Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 46: Dave Brandwein (Turkuaz)

Episode Date: May 21, 2019

This week Andy gets some "down time" in NYC. He carves out some time to chat with the very busy Ari Fink from XM/Sirius. Ari and Andy chat about the radio biz and what it takes to make it outside the mainstream. And on the interview hour, we have Dave Brandwein - leader of the funk force that is Turkuaz. Dave and Andy talk about life, fear, and the new EP Turkuaz just dropped. Don't sleep on this one... EPISODE 46 streaming nowwwww 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 our deep homies, Turkuaz at www.turkuazband.com Check out Andy's new album, "Change Of Pace" on iTunes and Spotify Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Arno Bakker Todd Glass Brian Schwartz

Hey, it's Schwartz. Listen, I just want to remind you, and we've been talking about this, things are going well. You're doing well. You're growing. We had a good year. Change of Pace is a solid album. It still needs some growth, and people need to hear it, and they will,

and we're going to work on that. But I want to remind you, you need to focus on making music. You're not going to grow without great music. The podcast is awesome, but it's not going to sell concert tickets, and it's not going to get people on Spotify and buying your albums. So please, just for a minute, and however you need to fit this into your brain, start writing, start thinking about recording, stop with the dick jokes for a minute, stop with the drug songs and all this.

It's all distractions. Please, let's not waste time, all right? Thanks, dude. Hey, Andy, it's Todd. And I know you're not going to play this, but you told me to listen to the message that Schwartz left you, and then you said contradict him. No, no. And I know you're probably not going to play message that Schwartz left you, and then you said contradict him. No, no. And I know you're probably not going to play this,

but you know what? Schwartz is right. Yeah, yeah, he's right. You know, this guy believes in you. He thinks the world of you, but he's trying to sway you in a different direction, and you want me to be your little duck? I ain't your fucking duck, Brasco.

This guy, what if he's fucking right? Did you ever think Schwartz is right? Did you ever think, yeah, right? Did you ever think? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna, I'm not your, I'm not your fucking puppet Frasco. You know what? He believes in you. And all he's saying is to take a little direction and you can take your fucking brilliance and go, you haven't even tapped into where you're going to be, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want to be a novelty act? You want to be a nobiliac, fucking Fresco? Maybe if you take your fucking brilliance, and then you take the Schwarzenbrilliance,

and you merge together, you'll fucking have something. So I'm not your little fucking talking duck. Yeah. I'm Andy Fresco. Oh, I'm so charming. Oh, look at me. Yeah, I just want to do whatever I want. Oh, yeah, I do whatever I want. Oh, I do whatever I want. Oh, I'm

Andy Frasco. Look, this is a song technically. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Listen to Schwartz, you fuck! And we're fucking here. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast.

This is a very special day. We got Dave from Turquoise on the show, but my co-host, the man who brings the voice to the jam scene, we have Ari Fink from Serious Jam On. Hey, Ari. Yo. Yo, by the way, I just gotta say, what's up? How we doing? We're doing, man. I, Ari. Yo. Yo. By the way, I just got to say, what's up?

How we doing? We're doing, man. I was just so proud of you. You did the RALX conference. I got to watch you. We've been friends now for a little bit. But to watch you and your element outside of radio was very special to me. And I just want to say, they put you on the hardest fucking one ever.

You had to talk about activism. It was real. And we're go-getters and we want to really build awareness in our scene. How was it to say, okay, I really want to do this? Did you talk to Shapiro about doing it? Walk through why

you wanted to do the Relics Music Conference. Well, listen, Relics has played a monumental role in the development of this community for decades upon decades at this point and the Relics Live Music Conference is an incredible gathering

of individuals and what makes up this scene and this community is individuals, it's people's efforts that go well beyond what they do when they do it for their organizations. And the people are so special and come from the greatest places. And so it's definitely been a goal of mine to be able to take part in this gathering. And so when Bradley Tucker and Pete approached me about doing this,

it was a no-brainer, of course. I mean, it's something I've been talking about with them, and I've been a huge champion of this world and our community from the beginning. And so being able to take part has been a life goal unlocked. And of course they put you on something that's the most important thing, activism.

Yeah, this is real. We can sit here and make dick jokes all day. You've heard my show. Yeah, we can. Listen, I love to be dumb. That's easy and fun and it comes naturally to people like me, but at the same time, tackling the issues of the world at large

is something that goes well beyond what we do on a daily basis and speaks to our efforts and the way that it can impact the world around us. So the people who don't know what Ari does, you are the program director for Jam On, Dave Matthews Radio. That's like a kind of like a...

It's a recurring pop-up channel. And the same as Phish. Phish Radio and then Pearl Jam. Yes, Pearl Jam Radio on Channel 22 on SiriusXM. So I'm at the helm of what happens on Channel 22 and Channel 29 along with festival broadcasts

all around the country. SiriusXM puts me in spots where I can contribute when it comes to music festivals and events that speak to the greater music community at large. Yeah, and you know what's the best thing about it is you're one of the only voices in the radio, like in the mainstream radio. I feel serious as mainstream

in a sense where not a lot of people are talking about jam music and not a lot of people are giving these artists their voice. And for you to say, I know this isn't a radio single, like a Black

Keys of the world, but to give these guys a voice is something huge in this scene because no one else is doing it. Like how tough is that to like have to like really promote and pitch a band that maybe your executives might not see as like millions and millions of views right away. How hard is it to really pitch a band that you truly love? You've been doing this forever. You helped build the Revivalists.

You put Revivalists on before anyone really knew them. That's what I've heard. Is that true? We've been playing the Revivalists for many moons at this point. We've been playing the Rev revivalists and other bands in our scene that have had great success. Moon Taxi is another great example of bands. Pretty Lights, Big Gigantic, Dabbling in the Electronic Sphere, artists like Caroline Rose from the indie world. We definitely try to corral the power that Sirius XM has because Sirius XM has become ubiquitous at

this point yeah it's in everybody's cars and it's a brand that has reached the critical mass and so you know one thing that that makes Sirius XM so special is the ability to work within niches and sub-genres where music is growing and growing organically and artists are doing things outside of the norm in a way that, you know, the traditional radio industry hasn't been able to harness. And so, you know, a band like The Revivalists and Moon Taxi are great examples of bands that grew up in this scene scene grew up going to see fish and like you know learn from the improvisational artists and and the wizards that we revere and take what they do and incorporate it into their live show and also into their songwriting as well and and Sirius XM you know in my 11 years at at the company. You've been there 11 fucking years? 11 plus fucking years.

It's crazy. I was originally hired to help launch the Grateful Dead channel at its inception. And, you know, when I started at the Grateful Dead channel, it was kind of like, wow, this could really translate to this generation and the next generation as well. And that's always the thing that's piqued my interest is like, you know what? well and that's always the thing that's piqued my interest is like you know what like we can take the the bigger the wider music industry model and apply it to what we're doing here in this community and help scale it because scaling a band and and growing an audience is something that everyone strives for and everyone has questions about and is ultimately the goal of an artist who steps out to make it their career.

And so there are lessons to be gleaned from that. And being at Sirius has provided me a really, really fascinating look at the ways that the traditional model has worked and also the ways that the non-traditional models have worked. There's tons of other niches like the jam band community, like Outlaw Country is a great example. Reggae is a great example, you know,

where these bands outside of the quote-unquote commercial industry have succeeded to find ways to amplify their voices. And the panel that I did today, you know, amplifying awareness. I was so proud of you. I was like a homie just like in the crowd. Like, oh, this made me proudifying awareness. I was so proud of you. I was like a homie just like in the crowd, like, oh, this made me proud, dude. It was a wonderful experience. And you know, it's a testament to sort of jumping outside of your comfort zone a little bit and being able to,

you know, try to challenge yourself and speak to things that apply to a wider level and figure out how to apply things to a wider level that really excite me and what motivated me initially when I started working at Sirius umpteen years ago. Speaking of comfort zone, like when your execs have this comfort zone of basically, you know, they're expecting numbers, like they're expecting these bands, like how hard is it to break a band in our scene for your executives to say, oh, Ari found this guy. How tough is that to really start pitching bands that you truly love and understanding where the music scene is going in 2019? Because you have to think two years ahead,

right? Well, everything's about relatability. like, you know, recommended if you like this, then that is kind of the approach. And in our world, you know, it's a great model to be able to look at. Well, yeah, the revivalists like stretch. They take their songs in a new direction. But at the same time, like they're drawing on all of the classic songwriting tropes and Moon Taxi and bands like yours, Andy Frasco and the UN. Thank you for playing me, by the way. You're taking the existing successful models

and you're extrapolating what you can from it and building on it. That's what I've always tried to showcase in this world and it hasn't been difficult. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm going and looking for the needle in the haystack like honestly like the people on our team do a wonderful job of bringing great music to the forefront and it's

not just music you know that peaks super hard and gets you to the that magical place regardless of song structure like it's bands that tell a story and songs that mean something in addition to adding to that pop. I don't know if enough people tell you this, but you're doing a fucking amazing job, man. This is a hard outlet. This is a hard scene. And you're going to get scrutiny

because a lot of these bands don't have radio singles. And for you to fucking fight for us is fucking honorable. I'm just proud to be your fucking friend. And I know a lot of the other bands on the station too because I'm friends with them. We got Turquoise on the show tonight.

