Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 61: Southern Avenue & Dave Schools (Widespread Panic)

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Last week we heard from Kenny Carkeet about 1/2 of the upcoming Andy Frasco & the U.N. album... this week we got Dave Schools to speak on the other half. The boys are in Richmond VA finishing up the album and we hear about their progress, both musically and spiritually. The interview hour brings us Ori Naftaly of Southern Avenue! Ori talks about being an Israeli in a rock band, experiencing the American south as a transplant, and so much more. Our friends Kyle and Ahri both launch their own Presidential campaigns. This is Episode 61. 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. Catch the incredible Southern Avenue www.southernavenuemusic.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:   Kyle Ayers Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

Hey Andy, it's your grandfather. I just wanted to wish you a happy and healthy Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tovah. Are we expecting you for dinner tonight? I know your grandmother will love to see you she's making a beautiful brisket and some chicken and some great potato cocoa if you do come know more of your special desserts the pie you made last year I think you put something in it and I slept for like two days afterwards and I can't do that because I got to go to the YMCA for the aqua aerobics class. So just maybe pick up an Entenmann's coffee cake or something like that. If you want to bring a date, we'd love for that to happen. But just tell them not to drink too much like the girl you brought last year. She threw up all over your grandmother's couch, and I had to spend $275 at the cleaners to clean it. And I don't want to go through that again.

So we'd love to see you. Give me a call back. L'shena tova. Im shecheh zemeh. Acha nesheh. I love you. I can't wait to see you. Happy New Year.

All right, we're here. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. Another week. How's our hearts? How's our heads? I hope we're here. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. Another week. How's our hearts? How's our heads? I hope we're taking care of ourselves. I'm in Richmond, Virginia. You wonder, why is Andy in Richmond, Virginia for four days? Well, I'm with my buddy Dave Schools. He's like, we're going to record the last part of our record in Richmond. I'm still wondering why. And then we had this amazing dinner last night. Dave, how we doing?

Why am I in Richmond, Virginia? You're in Richmond because I grew up in Richmond, Virginia Really? Yeah, I grew up here And since I left a long, long, long, long, long, long time ago Richmond, it was always an artsy town But it's exploded Yeah

It's a very art friendly town there's a lot of youth culture here with virginia commonwealth university as well as uh the university of richmond any bands come out of richmond uh well yeah matthew e white oh fuck uh i mean a lot of bands half the dave matthews band guys oh really from richmond what was the scene big when you're growing up here or was it like was it just it felt like a like your fucking town you know you know it was it was just this town that i had to get out of as soon as possible is that because of the you know the normal adolescence absolutely yeah i was a kid and uh you know it just didn't seem like there was a lot of culture,

but it existed in crevices and corners. And in those corners and crevices was the seeds of a great culture. There always are in a town that's pretty conservative. Yeah. You know, you'll find some pretty out art and people with weird ideas. But, yeah, I wanted to get out of here. And since then, this is the second studio I've worked in. We are recording here at Space Bomb, which is more than just a studio.

It's a record label. And they manage artists. And publishing company. And publishing company. It's a cool vibe in here. And it's a great vibe. Well, Matthew started it. company. It's a cool vibe in here. And it's a great vibe. Well, you know, Matthew started it and just is kind of growing because it's really, it's well curated all the way around.

This is kind of like a new life for you, Dave, like with from being bass player Dave to being producer Dave. Do you like this transition into this second coming of the next transition of your life? I love it. I mean, it really started back in 1991 when some friends of mine that had a little punk band in Athens asked me to produce their record. What band? That band, they were called Hayride.

Hayride. What did you like about them? What made you want to be a producer in 1991? I didn't want to be a producer. They just asked me. Really? Yeah. Really? No shit. And you just let you just said you know like you didn't

have like any like worry like oh i can't do this like i'm just gonna do it well i called the gentleman who had just produced the first two major label capricorn records his name was johnny sandlin uh he was an older guy he had been in a band with greg and duane allman um and he had produced allman brother he produced greg's laid back i think and a lot of and he was great he was very patient he did a lot of teaching and so i called him i'm like oh these guys have asked me to produce the record what the hell do i do i wouldn't even know where to begin and he says to me he's a very slow syrupy southern guy goes oh well dave uh you know all i can say is that uh if there's anything that you're not sure about fix it right then and there because if you don't you're gonna have to live with it and i was like well that sounds pretty easy but

it turns out that's the hardest thing to do. Why? Explain that. You know, well, there's like these little things that maybe they bug me, but they don't necessarily bug one of the band guys. Yeah. You know, and it's like, okay, I'll let it go. And then every time I hear that song, that's the only thing I hear. You know, that has to do with my lens. No, but I am too, because we're detailed people. That's right.

So, like, that one little thing will ruin we're detailed people. That's right. So that one little thing will ruin the whole sesh. That's right. You're telling us something about you had to remix Hard Work Americans? What was that about? This is just so embarrassing. Tell me. I was kind of on wine. I was wine drunk last night.

I want to hear it. So this was making the second record, Rest in Chaos, which took us two years to make, because it was just a completely different process. And you produced it? I hear it. So this was making the second record, Rest in Chaos, which took us two years to make because it was just a completely different process. And you produced it? I produced it. And I did a lot of work with Neil Casale, God Rest His Soul.

And Todd Snyder really put himself through the emotional lyricist sausage grind. Well, this was particularly tough on him. He was writing through a divorce and sort of just a big change in life. But all of that aside, it was the mastering that messed me up. We turned in the mixes, and the management company wanted to hear the vocal up more, which, of course, opened the door for vocal changes,

which then opened the door for more overdubs. Snowball effect, dude. But we finally got through with it, and I had Bob Ludwig, the famous Bob Ludwig mix our record. And there were some changes we needed to be made. Then there came back, there were some metadata issues, just like misspellings of song titles that would come up in your itunes and uh then another remix occurred i was like when is this gonna stop

but in the middle of this you're working right you're doing 10 different things at once exactly i was on panic tour and uh so when the remixes started coming back through i happened to be in playa in mexico playing that crazy party with Widespread. That we're playing together next week. That's right. Which is going to be, hello, folks. All right, continue, continue, continue. Basically, I got too busy doing too many things.

And I was listening to these mixes, and there were some amazingly beautiful keyboard parts that were hooks that Chad Staley had recorded at another session in denver with his engineer he had some great ideas he added them on and they and i just amongst everything i wasn't noticing that they weren't in these mixes and then i went ahead and had ludwig master them again and i listened to the masters i approved masters. I listened to them for another week. And then our panic tour ended, and I got on the airplane somewhere, and it was like a six-hour flight. I put on my headphones. I'm like, I'm going to listen to this new record.

It's finally done. I put it on, and the first song comes by. I'm like, where are those keyboard overdubs? They were gone? They weren't even in there? They weren't even in there. I had completely missed it for like a week and a half and uh because your brain was somewhere else my brain i was just juggling so much and and that was the longest flight in the world because i was driving you

crazy i couldn't call anyone and you know in the end i i just said i wrote an email i apologized to everybody i had to cough up the dough for another ludwig remaster of a record it was really long anyway and i think i think i might have broken the record i think the dandy warhols held the record for the most attempts to remaster a record i think i broke it oh my and it's the you know we all have what'd you learn from that experience i learned not to juggle too many balls. Yeah. You know, it's like my mind is really only capable of dealing with a certain number of things.

And when it's really important, you know, and I guess I was taking a lot of that record. It was in muscle memory kind of already. Because we had worked on it for so long. Were you playing them live? Playing the songs? Or did you, yeah,

were you playing the songs live? Was Hardworking doing shows then? Yeah, we were doing shows. Were you testing them out on stage? Some of them. Hardworking, you know, it was so hard to book.

Yeah. We do like little two or three week tours when we could squeeze it in with everybody's schedule. Yeah, because everyone's in different bands. Chris Robinson, Todd, you,

Panic, I mean, who else? What other band was in that? Yeah, like a super band. Chance Daly had a band called Great American Tax. Chris Robinson, Todd, you, Panic. I mean, who else? What other band was in that? Yeah, like a super band. Chance Daly had a band called Great American Taxi. Oh, yeah, with Vince Herman. Yeah, shout out to Vince.

