Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 66: Marco Benevento & Hunter Cope

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

Holidays are a time for friends and family. In step with that holiday vibe, Andy sits down with his brother-from-another-mother: Hunter Cope. They reminisce about a 20+ year friendship and chart their growth as people. Marco Benevento is our guest this week on the Interview Hour! He invites Andy to his dope digs near Woodstock, NY to talk all things music. Ahri and Arno provide us with holiday cheer. EP 66 is live, happy holidays y'all. 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. Check out Andy's new album, "Change Of Pace" on iTunes and Spotify Follow our dude, Marco at: www.marcobenevento.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Shawn Eckels Andee Avila Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

Hey, it's Schwartz. I hope you're well. Listen, I am going away for the holiday. I'm going to be MIA, off the grid. And one of the things that's giving me a little bit of anxiety is you not being able to get with me. Listen, please, just try to keep it calm over the holiday try not to get in trouble you don't have to day drink in fact you don't have to drink try drinking on the weekend just the weekend or maybe just Thanksgiving it's not a marathon please take care of yourself I don't know if anyone on my team is going to be able to bail you out of trouble. Just this is so weird for me to have to worry about you in this way. Please just try to keep it between the lines. And I'm talking about lines on the road.

All right, man. Thanks. Hi, Andy. It's your grandfather. I just wanted to call and wish you a very special happy Thanksgiving. Your grandmother and I are so proud of you. And I just wanted to say how thankful I am to have such a thoughtful and caring and loving grandson like you. And how thankful I am that your mother decided to not go through with the abortion all those years ago.

Okay, I'll try and FaceTime you later. Lots of love from me and Grandma. All right, and we're here. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's we doing, everybody? Happy Thanksgiving. It's going to be a nice Thanksgiving, I hope.

But, you know, just take it as it comes and enjoy it. But this is special. This is a special day. You know, this is the family episode. And I have one of my, you're technically family, Hunter Cope. I've known you since, longer than I've known Dolov. He's on the show. Yeah.

But I've known you for, since I was in third grade. You're probably one of my first friends. You're a screenwriter now. Yeah. And a producer, right? Can I call you a producer? Absolutely.

So you're one of these young buck Hollywood guys. So what do you remember about me? Oh, Frasco. You could, don't be, don't, you're not going to, you can say whatever the fuck you want on this podcast.

Well, I'm trying to go real deep. I mean, I can remember many, many different iterations of you, many different phases. Like what? Well, I'm trying to go back to the earliest The earliest of the earliest I mean, you did not have this afro No, I didn't That was a new

This is a new chapter This is It's been a chapter for I mean, yeah 11 years You've had an afro for 11 years I've had an afro since I was 20 Damn

We've been friends that long, dog Yeah We've been friends a long, dog. Yeah. We've been friends a long time. Well, we hustled. We hustled. Oh, so we, Andy and I know each other for many different reasons.

We did plays together. We did performing arts together. We sang and danced in Music Man together. You can talk, you can pick it. You can talk, you can pick it. You can talk, talk, talk, talk. 76 Trombos led the big parade

yeah and my dad always used to film us film us but my dad always we're going you know annie frasco did that open that show in music man with that uh you know that mr bundles like that song where it's like it's like music man opens with you know the train moving it's these traveling salesmen and they're bopping along and you're supposed to like bop along like you're on the train do you remember this yes i do you go you know do you know the way to get to pataki pataki where pataki who gary indiana that was part of it too. What'd your dad say? Well, my dad always would just say that was, you know, Frasco led that show off with energy.

He would always remind me that you were in that show and that you had this opening number with these other salesmen. Traveling salesmen. I was born to be a salesman. Yeah, you've always been a salesman. What do you think got us this drive in third grade? That's a great question. Who gave us this drive? Because it was always me and you

who started being in the entertainment business when we were fucking super young. Really young. And you've taken it to a whole new level. But you're right, we were both hustlers at a really young age. You think that's Los Angeles living in LA? I think it's LA.

I think it's psychology. You were writing scripts in sixth grade. I was. Or fifth grade. I was writing scripts. What was that first script? Poker? Poker I wrote in high school senior year.

Poker was the first screenplay I wrote at 17 years old. Okay, so what was... But I wrote stuff before that, you know, and stories. You've always wanted to be a screenwriter? Or you wanted to be an actor first? I wanted to be a creative.

You know, God, you're throwing a lot of questions at me. I think, first of all, to answer the first question, where does it come from, the drive, the hustle? It comes from a psychological innate thing in your gut. And it probably comes from, for me, it comes from my folks being working parents, I think. And my brother being five years older than me and not really being,

and kind of being raised by a housekeeper who didn't speak the language really. So we were just basically because we were bored, we were trying to find something to do all the time? Well, I think I was this is, I think I spent a lot of time alone

and I felt like the way to get people to like me was to make jokes and entertain and be funny and so that i think that's how i developed that skill and then i think that the the drive and the hustle that's kind of aggressive and like in your gut i i think that that comes from just wanting to be really good at it i think you think you need the insecurity of like i want people to accept me so i'm going to entertain them?

Because I feel like that's what I started entertaining to. I was like, I want these people to accept me and I'll put on a mask or I'll put on a costume, whatever it's going to take, make them laugh for them to accept me. So is that insecurity? Are we just, were we just always super insecure when we're young?

I don't know if it's insecurity. I think it's a want to fit in, a want to engage, a want to be present, a want to connect with other people. And you use that as your tool, which is humor and charm and talent. It's so fucking hard to be a kid there's anything

wrong with it um was it hard for you i remember being moody yeah you know i i watched a video my my dad's brother my uncle chris he would he he loves photographs, and he's cataloging all the photographs from our whole family. And so he sends me random videos. He's like, this is a video from you at Thanksgiving in 1999. And I'm sitting in it, and I have my little voice, and I have a backwards hat, and my shitty shirt, billabong shirt. I had a weird Al shirt. And I'm a little shit in it and I'm moody in it.

I watched these videos recently of me as a 12-year-old and I did not like my vibe. What were you moody about? I don't fucking, I don't know. A little attitude, a little snarky attitude. I was like shitting on my dad. Were you jealous of people? Not at that age.

I don't think I had that in me i don't know that doesn't resonate i mean jealousy is for sure a reality in my world now i mean we're gonna get to that because this industry is fucking hard and you basically you're like a comedian where you have you write this but i think you're harder than a comedian because you have to write a piece a hundred you know put your fucking soul into something, and then putting it in the fucking hands of people who are just thinking about money to get it fucking made and stuff. And that kind of fucks up art, I don't know, in this weird way, right?

Totally. Well, it's show business. The business is part of it. It's not just entertainment. But how hard is it to get your script? Like, how many scripts have you made? I've written, I mean... Yeah. I've written a number.

