Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 309: Moon Hooch & Honeycomb

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Andy & Nick bid bon voyage to this year's Jam Cruise and we pray they remembered to hit record on the podcast machine whilst interviewing a star-studded lineup of artists aboard the boat. Please, for the love of god, always record. Plus! Tour is upon us. Check in on Andy's tour dates now! And on the Interview Hour, we got a double dose of dulcet delights with Michael from Moon Hooch and insanely talented live-looper/beatboxer, Honeycomb! Is this Andy and Nick's best interview to date? Sources say: oh hell yes. And guess what... now you can see a cool dog by the name of Denzel should you choose to watch this episode *exclusively* on Volume.com... now in color!  Generally speaking, we are 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 who you think the essential American rock band is today: [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 Produced by Andy Frasco, Nick Gerlach, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Mara Davis Shawn Eckels

Oh, oh, oh If Andy had a son If Andy had a son He's to a life might be done Little baby took away his fun What did Eddie Fresco do? He left it inside of you and nine months later he had a little baby boy he's Mushroom's kid, does homework, baby

bottles filled with Jameson his life will never be the same if Andy had a son if Andy had a son, if Andy had a son Doing puzzles instead of bumps His tour life might be done Thank God Andy doesn't have a son You've got to wrap it up Let's pull out Please pull out And we're live. Andy Frasco's World Series Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's our heads? How's our minds? Are we staying in trouble? We are officially off the GM cruise now, but that's a San Francisco Bay Bridge. We're officially off the GM

cruise now, but we literally just got back off the boat. So I'm throwing up everywhere. This is the past We have one more interview until we will next week We'll tell you we'll have our update about how the fucking jam cruise was I'm feeling it was kooky. I feel he was wild future frasco and future girl, I Probably had a good time. Yeah, I didn't hopefully I stayed on the boat Yeah, what if like you got back and you're just like Vin Diesel brown like just like so tan

It's family I'm about family. I wasn't saving private ride member Remember I was a saving private And then I made 15 car movies and now I'm rich Yeah, did you see that Haagen-Dazs commercial from the Super Bowl? Yeah. So slow, so serious or whatever. That was so funny, I like that one.

He's getting so rich off those car movies. Oh God, yeah, shout out to Vin Diesel. Next up. The richest Italian on the planet. We had Moon Hooch come to the house and Honeycomb. Michael Wilbur. What a goat. Goated.

I love these, I love New York people. They're no bullshit. If you ask them a question that's kind of controversial, they. They're no bullshit. Yeah, if you ask them a question That's kind of controversial. There's a little just let you know. Yeah. Yeah, I like it He's like yeah, I don't miss sex bar hates me fuck him this teacher sucks. You don't know who knew who moon hooch is sax Fronted EDM double sax double sax fronted EDM music it is the coolest shit They're an anomaly my mouth was on the floor when I saw them at Cervantes Nick is like you're gonna love the show and I'm like, yeah, yeah, whatever

Yeah, and I fell in love with this show. I called Michael right after the show. He's like, please come over the house Let's talk. Let's go on the podcast come over you won't come over. I'm like, yeah, I lured him in Mike Hey, we have a dab machine But you're going to love the interview. Chris, actually let me do the volume pitch. Hey, I did the volume pitch last week. Why don't you do the volume pitch this year? Volume.com everybody. Volume.com, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Oh, it's the number one streaming company as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, me too. I heard your mission stream went really well. There was no hiccups. No hiccups and it was like a nice video. No lag. No lag, it was great.

Looked good, so you know, look at that. That's how good their product is. They do that every time and also it's free to use. And also. What? If you're a creator, you need to get your shit on there too. It's not just about. Get your shit together.

It's not just about being a consumer, people. You can be a creator too. So you can become consumed. Ah! Very easy to sign up for. Just do it, just get on there. Volumes.com. Just get out there and just stop being a maniac.

They're well funded, they got a great staff. Yeah. Everything's great over there. It's the best. And while you're at it, sign up for Only Frosco. Yeah. A new subscription. New subscription.

Five dollars a month, people. It's not that much. You got it. You could pay for it, 60 bucks for the whole year and not have to think about it again. That's less than one egg. Less than one egg these days in America. Egg joke.

Are they still? So sick of egg jokes. I haven't heard one egg joke. Maybe because I don't listen to the common folk. Yes, it's just dumb boomer humor. Well, eggs are expensive. Everything's expensive. Maybe if you didn't ruin society,

everything wouldn't be so expensive, huh boomer? Yeah anyway Chris play some moon hooch get these people pumped up for the fucking interview that just happened. It was great. Yeah one one I love you guys next week We'll keep you updated with what happened on the boat and we probably have we probably stockpiled a bunch of interviews I hope so. I hope so cuz I'm on the road till April 1st guys grab your tickets Try not to die tour is fucking full steam ahead. Just till April 1st. Okay, that's not this April 1st It's like a month and a half. Yeah, and then we'll have this so it's like really like That's my only big tour and everything else is weekend. Yeah, I'll see you in Indy too so we can pop one up

Yeah, we're good. We're set up. We're blessed. We're blessed. We're blessed. Very demure, very mindful. Yeah, we're highly favored by the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. Yes, shout out to Jesus. Number one Jew. Number one Jew, all right. Bye. I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man Beautiful day. Beautiful day for Moon, Hooch and Honeycomb to be in Denver, Colorado. Hey guys, how we doing? What's up, brother? Good. Dude, what a fucking show that was this weekend. It was epic. It was fun. I mean, I've seen you play, but that was something. I'm, I have ADD. I can't, Nick can contest for this. I'm not, I get bored of shit. I've never seen you watch a band for more than like 25 Yeah, I wasn't on I was I felt like a groupie

I'm taking videos of y'all just fucking dancing and making the moves and the German homie in your band Yeah, that you dude. Just like just just pure white It was a great night. Honeycomb's like, man, what the fuck is going on? I don't want to get myself into it. It was great. Who decided about this tour? Honeycomb, how'd you get involved with this? Michael, who decided this? This is the first time you guys ever... Nick thought you guys have been touring forever. I think this is the first tour you've ever done together. So, Tume Zoos and Moonhooch did a Moon Zoos tour once before back in 2019. And then we did a couple shorter runs

with another band, Lucky Chops. We call that one Lucky Moon Zoos. But it was just too many people on stage. It was like Lucky Chops has six people in their band. I remember Lucky Chops too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we wanted to get all the New York subway bands together. It was fun, it was just kind of a shit show.

But this tour, we had been talking about doing it for a while and yeah, I don't really remember how it happened, but it happened. And we were like, the agents wanted an opener and our first guy I thought of was Honeycomb. He's a one guy show. Easiest opener. Honeycomb, so all the rumors are true about you.

You smoke hella weed. Just a little bit. Yeah. And like, so your beatbox and stuff. Why don't you give people a little example of what you do out there. I Found him in the basement of Pearl Street in Northampton, Massachusetts Oh my god. Wow. He opened for us back in what was that 2013? Oh, I was like who the fuck is this guy? So tell me this tell me the origin story people don't realize you guys were a subway band fuck

We guys make it fucking tell me every first start with the subway how you met your boy your your German fellow Yep, well, we'll just call him the German fellow. Yeah And tell me how this whole thing started. Yeah, so Basically, we were going to the new school for jazz. We were jazz. It's not... Oh, were you pretentious? How many... Was it all pretentious out there? It was pretty fucking pretentious.

Yeah, you don't seem like a pretentious dude. No, so I was like pretentious in like the anti-pretentious kind of way. I like went so avant-garde. I was like, fuck jazz dudes. But then it became like its own pretentiousness. Oh my God. so avant-garde, I was like, fuck jazz dudes. But then it became like its own pretentiousness. You know what I mean? I was like, if it sounds good, it's not music.