Dave's coming through, right? So you put them on the radio. Did you ever put them on the radio or no? I played them a few thousand times on the radio. That's what I'm fucking saying, dude. For at least five years. Yeah, it's like...

Maybe more. I don't know. Fact check me. That's what I'm saying. Everyone who doesn't appreciate the hustle that you're trying to do, fuck them.

Listen, listen. I'll say it. You don't have to say it. You know. You don't have to say it. This is a discerning audience. This is a very educated audience. This is a free space.

This audience is a free space. It's an uber educated audience. And that's what the challenge that I relish. But a band like Turquoise has been making great records and putting on an incredible live show and building an audience organically in a way that we've helped to facilitate and that's ultimately what we're here to do is to

pick up the bands that that you know are able to grab that wider net and to go for that brass ring and try to creep in to you know I don't want to say mainstream but creep into a wider music audience to be like hey

you know what you might not fuck with it, but guess what? You are going to fuck with this when you hear it, when you put your ears on this shit and you see them and you see Shira and Sammy do their thing. That's why you're my fucking guy. That's what I'm saying. You get the bigger picture. Dude, it's not an easy thing,

and the traditional radio industry is a weird place. It's a crazy place, and it's much healthier than it ever has been and Sirius XM has provided an incredible cleansing presence to the the mainstream radio industry which was very sick for a long time yeah very promotionally based and very you know skewed far away from artistry and from curation and from all the great things that, you know, make music what it is and draw

all of us, you know, you and I talking and people listening to music, you know, it's one of those things that has gotten a lot healthier in a lot of ways. Thanks to companies like SiriusXM and to streaming services to provide data and to provide

an outlet for bands that don't sound same same you know but there's always more work to do and you know ultimately like you know we're a filter for people to be able to learn about new shit from being the dream

of we'll leave it this and we'll go about new shit. From being the dream of, we'll leave it this and we'll go to Dave's episode. For being the dream of first wanting to go to Michigan to be a bass player, to where you are now. Right. Are you genuinely happy with where you are in life and who you've become?

Yeah. I mean, are you've become? Yeah. I mean, are you kidding me? This is crazy, dude. Being able to be able to expose people to new bands. But was that the dream? No, of course not. I'm not going to sit here and tell you at 17 my dream was to work for a satellite broadcaster and expose people to new music.

No, but at the same time like being able to work in the music industry and provide an outlet for newer emerging artists you know it is something that you know has gone beyond any sort of dreams that i may have had 10 years ago and and listen i just want you to know and everyone else out there, like, you know, whatever dreams you may have had at any point, five minutes ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, like they all evolve and the things that change are, are normal. And it's completely natural to be able to sort of like shift your focus as you go. And being where I am today is a wonderful, wonderful blessing and I relish the opportunity every single day to discover new bands and to hit people to new music

and to turn people on to bands like Andy's and bands like Turquoise and on and on and on and for the past 10-11 years being able to give new artists a look it's an incredible honor and I can't thank everyone and anyone enough.

Everyone out there who's listened to SiriusXM, who's put their ears on, who've, you know, been, you know, even the least bit engaged with what we're doing. It's truly an honor and we appreciate your ears and we can't thank you enough for being a part of the journey that we're trying to spread.

And from my point of view, I just want to say thank you for going in the trenches for us. We have here, man. All my friends. Dude, you're our fucking soldier. That's right. You're our ride or die. And we don't forget that shit, man.

Listen, I'm the one that's in the meetings with the suits, okay? No, you're in the fucking trenches. You're throwing bombs like, hey, I want to put this Krungbin song. Another great example of a band that's really latched on and has taken hold. You caught that, Krungbin? Oh, yeah. It's been many years at this point. And for me to be able to proselytize for this incredible music to a wider level and within the walls of SiriusXM has been a great honor.

And you know what? I may ruffle some feathers here and there internally and externally with the way that we go about it. But there's always some meaning to that message. And I'm always looking out for our community because I came up in this world. My first Fischo was 1998. And I grew up in this world. My first Fischo was 1998 and I grew up in this improvisational rock scene. And the ability to improvise is not lost on me. The art of improvisation is something that I hold in the highest regard. And I personally believe is

more challenging and more meaningful than making a record and spitting it out and letting promo people just shove it down people's throats. And so at the end of the day, I'm here for it, man. I fucking love you. That's why we're homies. You're fighting the good fight. And you're a real motherfucker. And you're honest.

And you've been nothing but sweet to my career. So thanks for being on this show. Go listen to Ari on SiriusXM. SiriusXM or just Sirius? Yeah, SiriusXM. Go listen to Ari on SiriusXM. SiriusXM or just Sirius? Yeah, SiriusXM. Go listen to Ari on SiriusXM. He's the best. And I hope you enjoy the Dave episode.

And then one of these weeks, Ari's going to edit that Jazz Fest thing that he promised me last week. It got a little loose. It got a little loose in New Orleans. I know you're a busy man, but you'll probably hear that in about three and a half months. All right, buddy.

I'll talk to you soon. Dave Brandwine up next. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got Dave from Turquoise. Davey B wanted to be on the show. He's putting out a new EP, and he wanted to talk about it. You know, it's nice to get to know someone when you're afraid to talk to someone because I've been on tour with these guys, and I was afraid as shit to talk to him

because, you know, he's a really good guitar player. He takes music really seriously, and he just brought a good thing. Turquoise is really blowing up. They're a funk band out of New York. Hey, Chris, play some Turquoise while I'm pimping Dave out. They're great. They got their own thing going on, and it's funky, and it's fresh, and all my friends are in his band.

So I got to shout out to Dave for bringing out all the best out of all my homies. So, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoy Dave. We talk about being scared to death and going and trying to be the best person you can be and trying to open up. It's a great interview. I think you're going to enjoy it. And once again, enjoy Dave and the boys and ladies from Turquoise. Here we are. Everywhere you do not want to go How exciting. Things are looking good. It's awesome, man. I love it here. What was your, I didn't know, tell me about this. You always wanted to be a producer?

Yeah. I mean, from the time I pretty much started playing music within the first few years, recording was really my first love, you know? Really? Yeah. Before you started the band? Way before, yeah. So where were you?

Okay, I don't need, okay so let's let's back it up a little bit let's go back because i was we've we've toured bunch and i was always worried that you didn't like me oh oh my god no and i got the call that you wanted to be on the show no i just knew that you're crazy and i was like he's gonna play before us oh dude i don't know if that's a good idea for us but you guys are the funkiest, partiest band On the fucking planet But you're a party as well So I was just like, man

I wonder if we're just going to seem really calm In comparison to Andy once we get out there But we made it work You write such power funk songs Okay, let's bring it down Where are you from? I am from Long Island, New York originally. So you're a New Yorker full and through.

Yeah, about 30 minutes from here, door to door. What's your first musical moment that you remember? My first musical moment that I remember? My God. I feel like since I was a little kid, I had little songs in my head that I would just sing. And it took me a while to figure out that they weren't from anything else, that I was just thinking of them, unless they were from something else.

But as far as I knew, it was like, oh, wow, that's my own. I had this little song that I used to sing in my head that I actually am recording now. I mentioned to you I'm starting to record some of my older music. And it was just this little melody like, fly, go ahead, fly, fly, fly away. And I would just like sing that. And so that might be

my first musical memory is that. And I record it. I'm working on that song right now. Isn't it amazing how we still have those ideas in our heads from when we were fucking, what, how old were you? 10? 12?