I've written about 15 scripts. Okay, and how many of them... 15 screenplays and about like eight pilots. And you're with a manager you're with a representative you're in the game how many have made it past

got to so out of 15 movies I've written many of them with a partner 4 of them have kind of gotten the attention of my representation enough for us to be like, let's go try to make money on this. Let's just go try to sell this thing.

Let's try to package this thing. Let's try to build this thing. Your mom's in the industry. So do you ever feel like you're getting, you know, you do it for her? No. No ever? No.

That's good you um sometimes sometimes i feel like i work because she always talks about how you need to be you have to make money and you have to be success you know she always thought success was financial right so and it kind of fucked me up until I started talking to a therapist about it. I'm like, that's just all I knew. That's why I was working so much. That's why I was, you know, you're, it's so funny. Cause like my concept, my idea of how to entertain was like, I could get fucking $600 a night off these fucking kids.

You're like, man, it was a great vibe. The fucking dancing was fun. Like, you know, that's a good point. Well, totally. That's a yeah that's a good point well totally that's a that's a great point i didn't see it as i didn't care about the money and honestly i don't care about the money right now and i think it's a detriment to my life no i think i could care a little bit more about the money yeah but you know what fuck it if i get a wife and a kid And some other fucking responsibilities I'll be forced to do that

Yeah but if we really cared about the money hunt We'd be doing something else This is way too hard For you to just always care about the money Cause that's at first like oh yeah The idea of being in the entertainment Is like fucking money Stars

I never thought of that For me it was always i wanted to be up on a big screen and i wanted to do what these people did them that affected me you know for me it was like i was lonely as a kid and when i watched certain performers and certain uh shows and movies mostly movies they made me feel less alone and i've always tried to chase that when that's why i'm doing this it's like to feel connected to other people you know it's beautiful i didn't i didn't have that feeling until i was like 22 23 and yeah but you always had a fire and you're i always loved

entertaining you also had big i always had big ideas well you know i was always fucking doing it and well beyond i'll keep it 100. I was always doing it because I felt like I was left out in our group. You guys were all the artists and stuff. And I felt like all my friends thought of me as just the business guy when all I wanted was to be accepted. And I still fight that. I still fight that jealousy with the fucking jam bands i'm in

you know like how people think of me as fucking oh he's just an entertainer but i write songs too and i and i you know play piano but no one you know it's like it's the same type of jealousy thing not jealousy thing but the same like i'm gonna prove you wrong yeah mentality that keeps me on the fucking road yeah it's fucked up though because i'm doing it for the wrong reason sometimes i hear that i hear that and it's silly i mean why we have to compete it's art i completely agree i mean i think i think there's healthy competition i think there's healthy competition. I think there's healthy self competition. Like, you know, I think people are often underestimated and I guess what I'm saying is... I forgot what I was...

I lost my train of thought. But like... I lost my train of thought. But it's for art, you know? It's like we had a really good thought too I was gonna say something real smart man

I was gonna fucking floor the I shouldn't have smoked so much weed I was gonna floor the whole fucking audience was it gonna be fucking philosophical

whatever I was about to say I felt it like it was coursing through me and I had I was firing and wiring on all fucking

cylinders that's how mushrooms is with me. Yeah. When you're on a heavy dose and you have the answer, but you can't fucking say it. Oh, miserable. That's the worst. You ever have a brilliant idea when you fall asleep

and you forget to write it down and it's gone? Sure. But I've gotten pretty good about writing them down. Yeah? Yeah. Is that important? Yeah, you got to always it down and it's gone? Sure. But I've gotten pretty good about writing them down. Is that important? Always record. Always be writing. Everything's in there. Let's leave it at this and we'll go listen to the next. This has been fun, huh?

Dude, I'm so grateful you asked me to be here and do this. You're a fucking holiday in Burbank, baby. Alright. Top five. Who do you think is going to be with you? The artist is going to be with you until you're 90. What artist is that you've had for so long

that you still think is going to give you that quality of art until you're long gone. So I think I will... Music or film? I think Paul Thomas Anderson. What has he done? Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, Inherent Vice, The Master,

There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread. He's a filmmaker, writer. What do you like about him? I mean, his films are beautiful and they're poetic and they're iconic and they all have a different palette. And he casts the best actors and they turn in the best performances. I mean, it's like, that's a broad, you know, thing to say.

I mean, he's philosophical, but he's also kind of pedestrian. And he talks, a lot of his stuff takes place in the San Fernando Valley. And, you know, I mean. Who else? Jim James and My Morning Jacket. You know, we were talking about this last night. You know, that band has been with me for 10 years now, and they're significant.

You've seen them more than you've seen me. That's true. It's okay. Who else? Should we get into that? We'll talk about that later. That's another episode. Who else?

I mean, Wil I mean Wilco Wilco of course What about directors or producers? I love Wilco Wilco Yeah Wilco's great I mean I think the kids don't understand Wilco

Yeah they're a little Almost too prolific though Now they're getting to the place Where they're like Just putting out a lot of records. Yeah, I don't like that. And so you're kind of like, are these special? Because there's a couple of other records

that are just so special. Ghost is Born, Yankee Hotel, you know. All right, Woco. Who else do you love? Like absolute love. Like if you saw them die, you'd cry. Steve Martin for me has been with me for a long time i mean he's what do you like about him he's the smartest guy in the room and also the fucking

stupidest guy in the room at the same time he's he's just incredibly bright his writing is always sharp he cares he he does the work he's been prolific as in you know he's he's he's a legend. And he's, he's, it's, he comes from the heart, but he also has got one of the smartest heads. Yeah. You know? Last but not least. Dolov Cohen. Rest in fucking Dolov. Dolov will, you know, I mean, you know.

Loyalty. You know, Dolov. Like, I mean, I was trying to go. This podcast knows Dolav. Dolav will, you know, I mean, you know. Loyalty. You know, Dolav, like, I mean, I was trying to go, my, this podcast knows Dolav. My head was going to all these different pretentious places of other filmmakers,

but I, some of them I'm like, I don't know if they're going to entertain me in 90 years. I don't know if they're going to be with me and be present with me and in my heart. And like, Dolav will. Yeah. You know,

like, Dolav, I mean, yeah, you, you know, you love Dolav, he's your boy.

You know, I think Dolav is a lot of people's boys, you know? And so, like, Dolov, I mean, you know, you love Dolov. He's your boy. You know, I think Dolov is a lot of people's boys, you know. And so, you know, so I love him. And, you know, I think that, you know, we'll be in each other's lives in 90 years. We're both fucking robots. The best thing. And it all comes back to the love that you give out to the world. Totally.

Nothing else matters, right? Well, totally. That's why we're here. That's what I learned about Dolove. He gives so much love to everybody. Happy Thanksgiving, Cope. I'm thankful that I've known you my whole life. I've learned so much about you throughout these years,

and thanks for watching me grow, and thanks for being a friend. We've always had each other's backs, I feel. And now as we get older, we come back to our lives when we need each other. I completely agree. I mean, I love you, and I'm in full support of what you do, and I believe in you. Thanks, thanks, Dad. You know, I love when you come into town.