You know what I mean? I was like on that tip. I was like, eeeh, eeeh, eeeh, eeeh. You know, it's like two people in like weird cafes. I like Albert Heiler. But, you know, it was cool. But basically, I met Wenzel in the John Coltrane ensemble audition.

Wow. And there were like six other tenor players. And he was just grilling me. Like, I could feel his vibe. And he's just like staring at me like this from across the room. I'm like, who the fuck is this dude? You know what I mean? Like, chill out, bro. I'm like, who the fuck is this dude? You know what I mean? Like, chill out, bro.

I'm like, hi. You get it. You're good. And my 1946 radar would just go. Woo! Wee! Wee! Generational trauma.

Generational trauma. Oh, god. All right, but keep going. Yeah, so basically, fucking, yeah. Generational trauma. Oh God. So basically, fucking yeah, I play a solo. Reggie Workman was the instructor. He played bass with Coltrane. Super fucking epic dude.

So he's auditioning us and you know, I'm playing my out shit and Wenzel played his really like in the changes, like super to the note, voice leading everything perfectly. We were like complete opposite players. And I left that rehearsal, I mean that audition just being like, all right, man, weird. I guess.

And then turns out we both got into the ensemble. But then how old are you guys? 19? Yeah, about 19. So he found out that we both got in and dropped the class because he didn't want to be in it with me. Because he didn't want to hear me play. No way. I'm serious. Yeah. He didn't want to hear me play. No way. I'm serious, yeah. Holy shit. He didn't want to hear me play. So he dropped it. That is the most European shit on the planet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I will not, I would drop my education. I will not listen to this motherfucker. I kind of respect that. A little bit I kind of respect that. Yeah. I mean, you know. It's a vibe.

It is what it is. It's a vibe. So anyway, two years pass, and I'm living in Brooklyn in this rat-infested shithole. What part of it, like Bushwick flats? In Bushwick, yeah, in Bushwick, like right on the border of Bed-Stuy. And I'm practicing my scales

and I hear this knock on the door and it's Wenzel. And he's like, what are you practicing? I'm like, whoa, they're not expecting to see you here. All right, he's randomly in the Bushwick flats. He's in the same apartment building as me. He moved in next door. What? Did he know?

You guys didn't see each other? Nothing? Nothing. So he went to work on a cruise ship. He dropped out of school, like, pretty much after that audition. Wow. He just dropped out. Fucking mystery man, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He dropped out, went and worked on a cruise ship for like a year or two and then moved in With James who was our first drummer next door and this whole little apartment. I was like musician alley all musicians Yeah, remember the busher clats being like that. Yeah, it was it was awesome. Honestly, there's a lot of creativity going on anyway, so him and I started getting drunk together. And like, just getting fucked up and partying. And I was like, all right, this dude's cool. Yeah.

We actually became friends, but not through music. And then we went to bartending school together, because we were like, we need a job. We need to do something. I was playing jazz on the street and not really making any money. Selling weed, those kinds of things. Ripping jazz on the streets of New York making any money, you know, selling weed. But you're just ripping jazz on the streets of... Yeah, every day. Like, I spent all day just playing on the street. And like, so jazz wasn't making any money, then you start doing this like experimental...

Well, keep going, keep going this way. Yeah, so it wasn't making any money, so... And Wenzel was doing the same thing separately, also playing on the street with the same musicians, but we wouldn't do it together. Where would you stop? Would you be right next to Madison Square Garden, after a Knicks game?

What was your game plan when you were busking in the beginning of the years? Basically, just try and get the busiest spots. Yeah. Like Bedford L, Union Square L, Washington Square Park. If it was nice out, we'd always hit the parks. Central Park, Washington Square, Union Square L, Washington Square Park. If it was NYSAT we'd always hit the parks. Central Park, Washington Square, Union Square. Yeah and basically, wait what were we talking about? We're talking about the beginning years. So you both

were busking jazz. He moves in. Yep. And now you're starting to form, realize that this guy is not just this weird European dude, he's actually a cool dude. Yeah, he's actually a cool dude. Yeah. And we start going to bartending school together and we're having fun. He's like picking up girls on the train. I'm like, this dude's wild.

You know what I mean? Like picking up girls on the fucking train. He's pretty suave, man. Yeah. He's got a way about it. I love New York City. He had game. It's the best city in it. I love New York City. He had games. It's the best city in the planet.

And the cool accent. Yeah. It was, I was like, okay. And then we started playing together because we're hanging out more now. And he's like, well, I'm going to go busking. I'm like, oh, me too. And we're like, let's do it together.

So, and I was already apprehensive because I remembered the audition. Yeah. And the- Does he remember? Oh yeah, yeah, he does. We still talk about it. Does he have an explanation for it?

Yeah, he didn't like my playing. Oh, so he's just stuck with it. I kind of, yeah, it's kind of nice. He just left- Genuinely. He left the fucking class just because he said, fuck this guy. I'm not being with another tenor player with John Coltrane groups.

Yeah, I was like really pushing like this Albert Eiler sound. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like really out. I was like, fuck chord tones. Yeah. OK, so you're both playing tenor saxophone. Yeah. So is there some competition?

There's some street beef. Yes. OK. Keep going. So. So, so, you know, basically I kept going with the free jazz on the street thing and he had started producing EDM on the cruise ship. So he was getting into Ableton and like producing house music.

And one day in Washington Square Park, I heard a drummer and a sax player playing like some house grooves. And I go over with my drummer's it's James and Wenzel and they're under the arts just jamming out and we came up and we're like let's play together he's like all right play he comes over he's like play these play this progression basically and You're just, you've tried to fuck me, I'm trying to fuck you now. I'm dropping this class. I know I'm dropping this.

Yeah, so basically we jammed, you know, I followed the chord progression, I like played the bass line, we switched off, I honked the bass line out on a tenor sax. It's not really even a bass instrument. And he'd solo and then we'd switch and it was like fucking magic. Like within a minute or two of playing,

a crowd started to form around it. We started to make money. You know what I'm like, oh if you play like rhythmic tonal music, people might pay attention. This guy has been so anti that his whole musical experience is like wait, you can make money doing this? Yeah. People don't like the sound of a dying animal.

They don't hear it. They don't hear a melody. Literally. Okay, so you're like, holy shit. Yeah. The epiphany. Did he realize it too or did you just realize it? No, we both realized it.

And we started doing it every day. Like from that point on. What was the most money you made busking? We made like 350 each once. Sick. Yeah. Pretty good. You ever get in trouble like people this is my street or this is my turf. Oh yeah. Was it super territorial like that? Super territorial. And you need a permit right? I mean it's kind of gray area because we didn't have a speaker. Yeah, we were just acoustic instruments. So technically I think it was legal, but we were also really loud. It was a full drum kit.

Like we were just going hard. It was moon hooch. Yeah. And so fucking funny. Yeah. So we got we got banned from certain areas in New York. Like we couldn't play it on the L platform anymore. They were like, well, throw you in jail next time you're here.

Whoa, what? So who would, who would... So, okay, so was there any moment like you're just like in like the Upper West Side or something, just like all old people taking the train? You're like, we're moon hoots, kick it boys! Like, you know, these guys that... Oh yeah, we hit everywhere in New York. I mean, in the early days we would just spend 10 hours out just going around. We'd get kicked out and we'd be like, alright, let's go uptown. It's just different precincts. So how would you like pack up the drums so quickly? Like, that must have been a pain in the ass.

We had one case basically and we put, we didn't have a front to the bass drum. So we put everything in the bass drum. Oh, wow, that's cool. Yeah, and then just strap the hardware on top. Like a Russian dolly. Yeah, exactly. Had a dolly. So there was a moment where you guys blew up through this. What was the video?

So how many years did it take of you busking until people started to recognize, like, yeah, these guys are the fucking New York shit? Wasn't there like one video that got viral? It was after a, what was the name, Mighty Mouse? Is that an artist? Mighty Mouse or something mouse. I don't think it was dead mouse.