Talk about that. So with that knowledge, what's your approach now? What's your approach with our band when you produce our records? Well, you know, it changes. It really, I accommodate and adapt to what the band wants and then you know i have to ask myself how can i help them get to that thing they want you know what's the right way some people really want to be sort of uh shepherded towards their vision okay yeah you know some people just kind of want to be left

alone some productions really you know then maybe these are the best kind is i do the budget and i select the team and then i let the team do what they're supposed to do you know and i can coach them i'm like okay here's what we got to do here's what we're up against today yeah yeah um but when you pick great people that you know can function as a team that's what happens and your band you know is one of the rare rare examples of a group of guys that sit in a van together and tour and are a band yeah that can work as a team everybody contributes you know and every no one takes stuff personally and if they do maybe you guys beat each other up later yeah but i don't see it no we take a no we let each other know right away that's

because it's that's good it's not loaded with any resentment it's just like hey you know i think you should sing the fourth yeah don't sing you know don't sing that wacky third so like is it so going back to band chemistry so you it's you have to be an open vessel. You can't keep everything in, right? Right. Well, you definitely can't. That'll just destroy you. It'll rot you from the inside out. Yeah.

But the spirit of collaboration, it ebbs and flows. It requires giving, and sometimes people got to stand up a little harder, like, okay, that thing you're doing, it's really way outside of my vision. I'm not sure about it. And so those moments can be hard, but they can't be taken personally. Yeah, yeah. You know, Panic was, Panic is hard because we have four songwriters in the band. That all split the pot evenly.

We all split the pot evenly, but when it comes down to like you know discussing how we take someone's idea that they brought in you know and it could be totally unfinished or it could be really close to finished and sort of adapting that to the six-headed monster have you ever had someone like bring a song in that they think is completely finished and then they could bring it to the band like no no, we got to re- and you guys like re-change it? That happens all the time. I mean, that's really part of what we do

and that's the big thing of the give and take. Yeah. But we've been really lucky and I think one of the things that probably really cut through a lot of bullshit that other bands go through is the splitting of things evenly. Evenly.

You know, we learned that from R.E.M. Yeah. You know, all those guys contributed great things to those great pop songs. Bill Barry, the drummer, wrote a lot of the riffs. Mm-hmm. You know, and they could all play anything. So it wasn't...

So the best way to do it is socialism, in a band sense. Is it really socialism? Not women. No, what do you think it is? It's just communicating and listening and hearing everyone out in a band sense. Is it really socialism? What do you think it is? It's just communicating and listening and hearing everyone out and giving everyone the option. I think it's anarchy.

In the truest sense of the word, anarchy it really just means without a ruler. There's sort of a context that history has provided us with that anarchy is a bad thing. And usually it can be ugly because it occurs as a result of tyranny. And when the people rise up and take down a tyrant, then if they don't have a strong leader, then there's lots of people trying to lead.

But that's not the definition of anarchy. No, what is it? Really, it's more of a like everybody looks out for themselves and looks out for each other like human beings we don't need a leader you know but i get into this a lot of times with with people there's a lot of anarchists you know like in places like eugene oregon they're like anarchy for the people and like looking at this like dreadlocked hippie on food stamps you know pulling a puppy by a rope. And like my friend Jerry Joseph will say, if we were truly in anarchy, you'd be the first to go

because you're nothing other than a tax on everyone else. If everybody pulls their weight and rises to the top of their skill set, things should go well. But it's just like communism. It maybe looked good on paper, but it really hasn't worked so well in practice. To me, democracy on paper seems pretty good, but it also seems like there's a lot of gerrymandering.

There's always a lot of these little end runs that parties pull trying to give themselves an unfair advantage. Most people don't even know it's happening. How are we feeling about the transition into the band's growth and how these songs are going? My band. Well, let's talk about you. Come on.

Dave, you've been talking about everyone else. I talk about myself all the time. So let's talk talking about everyone else. I talk about myself all the time. So let's talk about you, Andy. I talk about myself all the time, too. I'm just really amazed. I mean, I was amazed at the tightness in the family on the first session. And your willingness to, like, you know, not be married to their ideas of the songs. Because this is the first year we recorded songs that we haven't played live.

We're not playing them live until the record comes out. We wanted to try that philosophy in the studio. So like you said, we're not married to the parts. Right. Do you think it's helped this year? I think it's helping so far because you're such a great team and there's so much trust that the only way to build that trust is to ride around the country and fly around the

world together in a small compact space, sniffing each other's feet. I think a big leap here is you're really allowing your guys to compose and to write songs. And they know that you're the man. And they know that you're the one that's got to stand up there and deliver the song so in the end it's still in your hands if someone turns in a line to a song that you don't think you can sell appropriately then you're free to change it i don't think anyone seems to have felt slighted they understand what's going on here and so because of of allowing different people to bring in different ideas you're getting different sounds. You've got some rock songs.

You've got a little country ditty going on here. You've got this beautiful little duet with the sax and your piano. And also there's been a good amount of serendipitous weirdness. Yeah, like that bass. When we just picked up a bass that was tuned differently. It was tuned differently.

It just happened to kind of work with the sonics of what you had already recorded. Or how about Turquoise having a day off and staying at the Grayton Casino 10 minutes away from where we're cutting at Prairie Sun in Cotati. And we had them all in the session. Yeah, and it just was like turned into a family party,

which was those things, to be able to capture those and then have other people hear it, you know, that's the part of the magic. Sort of a serendipitous occurrence. Yeah, you're right. So yeah, you guys are doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing. I'm proud of what we're doing here.

Thanks for another year. I guess we're just going to have to make another one. That's right. I'm not going to... When I text you before, I'm like, yeah, going to have to make another one. That's right. I'm not going to. When I text you before, I'm like, yeah, are you ready to make the record? He's like, you should have already been made in the fucking album already. Well, that's right. That's what Kevin Kinney told us.

He's like, you're mixing your record. You better have the songs written for the next one. Wow. Well, I won't let you down this time. Thanks, Dave, for being my pal. Thanks for having my back. And we're in Richmond. I can't wait to explore the city tonight.

And I can't wait for all my fans to listen to what Dave and I did. I think it's really special. Thanks for coming to Richmond. I love my hometown. All right. Next up, Southern Avenue. We got Southern Avenue on the show. They're awesome.

They're a rock band trying to bring rock and roll still going. So hope you enjoy the interview, and I will catch you on the tail end. And let's finish our record, huh, Dave? Get to work. All right. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got Southern Avenue. When Memphis, Tennessee meets Tel Aviv.

You could say a lot about the blues in Memphis and in America, but not a lot of people know about the blues in Israel and the fight. They're always in constant war. So Ori loves the blues. And we had this great conversation about what it's like to live in Israel throughout all the fighting and stuff and trying to play music and trying to play music and trying to bring soul live.

Yo, Chris, play It's Gonna Be Alright by Southern Avenue while I'm pipping them out. He's a sweet guy. And he's Jewish. He's my tribe brother. So we're keeping that Jew blues in there. So shout out to Ori for keeping it up. I really like them. They got sisters that are kicking ass in the band

The whole band is killer So ladies and gentlemen I hope you enjoyed this interview I had a great time I was so fascinated with it So shout out to Southern Avenue for kicking ass So ladies and gentlemen Please enjoy Southern Avenue in my cries and heal me with your words singing it's gonna be all right

all right it's gonna be all right it's gonna be all right i'm gonna be just fine Just fight. All right. It's gonna be all right. It's gonna be all right. I say your last name all fucking like a talion. The tally. Tally, yeah. Well, in Mississippi they do tally bands. You really?

Tally, yeah. What's up, Worry? How you doing? I'm good. How's it like being a Jew in Memphis? Coming from Israel. You grew up in Israel? It's better than being a Jew in Tel Aviv. Really? Why? Explain that.

Because when you're a Jew in Tel Aviv, it's like you're a New Yorker in New York. But when you're a Jew in Memphis, it's like you're a star. You're a rock star. Really? Oh, yes. I'm a rock star. For real? Yeah. Everywhere I go in the South and I say that I'm from Israel, I get treated like I'm Jesus Christ.

This is what I get too. All the way. People are like, oh, that Jewish kid on fucking stage and shit. And they know, but being from Israel. And I tell them, look, you've never met more Jesus than me. I'm as Jesus as it gets. And they love it. They love it.

And that's how I basically started my career. Like in Memphis, I just like, of course that, you know, I don't put it off on professionals. But when you talk to the security guard at the venue, you talk to the staff guys, you know, to sound man, every little people, person you meet on the road, and I mentioned that I'm from Israel, I get. Every little person you meet on the road, and I mentioned that I'm from Israel, I get props.

Why do you think that is? In the South. Wow, man. I think that the religion is a huge part. And I think that the fact that as Israelis, we go through so much shit, I think that it makes me look very tough. You know what I mean? The image of like

going through wars every three months, you know, going through whatever. So they know what I'm going through. They're like, oh, he's going through way more than we are. He's probably very tough. And I am, like I am way more than this guy from Tupelo, Mississippi or this guy, you know what I mean? I am way more like I've been through, you know, six suicide attacks that happened like in my vicinity.