I might have honestly been younger, more like six or something like that. I mean, I didn't know how to translate it to an instrument yet. I started playing piano shortly after. And then around seventh grade, I was like, all right, I just bought an electric guitar because I started listening to Beatles, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin. Like that was my British classic rock was my thing. What did you like about British classic rock? I just thought it had an intelligence and an edge to it that I didn't find as much. I mean, I've grown out of like a much wider array of music and I didn't know like funk and R&B and

soul back then. It wasn't what I was exposed to as a kid. So in the lineage of things I checked out, I think when I hit the British classic rock, I was just like, this is cool. Cause it's, it's smart. It's, you know, it has themes to it, things that you can dig in on and in the lyrics and like theme albums and, you know, stuff like, I mean, I loved Tommy and, you know, things that just had depth to them that you could really go into and I mean especially the Beatles has continued to be I've grown a lot in what I listen to since then but that continues to be like my biggest inspiration for sure. Hold on you are thinking about smart

music at 12 years old well I don't know if I was thinking about it but I was thinking about it, but I was appreciating it. That's insane, dude. Everyone just normally when you're 12, you think about the hook or like, oh, this has a nice,

you're thinking deeper than that. So like Tommy, now this totally makes sense because like your records are so, there's so many layers to them with it's the horn and then like bringing it to the live show is even a different experience

like how hard is it to like when you have this vision of your head of how the record's going to be because i'm assuming you like start the piece and then you bring it to the band and then then like you build the bones and then they add the flesh and the body and yeah like individual things or individual songs within it will get filled in or even someone else will generate a demo and that will become part of it. But I'll generally lay the framework, like you said, the bones of it, of what I want it to be from the beginning as a concept, which really started in our last couple records. So you're thinking of a record as a concept.

When you're making songs, you're thinking for the whole record. You're not just writing songs for like, oh, this is how I feel right now. I'm starting to more in the last few years i think part of what was cool about when this band first started is i stopped overthinking things for a little while maybe even too much so in retrospect when the when turquoise first started it was just like partying writing whatever we felt like whatever i felt like that's good enough. Cool. Record it, do a take. Cool. That works. Move on, you know, get a mix going. That's fine. Move on to the next

thing. Like after the first couple records, I think I started to be like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like I really want to take my time again in the studio. Cause like I said, that was my first love that I think I'd kind of moved away from in the early days of just playing 200 shows a year nonstop. and I stopped worrying about it so much in the last couple years I'm coming back to like themes concepts spending a lot of times a lot of time on the albums and things like that okay so how long so what if your ideal time to like if you could make a record your next record like what's the ideal time for you like sit down like like do you want to sit in the studio for months yeah yeah i would love to take a year off dude but i

we can't do that we can't because i know it would be it would be nice and maybe maybe one day you know after another five years of touring or something like that but the touring is to be totally honest i mean that's what people seem to respond to the most i'm always trying to make a record nowadays that is gonna get the same level of reaction or excitement from people but the live band is really great and that's what people love so we can't stop touring so how hard is it to emulate your band who's such a powerhouse live band on a, on a record? Like what are your,

what are your tricks? You know, this time around, that's a really good question. And sometimes it's the, it's the other way too, where we're like, we'll make this studio creation because,

you know, I'm just like, screw it. Let's just make the coolest recording that we can. And then we have to recreate it with the live band. I I've struggled with, with both. Um, I think the musicians in our band are so good that actually recreating a difficult recording is fine. It's, it's actually what you pinpointed. That's a little bit harder, which is getting that live energy onto a record. I think it's, it's a common thing, you know thing to have an issue with. When there's a really, really

great live show, how do you boil that down onto recording? And so the way we're going about it this time, because we're actually going to start recording a new album tomorrow. Holy shit. You heard it first on the podcast. It won't be out for a little while.

So don't hold your breath. We have other things coming out. Yeah, you got the EP that you're putting out. That's kind of an extension. Exactly. But what's your vision on how you're going to make this new record? So the new record starting tomorrow, we actually back in January did an initial writing session where for the first time ever,

we brought the whole band in here to this studio, which as you can imagine is nice and cozy when you get in here. And we just started putting down ideas and it was really important not to be afraid of just having the most basic of ideas. It just starts with a groove or, or something that, that, you know, I can take and write over other people can take and write over. And it was cool. I mean, we didn't walk out with a bunch of finished songs because it was just a bunch of people getting together in a room and playing but that is the latest um way that i'm trying to achieve getting more of that live feel on a record is we have to start with the live band all playing

together in the studio which has just been difficult historically you know to get nine people with perfect separation and especially the layers you want to have we've broken it up typically with rhythm section and then you know we overdub horns and then vocals you have a scratch vocal going the whole time as a guide but then you do vocals last which there's there's advantages to it that it's hard to not do it that way but at least then for the writing i thought let's get everyone in the room and start that way so we'll probably do about half the songs that were started that way. How hard is it to, when you're a solo guy, you write songs by yourself and stuff. How hard is it to kind of like get your ego out of the way to really listen to everyone else's ideas?

Even though they might not be your idea. It might be the way you envision it. Is, kind of like a test of who we are? It is a little bit hard. Yeah, I think so. I, I like to think that I'm genuinely listening for the, for the vibe of the record that we're trying to make. And so it's not as much like, oh, I didn't write this. So, you know, I'm going to pick it apart. It's I, I think I do it to my own stuff, even maybe even too much. So like, again, back in the day, I didn't think about it so much. And it was just like, you know, the first thing I thought of that's, that's what the lyrics were. I didn't change it, but you can really tell if you look back at some of that, I did no editing whatsoever. Now I'm editing and editing.

So I do it to my own stuff as well as anyone else's. I like to think that I treat it equally. I'm equally as open-minded if someone else comes in with a tune. And it's starting to happen more. Shira and Josh and other people are starting to come in. And Sammy, like, with ideas. And I always want to take them. And I'll have little suggestions

and tweaks to lyrics and things like that. But I'm actually enjoying a little bit more input coming from other band members because it gives me more to work with and putting the themes and concepts together. It's cool to have that collaboration. It was kind of a lonely process for me for a while. Do you think that's kind of getting you

out of your shell a little bit? Because you're kind of an introvert You don't really You do your thing and then you go back to the bus And you do your thing there That's totally fine Everyone needs their fucking peace In this fucking circus

We live on the road so much I stopped partying too What were you doing? I mean, you know Like coke and and like party drug or just like just recreational drugs recreational drugs and mostly drinking you know a lot of drinking were you addicted or were you abusing abusing and i think that's a really important distinction and i'm glad you made it because i could come home for weeks at a time and genuinely

not really think about having a drink if i go out I think because you said I tend to be a little bit of an introvert, if I would go out, I tend to like to drink a lot. I think it's loosening me up and making me more in the moment having fun. I think it actually ends up doing the exact opposite, which is what I learned after a while. Well, it's taking me out of the moment if I'm drinking to the point where I'm not coherent anymore and I can't really hold a conversation, then that's not achieving that initial goal of getting me more loose and in the moment.

It's doing the opposite. So I just figured out after a while that it wasn't working for me. I'm not in rehab or anything like that. I don't have any specific rule other than I was tired of it. And so I just stopped doing it. Well, and you're a focused person. Right when it starts ruining what you're trying to do, I feel like you're a really driven person. You have this fucking studio. You bought a house.

You're touring all the time. You have to feed fucking 20,000 musicians that you fucking have. It's a lot of work, man. It is, and I realized that I don't think I'm going to do my best version of all this stuff if I'm getting fucked up all the time. Totally. So how, with all that

responsibility, you're the band leader. I'm in the same boat as you are. I have too many band members because I love the sound of it. I love the whole the you know like we how important is it to like make sure everyone feels welcome make sure everyone you get you give your time with everyone because like when one you don't give enough time to someone else and leave them out then they start feeling like this is a dictatorship and stuff right how do you

like try to make time for everybody on the road? Yeah, I mean, look, everybody is giving their lives to this. It's like the amount of time that you ask of people and the amount of just dedication and what we go through on the road. You know, just touring, it's not easy. And the traveling is essentially what the job is. The music part, everybody loves playing music, but it's the traveling that's the job.

That 10 hours of driving right in the backstage yeah so you know i i try my best to to be inclusive and like you said before receptive to people's ideas and criticisms and things like that you know so i think it has to be a balance like at the end of the day i do know how to say like hey i think this is how it should be this is what we're going to do you have to have a little bit of authority if you're going to lead that many people but i think just doing it without regard for what other people want or what they think is it it's limited how long it'll last and in the early days i learned you know people don't stay that way i mean we went through a few years of of lineup changes before we arrived and now it's been like five years which is great we have the same same band members and and that i think that hopefully speaks to that there is good communication and that everybody

feels included you know who's the who's the what band what instrument have you replaced the most like what's like what curse do you have well i guess i guess vocalists early on but that stopped i mean you know sammy and sh sheer are amazing and and they've been so dedicated since both of them came on um and and we by the way are really really good friends with everybody else who's ever been in this band yeah so nothing even if there was a little tension when things ended like we are we hang out with those people to this day we stay in touch with them regularly we still collaborate with them musically. It was all just a matter of like, I don't want to live in a

van for the next five years. I was like, cool. I totally respect that. I don't either, but I'm going to do it anyway. Thank God things are a little more cush now. They're a little more cush now. You went from bandwagon to tour bus. Yeah, well, van for a very long time. Of course, like all of us. Yeah, everybody starts

in the van. I heard you had like two vans. Well, we had one. Then we had two. You had one fucking van for all these motherfuckers? Oh, absolutely. We had one van for like four years or longer. Shut the fuck up. Okay, so did you guys start in Berkeley? Was that you guys?