Modest mouse. Mighty Mouse. Mighty Mouse. Anyway, Mighty Mouse concert got rained out. It was an outdoor concert in Brooklyn and we were just busking on the Bedford platform. So the whole concert came down. From there. McCarran Park. Oh, those. So the whole concert came down. From there.

McCarran Park. McCarran Park. Oh, those free concerts. That's when I was living there. Yeah. Oh, six through nine. That's the one I remember. Exactly.

That's hard. This was 2010. Yeah, those free McCarran Park shows. Yep. It was one of those. Got canceled. So everybody came down wanting a concert. And we were playing and it turned into a freaking rave.

You can still watch the video, it's called Only in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Moon Hooch. And it's just a straight up rave. It was dangerous, we got written up in some pretty big publications. Being like, please stop. Really? Yeah, because it was turning into a scene down there.

People would come down and just rave in the subway with us and stay for hours. It was like a concert. People are trying to go to work, dude. That and people were getting drunk and could fall on the tracks. It was definitely a safety net. Did you get yelled at?

A lot. By who? The cops. The cops, they're like, please stop. Not please. It's like, you better stop. Yeah, get the fuck out of here like please with six months full What's NYPD like they seem like they don't they kind of like just they don't want to deal with you

This don't want you to shoo away. Yeah, they're not gonna fucking arrest you know have you been arrested? I have not been put in cuffs. I've been detained like what I'm from what um We got collar weed in why you know they searched the van found a bunch of we just played in Colorado at a time yeah they're waiting they gave us a ton of shit but not in New York not in New York no even with all the fucking crazy even

riots you've been fun yes in soon they got me yeah more important shit to take care of their yeah exactly my question is whose ego had to take a step back when they said, someone's gotta play the baritone sax? Like, you both play the same instrument. Why didn't he? His tips more.

Well. Ah. Because now, like, you play the baritone a lot more than, well, from the set I saw. I play bass sax. Bass sax, sorry. Yeah, bass and tenor, yeah. Bass and tenor. Wenzel plays bari, so, from the set I saw. I play bass sax. Bass sax, alright. Yeah, bass and tenor, yeah.

Bass and tenor. Wenzel plays Barry, so he got the Barry first. Basically, so we have an interesting story about our horns. I mean. I love the story, actually. This was the horn I was playing on, but it got totaled. Yeah, 10M. Which is a crazy.

Yeah, the 10M, it got totaled. Tell everyone how many horns you use in this band. For the two of you. Between the two of us, we play bass sax, tenor sax, tenor sax, barry sax, then barry sax with a traffic cone in it, which is a different instrument,

because it has a different range, it has a lower range. How'd you find out about that, like put a traffic cone in there? Wenzel like stuck a, so we were only, we only had two tenors and obviously we wanted bass, we're trying to play electronic dance music with like no bass instrument.

Right. So one day he was walking down the street and saw a cardboard tube on the street and put it in his horn because you know, the longer the tube, the lower the note. That's why lower horns are bigger. Oh, I didn't know that. on the street and put it in his horn, because you know the longer the tube, the lower the note. That's why lower horns are bigger. I didn't know that.

They're cones, they get bigger. Yeah, they're conical. God damn, this is a sax 101. I know. I fucking love this. Keep going, keep going. So that was the first bass instrument we had, was just a cardboard tube in the tenor sax.

And then this philanthropist, we were like playing on this party, this is some New York shit, we're playing at this rooftop party at this philanthropist's house. And we're all getting drunk, playing, and we're all just getting drunk and chilling with all these people.

And this guy is like, hey, come check this out, I have Sonny Stitt's tenor saxophone. Holy shit. I'm like, what? And so I go down and he takes out and he's like, play it. If you love it, you can have it. I'm like, this guy's a super rich. Oh, you don't even play it.

Super rich. Like what? Like just like Trust Fund Rich or like Axel Rich? From what I remember, he owned like a translation company. Like an international. Like a translation company like an international I translated Duolingo or something. Did he play? Yeah he played. He was a sax player. So he had a hundreds of saxes. Yeah yeah yeah and he's given a lot of like

Melissa Aldana he gave her a sax. He gave Wenzel his first tenor. So yeah he gave me that horn and I played on it for 12 years until it got knocked over at a show the other day Total total not fixable. I the body's fixable. The neck is smashed. I will see I'll try and we'll see Yeah, but anyway, I have others. Yeah, well, I you don't bring your nicest sax on tour or do you I mean that was yeah I did cuz it's just yeah cuz my old sax player Ernie Had a mark for what it looks like, yeah, cause my old sax player Ernie had a Mark four, what is it? Mark six. Mark six, but like a 1940 one? 62, he's got like a 62.

Which is a really good year for those. Like wine. You play this trust fund party. Yep. Go back to the story of why you had to play bass. Oh yeah, okay, anyway, so we got given a bunch of saxophones. The Barry, you know, we're playing Barry on the street, and it's low, but still we're like,

we were like listening to Skrillex and shit. We wanted to like make like, wub wubs. Yeah. So. Were you using the keyboard yet? No, we hadn't. Jeremy did you use the keyboard? No, we had, we integrated the Moog later. Okay. So you're just doing all sax low

It's just sax with like pedals and shit. Mm-hmm. So then basically we were like, let's get a bass axe You know, we start making money at this point. We're playing gigs and we went on tour and So we bought this this cheap old con bass axe and It was cool. It was a cool horn, but I never wanted to play it. It was like heavy and it didn't play well. There are a lot. Seems like it'd fuck up your posture. Yeah, I was just not feeling it.

So it kind of sat in the rehearsal space for a couple of years. We played on a few songs, but then the pandemic hit and this company in London sent me a bass axe. Were you popping yet? Were you selling tickets? Moon Hooch was. For sure, for sure. I had just started doing my own thing on socials and connected with this company. They hooked me up and I got this new bass acts that just played way better. So I just started getting really into it. And that's really when I started integrating it more.

Because I liked it. So, yeah. I can actually play it, so I can play it more. I'm going to get to you soon, honeycomb. I mean, this is very fascinating to me. Tell me your process of making records. How do you get an EDM tone through the records? Because your band is very live. Is it hard? Is it tricky for you to make records? Yeah. I bet. It is. So

what's your process? How you approach it? I mean the first five studio records we just did it like a band. We'd go in Isobooth at a nice studio and play to a click track, and then we'd produce it afterwards and add in basses. The first one was just Raw and Uncut, which happens to be our most popular album still. That piss you off? No, I think it makes sense. The energy was there? The energy was there, it's the origin sound, you know, it was really like... It's fucking the streets of New York. Yeah, it's like a punk band.

Exactly, exactly. It was one take each song. Yeah, Oingo Boingo style or something. Yeah, it was just raw energy. We recorded the whole album in a day at the bunker studio and But after that we started producing more and you know trying to capture the live sound because the the show has only gotten better Yeah years because we played together so much and we've created that energy, you know that new drummer new drummer Yeah, that's a fucking beast monster. That guy's on and how happy he is He is so happy to be in this fucking band. He is, man. He is. Yeah, we're happy to have him.

Good, he's a beast. Black drummer's the best. Is he from New York? Oh yeah. Yeah, okay, cool. He's from Niagara. Oh really, cool. So, as you're developing your sound,

are you using more triggers, are you using more, like, when you're making new records, like, what's your approach now versus what your approach was before, but still trying to get that raw energy? Yeah. Doing it on stage during the soundcheck. Yeah, yeah, I mean, to be completely honest, like, it's kind of like, it's just falling apart.

Like, we have no process. The process is having no process. Yeah, we have, exactly. That's exactly what you. We have no process. We have exactly. That's exactly what you wanted from the first day. It's hilarious. It kind of is full circle. We don't even rehearse anymore. We show up. We have the show.