I think we ought to start some trouble. I think you've got to give me one of these records pretty soon. I can't believe I haven't been asked. I'm offended. I'm offended with the pipes I got on me. One last thing, Cope, and we'll do the interview.

What do you want to be remembered by? When it's all said and done. Being a good man. It just goes down to being a good person. With yourself? Yeah, I think with myself and I think but also with –

I want to be there for other people. The older I get, the more I realize that that is a big part of what life is about. So much of the first part of my life was just about me, me, me, me, me, and that's great. But like, you know, I want to, I like being, um, support for people. So being a good guy, I think that's, you know, how I want to be remembered like Hunter Cope, man, that guy was a, he's a fucking killer dude. He's a good person. He's funny, smart, intelligent, one of the most talented motherfuckers out there, an impassionate lover, creative mind, really just a true blue American. But he was also international.

You know, he's kind of a jack of all trades and a master of all and a secret athlete and really just one of the best French kissers that ever was. That's it. Thanks for being on the show, Hunt. Thanks, Frask. Love you, buddy. I love you too, buddy. Enjoy the next interview.

Yeah, I love you, bud. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got Marco motherfucking Benevento, dogs. I was pumped. Chris, play some Marco. Oh, I went to his house in Woodstock. He's living the life I want to live. He's got a studio with all these weird-ass keyboards,

and we recorded on a lake that's on his property it was fucking pimp he's a great piano player, he plays with Joe Russo, he has his own band Karina was on the show Karina's a Ben Avento's bass player he's a great guy

he's got a great optimism about life and I really am excited for you to listen to this for the holiday edition. So ladies and gentlemen, enjoy Marco Benevento. I wanna cry just a little Everything I wanna hide Gonna take it easy Hit it to the other side Take it to the other side Alright, here we are.

Yo, Frasco Bumbasco. Hey, Marco. Welcome to my pond. Dude, we are in the fucking pond, dude. We are in Woodstock in this beautiful area. Where are you from? I'm from Jersey. Jersey.

You're from Jersey. I'm from Jersey. You live in Brooklyn. You sold your pad out there to live in the fucking mountains of Woodstock. What do you love about this place? I'm living the dream over here, Andy. I live two miles from Levon's barn. That's what I love about this place.

What do you love about Levon? What do I love? I love everything about Levon. I love the way he tangs the hump. And I like the way he sings. And, oh, geez, Lev geez Levon I mean the band I'm actually working on a cover of

Wheels on Fire currently yeah just love the band and we do the last waltz every other year too it's the best I love living up here

there's a lot of musicians up here I worked with like so many people Amanda Palmer came over the studio AC Newman Carl Newman

from the New Pornographers. It's kind of cool because that room, my little studio over here, has tons of keyboards, so it's like Inspiration Station. So people come over and do overdubs at my place with me. So it's like an overdub place. Well, for people that want to have me play on their record, it is. But for my music, it's where I record everything. So you self-produce everything? I recorded Wolf in there too scott's band yeah yeah yeah a couple

of tracks from their first record are from here more than a couple oh my god so tell me about this marco like what do you think it is out here in woodstock because i've done a lot of things that why do you think musicians are attracted to this place yeah there's some you know how some towns just have those vortexes you know and you could feel it and you know it like i feel like ithaca has it ashville has it woodstock uh those are just ones that are coming to my mind like these sort of cool little towns um there's definitely some gravitational pull i mean i'm sure it has something to do with the fact that Woodstock was sort of invented here, the festival, as well as Bob Dylan and the band and everybody living here. And then we played Mountain Jam, this great festival up here, like every year.

And, you know, and like being and living in Brooklyn, you know, and being a musician and even having a wife and kids, like you wind up going upstate for like some weekend. And like Woodstock is where you go, you know, or like New Paltz. But being an artist and, you know, into music, Woodstock was always sort of on the radar. So anyway. So what about let's talk about Levon. Did you ever meet him? I played with him. So what kind of advice do you think he gave you as like to maintain a career and how to like,

you know, because he got kind of screwed with his songwriting. Yeah, a lot of those guys did. Did he give you any advice? No, we didn't talk about that at all. And I didn't really even talk to him that much. But the best sort of advice that I got from him just musically was to just keep it simple. Yeah.

And you could tell, you know, from soloing to songwriting to even living your life, I kind of just got that vibe from him. And even playing with those guys in the room, to songwriting, to even living your life. I kind of just got that vibe from him. And even playing with those guys in the room. They're badasses and they can do everything right, but they don't go crazy and they don't do too much and everything is very intentional. And I feel this way.

Bruce Hampton talks about intention too, right? Oh, I didn't know that. Oh yeah, he basically, when you're doing something do it with full force right with right and i could see that how like karina talks i heard this story but you have your own fucking vibe you bring to a backstage totally what explain this case explain this philosophy that's a whole nother thing but yeah we have well intention and then relating to our case in our green room i mean i can kind of weave them all together i think you know this case that we have in our green room is

filled with records has a record player an old tube amp and we listen to records in the green room and and we get into the mood and it's great and and it's a big black case and uh and its name is Black Baca. So we have Black Baca on the road with us, and it has three drawers, wardrobe, another drawer of photos, sunglasses, records, and it's basically our mascot in the green room, and everybody sort of huddles around it and praises it and gives thanks to Black Baca, and we dance all night and put on records and people hang out and party.

But going back to the whole just about playing with intention, I feel like it is important to focus and relax and just play all those notes you want to play with full intention versus um you know kind of tuning out and which which nobody i don't feel like they do but sometimes when you're playing so many shows in a row you you might you might sort of just like your mind might wander which could be a good thing but yeah um how do you stay present like what do you do you meditate do you i try to just yeah breathe or just breathing like literally simple as that sounds like i was playing the other night you're just like all right you

have to you play a line and then you have to like breathe and sort of make sense of it it's always just it's just the inner game it's like the inner game of tennis or you know it's like your own inner uh thing you know like you just you get into you... It's funny how that works. It's your own mind thing. And normally every night it sounds great and people are psyched about it, but you want to have the utmost connection to what you're doing and what you're playing and how you're soloing and

taking it for a ride at the end where the song turns from a four-minute song to a seven-minute song. You gotta try to figure out how to communicate. Actually, you know, also attention comes from listening to the other band members, like listening to Karina and what she's

doing and sort of vibing off the notes she's playing and then even listening to DB, our drummer, and you know, vibing off the notes that we're doing together. I mean, that's very important to try to lock as a team too. Yeah, but I think it's like even bringing it back

to like the minute you walk into a new zone, a new place, you have to make it home. You know, even if it's a green room, you know, you have to make it feel like home so we could all be, we could feel like we could write the best music together. true and we and and all of us get along really well and want to make sure we're in the best mind frame together and we all have fun together and we all like there's countless videos of all of us just like cracking up like that karina was taking on this last tour we were

just watching them like like our lighting guy was in tears, you know. We're just like, this is at like 1030 in the morning, like having brunch in Ithaca after our gig or whatever. But we have so much fun, and we bring out the best in each other, and that helps the attention, and it helps everybody feel really good about what's going on. How important is, like, theme to you? Like, you know like like entertaining like

entertaining a crowd entertaining them through costumes entertaining them through i mean a vibrant keyboard that's what music is you know it's entertainment it's the end of the day it's like when you want to have your cathartic release and when you want to just forget about everything you did during the day and you want to party and have a good time and and that is and that's our job and i like that i don't even it's not a job it's fun for me i love entertaining i love even just having people over the house for dinner and stuff and you know having uh ben the benevento's like we always got together in jersey and would have like epic lunches.

