Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 69: The Wood Brothers

Episode Date: December 17, 2019

Audio smut abounds in this, our 69th episode; so, in honor of that, we offer you a peek inside our minds to gaze at what drives this show: compulsive porn consumption & songs about doin' it. Helping us maintain a modicum of class during the interview hour, we welcome one of our favorites: The Wood Brothers! They talk about being brothers in a band, the group's origin, and how they sustain focus. We investigate the potential of psychedelics as therapy. Stay tuned for a special post-credits, holiday song. 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 one of our favorites: The Wood Bros, at  www.thewoodbros.com   Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Shawn Eckels Andee "Beats" Avila Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

Hey Andy, this is Ron Jeremy. I guess you didn't get the message when my agent sent you a couple of voicemails, but I don't want to be on your podcast. I don't know who you are. Please stop sending emails to my agent and my manager and my lawyer. I'm not going to come on your podcast. I've never heard of you. I don't want to talk about my penis and how big it is

and how many girls I've fucked and compare women, okay? Please stop calling me. Please stop emailing me. I know you sent your saxophone player over to my house to see if I was home. If you continue to pursue me, I will have to send you a cease and desist letter and get a restraining order.

Please don't make me do that. All right, this is for all you real freaky people out there. Kick it, boys. I got my first real sex swing. I bought it at a 5M dime. Fucked it till my dick turned red. But I never tried 69. Me and this girl I knew

Had some fun and we fucked real hard The jimmy split and we had to get creative Flipped her around and told her not to fart My face was buried in her ass I thought my love would last forever My dick was staring in her eyes I'm looking in her vagina. This is the best position of my life.

Oh, yeah. Now we're doing 69. Fuck yeah. We're finally doing 69. Feels so good. We're fucking doing 69 Feels so good We're fucking doing 69 Oh yeah This is episode 69

Start the show. Start the show. Alright. And here we are. All right. And here we are. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. Episode 69. The season finale. I love that.

The season finale is episode 69. And I love that the Wood Brothers are on the show today. How are we doing, guys? What's the word on the street? I am your fearless leader for the next hour, hour and a half. We're going to theme this, as you could already hear from the opening song. It's going to be a dirty episode.

And I, you know, I feel bad because the Wood Brothers are so sweet and they're so philosophical. And we're just going to add all this porn talk to it. But, you know, episode 69. Welcome to the show, guys. Man, what a fucking week. I've been in Colorado.

I've been hanging out in Breckenridge. By the way, before I start these stories, just add awkward moans throughout the episode. You know, just make it feel like it is a 69 type of episode. Thanks, buddy. But I'm in Breckridge right now. I'm looking at the mountains. I'm staying at my buddy Scott's cabin out here. It's beautiful.

It's been hanging out. I love it. We're in the process. I fly to Philadelphia tomorrow. I'm going to go catch Michael Rappaport and try to interview Ween. They're playing at the Met. So we'll see what happens.

I love Philly. I'm going to New York for about 10 days. Go hang out near Christmas and whatnot. I love it. It's like my last hurrah of traveling before I move into this house in Denver on January 2nd, man. It's already happening, finally. What a year.

It's been ups and downs, lefts and rights. You know, that's, I think, when you look back and, when you look back at years, you know, the ones that you remember, at least. You know, the ones that you remember, at least. It's nice to have some way of growth, some parts of sadness, some parts of excitement and good news. You know, when I think of like a full year, what can I analyze from a year? It can't always be sad because we always just think about the sad shit sometimes. We don't think about also the good stuff, you know. I had my fucking anxiety run rapid this year

like a fucking wild dog. But I think it's because my anxiety knows that I am giving up on it. And I don't need that shit anymore. And I feel good. I feel clear. I'm ready for 2020. Gonna fuck this year up.

We're all gonna fuck it up. Because what can we do. We're all gonna fuck it up. Because what can we do? We're still alive. Look at ourselves. Look at your friends. If you're going to holidays, if it's Christmas, look at all your friends and your family. And just be

with them. Be with the present. Be in the moment. Never worry about maybe the bad shit that your brother did when he was 15 or the crazy shit your uncle said to your mom one year that you overheard or yada, yada. Let's try to take people for who they are today and not take people for who they are yesterday because we all have the chance to change and uh if you want to change you know you'd want the same respect from anyone else that is trying to change too so let's go into this fucking holiday um open ears open hearts what is that fucking movie oh yeah, yeah, Friday Night Lights.

I love that movie. Clear eyes, clear hearts, can't lose, some of the shit like that. But it's true. Give people a shot. Don't hold grudges. Let's try to have 2020 be all about whooping that ass, enjoying life, trying to be the best people we can be.

I interviewed the Wood Brothers. I've been a huge fucking fan of the Wood Brothers. And to hang out with them and hear about, you know, because I always hear horror stories about fucking brothers joining bands. You know, you hear the Black Crows and shit, and people just beating the shit out of each other. But these guys, I didn't have any of that animosity when I was here, seeing any of that animosity

when I was interviewing them. And I think it's because they joined a band together when they're later in life, when they're actually adults and they don't have to hold all these fucking grudges of brotherly love. So I can't wait for you to hear that interview. It's coming up soon, but I'll leave it early and we'll talk more about this. But ladies and gentlemen, it's going to be a good year. 2020. Episode 69. I can't believe we're at episode

60 fucking nine. You guys are still with me. You're still riding with me. I fuck with y'all. Thank you so much. It's going to be be a big year My new record's coming out I got a lot of stuff brewing We got some killer interviews set up for season three Just gonna be good ones So ladies and gentlemen Before I start talking I bet fucking moaning away on the fucking

Opening segment Even though I'm trying to be philosophical But yeah Let's listen to the Wood Brothers And I will catch you after the interview To talk more about How we can fix this holiday This holiday cheer

Alright bud, talk soon Alright, next up on the interview hour We got the Wood Brothers Yes I didn't know they were born in Pasadena All right, next up on the interview hour, we got the Wood Brothers. Yes. I didn't know they were born in Pasadena. Kind of raised in Denver. Now they live in Nashville. I'm pumped up that they're getting this success,

or Oliver's songs are getting the success. Hey, Chris, play some Wood Brothers while I'm pimping them out a little bit. Yeah, good guys. Chris, Oliver, the whole gang. They're badasses. Folk guys, Americana, really taking it seriously, really trying to change the game of how we listen to Americana music. You know, with Chris's involvement with MMW

and Oliver's story is just, they're brothers. And they write music and they're connected and the story's amazing. So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy The Wood Brothers and I will catch you on the tail end of it. I've seen him play on some old cheap guitar But he could play on pots and pans He'd never heard a soul

so pure and true It's flowing right out of his hands And he can sing sweet as a choir girl And he can sing a house on fire I seen him calling up

the angels and use a breeze for a telephone wire but if you ask him how he sings his blues so well he says I got a soul that I won't

sell I got a soul that I won't sell I got a soul that I won't sell I got a soul that I won't sell And I don't read postcards from hell Coming in fucking hot with the Brothers of Wood. What's up, dudes? Oliver, Chris, how you doing, man? It's good to be here, man. Good to see you in Colorado.