And like I was not in, but I was like deaf, you know, so like. So what happened? Just like, you know, you go on the street with your friends and then you hear a boom and then you hear cops. And then you realize that somebody just exploded himself, you know, around the corner. Or you see a bag on the floor, and you're like, oh, this bag doesn't look really good. And then you call the cops, and then three hours later,

you see them bomb it, and then it fucking explodes, and then you realize that you're... Have you seen any bombs? Yeah, like three. I've been to three situations where i could have died by me noticing the bag that had a bomb in it or a cell phone that i thought it was suspicious and i reported three times and then two i said two three times yeah yeah yeah just you though yeah but i i walk around though that's the thing I I walk around and I notice and yeah and if one of them was me second was me the third time was my friend noticed it and I was with him

yeah I mean the thing is is that back when I was a teenager in the 90 in the in the kid like late 90s and early 2000s suicide bombings were very popular now it's more knives and stuff like that like they stab you and they don't really it's hard for them to really bring the whole like it's hard to actually do a suicide bombing right now in israel because of our because our army and because of our intelligence we're way better and it's not as popular but um i think that back then in the day, it happened so much, and it was so hard. So what I'm trying to say is that it affected me. I have my own PTSD from it, I would say, but it definitely makes me look good for those Southerners.

They think that my skin is very thick. Can you describe the PTSD? Oh, yeah. Like what are you scared of? Every show we do, every show we do, during the show, during my solo, I will open my eyes, and if I see somebody suspicious, I will stare at him, and I will judge him.

Every show we do... Are you serious? Yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to get attacked. Of course. Of course. We've been told in Israel by our army, we've been told how to protect ourselves and always be aware. I've been, I had, of course, everywhere I'm a target.

Everybody knows I'm from Israel. Everybody knows we're like Ori Noftali came from Israel to Memphis, blah, blah, blah. You know, like, so I don't need no, when somebody comes to me and they're like, Ori, I can't believe Israel to Memphis, blah, blah, blah. So I don't need no... When somebody comes to me and they're like, Ori, I can't believe you're from Israel. I love Israel. I'm such a huge fan. The same type of person can be the other way.

He can come to me and say, I fucking hate Israel. You guys are blah, blah, blah. Have you ever seen that in the South? Like racism like that? No, I never, never, never. Not just in the South. We played, you know, over 40 states. Everywhere. I never experienced any negative.

In America? Anywhere in America, negative. What about in Europe? Yes. Where? Anywhere in Europe. Anywhere in Europe, I'm hiding me being Israeli and me being Jewish. Really?

I'm hiding. I don't do it like that. No, you don't because you are actually not Israeli. You're American. Oh, so that's what's different. I'm hiding. Really? I don't do it like that. No, you don't because you are actually not Israeli. You're American. Oh, so that's what's different. I'm American Jew. Yes. You're American and that's already a problem.

Now it's a problem. Now we're on the same boat, brother. You might be even more of a problem because you're American Jew and you love Israel. So you're a quadruple, triple problem. Me, I just need to be a person. I don't need to have, know that I'm Jewish. I don't need to have, when I toured Europe as Ori Naftali Band, which in the South they would say Ori Naftali Band,

and they would just say Taliban, Taliban, Taliban. And I was like, fuck. Oh, shit. I'm not, like, the Taliban. So, okay, it was very. That's bad luck, dude. It was crazy. I mean, it got me good, you know?

I mean, but the thing is, is that in Europe, I'm definitely afraid. And I'm being told by everybody that I care about, they care about me to be, you know, worried. But in America, I'm not. But I'm still, you say PTSD. I always look. Always, always.

Because, to be honest, I'm awaiting every boom. If I hear a boom, if I hear an alarm, immediately I duck. I'm looking for the missile upstairs. Upstairs, like at the sky. Were you allowed to go out when you were young?

Yeah. Oh, in Israel, the beautiful thing about Israel is that you can go anywhere, any time of the day, and you're safe. Not like in America. Why?

Because... But people are blowing each other up. No. People... There's a whole army and security system trying to not have people do that. Okay.

So when I'm walking in Tel Aviv at 3 a.m., I'm exposed to the normal city danger. I don't know, rapists, God forbid, or bad stuff. But other than that, people are way more with support each other, that look after one another. If they see something, they say. We really look after one another.

I think that it's way safer in Israel statistically than in Memphis. Memphis is way more dangerous. Every other gas station, there's a shooting. That's random. In Israel, a lot of people need to fail in order for somebody to actually execute something like that. That means that the army failed, the intelligence, the government. Everybody failed, too, and then it happened and so you know so that's as far as my ptsd i think that it's getting way better but have you learned any like life philosophies from this ptsd like living like

you never know when you're gonna die like are you scared of death well i'm not scared of death but that's a good question man because what you're saying is die? Like, are you scared of death? Well, I'm not scared of death. But that's a good question, man, because what you're saying is basically like, what have I learned, right? So I think that what I learned is that, how did I start my music career? Really, I started playing since I'm five, and I've been in bands since I'm 10.

But when I was 20, two things happened. One, we were going to uh me my cousin like 10 friends we went to an electronic rave party in israel in the in the north and we partied got drunk we came back and then my cousin slept on i got fell asleep on the wheel and made an accident and my best friend girlfriend which she was a good friend of mine she died so that happened and then my best friend's mom which was very close to me also had like brain whatever tumor three months she was gone and that happened when I was 20 21 and then she gave me two books when she passed away, before she passed away. And she was, she gave me one was Lao Tzu, the Tao, and the second one was

Rich Dead, Poor Dead. And I read those two books and then combined with all of my, you know, Israel's situation and combined with experiencing these people die so either young or like she was so healthy and you know how it is i realized that life is short but i did i really realized it i wasn't just like oh man life is short i was like i no regrets like no regrets i was already was a system engineer for microsoft working for a high-tech company. I had a car, I had a laptop, three phones. I was already living a 40-year-old man life. How old were you? I was 31.

You're my age. 32? Yeah, 87. 88. Cool. There you go. So I just realized that in 2021, I was like, dude, I have a job. Of course, I was playing, doing gigs after work and everything, but I was like, this is not the life I want. Hold on by 21 you were already trying to hustle so like you what were you were you hustling in high school i worked every job that you can imagine i did so

what was like your first like business in like high school or middle school like what'd you do business um well i worked all my life for my dad he has a construction company he's done doing floors why do a lot of Israelis have construction companies?

is it? is it a thing? in America I grew up in LA that's cool a lot of Israeli companies I think contractors

with me it's a coincidence because well not I don't know if it's a coincidence like my dad is like you know from southern Russia, Caucasus.

Russian Jew? Yeah. Not in Moscow, though. Not more Georgia, if you know that. We're more Arabic Russians, I would say. But anyway... What'd you do?

You were building houses? i'm building floors and making 16 at uh no 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 oh so that was your main gig for seven years like there was all what i did other than school and music that's what i did but then when i i didn't go to the army. You didn't go? No. Didn't you have to? Look, the IDF is an army of Jewish moms. Yeah. Okay? But they forced you to go. They forced you to go, but we're not fascists. Yeah.

So if you don't want to go, all you really need to do, and I don't know if I should say this, but you should just send your mom. Send your mom to the office, the army campaign? Yeah. So you sent your mom to the office campaign. Okay. What did your mom say? What was her pitch for you to say, no, my son will not go?

So listen to this. You got to be smart about it. You can't say you're drunk. You can't say you're on drugs. You can't say that you're violent because they'll take your license. Yeah. They'll take your rights. Because if you're a violent person or you're drunk,. You can't say that you're violent because they'll take your license. Yeah. They'll take your rights.

Because if you're a violent person or you're drunk, you're not going to let you drive. We're not going to let you have it. So I had to come up with a plan that would keep me safe, you know, out of jail and all of that. So I said, okay, anxiety. So I told my mom. Basically, my mom said. How long were you planning this? Not long because I realized I didn't want to go

only two months before I was actually going to go. Oh, so you thought, like... I was going to go. Growing up, I'm going to go with, like, my friends. Yes, and then I realized two months before I got drafted, I realized that not only this is a waste of my life, I can contribute more later in life if I'm going to do what I want to do right now.

I knew this was not... I knew that Israel needs me. Were you playing music at this point? Of course. Since I'm five. Okay. Oh, my life. You've always wanted to be a rock star.

