school, not even high school, probably middle school. It was high school, right? High school. And a couple of years after. And, uh, he's like, you know what, man? high school, probably middle school. It was high school, right? High school and a couple of years after.

And he's like, you know what, man? I was like, I guess I think you're on PTSD when you first joined the band. It was just all partying and fucking. I'm just all about the music. I'm just all about the music. And then a week later, this man is ripping acid wearing tie-dyes fucking i did buy some pants with uh that fucking cord's fucked up i just gotta hold that cord what were you doing is that better yeah way better uh i was definitely wearing like pants with crescent moons on them by

the end of the run i swear to god if people in our middle school and high school knew the hippies we became, they would laugh. They still laugh. They laugh, but there's a hippie in all of us in some way or another. Here we go. Tell me. I don't know.

Actually, you know, what's funny is like since being in this show, like playing these shows, I'm always like, dude, I'm a hippie man, like peace and love love and then like i come to these shows and i see like real hippies and i'm like dude i ain't shit like i'm just like a fucking square i'm a proud square we're sounding good though and we're changing we're playing we're you're making us play new

songs old songs that we'd never play i, you really have put some energy into, you know, when it's, when it becomes, when it's show 110, you're just going through the motion sometimes and you've really sparked some energy and, um, creativity into this band. So I got to say, thank you. Thank you, brother. It's been, it's been a pleasure. Honestly, it's's really fun and it's um like you said you know what this is our fourth time going out together and each time i learned you guys a little more i learned the set a little more and i'm starting to really love you like i've always loved you finally but you know what i mean like i feel like we're now becoming boys yeah yeah we're we're on a we're on like boy level that we weren't. We weren't. We were kind of like on the half, on the

teeter-totter. Well, because you have friends of friends who you hang with and we played shows back in the day. But no, we're doing laundry together. He's all pissed that I had my laundry because I always put cigarettes butts in my pockets. My clothes are stained. I'm a little upset.

I am a little upset. I'm really trying to breathe, you know, but it's good. i'm really trying to breathe you know but it's good i'm really trying to breathe you're like the aaron magner of this band aaron magner's on the show um from the disco biscuits wow what a transition beautiful um he was aaron magner in the disco business is basically you know he has to deal with two crazy people named john barber and mark brownstein and uh that's how you i feel like you are with he has to deal with two crazy people named John Barber and Mark Brownstein. And, uh, that's how you, I feel like you are with, uh, you have to deal with me and Sean Eccles. Yes. And there's, there's a certain, sorry, Brian's calling me not deal with just,

you got to ride it. You got to ride that shit. It's two different personalities. Yeah. Yeah. So I think I'm good at that. I think I can, if I can just put my own ego aside and just my whole mantra going into this tour was I'm just going to be a little, a little shell in the sea. I said this to my wife before I left. I was like, I'm a shell in the sea. And like, if there's a little wave, I'm going to roll with it. And when a big wave big wave comes i'm not gonna just roll it in the sea and honestly it's been working yeah you're way more chiller so way more chill than you were last time you were really not chill last time it's all about the music you guys better be all about the fucking music or i'm out i'm like fine so i'm we're practicing songs at soundcheck i'm coming to soundcheck you text me like hey brother so proud

of you where are you yeah andy for those who don't know, Andy hates sound check. Like it's not like a Q thing. He's like, I fucking hate sound check. So for you to come out and practice and lead the ship, I mean, it feels great. I love it. Well, I'm here for you. I'm going to be the captain that you've always wanted me to be. You're doing it. It's coming to fruition. Are you guys ready for Aaron Magner? It's going to be fun. We're keeping this short because the Magner interview is like an hour and 10 minutes. It's really good. You see, you don't get to hear Magner talk a lot. You hear Brownie talk a lot. You hear Barber talk a lot. But I think Aaron Magner is the smartest guy. guy i mean they all went to university of penn so

they're all fucking you know they're smart geniuses but magner can talk dude he has a very prolific you never do you know the disco biscuits have you heard of them i know the music i don't know the guys you've heard of the disco biscuits yeah what's his name from dogs in a pile loves the disco biscuits sam and all those files are the biggest disco biscuit group yeah they're just the total jam you heard you hear fucking barber do that thing i'm like i didn't actually no i didn't hear it sorry i was working sorry i was working my ass off on the hundred projects i want um but you're gonna love this interview i mean it's a disco biscuit these guys are fucking batshit crazy but they all put it together they all got together and they're all happy now this This is the weirdest thing.

I've never seen this band all like kind of love each other. It's important. It's important. Oh, you know, especially like when you go through a bunch of shit, you know,

they've been a band for like 30 years. That's crazy. Really? Yeah. Wow. I didn't realize that. Yeah, it's crazy.

You're 25. I forgot, but something like that. But you're going to love it. This tour has been great. Pigeons Frasco Dogs tour has been amazing, right? Oh my God. It's so much fun.

It's been fucking great. Even our little headline shows have been fucking fun. The people have been showing up. I just saw some people outside who were at Syracuse last night and they're here tonight and the vibes are high. Thank you guys for showing up. I think they trust that we're going to have different sets now. Yeah.

Our fans used to be like, oh, they're going to do the same shit. When we actually don't, we always change the setup, but now they really believe that we're changing the setup. Yeah, no, there's a conscious effort behind the scenes. Ernie and Sean are on laptops. They're texting.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. We care, people. They care. All right. they're they're texting yeah they're you know yeah there's a communication they care all right enjoy this uh barbara or this magner interview this uh interview sponsored by volume.com yes the best live stream company on the planet um chris play some disco biscuits while i pimp out volume.com um volume.com you're gonna love. If you're a content creator, go out there and fucking get your content out there. They pay you. I just got my first royalty paycheck from volume

dot com. Let's fucking go. I'm not just a brand ambassador. I am getting royalties. I know jam jam bands don't know what a royalty is. Let me tell you, because we don't get royalties in the jam scene. Guys, get yourself out there. And if you're just a guy who just loves to follow their bands, this is, we're trying to build a platform where bands, this could be the outlet for your bands. So get out there, support your bands, follow my page, volume.com slash Andy Frasco, all the videos, all the podcasts are stockpiled there. We're also like doing some music stuff on there where we're giving people sets

and giving exclusive sets and music. It's just, it's a win-win for the people who are really deep into the Frasco and the UN world. You're going to love it. So head to volume.com. All right, guys, let's do it. Aaron Magner, we're in Woodstock. This place is filled with fucking

vibes, right? Much love, much respect all around. We're going to fucking rock it tonight. Much love. Man, you're turning into such a hippie. It is awesome. It's just crazy. I remember you, bro. You used to be a little rocker. Now you're just a fucking hippie.

Fuck jam bands, dude. What'd you say? Fuckie what'd you say now you're a jam band now i'm like this oh hey man what's going on all right bro enjoy it and uh next week we got jj gray on the show you know jj gray no who's jj gray no that works now is it right there okay cool jj gray he's uh he's an amazing songwriter from florida he's like he's what we're trying to change the stereotype what florida man is and jj gray is the actual florida man and he's fucking a vibe all right i'll see you next week Wow. Wow. I think the best musician in this band is on the podcast today.

Have you heard Alan play drums? I did. Aaron Magner, how you doing, sir? Disco biscuit legend! That was a pro-Alan comment, not an anti-Aaron Magner comment. I am pro-Alan too. You know, first time,

long time, guys. This is great. I know. You know, my first question is, who's a bigger pain in the ass? Brownie or barber? Because we know it's not Alan.

We know it's not Alan. I think it depends if it's a day that ends with a Y. I love it. I like them both. But I don't ends with a Y. I love it. I like them both. But I don't work with them either. I like them both. Yeah.