Yeah, so tell me, what is the worst thing about being in a band as brothers? Worst thing? It's all the baggage, you know? Yeah, like what? Like, do you have any memories outside of music about your brother that's like you'll remember for the rest of your life? Like any thing that... Well – give me one of them. I mean, there were some traumatizing things.

Probably most of them were my fault because I was the older brother. Yeah. And, you know – It had nothing to do with it. Well, but Chris had some good revenge moments, and one that stands – that's clear to me is one time we were in the yard, and I don't know what I did, but I did some asshole big brother thing, and he reached for a croquet ball, which, as you know, is very dense, heavy,

and I ran as fast as I could, and he got me square in the back of the head. Knock you out? No, he didn't knock me out, but it was exactly what I deserved, I think. I also had a pretty good arm. Yeah? He did have a good arm. Was there always, like, how many years apart are you guys? Four.

Four. So you guys went to the same high school? No, not quite. Because our high school was only a three-year high school. We started sophomore. Yeah? Our high school was only a three-year high school. We started sophomore.

Yeah? So tell me about, like, was there a feeling of competition, doing two things together musically? Or, like, were you always wanting to play music together? How'd that come apart? Like, who was the first musician in the family? Well, Oliver, you know, being a little older, was, I think, the one to really get serious about playing an instrument.

And, excuse me, I'm turning that off. And then, you know, he's also the one that went vinyl shopping first and got the cool records that influenced me as well as him. Were you inspired by your brother? Well, yeah. I mean, you know, as any younger brother looking up to an older brother,

I was just inspired by his choices and checking out what he was checking out. And when he bought all these old Muddy Water, Lightning Hopkins, Jimmy Reed kind of vinyl records, and we put those on, and the sound of those records was a big influence on me, for sure. Really? records was a big influence on me for sure really so and then he ended up getting an electric bass for a minute he decided he wanted to do that and then quickly decided changed his mind to a guitar and then handed the bass to me and showed me how to play the blues a little bit and i just kind of ran with it yeah and i will say i mean ch Chris was a really serious musician before I was a really serious musician. Like, I dabbled, but when Chris got that bass, he was immediately working really hard at it. And it made it where he quickly caught up to where I was on guitar,

and it made it, you know, we had a couple years together where we overlapped and we still lived at home when we used to play together. How old were you there? I mean, like when we were, you know, Chris was 14 and I was 18 or whatever, 13 and 17. Okay, so you're still living in the house. Both teenagers, both in the house,

both proficient enough to play music together. And we had a four-track and we used to jam and we used to write little weird things on the four-track. What was the first musical memory, a song? Do you still have those recordings? Well, I think, you know, maybe early, early stuff, we were just trying out some covers. Maybe we'd learn a song by The Clash or The Police or something like that.

That's right. That was like 80s, early 80s, like punk and rock and roll, the Pretenders and the Police and the Clash, you know, three-chord things that we could just jam along with. What did you like about those type of songs? Well, number one, they were awesome. I mean, they just had awesome energy, but they're also simple. We could pull it off.

You know, we weren't quite ready for the more complicated stuff, maybe. When did you start taking songwriting seriously, though? I didn't do that until much later. I got really serious about guitar, and I started playing in a band called King Johnson when I eventually moved to Atlanta, which is where I lived for 20 years before Chris and I even put together the Wood Brothers.

While Chris was in New York, I was in Atlanta. But I was surrounded by great songwriters, and a guy named Chris Long was my partner in that band. He was a bass player. And he's the guy who was writing songs. I was like, wow, I want to do that. And he was singing most of the songs. I was like, I want to do that too.

And luckily, he was real encouraging. When did you realize you had a voice uh i don't i'm still figuring that really i mean but i started singing really late and um and i just i don't know and i still so what decided you guys to join a band together then? Well, I mean, like Oliver said, it was about a good 15 years where we just were really apart, barely spoke, barely saw each other, maybe for Christmas here and there or something like that. Just because you guys were busy? Yeah, we were both just pursuing our own careers

and had our head down and were just focusing on what we were doing. I was in New York with MMW and touring and just trying to build a career in my 20s and just lost in that world and not really paying attention to much else, just trying to make that work, which was such overwhelming. The whole thing was overwhelming. What was the difference between the Atlanta music scene and the New York music scene? Well, a huge difference. Huge difference.

I mean, you know, what I always say, which is because, you know, obviously the Wood Brothers sound a lot different than Medesky, Marnin, Wood. 95% of the influences are exactly the same. Really? Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's all... It's just two different brains then.

Well, and then there's the fringe, that other 5%, you know, like there's some weird stuff that Medesky, Marner, Wood were into that maybe influenced us. But a lot of it was just the context of, you know, the New York scene and especially the sort of downtown New Music New York scene that we came up in as MMW was just, I mean, we were, yeah, it was a very creative, forward-thinking. Everyone down there was trying to do something new, something that hadn't been done, or at least put some mold in a completely different context to make it sound new. What about, like, was it easy to make a living in 95 as a New York musician? Like, can you get gigs all the time?

Yeah. No, it was actually, in hindsight, you know, at the time, I had no idea what I was doing. I just showed up, basically dropped out of music school because John Madesky and I met, and he's like, let's move to New York.

And I was like, okay. You guys went to the same music school? Well, yeah. He's actually almost exactly my brother's age. So he graduated, and so we didn't overlap. But yeah, he ended up going to that same school. Anyways, yeah, we moved to New York and just started MMW.

And it was, yeah, just as a proficient bass player, it was relatively easy to get gigs and pay the bills early on and live pretty simply. But it wasn't long before I was touring with other acts, but then MMW started touring as well. What about Atlanta? What was the vibe? Was there like a 200-cap scene? Oh, there's homie.

So Atlanta was different and my interests were a little more in roots kind of music, you know? So I was hanging out at blues clubs and I was playing with a lot of older players.

Andy, John. Nice to meet you bro um and so uh that was kind of my thing as i was hanging out with sort of old older seasoned musicians that played blues and southern rock and r&b playing r&b gigs and um you know backing up r&b singers and then eventually i went on tour with a guy named tinsley Ellis, who's sort of a blues guitar player out of Atlanta. He gave me my first touring gig. But I was sort of in that root scene.

Like truckers and Dave Schools. Was widespread part of that? Overlapping. But I think I was a little bit more more in less in the jam scene and a little more in the blues and r&b and rock and roll scene um although that athens music certainly was that you're in there were you doing a lot of athens stuff not a lot but just but that was part of where we'd go play gigs as athens yes it's only an hour from atlanta were you getting like tuesday gigs wednesday gigs or was it close only an hour from Atlanta were you getting like Tuesday gigs Wednesday gigs

or was it like basically your work gig whatever the worst ones were I got them explain the worst gig well you know it has a lot to do with like

television ratios you know like the sports bar gig yeah you would just do like three hours it's the worst it's the worst

but that is the worst but um but yeah eventually getting you know that just doing gigs like that and having people hear you play and that's how i got my first road gig and and that's also how i met the guys that i started an original band with king johnson that was really more like okay now we're doing what we like to do nobody's paying us but at least we're doing making records and doing what we what we like to do so do you still like being on the road no no uh actually we talk about this a lot i i personally like parts about i love the music part the music part never gets old but you know if you have a family at home, it kind of sucks to miss soccer games and concerts and family things.