And we would sit from one to three and drink wine and eat pasta and dessert and all hang out and then go outside and play all day growing up. So I like being surrounded by family and all that. What inspired that? Who really taught you that in your family? family and all that what inspired that who who really taught you that in your family um definitely you know my dad came to the states when he was 15 so from where from italy really yeah oh so he oh you're european as fuck my man yeah i mean so are you yeah i'm italian well as your dad from my my grandpa's from italy okay moved here moved here and then had my dad in America.

There's some deep roots for sure for all of us. My cousins, my brother, aunts and uncles. We had a super tight family. We all lived in the same town. Yeah. It was just crazy to think about. You all lived in the same town? We all lived in Wyckoff, New Jersey. What?

Which is like 30 minutes from the city. Why did you pick New Jersey? I think my grandparents came over and they were in Staten Island for a while. And then, I don't know, it's just like coming from Italy, like off the boat. You just go to New York and then you're in Staten Island. And you're like, oh, let's get out of here. And then you go to like Fairlawn or, I don't know. That's just what, that just seems, it kind of seems like what a lot of people do.

Did you grow up poor, rich? Did you grow up like having to fight for a meal or like were you guys always? You know, we grew up in Little Falls, which is in Passaic County, which is, you know, my dad and mom were always working. And then my dad became a lawyer. And then that was definitely, we moved. I remember moving to a bigger house. And then we moved to Franklin Lakes.

So, I mean, it wasn't like, I mean, I had a great life growing up in the Burbs. It's pretty inspiring. My dad and mom worked their ass off to make it all cozy for us. Do you think that gave you your work ethic? Absolutely. And also, my dad really didn't mind that I played music. I know that some parents for some kids are like, what are you doing? Or back then, maybe now people are more open to it. But back then it was like, some parents were like, you can't play music. You got to do something else. Like they were very supportive of that.

My dad loves music. My mom loves music. They'd always play me cool music growing up. So they were very supportive of me doing that. They bought me a synthesizer that I still have. How old were you when you started? He got me this Casio Tone 8000 and it was the coolest. And I just got the drum machine for it. And I was like

I don't know. I was like 7 or eight. So what was your first musical moment that you felt like, I want to fucking do this? That's a good question. I mean, you know, I met Joe shortly after that, believe it or not. Yeah, Joe Russo. I met Joe when I was like 12 or 13. I met Joe when I was like 12 or 13.

So I think like we got together and bonded, uh, about like Zeppelin and, and like Rush. At 12? Yeah. When we were in like seventh grade. Yeah. How old are you?

I'm 42. Okay. 42. So, um, so yeah, I've known Joe for like 30 years, which is crazy.

Um, maybe, you know, playing in the basement with him or just like playing like battle the bands with my band like years later

you know that kind of those moments in high school were really fun and I really like or playing Sweet Sixteens we played Sweet Sixteens like all the time

yeah really? yeah make some money totally like a rent-a-cop and like we'd rent lights and like you know

everybody would be smoking pot like trying to hide it or, you know, all this stuff. Did you take psychedelics early in your life? I did. I did when I was in high school. Absolutely. Yeah? Yeah. Which is crazy because they told you like, like mushrooms and acid.

But what's crazy is like, remember, I don't know if this happened to you, but I was was when you were growing up was like if you got an eighth of mushrooms, you ate half of it. And then, you know, and then your other friend would eat the other half. And that is so much for a 15-year-old kid to eat that probably weighs i don't know 130 pounds you know i mean i could i wouldn't even consider doing that now i but i like now i like these days a lot of people happens like they we think that like you're like oh like just a trip you need to take four grams when i weigh like 100 pounds like what i remember doing that and just like putting my head down and having the most intense visuals i mean it's kind of amazing that like i did that and that somehow we got away with it growing up and doing it at a young age because it opens up your brain to some other dimension at

a young age especially like knowing about music too like music and and all that kind of all that stuff i feel like they go well together you Searching for music and searching for a sound and whatever. What about searching for yourself? Absolutely. That helps with that too, for sure. Do you ever go through days of doubt? Oh, absolutely. And then you just got to shake your head and get it right out.

It happens all the time it happens to everybody what's your philosophy about how to get it how to get out of that rut I mean you just gotta know that there's you just gotta think about

the other stuff that's better than that cause there's it's so easy to dwell on the stuff that sucks and to be like oh that really bothers me

and then but then there's like countless other ideas and wonderful things that are happening that you could also think about. And it's your own like head trip. And for it to really affect you. I just remember my friend telling me about it.

He's like, oh, man, I just don't think you should put so much gravity on the situation. And I just love like hearing hearing that i know it's so simple but i was like right like there's no way why is that one yeah is that the one yeah you know so i that's literally i i i just shake it out of my head just with like my own thoughts i guess and there were yeah sometimes i'll just sort of i'll of I'm also good at Which is maybe a bad thing I'm good at sort of holding on And keeping it quiet for a minute

Before I say something Like suppressing? Kind of, but I do let it out Not far after, maybe a day But I don't hold it very long But I do like to try to think about it for a while and gather my thoughts

versus letting them out too quick or letting your anger yeah I'm not an angry person and I rarely get mad or anything but I honestly also music, I love going into

the studio and playing piano I'm traveling so much and touring and I have two kids here I just, you know, honestly, also music. Like, I love going into the studio and playing piano, which I'm traveling so much and touring, and I have two kids here, and recording so much that I sometimes forget to just go in the studio and play the piano. You know, like, that's how it all began, was just me sitting at the piano.

And I do that for hours and hours. I mean, I went to music school, and of course, had just... Where'd you go? Berklee College of Music. But I call it mental floss, like school and of course had just Berklee College of Music. But I call it mental floss, like kind of sitting down at the piano, even if it is for like 30 minutes

or 20 minutes or whatever. I could just play and just whatever. Sit down and just create and improvise. The piano is just so nice for that. I feel like you can do all sorts of stuff. Do you think we forget

that philosophy when we get more successful? I don't think so. You have to otherwise you're lost in the clouds. I feel like musicians are always connected to their instrument. They love doing what they're

they love playing their instrument. They're never going to not do that. As soon as they do it less, they're never going to not do that. And as soon as they sort of do it less, they're not going to feel like themselves. I'm talking about that mental floss. We forget to get back to how we used to feel. Gotcha. And just to sit down on the piano and not force anything

and just play music just to play music. Gotcha, right. That gets us through the brain. That brain fog. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I know what you're saying. Some musicians could maybe forget about that sort of side of things. Absolutely, because it's a business. At some point, it turns into, and it is a business,

you know, it turns into a business and you kind of forget about, yeah, you do forget about it here and there. For sure. With that same philosophy that you take towards life and not taking it too seriously or not adding gravity, which I fucking love. Whoever said that, fuck yeah.