So, has Barbara ever tried to fight you, Magna? We're launching right into this, huh? Welcome to the podcast i don't know whether there has been any uh physical altercations between uh me and john and really the physical altercations has been um kind of kept to a minimum over the years we we like to fight with our words we're like you know ivy league yeah like like like rap battles we that when we get mad at each other we just you know, Ivy League. Yeah, like rap battles. When we get mad at each other, we just, you know, spit rhymes at each other. It'd be hilarious. You would definitely win that.

Who's the most sensitive in the band? Brownie? Oh, I mean, there's lots of different forms of sensitivity, man. You know, I think we're all sensitive to a point. And I think all of our sensitivities want to be recognized as our unique sensitivities. And in our newfound maturity, I think that we're honing in on that in a really beautiful way,

right? Like all of these things that you seem to be harping at are things that have plagued us in the past. They're products of arguably immaturity on all of our parts. And now we've kind of maintained this um you know growth this emotional growth um that all of us have been working on and you know listen we're still not perfect by any means but we have for better for worse and probably for better accepted these faults and foibles with each other and have learned to um you know deal with it appropriately within ourselves so that our reaction to it, you know, when somebody else is feeling a little, what was the euphemism you used? Unstable? No,

it wasn't. It was sensitive. When somebody is sensitive to something, you know, the other person doesn't, or the collective group or whatever the fuck it is, doesn't need to blow it up into something more than just like what it is like, Oh, you know, my bandmate is being sensitive, arguably over sensitive to something, but that doesn't even matter. It's about like, this is,

this is a deviation from what we're all trying to accomplish right now. And I think that in the last year alone, that maturity has kind of like come into focus a little bit more where we're able to see that like, Oh, this is a distraction. You know, what we need to do is,

you know, write more songs. We need to play more markets. We need to, you know, be better. We need to be better as a band. We need to be better as individuals,

whatever it is. And again, it's not fucking perfect. And like, we're not in like group therapy and trying to like work on all those things together. It's just something that we've all kind of like found at our individual pace. And I think that the product of this banner year

that the Disco Biscuits seem to be having is part and partial because of this like emotional maturity that we all have developed of recent. Why doesn't he talk more? Andy Pratt, don't take it for sure. Why does everyone else have to fucking talk? Aaron just explained it completely. Why the fuck is Brownie and Barber talking

when he knows exactly what the fuck to say? I have a question about that, actually. Everyone's a dad now, right? In the band? Yeah, correct. So do you think that everyone having kids has kind of helped that process and like moved along

or added some perspective to that? 100%. I mean, certainly not the only variable and you know whatever are large doses of psychedelics also um you know helpful to that yes right so like all all of these things play a role um but yeah i mean you know it humbles you right you know being a dad it gives you um kind of like taking large doses of psychedelics it gives you kind of a 30 000 foot perspective on life and all of a sudden the little shit kind of stops mattering uh as much or or you know you realize like how much little shit there is and you're able to deal with all that little shit so much better literally shit you know coming out of your child's legs yeah you know and you have to like deal with this and that reminds you of what uh life's little stressors really are what have you learned about yourself becoming a dad versus when you weren't a dad what what are the little things you've like

kind of saw in yourself that you'd like to change or versus stuff that were that you wow i'm growing musically i'm growing mature wise like show me the things that pre pre dad versus now dad talk andy into having kids no that was such a sad sound I don't know man you know I'm I'm just kind of like you know following my wife here for like you know what what I go and I'm just picking up her cues um no I mean you you hear like this phrase all the time like you know there's no guidebook to being a dad and it's fucking true right everybody is thrown into this thing and like dude you can like be talking to your friends who also have kids all

you like it is 100 going to be different in your world right it's how you deal with things specifically it's how you deal with things as a with your partner and you know a lot of it is like kid dependent you know our first round of kids you know we had twins first and you know, a lot of it is like kid dependent, you know, our, our first round of kids, you know, we had twins first and, you know, that was the fucking bundle and they were crying kids. And we just kind of like thought that that was like the deal. And then when we had our third kid, um, you know, he, he wasn't as much of a crying kid and, you know, obviously a singleton is a lot easier than, than twins. And we were like, holy fuck, we can do anything, you know? And just like, you know in in whatever

your vocation when you do something that you didn't think that you were able to do and then you prove to yourself that you were able to do it you become a different person you know typically for the better because you prove to yourself that like you can do something even if that wasn't what you were setting out to do you just find yourself in a different place in the future jesus fucking christ this man is throwing fucking truth bombs at me, dude. I told you. I told you. Why are we wasting our time with Barbara now?

We should have went straight to the goddamn source, dude. I like those guys, too. How old are your twins? I'm leaning into something else here. They are 12 and a half identical. So six or seven years and you can start a side project with them? I mean, I've been trying to get rich. It's working for brownie

over the last 12 and a half years yeah man um you know they don't seem to be as musically inclined as i would like to start a band with um they are young and they are incredibly creative which is just like so cool to fucking watch. These kids whose views of the world are so minuscule right now, and you know that it's only going to get bigger the more experiences that they have. So what they're playing with is so unique and so pure, this creative thing within their brains that allow them to draw these fucking amazing things. And they sometimes collaborate on comic books and what have you from there and it's fucking awesome so if there's any bit of creativity that i lent them through my dna it seems to be expressed through uh visual arts what about your wife is she creative um she is actually creative she's an eye doctor so that's not what she does for for a living

um but we have um collaborated for lack of a better word on um you know different projects of mine um you know specifically through throughout the pandemic when we had nothing else to do um and then you know a little prior to that and through with uh with the spaga you know side project that i have and she um did number one the album artwork um you know and which is simply it's like a origami rhinoceros right but it's literally a picture of our kids piggy bank rhinoceros origami piggy bank and that then became this like you know i don't know the the spokesperson for first vaga uh but yeah she helps me with like all the ad mats and you know i do copy her on emails when there seems to be a large group of people that are looking to get you

know social content out for a side project show or something like that. So she is very active in my professional life as a supporter and a partner and a cheerleader should be. And it's amazing. And it's made our relationship that much tighter. And this was something that we just found in 2019, 2020, the ability to do together. And then there was even some beautiful stuff that happened during the pandemic when you know we were all locked inside and the hustle was so

fucking weird right the things that we were doing for you know like some random person would reach out with like a sponsorship from a cannabis company and be like yo we have 500 if you can like record yourself at home with these other people who had recorded themselves at home. And it was like, holy shit, 500 bucks, right? That was an incredible gig in April of 2020. I take that now. Yeah, the hustle actually became, we were basically selling private piano performances out our back door. I mean, they were streamed, right? And we would sell it to a group of 10 people

and one person would be the point person and collect money. And it was a reasonable amount of money once you would collect from those 10 people. And every Friday and Saturday night throughout almost the entire pandemic at nine o'clock or what have you, we would stuff the kids in the

basement, you know, here's your video game. Don't stop playing for two hours and don't fucking come upstairs. And then she was my videographer, you know, and would set up in her amazing aesthetic way, you know, different cameras and camera positions. And then she learned whatever the program is to be able to like, you know, mix me while I played a concert. And she was kind of my liaison to sell it to the people that know, mix me while I played a concert. And she was kind of my liaison to sell it to the people that wanted to buy a concert during lockdown. Yeah, Bayless and Annie did that too.