And that's the part that I hate. Yeah. Like, I feel like, you know, a lot of these guys with these mental health, you know, mental health is huge right now, I feel, with we forget about that we're human, you know? Yeah, totally. And we forget that we're entertaining people and giving out so much that we forget who we are as people. How do you keep telling yourself who you are when you're on the road? You're probably not doing three months in a row anymore.

No, we're pretty sensible. We're like two weeks at a time, two weeks on, two weeks off. Were you ever doing it that heavy? I know you were. Yeah, but even back with MMW, I mean, one time we did a five-month thing that just was one tour after another, and it hurt us. Did it almost break you guys up? Yeah.

Yeah, in fact, we almost split up. What was the breaking point? The breaking point? Yeah. Do you remember the day? I do. What happened? It's a little too personal to get into, I think.

But it's tough, right? Because when you're on the road, you're sleep deprived. I don't know if you guys got into any substance abuse or anything, but I've been doing 250 shows a year for the last 15 years, 13 years. That's great. We're podcasting now. Yeah, and I'm doing a podcast. You're ambitious.

Yeah. Well, I stopped doing Coke, so i'm like i have all this free time so i was like let's let's how come how come people who are into coke always have the most energy even when they don't do coke i think it's like an add drug it's like it's like adderall it's methamphetamine so like they think it like kind of calms the brain down right so when you're torn like nowadays it's easier, it's more comfortable. And now I see you guys, you guys keep on getting bigger and bigger.

And is this, was this always the plan to be in a band together when you were kids? Or this is just kind of slipped in? This, that's what I think, you know, because people always ask, you know, brother band, isn't it hard? Do you get along?

And I think our secret is we didn't start until we were already middle-aged. We'd already got our asses kicked by the music business and the road. And, you know, we're humbled and seasoned and our expectations were tempered. And so, you know, we've kind of had with the Wood Brothers, it's been, what was it, since 2005, I guess, when we very first started. And it's been this really, we call it our slow rise to the middle. Yeah. You know, we certainly haven't had a meteoric rise to stardom by any sense. And thank God, because for me, personally, it was a huge career shift.

I mean, obviously, I'm sort of the same job but not really i'm in a band now that involves songs and singing and and to acclimate to that i needed time yeah i bet i mean how long did it take you you think i'm still working on it but but um you know because ironically when i was a kid i was singing all the time. And I had a band and I was in a choir. I did all the choir scene. And, you know, so lots of singing situations. But then when I got into jazz and decided I'm moving to New York, I just completely let go of that. I never thought I'd revisit it ever again.

But then when... Who called who? Well, so we had this fateful gig that, you know, gets talked about sometimes where Medesky, Martin, Wood and King Johnson did a double bill. Were you on a label? We opened for them. We were on a tiny label. Yeah, but we opened for them.

But you're still drawn. You're starting to become established. A little bit, but very slowly. Were you touring heavy like him? him no they had the bus we pulled up in our van parked it next to their bus so how did we open that's your bro your bro's in a fucking tour bus and you're just chilling in this van like fuck i'd be like fuck this guy well you know what he worked hard i always felt he deserved it and i i never felt i don't remember feeling i'm sure i felt envious but i never felt like resentful i was like he worked hard i always felt he deserved it and i i never felt i don't remember feeling i i'm sure i felt envious but i never felt like resentful i was like he earned it i'm i'm gonna

work harder you know yeah or at least get him in my band someday so tell me well tell me so how that that fateful gig so yeah we did this gig together and our band opened for their band and they invited me to sit in um and play some guitar on us on some of their stuff and chris and i just had a blast and we hadn't played together in years and we were just standing next to each other just like grooving and like uh sort of reading each other's mind it was having that sort of unspoken communication thing that happens between musicians who have played together for a long time you get this sort of psychic thing but we sort of had it right away like it was built in we're like how are we doing

this how did you know and even even john and billy felt it i mean honestly like it was it was you know from a desky martin wood the other two guys felt it too like they felt this familiarity they're used to playing with me and they're like whoa here's another alternate version of me or you know just someone who blood blood yeah say and some of the just the same like i would watch oliver play i'm like well that felt familiar the way he chose to do that like it just felt like his instincts were similar you know so yeah there's this instant connection i think that was the spark was that the first time your brother wowed you? I think because it was live, you know, it was live in the moment on stage. Everything's heightened about that.

And so, yeah, I think that was a real wake-up call. Like, wow, we actually are both good at what we do. And it's like we have the same job. Like, maybe we should do something. That was the loud part. That's the connection part. The part that was like, wow, we have this thing that we both do. And we're speaking the same language.

And we had also been, you know, kind of apart and in different music scenes, different parts of the country. So we kind of grew apart. So it was this way. It wasn't just a music thing. It was like, ooh, this is my brother. I can reconnect through this. And I think so we made an effort after that to,

when we came home for Christmas, we'd get out our instruments and play. We'd make sure to play and record together and just have fun. So it was a way for us to get close again. Man, that's amazing. That's beautiful because you're family, and you guys not being that close. I have that with my sisters.

My sisters are eight years and six years older than me and I'm, they're doctors and shit. And I'm like the, I'm the hippie. So I don't get to talk to them. And like, I'm finding out a way. And like, I did it with my dad through fantasy football. And all of a sudden, like we are connected again. It's amazing how you guys did that with music so you got you guys connected again so what was the next step you did you want to make a record yeah i remember i

remember specifically this one conversation where oliver's up visiting i don't know if it was a family function but it's at my house in upstate new york when i used to live there and he was about to live in upstate yeah i lived uh so after I lived in the city all through the 90s, and then I moved up to the Saugerties Woodstock area in the Catskills. Oh, sick. And I was up there for like 12 years before I moved to Nashville. With like Marco and... Yeah, I was there before Marco, but yeah, not far from him.

Yeah, that compound is beautiful. Yeah, it's great. That area is... Anyways, I remember Oliver just like was down in my music room and he's like, you know what? I think we should do something because I think you're about to turn 40. And it was kind of felt like this self-imposed deadline

of like I need to do something different. And like you almost phrased it like I need to do this one final something, final statement. You phrased it like, I need to do this one final something, final statement. You phrased it that way, like this was your last shot to try something. What were you going through mentally? I don't know, midlife. I mean, I had been playing in my band. While Chris was doing MMW, I had this band, King Johnson,

and we toured our butts off and we never made it out of the van and you know still had pepperings of sports bars and whatever crap we could do just to survive so um so and that sort of started fading and I got more interested in going back to the roots and uh doing something new and different and to be able to do it with Chris was like the ultimate. Yeah, and I remember just saying, okay, I love this idea. We don't know what we're going to do, but I know what we're not going to do.