I think you're putting too much gravity on this situation, man. It was my friend that I played tennis with, Larry Lux. He's the best. Larry. Larry, what up? What up, Larry? Shout out to Larry. Larry Deluxe.

Do you have that same philosophy when you're making your own records? Yeah, especially working with Leon Michaels, the producer for this newest record. He's just real good at, you know, deciding on what he wanted to do and figuring out how to do it and just doing it. And that was it. It was like, yeah, the drum should sound like that, like this.

Boom, done. Put it to tape. That's it. That's perfect. Not overthinking it. Not overthinking it and confidently knowing what that sort of sound and knowing how to get the sound he was hearing, which was great because it's easy to be like,

oh, we need to have this and have some options, so we should have two of those, and then we'll figure out what to do later. There was none of that. It was like... It's old school. Yeah, it's old school. And we recorded to tape, so it was like you commit.

You record to tape, and that's what it is. You have a tape player out here? Oh, yeah. Three. What do you like about tape recording? I absolutely love recording to tape. player out here? Oh yeah. Three. What do you like about tape recording? I absolutely love recording to tape. Tape always sounds better.

It flattens out every like say you have a bunch of like plugins like reverb and delay and all sorts of stuff on your digital screen and on your digital world and you plop it to tape. It turns those ones and zeros into sound. So it changes the

way the plugins sound. And it changes... And you can hit the tape harder and get distortion, which is cool too. It just flattens everything out for me sonically. It's kind of like turning a color painting into

a black and white painting. It stamps it and then you can put it back to the computer and mess with it again and then put it in the tape machine again we did a lot of that with Leon so much of that we started it all on tape, burned it back to the computer did a lot of overdubs up here

because he lives here and then we bounced it to his four track player so you went from analog to digital back to analog here because he lives here. And then we bounced it to his four-track player. So you went from analog to digital back to analog? Yeah, and the four-track, track one was drums, mono. Track two was bass.

Track three was keyboards and synths and whatever. And four was vocals. That was it. So I have like four tracks. All these songs got squashed to four tracks and they sound great to you? they sound best record I've ever made

why do you think that? well aside from the sonic aside from the sonic color and the awesomeness of the way it sounds Leon also really spent time with the song arranging color and the awesomeness of the way it sounds. Leon also really spent time with the song arranging,

which obviously is the first priority. And we sat in a room and we figured out how the song should go and we played the song in the room together. Did you guys tour these songs beforehand? We have been working on these tunes since January of last year. Or January. What's your philosophy on that? Do you like recording after playing on tour

and gluing it? I've done complete opposite. I've done full-on fuck-it tours where we literally don't know any of the new songs from the record. And we're kind of learning them on the road, which is not a good approach. No, why not? Well, if you're doing a record release show, you should at least know three.

You should at least know more than one song. I think we knew how to kind of pull off one tune on the record when we toured Tiger Face many, many years ago. I remember being like, yeah, we do Limbs of a Pine, the first song on the record when we like toured Tiger Face many, many years ago, I remember being like, yeah, we do Limbs of a Pine, like the first song on the record. And being like, oh, he didn't really get to the other ones, you know. But for this tour and for this record, we, you know, Leon and I worked on this record for two years. So it was a longer process than normal.

It was not because it was harder. It was just because of the busyness of my schedule, busyness of his schedule. And also just wanting to get it right you know wanting to be like that's not right even like figuring out the sequence of the record was like we we like hung out for like four hours and like really got into the sequence of the record i was like wow leon is very intentional with just every record he makes. And you can hear that in all of his records. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour.

Welcome back to Review. I am your host, Ari Findling. Today I'm going to give you my top 10 favorite things to do on Thanksgiving. If you also want to know what time Thanksgiving dinner should start, it's between 3 and 5 p.m. There are no exceptions. I don't care if your fucking grandpa's got to take his pill at night.

Nothing at 11 a.m., nothing at 8 p.m. Don't be a psychopath. 3 to 5 p.m. Okay, here's the list. Number 10, cranberry sauce. Now, this should be from a can. No homemade cranberry sauce. Ocean Spray perfected the shit 100 fucking years ago.

Stop trying to push the homemade cranberry sauce. Number nine, talking to your uncle about who and who shouldn't be allowed to vote. Number eight, getting your 11-year-old cousin high. Number seven, drinking sangria with fruit in it all day so when people look at you, they think, oh, this guy's healthy. He's eating fruit, but you're secretly just eating cranberries that have been soaking in wine for 10 hours. Number six, watching half of four different football games. I don't know who's playing. I don't know the fucking score. I'm eating wine- cranberries. Number five, a touch football game in the front yard or backyard that definitely

sends your cousin Greg to the ER. Number four, sweet potato casserole. If there isn't burnt marshmallows on top, I'm fucking sending it back in. Kathy, I told you how I like it. Now obey my wishes. Number three, turkey that has been drenched in gravy. If it's dry, I'm sending it back. It's got to look like it's fucking soaked in it for hours. Number two, throwing grapes in your Uncle Richie's mouth because he fell asleep at the fucking dinner table again. And number one, spending quality time with family. Just kidding.

It's definitely seeing your cousin Julia for the first time in a couple years who is super fucking hot and you secretly jerk off to pictures of her even though it's wrong and definitely illegal in a couple of states. This has been Review with Ari. Happy Thanksgiving. Can we talk about your early career? Sure. So you, what was the first most popular band you were in? J-Rad, probably?

Well, no, the Benevento Russo duo. The Benevento Russo duo. So, and what type of songs were you doing for that? Originals? We were doing all originals and it started out with us playing facing each other, organ and playing facing each other organ and drums facing each other at like the knitting factory what year is this this was 2002 oh so you're like

one of the first duos in that in that era in that early 2000 like yeah i mean i'm sure there were a bunch well yeah but like yeah we in the whole scene of, yeah, maybe the jam scene and the underground New York sort of scene. Yeah. I, I, there weren't like any do right. You're right.

There weren't any, there weren't a lot of duos. The only reason why we did it was because our friend Jake got us this gig at the knitting factory for Joe and told him it pays a hundred bucks a night. And Joe thought, well, if Marco brings his organ down, we can have baselines and, you know, well, if Marco brings his organ down, we can have bass lines and stuff,

and we can get $50 each instead of him putting a trio or a quartet together. Was it selling out? No, when we first started, it was nothing. Not many people came at all. But I remember four months in, like in April, like Jam Basin, a lot of the people were like, a lot of sort of fans of Joe, because Joe was in Fat Mama, which was a pretty big...