Yeah, most of us went to Berkeley and met there. We moved to New York about six months later. But we met at the end of school. Is it true that Berkeley, you could join a band and get credits for band practice and shit? Because the Ripe guys did that. Well, I guess if you made it your ensemble

or something at school. Because there would be like, you could have funk. You could take a class that was that and if it just so happened that all the members were in it, that's the only way I know of, but it may have changed. How'd you do it? Like,

what'd you, did you graduate Berkeley? You know, I, I did, which is super rare. Yeah. What are the kind of loser I am that I actually graduated,

but no, no, um, well, I chose to spend, I did what is a, uh, diploma and it's called a professional music diploma, which basically

means I spend as little time in the actual school and administration buildings as possible. And I spent most of my time at home. I had a very, very light class load and I dabbled in music production, music business, guitar performance, but it was such a light load that I was home at my home studio that I originally, what are you seeing here was originally built at our home studio in Boston where Taylor and I lived. So Taylor has been your dog since the beginning? Across the street from the Turquoise Market? Yeah, yeah.

That's where you found the name Turquoise? Yes. Shut the fuck up. That's where I found the terrible name Turquoise, which I now love, of course. It's awesome. So they stick with you. It's just difficult to spell. Yeah.

And, you know, it's like. It's unique, though. It's just difficult to spell. Yeah. And, you know, it's like. It's unique, though. It's unique. Hell yeah. But you started Barstow. I did the first demos. And then I feel like I've told this story a lot. But so sorry for those who've heard this before.

But yeah, we did the original version for me. Original demos we made in our home studio in my bedroom, basically. And then you're producing yeah this before but i mean it was very it was taylor and i were like let's work on this like unnamed funk project yeah and then our friend who we were playing with at the time submitted it to berkeley's uh label this like heavy rotation records thing and they picked it up they were like this is awesome we want to feature you at the showcase we wanted to be on the uh on the album on the you know the compilation album and we didn't have a

band so that we just called all our friends from berkeley um yeah people that we knew around but josh also lived in boston didn't go to berkeley and he was on that first show as well so taylor me uh myself taylor and the three horn players were all on the very, very first show at the showcase. So was the Boston music scene like, because that was like what G-Love was from Boston. And like Spooky Daily Pride. Me and Eli from Dope-A-Pod went and babysat for G-Love one night in Boston. What?

Yeah. Him and his wife, they're so cute on Instagram, dude. Yeah, yeah. Oh, so when did you realize you had to move to New York? The scene was cool. I mean, we were graduating or getting ready to graduate. And I think even before we started the band, there was talk of moving to New York.

I mean, I'm from close by, so I had big ties to want to come here. And miraculously, everybody in the band was like, yeah, that sounds good. And then we all moved to new york it's amazing how you just how the universe brings people together that all have the same vision and it's just us to like stay present and realize hey just giving them a shot giving it a shot and asking them. Yeah. And in retrospect, like I, in all the years leading up to that,

like being in a touring funk band, like it wasn't anything that I ever would have thought I was going to do. And it's amazing to me that at the time it happened, I really didn't have any, I didn't question it. I didn't stop to have any doubts about it. Like it was just absolutely what we were doing. We were moving to New York. Turquoise was the thing we were playing shows. I mean, I had other things I was doing, but we basically moved to New York and started playing like

just regularly in the city. We do occasional shows outside, but we didn't really start touring. You know, that was sort of like the before time in a way. And like 2012 is when we like solidified the lineup and started hitting the road and started touring. That's interesting to me when you say that's not what you really wanted to do. And then you become like the master of funk. Like what did you want to do?

Master of funk. Like new age funk. Like no one was, a lot of these funk bands aren't singing, aren't having like real solid melodies where like girls are singing like it was in the 70s well that's an important thing too is that taylor showed me the talking heads stop making sense right around the time that we made those first demos in school and though there's a lot of things we do really differently that film was an enormous inspiration if not the inspiration

that combined with like a lot of sly and the family stone stuff we would listen to and watch was like this is what we want to do even with the vision vibe yeah even visually visually yeah and then you're just having the element of like coordination on stage and like making it a spectacle on stage and having interplay between the sections like that was always a huge part of the inspiration and keeping it tight as fuck yeah that's the goal that i mean that's what all about funk right but like you said you didn't want to do funk at first what did you want to do well like this kind of brings us full circle back to you know i grew up listening to like classic rock and and i i write all sorts of songs i have hundreds of songs that i've sat on for years and years that I'm finally getting around to recording now that I have my own studio.

You're going to put out a solo record? At some point. At some point, yeah. I don't know what it's called yet. I don't know exactly what any of my goals with it are other than just to get it recorded. So I've been working on it. Put a fucking classic rock record out, dude.

Yeah, exactly. So it'll be a little more in that vein. So no, that was the thing. And live music. I just, and live, you know, like live music. I was always into the studio stuff, but then, so there we go, took that turn, moved to New York. It was like, oh shit, we need, we need an album. Like let's, let's go in and, and record a bunch of songs. I had this studio in the back of a club, this club called Cameo. I had a studio in the back of the club. There was no studio.

It was just the stage. So I set us all up on the stage, recorded it into my Pro Tools, and that was it. That was the first record. In retrospect, we later released what we call the dollar store versions, which are those first demos that Taylor and I made, which I actually am a little more partial. They're on the first album as bonus tracks. Are you still proud of those? I like the dollar store recordings which are those first demos that taylor and i'm which i actually am a little more partial they're on the first album as bonus are you still proud of those i like the dollar

store recordings yeah yeah what songs like do you all right i'm when i listen to normal $20 bill those dollar store versions are cool the other stuff's fine it's got a little bit more of a crazy like weird punk rock feel to it it's not that greatly recorded and i think you know it was a little bit thrown together but it kind of is what it is it's like greatly recorded and i think you know it was a little bit thrown together but it kind of is what it is it's like a time capsule i think in the recent years the recordings we've been making are a little bit more have more depth to them you know more time is spent on it do you think when do you think like when we overthink our discography in the past years like oh fuck i could have done that better i spend a lot of time doing that and i try not to why though why do you think you do that well it's probably a little bit like symbolic of

ever i mean you you you look back at your whole life and all the things that you've done and you it's the classic thing of wishing you knew then what you know now you just didn't exactly it's really quite it really rings true doesn't it and there's really no way to do it I mean I guess you have to look at it all

as growth and you have to you have to learn to try to love whatever it is you loved about it in that moment because you know

that you loved something about it in that moment and so sometimes some days I have an easy time reconnecting with that and other days I have a really

really hard time reconnecting with that, and other days I have a really, really hard time reconnecting with that. What's your biggest fear dream-related? Dream-related? You know, like this whole music thing. Do you have any fears? I mean, I have plenty of fears, I guess, just like anyone. I mean, day-to-day, it's like making it work. Like you said, it's a lot of people.

It's a big operation. Mostly, yeah, like creatively, I just don't want to stray too far from, you know, my values and what I want out of the music. And I think that I have certain moments where I see that happen and I want to correct it like you're talking about, about obsessing over past stuff. And I think that's where a lot of my fears go, but I tend to twist it and channel it into motivation, which is good. And it is one difficult thing about not drinking and partying anymore is that I think a lot of that was a release for me. It was a way to sort of dissipate some of that fear and that anxiety.

And now that I don't have that anymore, it's definitely a little bit difficult sometimes. I think some days I get a little bit stressed or over-obsessed with, with productivity and trying to be creating all the time, but I'd much rather that be my issue than, than what it was and just getting fucked up all the time. So I've spun it into what I think is, what it was and just getting fucked up all the time. So yeah, like I've spun it into what I think is, is a positive. It's just some days I do feel that, that you take therapy.

I do. Yeah. How do you, I've gone in and out of my whole life. Yeah. And now what, so what is like some of the main things that you feel like you've really unpuzzled through your head through therapy?

Cause I want to take it. I think mental support, mental health is super important. I love to talk about it because we're all kind of fucked up in a sense where we just want to travel forever. So we're always trying to run away from something. So what were the things that got you through that? Because a lot of people will have stuff. I think most people would say with that stuff too.

It's hard to give any one takeaway. And sometimes when you try to think of it that way, you're like, oh, man, this is a waste of time. But no, I think I do get a lot out of it each day. Sorting through the madness, learning what you can control and what you can't control, and

learning why you want to control the things that you want to, because in essence, you kind of really can't control anything. And a lot of how we operate in the fear is rooted in the fact that we ultimately have no control. And I think a lot of my day-to-day obsessing and making charts and graphs of this is how we're going to record this.

