Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 37: Ryan Stasik & Joel Cummins (Umphrey's McGee)

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

Andy sits down with his rockstar Uncle, Mike Dillon to start the show. They talk about the hardships of constant road life, and inspire each other to fight through the writer blocks in order to continue making fearless music. Then on the interview hour we have Jam legends Ryan Stasik and Joel Cummins from Umphrey's McGee to talk about all things Umph and how to have a long and healthy career in this ever changing industry. This is Episode 37.  Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, tour dates, the band and the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com The views discussed on this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the guests. Keep up with the Jam legends, Umphrey's McGee www.umphreys.com Check out Andy's new single, "Waiting Game" on iTunes and Spotify Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Arno Bakker Shawn Eckels Dolav Cohen Alex Greer Mike Dillon Ahri Findling 

Yo Andy, it's Alex. What's up man? Dude, I'm so psyched on the new album. We got some really great tunes on there. Loving the show ones. People are finally going to hear a side of you that's not a total maniac. And now you don't have to play that closing song all the time just to get people's attention. Congratulations man, super proud of you. Go get it. out of you go get it yo oh what up andy it's your boy dolav just calling to say i'm so excited about your new album change of pace i cannot wait man it's gonna be so good so much better than your shitty fucking like andy just listen to the album gotta be honest this thing fucking sucks dude i mean what's with this sensitive bullshit, you're not fucking Ed Sheeran, dude, you're not Justin Timberlake, you're not even JC Shazay, dude, you're fucking Chris Kirkpatrick, you sound like such a pussy, dude, and I'm just being honest, you always tell me that you just want me to be honest, you don't want me to blow smoke up your ass, the album blows, man. Go back to your roots.

Start fucking yelling and dancing. Stop trying to sing Kumbaya into a fucking microphone, okay? And please, if you message my girlfriend one more goddamn time, I'm going to fucking take out a restraining order. So, fuck you. co-hosts. We have Mike fucking Dylan. Uncle Mike is with me. Uncle Mike is back with my main man, Frasco. What's up, Mikey? What's up, bro? How you doing, dog? I'm good, man. Nice surprise.

What a nice surprise. So you've been spending a lot more time in Kansas City, huh? Yeah. My lady Peregrine lives here, so I like to come say hi. Are you tired? Man, I've been pushing it. This last tour we did was intense. What happened?

It was, we started April, wait, fuck, I'm already in the wrong month. We started January 27th. I left New Orleans, went to Pensacola, played a gig, then drove to Charleston, South Carolina, where I met up with Marco. Marco Benevento? Yeah, and we, the Mallet Men opened for him. My trio opened for his trio.

I wrote two songs today. You did? Yeah, one song called I Love the Mallet Man. It's sort of a goofy little ragtime. Tell me, when you're forcing yourself to write, what do you start with? I don't like to force. It's just like I get home and I got a marimba set up in our church and then I just walked up to the marimba set up in her church and then like

i just walked up to the marimba and just that place is so magical yeah and then all of a sudden the song wrote itself and then i was sitting there thinking about fucking so wrote this other song called um we used to be neighbors you know sometimes you have neighbors you never talk to yeah like you see them all this time yeah like you know um when i worked at the okay hotel that dude josh homie from the queens of the stone age is always there drinking i was sitting in the tub i go you know what you saw that dude like all the time like they were there i think making that rated r record yeah i never said a word to that dude literally and you knew him you knew i didn't know him i knew who he was so i already liked the queens at that point he was just getting drunk at the bar just after work

and shepherd and i just realized like wow like every night i worked there they were always there holding it up and you know it's like and i was thinking about it like it's like being neighbors to someone you never talked to and all of a sudden sudden, like 20 years later, you're like, oh, wow, that dude's like king of rock and roll now. So does that maybe want you to get out of your bubble a little bit and start talking to new people or no? Well... Because you never know who it's going to be.

Well, no, I think a lot of it too is like back then, especially a lot of bands that are from your generation. When you're younger, I know I was extremely cocky when i was young and i was pissed off i was in the door i wasn't working the door because life was awesome that was when i was like coming back from being like strung out and billy go to broken up and i was out there playing with critters bugging but working a day job and get some humility so things were starting to turn around billy go broke up and you lost all the money from the label, what happened? You got to get a job? Were you still

on dope then? No. At that point, I was going back and forth. I'd get 30 days clean, 40 days clean, then relapse for a weekend. I became more like a bench user the last three years of my dope existence. But yeah, I had to work a day job that's you know start you

know because critters wasn't touring that much so i just got thank god for the okay hotel it was a badass place in seattle you're in seattle yeah 97 when billy go broke up i moved to seattle why did you pick seattle because critters bugging oh yeah, like Skirk. Yeah, and they were like, come out here. And they FedExed me some money, and I drove this RV out there. It called the Beaver. FedExed you some money? Back then, they Fed would Fed it. We didn't have like PayPal back then, bro. I know that, but like they would just put cash in a FedEx?

Dude, I swear to God. They called me. I was in Salvation Army Detox right up the road here. Hauser called me. He goes, hey, Dylan, we got a tour in July. Can you make it? I'm like, well yeah,

my band just broke up. Well what, why the fuck are you at Salvation Army? I was like, oh it's a detox. The band just dumped me off here. Said fuck you.

What's a detox mean at Salvation Army? What do they do? It's like a three day detox where you're off the street. You stay there. You stay there to kick. Okay.

And you went to AA meetings and blah, blah, blah. So that was a high point in my life. Well, this is what this episode's about, hardships. Hardships. What is the hardest things you had to deal with on the road? Well, road is hard, but the fun thing about that, bro, was I worked. Check it out.

I was on tour from 89 until 97 non-stop with billy goat like we lived on the road just like frasco yeah in the un like we just toured non-stop had a band house our life was the band and i got really burned out on it but when i quit that for a year and started working day jobs to survive and realize, holy shit, you're bitching about only making $2,000 on a gig or whatever money. Back then, $2,000. Good. A lot more money. Yeah.

For a giant house, it was only $1,500 a month. Yeah. So we were making great money, but there was never enough of it. I wonder why. But so when I had to start working a day job for $7 an hour minimum wage, then you realize, holy shit, that ain't making the van payment. No. You know, there was just a lot of things.

Oh, shit. That's what I'm saying, bro. That was hard then. You had a van payment. So they dumped you with the van payment? Why? Was it your van? We just broke up.

At that point, 97, we didn't have a van payment. Yeah, I just let everything go. But still working a minimum wage job. So the first time, though, that Billy Go broke up in 93 for like just three months, I started working a day job. And I did have a van payment. And fucking my manager would be calling, going, hey, I just made your van payment again. You owe me for three van payments. How's that job going?

I'm like, well, they're going to elevate me to foreman at the lawn mowing company over here in Olathe, Kansas, and I think I'll start making $15 an hour. And I started doing the math, and I was like, fuck, this is a $500 a month payment plus insurance, $600. I'm like, I'm not going to make that. So I called him back. I'm like, so people are still offering Billy Go gigs. He's like, yeah, you got a $5,000 offer for a gig in

Dallas, December 18th. I was like, take that motherfucking gig. I'll put together a band. So that was why I put together a band, a bunch of kids I met here, like in Kansas City at the hurricane now, the riot room or whatever. Just cool people I met like John Haas. So was it sloppy? Were they good musicians? We were horrible, bro. But I was off dope and I think we talked about this a little bit. Yeah, we talked about it a little bit.

We put three gigs. I paid the van – started making the van payment. You haven't gone deep into this though. But it was really cool. That was one reason why – because I got a lot of flack from people in Dallas when I put together a new version of Billy Goat. And I was like, look, the old version, we all signed up for

this van payment, but Earl quit the band. He got the gig with Seal. He ain't calling me up saying, hey, let me help you with the van payment, bro. And the other three guys, so I was just like, really, it was the mortgage on the van That made me go

I don't have a choice And Kim was still with me So we had two of the original Think about if you didn't have the mortgage on the van If you had nothing No telling what would have happened It's funny You look back at shit from 25 years ago

That saved your life That van mortgage Saved your fucking life Mike Yeah Seriously in a way In a way totally If you wouldn't have You know had that van mortgage

And you had that shitty job You wouldn't have back You would have been back On smack again Oh yeah It didn't take long To get back on smack With the van payment

I think we did that One gig in Dallas And we were like Yeah we got money And we just like Fucking relapsed for two days. Oh, shit. So what'd you ever do when the record label did like,

hey man, you know, here's some money for this and you just buy smack with it? Well, the record label would always send us tour money to get out on the road. And with the old Dallas Band shirt,

yeah, we'd wait on that FedEx and we'd be like, get all our stuff out of Pond and then give the tour manager money to do the tour and then me and the bass player who was my partner, the original bass player,

we'd, yeah, we'd cut off a little, skim a little off the top and go buy a bunch of drugs for the road and then head out. That's not bad. Never done anything too crazy like spent all the money and you can't even make it to the gig. Yeah. And then head out. That's not bad. But. Never done anything too crazy like spent all the money

and you can't even make it to the gig or anything. Well. I don't know. I'd have to read. That's a whole other. We did a lot of crazy things like that.

Yeah. But what about like God it's just so hard. That shit. Like what about now Mike? Now that you've gigged so much then you got to go back to playing some of these shitty-ass gigs.

Does that break your heart? Going back to playing shitty-ass gigs? Yeah. Well, to me, here's the main thing about playing gigs. No matter what gig it is, when I start playing, if there's fucking 200 people out there, if we're opening for someone big and there's 1,500 people, or if there's only like, it off night a snowstorm happened or just like for whatever reason only

20 people showed up yeah it's the not the 20 people gigs are the night that mattered the most to me me too because if i can't get it up for 20 people that's the day that i sell all my shit keep my vibraphone from me and I start humbly working that day job again and figuring out how to live. Because you know what? It's a blessing that we can play and make all this money and survive doing our art. It still ain't easy. I'm in debt

$40,000 for my art. But that's cool. But I'm still like, man, my fans are awesome, man. You know, we're opening for Marco making opening dough money. I don't have to tell you what that is. You know what it is in this scene. But it's our fans that we're buying $500 worth of merch that made us be able to pay for the hotels. It's like we're a small business.

We're just like birdies down the street. We're not Guitar Center or Starbucks. No. But we're like, Johnny's got a good hamburger stand over there. And I like having my own hamburger stand nowadays. And all these places we play, whether it's the guys in Denver, Strasburg and all of them that have now become AEG. Strasburg, I remember him when he was the Fox Theater.