Always wanted to be something between Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and like Santana. Yeah, rock star. Yeah, basically. Okay, go back to this, your mom. So my mom went in and she said that Ori is a very special kid. He doesn't have any friends. He only has friends online that live in Poland and Romania

that he plays video games with. Is that true? He plays video games all, of course. Yeah, he plays, I mean, all of my pitch was the truth, but not really like extreme. So you're a loner? Oh, no, but I still played video games with people.

I love shooting people online. I don't have time for it anymore, but I love doing it. So that was truth. Like Counter-Strike or something? Well, it was called Enemy Territory back then. But yeah, Counter-Strike was just like most. Yeah, exactly. Just, you know, five on five and on the

microphone and everybody just you know continue I was based but the thing is I was the leader of the group and I like I was like with Southern Avenue I was just like pushing everything forward and I was I took it very seriously but she took it to the extreme she was like

he doesn't have any friends all he does is play with these guys from Romania and Poland he pees at night we don't know why it just happens when i send him to school apparently he's hiding and he just doesn't go he's teaching and then she was like and then he has another problem he has no sexuality he's not gay But I don't know why he's not into women. He's very... Anyway, she went on and on and on and on. Were you getting pussy, though? Was this a lie?

Of course it was a lie. I had a girlfriend. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course it's a lie. It just went to the extreme. Yeah, so that was like the pitch. That was the pitch.

Like, asexual. He's just weird kid that just... Now, then she said, I don't talk to him barely nobody talks to him and then and then and then what happened they invited me in okay okay now they interview you yeah my mom went back and they invited me in and then i was like okay uh they say so your mom says this this and this then i like, the first thing I said, this is the first thing I said. This is what my friend told me to say. My good friend, Kao.

His name is, we call him Kao. He used to be fat, now he's, so he's like. So what do you have to say about it? And I was like, yeah, I pee at night. And I'm proud of it. Like this, this energy, you know? So, hold on. So like, you're acting it.

I'm acting it. But I'm acting like I'm not going to go to the army. Like the amount of, like, I was like committed not to go. So it wasn't like, eh, games. It was like, yeah, I pee at night. Is there a problem? Like this, you know? And he was like, well, for the army, it's not a problem. We have how like this you know and and and he was like well for the army it's not a problem we have how to you know and he was trying to kind of he was trying to kind of you know go away with

it he said look i have a solution for you we put you 10 minutes drive from your house 8 to 12 so from 8 a.m to 12 and then you can go you know for three for three years. No, you know, skip all the bullshit. Just come for four hours. What were you doing? I would just sit in an office and do nothing. He basically got me the best job, you know what I mean? Like, just do the army. And then I asked him this.

Because he probably needs as many recruits as he can. No, no. Because, no, no, no. So why did he throw you a bone like that? If you're not a fighter, well, there's two things. This is real talk. If you're not a fighter and you're not intelligent, the army doesn't need you.

Israeli. I don't know about America. The Israeli army doesn't need you. If you don't fight and you don't do intelligence, meaning you go and you learn Persian and you go to computers. I'm okay. I'm going to... I'm high as a mug anyway. If you can contribute like that, what you're going to do is sit for four hours in an office and eat and get fat and not do anything.

Then I asked him, I was like, why then why do you want me to go why do you want me to go for four hours I said I'll do it but only if I don't have to put my uniform and then he was like why don't you want to put your uniform I said look I'm not a pacifist but I know that if I have a uniform on you're gonna make me do some funky stuff you're gonna going to make me paint toilets. You're going to, like, I'm not going to do that. Like, and he said, and then he said, again, why? And then I don't remember exactly how I said it, but I just, you know, weirded him out with, like, that.

And then he said, okay, let me call your mom. My mom came in again. Marley. My mom came in again, and I waited outside for literally two minutes. She came out, she smiled, winked, and I was out. So the moral of the story is that the army did its best not to let me out. Sent me to a psychologist, to a psychiatrist, and then my mom, and then me. So they sent you to all those before your mom?

Your mom was the final Hail Mary. Yes, because they needed my mom there. But I think that the point is that the Israeli army doesn't need people who don't want to be there. If you say you have a drug problem, they're going to take away your license and treat your drug problem. But I didn't. I was just a weirdo. You weren't taking drugs or anything? Of course I was smoking weed. But even the army doesn't care about that.

So how hard is that to be a musician then in Israel? In long story short, you can make money, but from what? I think from gigging, but you can't make a living out of it. Nothing compared to Americans. No, you can't make a living out of it. Nothing compared to Americans. No, you can't. No, no. Even our biggest, biggest artists need to fill up like 20 times a year this venue in order to say that they're like...

But the thing is with me is that I was already an ambassador for blues in Israel when I released my single, basically my debut album Israel when I released my debut album. My concept for my debut album, the name was A True Friend is Hard to Find. The concept was that I'm going to take the best singers in Israel that sing soul or blues or anything that matters

and then have them record covers that I really like. So we did It's a Man's World, Almost Cut My Hair, some blues covers. Is blues big in Israel? Now it is. It didn't used to. When I was like in 2010 and 11, up until then, I was not by myself.

But it wasn't big at all. And then what happened when I released the album, it was chosen as number one on this Radio 88 FM, which is the biggest basic heat station for real music. And it got picked as best debut album of the year. And then I left. How old were you? I was 24.

So you felt like that was the top of Israel. Yeah. Not just I knew, Because what did I do? I took the best singers. I took the best band members that I thought were the best. I produced an album. And now what? You know what I mean?

You felt like you couldn't tour it. You couldn't tour. I toured it in Europe. Yeah. So you toured it in Europe. Oh, yeah. I toured it in Israel. And how was the response?

It was great. It was great. But, you know. What was in your head? Well, back then, basically, I had six singers and I used one singer to tour, which was back then. Her name was Eleanor, my ex. We were basically, out of all the six singers, she was one that um was only willing to basically go on

tour so that's the person i toured with and then i heard about memphis and all of that while i was touring in europe but the thing who told you about memphis in europe the international blues challenge i heard about a band that go that is going to represent Israel in a competition in Memphis and then I was like what band is it and then I heard about the band and I was like hell no what is this competition and then I realized that there's a blue society and I was like what is a blue society I was like okay and then the Israeli blue society every year sends um sends a band to represent Israel with you know on Beale Street so I was like I gotta get on that so I you know, on Beale Street. So I was like, I got to get on that.

So I, you know, we went, we won the local competition. And then I had a big fundraiser. I had to, I took a loan. I had to get like 15, 16, $17,000 for five, for the tickets and for all of that stuff. And, and I went to Memphis And that was a dream come true. Like the fact, you know how it is, everything, the stars align. But when I realized that I have the opportunity to represent Israel, it was like a dream come true. Like that was when I made my first dream as a kid, you know,

when you're like 12, 13, 14, kind of dreaming. So the first dream I made was like representing my country in an official something and then in music. So Israelis, I mean, yeah, I see that with all my Israeli friends. They're really proud to be Israeli. They're really proud of their country and all the hardship that their grandparents and their grandparents' grandparents have done.

It felt like, yeah, it must have been an honor. So you moved to Memphis. You do this award. Did you win it? No, semifinals. You made semifinals. Semifinals. But I made a lot of friends and contacts.

And you loved Memphis. Loved Memphis. First time in America was Memphis. First time in America was Memphis. Straight to Memphis. Straight to Memphis. Immediately, I pulled up the gospel radio. Immediately. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, America is Memphis. Straight to Memphis. Immediately, I pulled up the gospel radio. Immediately.

Yeah, yeah. That's... America is Memphis. America is not New York. America is not Los Angeles. It's not even Denver, okay? America is... What about New Orleans?

Is New Orleans. America is Memphis. America is New Orleans. South. South. That Mississippi River is where America is. Now, you might say, oh, there's a lot. Yeah, I agree.

But, you know, I don't care about the good. What's important? What do you think? What's so important about the Mississippi River? I think that the Mississippi River, it's like saying what's, you know, it's funny. It's like saying what's so important. And I don't want to be so heavy, but it's like what's so important about the Holocaust. It's like saying what's, you know, it's funny. It's like saying what's so important, and I don't want to be so heavy, but it's like what's so important about the Holocaust.