I just came from this band that people call a jam band, although we never really knew what that meant or thought of ourselves that way. But anyways, it was like, okay, I know it's not going to be that. And it's not going to be what either of us had done. It's going to be some combination. And so we really just started by having fun rearranging some of Oliver's songs that already existed

that he would play and already recorded. What was the first one that did make... The first one we rearranged rearranged i mean there was a couple couple of them ended up on our first record uh one more day was one oh no shit that was that was your old band song atlas glad luckiest luckiest man luckiest man was you wrote that when like mid 90s really long time ago what did you feel like it wasn't ready or didn't it wasn't there i played it for a while oh really i'm already sick of it you played it since the 90s well since like late 90s yeah how does that feel that it got popping

in like 2010 dog that's like 20 years i'm like i know this song is good and now everyone knows this song is good that's funny well it doesn't seem any better than any other song it just happened to catch on yeah but yeah we started out just doing that and then while we were doing that we're like oh let's check chris will play a new groove and we'd come up start writing our own new tunes and that's you know then you made. Then we made the first record that sort of had some of these old songs, some of our new songs, and it was just sort of a little side project-y, fun project, and we didn't know it was going to turn into a record deal.

Who was the deal with? Blue Note. Oh, Blue Note gave you the deal? Well, yeah, so Medesky, Martin, and Wood were on Blue Note, and when we started, the Wood Brothers, we basically just plugged it into the MMW machine. So we had the same manager and booking agent. Are you still with the same guys, same management?

Yeah. Same family? Yeah, it feels like a family at this point. Absolutely. I will add that that's what basically gave me a career, like a legit career. I got lucky to connect with chris who already had a manager already had a booking agent that we use to this day you know

so that was the structure that i never had before that and we were all struggling and was it difficult for you to pick up the phone and ask chris eventually to be in a band no do you feel like it was like... Totally mutual. Really? It was mutual and organic. Well, actually, I mean, because part of it also was from my end

is I knew the other guys in my band wanted to get off the road. Oh, so it was like a perfect... There was starting to be a lot of talk of that and I knew there was going to be this slowdown happening.

So part of my... Perfect timing. Part of my fiscally responsible inner brain was just like, I better start another project. And it's like, oh, Oliver wants to start a project. Perfect. And then my whole career with MMW, I was told, this is so funny, but I was told constantly, oh, the real money's in vocal music. You know, like who said that to you? Oh God. I mean, all right, I'll give you a quick story. Early in MMW, before we signed with Blue Note, we were being courted by like 17 record companies. Like for what we did, it was kind of an amazing moment.

That's pretty dope. What year was this? biggest meetings we were at Columbia Warner Brothers, and I think it was Donnie Ainer, you know, famous record exec guy. And we're having our little meeting, and then Donnie's going to come in the room and talk to us. The last five minutes. Yeah, and so he waltzes in the room, and all he says to us is like, so, I hear you guys want to sell some records. Which nobody ever said that.

We're just, you know, that was just, that's just his thing. He made that up and then his next sentence and final sentence was get a vocalist oh so he was listening end of meeting

that was the end of the meeting and we didn't sign with him yeah and meanwhile Bruce Lundvall from Blue Note was amazing and open and enthusiastic

and loved what we did so we went with him and then consequently he signed the Wood Brothers and could be just, they were great people over there. We related. So yeah,

I kind of had it instilled and even our manager sometimes, you know, it's like, well, you know, they have vocals so that's why

they're getting the big money. Yeah. So I had this, so meanwhile, the record business is going down the toilet because of the internet and Shazam

and all that stuff. Everything. yeah. What were the record deals like when you first signed versus at the end? Well, it was never an end because you're still with Blue Note. So what's the difference between... Is Blue Note a sub of a major? Yeah, EMI Capital. And so, yeah.

So when MOW signed, we caught the end of the era where you actually got real record deals and where the money really went up with every new record and all that and uh but meanwhile everything's sort of slipping you know so everyone was stressed by the time by the time that the wood brothers got our, I remember being extremely disappointed by the numbers. I was like, wait a minute, we have a vocals now. What is this shit? Yeah, so in my ignorant brain, I thought, naive, you know, I thought the numbers should be even better than MMW

because we have vocals. You're buying a five-bedroom house. Oh, God. So needless to say, we had to start from the beginning. And we're lucky. Did it humble you? Oh, God. So, you know, I was...

MMW did pretty well for considering the kind of music we were playing. We did well. And we're touring in a tour bus. And things are pretty comfortable. We're in a crew. So it was right back into my minivan. Me and my brother just hitting the little bars and yeah it was starting and you loved it because all your vibe this is your vibe yeah well it was

exciting i was it was i was used to it already i felt years of sharing sharing hotel rooms and playing the tiny places and did you almost quit no no i never considered that like to me i was determined to make this to make this happen. And when people referred to it as a side project, I'm like, what are you talking about? It's a real project. What's a side project? I don't even know what that means.

This is music and it's important. It was cool because we eased into it. You were still doing gigs with MMW and I was still doing some gigs at home. So it wasn't like it was suddenly all we were doing. But over as time progressed gradually it started to take over and as it grew we also spent more

and more time and toured more dates I mean it almost killed me because I had to tour both bands as full time as possible At the most how many shows were you doing from both bands because you need to build the momentum Yeah so there was this slow crossfade where MMW was pretty full-time, and then every time there was a crack

in the schedule, we'd try to go out with the Wood Brothers. And then slowly as MMW slowed down, we'd fill up that time. So I don't even know the numbers, but I'm still a little damaged from it. But I'm grateful because it worked.

Do you think sleep deprivation causes anxiety on the road? I'm still, I'm a little damaged from it. But I'm grateful because it worked, you know. Do you think sleep deprivation causes anxiety on the road? Anxiety? Yeah. And vice versa. Anxiety causes sleep deprivation. Yeah. It's a perpetual cycle.

Explain that. How do you sleep if you're too anxious to sleep? And then you start worrying about not sleeping. What do you worry about? Sleep, not sleeping. Yeah. That's about it. That's it.

Pretty much. Oh, yeah, and there's the future. Oh, and the past. That one gets me. Otherwise, worry free. The present is awesome. It is halftime at the Enni Fresco interview hour. Welcome back to Review on the Post, Art and Family.

Today on the pod for the 69th episode, I am reviewing amateur porn, my favorite genre of porn. There's too much incest porn. I'm into amateur stuff, but it is not really amateur porn. These people are porn stars, okay? If it were real amateur porn, the first five minutes of the video, the guy and the girl would just be going, you know, you get on top. No, you get on top. No, you get on top. No, you get on top. Okay. If it was amateur porn in the background of the screen, you'd see the fucking news on. All right. You'd hear the neighbor mowing his lawn. That's amateur porn. Amateur porn isn't a girl going like,

no one's ever made those sounds during sex, okay? That's not a real sex sound. And no guy cums as much as these guys. That's an insane amount of cum, okay? You know how much cum comes out when I have sex? Like a loogie of cum. That's amateur porn, okay? That's it.

This has been Review. I'm your host, Ari Finlay. Guten Tag. How hard is it to stay present? I would say, many books have been written about this. Do you really want to go there? I would love it.

The short answer to me is, it's actually not that hard, but the hardest part is remembering to remember to do it. So that's what meditation is, right? Basically. It's actually not that hard, but the hardest part is remembering to remember to do it. Yeah. So that's what meditation is, right? Basically. Remembering to breathe.

Being present, I think, is another way of saying just remember that you have the option to be right here, right now. Are you most present on stage in your life? And with your kids or family? That's definitely... Let's let Jono answer this. Jono is maybe... Jono is one of the more present ones of us. Teach us, Jono.