He ain't no different than Brett Mossman. He texts me, yes, you know, order sherry to brick or whatever. Most of these places are our friends, and a lot of these folks have been booking me. Mossman texts me, yes, you know, order sherry to brick or whatever. Most of these places are our friends and a lot of these folks have been booking me. Mossman texted me today, Brett. Yeah.

He did the first Billy Goat tour in 1990, bro. And you're still working with him. That shows that you're a good guy.

It was back and forth but now he's back with you. We didn't like it at the time I pooped on stage. It's his fault. He bought the Jägermeister that night.

I think we talked about that. Yeah, we did definitely talk about that. So when you're going through this, what's your mind state, man? You've been doing this now so long. What keeps you driven? Is it the shows? Is it the new music? Is it playing with your people?

It's the music and the art. Because you know what? What I can't do, because I got associates that have done really well from my age group that are not, you know, 40,000 and dead playing music. They're, like, worth millions. I don't have to name them out. And they're on TV shows. And I could really easily go, what are you doing, Dylan?

You bro that you played with on a TV show last night, and you're just fucking still struggling. You suck. Just quit. I mean, I think a lot of musicians have that voice in their head. Most of us... I did that today when I was trying to write a fucking song. We have that voice.

Musicians, artists have that voice that say you suck. I'm sorry. I wasn't raised a millennial that told I got a trophy for every good little hustle I did. I was raised, you suck, and there are a hundred people out there better than you, and it makes you work your ass off. But when things, you don't get what you want,

then that voice is there to tell you, well, maybe your mom or whoever was right that said, I don't know about this music thing. You ought to get a degree and have something you can fall back on. So how do you get that out of your head? Well, that's the thing, dude. I mean, the older I get, just the happier I am with where I am.

And I feel so blessed. I play with great people that hire me to color their music. And then I'm still out there in my van making that van payment and paying my guys to play music. music and then i'm still out there in my van making that van payment and paying my guys to play music and everyone who plays music with me is in it for the music and for the art for getting it up for those 20 people or those 20 000 people you know we just we got to kill her laugh we're playing a festival international with my with my uh big percussion ensemble and it's main stage you know dude you know jazz fest won't hire me with any of my proud projects in new orleans why not that's so weird are they fickle about who they book on jazz fest well

it's just very political yeah and they're my friends you know they're fans of what i do but you know they got 40 that's the other thing too bro i don't take anything personal on this no because like i'm trying to find the gigs i'm more at the point now i don't i don't take anything personal. No. Because, like, I'm trying to find the gigs. I'm more at the point. Now, I don't even, like, really hustle anymore. You just get them. I got people that I know will hire me. I'm not going to have my book and agent email some festival 30 times a day to try to get a slot.

It's just like, hey, I'm 53. If you don't like the art I'm making by now, fine. You know, like, I got my friends that call me summer camp, hires me every couple of years and it's fucking awesome. I cannot complain. Fucking awesome. I see, I get worried. I get stressed out when they don't book me again.

Like, oh, fuck, it's over for me. No, dude, it ain't over for you. You know why? Why? Because you're always going to deliver. Yeah. You know, and dude, you're going're gonna get better that's what i love about you bro i saw you five years ago i was like cool they got the party going now i see you y'all got the party going and the music keeps getting better and better and i know that too because billy goat when i started off in billy goat i was a good jazz musician but the idea of being able to write a song i mean that's what keeps me driven i want

to be able to write a good song yeah like you know think about it like our goal should be like yeah we got people come to see us because we're jackasses on stage and we know how to get it going but write it writing a great song like i hang out with Ricky Lee Jones She's written a couple of iconic records And some great songs It's all about the songs That's why I'm like Having such this existential crisis right now Because I've been focusing my energy

On all this other stuff And I try to go back to writing songs And I feel like I'm a piece of shit again Maybe that's what I need. Dude, didn't you tell me though that you started this music thing when you were like 18 or 19 after interning for Capitol Records and you're like, fuck it, I can do this thing.

Dude, one of my friends who now plays who used to play the Apes, John Speece, he didn't really start playing drums until his late 20s. He always dabbled with this shit. But he took the long road. And he used to come sit with Billy Oling,

like, oh, Speece, Jesus Christ, that guy sucks. But he kept showing up. And then one day he was in my band. And now he's like one drummer of the year in the Austin Chronicle. I mean, he's just kept working. And now he's producing records. But it's really true, man. We just keep getting better.

I mean, I couldn't even play the vibes for shit when I started playing vibes. I got so many inner things I have to work on to become better. Like what? When I started playing vibes, I was a classically trained guy. You're classically trained on the vibes? Yeah, I was in Houston Youthphony. I played marimba. I was good at reading music and doing tech. You know, I went to North Texas. I was in the drum line. I was like,

we won national basic drum line two years in a row. Guys doing that drum line are like professors and doctors of music. Like John Wooten, my friend at Southern Mississippi, over there in Hattiesburg. That was what I was going to be. And then I got into this rock and roll thing, started playing rock and roll percussion. How do you change your brain like that? What did you do?

Well, I discovered congas and percussion. And then all of a sudden I was playing the jazz program in North Texas as well, but mainly hand percussion. I would try to play vibes, and they would laugh at me because I didn't have a clue. I took an improv class. But as far as vibes and mouths went, it had to be written for me. The concept of learning something by ear was so foreign. Yeah.

So, like, I remember the first time I played with Skarek, he's like, dude, you got to learn how to, like, hear things and play it. So I got so much stuff that I started, I couldn't hear an octave basically. Now I know what an octave sounds like, you know, just these little things you learn. Like, like, and so I just like have so much shit to work on my own plan that keeps me grounded. That's what keeps me grounded to move to the next level. And nowadays I can do things on vibes that I definitely couldn't do back in 1994 when I pulled my set of vibes out here in Kansas City and started going to jazz jams. I would show up and try to play a song for my father and get lost halfway through

because I couldn't hear the changes. And they'd be like, bro, you got to learn to hear the changes. I'd be like counting bars. Okay, I'm on the one chord for four beats and now go to this. You know, whatever. Nowadays, I can hear it's always a work in progress.

That's why I love bebop or whatever you want to call it just to like, it humbles you. Tabla. All these things to work on. These roadblocks make you better. Hell yeah.

You know, Fight through the roadblock. Fight through the roadblocks. When I had to start working day job again back in 97, 98, it made me hungry for the road again. When I was off the road for a year, it made me grateful to play music with my

brothers and sisters again. And just basically gave me a better attitude. And then when I finally quit sheeting dope, as much as I was doing back then, then I got really grateful to be alive and just saw like it's a blessing that we get to play music it really learning that i'm learning that man you know i mean being on the road isn't easy but bro it's so much better than fucking nine to five i mean and you folks that work nine to fives we love you we

love you too seriously because it takes all shapes. And that's what I'm saying. This is not our personality. Well, no. And what I used to think, I used to think like, oh, I'm an entitled little rock star that I deserve all this. And I can do all the drugs I want. I can be as debauched as I want.

Fuck it. You know, we're rebelling. And then one day when I cleaned up, I was like, no, man. We play music as a service to make people's life better. I mean, it's just music. It's like Wayne Shorter said. It ain't like we're Mother Teresa's. He wrote some article here, Herbie Hancock, way back.

I mean, it's music. It's entertainment. But you can look at life, either you're in service or you're just taking as much as you can get. Yeah. So I have to remind myself on a daily basis not to be a taking. Because using, using drugs, using, it's using. I see plenty of people that are using. Yeah.

That aren't using drugs. They're just using. Yeah. You're totally right, man. I never thought of it that way. I mean, you know, in the music business, it's a lot about using. Yeah. Everyone loves you when you're up.

It's fucked up. But when we were fucking fighting for it, where were they? Yeah. But your band's doing great now, bro. How does it feel? It's cool. I know. I'm just, my horror is like one day it's all going to go away.

And it probably will. And that's okay too. No, you just have to constantly reinvent yourself. I read some article yesterday on Rolling Stone that was laying around somewhere I was like, Lady Gaga reinvented herself and saved herself after her career was going down the tubes. I was like, what? Her career was going down the tubes? I didn't hear that part of it.

Yeah. I mean, you know, but I guess there's probably fear in everyone's mind. Yeah. But my answer to you is just from experience. Like, you know, Ricky Lee, I love her to death. I've been playing with her for a long time. She was, you know, Saturday Night Live three times on the cover of Rolling Stone, playing giant venues and

i didn't know her back then but i play with her now and i know her crowds aren't what they used to be she shows up in soundcheck and she's all about the music in the studio she's all about the music and i mean to me that's just what i see everyone that goes to like when your crowds I mean, to me, that's just what I see. Everyone that goes to, like, when your crowd's, your fan base is building. Yeah. And then when it dwindles from playing, like, 5,000 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago to playing a sold-out show. And martyrs.

Well, she's at, you know, City Winery. Oh, that's so big. Or, you know, our shows are always sold out in Chicago. But her fans are coming to me. I saw her when she sold out Eragon. But to me, it's like, it's just got to be about the music or otherwise you're going to get fucked. You're going to start thinking about like,

because I remember when Billy Goat sold out trees at 1,500 people in Dallas, and the next time we came, we only did 800 people. I was pissed. Instead of being going, oh, cool, we did 800 people. I was pissed. Yeah. Instead of being like, cool, we did 800 people. Great night. Yeah. That ain't the way the music

business, we all know. You go from 1,400 to 800, you're a loser. Yeah. And you're afraid your agency is going to drop you. Your management is going to drop you. This is my first time on Paradigm. It's my first ticketed show on Paradigm.

And every day I think about it, oh my God, these pre-sales are good, but they're dealing with bands that have thousands of people. So I worry about that every day. It's like, oh fuck, these guys might drop me. Yeah, that was the way it was with the record. Record labels are probably even worse.

Oh, we got dropped before Billy Go broke up. It was politics. It was like I can remember what happened. Our booking agent, our manager and booking agent was also working with the record labels band that went on to be really big. And they dumped him as their agent, our manager's agent.

There was a lot of cross shit going on. And when they dumped him as their agent and he lost that account, he was pissed because our record label was their manager. Oh, Jesus. So you got caught in the middle of this? I got caught in the middle. I mean, their manager had his own label as part of Hollywood Records, which was Disney money. You know?