It's the same. The Mississippi River brought so much joy and so much pain that it enabled a situation that is unique to bring humanity to such an extreme that it created a whole thing a whole music, culture everything what is New York culture?

what is Boston culture? it's European culture it's not American culture but America was created with the Native American with the black people all those cultures together in the Delta and in New Orleans

and to the left and, you know, like west and east of the river, you know, it kind of goes to the it's not that, you know, but literal. But the point is, is that I think that that's where so much has happened that it enabled this very, very

interesting situation to happen that's where the actually originally that's a region um original america basically in a way original america is is the everything around the mississippi river because everything to the east already happened in europe it's european culture in my opinion that's's how I see it. Do you like Americans? What do you think of Americans? I love Americans. It is halftime at the Enni Fresco interview hour. My name is Ari Finling, and welcome to a new segment called If I Were President. Now, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican,

I think we can all agree that something is not right right now. And that's why I have come up with the things that I would do to improve this country if I were president. Number one, marijuana legal in all 50 states. It doesn't matter whether it's medical or not, completely legal in all 50 states. Number two, college is free as long as you can run a four minute mile. Number three, as of 2019, it is illegal to make another Spider-Man movie. I don't know why we fucking need a hundred different Spider-Mans in the last five years.

No more. That's it. Tom Holland is the last one, and then we're shutting it down. Number four, using the phrase, that's cray, can result in deportation. Number five, when you turn 18, you get a free government-issued sex robot. If you want a girl sex robot, great.

If you want a guy sex robot, great. If you want a genderless sex robot, doesn't matter. You can fuck it, you can suck it, you can throw it down a flight of stairs. It's your sex robot. If you have any ideas for how to improve the country, tweet them at me at theycallmeari using the hashtag if I were president. This message was produced by the World Saving Podcast. So when you got to Memphis and you're trying to say, oh, fuck, I need to find a band, where did you find the girls?

How'd that happen? Were you guys already a band. Where did you find the girls? How did that happen? Were you guys already a band? No. I should say this. It's a real story, right? I should say the real story. Yeah, tell me the real story. Yeah, I can do that.

Basically, I was touring with my solo band. All of them Israelis. So you all moved to Memphis? All moved to Memphis. All the Israelis are rolling into Memphis. Me and my best friend Yam, lead singer Eleanor. I took everybody.

Everybody believed in me. So were you broke? Like how much money did you save up to like move to a different country? I took about $35,000 to $40,000 loans. In total? In total. Like three or four different batch times.

So you took $120,000. Wow. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, you took $410,000. Yeah. Loans. Okay. Sorry.

Which is enough. I don't want to bid $120,000. It's a lot of debt. Yeah. Not knowing if this dream is going to work. Oh, nothing. I convinced them. And not just that.

I used, you know, I would email JCCs and synagogues and be like, I need, this is a band from Israel. We're a blues band. This is who we are. So that's how you hustled? You hit up the Jewish community centers and the fucking... Oh my God, my God. That's what I'm talking about. The hustle. Figuring out what I could...

Let me give advice to whoever is listening right now. If you send a thousand emails and 1% answers back, how much is it? 10. If you send 10,000 emails, how many are they going to... That's what I did.

So, right? So I did it. Some of them answered. Most of them didn't. The ones who did, I ended up having literally like Barbara and Mark from Chicago, Highland Park. Literally like family now. Family. Family.

People that... Whoever let me sleep in his bed, does it get more than that? So how many years did you tour that? Two years. No, 13, 14, 15. How many shows did you do each year just like that? At least 150. At least.

And what was your route? Everywhere. Not as West Coast as much, of course. Did you get a lot of JCCs? I played. The first JCCs? I played... The first JCC I played was in Denver. And they paid me enough to basically land in Memphis. Land in Colorado in 2013, October 13.

Buy a van. Because they paid me basically $8,000. So I got a van for five. At the community center. The rabbi hooked you up with AGs. Yeah. It's fucking tight. Yeah. A lot of Jews in Denver. They got a van for five. At the community center, the rabbi hooked you up with 8Gs. Yeah. It's fucking tight. Yeah.

A lot of Jews in Denver. They got a lot of funding. Yeah, but hey, man, I'm sure that they pay 20 for others. I was... I was... You were pumped up. You got 8 grand. They're like, oh, we got this motherfucker, dude.

If they gave me in 2003, or in a Taliban, if they gave me 8, I bet they gave, like, you know, and all these like, you know, the big Jews. I mean, they go for 50, 60. Come on. They have to. If this is, if I'm their minimum at eight. Come on.

I love it. So you got eight grand from this. Yeah. And I got a van with four. I got a van with like four or 5,000 thousand and then i got like other expenses with that eight and that's how i started in america basically yeah and i stayed with jewish and then i stayed with fans just fans that saw me at the ibc they saw me at the ibc and they just i you know stayed with them in denver especially in denver in colorado colorado blue society is the most hip blue society that you can think of.

And it's not just by coincidence. I don't know. So you did the Ori touring thing. You came back. Those guys bailed? No. So how'd you meet the girls? We were doing very well.

I was signed with a good agent, finally. Intrepid artists. Intrepid. Yeah, all the blues guys go to Intrepid. Yeah, Irepid artists. Intrepid, yeah, all the blues guys go to Intrepid. Yeah, like, I was, like, doing well. And then I felt things were stuck. Suddenly I felt like everything was

stuck, like, shows are going worse, like, nothing is happening, like, I'm pushing by myself. And then, you know, me and Eleanor, the lead singer, we were together for, at that point we were together for six years. We were, me and Eleanor, the lead singer, we were together for, at that point, we were together for six years. We grew up together.

We were together from, like, as friends from the age of 11. So basically, seventh grade, we meet. We grew up together, best friends. In high school, we were together. We were like a couple for a year. Very popular in high school, blah, blah, blah, blah. She flew to Canada. We broke up.

Okay? Five years later or four years later, we get back together. Five years later, she's in my band. We're 26 now, you know, and we're in America and we're touring. She comes to me and she tells me, Ori, I don't know how to tell you, but I fell in love with our manager. That manager. This girl's Israeli? Yes. That manager. but I fell in love with our manager that manager this girl is Israeli?

yes that manager so you like dating people in your band? no is that a thing? I hate that no I never did that before

it's the second time yeah last time that's it yeah no that's it yeah I'm done but what happened basically is that that manager

he was my best friend. His name was Corey. And we were like so tight, you know. He was like my brother. I studied his parents. We rented together. He was like, he was my American angry translator, you know, like Key and Peele, the angry translator. Same.

Like I would be like,ory tell them this this this this my english wasn't as good as now and he was like okay so he wrote it down everything i needed to get done he did it for me basically he was my puppet yeah so she comes she tells me well i fell in love with him and like it's been like going i don't know it's been like a few years so i said so i'm like so i'm like you know know, I was fucked. I just, my whole world turned because I was ready. I was basically was, okay, well, you know, I'm a very career-oriented person. I need a woman that can just do good for me and let me do what I do.

You know, like I'm not thinking, sitting here thinking, like I was focused on my career. What is this suddenly? It caught me so off guard. So basically, I was focused on my career. What is this suddenly? It caught me off guard. So basically, they're married now and everything. Did you beat his ass? I couldn't. I would get kicked out.

So what happened basically? Oh, kicked out of the country? Yeah. Because he's a fucking coward. He would totally go to the police. If I would actually do what I wanted to do, his mom is the biggest lawyer in Memphis. His dad is the biggest broker in Memphis. He's a millionaire.

I'm not going to fucking, you know, I'm better. I wanted to. I'm better than that. Yeah. So she tells me, I run outside to the grass. We were all living together.

And I'm thinking about all the times that like I went to sleep at 11 and they're together. Like, you know, I'm like. Yeah, you're going deeper and deeper. And I say, God, why is this happening to me? Why? Why?

Like, what did I do? What did I do? You know, what did I do? What did I do that I deserve this? I don't know why. Is there a reason? Literally, I'm asking like this. And I wasn't. And then it was two months of touring together.

Because I couldn't find, I didn't know what to do. I didn't tell anybody. I was ashamed. I was just so ashamed that this fucking millionaire Jewish kid fucking stole my girlfriend or whatnot. And not just that. She was like family in my home, okay? Anyway, so at that point, I was touring in Colorado. There was, long story, there was a show that this,

he came and I flipped and whatever it is. And then I said, I can't do this anymore. Like, I don't care what's up in my career. I'm going to literally go to jail if I'm not going to solve this. So I asked my drummer, which I didn't really can't do this anymore. I don't care what's up in my career. I'm going to literally go to jail if I'm not going to solve this. So I asked my drummer, which I didn't really like. He's playing. A socially great person.

I just didn't like his playing. He was a sub. And I don't know if it sounds good. I like how blunt you are. Yeah. No time for bullshit. That's why I love Europeans. America's no bullshit.

No time. I don't know. Okay. I got a couple questions that I'm on shit. Okay. Keep going. Keep going. So I saw't... Okay, never mind. I got a couple questions that I'm on shit. Okay, keep going, keep going. So, and then I was... I was asking, who's the best singer in Memphis?