You know, Annie was kind of running the show for Bayless's Why Not. Oh, that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why Not. That's right. But the difference is maybe they're better people. They were doing it for free. No, they're not better people. There you go

make that money baby Philly's expensive yeah Philly's expensive can't you know can't stop the hustle so I'm wondering I mean you're so busy

all the time now you have kids you're touring and stuff and she's an eye doctor how do you like have time to like you know still fall in love

with each other that's a good question well to still fall in love with each other? That's a good question. Well, I mean, I'll say that we kind of re-fell in love with each other a couple of summers ago for no particular reason. I mean, we weren't out of love and then re-fell in love.

But I think all three kids were in camp for the first time for six weeks or four weeks or whatever it was. And we were doing some construction on the house and we couldn't really, you know, we could sleep in the house, but there was nothing else to do. Like the first floor was all under construction. So it kind of forced us to be out of the house as a couple. Right. And, you know, we would go to dinner when she would come home from work, or we would go, you know, visit friends because our house was in such disarray. And we had this amazing summer. We would get out of the house strictly because there was a sunset happening and there was nothing

to do in the house. And we would go somewhere to watch the sunset, right? Awesome things like that. And it was consistent every day for the four weeks that the kids were away. And it really reconnected us in a way that I don't think we necessarily, you know, needed to, but we did. Um, and it was awesome. I, you know, noticed it and we, you know, talked about how it was awesome. And then that was it, you know, then we moved on with our lives and we never went back to like, I wish we could reconnect the way that we did over that four week period. You know, it's just like, we're just in a fucking place right now. And that was a really nice four weeks. And hopefully we can get, you know, a couple of days of that again or a couple of weeks,

but whatever. We just, we go with the flow, you know, everything is always fucking up and down, especially in this industry. And especially as that, you know, her needing to, you know, be a spectator of my career, you know, in this industry with the fucking roller coasters, but also my, my partner and my, you know, part psychologist and whatever it is that bounce things off of. So, you know, it also my partner and my part psychologist and whatever it is to bounce things off of. So it's always up and down. We know that. Yeah. I feel like life, you don't have to be reminded. If growth happens, you don't need to

be reminded that you're growing. You maybe have that moment of growing and then we can move on. The same thing you said about how you had maturity level with your bandmates. It's the, I think it's the same type of philosophy, right? Yes. But I think the thing that we do as humans is we don't pause to recognize that, right? We don't need to like fixate on it by any means, but I think it's really important to, you know, call out like the positives. So for instance, you know, I just heard myself verbalize this, um, you know, hopefully out like the positives. So for instance, you know, I just heard myself verbalize this, um, you know, hopefully it won't come across as, as a conceited statement, but I feel like I am a better musician than I was, you know, just two years ago or three years ago. Right. And two, three years ago, I felt like I'd been on this plateau for a really long time. And I, you know,

I kind of became content with that. I was like, okay, I guess this is where I am as a musician and that's okay. It's not so bad, you know, but like, this is,

I guess where I'm going to be because I'm not the guy that like, you know, I play every fucking day. Right. But I'm not the guy that like runs scales and learns new theory and wants to take lessons from blah, blah, blah,

you know? Right. So I, I, you know, have noticed and I said this and now I'll, you and now I'll move on, but I'm a better musician than I was two years ago. And I just kind of recognize that. And I think that that's really important just to say for a second, right? I might be on this new plateau for the next 10

years, and I probably would be content with that. But now that I know that I'm not on the previous plateau, there is a chance that if I continue doing what I'm doing and then some, I could potentially climb up to that next plateau. And you don't necessarily realize it, I guess, like while you're on it. But like, I guess now that I realize that that, you know, upswing is possible, I kind of have more desire to reach it, you know, so I might be more needed now to, you know, reach out and take lessons from blah, blah, blah, or to learn new things or to actually sit down and get into some real theory shit. You know, like I'm saying, I play every day, but you know,

I don't do probably the things that you do, Nick on Zax, right. You know, I watch fucking Zax players. I haven't seen this man touch a fucking Zax in like fucking days, dude. No, I practice. I practice. Yeah, of course you practice right because that's what sax players do you know you look at like don lolly man you know he's like getting ready to go up there on stage playing fucking like ascending quarter notes you know that's all a motherfucker does you know during the show other than get your hands up

right yeah you're right for the show you know it's you know and he's just running that because that's like who he is and that is his you know his center of gravity before he gets out on stage and he needs to know that for himself and i think that that's fucking awesome you know and it keeps him top shape in everything that he needs to know that for himself and i think that that's awesome you know and it keeps him top shape in everything that he does you know so but when i sit down you know i'm not reading charlie barker's on the book right when i sit down at the piano i'm kind of um that's my meditation right so i'll i see it in your plane. Like you're in a fucking zone, dude. For sure.

I can get into like what I can only describe as like flow state now, you know, and it's awesome, right? And I think I can get there faster by myself because there's just less variables and input than, you know, when you're playing with the band. But I'd certainly get there with the biscuits. And yeah, I mean, that's my meditation. So I'll sit there and I'll just start with a blank slate and I'll end up somewhere else. And sometimes I record it and sometimes I don't and I'm fine with that.

And I always seemingly feel better. It's like going to the gym, right? You go to the gym, you might complain about it, and then an hour later, you're like, I feel so much better. I feel amazing. Yeah, the realization that you could get better is pretty powerful. I had that same epiphany thinking when I started writing better songs

and realized, oh, I don't need to fucking always have to crowd surf or fucking chug a bottle of Jameson to get people going anymore. People are there for my fucking songs. And then it made me want to get... Yeah, I still will, but not as much. But you don't have to, which you don't have to. Yeah, yeah.

But like, you know, the idea is like, fear doesn't help us get better. You know, like that idea of like, oh, this is it. This is my plateau. That's like, you know, I like athletes.

I know you like athletes too. Kobe and stuff was always taught me how to kind of get into that flow state of trying to get yourself better. The zone. The zone of just trying to work hard and get better. Was it like that in the beginning years of the Disco Biscuits?

Were you always just trying to, everyone was trying to push each other to get better? Or was it just, let's have some fun and let's enjoy the moment? Yeah, I think more the latter. I don't really think we ever uh perceived ourselves as like you know musician musicians right yeah and you know i'll say something for the scene it is very possible that indirectly the scene has kind of like provided this influence on us to become a you know a better musicians than we previously were right why well you know we go on these things let's say you know let's take jam cruise for example right where you

have such an amazing collection of friends and musicians that are doing you know cool stuff with their projects that they're on the boat for but also random stuff in like the jam room or the jazz room or whatever and we get to see this facet of these musicians that, you know, we don't necessarily understand in their individual bands. And then when we form friendships with these musicians, you know, they're like, yo, you want to come in, sit in tonight on whatever show, or yo, you want to do a side project? Yo, I got an offer from a promoter, whatever it is.