What? Did you bring us a present? Yes, Christmas is right around the corner. Or I don't know when this interview is going to be played. Next week. Alright, sweet. So how do you stay present? And I want to know how this

How this man got on the Because like You my man of the glue Everything you do in this band Is so fucking tight I'm just trying to hold it together man Just trying to maintain So

Being present If you're the best Because I'm still learning How do you be present just you just learn how to shut the fuck up or that's a good start yeah like taking little moments of silence all the time i mean just like taking a little pause that includes when you're on stage that includes when you have the idea to play something to just be like oh i just thought of that and then just listen to what these guys are doing.

How'd you meet these guys? I met them on the road. I met Oliver doing, that was a weird gig. Yeah, we were both playing in opening acts. We were both playing in opening acts for a bigger tour. Yeah. Zach Brown tour.

It was like Bridgestone. We got to talk about that too. How is it? Yeah, we'll talk about that. It was like Bridgestone we gotta talk about that too we'll talk about that Bridgestone Arena but I was a big Wood Brothers fan they were my favorite living band so did you court them? or like what did you do?

yeah I tried my best I got a chance to talk to oliver for a few minutes uh i don't know we just talked and then uh and i thought that was awesome you know uh and then i just went back to my house and i was listening to wood brothers records and then i got a call out of the blue like i guess a bunch of people had recommended me too. You guys had just started trying to make it a three-piece with a drummer. We had mutual friends and stuff, and we were asking around. We were looking for a real permanent guy, and several people recommended Jono, and we're like,

hey, we know Jono. He is a badass. I remember looking on YouTube, and there was these videos of Jono playing the shit-tar. Oh, I didn't even know you saw that. Shit-tar. What's the shit-tar. Oh, I didn't even know you saw that. Right, the shit-tar. What's the shit-tar? The thing he plays. Yeah.

It's a crappy guitar that you turn into a percussion instrument. Sounds sort of like a drum kit, but in the shape of an acoustic guitar. And what was so attractive about that is if we wanted to play real unplugged, you know, this upright bass acoustic guitar we could still have a beat that wasn't that was like american sounding you know that really still had that roots american sound as opposed to like a djembe or a shakare or some brazilian or african instrument this was an american percussion invention sounded more like a beatbox so how did did you have did you already have one of these? Or did you make it for the band?

Oh, I had made one to do like radio tours in the past because you can just walk into, you know, a studio and throw a mic on it like an acoustic guitar. But I remember the first gig, like we talked for a while.

Oh yeah, yeah, I think we're going to, you know, get together and do a tour. And we, I finally had the first gig. It was in New York at Carnegie Hall. And all I played was the shit guitar.

First gig in Carnegie Hall. We were doing this. Neil Young. So Michael Dorff was the promoter, a guy who started the Knitting Factory. And he would do these series where you get all these big names to come in. And everyone would do, it's always a tribute to an artist. And so this particular time is Neil Young,

a whole bunch of other great artists, including The Roots and Patti Smith and all kinds of people. So we're just doing one song. It was a good way to, but it's at Carnegie Hall. So it's kind of an interesting thing. We just met Jono. We had our first rehearsal ever. And then the thing I remember that really got us in rehearsal is he picked up the shit tar and we started working on the song

which i which i don't even remember what sugar mountain sugar mountain and we started singing harmonies and jono's just had this beautiful high harmony parts and we're like oh my god that's great we didn't even know he could sing we didn't know he could sing we didn't another thing we didn't know is that he could play keyboards he's like as good on keyboards yeah we didn't even know that we just like that's a good drummer nice guy that's what we're looking for and he could sing and he played keyboards and he has a shitar so back there were backstage at carnegie hall and we're kind of warming up a little bit and uh and john was playing a beat on the sh. And then it's just like a cartoon. So Questlove's head just pops in the frame of the doorway.

And he looks in. He's like, what is that? And he calls all the guys from the Roots over. And he's like, look at that thing. And just something about that day, everything clicked. And it was just like this omen. Like, OK, I think we got our band here. Did that blow your mind that fucking Questlove is giving you love on the drums?

At that point, yeah. It was like a cartoon because his bro just enters. His bro entered from the right and then it disappeared and then all their heads entered from all sides of the doorway. Just playing a beat on the shit tower.

That was awesome. That was a good day. That was a good day. That was a good day. So you felt like you needed a drummer in your band. Why? Yeah, well, we were... Chris and I had been doing this as a duo for a while. And with each record, we would hire a drummer to play a little bit more.

Our first record had very little drums. drummer to play a little bit more. Our first record had very little drums. And we were just feeling like it was hard to grow into a bigger audience, bigger venues, maybe limiting, I don't know. Just bigger crowds, louder situations. I mean, it made sense. The sound had to grow to match the places we were playing as more people showed up. That's what I want to talk to you. When you're doing these stadium tours, how hard is it to be an opening band when no one knows you, so you're basically

trying to win them over, and maybe they don't give a shit at first. I would be like, even how big the crowds are. Your music is so intimate. How hard was that? It was hard, and it was depressing, I've got to say. Because like you said, anything subtle,

which is some of our favorite things about our music, is the subtleties. They're not going to work. So I will say, from doing it some, we did get better at it. And I think we got better at uh playing small places too from playing to big places we we understood the scope of things more and how to connect to people more so there's a there's an art to it and it's impressive when you see you know like we did those tours with zach brown those were some of the bigger venues we did and we didn't really

like playing for 20 000 we'd rather play for 2,000. That's more like us. What was the most awkward time opening? I don't know. You could just tell people are ready for it. They may want to hear some songs that they heard on the radio. I can tell you a hilarious, awkward time opening, but it wasn't with the Wood Brothers. Tell me. Go ahead.

It was with Adam. I can't remember his name, he's an australian country artist and it was just out of the blue someone called me and was like can you play at bridgestone arena next week with this country guy just a few songs opening for taylor swift and i was like okay yeah so we had a couple rehearsals at the big sound check place but but it was supposed to be used supposed to come out acoustic you know and i actually played the shit tar there yeah for which i thought was hilarious before a taylor swift show playing a shit talk and but, her set at the time, before she came out, she had a huge curtain that came down from the rafters of the arena. Like this incredible thing that was probably going to do a big drop when she came on stage. I never saw it. But, um, so the lights go

down and it's filled with like 13 year old girls, like 20,000 of them. And they show up early. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all there with their mom or whatever, I guess. And then the curtain parts a little bit and we walk out and I don't think they knew what an opening band was or anything. And they thought it was the show Taylor's starting and they all screamed at the top of their lungs. And I thought I was going to go deaf, number one.

And then they were all really confused. And then we had to play like four or five songs and they were just like, when's Taylor coming? Were you doing the one mic at the stadium shows? Yeah. That's funny. We had a Medesky-in wood opened for um a tribe called quest and it was a similar thing yes there's these i mean yeah we didn't look we looked out

of place and we're huge fans of them too so we were so honored to be there but the front row they just wanted to see q-tip so bad and they did not want to see us that's i just interviewed g love yesterday and he was he opened for tribe called quest and almost made him quit because he was like white boy hip-hop from philly he thought he'd be accepted like who the fuck is this it's tough like how how when you're building a show like even the openers because i i interview a lot of comedians and stuff and they're thinking about the the vibe right when people walk in. Do you think about that?