Because I can't tour with Eleanor anymore. I'm gonna, you know, and he was like, Tierney Jackson. So I pulled up a video on YouTube, and I saw her dancing this pop song, and like, you know, doing this super like MTV. And I'm like, oh my God, this is a star. You know, this is like somebody that if she sings soul blues you know rock jam if she comes into this world and

not the pop world and the you know what you would expect her to do then she would be the best and so I called her that minute, and I was like, I'm Ori, I want to audition, let's meet, I have a band, we're doing these dates, these dates, and she was like, okay, cool, let's meet. So we met in Memphis, we had a great meeting, and she committed.

The catch was, is that she needed to get a minimum, because of how much she was making. So, which barely meant... Hold on. Were y'all fucking yet? No. No? God forbid.

So, you guys, this is... I thought like... Was this like love at first sight though? No. No. No. It was just straight business. A platonic.

Oh, he's so pitiful. I like it. She thought I was pitiful and she liked me. She thought... Oh, he was like... I was done. He was sad? Yeah, I was done. and she liked me. She thought... Oh, it was like... You were sad? Yeah, I was done. Because you were heartbroken.

I was done. I was going to go back to Israel. My mom was like, come back home, son. Come back home, son. I'm like, I'm not giving up. I was like, I'm not giving up. No, you don't want to be...

You don't want to go home like that. You know, because of that bullshit, I'm gonna my dream i brought her here yeah i brought everybody here i'm not anyway so i meet tyranny she tells me that her sister is a drummer and i'm like what do you mean your sister is a drummer like your real sister or is that your friend she's like yeah my real sister she's 19 she's in. I said, okay, let's check this out. So we met for practice, and that was where you can say love from first sight. Because when I saw them, when we were in the room together for the first time, I saw, you can say, my entire future, in a way, kind of flash in front of me.

say my entire future in a way kind of flash in front of me because having the three of us together in a room that energy felt very right and felt like it was always there in a way um so you it started with you three yeah so who who writes the songs? Me and him mostly. TK writes two. Yeah, TK, well, she's... TK writes two, but she didn't do any on the first album. We worked on a few for the second, and she got a couple in there. So what about that really big song you guys have

for that first record? What's that song called again? So Don't Give Up was... So to finish the story is that when I met the girls, then everything clicked, but we needed to... I hired Tierney to write songs together, not to perform. And I explained to her the pitch was, you can stay in Memphis and do these cover bands all your career,

or you can write real music, or you can write real music, or you can write real music and succeed or fail according to your own. And you just blunt out, just straight up told her this like this? Yeah. Of course. I spent so much time writing

and can't get a decent band or musician together. Everybody's on the beats and stuff, and I wanted to like write music and then like when he approached me i was like thank fucking god i have somebody i can finally just write with and create yeah that's the point the point for and we were or in a taliban still at that point oh god yeah and then two months, basically, I had an epiphany. I realized that this is not going to last if I'm not going to take this to another level.

Or take your ego out and make it a band. Because I never wanted to be a solo guy. Ever in my life. I don't think that... Never? Never. Because life is... Even you want to have the same band, right? You don't want to change. You want to have the same band all right you don't want to change

you want to have the same family yeah so whether it's so we're in the same boat whether your name says it or not you you think the same like yeah yeah whether it's andy fresco and at the end can stay there for 40 years yeah okay but like the same with me i don't want to be yeah and i want to have the same folks i don't want to keep the cheapest guys around and make sure I'm, you know, always like, like James Brown kind of, I don't know. Like, um, so what happened is that I basically had a bikini and I thought that, okay, we need to have a band. Everybody contributes.

It would also mean, because you have to understand, I was so poor. I was homeless. I was living in the van. I was living in friends' apartments that I would never want to stay in. And literally homeless because once I broke up with her, I left the family

that I stayed with. The whole Jewish community in Memphis, basically, I felt awkward to even talk to them. It was very, very weird. I felt very outsided by everybody. So by going with Southern Avenue, that meant that I don't have to pay them anymore. They pay themselves now.

Yeah. So not only that it saved me from actually... So it felt like you're a team. You're officially a team now. We're a team. Yeah. Now they felt like, okay, we got're officially a team now yeah now they felt like okay we gotta be more proactive more proactive more proactive and then i was like okay we're

gonna do the ibc again representing memphis tyranny was like hell no i don't want to do competitions i had competitions i said i know i'm me too but knowing and believing in what we have people need to see this and what was so good is that, you know, who judges you at the finals, even though it sounds weird, is like... So you guys three, what about the guy who played with me? Jeremy. Or no, yeah.

The keyboard player? No, the bass player. Daniel. Oh, Daniel. Daniel was always there. We invited Daniel to the band. When we formed Southern Avenue. We invited Daniel to join Southern Avenue. What happened with him? So we invited him, what, I guess in 15, and then he toured. We were together for a year. I think that he just didn't... There's a big difference between playing in Memphis 10 shows a week and then being on the road.

And we didn't feel like on the long run, take 30 years from now, this is going to work out. We realized that this is going to be temporary because of everything is nothing musically. Everything has to do with person to person, nothing musically everything it has to do with person to person you know nothing musically because he's fucking amazing bass player but we realize this is not going to work out like just personality we can't all be happy and if all three of us me and the girls are wrong and he's right we rather be wrong together yeah um thing is with daniel is that like

everybody we played with, you know, Engage is a bass player we just let go. And now with Evan, like... So basically the band is you three. And Jeremy, the keyboard player, yeah. But us three is definitely the heart. You know, us three are the ones that... So you guys together said, all right, we're building,

we got to find a rhythm section, and we're going to do this IBC thing. Yeah, I convinced them to do the IBC, and we ended up getting to the finals, and we ended up getting everything I think we wanted. We didn't win, which was good, because I don't want to win a blues competition. You didn't win? No. We're not a blues band.

We're not a blues band. So it's good we didn't win. Do you think the blues are dead? No, it's alive. Look at Derek Trucks. Yeah, but there's only we didn't win. Do you think the Blues are dead? No, it's alive. Look at Derek Trucks. Yeah, but there's only one Derek Trucks. Look at how many rappers there are. Look how many pop people there are.

Oh, yeah, but it was always like that. It was always like that. So it's, I don't know. I think it weird. Not like in the 90s or the 80s where there was like Dilbert McClinton and all these guys were getting big. Now it's just like the guys who are selling big tickets, who? Well, Gary Clark is doing very well.

Ben Harper. But then again, what is doing very well? You know what I mean? In my opinion, this is about music business, industry. If you have to tour to make money, you're not doing well. Right? You think so? Yes. But no, I don to make money, you're not doing well. Right? You think so? Yes.

But no, I don't think so. I'll tell you why. If you tour because you want to tour, tour. But if you tour because you need the money... Oh, I get what you're saying. So you're not doing well. You know what I mean? Go on tour, make extra.

But like, you know, if Gary Clark... So it's all about the songs. Yeah, if Gary Clark Jr. can day by day choose when to do his shows and then choose when to write songs on tour make extra but like you know if gary clark it's all about the songs yeah if gary clark jr can day by day choose when to do his shows and choose when to write songs and we're like you know it does what he then he then then he then i think it doesn't get better than that does it is that where you want to get this man yes of course we want to get to a position where we don't have to tour 200 dates a year like we do right now we're trying to hit every market and make friends. And then see where people

want to see us again. And then come back. We can't do this for five more years. We'll run out of... How long have you been doing it for? For three years. We toured every state like a dozen times. So every state, how many cities does it have?

Three or four big cities. So we played every city three or four, you know what I mean? So I think there's a limit. So my hopes is that... Do you think there's a finish line? Sorry? Do you think there's a finish line? Oh, man, no.

I think that everything I'm saying right now is like, you know, I always want to do shows. I just don't want to have to do shows i want to be able to write music in the studio you think it hurts your songwriting because we're touring so much it hurts everything man touring so much i mean you know i mean when you sacrifice so much i mean what's your personal space what's your you know what's your roots what's your where are you you know like i don't like to be a rolling stone like that's not my life goal to always roll and always be on my suitcase it's not like my dream my dream is to have fucking beautiful home garden you know

outside i want a river behind my fucking house you know and i want to sit smoke a joint on the river where it's fucking legal. You know what I mean? Like, that's what I think about. I don't think about how I want to just like play for 100,000 people. I don't. I think about how I can just chill and just enjoy soaking this life. So everything I do right now is to work to live, not live to work.