It is my attempt to gain control on a situation that ultimately I can't. And I'm aware of that. It doesn't mean that I have any fantastic solutions to get beyond it. Other than mindfulness and meditation, which I'm trying to practice more of. What? Like what? Like starting the day with meditating.

Like how much, how much time you meditating a day? Well, I, I'm up to 10 minutes now. That's good. But I'm not, I,

but I don't, I have days where I fail to do it. And a lot of the days where you're sitting for 10 minutes, you actually end up thinking a lot of the time, which you're supposed to be allowed to have those thoughts and you watch the thoughts pass. You watch the breath for like two minutes and then you get back to thinking.

Then you got to go back to breath. Or like two seconds. Oh, yeah. I mean, my brain is doing a lot all the time independently of me trying to do any of it. Like what? Oh, just before I know it. I think I'm focusing on the breath. And then within a second, it's…

You're controlling the breath. It's something else. Well, right. And then that's a little bit of a catch-22. Like, are you controlling it? What are we doing? Are you noticing it? I actually like to go into my front room where I can hear a little bit of a catch 22 like are you controlling it or are you noticing it i actually like to have

go into my front room where i can hear a little bit of street noise because the noise ends up being a good um a good metaphor for the thoughts which is that a sound doesn't come and then it's constant and it stays it comes and then it passes and you hear a sound you know a passing car or a bird outside it happens and then it passes and And the thoughts essentially, I think should be that way. Have you ever tried just having your guitar with you while meditating? Yeah, because practicing is something I want to do more of as well. And so there's, I actually go in stages where I'll meditate first and then I'll introduce the guitar and try to just do some, some more meditative type playing, you know, whether it's scales or just kind of free,

free playing. Again, I want to do this every day. I'm not yet successful at doing it every day, especially traveling is very difficult, but I'm trying. How do you find Zen with 11 people in a van? It's difficult. And often I think it comes through like,

you know, watch, you know, just putting on Netflix or something like that, which isn't necessarily the greatest. I mean, it's a necessary thing. I mean, it's just getting your mind

not thinking about what you're thinking about for 12 fucking hours a day. Yeah, you need a break from it sometimes just to think about something totally different. I've always loved television. That's been another one of my

vices I've battled. What do you got? Well, when I was a kid, I would stay up all night watching Nick at Night. I was just obsessed. I don't know. How old are you? I think it's a little my ADD.

I'm 32. Okay, we're the same age. I'm 31. So all that and fucking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, not me too. No, but yeah. I think it's part of a slight ADD that I may have always had in retrospect.

Do you think everyone has ADD? Not everyone, but maybe a lot of people. Or like a lot of people, like, you know, like, do you think you need, do you take Adderall? No. Good. I think. No, I don't take any, any thing for, you know, my. No.

Nothing like Prozac or anything? No. I think some people have conditions to a point where it's debilitating and it gets in the way of them living their lives. And I think other people get over-diagnosed to a point that's debilitating. So it's important to make the distinction, I guess. Well, it's the same thing with abusing alcohol or abusing much drugs. Exactly. That's why I'm trying to work through it without those things

for possibly forever, at least for a good long time. Because it's like, I want to navigate and figure out some answers and things that are just within me. And I think the mindfulness is an attempt to bring that out. It is Staying Relevant with Arno Bakker. On today's segment we will be analyzing the lyrical structure of the song Tachana by Blueface. Shall we get started? Bend that shit over on the gang. Yeah. Make that shit clap. I beat the pussy up. Now it's a murder scene. Keep shit playing, Tocciana, like see your bust down. Bend that shit over, yeah. Eight. Bend it over. The naughty singer apparently gets excited by the sight of his nurse Tachiana

presenting her bust. Apparently this gentleman had a relapse. He even talks about a stroke. Could that explain the blue face? And he accidentally killed the cat. See you next week in Staying Relevant with Arno Bakker. Right now at 32-year-old Dave. What are some of the questions you're asking yourself? Because we're always asking different.

You're still asking. I think why am I so, you know, why am I uptight about the things I'm uptight about? Why do I obsess over the future or the past? Yeah. Why can't I just be happy in the moment? I don't know if these questions are unique to me. In fact, I'm certain that they are. I think everyone is.

Right, right. Because that's just, that's what meditation does. It keeps us present. But it's easier said than done. So I'm really at the beginning of my journey with that. Well, at least you found it at 32. So I'm not super qualified. Some people don't do it at 60.

Some people don't do it ever you know I say people who are in marriages for 40 years who never really loved each other but they just stuck around because they're unaware day to day of how they're actually feeling what they actually want and things

can tend to be on kind of autopilot especially in modern times you know it's like our brains are now trained to only you need stimulus every two seconds let alone two minutes of just sitting with your own thoughts do you blame social media for that um it's probably a symptom as much as it is a cause you know it's like i think it's it's available to people. And if they're already uncomfortable in a moment or don't want to deal with something or look inwardly about something, man, is it easier than ever not to.

They have this thing in their hand that is – I mean it's a great tool. Like it's access to the whole world. Especially for independent bands like us. Thank God we came up in the time of like facebook and all that stuff it's like you know then again it's probably a level playing field because everyone has it and there's so many bands but but no it's i think that there's good and there's evil within it just like with anything and it just depends on how you use it both outwardly how it affects the i mean everything going on in current events in the world right now which we won't even get into because we've already sidebarred

a good amount but also how yeah keep it light we're talking about mental health and depression keep it light bro keep it light simple funk no but also how it affects you inwardly it's like you can use it for good or evil and that is part of what

life in the city was about as an alum. Like I mentioned, there's themes. Yeah. What was your theme for life in the city? It was mostly that. I mean, it's a little bit of a loose theme,

but it was from a time where I was still drinking to a time where I wasn't. And starting to sort through a lot of these feelings, you know, feeling alienated, feeling confused about my own mental state, feeling frustrated with the state of the world. And I don't, there's no clear beginning and end and a storyline. But if you dive into it, I think there's within the lyrics and within the themes of the album, that's what I was trying to deal with. And it was like, although it's funny, because it's kind of a cliche title, Life in the City, it was like,

man, what am I what am I dealing with what am I going through right now and you know it turned in writing that particular song

it became the hook of the song and made sense but why do you think Life in the City is cliche well I don't know

you live in this fucking city you live in fucking Brooklyn it's cliche for a reason yeah yeah it was what I was going through

yeah exactly and that's all the best all the best songs when you just, it's straight to the point. You know, like when we aren't confusing anyone because we're just trying to confuse ourselves with how we feel. You know, sometimes I write a song and I want to get to that point, but it's so fucking vulnerable. And that's the over-editing too that I'm still, I think, guilty of sometimes.

Or I think I've been accused, possibly rightfully so, of always being a little bit complicated when I write stuff. So I am trying to say, you know, it was like early on, I think I underthought. And now I think I overthink it. I'm trying to find that balance. Why do you think we overthink it? Because it's our career.

This is our livelihood. Yeah. I mean, the stakes are different when you get. When you make money. you make money older well when you make money or when you get older or anything it's just you you start thinking i again like i i think i really just didn't think about it that much in the early days i thought we were way more successful when we started the band than i think we are now like once you see what's actually out there and you start comparing yourself to other things. It's a fucking rat race, dude.

Yeah, but I thought at the time, I was like, oh man, our school likes our music. We did it. It's done. We did it. Now we're going to move to New York and we're going to play and everyone loves it. I was like, man, we were playing in tiny little clubs and just driving around in a van. And it was great. It was like, man, we were playing in tiny little clubs and just driving around in a van.

And it was great. It was awesome, but it's just amazing how differently you start to think about it as time goes by and things get a little more real. As you get older, those dreams, those first dreams, like I want to sell out this 200-person club, goes into I want two vans. Right.

Goes into I need a fucking bandwagon. This band is getting antsy with me, everyone's sleeping on fucking floors and couches it's just the wants whoa, this band made a really amazing record I want to make something that's and you start thinking about it and comparing yourself

I think that there is, again, it can be used for good or it can be used for evil just like anything what's the most evilest it's got you well I think the comparing judging people's liking judging my own work versus someone else's because I don't think that's how the best shit gets

made you know so it's like I'm trying to recalibrate and again as we start this new record just kind of like remember take the lessons i've learned about how to make things better but apply them to stuff that i'm writing for for fun and just going with my instincts and having you know having a good time doing it and not overthinking it yeah because this is music supposed to be fun it's supposed to be fun? It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be a release. It is. Why do we overthink music? I mean, I guess because the desire to make it art at the same time

can get you thinking about it. And I think that there's a sweet spot. And that is what happened. I mean, that's what M. Night Shyamalan brought up something really interesting at the end of that show, a Norm MacDonald show, about how a lot of the time people, when they're younger, they write songs that resonate with people a lot

because they're not so guarded yet by their craft. They hit that perfect crest of the wave where they have just enough freedom and they're not overthinking it, but they have also just enough craft at the same time to do something really special

that connects with a wide group of people. That's why a lot of people, you know, write impressive things when they're younger, because you'd think that that's actually an odd, an odd thing. You think that as you gain more experience and you get older is when you would do your best work. And I think there's no rule, as I'm hoping for myself to continue doing my best work. But I thought that was an important thing to note and to understand that you can't, you got to try not to overprotect what you do with your,

your craft, which on some days I'm, I'm guilty of probably. Yeah. All of us are, you know, especially like when we're demanding perfection from ourselves because we're fucking perfectionist.