And all of a sudden, we went from getting ready to make our second record on Hollywood Records to me getting a phone call saying, Hey, kid, your fucking agent manages a douchebag Brit motherfucker. And they dropped you? Good luck. And we got dropped very soon after that. And, you know, we had a payout that and you know we had to pay off clause and bro we got a payout clause oh yeah we got to shut up we got get sued we got paid out more than most bands get for a record deal we got paid out like we're we had a for a second record if they didn't make it and they chose to drop us we were supposed to get paid out $25,000. I owed them for a rehab they sent me to.

It's mother advance. We still got like $7,000. I can remember being pissed. Your rehab cost you $14,000? Well, there was other shit too. They gave us an advance. We bought like an 8-track, a little studio. And we did some demo work to start our pre-production.

And they recouped all that. We still had like $ 7,000 left over. Which is more than what... But that's how much money there was back then. Yeah, not anymore. Most bands get what, 5 to 7 to make a record? Yeah, 5 to 7. Do you have a deal?

I got a deal, but I got a deal where I pay for the whole record and I split the marketing budget with them. So they're only paying for the marketing and the printing, but I get a bigger percentage because I paid for the record. Do they have some pool? Yeah, it's cool.

They got some cool indie bands like Tennis. They got like 40 bands out of London. Oh, cool. I think it's cool. They took a shot on me. I told them, we don't really sell that many records. And our live show's growing

and they're like, no, we love this new record. We love the songs on this record. So that was the first time. I remember that one song I played on it. I was like, wow. A couple songs. Let Your Mind Be Free.

Yeah, Michael's on Let Your Mind Be Free. It's awesome. Man, didn't you know your record's coming out? Yeah, it came out Friday. It's awesome. Man, didn't you know your record's coming out? Yeah, it came out Friday. It's awesome, man. That's what it's all about. Like, you know, I just released my new record, which I did myself with my guys. What is it called?

It's called Bonobo, Bonobo. Nice. How much did it cost you? Man, anymore I know how to do records on a budget, bro. How do you do a record on a budget, Mike? You tour first, then you go right in the studio with your songs that you learned on tour. You play them down in the three to four hours

you have booked studio time. Then you give all the tracks to your bass player. He's got the Pro Tools studio at his house. He's a genius, and you let him do all the over-the-oven keyboards and stuff. And you get the hornsdubbing like keyboards and stuff and you get the horns come over there so that keeps the cost down and then i went in the studio and did my vocal overdubs and percussion in another day had tiff from the givers come and sing on some things oh yeah we did one other day with stan moore at his studio and talking about budget i

mean he's just getting a studio but and you just throw it all in and you tell, all right, we got two days to mix it. We mixed it a whole damn thing in two days. And surprisingly, it sounds- You got some good guys mixing it? I mean, I had Rick from the Afghan Wigs mix it. And he's got good ears. If we could have spent a week mixing it,

it would have been a better mix. But it was like- You stoked about it? It's, it would have been a better mix. But it was like... You stoked about it? It's where it is. I still love it. People are loving it. I'm really proud of the record. It's got great...

The performances are good. Really good. How many songs did you do in five days? It's a five-day tour, right? Two days tracking. Two days of tracking. Nathan did a couple days of Overdub at his place. And I did one day of Overdub's percussion and vocal.

And then we mixed it in two and a half days. I can't even remember. So I think that's the way to go. We don't have a choice anymore. Yeah. That's fucked up, right? Or do you like it that way? No, I don't like it.

I mean, but at the same time, like I said, my pre-production Is going on the road With the songs And that And I've been doing that For a while Same here Same here

It's like It's what we have to do Yeah But It'd be nice To be able to like Sit around And really craft a record

In a month Yeah I want That's my dream I can't do that How I did this record was I was on tour For five and a half months

And whenever I had two days off In like an area where these three Dave Schools was or Ben Ellman And Caleb Hawley I would go to New York with the band And drive the van And we'd do two or three songs On our days off and then go back on the road

That's exactly That's exactly The way to do it. The way to do it. And then, like... Yeah. No one has the... Like, once you go home, you're home.

You know, you don't want to go home, give these guys a couple days off, and then they forget everything. When they're fresh, their adrenaline's in on the songs, they know it. I think that's where you get the best... best out of the guys.

When they're tired and fucking know the songs and they're fucking... I remember when I was on tour with Claypool and Bootsy showed up at dinner one night. Best of the guys When they're tired And fucking know the songs And they're fucking Angsty I remember when I was on tour At Claypool And Bootsy showed up At dinner one night

What? Bootsy Collins I know And Everyone's just asking stories About So Les and Bootsy Were hanging out

Yeah yeah yeah Les and Bootsy Are friends Yeah yeah yeah Man dude that was a great night On the last Claypool tour It's like

Playing A drum solo and looking over and having Bootsy go, yeah, baby! You know, I was like, yeah, Bootsy! But, you know, he basically talked about, like back in the day, a lot of those guys, I think he said with George, like they went in after a gig

and did flashlight after gig. I mean, you can look that up. Wow. But, you know, there's a tradition to that. I know James Brown would like play a gig, sound flashlight after gig. I mean, you can look that up, but you know, there's a tradition to that. I know James Brown would like play a gig, sound check all day, rehearse, play a gig and then take his band in at night.

I've seen those stories. So, you know, there's something to it. Mike, last thing. Thanks for being on the show. Yeah.

When you want, when it's all done and, and what do you want to be remembered by? Being fearless. Yeah. It's really what it's about to me. I mean, cause we're all,

I think the entire planet is this fear planet. Yeah. Now we're going to get metaphysical, but look at everything that's happening. It's always been that way through history. I mean, fear is humans' greatest

enemy. That's why we go around shooting each other. That's why we become a killing species instead of a loving species. What we've been talking about, bro, we're fearful of losing what we got. Yeah, I know. So that turns us into assholes.

Yeah, you're totally right. You know. So anyway. So let's keep living fearless. Let's keep living fearless, bro. Let's try to be positive and make people have a good time. Fuck yeah.

Because that's why we do it. We ain't doing it for our health, Mikey. We ain't driving from fucking... We ain't driving from East Coast to Denver for the... Dude, I did Miami. I stopped off here. And without any speed or Adderall?

That's impressive. No Adderall. I had to take a little Adderall normally. But now that I'm completely off Coke and I'm completely off speed, I'm like no MDMA. So great, bro. I feel healthier. Well, yeah, you know, after a while... I'm drinking a little more, though.

Yeah, drinking a little more. Yeah. Bro, that's a whole other thing that we could talk about for days. Like brain change teach me something right now while I have you in my presence I have nothing to say other than the other day

I haven't been a perfect AA or like some of my friends did AA and been clean like haven't touched a drop of anything in 20 years I wish I could say that but guess what I haven't had a fucking heroin habit or a meth habit or anything in

fucking nearly 20 years. It's 19 years ago this past January since I've had a habit. It's amazing. What I say about habit is just like going for a couple months at a time. That was just my pattern at the end. I think whatever it takes, whether it's yoga, AA.

Basketball. Or basketball. You just have to replace the joy you found in drinking and drugs and focus on that. Like I stay busy because right now I'm in Kansas City. Hey, 20 years ago, snow apocalypse. Snow looks like cocaine. I ain't got to do anything tomorrow.

The plane's going to get canceled on the tour. Let's go get high. Dude, you know how many times I miss planes? That's what I had to do, trick my brain to be like, no, I can't do that to do trick my brain to like no i can't do that shit right now just for the day i can't do this shit so that i'm and i'll have a chance to get to the next thing get to the next thing i gotta do because nowadays it ain't that hard to like not get high yeah it's just not that hard but back fucking 15 years ago, when I first cleaned up, you know, not 15, you know, 2001 was hairy.

Literally every waking second of my day, when I was in a place like this, I would just be sweating. And then after the gig going, ugh. Because for me, that's when I want to party is after the gig. I bet you're the same way. I'm the same. When my adrenaline's kicking, I want to go. You want to go. You want to keep that party going, bro.

I see that energy you throw on stage. You just can't let the shit kill you or take you over. Plus, look, you're a healthy guy, dude. Yeah, my manager gave me shit because I ordered a double vodka and a shot of Jameson Pickleback at a bar with him for dinner. He was paying. I'm like, fuck it. I'm going to take advantage. Mike, I love you, man.

Thanks for being on the show. Can't wait to hear your new record. And we got Humphries McGee. Speaking about getting better, man. Humphries, man. Yeah, they're dope. You know, they just keep evolving. They keep evolving and they keep building their crowd

and they're doing it right. You know, they got their fan base that loves them. Yeah. They love them. Opening for Humphries is a hard fucking gig, bro.'re doing it right. You know, they got their fan base that loves them. Yeah. They love them. Opening for Humphreys is a hard fucking gig, bro. Dude, it is. It's a hard thing to get. We still haven't got the gig.

I've opened for them and about half their fans liked me a lot and guess what? They still come out in places we're open. What about half the other fans? They don't want to hear you.

It's like opening for the Beastie Boys or some shit that I didn't hear about back in the day. Like Rollins talking about fucking opening for the Beasties. I see that too. Like we had to play right before on Freseta Festival

and there's like a crew of them just like all hanging out at their stage. They're not even giving a fuck what we're doing. They're diehards, man. They're diehards and that's what you have to do in this business and I gotta say as people too Chris, Brendan, Joel fucking Jake

all those guys Stacey, Chris Stacey's cool I just met him I mean they're my bros like friends for life let me tell you a sweet story we were out on tour with them and I threw a rod going from fucking Tupou. I'll never play

Tupou, Mississippi again. Because I played there and the next morning we went and got our oil changed on a brand new van. Not even a year old. And went up to Louisville and played. And then after that,

driving to meet up with Onfrey's. First day of tour with Unfreeze Columbus. Fucking heard the van just stop running. We threw a rod. What they found in our van

engine was no oil, all antifreeze. There was a cause in the warranty that said your van a clause in the warranty that said, your van, no void, the warranty, because there wasn't oil in it. They were able to screw me. Oh, fuck.

So we had to rent a minivan and follow on, freeze around. We had no, it was just like, same deal, open the van money. Those guys are the only guys in all my years of doing this shit that they came out to me. They go, it's, we know it's not much, but we know you had a rental van and they gave you some more money.

They gave me some fucking more money out of their pocket. Dude, that's what I'm saying. I'm freezing McGee, man. I've heard stories of Robert plan doing that shit to my bro. CC's band, but you know, wow. That's the only time it was ever happened. I've heard stories of Robert Plant doing that shit to my bro CeCe's band.

But, you know. Wow. That's the only time it ever happened. That makes me like them more. Yeah, dude. They're fucking good humans. Fuck yeah. Well, let's go listen to I'm Freeze. And thanks for being on the show, Mike.