The way we do it is we have Ableton Live. We put all the microphones into our interface. And then we play to a click track and play a to Z we have like two and a half hours and then we just kind of pick segments of that set and Add songs while we're on the road and then we can multitrack on stage mix and produce everything in the van You can record it. Yeah, so oh, that's you're going to Ableton. Yeah, multitasking. Yeah, exactly You're going through Ableton even live before it gets to the monitors and all that Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we we don't even use monitor. We have in ears. That's all right

You have your sacks questions more professional sacks questions. No, I like it. Yeah, okay This is what people want. I you know, I mean, like, okay, so eight So when you first saw Ableton first came into your world world, what were you doing before Ableton? Just raw, live shit? Yeah, we were just doing raw, like no click track. Fucking sick. Just like a rock band. Fucking New York ass fucking band. Yeah, exactly.

I don't think you guys were, like when we used to do, Cosby used to do shows with them sometimes. I don't think you guys were really doing the Ableton thing quite yet. No, just two saxophones and a drummer the first time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did that for like the first three years of the band.

Yeah. Just raw, uncut. Dude, because I remember you guys, Lyle DeVinsky too was a busker. Do you remember, you know Lyle was a busker? No, but it makes sense. That's how they met. Yeah. It makes sense.

Dude, he was busking doing the acoustic stuff and then you'd probably see like Jurassic Park, like the thing starts shaking, Moon Hooch is rolling in there like, Get off my turf you dumb motherfucker we're coming through we're doing a rave in this fucking hell train yeah quit smiling I mean your your band partner is an intense dude have you guys ever beat the shit of each other other? Amazingly, no. I'll clap to that. Let's go. I don't think I'd want to fight this guy.

Look at who he did. He's got scary European vibes. I saw that... He's intense. I saw a dude on the streets of Berlin and be like... How you doing, sir? How you doing? Say hello. He's got a very intense resting face.

Yeah. He's great, though. Yeah. He's got a big dick? Does he got a big dick? He's got a very intense face. Yeah, he's great though. Yeah, he's got a big dick. Does he got a big dick? He's got big dick energy No comment, he's actually pretty funny too. He's a funny dude. Yeah, he seems great Yeah, yeah, cuz he's the one he talks more than you do you do. Yeah, he talks a little bit You do all like the thank you so much. We're all like, yeah, I watch it I was like, oh, yeah, I was glued to this thing like who runs point He was taking the point. You know like I was text. I'm like the dopest you never live playback. Holy shit

I loved it. Thanks, man. You are fucking it go so One more question. We'll get to honeycomb. I swear The solo project how you approaching the solo project, and what do you want your vision to be? For this thing when you have this other powerhouse moon hooch? Yeah. The solo project for me is just creative freedom. You know, it's like, and also just collaborative.

It's just me. I've never done that really. I had just a project that I run and that I'm in charge of and I don't need to negotiate anything. You know, about what happens. And yeah, you get all the money. Let's go. You know what I'm saying?

Let's get it, baby. You know what I mean? Once aging gets their cut, yeah. Yeah, and it's just... Capitalism 101, you hear that, German dude? Just socialism, just kidding. I'm just starting beef. No, he seems like a great guy too. I'm just scared.

I'm scared of him. I'm like, when I was texting Moonhuge Page, I was hoping it was going to be you. Just to keep you... Oh, you hit him up on his... I'm like, BRUCE! I fanboyed so... Dude, you've never texted me during a show in your life. I'm obsessed with your band

Yeah, I fanboyed so hard you do it. This is the most new I'm like this is locked in the most news the whole shit. I've ever seen in my life. Okay. It's dope Yeah, usually in the back texting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It was crazy. So how'd you meet honeycomb? Pearl Street Yeah, the basement of Pearl Street. He was beatboxing, opening for Moonhooch. Pre-Ableton, we were still just rocking the live instruments. And I heard this, I thought it was a DJ or something.

Like who's playing downstairs? I go down, it's just him. And like a rapper. And yeah, I was blown away. So were you busking? I did busking, but not like in the streets. I did busking at like music festivals. And I wasn't thinking about it and busking. I was just like getting high and I wanted to listen to my own shit. So I would like, just bring my I

like a little rolling street cube and I'd bring it to music festivals and I would be boxed at my campsite. No, you're like hippie? Like, yo, you're like Vermont dude, huh? My mom's from Vermont, but I'm from Connecticut. So like Jam Band Fish and all that shit? My first festival was Strange Creek. Oh yeah. Where's that?

Wormtown is in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Oh, Wormtown! Yeah, yeah. So I did Wormtown and it was a pretty big hippie fest. Like, and that was my first, like, I skipped junior prom and went to a music festival. Oh yeah. And then I was like blown away by it and I was and I brought would bring a speaker

and jam and would get real high and I used to be like pretty generally shy. I still kind of am and I would like get fucked up and then like go into people's campsites and then like hide and then like be like hey and scare everybody and then beatbox beatbox for them and then like I'd wake up the next day, and people would be like, yo, that was sick. And I'd be like, what's sick? You beatboxing on a campsite? And I'd be like, getting fucked up.

I was like, didn't remember. Didn't remember it. You scared the shit out of my grandma. I thought it was dope. Yeah. I was popping out. So tell me, why did you choose beatboxing? Tell me your origin story.

How do you discover you're good at beatboxing? Yeah, how do you discover that? Well, you want to be better than your best friend in everything when you're a little kid. Who, who, who? Like my friend Christian Bellatier. I would get like the last seat on the bus and I sat next to this kid, it was a new kid,

and he looks at me and goes, I'm a beatboxer. And he starts beatboxing. And he introduces himself to beatboxing and I was just like blown away by it. He just does this thing and he still can do this beatboxing that I can't do and could do like all this crazy advanced stuff and Still this like little kitty beatboxing that he can do I can't still can't even do it and I went home to YouTube and like looked up how to beatbox It was like the early days of YouTube

You know there's this guy like named tight from the UK and he had like his full comprehensive Beatbox tutorial how to do an 808 kick drum, how to do an 808 clap. And I was like. Dude, explain all this. Pfft, pfft. Yeah. Pfft, pfft, pfft. And he did like all these like basic noises.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft. And would explain like how to do like a beat and would watch those like religiously like every day when I get out of school. And then I like found throat singing videos. Oh yeah. And would just be like. What's that? Oh, oh thing where they can sing two notes

I would just do that like all day and annoy the shit out of my dad. Is that circular breathing? No it's a different thing. It's like something in throw, but you can do two notes at the same time? That was over-challenging. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. I just do that all day and shit on my parents. What'd your parents say when you're out? Stop making those, stop making those noises.

Did they want you to go to college? Oh yeah. Can you go to college for beatboxing? No, I don't think so. I mean, you could do like a cappella group or something. Yeah, they always have the cap. I was pretty shy in school, and then we had this assembly and We're wrapping up the assembly and my gym teacher. Mr. Morehart. He like

Was like you guys probably seen him walking around the halls Gable He's out in the audience right now and he's gonna come up and do a beatbox for us. Didn't tell me Connecticut and Connecticut. The most whitest shit ever. Here's our black friend, he's gonna do a beatboxes. We called the out friend the whole school. And I was like a little overweight and kind of like not the most popular kid

and it really like kind of helped me out socially. Dude's fucking rad. Helped me and it didn't help me because then when the seniors found out I could do the beatbox, they'd line the entire hallways and make me walk with them to their classroom, giving them walking music. They hold their back. Like specifically one of my friends Casey Orr if he saw me in the hallway

he'd like, wake up and I'd be like, fuck, I got shit to do too. And then he'd make me walk him to class and then he'd walk to class and be like, alright I gotta go bring Gable back to class. He'd bring me back to class and be like, sorry such-and-such teacher, you had to give me walking music and that was like an excuse that would pass at school. Did you go to private school? No, I just went to Winslow X high school. In Connecticut? What city? Winslow X. Where is that near? It's like a... It's like 20 minutes north of Hartford. Oh cool. So when you fly into Connecticut, it's Bradley International. That's actually where we live. That's my hometown.