And it kind of like keeps pushing us forward outside of our comfort zone right like you know we could play our disco biscuit version of electronic music until the cows come home but in order to be a more you know versatile musician i have to have my chops in all of these different genres you know and playing with these other musicians you you know, whether it's like, you know, Eric Krasnow in, in, you know, random side pickup side projects, um, you know, or Reed Mathis or, you know, the bass player, fucking Spaga, Jason Fraticelli, you know, like all these musicians that I'm playing with, or even like Ross James, I'm playing with Ross James this week and next weekend out in Denver. And they, they push, I do too, but all these musicians, you know, have their own set of

influences and types of music that they want to lean on types of music that they want to play people they want to play with. And it motivates me to absorb more music with a, you know, with a purpose, right? Oh, fuck. I got a gig this weekend. I have to learn these 15 songs, but let me really figure out what Billy Preston is doing in that song. You know, yeah, I can play. Will it go around in circles? Sure. But like, let me make sure I have those things. Not to say I'm going to like play it, but because that's how I learn, you know, and

then I kind of feel good. Like as a musician, like you have to know and respect and study what happened in the past in order to like, you know, move the, the art form into the future. Right. Like, what are you looking for to get better? Like when you said versus playing versus like really learning the songs, what are you learning in your brain or trying to visualize of how to really dissect the song? So I, okay, well, maybe that's not the best example for, you know, the intention that I have when I do listen to music and I want to learn from it. I think the biggest takeaway from listening to the stuff and absorbing it, aside from like, oh, that's a cool little lick that I might be able to put in my arsenal, is a sense of harmony and harmonic movement and how notes within the chords even you know go to their closest resolving point right um you know i found i found there was like things that i was doing as a musician where i was playing you know

whatever and f sharp seven chord in the same inversion right but that doesn't necessarily mean that every time it calls for an f sharp seven that that's what i should be playing and i have to be aware where the next chord is if i have multiple, I need to make sure that all those notes go to the right place. And this like sense of harmony, my ears are getting significantly better because of it. Um, and yeah, man,

I'm just, just having fun. Right. That's it. I'm putting no pressure on myself to become a better fucking person, a better human or a better musician. I, I don't have that, like strive to be better the way that a better human, or a better musician. I don't have that

strive to be better the way that a Kobe Bryant does, but I seemingly am. Let's fucking go. Are you going to play a sound effect for me? What sound effect? It's all about voice leading. Last pressure!

Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to be better as humans when really we just have to trust ourselves that we are going to get better? Oh, I think we have to put that pressure on ourselves if we don't then i mean you know i think we'd all be fine just kind of sitting at home smoking pot every day yeah but you said you're not putting that pressure on yourself and and the outcome is you're becoming a better person well i think there was a lot of distractions in years past where that thing of like wanting to you know get better involved um being able to do something outside of the band and that made you better right right and you know and and that kind of makes sense, right? Like you want to, you know, not put all of your eggs into one basket or, you know, we're all smart people and we, you know, can do other things other than be in the disco biscuits.

why we're here, um, you know, and what has gotten us here for the last 30 years, it's us as a band, you know, and the disco biscuits that have really, you know, propelled a career for us.

So I think if you acknowledge that and lean into it, then you just start to become better. You know, I heard Barbara say something at one point, like, you know, the first part is just showing up you know and motherfuckers fucking right about

that right like when we get together to like you know 100% but he's having his own he's having his own epiphanies right which is awesome and it's to see this like you know epiphany that we've all had you know

John included of like oh wow the power of collaboration is like you know epiphany that we we've all had you know john included of like oh wow the power of collaboration is powerful you know for for me maybe i realized that you know earlier because i'm more aware of my um potentially more aware of my weaknesses right and what's great about collaboration is that, you know, my strengths are complemented by somebody else's weaknesses, perhaps. But, you know, my weaknesses, you know, are definitely compromised by the strengths of others that I'm collaborating with. And that's the beauty of it. And I think that's one of the reasons that the Biscuits have been so productive in the last year or two. So they're selfish in the beginning years of their career.

That's what you're saying. What do you get out of it? Everybody else is crazy and I am perfect. There it is. About your side project, Spaga, why did you start that? What do you get out of that that you don't get when you're playing with the Disco Biscuits?

Well, number one, it's a trio, right? So there's one less factor. And it's a trio right so there's one less factor um you know and it's a big factor right like you know love love playing in a quartet setting but you know when you play in a in a guitar forward band um you know that's kind of where the default goes right yeah so there's not another melodic and harmonic factor so i have a lot more freedom in Spaga. It's, like I said, piano forward. And that kind of just got me back into music and playing. And, you know, it strips away all of, you know, soundscapes that I have with my, you know, synths and I could like paint whatever kind of environment that, you know, the song calls for. But with the piano, you know, it's a one trick pony, right? And so I have to, it's literally like I'm up there without any clothes on. This is like literally who I am, warts and all, right?

Like, you know, I like to think that I'm a good musician, but there are thousands and millions or whatever it is of, you know, musicians, professional and not that can do fucking circles around me. Right. And, you know, but, but that's fine. I, I'll deal with that on with my own therapist. Um, but you know, it makes it right. But it makes me a better, a better musician. It's just like putting myself into environments where I'm not fully comfortable just pushes me to be better. So there's your example of a push. What about, what's the difference between

writing it for your trio versus writing like a musical or like how you do those space musicals? Are you part of that with Barber? Space opera? Space operas. Yeah. There are two different things. Yes.

There, let's get this right. There is the space opera, the disco space opera called revolution in motion. Right. And then there is the musical, which is called the very moon musical, which is based on John Barber's in 1999,

a rock musical, a rock opera called the hot air balloon. based on John Barber's in 1999, uh, uh, rock musical, uh, rock opera called, uh, the hot air balloon. I fucking love you guys, dude. This is insane,

dude. Like you guys are all about music. Like, is it always been like this? Like you've always like, what about, I want to know, like,

what was your early life, Aaron? Like what was your parents like pushed? Were they strict? Did you have trauma? Like, give me, give me the deets. they strict did you have trauma like give me the deets like did you need a piano lesson yeah or did they not give a shit about you so you had to like prove their worth

so you had to be a badass piano player like give me like the young give me a young Aaron Magner um okay so I guess it wasn't really much pressure because when I told my dad that I was, um,

dropping out of school, going into my senior year, um, you know, in good standing so that I could go on this second or third tour with the disco biscuits, um, at,

uh, at, at, uh, at an Ivy league school, you know, if you're going to, you know,

may as well be an Ivy league school. Um, what were you studying there by the way what was your major so interestingly i mean i chose pen because uh i was just starting to like you know become a professional musician in uh in high school right and i had like my contacts and my philly music contacts and stuff like that and i wanted to stay wanted to stay in Philadelphia to kind of maintain those. But also, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And I didn't have an excuse to do anything else. So I was like, okay, I guess I'll just go to college. Like, you know, I got accepted. I've got the grades, everybody else is going, whatever. And I tried to find something that interested me as much as music. And, you know, couldn't,

but not for a lack of trying. I mean, I was like bouncing and bouncing much as music. And, you know, couldn't, but not for a lack of trying. I mean, I was like bouncing and bouncing from every department. And I think by my beginning of junior year, they called me in to like the administration office and they were like, yo, you are the last person in your entire class to declare a major.

So like, you got to figure something out. You're going to be here for seven years. Van Wilder Van Magner Tommy boy I was like people seem to make money like as lawyers

like let me take like law 101 and I just remember like what the fuck you know and I was like okay how about poli sci

don't even know what poli sci is sounds fancy and I was like I have no idea what you guys are all talking about and then finally

like I guess if I had to pick something I'll do this silly music thing I didn't like the courses I have no idea what you guys are all talking about. And then finally, like, I guess if I had to pick something, I'll, I'll do this silly music thing. I didn't like the courses that they had. It was all like legit theory, classical history,

theaters like that. And eventually committed to that. And I actually had a fun year of taking like, you know, classes in Penn's music department. And then the band was doing another, I wasn't really going to class, but my professors were kind of cool with it and then basically i needed to make a decision to shit or get off the pot and i did not go back my senior year um growing up i always kind of liked to play piano my

neighbor was a piano teacher um and i kind of stayed with it much longer than the other neighborhood kids did and then i got tired of it and kind of stopped playing for a couple of years and my parents were cool with that too and then probably two years after me not taking lessons anymore um and like you know prior to that my dad was taking me like a conservatory in philadelphia and that stale classical stuff kind of turned me off to music i think but i was like turning 11 and, you know, I was like, I wanted to hang out with friends or whatever. And, um, then around 13, I randomly decided to get back into it and asked my parents to find me a new teacher. Um, they did, uh, uh, uh, the master by the name of Peter Simpkins. And, um, he introduced me to jazz and very quickly I was like, Hey, none of this

classical stuff anymore. Just want to learn about jazz. And did that for a little bit and then got another teacher by the name of Michael Frank that was really active in the Philly scene and he really got me accelerated in jazz. And then I went to college. So still playing at the level

of a high school jazz player, which Nick, you know, you have kids that have talent, but they're not real musicians yet. It takes a lot of experience to get good at improvising. There's just years you have to get broken up with and all that kind of stuff. So why didn't you just pursue music?