Love you. Love you too, pal. All right. Next up on the interview hour, Ryan and Joel from Umphreys McGee. I'm going to be honest with you. I was a hater at first when I was young in this scene because they were the hot kids.

I wanted to be in the cool table. I was always the outsider looking in. Then years gone by, we end up seeing each other. I finally see their band and they're fucking badass. They really are. And they worked hard. They've been doing this for 21 years. They've been in the jam scene for 21 years.

And rebuilding it and redefining it. These guys are like legends. It's crazy. I've been in a band for 13 years. And I want to kill these motherfuckers, dude. They've been in a band for 13 years. I want to kill these motherfuckers, dude. They've been in a band 21 years and they're still happy and talking shit. That is the shit I'm talking about. Chris, play some Umphreys for me if you can while I'm talking about them. They'll be doing Red Rocks in June. Got three nice turquoise, my girls. They got Spafford on a bill and they're doing something with Led Zeppelin

at Red Rocks with John Bonham's son that's going to be tight tight tight can't wait to run into these guys again on the road let's have their sweet sounds take us into the interview and I will catch you on the tail end love you guys. Accept that everything can last

Reaction to and kill the cost Search for a light Further pulling my words Holds you tight Burns from the inside Turn to it tonight bursting for your sight search for a light

words so too tight work for what's right Dudes, we're here. Dudettes, we're here. Humphries, Miggy What the fuck is up, dudes? Hey How we doing?

How's it going? Hard to be better We're on a boat You're on a boat What else can you ask for? Dudes, please say your names for the choir So everyone knows what instruments you play And who the fuck you are

Yeah, this is Joel Cummins Hi, Joel I play keyboards for Humphreys McGee. That includes Minimoog Synthesizer, Prophet 6. Keytar. Keytar occasionally, yeah. B3 Organ, Fender Rhodes. Lots of tricks.

Holy shit. Yeah, and I live currently in Santa Monica, California. Right on the border. Venice is my back wall. Yeah. That's kind of a new fun fact for me. Venice is my back wall. It's kind of a new fun fact for me. Venice is your back wall. I like that. I'm with all these

pretentious ass people in Calabasas. It's like, fuck. It's like all these 80s rockers and fucking plastic surgeon cougars and shit. I'm stoked. I just met my neighbor the other day and he has worked for Oberheim for 40 years.

Oh, really? Yeah, so we're going to get some synth jams going. Look at you. Thanks for that lengthy introduction of your name and what you play, Joel. Yeah, let's go to the person on my right. What's your name? My name is Ryan Stasek. I play bass.

I came out of my mom's vagina in 1976. Vagine. Vagine in Pittsburgh. I bleed black and gold. I currently reside in sunny Charleston, South Carolina. And I bleed black and gold. I currently reside in sunny Charleston, South Carolina. And I'm on a boat. No shit. What made you get to Charleston?

I got my wife pregnant and we said, why are we hibernating in Chicago? Anything that's in single digit or negative degrees is completely unacceptable. Unless you have family. You grew up in Pittsburgh? I don't hibernate. You grew up in Pittsburgh? I don't hibernate. I don't hibernate.

It's not my thing. I grew up in Pittsburgh. Where'd you grow up? I grew up in Chicago. Okay. Yeah, Ryan and I are both dads. And so, you know, we also are considering you have to dress your children for the weather. And that's an extra.

Think about that. That's another 15 to 20 minutes a day. I got a lot of talk about this dad situation and this jam scene filled with fucking drugs and all this. I mean, you guys are in the background. Well,

we're old now. Yeah, I want to talk about the younger years, but also, I want to talk about... Me too. Did you guys meet in Notre Dame?

Yeah, I did. So, were you guys majoring in music? What was going on? I was. I got a degree in music theory. Oh,

by the way, cheers, guys. Cheers. Cheers. Just water. Just water. Safe theory. Oh, by the way, cheers, guys. Cheers. Just water. Just water. Safe water. So what happened?

Well, one day I was going to class and I ran into Ryan. He was two years younger than me, but we lived in the same dorm, I think for one year. My junior year, your freshman year, I believe. Your third junior year. My third junior year. You were in the dorms my third year still? He was on the seven-year run.

You know, it's interesting. When we were at Notre Dame at Alumni Hall, they let you drink. We could have parties and like, you know, it was fine. We couldn't get kegs.

We weren't allowed to get kegs, but if we could get beer, they wouldn't shut it down. In the fucking dorms? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it was all dudes. But isn't that like a really Christian school?

Catholic. So no girls after midnight. Well, you had to be out of the opposite dorm by like 2 a but it was all dudes. It was all dudes. Catholic. So no girls after midnight. You had to be out of the opposite dorm by like 2 a.m. No one's fucking. You don't have a gathering. For like in their eyes. If they're going to throw a party, you know. In Jesus' eyes.

In Jesus' eyes. So did you guys start playing music in Notre Dame? Just give me a little background. I don't know much. You start. What I was going to say was I was doing music and I met Ryan one day. We knew each other, but we ran into each other. I was ditching class.

Class was canceled. You talked me into not going to class. That's what it was. You're welcome. We went and had coffee. He told me that he was trying to figure out how to tell his parents that he wanted to be a musician for life. And, you know, after he went to school at Notre Dame, I said, yeah, you know,

that sounds kind of fun. Really? Are you serious? I, you know, I kind of shrugged him off. I didn't really believe him at that point. It might have been what I was wearing. What were you wearing? I don't remember. I'm sure it was ridiculous. Long hair. I'm sure it was ridiculous. Everything I wear is ridiculous. But my intent was sincere.

And when I went to Notre Dame, I was not a bass player yet. I was a piano player growing up my whole life. And I went to a music camp one summer, and the chick that I was in love with, smoking hot blonde, went for the guitar player dude. He played More Than Words by Xtreme and Silent Lost City on the guitar and she just left me. And I was like, dude, I need a guitar.

I need a guitar. I stuck with the piano though. I didn't let that deter me. Piano's not very mobile. Piano's not very mobile. Only the melodica. And this is the 80s. It's not like you're carrying around size D batteries

with your keytar all the time to light it up for the ladies. Yeah. Some of us did. Some of y'all did? Joel D Battery Cummins. No, we didn't do that. You rocked a little fucking keytar or whatever? I have been known to.

I have been known to. Get the fuck out of here. Damn, you make that shit cool. I can't make that cool. I got the afro. I look like Weird Al Yankovic. Oh, no. It's all in the fingers. make that cool. I got the afro. I look like Weird Al Yankovic. Oh, no. It's all in the fingers.

You just got to be confident. I think you got this. I think you should try it again. All right, I'll check it out. I'll check it out. So you guys started. How did you guys meet each other? Okay, so he was an old man on campus already in the dorm when I came in.

Like Van Wilder. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And I knew when I went to Notre Dame that I wanted to be a musician. I majored in Japanese and marketing. Oh, sick. But I knew I wanted to play music with real friends and players. And then Joel was in a cover band called Stomper Bob.

Actually, we had our own album and sold a thousand copies, original music. That's pretty good for your own record. Well, yeah, Ryan loves to slander us. I'm not slandering. Joel just likes to brag. Yeah. I'm not slandering. I was just telling the facts.

Was the band good or was it like shitty? They were alright. We, our best gig, we had 800 people pay two bucks to see us at Jasmine's one night.

They were killing, they were killing the game. Let's put it this way. There was a line out the door at the place, the venues they were playing and we had our eight hippie friends

paying five dollars and trying to get in for free watching us play fish covers and dead covers so we met each other him and the drummer

Mike Muro and me and Brendan were in a band now Brendan and I met at an acoustic cafe which is like the open mic at Notre Dame what did he play again?

he was playing Kermit's Kermit's I Kermit's, I don't even know the fucking song. The Rainbow Connection? Rainbow Connection on a banjo. And I was, I was a little high,

getting a late night snack. And I'm like, who the fuck is this long haired kid playing the Rainbow Connection? I got to meet this dude. And then I met him and then we, we had similar music tastes.

At that time, Phish was, this is early, this is early 90s Phish.... This is early 90s Phish. Yeah, mid to 90s Phish. Yeah, we were. We went and saw a lot of shows in the mid 90s.

I saw a lot of shows in 95, 96. 94 and 95 was mine. We crossed over. One 90s show in 97. We went together. And I think I ate, I don't know, some sort of serious psychedelics then.

I think we both did. What happened? The second set I called every song Before it happened And freaked him the fuck out You called? Yeah

What? It called like four in a row It was weird Yeah It was champagne 97 It was a little road trip Yeah but we actually We met way before that

Even at a fish show Randomly It's a small world When you really think about it With the fish But anyway Notre Dame too There were like

Seven people into fish. You know, 1994. Notre Dame at the time at least was not a big music school. Your scene was very small. Where was the venue to play in Notre Dame? What was that spot? There was no spot. There was no scene. We had to buy our own PA and we took it to

every club we tried to play. This is a big college. It's not that big and there's no fraternities. It's 8,000 undergrads when we were there. Everybody thinks because the football team was so good

that it's a 50,000 person school. How do they pack out like fucking 50,000 people in that field? So many grads. They all, you know, everybody comes back. They love coming back

to the games. Probably a lot of local support too. You know, that's humble. No, love. I got off campus as quickly as possible. We got out of the dorms and once we were off campus

and we could all live in a house together, that's when we started woodshedding and practicing hours and hours a day. We broke up our bands. Each other's bands. They approached Mike and me and made a deal and said, if you guys quit your band, we'll quit ours. The whole thing was, these other bands,

those guys didn't want to continue after college. They were just doing it for the time being. We didn't think they were going to do it. Then all of a sudden they quit and came over. We need to break up with our band now. We lived with our bass player, which made things really awkward. We're cool now.

You guys are cool? We're cool now. We're all adults now. You guys joined a band and then you guys fucking blew it. We showed up the next day after Mike and I quit the band and we showed up where Brennan and Ryan were living and said, yo, we quit. And they're like, oh shit, you did it?

Let's make something very clear. We never blew up. We still haven't blown up. Especially those five years after when all that happened with the good luck. You just spent that kind of money on a college education. You're going to go and chase your dream. Those were, I think, when I had that first conversation with them, I was like, hey, I need to tell my

parents, by the way, my parents have always been super supportive of a musical and art direction and being cool. I was worried more of the guilt of a Catholic saying, God, this amount of money I'm spending on business and Japanese and where am I going to go with my life? And I was like, what do I really want to do?