So do you guys both live in Massachusetts now? You and you? I live in Massachusetts now. I did, but I live in Las Vegas now. Why? So I got involved with this group called Freestyle of Supreme. It's a hip hop improv comedy music theater crowd suggestion based show. Sounds fucking awesome.

We got, they moved us out there to do a residency at the Venetian. It's produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was a comedy suggestion based show. I'm from Connecticut and I was like, I always want to live on the West Coast. Instead of going back home and trying to move out back to the West Coast, I was like, I'm in Vegas, I'm just going to stay.

How'd the show do? It was good. We were there for three months. it didn't sign up for more, but I mean, it was amazing. It tried. The cast was dope. I mean, Wayne Brady came out, did the show. That's cool. Got to jam.

So, she's great in for running. Tell me about that. My friend Kayla Mulady, she's a two-time female world beatbox champion. She goes, hey, come audition for this show. It's just beatboxing. And she didn't tell me anything about the show. And me, I'm like, okay, cool. for this show. It's just beatboxing. And she didn't tell me anything about the show. And me, I'm like, okay, cool. I go come down. I went down to New York.

I went to, I can't remember what studio we went to, but we went to some studio and audition for the show. And then I get the part. And then I'm coming down for the rehearsals. And all of a sudden we're doing all these improvisational games. And she didn't tell me. Oh my God. And she knew if she told me what we actually

were gonna do, I probably would never audition. Because we're like, we're doing improv shit. I don't even know nothing about that. We're trying to do play improv games. I'm like coming down to beatbox, you know. I had no idea. Did you feel like you got duped? No, definitely not. It was like, I feel like it was one of the most greatest experiences for me. It really brought me out of my shell. Kind of like helped me communicate with people better and just like kind of reading cues during shows and stuff and kind of opened up my mind to like being really into like the theater vibe.

And we did rehearsals for a bit and then we went out to... It's got to be fun just always knowing you're playing in the same room for three months straight. Have you had a gig like that? Yeah. What? Knitting Factory. Oh, okay. From what, the Mondays?

I think it was Fridays. Fridays, was Richard Slovin booking it? That was our first manager. That was my first manager. Really? No joke, wait. Dude, what? That was my first manager.

Yeah man, Richard. What's he doing now? Hold on, we're calling him. Yeah. You still talk to him? Dude, he's one of my best friends. This is trivia. This is insane. He's the head at Live Nation Nashville. Oh, yeah. Oh that guy. Yeah

Yeah, oh my god. I didn't know you were managed by him, too He has played shows to get us along to go to we played one show together Yeah, maybe was the knitting fact like in the night. Yeah, that would be crazy. Oh my god Sup, bro. Hey Richard Slovinvin you're on the podcast Guess who who's on this show right now Michael from moon hooch He's here right now Richard Dude we were talking about the knitting factory years Dude, we were talking about the knitting factory years

Dude so you said because that was when we were doing the spelling bee we're doing the Comedy spelling bee he was saying you had a you had moon hooch residency on Fridays. Yeah, we did a moon hooch residency after I Got their sub their fire in the subway. Yeah, so how'd you meet? Tell me your story origin story of what you saw from moon hooch. I saw them playing in the subway. Yeah, so how'd you meet? Tell me your story, origin story of what you saw from Moon Hoot. I saw them playing in the subway and it was just a huge dance party and then we booked it like late night show that sold out and then we booked like a whole residency. They did like six or seven sold out shows. It sec there. This is so crazy He's like saying yeah my first I was like, you know Richard slurs it. That was my first manager. That's my first man How long did he last with you he quit he quit real quickly Well, they fired me I quit I quit with you

You're like I'm done with this bullshit. He's like, don't call him, don't call him. I'm done with him, I'm going to quit before these guys fire me too. I saw you posting a video from their show. Where was that? Oh, they played Cervantes. Oh, nice. So what was Michael as a client like?

Super nice guy. No, you can talk his shit. Talk his shit with him. Nice so what was Michael as a client like No, you can talk your shit no or talk your shit How is Mike doing I'm great, bro. Still married. I got married. Bought a house. Hell yeah dude. Where at? Massachusetts. Nice. I just got married too. Dude, congrats.

And breaking news, my wife is pregnant. Let's go! Heads up. Heads up! Oh my god. To be honest, I knew that was going to happen right after the... Dude, tell her congratulations. Congrats, bro.

All right, well. Dude, this is such a full circle moment, dude. We had to call you. I'm glad you picked up. It's amazing. Because now, like, he's, you know, he has a life in Nashville. He's one of the top talent bookers in Nashville. And we're just like, we're all just talking about like how,

from where we started to what we are now We're just we had to call you and say how proud we are of you, buddy We're like your kids dude, we're all grown up, you know We'll go have fun I'll call let's catch up this week I'll call you after the podcast But we just have we just had to call you to say Mike. We should we should catch up to you, man I would love that Richard. Yeah he said he says he's sorry for firing you. Bye. I love Richard. That is wild.

Shout out to Richard Sloan, our first manager. What a guy. Wow. What a sweetie. Yeah, dude. He put up with a lot of shit. He drove us around on one of our first tours. Really?

Did he do that with you? Yeah, he quit before he did that. He was like, I can't hit. Because that was when we were really deep into cocaine. Oh, yeah, you know Shane was crazy And you're you I'm me and Andy. I just I just found out about cocaine I didn't really do cocaine until Richard was my manager. Yeah, I was hanging out in Brooklyn a lot of my holy shit This is a great feeling. I'm up anyway. It's New York. Yeah, dude Fucking the whole all-cart. Yeah residency. How was that? It was amazing. Yeah amazing. Yeah. Oh

We felt like fucking rock stars. So that's how you guys met through the residency Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no street. Yeah We met before that and I've been listening to them since I was like a senior in high school So yeah, what a crazy moment to you moment so oh that's what I was asking you have you ever done like a theater residency a theater residency like well he did no like on a cruise ship none sax we did an Australian TV show called Hamish and Andy's gap year it was the number one TV show in Australia. We were the house band. A talent scout found us busking in the subway. So you lived in Australia for a little bit? No, it was shot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Oh. Yeah. So they're not huge in Australia. Huge. Like these

guys are the number one radio host. They are Australian though, right? Yeah. Okay. Number one radio host in Australia. How'd they find you? Subway? Talents go, subway. What a fucking story dude. I know. So they hit us up. So smart going to the subways. Because everyone's on the subway. Exactly. Everyone. Was that the game plan? The game plan was money.

The game plan was just we need to make money and we want to play music. So you guys were bringing in at least least a thousand two thousand a week. Yeah Yeah, Michael Were you making money on the streets I was not Not even think I never put a hat out and didn't even think about making money I was just like so when did you guys become close friends? I feel like it was immediately. Immediately.

Immediately at the show. Yeah, well, because the promoter wasn't trying to pay you. Well, it wasn't that they were trying to pay me, because they did really help me out a lot. It was that you do tickets, gigs for tickets. And then I would just accept the gigs for tickets and not sell any of them. Maybe sold like one ticket. I didn't know that part.

No shit. I was just trying to get on the shows, you know? I didn't care. No, for sure, for sure. Sometimes I would pay for the rest of the tickets or sometimes I would, and then just hand them out and give them to all my friends or whatever, so people show up.

But this one, I only sold one ticket, so I made $25. And then they're like, after the show, there's like mad people, you guys could tell, I had a bunch of friends there and stuff like that. And you were like, did you get paid for this? And I was like, no, I only got $25. And then they paid me 250 bucks out of their own fee. Wow.