Were you afraid of your parents that they wanted you to go to college? So was it like you're doing it for your parents instead of doing it for yourself? No, I,

I, I didn't know what I could do with music as a, as a, you know, career. Like I didn't want to be a teacher and I wasn't exposed to things that I had interest in at the time, you know,

but didn't really know where to pursue it because this is fucking 1994. Right. Right. You know, what, what about right right you know what what about like you know music for video games or for scores or you know anything really that you can do these things as a well-rounded musician as opposed to needing to you know do what i do now i guess which is like hustle and travel and airport and like every time i want to go work i have to

you know travel hundreds of miles to do it on a Friday or Saturday only. It's weird, right? Yeah, it's crazy. But that's very fascinating to me. That totally makes sense. It's very confusing to find a path in music, especially that younger in life when you weren't acceptable to the traveling gig. You weren't part of the traveling gig yet, right? When did you start getting into those traveling bands and stuff? Was that at college or? Yeah. I mean, the first time really like traveling for gigs was with the Biscuits, right? So I pretty quickly, you know, so my sophomore year, right? Like all living in the quad at the University of Pennsylvania and, you know, throughout like the fall and winter of

that year, every Friday and Saturday night, I'd be the guy, like as everybody's walking out of the quad to go to their parties with a keyboard and potentially a tuxedo under, you know, that I was wearing to like go off and do a fucking jazz gig to make 300 bucks. That was a lot of money in 1994. That's like $8,000 now, I think with inflation or something.

I mean, it's hard out there for musicians. It's good money in 2024. Plus you gotta, you gotta compete with all those UArts kids, too. But that's not a school anymore, is it? I guess. That's correct.

Yes, there is no U. But that's a whole other topic. Yeah. And then, you know, I met the Biscuits that summer between my freshman and sophomore year. And, you know, we just started to, like, have fun, right? You know, playing music. And, you know, we just started to like, have fun, right? You know, playing music, those guys like kind of had a previous band with another keyboard player under a different name. So they had like one or two original songs amidst were kind of on their way up and we just did our thing then that we're still doing now which is like you know as much time as we have available

to commit ourselves to it i mean you know we kind of made fun of ourselves as the hardest working band and show business which i can't imagine is actually true but you know we work really fucking hard and we've been around this country a bunch of times for many, many decades. What did you see in Barber and Brownie at first? I want to know about 18-year-old Barber and Brownie. What the fuck were those guys up to at 18, like 19? Like, what do you see in them that you wanted to join a band with? Because it feels like you guys are very opposite people.

It's like I can almost tell what he was like when he was 18. But those two, I have no clue. Yeah, like Barber was like selling fucking alcohol from his apartment, you know? What do you see in them that you said this has potential? Huh. Well, I remember having an initial conversation with Mark prior to, you know, when we met, when he just reached out to me because, you know, he had just fired their previous keyboard player and a mutual friend introduced us. Um, and I remember that first phone call and I was at like a frat party

that they had played. And I do recall the bass player that turned out to be Mark kind of using the instrument more as, um, you know, a solo a solo instrument you know and not necessarily for i mean that in a good way we can talk about the bad ways of that but i mean that in a good way right like where where you know he's playing the bass that is you know not just like indicative of you know hey here's the chord changes i'm doing this you know and again it's not like a soloing thing but he is throwing stuff out that really keeps us on our toes you know Mark is one of my favorite bass players to play with for um you know harmonic reasons right I think he makes for the most part very smart decisions at the right time to really alter a harmony um you know and keeps us all on our toes so I thought it was

interesting I'm super into I mean I'm still super into the Grateful Dead so you know, and keeps us all on our toes. So I thought it was interesting. I'm super into, I mean, I'm still super into The Grateful Dead. So, you know, having a band be interested in me that had the same kind of ethos, and I hadn't really ever played and, you know, I wasn't in a, never in a rock band prior to this, right? So I had to literally learn how to play triads and take out the colors and upper extensions of the chords that I focused on in jazz. Right. And,

and kind of learn these basic techniques of how to play rock piano, which I got to say probably took me a couple of decades to really wrap my head around. You know, it's gotta be harder. Like if you have, if your philosophy was jazz or classical, it's like,

how do you get out of your own way to like learn a new the whole different style technique yeah um you know listening that's it you know cool what's nikki hopkins doing in this thing oh man that's awesome right you know those like just perfect lines and it's not necessarily like oh here's the piano player playing you know some boogie woogie under a Texas whatever. It's our thing. What do these piano players lend to the music that is so important that it wouldn't be the same song without it? Right. What about synthesizers?

Did that completely change your life when those came into your rig? It did. In fact, I mean, there, there, there is a famous, whatever,

uh, a show from Halloween of, I don't know, 1990, whatever, um, where I played, where I got my third eye blind was famous.

I don't know how you say in English, uh, 1997. Um, so yeah, it was this JP 8,000 synthesizer. I saw it at a music store and I fell in love with it. I remember getting this first synthesizer,

um, the JP 8,000, the Roland JP 8,000 and telling my dad, I was like, dad, this is going to change my life, you know, or that was at least my pitch to have him,

you know, purchase the synth for me um and it fucking did man i mean that synth is still i mean it's a different jp8000 but it's still a staple of my setup and though i think there was a lot of factors that helped shape our sound there is you know one moment that in time that we can definitely go back to and be like this show with the advent of this synthesizer was one of the prime factors in changing the trajectory of the sound

of the Disco Biscuits. And that's kind of fucking cool. That is cool. Can I ask you a personal question? Always. I mean, not always. Do I get to... I don't know. Here we go. Did it break your heart every time Barber wanted to quit the band? Yeah, of course.

What was the first time like? Well, I mean, I wouldn't... Listen, the Disco Biscuits have been writhed with strife for our entire existence. I mean, literally, the very first Disco Biscuit concert that we were playing at... The very first Disco Biscuit

concert that we played at at um the very first disco biscuit concert that we played at uh smoky joe's in west philadelphia was the first time that the biscuits broke up uh you know mark had like left the band wanting to like you know he like caused a fight because he wanted to go on fish tour or something like that so the very first concert bill does the disco biscuits on the chalkboard marquee, um, it was with a different bass player that, that I helped sub out.