And they always pushed me to do what I want to do. And the dream was to make music with my friends and be a musician. And they always supported that. We're wondering, when is this lack of talent going to catch up with us? It's like, you're just faking everyone with this.

We're really inspired about it. Illusions, Michael. Tell me about this. When was the moment? Did you have an epiphany? Oh shit, we're actually with this. Yeah, but we're really inspired about it. Illusions, Michael. Tell me about this. So like, when was the moment? Did you have like an epiphany or like, oh shit, we're actually doing this. Like, did you guys go and do a weekend gig? No, no.

The gigs was really the thing. We were just playing for our friends every weekend for free beer, basically. The epiphany was once our drummer graduated in 99, right? We all moved to Chicago in 2000 because everybody's families were basically based in the Midwest. And we said, what city makes the most sense for us to give it a shot? We rented a brownstone that had a rehearsal soundproof unit in the basement.

Four of us lived together. Brendan and Jake were both married. So the guitar players lived in Wrigley with their wives at the time. Although Brendan was not married yet because we had to tell his mom he was living with us so he wasn't living in sin. Were they always like serial relationship guys?

Brendan definitely. I guess so. I don't know. Jake and Kathy were dating very soon. I'd say like two or three years after the band started. From when we knew each other. So how hard is that? In the beginning years when you're all not making any money and he's married and he has to like

feed somebody? Well, Brendan's divorced. Oh, now. So I guess it was hard. Well, that makes sense. No, everything's good though. No joke inside. Everything happens

for a reason. When we first moved to Chicago, the keyboards, drums, bass, and percussion, we lived in the band house and just rehearsed every day for eight hours and Joel was our manager, so he did

all the booking, all the finance, all the money. We'd be like, hey guys, we got to get everything. Vince kind of slid in around 2000, 2001. When we first moved to Chicago, we were like, how are we going to pay rent? Joel was the guy saying, we're doing $2,000. How cheap was Chicago in 2000?

Was it livable? We were paying $636 a person. Oh, a person. A person for a six-person house. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, and we were in Wrigley, right? And it was our practice space, so that worked out.

We're writing it off. So what was the first, like as the manager, what was your first plan to get the van? Get a manager. That was the first plan. Get somebody else. So he can practice keys as quickly as possible. That's what I tell everybody.

They're like, yeah, you're not very good. I'm like, well, I had to manage the fucking band for five years. I didn't know that. That's cool. I think the big thing, I had connections in South Bend when we started with the local I'm not even going to say promoters.

These are the bar managers. But we had five places we could play where they'd give us a $500 guarantee. We'd rotate them once a week. What was the shittiest gig out of those five? Where was it? I can think of some of the shittiest gigs ever that weren't there.

Benchwarmers was pretty bad. Can I fast forward a little bit? One of the shittiest gigs ever was in Philadelphia on a Monday. I blew up my bass amp. We were playing YYZ by Rush and my Eden

bass amp blew up. I went direct or something. We finished the gig. The guy came up to us. He's like, alright, I think 15 people paid. Oh, this is the money at grill. This is like three days after 9-11. So people are not really in a mood to go out. They're like, you made $88,

but you owe $156. From what? From our booze tab. So we pulled the Blues Brothers, or what is it? What's the gig where you have to pay them to play? Yeah. Blues Brothers. Yeah, so we pulled the Blues Brothers. And you bailed out? No, we paid them. We paid to play on a Monday and I blew up my bass amp.

So that night we went to a Denny's and got super fucked up and there were these neck tattoos. They were tattoos and I decided to put 50 cents in and put a blue wizard looking at a globe or a crystal ball on my neck like 3 a.m. I forgot I did it. It was on there pretty good.

I'm not going to lie. So the next day, I went to like a Lowe's because all the screws were stripped on my Eden base amp that I needed to take out so I could repair. And the guy at Lowe's

who was helping me fix it looked at me and said straight up, he's like, it's a sick neck tat, dude. Sick neck, bro. And I forgot that it was there.

I'm like, what? Oh my God, yeah. And it stayed on for like two weeks. If you look to the right, it looked like he was rubbing the crystal ball. That was one of the shittiest gigs. I think Bay Sand blew up

and we owed money from drinking. We've had a number of bad ones, but for me personally, I think the worst was a place called Studio Z in San Francisco. And I think it was 2002 or 2003. And it was an after fish party.

And we were playing a gig. It was a co-build with The Slip, who are a great band from the Northeast, if you don't know who they are. Bar Brothers are the two guys from that now. But yeah, and anyway, we played early and the stage was like, I mean, it was only open for a couple years.

And the stage was like this corner triangle stage and the edge of the stage was not well marked. Yeah. And like two songs into it, I fell off the stage into the pit of the show. And the lighting was also really bad. And so no one could see that I fell. Did all the keyboards just fucking fall through? No, no, no. Just Joel.

Just me. Just Joel. God damn it. But I know Brennan looked over and he was like, where's Joel? You know, let's just put it this way. It's really difficult to recover your mojo after you fall off the stage. Kind of embarrassing. Luckily, eight people were there.

So he wasn't that embarrassed. He wasn't that embarrassed. Yeah. I fell off the stage. That was tough, though. That was tough. Oh oh I ate shit so bad I was high on cocaine and shit

and I was just like I stopped taking drugs cause this was the moment where I fell off the stage ate shit hit my face I'm bleeding but I wanted to finish the show

or I wouldn't get paid so yeah we're just like you know it's like the grind like that's what I'm trying to get at is like what's

when you're doing this and doing this, what was the moment where you're like, okay, all these shitty shows, it finally was worth it. What was that show that got you there? I don't know if I can answer that directly, but I know the show when I knew Joel was in it to win it.

I'm going to bring you back to Philly. Come on. Okay. Back to Philly. He ate two Philly cheesesteaks for dinner. You're a skinny dude. We're playing at the TLC. He may be exaggerating some details here. He ate two Philly cheesesteaks for dinner. You're a skinny dude. We're playing at the TLC.

He may be exaggerating some details here. He ate two Philly cheesesteaks. I don't know. I think if he says where they're from, people from Philly might know, uh-oh, maybe that was your mistake. Now, here's actually, I'm pretty sure this is from,

we went to the subway in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on the way to Philadelphia that afternoon. And that's where he ate lunch. And I had like, you know, some deli meat, you know. I'm not going to blame Philly on this. You're going to let me tell the fucking story? You're just going to... It's Christ. You guys are friends.

Come on, give it to me. Give it to me. We're playing this song called Wallet's Worth, which has a big rock intro and a keyboard solo at the end. And I have a Moog Taurus pedal, which is... You know, get these big bass wows going. And Joel's a Moog Taurus pedal, which is get these big bass going and Joel's stomach is not cooperating.

I thought our monitor engineer was turning up the Moog in my wedge to try to make me puke. And Joel's side usually had some young, cute girls in front of him all the time. He's just an attractive old man over here. Yeah, you can look at that. That was 15 years ago too. Bass made for radio. Bass made for radio. Bass made for radio.

That's why you had a podcast, right? I get it now. All of a sudden, he starts vomiting, projectile vomiting, onto the floor, into the front row, on the ground. I had a towel, but it was- At the show? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

During the song. During the song. Rock and roll. Yeah. During the song. I mean, I had a towel, but I vomited so much content. It was too much. It went outside the towel and into the wedge.

Again, can I tell the fucking story? Give it to him, Ryan. So he runs off to clean up. We're like, holy shit. He just puked all over the front fucking grove everywhere. And we go through the song. We don't stop. All of a sudden, the keyboard solo is coming back,

and it's coming around to it. We're like, okay, is one of the guitar players going to take it? We'll see. And come prancing down the steps right up to the keyboards before we hit the part. There's Joel, clean face. Boom! Nailed it. Nailed the solo. And that's when I knew he was committed

and that we weren't going to be a true rock band because we have keys. I was kidding. I'm a lead. I'm a lead. I got that right. I got that, motherfucker. I get that shit too. I'm a lead. I got that right. I got that motherfucker. I got that. I kid.

I kid. But that's funny though because like those are the moments where you're like, all right, is this all worth it? I'm fucking face down.

I ate shit. I embarrassed myself. Am I going to get back up and fucking Rudy the fuck out of this thing or am I going to just quit the band? Is that a Notre Dame reference right there?

Yeah, baby. You know what I'm saying. Absolutely. There's no giving up here. So when did you start touring heavy? 2002. Honestly, well, when you graduated in 2000,

by that summer, we were going full force. What's full force? 168 shows a year. Yeah, it was a lot. Subletting our apartments because we were broke and had to go out

and be like my sister's college roommate. I was like, hey, you can live in my apartment for six weeks. Yeah, that was before Airbnb. Now it'd be like a piece of cake. Piece of cake. It was an app for it. That bitch took all the shit out of my room and threw it in the basement that flooded when I got back home after the six weeks. Why'd she throw it out? Because she wanted to decorate her room.

I thought she'd live in my room, you know, the way it was. She wanted to decorate her room. I thought she'd live in my room, you know, the way it was. I thought this was just a come in, hang out in Chicago for six weeks, not redecorate the room, but she's, I don't know. Was she a fan or just a friend? No, a friend. One of my sister's friends.

Not anymore. But I had to get paid because when we were on the road for six weeks, we went out west for six weeks in a Suburban and a trailer, and this is when we were all like, okay, everybody gets to draw straws or throw a card down to see if you get to the floor or if you get the bed. Bayless, our guitar player, must have the worst luck. He's like the lightest sleeper in the world too. He had 18 nights in a row when he

stepped on the floor. He's like the most soft-spoken dude in the band. Give him some wine. He's not soft-spoken. I'm always afraid of talking to him. Very soft-spoken. Brendan is very approachable, very Catholic, very guilty. If you can make him feel bad,

he'll talk to you for a long time. Guilt with different holidays. It's religion. So you guys are sleeping on the floor, 168 shows. Did you charge her $150 redecoration fee? No, we have not spoken since. Really? No, we haven't. What about your sister?

Oh, we're close. It's not her fault. But are they still friends? I don't know. You know what I found out after the fact is that I had a girlfriend

for a while, actually a fiance even, that was in South Bend and so I wasn't there all the time staying there. I found out my room was the hookup room.

Oh, man. Cum and everything. Wait, did she cheat on you? No. No, just like when you're gone, they're fucking on his bed. Oh, you guys and friends. Oh, no, shit. Like a party or whatever, you know, like, oh, it's quiet over here. Nobody will suspect. So were you guys throwing parties? Were you having

fun? Like, were you taking acid? Like, tell me what's going on. We were in our 20s, of course. Yeah. There were some good times. I feel like your music goes everywhere. I don't know if that's like LSD influenced or that's just your fucking ADD. I mean, there was one time... That's how we describe it.