Exactly. And and I think that we're doing it right. All the Europeans are like this, dude. This is why you guys live longer. This is why you guys get less cancer. I sure hope so. I'm telling you, we work too much in America. That's that mind state where we are just like following line to work ourselves to death.

But don't you think that the problem is the goal? So what is more important, the goal or the journey? At first, my whole life was the goal. But now as I get older and seeing how fast life pass you by, I'm trying to love the journey. Exactly.

Because the journey, sometimes i think like don't i think like i failed way more than i succeeded right we all do so every time i failed i didn't achieve my goal but it's part of my journey and i don't regret that experience at all because it built me to who i am so i think that i think that americans in that way always think about the goal the goal the goal the goal i want to save for retirement you're gonna fucking die at 50 before your retirement i'm gonna you know i'm gonna do the like goal goal goal no journey journey journey journey journey and i'm telling it to myself every day because a lot of times I get stressed for no reason. I'm like, worry, relax, do it. Dude, you know, that's anxiety, right?

Yeah. What gives you anxiety? Oh, man, a lot of things give me anxiety. But a lot of things give me anxiety. Like what? Do you talk to a therapist? No, no. I smoke a lot of weed

I'm a very hyperactive person Do you take drugs? Coke or anything? No, I need to I need to I need to take a lot of drugs Like prescribed drugs to calm myself down Do you take some? No

Why do you think you need to? Doctors said that I need to Because of my hyperactiveness, because of my hyper... Oh, so you're super anxious. And I'm dyslexic. I'm like... Yeah, you're super anxious. Love it.

Now, my dad, though, told me one thing. He told me when I was 70. He told me, if you're going to get used to using drugs to run your life, you're never going to be off of them. So if you live half your life as good, let's say you were going to be here, but now you're going to be here without drugs, be here.

Be here. Even if you can be a better student with drugs, even if you can be a better guitar player, maybe on stage with like, you know, medicine to help you fall, whatever it is, I don't know. Don't. Be here.

Be who you are. And that stuck with me, you know? So I never did it. I just smoked a lot of weed. That makes sense.. And that stuck with me, you know? So I never did it. I just smoked a lot of weed. That makes sense. Smoked a lot of weed, you know, and that's it. And it helps me. You drink?

Yeah. Yeah, but I get drunk so quick. I'm such a lightheaded. Really? Yeah, I can smoke. Literally, I can smoke a tree. What's like the most wasted you've been that you threw up on stage?

From just being a lightweight? I never threw up like that No man, no no I was drunk a lot of times on stage I never threw up on stage because Your fall off the stage? Yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah Well one time we fell When we got our blues music awards for best emerging artist

Tierney jumped on me On stage and we fell off stage And everybody was like But that wasn't because we were drunk, you know, but it definitely fell while being drunk and did all that the thing That's pretty exciting moment but no i'm trying not to i just take myself on the shows i take myself seriously meaning that like i'm really trying when i play with southern avenue i'm trying to really do the best that i can really connect down with my soul

and be very spiritual sometimes like when i play with you and when i sit in with other people or when i am on a cover gig or when i back when i did weddings you know and stuff like that then i allowed myself to really be a fool you know and be the jokester like i am off stage be the joker on stage yeah i allowed myself to be the the joker on on stage too um but now like with my music with southern you know since i got serious you know i'm just trying to really i'm thinking about you know i'm looking at their trucks and i'm looking at people that don't really need a lot of you know flesh their guitar uh thingy you know and i'm talking about myself not the show um like i feel like i'm i'm just trying to focus and because i get distracted so easy so i'm just

in my in my world in my zone playing um but that's you know sometimes i can be in a different mood um but yeah you know um i don't have anxiety before shows though ever I never get stressed you know is it more I don't know I don't know maybe I'm just stereotyping all Jews with my Jewish family but like does anxiety make you does money make you have anxiety the most it used to up until i learned i read the the lao tzu and i'm reading and i'm i'm listening to a lot of rabbis um there's a great rabbi in hebrew you know but he's like a comedian he's so funny dude he's so you know you you just left you left your ass off but he always talks about serious shit you know so that's what I'm trying to do.

And it helps me deal with all of that. I think that, like, it's especially... Do you take life too seriously, Ori? Oh, yeah. Of course. Of course. Yeah, yeah. No, of course.

Of course. But how can you not? You know what I mean? The art of letting go, too, is important. And that's what... That's... I think we all have... Either we let go too much and we need to learn how to be more grounded or...

You know what I mean? Yeah. But there's two Ori's. There's the careless Ori. He doesn't care about anything and just, you know... And then there's the... The man smoking a joint outside by a river. You know?

Oh, well, yeah. I thought that was... I don't know. My dad has a lot to do with that, man. He was so hard on me growing up. Like what? How? Oh, just everything you can imagine. Like I am with two of his kids right now.

And I'm going to be with our kids. Yeah, she has two kids. You have two kids? Five and six and seven. Damn, how's that touring with kids? Her parents watch over her. Yeah, my parents, they help a lot. It's hard.

I get separation anxiety, especially when they're sick. I feel real bad. But they're so... Shh, Marley are here. They're so supportive as kids. They see... Because I used to bring them to the shows when we were at home, but they see what we do and they're very proud and very happy for us.

And so I just think it's better that they see me working hard. I think that's more important than them seeing me at home working nine to five, barely making it. So you live with, you guys live together? Oh, of course. It's awesome. But, you know, thing is... That's gotta be hard, man.

It's hard. Like, 200 shows a year with kids who are, what? How old are they? Five and six? Yeah, six. Yeah, that's hard as fuck. Because they're just

starting to talk, you know? Yeah, the sacrifices. So, like, through all these trib to talk, you know? Yeah, the sacrifice is worth it. So, like, through all these tribulations, let's leave it at this. Through all these tribulations and this fight and, like, from growing up, trying to, you know, look at life through a fucking explosion and then moving to Memphis, watching your girlfriend fuck your best friend manager to finally meeting the band that you've always wanted. It's that endless ride, that up and down,

that makes life so sweet, right? Without my lowest moment, I will never be able to have the highest. Without my, you know, who I thought was like somebody i will spend my life with when what she did to me brought me don't give up i wrote don't give up to myself um and that ended up being the most successful song thus far that brought us everything that i would everything in our lives all the lowest moments prepare us for the highs. And my life story is definitely a proof for that. And meeting the girls, it's the best thing that definitely ever happened to me.

But that's the past. We got so much ahead to do. Us girls, me and the girls, we have a lot more challenges to go through and a lot more things to do that I'm super ready for. But yeah, man, thank you for having me. Yeah, Ori, thanks for being on the show. I can't wait to hear the new record. We're going to play some shows together.

We're definitely going to do that. We're young. We're young, man. It's only just begun for you guys. I can't wait to root you on. We're kind of like those hybrid bands. We're not in a jam scene. We're not in a blues community

we could be everywhere and those you know we're like we're the cockroaches of the music industry we need to change as much as we want to

without being afraid and then whatever that's anything in life yeah people are afraid of change so you keep fucking moving yeah you keep changing and I Yeah. You keep changing.

And I'll be there to fucking support the fuck out of you. I'll be fucking and I'll be moving. Love you, buddy. Thanks for being on the show. Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm Kyle Ayers, and I am dropping my name into the hat for President of the United States. Here's my platform. I'm anti-death penalty with a few exceptions.

Here's the exceptions. There should be a death penalty for people who don't tip. People who don't pick up their dog shit. Those scientists who are trying to make it seem like dinosaurs had feathers. Relax. People who pull their phones out during movies. Racist people. People who message you on Facebook about joining their pyramid scheme.

We haven't talked since high school. Leave me the fuck alone. People who sign up for songs at karaoke, then don't know the words to their songs because they just want to get to the chorus. But then we get to the chorus and they fuck up the fucking chorus. Uh, bigots,

uh, people who talk only on speakerphone and scream into the glass screen of their phone, even though that's not where the mic is at. Tony, uh, Joel Osteen. That's pretty much it. Those are the exceptions of the death penalty. Those people should die. So get out there,

canvas for me, get some signatures. Let's run. Let's turn this around. I'm running for president of the United States. I'm Kyle Ayers. This message is brought to you by the World TV Podcast. All right. And there we have it. Thanks,ave for uh always filling us with knowledge um thanks southern avenue for you know giving us another killer fucking interview that was dope i was super fascinated with that one just because i'm not just because i'm jewish but uh because it's fascinating man like moving to a different country to try to fulfill your dream. Because you know your dream isn't working in Israel. It is super honorable.