I don't know that band. Yeah, Fat Mama was a popular band in the late 90s, early 2000s. So this guy's always been your homie? Yeah, I've known Joee right since like i said like we were 13 12 or 13 did you see something special in him yeah he was he's the most badass drummer i've ever heard even at 12 or 13 oh yeah you were like okay who's this guy you know and he was self-taught just like total like you know just rock star from... I... No, I... I took lessons my whole life with piano. I did like classic piano lessons

where it's like, I hate this. Who is this? My teacher is fat and like smells weird. You know, and you're like, ah, that's really... I'm sorry. That was nice. No, no.

But, you know, just like awkward kid, awkward room, weird teacher. But I liked playing piano. And like I said, my dad got me a synthesizer like teacher. But I liked playing piano. And like I said, my dad got me a synthesizer like growing up. And I liked doing that. Like I like putting on headphones and getting into. Is that what you liked about Joe? Like completely opposite style musician of what you were trained to be?

It was just a total natural. Like he could just listen to it and like learn it and just know it. Like a complicated song, like some crazy Rush song or something. As a kid, like growing up, he was definitely all eyes on Joe. I think his parents got him a huge drum set too. He did a huge drum solo during the jazz concert in middle school.

Was he a ladies' man? Were people always love Joe or what? Absolutely. People always love Joe. People still do. He's got that swag. He was a pimp. Oh, man. He's the best still do. He's got that swag like he was a pimp, you know?

Oh, man. He's the best. So did you tour with that outfit? Joe and I toured a lot after the Knitting Factory. All right, going back to the Knitting Factory, I remember this taper coming. His name is Pete Costello. He does sound for J-Rad, actually.

And I've known him forever now. But Pete, back in the day, Pete was like a taper and i remember him like taping soul live and they were you know kind of a bigger name in that scene back then and uh i remember seeing pete coming to tape a duo show at the knitting factory and i was like oh man like we're getting like some traction here people are starting to know about us like the taper from soul lives here you know uh i was all like this is great and then uh i wound up booking our first tour i booked the first tour i went on like map quest and like booked our first tour across the country because i got us a gig at the high sierra music festival so you guys traveled all the way to the other side of the country

hoping to where the show shitty like? Oh yeah, we got... I booked the tour. I literally called places from New York to San Francisco and back. Did you have a fake agent name? No, to do a three-week tour. I didn't even have that mental capacity. I was like, oh no, it's what you do.

You say you're the keyboard player and you say you're looking for a gig on Tuesday, March 24th and you see how much money you can get and I wound up getting I got 200 bucks every night so we each got 100 bucks

every night or you know every other night I guess on a three week tour we probably had like a couple of drive days but I booked a tour across the country

pretty impressive we got in the Subaru station wagon that my parents got me after I graduated from Berklee College of Music which was very very sweet of them thanks mom and dad thanks mom and we drove that thing to the ground and we toured My parents got me after I graduated from Berklee College of Music, which was very, very sweet of them. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Thanks, Mom.

And we drove that thing to the ground, and we toured. And then things grew, and grew and grew, and we wound up sort of writing more song-oriented tunes instead of doing lots of jamming. We made two records that were kind of like anthemic instrumental rock songs. It almost sounded like they should have lyrics, you know? So we sort of went from crazy underground, jammy, jazzy stuff to like really writing tunes and making records.

And Joe was even playing guitar on some tunes and stuff. Wow. So it really evolved into not jam stuff and more us playing four-minute songs live. That was really cool. What's the different philosophy between that? I think it's just like

wanting to get hit hard with a nice chord progression and a nice melody instead of by notes and virtuosic sort of that sort of stuff which is equally as great as important to you yes absolutely i just like having both worlds in there you know i love having a moment where we can just like get down and jam and rock out and really get into some stuff but then i like being like look this is a cool song

that just goes like this and then it it ends. There's no solo. And it's equally as cool. Looking back on that first tour, what do you think you learned from it that you still use now? The excitement of being on the road. What do you think it was? Yeah, I still have that happiness and excitement for sure of being like yeah let's go

do this gig we got a gig tonight I still even say that we got a gig it's almost like a joke because you're on tour but it's like we got a gig some musicians don't have gigs we have a gig and this is great we're playing in St. Louis, Missouri,

where we never play, and it's great to be here. It's sort of cheesy to say, but I do, I mean, I love it. I love... Is that your philosophy in life? Is trying to, like, what is your philosophy? I mean, that's my philosophy. And I feel like it's the same philosophy with everybody in the van, everybody in our crew.

It's like we're all just trying to help each other, and we're all wanting to be all smiles and just laughter all day, and no use in dwelling on, no use in putting too much gravity on other situations that kind of bother you. Let's just all, we know how hard it is to be on the road together. Let's just all chill and have a good time. Yeah. And Black Baca helps in the green room.

And, you know, just everybody's mentality is, I feel feel like is the same. And honestly, the music, we all go out there and we make the set list together and we get psyched. Oh, yeah, that's going to sound great after that song. You know, let's try that.

We've never done that before. And when you get it back... You never had team participation and setlist before? No, meaning like we've never done that before, meaning we've never put those two songs together before. But actually, yeah, that's also a new thing that we've been doing over the last year, year and a half.

We've all been sort of chiming in on the Setlist, which is cool. I think that brings more band bonding when you get them involved, especially when the band's called Marco Benevento? Absolutely, and it's just nice. I mean, I'm not like a leader, leader guy who's like, okay, guys, this is how it's going to go. I'm like, I don't know, you got any suggestions?

I want to make sure we're all good here. What do you think? What do you like playing that we haven't done in a while? It's easy to say. we're all good here. We haven't, what do you think? Like, what do you like playing that we haven't done in a while? Yeah. It's easy to say. It's easy to do. Some band leaders or people don't think that or musicians or whatever, but, and some,

some other musicians don't want to be bothered with it and don't care about the set list, you know? But, um, I feel like we're all, we're all involved in all these tunes. We've spent a lot of time learning the seven records that I've made and all,

a lot of the songs on all those that i've made and a lot of the songs on all those records so everyone just wants it to be you know fresh for them and and and honestly you know like getting the feedback from the audience is such a big uh part of the fuel too like it's easier now with social media, right? Yeah. We played Buffalo. It was our first show on Thursday and the crowd was just like giving it. Buffalo's crazy as fuck. And you could feel it. Yeah, there's a little bit of New Orleans

in Buffalo. And it's open late, that town. There's lots of places they stay up late. Do you regret anything, Marco? I guess not. No? Were you ever an angry person?