It's called Self-Indulgent ADD Progressive Rock and Roll. It's fucking awesome. With a Christian twist. But when did you get to that point where like, fuck it, we're not going to make traditional songs. We're going to just move. We're going to just move.

We're going to keep moving. I don't know. That was always instinctual from the beginning because everybody was such a Zappa fan. We liked Zappa so much. I think there was so much about all of his bands and there's humor and music, but there's virtuosity in music. And there's don't take yourself so seriously. And then the stage presence. And I loved seeing bands like GWAR.

I liked seeing bands that jumped around and were theatric and crazy and then turned on a dime. To me, I wasn't into 25 minutes of noodling in E minor and just seeing where it goes because your eyes are closed and watching a bunch of heavy set dudes just not move. That just never moved me. And no offense

if you're in a band where you're all heavy and you only play E minor for 25 minutes. No offense. You talking about domestic problems? No, I like those guys. No offense. But we always like to turn around and be like, oh, squirrel.

Okay, we're going to change tempos immediately right here. And we're going to go from this idea to this idea. That worked for us. How much of it is planned? And how much of it is improv? I mean, we have composed moments like that. And we also have a lot of live things where we're doing stuff on the fly.

And we have talkback mics. So we're saying stuff. But the talkback mics are more for being bossy in the moment editing. Like, hey, just basing drums, keep going. Okay, guitar's here. We're going to play these chords over. So who's quarterback normally?

We're all throwing stuff out there. You're like Bernie Sanders of the jams. The other thing is that our LD, Jefferson, has in-ears as well. So he can hear when we're saying, just drums, and then he'll cue the lights with it. So everyone

is on the same wavelength. Questlove does that too. But it's not a crutch. It's used, I think, after being in a band and knowing each other for 20 years. It's a creative tool especially where drummers aside where the melodic instruments

up front can say okay hey the bass and guitar you stay on that riff and keep it going and the other guys are calling out chords

specific you know theory chords not bass player chords and it's like you guys have in ears so like they don't hear it

they're not gonna no and that way you can express ideas that you're really trying to get out, and you can't telepathically tell six dudes. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour. Hi, this is Mike Dillon,

and you're listening to Storytime with Uncle Mike. Wow! to Storytime with Uncle Mike. Wow! Storytime with Uncle Mike. I first moved to Kansas City after many years in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas region. And when I moved up here, there was a lore of a lady

who owned all these crocodiles and a couple of gators, and she lived over this giant house, and we would work there during the week when we needed a little extra scratch, you know, to buy food because we spent all our money partying, and lo and behold, the first time I worked there, Pat the crocodile lady said, take that chicken and go feed that gator right there it was an eleven foot gator he put the chicken on the stick sometimes he wouldn't do anything

and other times he'd go BAM! scare the living shit out of you let you spend all your money on booze and drugs or you just didn't have a very good week you could go over there and pick up a little extra scratch, feeding the gators, feeding the crocs. Oh, yeah. Wow! Story time with Uncle Mike. What's the biggest bomb, Jay?

Well, I mean... Where was it? Biggest show, biggest bomb. Here's... Without the power going out? Without the power going out, it's definitely definitely Bonnaroo 2006. We tried to

start 40s theme and Chris kept starting the wrong song and the wrong tempo. If the drummer starts the wrong tune, you're pretty much fucked. We had three attempts to start it and then we just moved on. It was one of those moments where the crowd was so amped and then 30 seconds later, we had just

completely destroyed the energy that for me that's the one i remember you remember that um i to me i don't care about any of that kind of stuff because i figure when you're an improvisational band and what the jam band scene comes to me is that you go watch people shoot for the moon and sometimes they create shit sandwiches you know but you're along for the ride you're like hey, hey man, you're human. You guys just fucking, that was awful. But I love that kind of shit. My favorite kind of music, which I've been listening to a lot in the past two or three weeks,

is like old punk rock where guitars are a little out of tune and it's raw and the tempo is fluctuating and everything and nothing's precise. But the energy and everything about it is so emotional and raw to me. I'm like, fuck yeah! I don't give a shit if you all hit it on the one or if somebody else was way out getting weird and it works for me sometimes.

Sometimes we do, Jake does, Jake, our guitar player, is really good at getting so outside of what the right notes are supposed to be if there is such a thing and making them so right. Does that make sense? You gotta like have the structure and then

deconstruct the structure to know what parts work and what parts don't, I think, when you're reformatting it. For me, to go back to your previous question of, when did you think like, okay, we're really hitting something? For me, I think it was once Jake joined

the band and we had this whole new arsenal of sounds that we could do because now we had two guitar players and somebody, you know, Jake came from both a metal background and he was in a Nashville country band. And he was a drummer before he was a guitarist.

Oh, shit. Can you all play different instruments? Or are you just keyboard you said you could play keys I was keys and guitar and then I I got a bass when I met Brendan

and I gave him my Les Paul and my PV amp and I'll play bass I can do like Neil Young guitar oh sick that's good

but yeah other people can play their instruments Jay can play anything he plays actually he actually plays everything saxophone keys

does he do that at the show? He'll play keys. Actually, he plays drums because Chris can really sing very well and he'll come out and be a frontman and sing just with the mic. All drummers want to be frontmen. Ferrick can also play the drums. Frontmen want to be bass players.

That's true. And all bass players want to be bass players. So what's more important vocal melodies and hooks or instrumental parts for the band dude that's a crazy question because it depends on the song for me I'm in a side project and we were talking

about structuring a song the most important part is the vocal melody first and getting the vocals down and then structuring how everything is going to complement depending on your setup of the of the band especially if you have two guitars bass guitar so it does depend we do a lot of stuff where we're improvising so much that we take parts that we made up live and we're like okay look we have these sections instrumentally let's give it to the

vocalist to put guitar parts over so it works works both ways. But for me, it seems like if you're going to have the center point be the vocal melody line, you should start with that in the songwriting. But we don't always write songs like that. What about you guys? What do you guys do? Well, I think that, I mean, like Ryan is saying, a lot of the things that we do is we start with a groove. And when I'm writing songs with Jake,

we're just kind of thinking about let's create a few different sections and see if we can make transitions that make sense between sections and like you know we'll we'll give something to brennan and say here's you know four different parts for this see if you can come up with anything vocally that you think will work for this because a lot of times i think he has words written, but not necessarily melodies going. I mean, he writes a lot, you know? It's interesting when the words are first and it's not the melody.

Some other people hum a melody and they don't want to get locked into the exact same safety blanket. So if you come up with a very unique vocal melody, I think it's easier to go after and say, ah, this is how we should complement the bass and guitars to that because that's the centerpiece.

You ever try to write just a song with a straight chorus and a straight verse? Yeah, we have a few of those. What are those? What song are those called? No Diablo. Bad Friday. All the ballads. Booth Love. Have you ever had Radio success?

What success? Just AAA We've had Nice things Said about a song On WXRT What's that? The Seattle

The Chicago Chicago I would say no I would say no Everything for us Has been merchandise Touring And strategic

Touring strategies Now That's what I want to get at. Okay, so you guys are pretty good at this, at this whole building your fan base and keeping them entertained and keeping them filled with content. And like, was that the plan at first?

It's like, when did you start thinking about the fans and changing the set list? And like recording your sets and selling those. What was that? Definitely thinking about that from the beginning. But it's interesting because, you know, we have some other people that we know that signed with a major label and 10 years down the road, they're, you know, they're in debt or they're, you know, they're not doing anything right now.

And it's funny because we started out playing thinking, okay, maybe we can get to the point where we'll have a thousand people come to our show and some record label is going to notice us and say, okay, maybe these guys are an okay investment. Was that the dream in the beginning? I mean, that's kind of what things were like at that point. In 97. Those were like million dollar deals, right?

You don't have those anymore. No, the game has changed. But it's funny. So we kept doing that. And of course, no one ever noticed or cared about us. And then like, you know,

15 years later, we start seeing people like, oh, well, you know, bands like Humphries McGee did it the right way. They went and toured. They didn't try to get signed

by a label. No, that was all we could do. No one would sign you. But, to scratch our own backs. So no one signed you still? No,

we do everything ourselves now. We did have a couple. Fuck! Yes! Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's We did have a couple. Fuck! Yes! Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Fuck these fucking industry people. We were on Psy Fidelity and we did, what was the other one we were on for a few minutes?

No, no, no. Record label. Oh, record label. Psy Fidelity and the second one. Don't put me on the spot here. I play bass. Play bass. Yeah, but anyway, we started our own record label in 2011.

So we've had that since then. And kind of the idea is that a traditional record label doesn't want you to put out too much content. And we just saw this as more of a conduit for connecting with our biggest fans and wanting to give people as much content as possible, not worrying about things competing with each other at this point. Yeah, how much pressure is it?

Your fans are fucking crazy. I have a lot of fans that are our fans that are your fans. You guys fucked it up for all of us. How so? No, because I'm a punk rock band. I'm doing crowd surfing. I'm jumping. I'm doing the horror on stage. I'm a shtick guy. That's like my thing. I'm an entertainer. I'm a showman. I'm a showman. So now I got to think about having 27 different fucking shticks. All that is is expanding your creative mind, brother.

You think so? You're welcome. Thank you. It's making you think of more shticks. Because I didn't want to take acid to expand my mind. I just want to learn from you guys. Nothing wrong with that either. No, I totally. I mean, that's why I microdose mushrooms. That's my thing. So that's really got me through depression of like saying I'm not good enough for this

scene because I know I'm good enough for this scene. Absolutely. It's just, you know, it's that drive. By the way, my buddy who's been on the past six or seven Jam Cruises, I think it was two years ago maybe. I don't know which ones you've played, but he told me that your show was the best thing he saw in all of Jam Cruise. Thanks, man.

I appreciate that. You guys got to come to our show. We will. That'd be awesome. When do you play? I play late. Tomorrow. Thursday.

We leave. Tomorrow night is our last night. Well, I'm going to hang out with you. We're going to party. We're going to dad rock the fuck out of this. Tonight's dad. Tonight's dad. I'll do that on that one.

So let's talk about, I want to talk about this marketing. What do you want to say? That's kind of what I want to point out on. I'm going to use a nice little metaphor for everybody to understand. When we realized that we were going to have our own record, we're going to do everything ourselves. We knew it'd be a lot more hard work, but the flexibility and the rewarding part.