That's hilarious. So the disco biscuits have had strife since day one and continue to, um, I don't necessarily think that it's fair to kind of, you know, hit it on one person or one story. Um, it's been fucking,

it's been crazy. It's been a crazy ride i'm so appreciative that we're in a different place than we were because like to your point yeah man there was a lot of emotional reaction to you know not just the many you know internal fights or whatever that you know we had over the years but you know at various times different um you know band members would kind of check out for lack of a better word right explore other things that they could potentially do in life and kind of you know forget about the fact that there's this band and band members that are like uh you know we have a show in three weeks are you still in my dad hates me because i quit school barbara i need to pay my rent

you're out here fucking making a tech program my dad is gonna put me into fucking detention selling goo balls on fish you want to sell goo balls at fish brownstein while i'm out here fucking worried about my dad we're fucking excommunicating me sounds like you i mean listen we maybe had we said those things to each other we might have been in a different place right i think back at all these things i don't think we ever threw that guilt at each other of like you're preventing me from or you're preventing us from you know reaching our you know potential or you know we never really provided that guilt it seems so fucking obvious i guess when like there was a person outside of the you know motivation that the rest of us had and be like dude you see all of us like you know making emails text messages you're the only one that's not responding

that stuff should be obvious but i don't know maybe it wasn't but whatever it's hard to communicate it's hard to learn communication especially with brothers in your band yeah and you're young yes you're young yeah yes so all of those things especially with brothers in your band especially with the um without outside uh help you know it's like the reason that whatever, businesses or executives or bands or sports teams get a professional to come in to help assuage these situations or help foster communication. communication. You know, communication has never really been our strong suit. And it's kind of cute that we're just figuring that out, how to communicate with each other now without like 30 years without offending each other. I love it. You know, Barbara's like, yo, yeah, we're actually practicing. Maggie's like, we're actually communicating. It's like when a boomer married couple finally goes to couples therapy

30 years into their marriage. But like, thank God though, because like you don't want to regret anything at the end of your life. And like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to get to communication. As long as you get there, I think that's the most important thing. Yeah. Yeah. And, and listen, you know, we kind of like made fun of ourselves with this like bubble of that we've been in, right? But it's kind of fun, number one, because it couldn't be more obvious that positivity begets more positivity, and probably the emphasis is also true, right? when somebody you know potentially inadvertently steps out of that bubble of positivity

no longer you know would we feel compelled to be like you're an asshole you're doing this stop doing that right it's because we're of this hyperbole a bubble of positivity it's really fucking obvious to that person when they're out of the bubble of positivity. Kind of like quickly helps to like reform and, you know, listen, we're not, we're not, you know,

doing like, you know, okay, down on bubble up on positivity. Right. Can you please do a video of that though? You guys need to do that for your next show. Make an Instagram reel.

What was the first time when bar, you know, with this all positivity vibe going on. And the first time you realized is like, Barbara's like, Hey brother, you want to go out to lunch? No. What the fuck? No, I'm scared.

Hey, you want to just talk? You want to have a cup of coffee and talk? Don's calling me on the phone right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if I want to see a movie tonight or come over for a swim. What is going on? Am I getting dumped? It's very suspicious.

How much money do you need, Barbara? That we should talk. We need to talk. That must feel good, though, bro. Because all the years of fighting and miscommunications and now finally feel like you're talking and have a brotherhood

with it again. It must feel good to not have that on your mind so you can just focus on music now. It's not even talking. It's not talking. That's the wonderful thing. That's hot. I like that. It's hot.

The power of shutting the fuck up. 100%. Or the power of setting boundaries and be like, I know you want to talk, but I'm not the person to talk to. Right. You know, the powerful things in that at the very least, you know, keeps us focused on the task at hand, which is, you know, hopefully this like music thing. But I mean, here's another, you's another microcosmic example of that. We got new management, whatever, a year ago. And prior to

that, we were so immersed. Benny Baruch. Shout out, BB. Prior to that, we were so immersed in all the little facets and parts of our business, ranging from the shows and the deals and what's going on here. And there's a problem with this promoter over

here. And we'd be involved in like all of that minutia. And, you know, now it seems we're in, you know, not just capable hands, but like sharp hands, you know, where we like, we, we trust that they're making like good decisions, um, you good decisions on our behalf. And it has enabled us, or at least me, to not really care at all about any of that stuff that I used to spend so much time in my day. Talking to the old manager, or even when we didn't have managers, or a booking agent, or a problem with a crew member. And doing all that stuff that just became a distraction from... Micromanaging. And now, I don't fucking involve myself

in any of that. We love new managers. I'm happier for it, and so much more productive for it. Do you have time? How much time do you have? I have plenty of time. Okay, because I also want to pitch you on...

Will you compose strings on my record? I have plenty of them. Okay. Because I also want to pitch you on a string. Will you compose strings on my record? Yeah. Okay, cool. Okay. We'll talk about that later. Who introduced you to drugs, Magner? Which biscuit introduced you to cocaine?

I don't know. You guys do cocaine or psychedelics or what were you doing? I'm going to be a big cocaine guy. It is 2024. Not doing cocaine is the new doing cocaine. I don't know what year you were living in. Oh, okay. I guess I'm not doing cocaine then.

No, but like what? You don't seem like a guy who was taking drugs when you were in high school. Like what was the first day you like tried pot or acid? At a young age, you or acid? At a young age. Pot at a young age because I was really into the Grateful Dead and that counterculture type of thing. I think

the first time I did pot was at a Jerry Garcia con. I did pot. I already sound like I'm 48 years old. I did pot. It was Jerry. At a Jerry band concert in 1989. Whoa. Yeah. So that was my first time with the pot, but kind of like stuck there. And I have always been somewhat intimidated by new drugs that kind of like seem scary. So I was always in high school, like, you know,

I was a mushroom guy and that was kind of it, like not even acid. Right. And didn't get into like, you know, that type of psychedelic until later in college. But, you know, and then, you know, obviously had my fun experimenting with all the new fun things that were coming out in the 90s and, you know, see and everything like that which definitely helped change uh you know the trajectory of our music as well um but really i'm fucking 48 now man i found a nice like you know hat trick with uh mushrooms tequila and zoloft that's my cocktail oh yes zoloft are you on antidepressants that's what zoloft is yeah well how long you been on antidepressants? That's what Zoloft is. Yeah. Well, how long have you been on antidepressants for? It's an anti-anxiety. Oh, anti-anxiety. Sorry.

And for, I don't know, two years or something like that. And really subscribed to it, you know, to the point where it's interesting that I feel so comfortable talking about it right now. But I don't think I felt comfortable talking about it, you know, two years ago. but I don't think I felt comfortable talking about it, you know, two years ago and certainly, you know, not prior when, when it wasn't something that I wanted to, you know, put into my body for whatever fucking reason. Um, but it's been a game changer, you know, I, I think I'm a pretty, um, stable person, you know, it's a mood stabilizer, right? That's really what I use it for. And I, I'm a pretty stable person as is, but I surround myself with unstable people. And so what this drug has, including my three little children, I'm not talking about my band. like split second to process whatever, you know,

situation that I'm in a conversation or, you know, an environment or whatever it is where I don't react to that situation or that comment in a chemical reaction. And it gives me the ability to almost like hear my inner voice, hear the tone of that sentence. That's going to come out all for a couple of words, all in a fucking millisecond.

And then it comes out. And, you know, it's been a game changer for me. I have never, you know, low dosage and I never felt any sort of like side effects where I even needed to have any further conversation. And even crazier, it's like, dude, I've spent a fucking career experimenting with drugs. Why would I not experiment with another drug? That a doctor gave you. I think it's a stigma, man. People are afraid to talk

about that they're depressed, and especially males, that we're afraid to be vulnerable and take things that'll help our brain figure this shit out. What was it two years ago that you finally said, enough is enough, I'm going to do this. I think I was...

I don't fucking know. I don't think there was an epiphany as much as something needs to change, something needs to happen. I was doing because it was the pandemic and had the time available like weekly therapy i don't think that there's a shortcut where you can just take some fucking zoloft

their entourage effects you know you do the you do the medication and you do your fucking talk therapy and they work together you know they're they're not mutually exclusive of each other and um i just kind of fucking did it you know and and thinking that it was going to be more of an experiment you know the way that it's almost an experiment anytime I put mushrooms in my mouth. And, and it was a positive, and it was a positive one with positive results, you know, and also, you know, my wife got on it around a similar time. And, you know, I saw, again, same thing, low dosage didn't really like have a specific reason other than you know it's a lot managing a family and three kids and a career and everything like that and me just noticing in her very little things right just like the patient she had with with our kids in a situation where i didn't think she would be as patient with whatever the situation was or whatever it was. It was a positive effect.