Are you a vibe guy? Absolutely. What's your vibe? We have our sound man starts it off. I mean, we have really cool walk-in music, so really cool gospel music. It's just stuff that really creates an atmosphere. And then we do try to put some thought into our opening acts too,

like our support acts. We want it. We're not just like, oh, whoever wants to do it, we don't care. We want it the whole night. What's that? Do you have Shook Twins? We have done Shook Twins. Yeah, they're awesome.

John Craigie. But that's what's cool about thinking about the whole night. Like, what is it going to be like when people walk in? What kind of music are they going to hear? And then we like to find something that contrasts what we're going to do. So oftentimes we like a good female vocalist or an incredible instrumentalist or something that's just contrasting to what we do, but also that we could collaborate with.

We have Katie Pruitt on tour with us right now. She is bad. She's awesome. Oh my god. I played with her on some cruise and she could sing her ass off. She is a soul machine, yeah.

What we love about that, we think about if we were going to a show, we would want to be entertained in a certain way. We don't want another three-guy band yelling like we do, like singing lots of vocals or whatever, or we don't want a chopsy something that just changes the vibe. We have certain things, aesthetics that we like. So I think we do put some thought into it.

There's no one way to do it, but there are certain things that feel really good. And then when you're thinking about the set too, is it the same, like, not the same theme,

but like, you bring everyone in, turn the lights, you bring the vibe in, so now you're at your show. Yeah. What do you focus on when you're making a set list?

I don't know. Chris is the set list master. Really? Okay, give me your philosophy on set lists. Or'm going to let Chris as the set list master. Really? Okay, give me your philosophy on set lists. Or a flow of a show. Well, the flow is important.

Obviously, it's hard to articulate this stuff because it's a lot of just instincts. And, you know, you want sonic variety. You want interesting transitions. You don't want a lot of dead air. I mean, I don't. Like, I mean, some artists are great and tell stories, and that's part of dead air. I mean, I don't. I mean, some artists are great and tell stories,

and that's part of the thing. That's not our thing. The music takes front and center and takes precedence. And so I want things to flow. So I like, yeah. It's hard to get more detailed than that. I mean, you're looking for variety. Are you changing the set, or you just have one set for the,

for each tour? No, we change it. We change it a lot. And one thing that helps a lot because we're on stage and so we have a certain sense

of what we think is working, but then we get a lot of feedback from our crew who really help us. With you? Oh,

absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, not like, yeah. The front of house. Yeah, our like... Yeah, our guy in the front of the house. Yeah, our guy Alan Peterson's amazing.

He's sort of like our coach sometimes and he's like, man, that really worked or this could be better or... We run the sets by him. Yeah, I love having him

in the room when we're making a set because he'll have really strong suggestions because he's seeing it. He's seeing it. Yeah. He's watching the show every night. He's hearing it. He's a it. Yeah, he's watching the show every night.

He's hearing it. He's a musician, and he gets and appreciates the music, but he's also creating the look. And all those things go together from the audience's perspective. And us, I'm never thinking about the lights. I'm just focused on these details in the music, probably too much so. So he helps give me a big picture perspective,

and it helps a lot. What about like philosophy between playing like beautiful theaters to festivals? Well, so we definitely, you know, the space changes the music, changes what we play. That's absolutely. And we're flexible with set lists. If we're playing a really quiet listening room, we'll do a much more, well, we'll play music that's appropriate for that and that's going to shine in there. We don't want to beat people over the heads

if they're sitting and quietly listening. I got to learn that. And then at a festival, if it needs to rock, we'll let it rock. And by this point, we have, I mean, maybe 80 songs. There's a lot of material that we can draw from. And you're playing everything? Trying to? we try. Lately, we've been trying to mix it up every night and do something kind of new every night, even if that means new old, something we haven't done for a while.

Yeah, I'll add to something that helps the vibe for us is if we're having fun and if we're challenged. So sometimes we will change arrangements or set things up because they're fun for us. You know what I mean? It's like we've been doing this song for a long time. Why don't we change it to an acoustic song or strip it down or something? Something to keep us on our toes.

And you talk about being in the moment. Yeah, that helps keep you in the moment. Oftentimes what, actually every time, what brings the show to the next level just within a night is either a screw-up or just doing something completely new. And usually the only, oftentimes the only way to really do something completely new is on the heels of a screw-up. So if we botch something,

suddenly our sense of trying to control everything is out the window. So we try to build that in for ourselves, I think. Like, ooh, let's put ourselves on our toes and try this tune that we haven't done in a while, and we're going to do it acoustically on big mic tonight. And like, here we go. Yeah, we had a great wake-up last night.

We actually played a show last night where the PA messed up for about 20 minutes. Pretty much. Like we lost a lot of channels. The board itself. The board itself. So it's just a freak accident, weird thing. It was sort of awkward.

Like, what the hell are we going to do? So we took our condenser big mic out and just stayed on that for a while while the crew worked on it and just had to sort of be on our toes and change it up. But it ended up being such a fun show because we were just not, we just had to be on our toes and think fast and people loved it. They could tell there was some tension, but then the music sounded great.

And so I think, yeah, it's being present. It's like, it brings you back to that for sure it's crazy because wow yeah this is so fascinating because when that's i feel like that's when we have the greatest shows yes when we're not fully thinking about anything else but just that present moment and those quarterbacking those like moving the mic and changing the set list and having an audible like that's is do you do that with your songwriting are you still inspired writing songs like or is it or is it a job yeah i mean it doesn't ever there's no formula like there's no nobody knows what makes music good really and that's why it never gets old because

otherwise we'd have it figured out and we'd just program computers to do it for us. But yeah, it's always exciting. What do you think of acoustic music is being drowned out by electronic?

And how music is going now in the future, do you think? What do you think about that? That started in the 80s. Ask my dad about that. He's a professional drummer. Yeah? Yeah, I mean, he used to make his living touring,

but then in studios in New York. And then all the studios died and all the gigs because drum machines and because one guy could do a decent job of making a commercial or programming a demo. But I don't know if it's getting any more that way. Everything goes in cycles. It all goes in cycles. Everyone gets all excited about some new technology, and then it gets tiresome, and then a real drummer is like the best thing ever. So that's just going to keep happening.

I tell you, you see kids, like i was just watching videos of just watching this little girl on ellen degeneres just screaming and playing the drums uh to like nirvana song or something i forget what it was but rock and roll still alive i mean it just feels so good yeah you know you hit an instrument and it makes a sound and it vibrates in your hands and it vibrates the air around you. And the performance aspect. I mean, like seeing someone really performing and emoting and getting into something, you know, it's very different than watching someone press a button on a laptop.

I mean, it's just, it's a different genre. That's why when we break it down to the one mic, that's my favorite part. And I think a lot of people's favorite part because they just see there's nothing that they can't hide. I was going to say something still about being present

in your question about songwriting. On our new record that we just finished, for the first time, we did it in our own studio. So we had this new luxury of, you know, we didn't have to watch the clock and we didn't have to pay for studio time. We were just paying rent on a building. So it's this huge luxury. Where is it?