So shout out to Ori for doing that. But yeah, that's it for that one. Awesome. Awesome stuff. But yeah, our album is almost done. The last two songs are recorded with Dave Schools We did six songs with Dave And we did six songs with Kenny

And yeah, I think it's done We're on to mixing the record Which is exciting It's been crazy Writing a record on the road this time Because we've literally You know, my manager is like We need to put out a new record in a year

because to keep the momentum going, Frasco, you better fucking do it. So I was a little scared about putting out shit, but I think we did. I think we wrote some good songs, and the meanings are what I want to talk about. And we're talking a lot about mental health on this record because it's important.

People are going through a hard time and you can't love anyone else until you love yourself. So that's basically a lot of the themes of this album continuing on with my songwriting ability and stuff. So shout out. You're going to hear some tunes here in the next couple months probably. Got to get them mixed

and figure out the game plan on the singles and when the record's going to come out and whatnot. But I'm super pumped. I'm really excited for you to hear this. It's a little different sound and just matured. You just got to keep growing. Keep inspiring yourself.

Keep inspiring others in your group. So each, um, member feels like they're part of it. And, uh, yeah, I'm learning a lot about myself and not just, uh, just taking my ideas and telling everyone to go fuck themselves, you know, because I do that sometimes, and I admit that, so shout out to the band, thanks for putting up with me on this one, I've, you know, being in a band is, it's teaching me how to have a girlfriend, I think, because, or, you know, maybe I'm a closet gay, who knows, but I don't think I'm a closet gay, I'm not really fascinated with penis, I look at mine, I'm just disgusted by it, so maybe I just need to find the right chick, but, um, enough about my penis. Um,

speaking of exciting things, uh, the movie, the HBO movie that Judd Apatow produced that I did all the music for, for Gary Goldman called the great depression is out on HBO. I went to the premiere. It was badass. I felt like a fucking movie star. It was so cool to support all these guys, to see my name in the big font. It was just fucking awesome. So shout out to Gary Goldman for getting me on the movie,

and I'm really proud of this movie. Go watch it. It's on HBO now. If you don't have a link to HBO, you know, steal it. Find someone's account. It's so easy. It's like Netflix.

Just steal someone's account number and go watch it because once again, mental health is what we're talking about right now. We had to wake up with a lot more deaths in our scene than we really want to but maybe that's a calling for us to answer those questions We had to wake up with a lot more deaths in our scene than we really want to,

but maybe that's a calling for us to answer those questions that we don't want to answer. We've got to not just have this happy road all the time. We've got to feel shit, and I think you'll really enjoy the movie. Let me know what you think. I got to perform with Judd Apatow, Gary Goldman, Patton Oswalt That was crazy Those are my idols You know, I love comedy

You know I'm a comedy guy And to have Judd Apatow introduce our band And we got to sing songs I didn't have to do any shtick I just sang the songs And we got a standing ovation It's just We're growing

And it just makes me so happy. So shout out to Judd Apatow. We're going to get Judd Apatow on the show, and we're going to get Gary Goldman on the show. Yeah, we got some bigger comedians coming on the show, which is, I won't tell you as many, so you can stay surprised every week, but it's moving.

We're moving along. I just, I can't believe we wrote a movie for Judd, wrote music for a movie for Judd Abbott, so it was just fucking nuts. So I'm going to pat myself on the back because I've always wanted this dream, and when you don't force the dream and let the dream come to you,

but you still work on it, you can't just, like, not give it any effort. You still got to work on it. You can't just not give it any effort. You still got to work on it. That's when life comes at you, the good stuff and the bad stuff. So shout out to Judd and shout out to Gary for doing that. But yeah, I have dates.

I'm still in the South. I'm in Virginia tomorrow, Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm in West Virginia, Morgantown, West Virginia. We're in Rochester, New York. Shout out to all my upstate New Yorkers, man. We've been playing those upstate New York shows,

and they've been packed every night, so fuck yeah. I think we're going to sell out Rochester, so grab tickets while you can. We're playing in Bethel, New York, Woodstock at the Beer Fest with Big Something on the 12th. Then the following week, we roll to Cincinnati, Lexington, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opening for Turquoise on the 18th, going to Roanoke, Virginia. And then I got a week off in Colorado trying to figure out what the fuck I'm going to do.

Trying to find a place to live. God damn, that's fucking hard. I just, yeah, fuck. I'm going to do. I'm trying to find a place to live. God damn, that's fucking hard. I just, um, yeah, fuck. I, I'm just so busy. I'm not even, you know, I'm trying to, I'm giving it the 10% effort I should be giving them my full effort. So that week I'm going to look for houses. Um, and then I'm doing Huluween and I'm interviewing a bunch of bands. I'm there all weekend. So if you know any bands on Huluween that I should interview for the podcast, holler at me. Cause I don't really, there's a lot of DJs in that scene. I don't know any of them. And if you know any bands on Huluween that I should interview for the podcast, holler at me. There's a lot of DJs in that scene. I don't know any of them. And if you think any of these guys are interesting, holler at me.

And the week after that, Halloween week, we are with the Pigeons playing ping pong. My boys. So that's going to be fun as fuck too. We got a lot of... We figured out what we're wearing and what our theme is for Halloween. It's fucking hilarious.

So go watch that. We're playing the PlayStation Theater. We're playing the House of Blues in Boston. Then we're doing a couple of headline shows in Philly and Baltimore. And Wilmington, North Carolina got, because I have to do the premiere. So we moved Wilmington, North Carolina to November 3rd.

And then we fly to Glen Falls. I have to do the premiere. So we moved Wilmington, North Carolina to November 3rd. And then we fly to Glen Falls. We're doing Wild Adriotics Festival November 9th. So another upstage show near Albany. So if you're around there, go buy tickets to that. Go support Wild A. They have a great festival. It's at a hotel so you can get fucked up and just sleep at the hotel because we play in the hotel

so it's a fun vibe we're only there for a night and then that continues and i have three months off oh my god i cannot wait i've been working my ass off i uh the boys are we're all excited so um shout out to everyone who's uh we've been on the road for about three and a half months straight and um while making this album while making podcasts and interviews, so, I'm gonna sleep my fucking dick off, dude, this is my dick, my dick's gonna be like this, it's gonna be snoring like a motherfucker, so, can't wait for that, I got one month away for that, but everyone, stay healthy, stay in line with your feelings. Don't take any shit from anybody. Remember that how you feel is important. It doesn't matter if someone else

doesn't feel the way you feel. That's okay. Take care of yourselves. Take care of your minds. You know, I took a week off from talking about mental health But I'm talking about it now Because you know I don't want it to all be about You know I don't want it to be all about sad stuff I want this podcast to be inspiring And whatever aspect you're looking for

And whatever friend you're looking for So Yep it's all good I love you guys Be safe Wear condoms or whatever friend you're looking for. So, yep, it's all good. I love you guys. Be safe. Wear condoms. STDs are real.

I just found that out. I hooked up with a nurse a couple days ago, and we were just talking and having fun. And she's like, I'm more worried about babies. She's like, you shouldn't be worried about babies. You should be worried about fucking STDs. So, yep, STDs are real. Shout it out. I'm not telling you to, like, you know, wear a condom while getting some head or anything.

But, you know, just check your dick out, your vagina out. Let people know if you got anything. You know, not that I have anything. I think I have, like like HPV or something, but fucking everyone's got that. Anyway, um, too much information,

guys. I love you. Be safe. Let the world know that you're coming to fuck shit up this week. All right. Arno, give me something nice and sweet. I'll see you next week.

All right. Love y'all. Bye. Well, thank you for listening to episode 61 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 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. Change of Pace can still be bought and streamed. It is the latest album. This week's guest is Southern Avenue.

Find them online at southernavenuenusic.com. Our special co-host is widespread panics Dave Schultz. And this week's special guests were Kyler Ayers, Ari Findlings, Sean Eccles, Travis Gray and Andy Avila. And no politics, Andy, not this time. Just talking mental health. I had the pleasure of sitting in with Southern Avenue on last year's jam cruise. It's a great band, really sweet people, and I did not feel too bad after getting off stage. For a change. I am not keen on jams. I avoid jams.

For a reason. One of my returning mental issues. Is the deep feeling that I am not up for the job. I am inadequate. I do not qualify. And that feeling paralyzes and depresses me often. And to make that even worse. I am always moving my ass into new situations.

Where I am constantly underqualified. Never made my 1010,000, and I keep changing lanes, and thus I keep banging that button that brings me insecurity. We got an opening night next week. New show. And apart from the musician, I will be the savage,

the woman with the beard, a Mexican, and a sperm cell. An insecure, inadequate sperm cell. But I am striving for the 10,000 hours. So, see you in about 60 weeks.