Out of the kindness of their hearts. Cause he killed, I mean, he killed it. Like good comrades, comrade number four, five, seven, nine. Comrade Michael. Hey, man, he's so good. Seize the beans with the production. Thanks, dude. Yeah, dude.

You do so many gigs and people like, not in this instance, but people take advantage of you and don't pay, you know, just trying to get your name out and stuff. And like, I'd been huge fans of Moon Hooch. And for like, to me to get that kind of gesture after like listening to them for so long, it was like so awesome. Because I like loved you guys before we even played. So it was like, what did you find about Moon Hooch?

I think we did a show together maybe. And I don't even know, dude. We used to be at the same festivals all the time, Cowsby Sweater, I think we had a similar agent, were you on Mad Snails? So we were like in the same circuit, so we would just be at the same festival and our sets would be right next to each other,

and we'd both play sax. Were you competitive with him? No, he's so much better than me, I didn't even worry about that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you just have to be just realistic. So are sax players competitive? The bad ones are.

I'm not competitive with good sax players. Who do you have beef with, Michael? Beef, ooh. Nobody, he's vegan. Who do you have kale with? Oh man, I don't really have beef with anybody, man. I mean, the one dude that comes to mind is Aaron Burnett. Oh, everybody. Who's mind is Aaron Burnett.

Oh, I remember that. Aaron Burnett is an incredible saxophonist, like genius savant type dude. Wow. New York? New York cat. Well, I met him in Boston, actually, so we met in Boston, we were friends, and then,

anyway, long story short, eventually, Moonhitch became successful, and he, you know, didn't like that. Started talking shit successful and he didn't like that. Started talking shit. Yeah, didn't like that. It became like a weird feud. What's his name? Aaron Burnett. Aaron Burnett. Let me talk to you right now. Don't you, you little bitch. Don't come out my boy like that, okay? Just because you're jealous. Don't worry, you'll make your money too. But don't come out my boy like that just because you're playing hate on success do better Thanks, yeah

Appreciate you Beef that's my one s beef, I'd say. It's crazy how many good sax players there are out there. People don't realize. People living under rocks that are just geniuses. What I don't like about, I gotta talk about this, you guys are, I'm gonna say, jazz school nerds. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, oh, they dropped out. That dropped out, so you're cool. Yeah, yeah. The beef between Berklee and everyone else, new school, why are they teaching these kids such this pretentious stiffness? I wonder if they're teaching it or if it's sort of they're already kind of like that. Are they just nerds?

I think that starts them at school. They're just nerds. It really depends on which avenue you take. Like if you're already going into school, kind of alternative, you know, you're into weird shit. I feel like you're less likely to be kind of shaped in that way. But the people that are already going in like,

you know, bebop is my religion. Bebop is my religion, I want to be a teacher. And it's just like very, they've never taken acid or smoked weed or anything, You know, they're... Were you doing any of that shit back then? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, well tell me about it, whatever. So you're like the cool underbelly kid.

Yeah, I guess so. And how many people were in that new school that were that type of mind state? And how many people were just like missionary sex type people? It was, I'd say it was like 60% missionary. 60% missionary? Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty, you know,

so it's called the new school for jazz and contemporary music. Right. So it was a lot of like, they had a wide spectrum of, you know, autism. That's one of the more like, that's one of the more creative like jazz. That was the best comment of the night. It's one of the more open-minded schools. of the more creative like jazz. That was the best comment of the night.

It's one of the more open-minded schools. Kinda reminds me of like USC and LA's like that. They got a lot of like open-minded people. Or Michigan or something. Yeah, they had cool teachers there. They had Adam Holtzman, the keyboard player for Miles. Who was his jazz teacher there? They had a bunch, Donny McCaslin.

He's goated. He's on that last David Bowie record. Chris Speed. Oh shit, yeah, Chris Beed. So they had cool like alternative jazz. Not nerd teachers. Yeah. Which begets not nerd students. Exactly. But there were still, they also had like the hardcore Juilliard guys. Yeah. Yeah. What are they like? I tried to avoid them. Yeah. They were very much like if you're not playing one three five seven and voice leading to one of those Chord tones you're not playing music and you're a failure. I don't like Wayne shorter. Yeah

Yeah, they're like Wayne shorter is not music. You're like, okay shut up. This guy comes in a sock you change the world 100% Then they all know to send end up they all end up being called professors and playing three gigs a year Okay, so any part parts of moon hooch or Honeycomb where you guys wanted to quit? Yeah. Long time. Like once a week. What year was it that was like kind of the worst year for Moon Hooch? Worst year I'd say with 2020.

Oh, when? Pandemic hit. You can't even busk. Yeah. Shit. It was terrible. You were just stuck in New York. What's that?

Were you just stuck in New York? No, at that point I had moved out. I moved out like a year before that. Oh, you got lucky. Yeah. Where were you? I was in, where during? 2020.

I was, I just had moved to Boston like a week before. Oh my god That's annoying. I literally just moved a week. I got one show and then like yeah, I just moved I was cooked. We were in then we're just moved here I moved here a week before the paper in a house with 13 people to During the pandemic was it fun it was cool. I mean it's like a squad Quarantining with each other so you guys are just with each other. mean, it was a big squad. Everybody was just quarantining with each other. So you guys were just raging with each other. Yeah, it was a real nice time. And I learned a lot of stuff. And I mean, it definitely as bad as it was, it was like the greatest. Did you have sex

with anyone in that in that apartment complex? Definitely not. Michael, what about you? Yeah. All right. Sick. Wait, in his apartment complex? You didn't come over and we hung't. No. No. No. No. You didn't come over and we hung out. Oh, yeah, it's true. We didn't do that though. Cause you're out. You're in Boston, you're in Northampton. At that point I was in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

So why do you keep going back to Massachusetts? I'm from Massachusetts. Oh, okay. From Brockton. And basically I moved to New York, lived there for 10 years, and then my buddy bought a house, had a garage that he was renovating,

and I was touring like 250 days a year at this point. And paying 1200 bucks a month for a railroad apartment room. You know, the other roommate had to walk through my room to get to the kitchen and the bathroom. And you know, I had to sublet, it was a pain in the ass living in New York touring. So he bought a house and he's like, if you help me renovate my garage,

you can live in it for free for like a year. And no bathroom, no kitchen, but I didn't give a shit. I was like, I'm down. It was single. This is sick. Yeah, so I just lived in his garage. Just like pissing on a tree. Sounds kind of nice.

Yeah. Oh, the American dream right there. It was a nice spot. It was. I turned my head and did a nice thing. Built a little studio in there. Dumpsack. A punching bag. USCE set up.

Like you can do rehearsal. You're doing a full house rehearsal in there. Yeah. And stuff. Did you guys ever want to be in a band together? Yeah. We tried. We tried.

Yeah, I'm just the worst. I'm just the worst. Yeah. Basically, so Leo and I have a band called... Thundersmak? Yeah, Thundersmak. That's fucking amazing. Working on Beat Inductive.

He just didn't show up. Yeah, and we're like, all right, we were already kind of like, should we have Honeycomb in the projects? Like, I don't know, is he reliable? Yeah, yeah. Turns out no. No. This is years ago, by the way. reliable? Yeah, yeah. Turns out no. No.

No. This is years ago, by the way. He's like not the same at all. Yeah. He was high. He was really high. But anyway, he didn't come to like the first rehearsal. And we were like, okay, well that answers that question.

Yeah. You know? That was it. That was it. He missed the very first thing. That's not a good look. Yeah, that's fine. You missed orientation, bro. We got a song out of good look. Yeah, that's fine. You missed orientation, bro

We got we got a song out of it though. Yeah. Yeah That's the nice thing about collaborators though, you know what I mean? We don't have to be in a band again. Yeah, that's right Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's fucking amazing. You got all your solo stuff. Yeah, kind of blew up on social media Yeah, it is so yeah So the the pandemic for me was was great because, best year of my life, 2020. Love game. Loved it. I met my best friend in 2020. And your Instagram kinda popped off, I feel like.