Were you already making money before this? Like from touring and stuff? Before you said, I'm going to start the label? Yeah. We're doing fine, but... Not making money, but enough to be like, we need to do this ourselves. We need to pay attention to ourselves

because it is much more rewarding for ourselves to put extra... It's a lot more work and it's a lot harder, but the results are better for us. So my whole, my analogy was, is that everybody can fly on an airline. And when you fly first class, you always want to fly fucking first class. You don't want to go back to the middle coach seat in the back. So when we offer programs to our fans and other people to see shows and have accessibility to VIP experiences in a first class, they're all repeat

offenders. Because once you get the status and you go up there and do that, that's the way to do it. And it's a little bit of extra money. And we make a little bit of extra money on the side to do it. We're excited to do it. We want to give access to ourselves. Those are the diehards, you know? But it's more than that. The access to say we'll do meet and greets. We'll do

time. We'll do private shows greets we'll do time we'll do private shows we'll give you a 45 minute one song improv where only you guys get to see it and give special rewards

it's not just a it's not just a it's not generic and ungenuine it's very genuine so you think it's about the experience it's absolutely

about the experience I would think so but it depends on what's important to you is it getting in early and getting your seat early that's part of it maybe agree, 100%. But it depends on what's important to you. Is it getting in early and getting your seat early? That's part of it. Maybe people have

different priorities of what's important. What do you think is important? Well, here's what I think. Back in the days of the 80s and 90s, you never had access to your band

unless it was reading a magazine or something else. And you could never fucking meet them unless you were a Houdini and you knew how to sneak into shows and do it. So there was this mystery.

And you liked that because you're like, oh, they're cool, they're shoegazers and grungy, and I don't want to know about them. You want to meet your heroes, you'd be upset. But I like having the access of like, you can meet us, we're regular dudes. Why can't we meet and hang out and have a closer relationship so the energy of pure improvisational music on stage with you,

the audience, doesn't become more natural. I don't know. Maybe this doesn't make sense. Maybe the tequila is talking right now. But for me, you're on to something. After one of the Red Rocks, we had like a kegger backstage with the VIP people. Oh, killer. So giving 200 people raging.

I can't stick with you for this long, though. You're building an experience. You're building a family. Life is all about experiences. Just last night, we were out to dinner. We went out with most of the crew and band. Somebody at the restaurant we were at came up, and this girl said,

I've been to 50 Humphreys McGee shows, and this is my husband. We met at an Humphreys show, and now we just got married. It's cool. It's a special thing It's a special thing when you see other people being able to make connections with each other

just because you played a show and they met each other. What's the secret of keeping a band together for fucking 20 plus years? Communication. 100% communication. And if this is one thing Okay, I was raised Catholic. I went to retreats Catholic. I was raised Catholic.

I am not a practicing Catholic anymore. But I will say one thing that really worked for me from the Catholic when I went on retreats or when I did any studies was that you had to have open communication especially with the people that you're having problems with

and you don't pent anything up or hold things down and that can happen on a road when you're married to six dudes with no makeup sex and you're like hey I'm married to you and we're never going to enjoy the glory of makeup sex we're just either going to be mad at each other or we're going to talk it out if you don't talk it out

it builds up so much to a point where we call it the Tom Petty. The Petty, Petty shit. You guys ever break up almost? No, but we've almost punched each other. When's that? Tell me that moment. Well, me, a lot.

I don't drink whiskey anymore. Oh, whiskey. I'm the hockey guy at the end of the night who had his shirt off and was like, you get one punch, let's do it. Why do I not? I don't even doubt that fucking thing. So what was the moment?

There were many moments. Which duo you're talking about. I've had it with everybody, I'm sure. But now, we used to have retreats where we'd say, okay, this week, we're going to go out, we're just going to talk, and it can be sober, and we're going to go out on a boat in a lake, we're going to listen to each other, and it's going to hurt to have people tell you

what they don't like about you. But that's the only way to have tears and beers and cry, the beers we're after, and cry about it and be like, okay, I can work on this because I love you and I want to be better. And let me say this, this is the most important thing to me about music

is how am I supposed to go up on a fucking stage and make pure improvisational music next to somebody I despise? I can't do it. I can't do it. I have to... You have to live with these people. You have to listen and live

and think it's the most important thing. So if you don't talk it out and get it over with and hug it out or email it out or whatever it fucking is, then you'll never move on. And I think the 20 years plus

that we've been together is because we've always figured it out through an email, a hug. Respect, compromise, friendship, jokes. Yeah, all those things. No, don't. We rag on each other all the time.

We bust each other's balls all the time. You guys, hold on. You guys never almost broke up in 20 plus years. Really? I don't know. Did you almost walk away?

No, but there was the fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I quit. I quit. Yeah, I didn't mean it. We're cool. Okay, I know where that was. That was in Tulsa. Tell me.

Shit had hit a boiling port for all of us and things were up there. I took my shirt off. It came in the back room. It was Farrag, Joel, Brendan. It was the band. I don't think Chris was back there. And I said to each of them, fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. I looked at Andy and said, you're cool. I quit.

And I walked off. I didn't mean it. No, we're you. I looked at Andy and said, you're cool. I quit. And I walked off. I faked him, dude. But it happens. I didn't mean it. No, we're emotional. I guess the biggest moment is when we were on the road in 2002 and we'd had a great fall tour and we had a Monday night off. We were at Bilbo Baggins Tavern in Shreveport, Louisiana. Steelers played the Colts.

Steelers Colts. Steelers won. Umphrey's lost. Our drummer, Mike, says while we're at dinner, hey guys, I've been thinking about some big life decisions. I'm going to be a doctor. What? In addition to this...

Are the Myers Chris Myers? No, this is before Chris Myers. Mike Miro, our original drummer. This is the closest it came to breaking. That's true. Yeah, and so he just basically, out of the band, it's like, are the Myers, Chris Myers? No, this is before Chris Myers. original drummer, yeah. This is the closest it came to breaking. So, yeah, and so, he just basically like,

out of the blue, was like, I'm quitting the band. And, you know, and he said, I'm going to play through the end of the year

and I'll help you guys find somebody if you want, but like, I'm out. And we had been all into this and like, we just played Bonnaroo

that year. I remember we'd done a couple shows at the Barrymore in Madison that like, sold out. 900 people showed up and like, the Barrymore in Madison that like sold out, 900 people showed up and like paid 15 bucks. We were like, Whoa, you know, like, that's good.

You know, we're, we're, we're like, things are starting to happen. And then this happened and just like wind out of the sails, you know? And, uh, well, so that night we, the, the other five of us in the band got together and we're like, okay. We had no idea that he was thinking this. Are you guys all in? Do you still want to do this? And all five of us were still like, yeah, we're in. Mikey was my best friend.

He was my best friend. And one of my best too. I mean, he and I were in the band before this. Did you know it was coming? No, I didn't know it was coming, but I'll tell you this. I understood his offer on the table. And if you put it through his eyes, his family had a history with being doctors.

He had a full ride for medical school. He had a place to stay, downtown Chicago. Everything lined up for him to do it. We were still in a van. He was very into... Catholic guilt? For him? Oh boy. No, I was over Catholic guilt at this point. For Brendan. No, him.

His parents. Were they guilt tripping him a lot? I think they said, look at this opportunity that you have. The band isn't really going anywhere. I can't speak for them. But we were still in a van. We were still living like punks. And he had this opportunity laid out before him and he was getting more into melodic music as a drummer. He wanted to play steel drums and xylophone and vibes and keyboards.

And he was losing his love for the drums in a certain way for all of us. There was a little more intolerable for maybe some of these guys where he didn't want to write and produce as a drummer as much at that point. And then, so it was, it was an easy choice for him to say, Hey, I'm going to take a career choice to be a heart surgeon right now. And that's where I'm going to go. And you know, it was tough at first, but then we respected it. And then not when the first, the first, the first videotape and picture we got of auditions was Chris Myers in a tuxedo in a black and white with a K. Chris with a K, 8 by 10 in a tuxedo. We're like, who the fuck is this guy?

And then we put in his CD. And it was like Fusion Drum Riff Lick 64. Fusion Drum Riff Lick 64. It was incredible. And so we looked at each other and our first reaction is like, oh, this search is going to be easy. We're going to. But we thought. You're lying. We're going to... But we thought... You're lying.

We thought like... Yeah. We thought like, oh, we're going to have like 25 people to choose from from that. And then we went through person after person and every single one of them... There were some good ones.

There were some good ones in there, but nothing was close to what Chris... And Chris's was so professional and like organized and it was fucking black and white, eight by 10 of him with a... With a fucking tuxedo. Chris with a cane and a tuxedo. demos you're like holy fuck this dude is ripping so yeah so then we went

and saw his fusion band playing chicago and we all sat in the back corner with like a cocktail being like holy shit these guys are the sickest players in chicago and then he's gonna join our band yeah then we felt bad then we're, should we be breaking up this band? These guys are really good. Did you have a fan base? Like, why do you want to move to your band if he had a good thing going? Oh, I'm playing like jazz.

Yeah, jazz. Jazz. He explained it. What's that story of when the drummer, Stuart, he got out of the airplane? I don't know. They're like,

sir, grab your bag. He's like, what is this, jazz? It's a rock and roll gig, dude. I'm playing with Sting. What is this, jazz? He got out of the plane. Someone's like,

sir, grab your bag. He's like, what is this, jazz? I don't remember that one. That's hilarious. You told me how the dream was to fucking get a record deal or build a fan base.

Now that you have this whole fan base, you have this whole community, what's the dream now? What inspires you to keep going? Now that you have families. Family. You guys are all like... Family is number one.

So is it to support the family? Well, that's obviously one of it. I think it's balance because we still are such... We're competitors. Like if we were athletes, we're fucking competitors. We want to win.

We want to challenge ourselves. We want to go from gig to gig and watch tape and listen to tape and say, how do we improve? Do you do that? Yeah.

Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck you. Dude, fucking tape? Yeah. My guys, dude.

We take it serious. We take it serious. And the sports analogies are very easy. Joel and I were athletes growing up as well too. What'd y'all play? We played baseball,

you know, a little basketball, track. Girls volleyball? What about you? Coach hockey. Oh yeah, you're a fucking tough ass. Baseball. You ever fight anybody? Yeah. On stage? Like a fan, you just being aggressive?