In Nashville. That's where you live? Which is where we live. You live too? Yeah, all three of us do. Oh, really? And, which is new. None of us are from there. But the thing about this new record that was so exciting and this new way of writing that we discovered,

that for ourselves it's been done, but we just did a lot of improvising. So again, we played music in the moment because we weren't thinking about songs. We were just like, this is a cool studio, let's jam. So luckily our engineer had us all wired up and we had album quality jams all improvised

all us just listening and screwing around taking chances, things we would never play if we were recording a song do you like it better that way? well what was awesome about it is that we captured things that we never would capture you can't recreate those kind of things you can't recreate being in the moment

that moment's gone even the style of recording You can't recreate being in the moment. That moment's gone. Even the style of recording, because we set up sometimes in the same room, there's a lot of bleed, but that gives some of our favorite records are made that way. So it gives it a certain quality that we actually really liked. Like, let's use this. We'll write a song over this, edit it, bring it shorter into a song form, but then use the original improvisation because there was some magic going on

that we're not going to be able to recreate so that was the first time that we really how long did it take you guys to make it? we spread it out over a year but the thing is, I did a bunch of other interviews today and we talked a lot about this and I just remembered that, you know, we recorded probably a couple hours' worth of jams

before it really even occurred to us that we were going to use them for an album. So we didn't even know we were making the album yet. We were just playing for fun, and then we were listening, and we were so inspired, like, that sounds amazing. And then one time, Chris just edited one down and said, check this out. It could be a song. Who cares if there's only two chords or even one

chord? And it's like, that's the coolest thing we've ever done. We've got to do this some more. It goes back to talking about simplifying. Yeah, simplifying but capturing the being in the moment part, which is never hard to do if you're just sitting there, okay, let's play this song.

It's pretty special. Wow. I could talk to you guys for hours. I got one more question. Thanks for being on the show, guys. This is awesome. You're on the season finale too, so I appreciate this. All right.

Do we need to do something nuts? Dude, you're on episode 69, so I'll be doing stuff nuts throughout the interview. So don't worry about you doing anything nuts. Last question, and then I'll let you get to ask. I'm going to come to your show tomorrow. I'm staying in Breckenridge tonight, so it's not far. I'm going to come.

All right. What do you guys want to be remembered by when it's all said and done as musicians, as songwriters, and as just people? as musicians, as songwriters, and as just people? Well, I mean, both musicians and songwriters. Like for me, I always have this thing I say a lot, but it's like when the Wood Brothers first started, it was like I loved, there's songs that I love,

but I didn't love the music. And I just thought, was there a way to have a song still be a great song, still be all about the lyrics and the poetry and the music be equally as exciting? And so I had this fancy group in my head. What if Charles Mingus and Robert Johnson started a band together? That that was sort of just the thought experiment that that started the Wood Brothers for me it's like and we've spent is that basically you bro what Mingus and Johnson well just because you know I was coming Mingus is a hero of mine and I was just coming from Medesky Martin and Wood and there was a influence and sort of a creative music influence. Oliver was really steeped in real traditional blues stuff

and just knew that vocabulary. And then a lot of his style and songwriting came out of that. So for me, it was like that was, for me, like that's Oliver and I getting together, starting a band. That's what it could be like, you know. That was my weird fantasy about it it and so we've spent the rest of our career like slowly integrating those things like finding creative ways that the song writing and more uh creative ways of making accompaniment to a song can all go together

and become one thing beautiful what about you um i think for me i'd like i find you know you asked about touring and how just we get worn out by it and i think we always get reminded when people are singing along to the songs or people come up and say man your your music got me through a tough time when i lost my parents or whatever. There's all kinds of things. But I think it's the connectivity that the music, that's the rewarding part, maybe the ultimate reward of the music. When you think about all the sacrifices that we have made to just do it for a living,

the rewarding part is really that, oh, it makes people happy. People need it. It's healing. The rewarding part is really that, oh, people, it makes people happy. People need it. It's healing. And I think, I hope that the music sort of lives on for that, if nothing else. Do you regret anything in life?

Not much. What about you, Chris? Sorry, I put you on the spot. You know what? Ultimately, no. I feel like I followed my heart and it's kicked my ass at times. But I feel like I've been pretty honest and truthful about what I want, where I'm going.

And sometimes there's collateral damage. But what else can you do? Is that life, though? It's compromising? That's life. And just, again, to come back to the presence thing, we talked a lot about making the record and improvising as a way to stay present. Or our show, things go horribly wrong, and it actually turns into a beautiful thing.

But then there's also you're getting older older and we're doing this all the time and there's a grind element to it, you know? And it's like, well, how do you stay present with that? And for me, it's gratitude. It's just like the best way, if I had to tell a musician, what's the best way to listen? How do you make your ears listen?

And the best way is to whatever you're listening to, be thankful for what you're hearing. So if John was playing some beat and I'm just like, God, thank you for being so good and appreciating the sounds he chose and the feel that he's playing with, that appreciation, that's listening. Or if Oliver starts a song, I'm like,

God, thanks for writing that song. It's an amazing song. We play it every night, but it's good every time, and I'm grateful for it. It's an amazing song. We play it every night, but it's good every time, and I'm grateful for it. That's listening. Wow. So that, to me, keeps things always feeling present and fresh,

even if it's something you've done a million times. What about you, buddy? What do you want to be remembered by? Let's see. Ever hear, if you've ever heard Levon Helm talk, and just watch a video of him talking, I think I'd like to make people feel like that.

Yeah, I feel that. Musically or just that kind of. Levon was special, huh? Yeah, kindness, gratitude. It's all the same thing, right? Did you ever meet Levon? Yeah. I used to live just 15 minutes from him, and we'd do the rambles, you know,

in those last few years of his life. We got to sing The Wait with Levon. Oh, my God. Give me one thing Levon told you, then we'll leave. What was one life thing that Levon had taught you? He wasn't... Put some tape on it.

Put some tape on it. Put some tape on it. That's from his musical instructional video, right? Where he's like, if you don't like the way your drum sounds, just put some tape on it. And then if you still don't like how it sounds, put some more tape on it. Well, that sounds like philosophical life.

You know what? He wasn't one of those guys who needed to tell you something. He's one of those guys you want to just be like him. By example, you're just like, I want to be smiling and looking people in the eye. And he treated everybody

like a brother. And that was the lesson he passed down. All that gratitude stuff is really inspired by him. I mean, he embodied that. I'll never forget the ramble when you're the opening band, and then it's time for him to go on.

They put, you know, it's a barn, holds 200 people. It's a pretty intimate space to begin with, but they put the band literally right behind Levon's drum kit. That's like the special place you get to watch the show from. And like several times during the show, he'll just look back at you with that Levon smile. There's nothing like it. While he's playing, just the best, you know, feeling drum groove.

I'll never forget that. And that kind of says it all. Yeah, you don't really need words. So true. Guys, thanks for being great people. Thanks for inspiring me. Your music inspires me. And your stories, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Have a great people. Thanks for inspiring me. Your music inspires me. And your stories.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Have a great one. When's the new record come out? January 24, I believe. Oh, perfect. Kingdom in my mind.

Kingdom in my mind. I hope it just fucks. I hope it just kicks ass. It's going to get us to the middle. Well, I'll meet you there, buddies. Later. Well, hello. I am Arno Bacher, and this is Staying Relevant with Arno Bacher.