You know, there's not a, we wouldn't be leaders of bands if we weren't fucking perfectionist. Yeah. You know, there's not a, we wouldn't be leaders of bands if we weren't fucking perfectionists. Right. So like, you know, sometimes it's,

it's a, it's a push and pull with, because like, look at all, like a lot of these guys, like look at the Beatles. They wrote all those amazing songs when they were fucking 20s.

In their 20s. And same as the Stones. All of them. All of them. They were 28. Well, at least, yeah. By the time their last album happened, they were just, a couple of them were turning 30, I believe.

Have you ever tried to write songs on psychedelics? Yeah, it usually doesn't work out. Why? Well, because you start getting more concerned with the vibration of the string on the guitar than you are with crafting a song with an intro and then a verse and what and and now that there has to be those rules to it i've probably done if anything some weirder

instrumental music that way yeah um but uh i don't know yeah actually we we took like really small dosage of shrooms when we did that writing session here cool um like a micro really really micro like a 0.5 of a gram or something? Exactly. Exactly. How'd you like that? I wouldn't really consider that. Do you feel you opened, because I micro dose for a year now.

Yeah, yeah. And do you think that opened you up to people giving you ideas or were you overthinking still? I think I was overthinking it still. Really? How so? Explain. Well, I don't know.

It was just also a lot of dynamics of the first time we've done a session with that many people in one space. And it's in your house. Yeah, it was in my house. But in general, I do feel really separate down here. Even just having a door I can close and come downstairs, I do feel like I'm in a separate space.

Yeah, it's fascinating because sometimes, for me, when I'm on the microdose, I'm less on my phone. I'm actually having conversations with people and trying to really understand what they're saying instead of just halfway fucking listening to them, how I normally do. And that's what I'm trying to not do.

I try to really understand people. And that plays into that. Again, it starts to sound cliche, but the mindfulness and just being aware. I think usually, that's the idea. I haven't really properly done the whole microdose thing. I want to get into it with more of an actual regimen, because that's

what I hear people, you're supposed to do it with some kind of a plan. Michael Pollan? Michael Pollan's book. Yeah, he's the man, dude. He was on Rogan. I love that pod. I've been meaning to read that book it's really good and it's really opened my eyes to just

psilocybin isn't a drug it could it could be something like a vitamin you just don't have don't take too much of it like alcohol where you start going crazy and it does wonders for people

who I know are like in hospital like on their deathbeds and things like that like seeing like accepting death and stuff exactly yeah

are you scared to die yeah yeah i would say so what scares you about see that might be one of those things i don't even know i'm worrying about but that's i mean that's like talk about lack of control i mean that's really that's the big one right yeah or like like like all the plans it's like if i'm planning i'm not dying you know yeah if i'm making a plan what's the next record gonna be what are we gonna go on this tour I'm always planning and I love it

I get like a little bit of a high off of planning cause it's like I'm gonna be alive for all this shit that's a good way to think about I mean you might not be

no but like if you keep your mind from not thinking about death and just building your days with things to do instead of

just like waiting to pass. It's still escapism though, I guess technically. That's true. That's true. It's technically still escapism, but I think that- But music is too, right? Good or evil. You can use it.

There's a healthy amount of it that you can do that you can't be sitting in your room obsessing over death all day. You can be looking at it, looking right at it, and be mindful of it and understand that I am going to die one day and that's okay. But easier said than done. It's so hard, dude. Staying back in the present again. Let's talk about the ZP. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's really where this is all going. That's why you're on the fucking show. I'm glad I apologized I'm on the show for exactly this reason and I haven't done I mean I haven't done a more lengthy interview like this really

ever so I appreciate it I'm glad to be here doing it let me go if I'm being too much therapist no no no there's some things I'm like initially less comfortable talking about but then I'm like man this is why I'm here I want to talk about them so I appreciate it I think it's we're dealing with the same thing

speaking of over editing which I don't think it's over editing but we did about 20 songs when we made Life in the City we recorded about 20 songs and only 9 of them made it onto the record mostly well also because we wanted to fit it onto one vinyl because

our last record was a double vinyl and it was like it's really good i love digitonia it might even still be my favorite but like it was long you know and it was like man i think after doing that one i want this next one to be a little bit more just uh condensed and to the point that's the model now less songs because it's the singles industry i grew up loving albums like back to like sergeant peppers tommy you know dark side of the moon like concepts like that was always my thing so i don't care what people say i always think albums have a place i think maybe making sure that you release things more regularly is something i'm learning that's's good. Regardless of what increment they go in. But to me that some people use that as an argument against albums, like, Oh, just release singles

or just release. I don't think it's, it's, it means that albums shouldn't be, they should be a part of any healthy diet for a band of releases. I think albums are important, at least for me, they are. But all that said, I think as long as you're releasing stuff more often after Digitonium, it took so much energy and time that we didn't release anything for a while. So in part of cutting songs from life in the city was also, Hey, we can release these follow-up EPs, which is what we're finally doing now. We waited a little while while some of the material was mostly done but just i ended up feeling like man this doesn't exactly fit on this record um and some of it wasn't completed yet so we basically spent the last several months completing a couple tracks fine-tuning a couple tracks and now um and now it's basically ready so we're gonna release

two installments of it so you have so how many oh two installments of these eps so you're gonna six of the next 11 that that you haven't released so it's gonna end up actually being all i'm gonna bump a couple things to the next record to keep working on but in total it's gonna be two uh five the first one's five songs, the next one. So that's coming out in may afterlife volume one, five songs, uh, coming out in may. And then the next one's either going to be five or six and it's going to come out in July. And there's some alternate versions. There's some songs that got cut. There's some songs that weren't finished yet that we finished in the interim time that I just felt like I didn't

want to carry over to the next record. it's kind of a mixed bag it's really just like bonus think of it as bonus tracks and no and bro it's super smart because like we go back to when we talk about how everyone has fucking add now we're like they forget about the record after a month and a half like unless like the die hard and stuff like people think like records die you know releasing things more regularly and that was just another thing about okay we hold back a few songs we release a few alternate versions of songs whatever it is like it just gives us another chance to remind people about the record gives them gives us a chance to have them hear something new that they haven't

heard before and that's the thing is that a couple of the tunes on this especially we haven't even so much has done live ever so these will be brand new to our fans they've never heard these so is that scary no because don't you have to i don't practice i like it we don't sound check we practiced the time yeah you were there i was there i watched it that was awesome no that's what we do now i mean luckily that we have a good crew who helps us get set up on time most days, unless we didn't get there until later because of some extenuating circumstances. We have a little bit

of time. And it is a little... I do wish we could practice a little bit more, but... Everyone lives everywhere now? A couple people live in different places, so that makes it difficult. Plus just time, you know? It's so precious, the time that we have off the road that it does get difficult so we work stuff out at sound checks and and this these songs a couple of them were created in the studio we just

did we were in florida the other day at sound check i was like all right everyone just show up knowing this this tune that we've we recorded it but we've never played it we just you know got together ran it once we'll have to probably run it a few more times, but that's just how we do it. What about you thinking like, oh, this song would crush live and it just doesn't work? That happens all the time. Or if a recording's really good.

Do you cut it at sound? I'm like, nope, this ain't working. I give songs a timeout sometimes. Tell me about this. Well, if something's falling flat, even if it could be a song that we've been doing for like four or five years. And like if, if it has two or three strikes,

like a couple shows or a few shows where it doesn't work, well, usually we'll try to rework something. Like the first step is, is work with it and try to try to reason with it a little bit. Yeah. And then if that doesn't turn it around um then i'll just it'll kind of go on time out for like a year or two how many sound checks does it

normally take for it to make the set you know what's funny if it's a cover song probably two and if it's an original probably like three because because why why do you take that because the covers i think a lot of questions get answered for us as to how to do it like i don't know something about the arrangements are so there's a little more finite and they're not composed of parts that we're creating i think when we're given the freedom we it takes us an extra little bit to kind of you know fit into where it's all gonna live and to do the best version live i mean we rework things a lot back to the about having ambitious recordings

that we do that we then have to recreate live that usually takes a while like a lot of the stuff on both digitonium and life in the city the recordings have like 150 tracks on them or something like that yeah and although we are a lot of people, you know, we have nine band members and multi-instrumentalists, it still takes a lot of reworking to achieve all that stuff. Or you have to change the arrangement as such that we're not trying to achieve that.