It did, it did, yeah. Your Instagram popped off? Yeah. Wow, what are you doing? Just making videos from your house? He's got more followers than you, bro. Dude, he has 175,000. Yeah, I was just making freaking-

Fucking bullshit. I'm working so hard. You gotta be a genius. No, no. Yeah, I was just making freaking bullshit. I'm working so hard You gotta be a genius. No, no, I was just So I had just gotten this base axe. Yeah, and I was just alone Like I got really into long-distance running. I was just on one. I was like, this is my we depressed or were you like? No, I was so happy. You were killing it, dude. Yeah, basically I'd been on the road ten years straight. Yeah, no breaks yeah, same. Yeah.

And 2020 came and it was like a gift, man. Unemployment checks start rolling in. Unemployment. I started Airbnb-ing my apartment out. I was like making tons of money. I was like, fuck. It was a good year, man. I was teaching lessons.

I was teaching like 10 lessons a week. Yeah. And I got into the social media thing, making videos. Basically I started doing these short form songs. Just little tunes or songs. Total creative freedom, you know, cause I was, had nothing else to do. Right.

And I started messing with green screen and a couple of those videos started popping off. And yeah, that's kind of what launched my solo career. Was that? So sick. We've been talking for a couple years. Yeah. And I didn't put one and one together that

you were in Moon Hooch. I just thought you were just like this fucking sick content creator, just a sick sax player, I didn't know. And then we put one and one together, literally at the show. I was so surprised when you texted me because you liked it.

Dude, I was like, this guy looks so familiar. I remember his demeanor. And I just didn't put one, because we've been talking. It's not the kind of thing you usually get into, though usually it's like singer-songwriter. Yeah, but like the party, dude. I love sax and my favorite instrument.

I think that's why we're so close friends, because I respect your art so much. Michael, I'm gonna be balls deep in your friendship too, buddy, that's like. You guys should be doing shows together. It's going down. So that's amazing. Honeycomb.

Yes. What is your dream as a beatbox artist? Honestly, trying to phase the beatbox out a little bit. I'm trying to be more known known as like a live improvisational artist. So that Vegas thing kind of helped you. Yeah for sure. It opened up my eyes to what I like to do. Because I tried out for the play when I was a kid and I tried to get the

Carolee Line and they casted me as the tree. So I like... What's her name? What's the teacher's name? I don't remember. Give it to me. I can your doll. What's her name? What's your what's the teachers? I don't remember. I wish I give it to me Can't remember this hand again. You yeah, fuck person. Yeah, don't fucking ruin people's dreams. I mean you don't need to make it Yeah, maybe the tree and just stood there like this. Yeah, you probably killed you embarrassed him in front of his parents

Yeah, think about that Tree yeah, sorry. I played a bush. Thanks for looking out for us, man. I got you. I'll be your hype-vise any day. I love it, I love it. Sometimes teachers don't realize what they're doing to students. For sure. And it's fucked up.

It's true. And they're just basically passing their judgmental from how their trauma, Generational trauma. Generational trauma from their private fucking ears. Or they're just getting picked on from their teachers and they have to pass that on. Anyway, keep going. Phasing out the beatbox, trying to do my own stuff because for the longest time, I mean,

a lot of people's general perception of beatbox isn't what I do live for a show. So it's like you kind of get pigeonholed to doing like tweeners or stuff. But if you have somebody who believes in you, they'll bring you on tour and stuff like Mike, but it's kind of like, it's been hard for me to progress my career with just doing the solo beatbox stuff and I'd always been live looping the whole entire time. It just wasn't real, like I wasn't able to make what I wanted to make in my mind

and it translate to performing and while I was doing it before people just like yell at me to beatbox. They're trying to do like live looping. They're like, when are you going to beatbox? Beatbox. Like you don't want to hear an hour of beatboxing though. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, vary it up.

I guess some people do like that. It worked, but that's what people almost like felt forced to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to be live looping, but people wanted me to beatbox and I just was, and it was different, so I just kind of rode that for the longest until I was able to like, with COVID, be able to figure out,

because I'd always been collecting gear and looping and stuff, just be able to figure out how to have everything speak to each other. And also include the beatbox a little bit. I don't want to always phase it completely out, but I don't want to be just the beatbox guy. Do you loop with Ableton or do you use a looping pedal? Right now, we just loop with the 505. It's like what Mark Rabelais uses? or do you use a looping pedal? hardware looper and kind of moving towards a more Ableton based stuff. Because a lot my creation process a little convoluted because you make the loops and then you got to you don't really make five track songs and you go add all these other parts and yeah you're not able to like affect it the

same way yeah as you would be as if you were in Ableton so I'm trying to like skip the part and be able to like create finished finished finished printed tunes in real time. And you get the visual component too. Yeah we built in a little visual component to speak with Resolume visual component too. Yeah, we built in a little visual component to speak with Resolume and stuff too. Our two little looping kings on the podcast. You loop too, right Michael? Yeah, I do.

I do it differently. What do you do? Jules Jensen also helped build my thing, my rig, completely different rig. Damn, this guy's a goat. No, he's the goat. He is the best. If you need anything tech-wise. It's a goat. Yeah, who's a goat? He is the best. If you need anything tech wise.

It's like the one guy, it's like if you're like, if I only had this, then he has the answers to all that. Any sort of technical thing. Whatever you can conceptualize. Lights, sound. Is he a musician too? He's a musician, he's an amazing drummer, amazing producer. Where does he live?

In Massachusetts. Give me his number. I wanna see if he can fix my party machine. He can fix it. He can fix anything. Cool. He anything. Cool. How do you run your looping system? So I do it's kind of a hybrid setup. I'm using this program called Cliff X. It's like a scripting program that you... Jules did it. It works with Ableton API and it speaks to certain parameters and has its own custom like calling scripts that you can use to create different types of variations of anything, combinations of stuff and like... Wow.

And that kind of stuff. what the commands are and I can say auto loop base sacks for eight bars and then it'll do that, it'll loop the base sacks for eight bars and then stop and then I can go loop other shit over it and then I can say play next clip. You know, it does commands like that. You type in the command and just put it in the Ableton grid and when the click goes over it, the command happens. So I'm doing kind of-

Oh, so he's building script. He's like a- Yeah, yeah. Coder. Python, baby. Python, crazy madman. My brother's really good at that. Python, what's that mean?

It's a coding language like Java or whatever. Holy shit. Yeah, but I'm also a producer, so I just put my tracks in there, and I'm looping the horn parts and chords and different parts of the tracks, but I also have like beats going, so it can be a dance party. You know, fill the sound system. I saw that too. You're running the computer, he's running like the analog bass sounds.

Okay. But this is for my solo project. Moonhooch doesn't do any auto looping. Okay. I'm just talking about my solo project. I saw a computer on stage. Yeah, so the way Moonooge does it is we just play a through composed set to a click track. Oh.

Yeah. We determine the set. That's what I do when I play live on Able. Oh. And then each microphone has 12 different buses on it. Yeah. Turning on and off effects. I was hearing the drums.

I was hearing the drums like, damn, this is fucking fat bass sound. Sometimes when he was just doing cymbal stuff to kind of build the dynamics, I was like, oh this has to be on Ableton or this has to be. Oh, you have drums in there too. He's got a full drummer.

I didn't know that was running into Ableton though. Yeah, yeah, every single microphone on stage goes Ableton. We have X32 rack up there. Sounds like how Pretty Lights does it, right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I mean, yeah. A little more convoluted with Pretty Lights, but it's the same basic concept. Wow. They've got like over a hundred inputs. Yeah, they've got a lot going on.