And so I continued to send, I had more conversations with friends about it, friends that had been on it. A doctor friend of mine that is one of the most talented doctors that I know that is also on it personally. And I was like, holy fuck, what am I doing even questioning this?

Clearly, this is right. And that was a right decision. Man, growing old is so cool. I see myself like 10 years ago, and now I'm maturing a lot more. And then there's more maturing. Like, I'm 10 years younger than you. So I think that's the beautiful part about keep going in life.

Because you're always going to change, right? Yeah, totally. I need a space for a second to think. It's so nice that we can share. Go back, go back for a second. My brain went forward. Just growing old is great. And like realizing that we can change and we can mature and we can have all the things in life and still be happy and not have to do all the substances and still find other ways to be happy and figure out other ways to like mend relationships. And I think that's the beautiful part of growing old.

I think that's the beautiful part of growing old. I found a new thing in this midlife, I guess, that I'm in right now, which is, uh, sounds so silly to say out loud, but wisdom,

a small art, you know, and, but what's cool about it is I like this wisdom, just like kind of like a, uh, more of an understanding of how the world works, more of an understanding of, you know, the history of, you know, civilization and people and how that kind of like, you know, it makes more sense now. Now, even looking back to like, you know, what 100 years ago was, or God forbid, 200 years ago, right? When we were kids, 100 years ago was ancient history, you know, and now you realize how short of a period of time just like 100 like midlife thing, I'm motivated to kind of grab more of it, the older that I get. Right. So I'm not in that like focusing on, you know, my beard is getting gray, my joints are getting achy. I'm like, oh, cool. What else is kind of coming? You know, because you see those older people that are like, dude, that motherfucker

is wise. Right. And they might be super smart and super wise, but they might've just like lived a good life. And that is kind of like, that wisdom is what I'm now looking to attain. And I think that you do it in lots of different ways. I think that like, you know, experience is one of them, right? Whether it's like having experiences with ourselves,

but having new and different experiences and traveling and seeing the world through other people's eyes. You know, we just took a family trip to Iceland and, you know, my wife and I were just in Iceland two years ago, but we brought our kids this time or two of them. Right. And we did some similar things and some different things and like getting to like have that experience, but like reliving it through their eyes, it makes it a new and different experience for me. Um um so like all these things like yeah man i want to know what is going to happen in the future you know i want to know

what like ai is going to do right you know i want to know is is elon musk really going to get us to a different planet you know because we're going to find this one up and he's setting the course for like the rest of human you know civilization to be a multi-planetary civilization. I want to know that. And I think because of how fast everything is going right now, if I do end up leading a pretty long life, I might be able to get a pretty good understanding of at least the questions that I have now and see where that trajectory is going to go. This guy fucking rules. I told you. Air Magner, you know, and see where that, the trajectory is going to go. So. This guy fucking rules. I told you. Eric Magner,

you fucking rule, dude. I told you, it's smart. You're a fucking man. Are we, are we new friends? I feel like we haven't really,

no, I, exactly. I feel like Barbara's been hoarding me from you. Cause like, he knows we're going to, gatekeeping. I told him that I was going on your podcast. He was excited.

No, yeah, because I really, you know, all jokes aside, Barber and Brownie are such huge inspirations to me, and they're like my close friends. Barber has been such a champion to me, and Brownie too. It's just like, I'm a big fan of your band.

You are one of my favorite jam bands, you know, it's like, and just musicians and friends. So it's, it's really nice to talk to you now. Cause you're, you play my instrument and you inspire me to be better. So it's like, I just want to say thank you, Magna. I know you got, you got other, you have a thousand projects you have to work on mixes on. So we'll let you go. We want to say we love you. Oh, I was hoping that this interview could end the way that Bruce Hornsby ended his interview. I know. Hey bro, gotta go. We want to say we love you. Oh, I was hoping that this interview could end the way that, uh, Bruce Hornsby ended his interview. I know.

Hey bro, gotta go. When I was like, yo, so tell me about heroin and Jerry Garcia later. Yeah. Sorry. It's been exactly when I was goodbye to you,

but, um, I'm just, you know, I'm just thankful. I love you. I love your band. I love every one of you.

And I'm just so happy. You guys are happy. And I'm stoked that you guys are stoked playing and you're catching another wave. It's just cool to see my friends fucking doing it. Thanks for just putting up with their bullshit.

I'm sure Magner has his own bullshit. What's your bullshit, Magner? I definitely do. Of course I do. What do they get pissed off at you about? What do they get pissed off at you about? What do they get pissed off at you about? Okay. There's a very constant thing in our band of overplaying, right?

But that's a thing I feel like in any band. And whenever that conversation comes up, I'm reminded of like the spider-man meme you know where they're all pointing each other listen it's the guitar player it's always the guitar player that's fucking hilarious dude it's always the guitar player john said to me the other day he was like he was like i mean i play the least notes of any member of this band i just let him have it it. No, I let him have it. I let him have my own statement and I was like,

okay, I guess that's interesting. It's cool because they're the loudest too. That is the biggest crock of shit ever. Barbara tried to tell you that? That's only because he has all these fingers. He's not counting the ones he's playing all at the same time. And then like,

we played like an incredible show, all four of us at this Elements Festival the other day. And then like, and listen back, we played like a fucking incredible show, all four of us at this Elements Festival the other day. I'm listening back to it because it was really fucking good and I'm proud of us. And I'm trying to like do calculations. So I'm setting up the rules. I was like, okay, if I'm playing a chord with eight notes in it,

that only counts as one, right? Anytime you take up space, right? So I'm like, you know, now trying to figure out, can I get an algorithm and actually like clock these things? And it's hard because like any data, and I'm obviously not going to do that, but any data you can, you know, manipulate in order to prove whatever you're trying to prove.

So, you know, lots of different like areas of different jams, you know, we play so many different stylings of jams and, you know, depending on how comfortable or motivated somebody is with that jam, they might be playing more and they might be playing less. Yeah. So, um, that's awesome.

Elements look fun as hell. Where was that again? Oh, it's like, I saw the stage. It looked insane. Like the, the whole visual.

It's in the fucking Poconos. Oh yeah. Poconos Speedway, which is like two hours from me. I'd never, I'd heard of the festival, but like, I thought it was just like a small festival. I didn't think it was going to be like that big.

And it's really fun for us to show up to these electronic music festivals where, you know, DJ is probably still rock star, you know, and we might still be black sheep, even though there's other bands on the bill, but you know, we're still a minority there. And we show up and feel confident doing our thing right and as opposed to say 2012 where we weren't confident doing our thing and we were trying to find different things that we can do within our arsenal that will um you know give us that power that the djs do right so we were experimenting with playback and you know all those types of

things and we were getting further and further you know all those types of things and we were getting further and further and further away from like who we are as people and as a band and we were trying to be something else that we weren't and you know that kind of plagued us for a little bit because we we lost our ego you know we lost our like sense of self for a few different years in those like mid-teens that kind of started getting it back recently but i think we started getting it back because you know whatever we're just like more confident in who we are and not trying to be chameleons but we also started implementing some really cool like technological stuff that we could incorporate into the ethos

of our improvisational setting you know without having to compromise our oh we're just playing along with the computer you know hey there's a backing track song right we really don't do you know backing tracks but we do harness the power of computers and now have figured out how to use that computer as you know an actual musician in the band as opposed to just you know the stalwarting its way through like this is what i do in this song now and i can't do anything else you know and that really is fucking cool and to your point of communicating before here's a perfect example perfect example of communicating for years we were plagued with this is just one example of

things musically we were plagued with um is just one example of things musically we were plagued with um not being able to communicate effectively on stage about tempo and where we were right and fights would definitely ensue you know like from thinking that like you know that alan why didn't you get to the tempo that you knew that i wanted to be at you know and it's like well you you didn't you don't communicate that to me, you know? Or you did communicate that to me, but you were being a dick trying to communicate that to me or whatever it is. And then we kind of found that like-