We're doing something different with it. So it's, that's another thing about this next record we're going to do is maybe trying to have a little bit more of that live interaction in the studio so that they're a little easier to translate into the live show. That's very fascinating. So what, to you, makes it okay? Am we talking too much?

You good? Do you have time? No, we're good. I have time. Okay, I got so many questions. What do you consider, like, okay, this song is worthy for the set. What are you looking for in that song when you're hearing it

live? Moments. I don't think, and I think I'm sometimes even accused of being a little bit too worried about everything being big or having a big climax or a moment. And I think that there's truth to that. I think similarly to like just being comfortable with yourself and not over

planning. And it's like, sometimes I do have to learn to just sit in a, in a, in a moment and be comfortable with something being a little more chill or extended. Um, but I think my instinct, because what this band has always been known for is a big sound and big, exciting, energetic moments. So I'm usually looking for that in some way. I want there to be like, each song has, oh, there was that moment that got achieved, that big thing that was the peak. Do you stretch out a lot of your songs or no? We do.

I mean, in the original conception of the band, I loved having three or four minute songs. But then we started getting booked to play three and a half hours in a bar on a night. I'm like, well, shit, we got to pass around some solos in this. And I was like, all right, Craig, you take a four minute guitar solo. Then Mikey, you take a five minute drum solo. That's when we started doing stuff like that, which is really just in the live show. So now that you're headlining, what's your philosophy of like a 90 minute set you know i think they're i like 90 minutes i think fans want it to be longer

a lot of time which which is fine but i think 90 minutes is really good for us because the music is so intense that you can hit you can really kind of keep things very high energy until like the 75 minute mark do one little chill-out moment, and then close it even bigger than it's been the entire time. And then come out and do the encore and just completely try to blow it out. When you feel like you have a really strong-ass set, and you have to change... Say you're only in a town that's three hours away,

and you know people are going to travel to both sets. You're like, fuck, this opening killed. Now I have to think of a new opening. A different one. of town for like that's three hours away and like you know people are going to travel to both sets like fuck this opening killed like now I have to think of a new opening. A different one yeah does that give you pressure? Definitely and I think that for a while people even started to complain a little bit about set lists

being too similar and I've made a bit of an effort in the last really like six months or year to start changing them up more because we do have a wide catalog. It's just that thing where I always want to give the best moments. And so sometimes it's difficult. But I did learn that we have a wide enough catalog

that I can start to take a little bit more. I think we've been taking some more risks. You are the only one making a set list? I write the set list, yes. Wow. You got a lot of pressure on your hands but really but i like see but i think a lot of the stuff too with like help you know planning the tours and planning the recording and writing the set list like it's the control though like i'm more stressed by not doing it than like i can't sit and like watch tv anymore like days. I need to be doing something. What about bands?

Can you watch bands? Is it hard for you to watch bands? Yeah, I mean, I don't go to shows a lot because when I'm home, it's like the last thing I want to be doing to be totally honest with you. Well, it's the same thing as practicing. Band practice.

Right, right. It's like we're actually off the road for once. Do we really have to get together? So do you consider recording, like different than than writing um i do i love record i feel at home in the studio i can play guitar and sing and all that stuff better in the studio than i can on stage honestly like because i'm so comfortable in the studio. Like I, I get so focused. I like to just like, when I'm listening to a take, I pretend that I'm listening to the song and I get inside of it and I just play, I mean, you know, sure. I can still

fuck up, but like overall, like, I feel like I really don't like, I generally know what I want to put down and I put it down and I feel good about it and I'm good at like sifting through through stuff again especially in the last few years I feel really really comfortable in the studio so to me it's a pleasure and it's a joy I think you'd have to ask each individual member how they feel about it but you know I I love it I look forward to recording all the time what What are you more strong in? What are you stronger in? Writing guitar melodies or writing vocal melodies?

What do you feel like? What's your weakest link in there? I guess vocal melodies only because I think I write more vocal melodies. If anything, I probably could write more guitar riffs than I do. I don't really... Really? Yeah. And that's another thing that is changing more in this next round of songs that we're starting

is I am trying to write some more instrumental stuff to start it because I kind of got away from that, and I think that's what a lot of the more raw funk is built on. The vocals are kind of almost secondary in a lot of funk music, if it's even there at all. I think I might have almost gotten too distracted with lyric and vocal writing. I mean, I love it.

Don't get me wrong. But I think in this, a lot of the stuff we're going into tomorrow, actually after you leave tonight, I'm going to sit and try to bang out some vocal ideas because I don't even have them. What we have is riffs. So I'm switching to that. I want to get more focused on riff.

So why are you going to Nashville to record with songwriters? I'm going to Nashville to record with songwriters i'm going to nashville to work with songwriters because it's another skill that i want to develop like writing has been and and i don't know that it's for turquoise by the way i'm only going there just to right show up and write and if something that we write makes sense for turquoise like maybe now one of them by the way i should be is is our friend Rob Oblak who, um, worked on two of the songs on life in the city, um, with us. So he has actually worked, worked with Turquoise before. Um, so in, in the case of Rob, I'm actually going specifically with him to work on some other stuff, but I've worked with Rob on, on Turquoise stuff before. And

in general, I don't know. It's just like the, the co-write thing is new for me i don't know how it's gonna go i usually like to take a groove or something and sit and write by myself and just have all the time in the world to go over something you know a million times in my head and change maybe that's part of it is like it's gonna help me open you up open me up and not over edit because once i say it that idea is out there and then if the other person's there to confirm it then it helps me get my instinct you know instinctual ideas out yeah more easily without second guessing myself i collaborate a lot in turquoise writing but it's mostly music on the uh rhythm section arrangement side of things if someone sends me lyrics then i'll maybe make a few notes send it back but i'm rarely sitting

in the room with someone writing so that's what i'm hoping to get out of the nashville thing i think it's gonna be great i think it's gonna open you up as a person too yeah for like i think i was always turned off to it i was turned off the idea of like sitting and writing like it's like a job or something. But it's funny because I do that anyway. I schedule days. I have to schedule days where I write now. You have to.

I have to because otherwise, every day gets eaten up by something else. And you're kind of like putting it on the back burner. I mean, I schedule mornings to write now of days where I already have other shit. It's like tonight, tomorrow, and then at two, we start recording. Wow, you're a fucking busy man, Dave. I am, but it keeps me...

Are you happy? I am happy. Are you genuinely happy right now? I am genuinely happy. I think happiness is a process probably more than it is a destination. That's what I'm... There's no finish line. No, no. There's no finishing. And some'm, that's what I'm, there's no finish. So I'm no, no,

there's no finishing. And like some days I think I have like everything figured out. And I'm, in fact, I'm sure I have everything. I feel good. I feel good. And then the next day,

like one little thing goes wrong and I'm just like, everything is a piece of shit. I'm a piece of shit. Everything's fucked. And I really feel both those things in those moments. I think it's, you know, so what I'm hoping to achieve is a more constant state.

But man, that's just, that's just life. Where do you write your better songs? When you're feeling fucking at cloud nine or when you're feeling like shit? Or do you feel like are the most meaningful? I think I write better when I'm happy because, and I know that's not the case with everybody, but it takes me time to process the negative emotions. Whereas like when I'm happy in a moment, like I'm more forgiving of myself and I let the ideas come out a little bit. I think when I'm torn or I'm struggling,

it's, it's a little harder for me to see through the, the, uh, the mist, you know? Yeah. So I,

I think I do better work when I'm, when I'm happier, which is again, why, hence why a lot of these songs are so powerful and happy. I hope so. Yeah. And that's what I love it. Hence why a lot of these songs are so powerful and happy. I hope so. Yeah. And that's what I hope it does for other people.

And that's what, I've said this a million times too, but that's what keeps me willing to do what we do at Turquoise and travel almost all the time is how much it makes other people happy, which is awesome. It would be a little bit hollow if it was completely self-serving endeavor, you know, I think, and you do it too,

man. Like making other people happy with your music is the most important thing. Yeah. It makes me feel like I'm fulfilling some sort of prophecy that I was always supposed to do. And selfishly, it also makes you yourself happier. You know that you're filling a purpose.

Because we're givers, man. Yeah. This is why you take care of fucking 10,000 musicians, man. And they take care of me, too. I know. They love you, dude. And they put in an endless amount of work and sweat and energy. And it's not an easy job.