My last question before I let you guys go, I know you've got to get to the airport. I don't even know why I looked at my phone. I don't have a watch on. Love. Let's talk about love. You've found, you've been in the subway, you've seen every female this side of the Manhattan Bridge. How did you decide on your girlfriend to turn into your wife? So I was in England. I was on a totally sober, no weed, no nothing kind of thing, three weeks or three months. And I was riding high on it, no weed, no nothing kind of thing, three weeks or three months.

And I was riding high on it, you know, because the first couple of months, you start feeling really good. And I'm walking through the field, I'm like, I'm high on life, you know, and we're at this festival in England. And I saw this girl selling clothes and I went into and pretended to be into the clothes.

And I'm like trying shit Yeah, she's she's British. She's British. Yeah. Oh cool. Oh, that's my dream. Yes. That accent. Yeah Yeah, I smoke cigarettes. No Anyway, you know, I'm trying shit on nothing nothing fits me and I'm like And but I was too shy. I'm not, I don't have game. You know what I mean? I just don't. I'm like.

She was into you. She was into me. She knew you were a sax player? She didn't know, no. I was just some American dude. I love it. Anyway, I was too shy to even make a move, and I just left.

Cause I'm like, she's gorgeous. And like, she was a model in England. I love it. So I was like, she's gorgeous. And like she was a model in England. And so I was like, she's out of my league. Am I even gonna attempt to talk to this person? I walk away and a couple of minutes later, I feel a tap on my shoulder, it's her. She ran after me and was like, I felt a connection. Can we hang out a little bit?

I'm like, are you on drugs? I think that was my first thought. You know, I'm like, yeah. How high is this girl in the alley or whatever? She's like, no, I'm not. I'm like, okay, cool. We hung out. Do you have a little confidence in yourself?

At points. Yeah, I did too. I can't flirt with anyone unless they see me on stage. Exactly. Oh really? That's how I've always felt too. Yeah Alright, yeah, cuz you don't feel like you feel like your true self you need a performer. Yes other side of you That's why it was really hard for you to talk. That's what gives you the mm-hmm

So keep going so she point that thank God she did that I know yeah, cuz you probably would never came back there no No, yeah, you got her numbers. You got a number and I the band make love on the first night No, we did no You know in your tent with you and she's like Yeah, no, yeah, she's just camping at the festival. Oh and worth it. And she was like working for this company, camping with them. Anyway, she was like, no. I'm like, oh, that's cool. So we go back to the, I go back to the hotel,

and I'm like, literally said to my drummer, I'm like, I'm going to marry this girl. Whoa. But we're leaving England the next day. Anyway, we had a interview with BBC that next morning, so we had to go back to the festival. They had a tent there. Yeah. And we did an interview, and I met back interview with BBC that next morning, so we had to go back to the festival. They had a tent there. And we did an interview and I met back up with her.

We had a little lunch and just talked for a bit, kissed. And then I flew back to America. But we stayed in touch. She came to visit me, I came to visit her in London. And we fell madly in love. I broke up with her because I was like, oh, I'm not ready, I'm scared. I don't want to you know have a girlfriend

yeah, and then I realized that was a such a stupid move and Took it back and she was like, let's see and we just were kind of oh she for a while And she fuck it, you know, I mean and then the pandemic hit no no and you thought you're gonna lose it forever. Yeah, but Oh no. And. You thought you were gonna lose it forever? Yeah, I thought. But we started talking, the pandemic hit, and we were just pandemic buddies.

Yeah. Face timing, and fell more and more in love. Also, nobody wanted to hang out, so there was like, you know, I was, she was my one person, and we just. Talked all the time. All the time, and really got to know each other. I just fell in love with her as a human being.

She Boston Tea Partied you. Yeah. Hell yeah. I love that. I love that. I like it. Literally they live in Massachusetts. Yeah, I know that's what I'm saying. And then the end of the year, we were like,

all right, we have to see each other. How can we see each other? I couldn't go to England and England couldn't come to America. But because of some of the weird Szechuan zone, what was it called? The Scudin zone, you remember that? Oh yeah, I don't know, I can't remember the name either. Whatever.

So you guys couldn't see each other for four years? No, for one year. One year. And we realized if we go to Costa Rica, we can both go to Costa Rica, because it was outside of the restrictions. Oh, so you found a country? Yeah.

This is the most romantic shit I've ever heard. So we flew to Costa Rica and just, it was like. Were you looking for different countries? Like what, where can I find my, yeah. That's a good one to go to. Michael, sweet. It was really nice. And then we spent two weeks in Costa Rica

and because we did that, she could then come to America because that was the rule. So you had to spend two weeks outside of England in one of the OK'd countries to get back into America. So we did that. Then she came back and basically I was like loving living with her. She was just staying with me kind of indefinitely. You know, and... Wow, and the rest is history. The rest is history. Is she like Massachusetts?

It's too cold for her. Yeah. You know, she loved Costa Rica. London's not that cold. It's just kind of just like, this shitty, wet weather. Like Seattle. It's not cold, cold. Seattle. Yeah. not cold, cold.

Massachusetts is fucking cold. Guys, this is amazing. Good basketball weather. You in love? So much fun. You in love? Oh yeah. With what?

Everything. That's the man, that's what I'm talking about. That's why we love Honeycomb. How'd you get that name? Yeah, how'd you get Honeycomb? My friend Carter, we were all on acid at the time, and she looks at me and says that if I sprouted, well she was cracking up laughing at me, and she says if I sprouted hands and legs out of my head I'd look like the 90s honeycomb serial character. Oh, yeah Guys I Could talk to you for hours. Yes, you said this was a one of my favorites of the year so far. I

Just thank you so much for coming. I know you guys are leaving you're leaving town to today I'm here for a couple more days. Oh cool. We're gonna hang out then. Come to Trivia. Come to Trivia with us tonight. 10pm. 10pm. 8pm. You said it all. Go check out Honeycomb. Go check out Moon Hooch. The last question I'd like to end the conversation with is what do you want to be remembered by boys? Oh, yeah. You don't want to be remembered by anything. That's a hard one. That's a hard one.

I'm trying to come up with the best thing to say. I want to be remembered for my music. I want to be remembered for the impact I make in the music world. And the impact I make on people's hearts and souls and lives. And yeah, I want to make a splash. And I want you to be remembered by that you made a year, you softened a European. Your band mendered it. Yeah.

I want to be remembered by that. I want to be remembered by that. I want to make a splash, you know. And I want you to be remembered by that you made a year, you softened a European. Oh yeah. Your band mender. Your band member, you softened him up. He's like, at first, I'm going to fuck this guy, I will not be in class with him. Fifteen years later, you guys are rocking the world. Yeah man, good for you.

What about you, honeycomb? I don't even know. I honestly haven't thought about that. I mean, he kind of, I don't even know. I haven't thought about that. I mean, I don't know Really? I love that. Yeah, how are you? I'm 33. Yeah Really, I mean I want to make some cool music and Just have fun with life really. Well, keep living the dream. Check out moon hooch

Go to work. Where can they find your solo project at, Michael? At Michael Wilbur Sachs on Instagram, Perfect Talk, Michael Wilbur, Spotify. Yep, what about you, Honeycomb? It's at Honeycomb on everything, pretty much. Damn, you got Honeycomb? Yeah, that's pretty good. They didn't have the stereo one already?

Nope, thankfully. I got the Instagram from an old lady and the Twitter from an old lady. They were trying to buy it off you? I was trying to buy it. I was trying to buy I was trying to buy no nobody tried. I mean, I've got a couple few offers, but really yeah I'm gonna stay strong. I'm not gonna use your name. Your IP is more worth more than anything. Yeah Go get them. All right guys. Have fun. Bye safely Michael. Much love brother. Be continued honey. Come sir. You're in town for a couple more days Much love, brother. To be continued. Honey, come.

You're in town for a couple more days. Let's get it. Love you, Andy. Love you too, bro. You've just tuned into the World Saving Podcast with Andy Frasco. Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhowe, 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 podcasts 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.