I was never an angry person. No. I do remember one time trying to pretend to be angry one day. What happened? In seventh grade. There was a girl that was also known as the happiest girl and i was always like the happiest dude and we're like what if we just what if we were just like mad all day and we like tried it and it was it was weird i didn't like it what'd you learn from it it's just stupid to be mad yeah

it is right why do we think and i honestly thought maybe they just do it on purpose. Like sometimes they just do it because I was doing it on purpose. And then I was like, well, maybe people that are mad do it on purpose, which is horrible to think about. Maybe somehow they need to hear some verification from someone else about something to make them feel not mad. I don't understand it. My mom and my dad are very chill and very nice.

And, you know, they, of course, everybody gets frustrated about something or whatever. If you're married that long, you might hear some bickering in the kitchen here and there. But that's whatever, you know. That's not, you don't want to put too much gravity on those situations. What's your philosophy on, sorry, I'm ADD here. I know we got to go soon.

What's your philosophy on going to a add here i know we got to go soon uh what's your philosophy on um going to a forty thousand dollar year music school especially when uh at this in 2019 i mean you know if if it's some i feel like if it's something that you really want to do and your and your parents or however you could figure out how to try to pay for it if you really want to do it and you could figure it out i would highly recommend it because it's awesome you get to like it's like having an intensive and i know four years seems like a long time or even a year seems like a long time to go to a school for music but i would say that if you have that hunger to if you feel like your brain is a sponge for all

that at the moment you're gonna freak out and love it and go there forever. I was that exact thing. And when I went to Berkeley, I took so many more credits than I needed to. I went one summer. I stayed. Thankfully, my folks helped me pay my rent. They paid for me to go to the school, and they let me have a four-year intensive at Berkeley. And i did upright bass i did frame drum i did congas i did jazz i did rock i did

film scoring i did every freaking thing you could possibly imagine because everything sounded so cool to me and i was a total dork that wanted to learn everything what surprised you the most out of the class you took that you loved well what what class surprised you the most out of the class you took that you loved? What class surprised you the most of how much you never thought you'd love it? There's a teacher and her name is Joanne Brackeen. She changed my life.

How? With music. She has a master class. She probably still does. Every Monday from 9am to 11am. When you're in college, 9am is very early. And so no one's ever happy at 9am.

And it was a masterclass. It was an intensive with Joanne Brockeen, who's a heavy jazz teacher and piano player. And you would have to transcribe anything from like Brad Meldow to McCoy Tyner to Bill Evans to Chick Corea to Dave Kukowski

to all sorts of crazy like the highest level of transcribing and playing and she'd bring in a rhythm section and you'd play the song with them and have to play however many choruses of the guy solo and play and she would rail and ream in you

and say how bad it was or she would say oh ream into you and say how bad it was. Or she would say, oh, that sounded good. Has she ever just said, Mark, get this together? Oh, yeah. And that's why I liked her. Because she didn't just say, oh, yeah, that sounds great, man. Which you also need. That's that East Coast philosophy, dog.

You need that encouragement, too, though. You need both. You need the teacher that's like, that's great, man. Let's just close our eyes and play all blues. But she changed my life because after one of those master classes, after one of those master classes,

she kind of caught up to me and ran up to me. She was like, you know, you could be one of the best piano players at Berklee or the best piano player at Berklee the best piano player berkeley if you practice and i was like i and as i was as i was saying i practice i realized that i i didn't practice like i just i always played but i never really like totally practiced and um hearing that from her was really inspiring i was like like, well, I just thought I was kind of an okay,

hippie with a ponytail, kind of okay jazz musician. We'll see what happens with this guy, kind of guy. But I also liked funk and playing Hammond organ and playing and all that stuff too. So I had all sorts of things going on. So I was kind of on the okay side of jazz there. And she whipped me into shape. I started taking lessons with her

and she just had me doing things I didn't even think I could do. And she would play stuff on a tape and I'd learn it all. And I just improved dramatically within a year and a half. And I actually got an award and got a check from Berkeley

for best outstanding new guy. So do you know, new, new guy, you know, like. So do you believe in 10,000 hours? Oh, absolutely. I mean, this. In anything in life. It's so funny, man. Like you have to practice. Like I remember asking, like going back to being the dorky days of jazz and everything.

I remember asking a teacher, like, you know, how do you, how do you play giant steps? Like, what's the secret? Like, I was just waiting for him to be like, oh, it's a secret, you know how do you how do you play giant steps like what's the secret like i was just waiting for him to be like oh it's a secret you know and he's like yeah man you just gotta practice and i was like no i don't mean i know that but uh what do i really need to do you know and the reality of it and i see this with my kids because i'm teaching them music and they also have a teacher that's teaching them music but they do it once and then they think they know it. I'm like, no, no, Ruby, you have to do that again.

Like you have to loop that part. Play it once and then play it again. And she'll do it once, perfect, and be like, I got it. I'm like, oh, right, that's what you do. You think you have it, but you don't. Like you have to really get it in there. And that's what music's about. You have to...

Repetition. It has to be in you for it to come out easy. You know? It has to be in you for it to come out easy. And it shows, you could see the musicians that obviously have spent time learning their craft. It's beautiful mastering something. Absolutely. I bet it's the same thing as mastering fatherhood.

Absolutely. And even life itself as far as going back to being happy or angry about things. You can master life too. What's your philosophy on mastering life? I think you just got to look at the positive, man. Just like I've been saying this all the time. You can't think, why would you put so much gravity on the negative shit

when you could just be like, oh, well, you could just be like oh well I also have this amazing house and I also have this incredible pond we're sitting at and like fishing poles over there and then I like have a car that runs and takes me to gigs I have you know we have money to buy food you know like we have friends

that come over our kids are healthy my parents live here like you know I don't know. There's so much good stuff going on. It's a shame that a little bit of negativity will bring people down. Yeah, one last thought. We talked

about mental health and stuff and you had a record label with Neil and stuff. Do you have any good memories? What's your favorite memories about Neil? I only played with him once. It was really fun. It was in California with Phil Lesh and with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams

and with some other folks. And we played at Terrapin Crossroads for like four days. And we would hang out there and talk about whatever we didn't really go out afterwards or really get down and i didn't really hang out with neil too much but um he was like the sweetest person that i ever met he was really i he was just soft-spoken and but just a ripping guitar player he had a camera with him and he was taking pictures he took great photos i was like oh this guy's like he's an artist like he's like a surfer artist dude from california that plays guitar and like so chill and like i loved him it was just awesome i had got zero, nothing bad to say about him at all.

Isn't it crazy how we might think someone's having this great life and you never know that people suppress feelings. Like you said, I'm so thankful that you take out your feelings after a day. Some people take fucking two, five years, dude. My parents are like that, too. They can't hold in anything that long. If they hold it in overnight, the next day they're exhausted.

They're like, I'm going to tell you something. You're like, why did you tell me last night? Wow. Family man, Marco. This is unbelievable. I'm proud of you.