Fuck. It's the hardest job, man. We're always away. We never get to see our lovers. For you, it's lucky that Danny gets to go out and fucking ride with you. Yeah, yeah. She's been on the road a lot. She may not always continue to be at every show,

but Danny is a huge part of the band. How hard is it to have sex on buses? She's the creative director. Is that hard? Moving or still buses? Just still buses. No comment on that one. Okay.

One last question. One last question. One last question. Do you think you, like, what's the dream, man? Like, do you think you've written your opus yet? Do you think you... No, I hope not. No. I mean, I...

What keeps you going? What is it? It is trying to attain more, you know, artistic freedom and greatness and, and satisfaction. Like I, I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied, but I definitely want to keep making something better than what we made before than what I made before. You know, I think that is what keeps me going and you know, that's, that's what I'm passionate about.

Like the live touring is for other people. And the recording, I mean, I think that makes other people happy too. But that is really where I get to sort of chase what I'm going for, the recording process. And so I'm looking forward to doing, honestly, more of both of them. You know, I mentioned I'm making more time now for other music that I've been sitting on for many, many years. And you're producing bands.

Producing other bands, which I've always done, actually, for a long time now. You did our boys Wild Adriatic. I heard it's funky as fuck. It's really good, man. We did it here. It's one of the only other things I've done besides Cirqueoise and my own music at this new studio

because I've been taking more time to work on my own stuff here. Um, and I think that is kind of therapeutic for me is like getting out stuff that I've been sitting on for years and years that it's just kind of like pent up and it's like, I want people to hear this. So, but they're a really great band. So I was, I was not going to turn down the chance to do an EP with them, which will come out sometime, I think in the next several months. But yeah, just keeping it going, keeping things moving in a positive direction. And man, I mean, if people keep coming to the shows and keep listening to us, that means a lot to us as a band.

Yeah. You guys are getting huge, man. It's really cool to see. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. That's how our bands are going to be. Yeah. I was going to talk about this before.

Do you think our bands would have survived in the 80s or 70s? The whole landscape was so different. So different. The whole landscape was so different, and there were so many fewer bands. And I mean, the 80s is when it started to be you could kind of do it yourself but before then it was kind of like you were either on a label nobody or you were like a star you know I mean there was things in between people get stuck on these record contracts and never go anywhere but like you know I don't know if I could have handled like skyrocketing to fame and as much

as some days I think that's what I would have wanted, or I think when I was a kid and first decided I was going to play music, that is what I wanted. I wanted to be famous. But now I'm like, man, I'm so glad this has moved gradually. I don't want to be famous. I want to be a respected musician who makes people happy and makes a living. So I'm happy with where I'm at now.

You're doing it, bud. Okay, good. Nice work, dude. You fucking did it. But that's great, Dave. Thanks for just being a good heart. Thanks for bringing something new to the funk scene.

Refreshing. Thanks for bringing a fucking tight-ass live show. And thanks for making my girl SheShe and Sammy fucking happy and giving them a gig. Thanks for fucking Bringing a fucking Tight ass live show And thanks for making my girl She She And Sammy Fucking happy And giving them a gig And it's fucking badass

I love that man And I'm so happy That you don't hate me Because I love you man I don't hate you at all I love you I love it dude You're a fucking good guy

And I've always wanted To have a talk with you Hell yeah man Anytime man I'll do it again I feel like we got closer with this Absolutely Yeah we're going to play

Some more shows again Anytime Yeah you like Working with Bonjorno Yeah yeah He's, you like working with Bon Giorno? Yeah, yeah. He's the man. I'm with Bon Giorno too. He's the man.

He's the man. No bullshit. He loves party bands. He's definitely no bullshit. Yeah, that's why I love him. Dave, thanks for being on the show. Can't wait to hear the new EP. Thank you.

We'll play a song off the EP on the episode. Absolutely. And catch these guys on the summer. You're playing fucking everywhere. We're everywhere We'll come to you They will come to you Cheers man

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Blue Delta jeans are the most comfortable jeans I have ever rocked in. Blue Delta jeans. Let your dick and vagina breathe. Take a deep breath of that salty air. And there we have it. Thanks for being on the show, Dave. It was nice. I really thought, honestly, I thought I wouldn't get that deep with Dave. Probably ever in my life. We're two different personalities

um I was always afraid to talk to him when I went on tour with Turquoise but we have a lot of things in common you know he's he's running the band he's running fucking he has like 20,000 people in his band so do I and uh we deal with the same stress like trying to take care of all these people and trying to give people livelihoods while we're still trying to be genuine to ourselves. So shout out to Dave. It's great having you on the show, buddy. I can look forward to continuing our friendship.

But there you have it, guys. What am I doing right now? I'm looking at this view. My buddy, he does sports analytics. Shout out to Adam. Thanks for letting me stay at his house. He's in doing right now? I'm looking at this view. My buddy, he does sports analytics. Shout out to Adam. Thanks for letting me stay at his house. He's in Australia right now. And he let me borrow his fucking sick pad, dude.

I'm like in the middle of the fucking city on like a 30th floor skyline. I'm looking at Manhattan. I'm looking how inspiring. It's a rainy day, so it's a perfect day to podcast and chill. But yeah, it's been a great year for us. And I love this city. This city is so inspiring. I could tell why Dave wrote a lot of songs about this city.

Because it is. It's inspiring. Find a place you want to live in that inspires you. It doesn't have to be New York. It doesn't have to be fucking Portland or wherever else everyone tells you is cool. It could be in middle America. Find a place you feel comfortable in.

If it's a city, if it's a vagina, whatever, a booty or no disrespect to anything. Find something you love and watch it grow. That's the beauty of life. I love this city. I walked six miles. I walked six miles today all through Central Park just watching all the

just watching the people go on first dates and just enjoy the sunrise it was just it was a really nice day yesterday just seeing everyone out and talking to each other and enjoying the city together that's what it's all about

so find a city you love find a person you love Find a person you love And just Whatever the ingredients is To keep you happy on a daily basis Fucking do it Just do it Alright guys, love ya

What's going on with me? I have tour dates There's something going on Let me open my calendar So yeah, I'm playing I'm in Springfield, Iowa, doing summer camp this weekend. Should be dope.

Next week on the show, we got Karina Reichman. She's a badass, dude. She is smart as fuck. Like truly, truly smart. Brilliant mind. Incredible musician. That one's gonna be a great one, so don't miss that one. And Sean's getting to be a great one. So don't, um, don't miss that one.

And Sean's getting married next week, guys. Wow. Wow. I remember when Sean just joined my band. Now, eight years later, found someone he loves very much. And we are flying to, uh, Mexico to see him get married. I can't believe it. I'm proud of him. Proud of you, Sean. Way to go. Toby is an amazing girl.

And you got the whole world ahead of us. And I'm ready to kick ass with you, brother. I'm ready to help you make your first million. Well, I try to make my first million as well. But if we don't, I'm ready to at least make our first 100,000 or something. Anyway, love you guys. Be safe. Find someone you love.

Sean's fucking like 40. And he finally found someone he truly, truly loves. Don't put time with finding what you want to do some people don't find what they truly love until older in life and that's okay too so find what you love water it so you can watch it grow and that's it be safe out there

let the world take you over and live in the moment wear condoms and all that stuff and don't forget to comb your hair because my hair looks like a fucker rat nest and I gotta get a haircut but I don't want to do it in New York

because it's like fucking $70 for like some fucking hipster ass haircut I'm good alright I'm just blabbing now bye love you well thank you for listening to episode 46 of Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angel, Howard, and Chris Lawrence. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon.

For more info on the show, please head to our Instagram at worldsavingpodcast. For more info on the blog and tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. Available 365 days a year on Spotify and iTunes, our latest album, Change of Pace. This week's guest is David Brangwyn from Turquoise. Find them online on turquoiseband.com. That's T-U-R-K-U-A-Z, band Turquoise. Thank you. Brian Swartz, Blue Delta Jeans and Anna Bakker. Last night all of Europe watched the finals of Eurovision Song Contest and saw the Netherlands win. Yay! Without feeling the need to address the idiocy of a contest between songs or singers,

I do feel weighed down by the fact that everything seems to have gone to being a popularity poll. Madonna did a surprise show last night and she was struggling vocally. Today she is the main topic with plenty of people teaming up to talk her down. Next week we vote for the European Parliament and there in politics the popular voters gain so much popularity

that the populists do extremely well. Good is under the guillotine. Bringing down the blade is once again the enemy of building up good. So, all you loudmouths, truebloods and old guys in Alabama making laws, please be good. For the rest, keep human, think twice and doubt everything. Sorry Andy, I had a heavy chest.