No, but I would have their back in a heartbeat. I've done some pushing and getting kicks and shoves, but no straight boxing. I used to box. I got my ass kicked. I'll tell you what. I wish we had time like kicks and shoves but no like straight boxing I used to box I got my ass kicked I'll tell you what I wish we had time for my boxing story

but I was 18 and I've always thought I was tough and that was the moment where I got my ass beat so bad but it was so necessary like sometimes people

think they're tough really need to get their ass kicked and I think a lot of people type and talk like they've never had their face smacked before but you get punched in the face

once or twice, you realize maybe you should shut your fucking mouth. You know what I mean? I love that when he got his ass kicked. It was one of my favorite days. I want to hear the story from you. I actually wasn't there. I did. I was due.

It puts perspective. I think it's interesting because one of the things, even though we've had a really good consistent audience through the years, you think about the turnover and these are different people than, these are different people that are seeing us now than saw us 10 years ago for the most part. So it's a consistent getting out there and trying to reach new people

and make new fans and not just being content with where we are in our career. I think that's something that has always kind of pushed us. Writing new songs that don't sound anything like the previous songs we wrote. We all are part of the songwriting too. What's really interesting is

if you poll the six of us at any time to see what people are listening to, what they're influenced by, no one is even close to the same. I bet. Not even in the same category. I feel like there's some metal in y'all's music. There's definitely metal.

Jake and I love metal. You know, there's the Deftones and Jake got into like black metal and mayhem, like dark stuff. And then there's the old school metal where we love Priest and Maiden and then classic rock but then you know

Andy loves hip hop and beats and J Dilla and Chris loves jazz and fusion and Joel loves the Golden Girls theme don't we all

don't we all don't we all let me add Family Feud you know Press Your Luck great theme song great theme song

but the you know the I would say Price is Right Family Feud. Press Your Luck. Great theme song. Great theme song. I would say Price is Right, but more like the middle show music. I really dig. Anyway. A lot of theme shows. One last thing and then we're done. If you could ask,

if say you could talk to yourself while you guys were in Notre Dame and your visions of what it was then to your knowledge of what you know about the music industry now, what would you tell yourselves? Hindsight of the music industry. I guess we would have just found that investor and done it by ourselves from the very, very beginning.

I don't even know. Get a haircut. Get a haircut. You know? Get a haircut. I think that's what I want to do. Get a haircut, kid. Boys, thanks for being on the show. I can't wait to watch you.

Sean Eccles has been a huge fan of yours. Shout out to Sean. Thanks for getting him on stage with you guys. We're in the same scene. We'll see each other. Word, Andy. Thanks, man. And now, a message from our sponsor.

Ever have swamp ass so bad that you thought dookie sweat was dripping down your legs? Like your junk so funky you feel like you're in the gap band. Cock and machine so sweaty it feels like a slip and slide in between your thighs.

If this is the case, you need to buy a pair of those Blue Delta jeans. Blue Delta jeans. Let your junk breathe. My dick's been bleeding for days From wanking and wanking away I don't even try to get laid

My dick's been bleeding for days Hey! For days My dick's been bleeding for days From wanking and wanking away Don't even try to get laid My dick's been bleeding for days Everybody now, come on! My dick's been bleeding for days. From waking and waking away.

I don't even try to get laid. My dick's been bleeding for days. And there you have it Joel, Ryan, Umphreys, Mike Dillon New record reviews Heard a lot today It's been a great, great week I'm telling you man, new record came out Thanks so much for all the love

If you haven't heard it yet, check it out on iTunes and Spotify. If you want to buy it, throw me a couple bucks. Go buy it. If not, just fucking stream it or whatever. No big deal. Just listen to it. Let me know what you think of it. It's been a great... This is my last week off, yo. I'm on the road. I am on the road,

people. I'm ready to see everyone. I am fucking anxious as fuck to get on the road. But yeah, we're going to first stop is Minneapolis. Never been there. What are the new spots we're going to? Cleveland. We sold a shit ton of tickets in Cleveland. Respect, Cleveland.

Thank you very much. Pittsburgh again. We sold a shit ton. I like it. They bumped us up to the Rex Theater. It's a pretty big theater. But we're going on tour with Wild Age Erotic. We're bringing those boys out on the road for a little bit. It's going to be a good one.

I hope people like the record. I hope we get some love on it. But once again, thanks for being on the show, watching the show, supporting this crazy fucking thing we're doing. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast, will you please do that? We want to just stay in top 100 so we can get a

big sponsorship and we can get paid. Just keeping it 100 with y'all. If you can, help. That'd be dope. If you guys want to sponsor the podcast, if you got any sugar daddies who want to take care of us, that'd be dope too. Just putting it out there. But subscribe to the podcast, rate it, tell everyone. We're building new fans. It's fucking dope. I just can't thank you enough. Check out my tour dates, andyfrasco.com. It's crazy, man. I've been working on this for a long time. Pitching and fucking schmoozing.

Posting shit on Instagrams and the social medias of the world. I'm seeing this plan that I had when I was fucking 11 years old all slowly coming into fruition. And it's fucking crazy. So don't give up on your dreams. Don't give up on whatever you want to do. That's the biggest important thing. Don't give up. If you love something that much, do it. There's going to be hard times. Look at the Humphreys guys. Look at how successful they are. They're still talking about hard times they had. They went through it. Mike Dillon, look at Mike.

Listen to those words again. He's an older man and he's kicking ass and he doesn't think about it. The ups and downs and the dream and the career. That's what we have to look forward to.

Don't get bumped out because you're having some shitty downs right now, you know? We all did. I remember myself last year, I'm like, oh my God, what am I going to do? I want to quit music. Oh man, I'm strung out. I'm just, I'm lonely.

And then I look at a year later, episode 37. I feel better. My then I look at it a year later, episode 37. I feel better. My attitude towards life is better. You know, that's what I'm saying. Don't let these low parts get you down. It's important to feel it because that's life, you know. We don't want to be happy all the fucking time. I sure the hell don't, you know.

I get two hours of happiness on stage, but I'm sad too. We're all fucking sad. Don't worry about it. Stop worrying about social media and seeing all the happy stuff you see there and feeling bad about yourself because it's bullshit. It's all just a fucking illusion. Follow your gut. Do shit that makes you happy.

Don't worry about what your family says. If you don't like something, tell them. Be upfront. Don't be passive anymore. If we just keep that shit in all the time, it's just fucking poison, man. And we get sad. It's like any relationship too. When you forget to tell people how you exactly feel and you just let it just time, just swallow and swallow and swallow your thoughts, that's not the point of a relationship. Friendships are about communicating. And that friendship should also be with your soul, communicating, understanding what he wants or she wants or it wants. The soul is no gender. or he, she wants or it wants, you know, and I'm a, the soul is no gender. And, you know, just be it.

Have a communication. Fucking agree in the middle. Sometimes your mind's gonna be like, no, no, no, no, soul, that's, that's crazy. You don't want to do that. But no, do it. Follow your soul. Don't follow your overthinking brain because you'll get nowhere you know circling and panting and walking around like a fucking crazy person your soul talks to you a couple times your brain will try to talk to you every second of the day why do you want to hear that calm your voice calm your mind and we're gonna make it through're going to fucking fight through these struggles. I'm here for you. Holler at me.

We're all in this together. I don't know how I got into that rant talking about my tour dates, but it's crazy. I've been working so hard on this shit. And now to see all the love we're getting from everybody. It just makes me feel good. It makes me feel like all those times sleeping on a couch and fucking playing to nobody is all worth it. Thank you for that, guys. I love you. Stay safe.

Don't forget to comb your hair. I comb my hair. I got my dreads pulled out yesterday. Oh my God, that fucking hurt, dude. Fuck y'all. God bless you. Whoever rocks dreads have to deal with that shit. God bless you because that shit is painful. Brush your hair, wear condoms or dental dam or whatever y'all want to do. No accidental babies. There's too many kids out there. Just be happy. Live in the moment. Stop stressing.

Don't do things that are going to make you stress. If you have to, you have to. But stick with the game plan. All right, guys. I love you. We're taking a week off next week because I start my tour and I got a lot of press and shit. I'm going to do three episodes a month. Don't bombard you with

episodes until you guys want four episodes, but I got tons of interviews. Next week, we got Jeremy Jew Unit from Big Gigantic. Yes. You're like, oh, Frasco, I thought you didn't like edm i didn't like edm but then i uh hung out jeremy on jam cruise and i understand it a little more and um i'm gonna stop drinking the haterade people yes you heard it ally you heard it um yeah those guys are awesome i had a great conversation great three days with them last week. Hung out with Grizz. Didn't know it was Grizz. He was hanging with Jeremy. Jeremy knows all the cool kids in Denver.

I'm going to just hang out with him, just hang out in his pocket. But I hung out with Grizz too. You know him. You know him. You know me, guys. I'm not – don't know this EDM world. But he was super nice. He was tall as fuck, dude, tall.

Homie was like 6'5". But anyway, it was nice to see everybody. And I got to see, hung out with Lyle from Motet. That guy's dope, the singer. I'm going to try to get him on the show. He's cool. And he plays basketball. We played basketball together. I'm out dishing fucking assists to Lyle.

I feel like John Stockton up in this bitch. And he was good. He kept making everything. It was a dope hang. So shout out to Lyle. But I'm going to be on the road, guys. So bear with me. I'm going to try to get as much good content as I can.

And yeah, if I'm touring in your area and you want me to interview someone, any musicians, just holler at me. I'll see if I have time, but, uh, shout out world saving podcast crew. We in this bitch. Love you. Be safe. Bye. Well, thank you for listening to episode 37 of Andy Fresco's world saving podcast.

Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelhow and Chris Lawrence. And his co-host for the week is Mike Dillon. Thank you. R-E-Y-S Now, please pay attention, folks, for we have a number of announcements. First, the new album Change of Pace. It's out. Check it out. Everywhere you can stream music. Or order it at your record store. Or pick it up at the merch desk after our concert. We will sign it.

Second, the podcast has a new Instagram account. Find us at world saving podcast. So for more info on the show, please head to our Instagram at world saving podcast. For more info on the blog and tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. Third, Sean Eccles performed an original for you entitled My Dick's Been Bleeding. And please, please, please subscribe

and rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. This week's special guests are Blue Delta Jeans, Ari Feindlings, find him on Twitter at Ari Feindlings, Doloph Cohen and Alex Greer. Amidst all the naming confusement where Richard was bleeding, Humphrey lost his opening age and the abominable snowman got lost in global warming,

there is one thing we still can rely on. That one thing that keeps us balanced, keeps us from insanity, provides warmth, comfort and stability, keeps us from tipping over or giving in. And if you haven't figured it out by now, I advise you to tune in again next week to the World Saving Podcast. Now, be safe.