I just met you. Thank you, Andy. To show how much... I love Karina. I'm very inspired by Karina. To see that you are her mentor in a lot of ways makes me feel even happier about her path because you're such a good dude so thank you so much for being on the show no problem one last thing if you could tell young marco what what Marco, what fatherhood Marco and Black Mamba,

what do you call the... Black Baca. Black Baca Marco knows now. What advice would you give young Marco? Yeah, yeah. Just be cool. That's what I would say. Be cool? Yeah. Well, thanks for being cool, Marco.

Have a great one, buddy. Kick ass in tennis. Whoever you're playing, fuck them up for me, okay? Fuck them up, man. Come on, I'm feeling good today. Thanks, Marco. All right. Thanks, Andy.

Now, a message from the UN. I gotta get up out of bed. I gotta get up out of bed Lord, you've been running in and out of my head Everything that's going wrong Lord, it just makes me strong And I know That this is how it's gotta be Oh yeah, oh yeah

The only way I'm gonna get any sleep from me Take it all from me Take it all from me, baby Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all Take it all from me

First thing I do is get in drunk And that ain't gonna help me baby I ain't gonna fraud And all I need is a little time To get you back in these sheets of mine The only way

Cause this is how it's gotta be Oh yeah, oh yeah The only way I'm gonna get any sleep Baby, take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me, baby Take it all from me

Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me Why don't you take it from me, baby? No, no Take it all from me

Yeah, yeah Take it all from me Take it all from me Take it all from me. Take it all from me. Take it all from me. All right. There we have it. Thanks, Hunter, for telling everyone about our life before music when I was a monster. No, just a fucking networking hustler.

And a shout out to Marco for letting me into his house and had a great conversation about everything you know it's the holiday edition fam this is the time where you think about shit hang out with your family see what

happened last like all year you know fucking 2019 was weird I mean the vibe was getting popular I was, I didn't like, I mean, the vibe was, I was getting popular, it was cool, but the vibe was, I felt like I was always sick, or I was always just fucking anxiety ridden, it was a really, I don't know about everyone else, you know, but, you know, maybe it's just me, but, you know, there'll be a day in your life when, you know, you don't want to wake up. Give up whatever you're fighting for.

Just have a little more sleep, a little more security, even a little more companionship. Shit, I know you're tired. I'm fucking tired. Everyone around you might have pissed you off or is mad at you at some point of this year. You were overworked, underpaid, and no one really gave a shit.

And that's okay. Because you can't complain to anyone because they'll call you selfish. Like, oh, boo-hoo. But no. It's like some days you just can't win. And even through that, you know, even through all those struggles

and those parts of analyzation, we forget about that little voice inside of us, our soul, you know? Our soul was the first friend we had when we were six, had no one to hang out with. It's that buddy that got you through your first kiss or fucking first hand job or bad breakup. He's the person who turned you from a kid into an adult in the blink of an eye. Now as we get older and we hang out with all our families, Thanksgiving, Christmas, we all collect a few life experiences, a couple more gray hairs to talk about. We always seem to forget about that longtime pal that used to make us happy

over a bowl of fucking cereal or even a swing in the park. Just when you're going through these parts of analyzation, just try not to forget about your soul because he's the one. He's the guy that got us through all that stuff. When we were kids, there's no reason why he can't get us through that stuff when we're adults. So stay happy. Stay authentic. Stay fucking foolish so we could work on staying young forever.

so we could work on staying young forever. And this is what the holidays teach me through all the fucking politic fucking talk and the judging of who we're becoming in life. Just always remember when shit's going down, your soul's got your back. Promise me that. All right, guys. I love you. Be safe out back. Promise me that. All right, guys. I love you.

Be safe out there. Wear condoms. It's the holidays. You're going to go back to your hometowns. You're going to want to fuck Susie from high school who fucking stayed in the city. Stay strong. And if you get wasted and fuck Susie or billy or whatever just wear condoms you

know just wear condoms you don't want to go back to your life or outside of wherever you grew up and like i came back with a baby so just wear unless you're in love with you yeah you fell back in love with your high school sweetheart, fucking do it. But just take care of yourself. Overpopulation is real. Just don't come into everything. Take it out. Put it somewhere else. It's the holidays.

Put it in your egg. No, I'm just kidding. All right, guys. I love you. Happy Thanksgiving. Give your moms and dads and grandmas a hug from me. Spice up the dinner table. Maybe,

maybe put some weed chocolate. You know, see who bites. You know, you're, you're in a grown ass man now or grown ass woman. Fucking, uh,

let grandma know what's Gucci, you know, before, uh, you know, all that other stuff happens. All right, guys,

love you. Be safe. Um, I'll catch you next week and I'll figure out who my co-host is thanksgiving maybe i'll interview my dad or something should be fun all right guys love you be safe and i'll catch you soon bye well thank you for listening to episode 66 of andy fresco's

world-saving podcast produced by andy fresco joe angelou 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. The new album is on the horizon. May a path forward have a soundtrack like Change of Pace, our latest album. This week's guest is Marco Benevento.

Find him online at marcobenevento.com. B-E-N-E-V-E-N-T-O. Benevento. Our special co-host is Hunter Cope. Find him on Instagram at hashtag copekills or at huntercope.com. This week's special guests were Andy Avila, Sean Eccles,

Ari Findlings and Arno Bakker. I gotta run again. I love you all. Unless I really, really know you. In that case I really, really love you. I am thankful that me and my family are spared from horrific events and for that I put extra food on the

table, knock on wood, hunt down a turkey and turn on the Hallmark Channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Back to Netflix tomorrow. See you next week. Hello, this is Arno Bakker, sousaphone play with Andy Fresco and the UN, and this is Historic Rants and Seasonal Friends with Arno Bakker. When the Europeans found the Americas, they hoped it were the West Indies, and they named the inhabitants Indians and linked the turkeys to a bird from Turkey. The Turks, not being familiar with the bird, called it Hindi, from India. Meanwhile,

the English kicked out the pilgrim fathers, who took refuge in the Dutch city of Leiden, who had kicked out the Spanish and celebrated that yearly with an autumn food party. The Pilgrims sailed to Cape Cod, lost half of their crew over winter, got some help from Native Americans, had a good crop and a food party, and gave thanks. The Dutch started New Amsterdam, ran into trouble with some Native Americans, and had guns. Then the Puritans made their way to the West Indies, ran into trouble with some Native Americans,

and had guns, and gave thanks. The Dutch fought the English, the English fought the Dutch, and eventually the English kicked the Dutch off Manhattan, and invited everyone in who enjoyed shooting beaver, bison and Native Americans. Then those people turned on the English and kicked them out and celebrated and gave thanks. Meanwhile the acquisition of unpaid labor, slavery, had set

the fair trade balance off so these people turned on themselves. Upon the favorable outcome was given thanks. Again, hurrah! There are many turkeys in this tale. Those that get wrongly named, get hunted down, draw the short straw, get gobbled up by history. Those that did not or could not stand up for themselves. Those that got robbed of land and life.

Those that got stuffed in the end. As the wise Indian Mahatma Gandhi once said, the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its turkeys are treated. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!