I love it. I mean, it's so simple, right? If we're at 128 and you want to get to 132, you go into the TalkBack microphone and you say, hey, Alan, can we pick it up a few clicks? That's it. That's it. No problem, brother. He's so chill, too. He's like, yeah,

sure. Here it is, perfectly. Instead of like, you're dragging, piece of shit. Hey, bud, let's just pump it up a little bit. I honestly don't even know what the miscommunication was right was you know alan like you know mad at other things that happened and was manifesting you know things that happened in the past when somebody was telling him to increase the tempo you know was was the person telling him to increase the tempo saying it in like a rude way

or whatever the fuck was happening it turns out all you need to do is just say nicely hey let's pick it up a couple of clicks and then it fucking happens and you know that was a huge hold back for us but now we actually like that is a non-issue anymore right and so these like beautiful things that can kind of happen with just being able to communicate with each other here's here i'll leave you i know i'm rambling but this is a really beautiful thing that happened. A couple of festivals ago in Ohio, Mark was struggling on stage for whatever his technical reasons were and was letting the band know through our talkback mics in a panic that he was having his difficulties. But it didn't seem, at least to us, that you know, it was cause for like alarm, like, you know, the jam was still moving. You'll get your chance to breathe in a second. You know, it doesn't sound as fucked up. It doesn't sound fucked up to me at all. And Barber said, you know, back to him into the talkback mic, like, you know, just whatever it was like, you're doing great, man. You know, like, it doesn't sound that bad you know just keep on doing keep on doing your thing i know you're having like you know your problem whatever it was like you know i hear you right and that's an important thing that you know we don't just like you don't do enough just like me and sean

you know but but it was perfect and to you know take it even one step further i gave positive reinforcement to barber afterwards whoa like hey man it's like because i wouldn't have been able to accomplish that on, you know, if I would have tried saying that into the microphone, you know, it probably would have made things worse. Yeah.

Um, so Barbara was the perfect person to say it and he used the perfect words to say it, you know, and I don't know how much it actually, you know, Dave Mark, the,

you know, the comfort that he was looking for, but I imagine that it did, you know, that was definitely something that we but I imagine that it did. That was definitely something that we would not have done years ago. It came about organically.

Mark was upstream without a paddle. John just gave him that paddle and was like, here you go, man. Come back into our current. We're waiting for you. All good. Take your time. That was awesome. I like that. That's the place that I want to exist in. You're waiting for you. All good. Take your time. Oh, yeah. And that was awesome. And I like that.

That's the place that I want to exist in. You heard it from the source. The Disco Biscuits are happy. They are friends. They are friends. I might have to delete all these happy stories. I got to say,

you guys are all. For a while, I said, Disco Biscuits, sneaky, handsome band. Sneaky. Dude, Aaron's hot. Aaron's a good looking guy.

Aaron's hot. Barber's hot. Brownie's getting, he's got a weird eye. He's Aaron's hot. Aaron's a good looking guy. Aaron's hot. Barber's hot. Brownie's getting he's got a weird eye. He's got a look. He's got a look. Alan's hot too. I feel like Alan

is stallion right now. Yeah. Look over at his long flowing hair. He's fucking ripped. He's like Donna status going on right now.

I love it. Is he still living out here in Colorado? He is. He's in Southern Colorado. Parker. We should get him over here and talk. We should get every we'll have this like it's like a band. We should get him over here and talk.

It's like a band therapy session. Good luck getting him to talk. He won't talk. Not exactly. Have you heard any words from Alan before? Alan is hard to penetrate. Whoa. Hey. I know. I know. It was coming out. Not in my experience.

He said come too. That's hot. I love. It was coming out. Not in my experience. He said come too. Penetrated come. That's hot. I love playing with that guy. He's the man. He's always really nice to me too about my playing. He's super nice and yes, he's soft-spoken, but that doesn't mean that you can't have

a real conversation. Of course. He does the work, man. He's a hardcore meditator um and you know really really goes you know deep deep within um and you know that is a place of comfort for alan like you know i'm not the fucking meditation type but it's clearly working for him and mad respect for that um alan these leads an incredibly healthy lifestyle that sets a really positive example for Van,

not just in his veganism as we eat the fucking pigs we are on the road. I didn't realize he was vegan, actually. That's cool. Yeah, motherfucker won 10 miles after the show. After the show, dude. He's insane. I love that. Chris Myers used to be like that.

I don't know if he still runs, but he runs a lot, too. Yeah. Healthy the show, dude. He's insane. I love that. Chris Myers used to be like that. I don't know if he still runs, but he runs a lot too. Yeah. Healthy lifestyle. Not anymore. Yeah, exactly. I see that man at 4 a.m. sometimes.

That ain't happening anymore. Well, he used to be. He used to be a runner. He used to be a track star. Those Umphreys guys. Now, you know, we developed this like relationship with Umphreys over the years, right?

Yeah. We're all like good friends and we're, we're comrades and we, you know, support each other. There's interestingly like no competition between the two of us, even though we're at the same level of jam. Right.

And it's kind of cool. So, you know, we're dumb tours or whatever, right. Where we get together and, you know, play shows or we do these festivals on the beach in Mexico and Jamaica.

Um, but when we were first becoming friends with them like you know i would look at my crazy fucking tumultuous band and the relationship that we had and yes it's always been unconditional love we've always been a band of brothers but tumultuous and then i look at at umphrey's you know and to me they're setting up fucking barbecues and trading fucking recipes and playing like they've got you know their baseball mitts on tour. And they're fucking playing catch in the parking lot.

Don't let it fool you, Magner. They hate each other too, brother. They're still a band. They're still six musicians. No, but they get along. I think they have an advantage in they have more people. So you can section off and be like, you're not on top of each other as much too. And you have to fucking get along if you're not on top of each other as much too. And, you know,

you have to fucking get along if you're going to be doing this. Like, how long have you been doing this now with your band? 20 years? Over 30, man. That's what I'm fucking talking about. We're approaching 30, something like that. Let's fucking go. Their band was in elementary school on 9-11.

We're like, we're not dating anyone if they don't know what 9-11 is.'re like, we don't, we don't, we're not dating anyone if they don't know what 9-11 is. I told, I'm telling all my guys in their 30s,

I'm like, you can't date anybody unless she remembers very well 9-11. That's your rule. Or she's too young for you, bro. She's too young for you.

All right, let this man go. All right, goodbye, man. I love you. Goodbye, Frasco and Nick. Thank you guys. That was really cool. I enjoyed you. Goodbye, Frasco and Nick. Thank you guys. I enjoyed that.

You've just tuned into the World Saving Podcast with Andy Frasco, produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angel Howe, and Chris Lorenz. Please help us save the world by subscribing and rating the show on volume.com, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you're listening so we can spread the word and save the world. Follow us on Instagram at world saving podcast for updates, for tour dates, merch, and whatever crazy special event Andy thinks of next, check out andyfrasco.com. Special thanks to this week's guest, courtesy of our talent booker, Mara Davis,

that's me or Andy's other mother. Be your best, and we'll talk to you next week for another great episode of the World Saving Podcast. I always say, talk to you next week, but actually, you do see them next week because it's a video podcast. All right, I'm gonna do it one more time.