Today, we will travel back to the year 2012, and we analyze the lyrical structures and hidden messages in the song, Lick My Neck, My Back by artist Kiel. Shall we get started? Lick it good. Suck this pussy just like you should get started? Lick it good.

Suck this pussy just like you should. Right now. Lick it good. Suck this pussy just like you should. My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack. My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack. First you gotta put your neck

into it. Ah, don't stop. Just do it. Do it. Then you roll your tongue from the crack back to the front. And then you suck it all till I shake and hum. Make sure I keep bustin' nuts all over your face and stuff. Slow heads show me so much love. The best head comes from a thug. The dick good, thick, big and long.

Slow thumping till the crack of dawn. On the X, making faces and stuff. Through the night, making so much love. Dead sleep when the sun comes up. So lick it now, lick it good. Lick this pussy just like you should. Come on, right now, lick it good. Lick this pussy just like you should. Come on, right now, lick it good. Lick this pussy just like you should.

My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack. May this be an inspiration to you all to share your wishes and your hopes in these darkest days of winter. Get to know one another. Share your needs. Lend a nonjudgmental ear. Tear away from your taboos. Find instruction.

Find knowledge. Find equality. Find love. Could this be the path to a better world? See you next week in Staying Re relevant with Arno Bar. Wow, what an episode. Episode 69, the season finale coming at full effect. You've heard porn.

You've heard the Wood Brothers. Now we're going to talk about psychedelics with my man Joe from Psychedelics Today podcast. Big podcast. It's growing rapidly. It's fucking huge, dude. I had a bunch of people say, oh, we know Psychedelics Today. Really? Yeah. Cool.

And it was nice. So I wanted you on the show because this is the finale and we're talking about New Year's resolutions and porn. It's episode 69. But what do you think? Episode 69, but what do you think? How can we get people away from the stigma of psychedelics being bad for you? For 2020 to control our mental health. Because you see a lot of studies coming out about psychedelics, especially psilocybin.

Yeah. About it helping people get through PTSD and anxiety. So tell me, what do you think we should do? How do we break that stigma? How do we break that stigma? So you got to learn, people should just understand what's happening in the medical research world. What is happening? So tons of research is happening.

More than has happened in decades. So way back, LSD was the treatment of choice for alcoholism, at least in certain provinces of canada yeah and uh like in la like big movie stars were taking lsd as part of a therapeutic program well like what kind what kind of program like they were just depressed it was like a therapy program like psychotherapy um and that was a really big thing in for hollywood for a while like carrie grant i think um jack nicholson i don't know which one's the golfer anymore but one of those guys the actor yeah he was he was into it like um there's a lot of them so there's

a huge history of lsd in the medical world and there's a huge resurgence of medical research because apparently that research doesn't count these days because it doesn't do like the placebo-controlled double-blind studies, etc. What? Like that's what they didn't do back in the 50s and 60s. So therefore, modern medical science doesn't want to accept those. So we have to do it kind of all over again. Which to folks like me who have been studying this stuff for way too long. How we have to do it kind of all over again. Which to folks like me, I've been studying this stuff for way too long.

How many years? It's kind of boring. I started researching in 2001 pretty heavily. Damn, 20 years under your belt of studying. I feel old. But it's good. We need people like you to get through that stigma. Joe, how are we going to save the world?

How are we going to save the world mentally? Well, okay. There's the mental health path, and then there's the creativity problem-solving path. So first, we're really damaged. Culture is pretty sick. I think when I recorded with you on my show, I said everything was a fraud, blah, blah, blah.

I got kind of snarky, and I was like, shit, should I say that? It's your show. I put it out, whatever. I think a lot of stuff is pretty fraud, blah, blah, blah. You know, I got kind of snarky and I was like, shit, should I say that? I put it out, whatever. I, I think a lot of stuff is pretty fraudulent and you know, it hurts us. And the stigma of drug policy and the cops being out for you and you're afraid to act like those are really big things. And, um, it's traumatic.

Like the drug war is traumatic on anybody who's interested in drugs. Young people. Yeah, totally. Are you going to smoke weed or are you going to go vape? You're probably going to go vape because it's more edgy now. Yeah, and now you're going to vape, and now that's giving you cancer. Black market vapes.

Black market vapes. There's the health angle, and I don't know if you saw this, but maybe two to five years ago, there was a study that came out that said psychedelic users tend to be a lot more environmentally conscious. Yeah. So there's almost an inherent good for the planet in psychedelic use based on that study. I only know that there's one instance of that study, but this is an observation most of us kind of see. Like if you're going to twiddle

or papadozio shows you're probably into the environment you know could be the vermont thing are these people happy they're probably happier than the people that are just watching sitcoms every night drinking white wine why do you think that is well white wine's toxic. TV culture is toxic. The drug harm scale that Dr. David Nutt put out, I think it was 2007, shows that alcohol is more harmful to person and culture than heroin, crack, et cetera. Why? It loses inhibitions.

It somehow triggers violence. You don't see a stoner or somebody on acid typically beating somebody else yeah um you know there's certainly tough cases with lsd but it's not all the time mushrooms i feel like are even less disturbing but you know perhaps not why do you think people love cocaine? It makes them feel different. It doesn't make them feel out of control. They feel more in control. Like you've probably seen it a lot.

Like, okay, here I am, Mr. Somebody that doesn't feel great about themselves. They do cocaine. They feel great about themselves. It provides like a 1% to 3,000% boost in dopamine, which is extraordinary and probably not healthy that's not healthy and um as a result of that you get all this weird behavior like i'm you know the man i you know do all this stuff and it just makes them feel substantially different there's like a

joseph campbell line do you know joseph campbell yet he's like he's the the god of mythology like um he did tons of mythology research and brought it to the public he's the guy that made star wars what it is and and george lucas had a shitty script and he went to this you think it was because of psychedelics no this guy might not have done psychedelics it was because of mythology but this guy who helped lucas was also good friends with the lead lsd psychotherapy researcher at the time stan groff who formed this breathwork method that i'm into holotropic breathwork what's that about uh it's essentially psychedelic healing states through breathing and group process you don't have to take drugs to feel no that in the moment type of thing that drugs no i've had my breathwork experience my peak most intense breathwork experience was as intense as

my only but very very very intense ayahuasca experience so through breathing and i was tripping before i even started accelerated breathing like i laid down no drugs promise like laid down was full-on visionary states i felt it coming for minutes before why aren't we promoting this if people are afraid of drugs i am yeah psychedelics today wanted to bring breath work into the psychedelic conversation more than bring psychedelics into the modern conversation talk about this so this happened after so people have been using breath to modulate consciousness for ages like yoga there's all sorts of shamanic traditions you know there's there's tons of ways to modify

consciousness like even iroquois or i don't know who which native american group it is like put hooks through the chest and like hang and do the sun dance thing horrifying but cool um so lsd psychotherapy research was going for decades and then it became illegal. This guy, Stan Groff, got hired to go out to Esalen on Big Sur, which is a hippie mecca at the time. Tons of experimental psychotherapists and yogis were going, shamans from around the world. So he was writing his books on LSD psychotherapy and also watching these people. And that looks really similar to the things I saw with my clients on LSD. So let's dig in. Turns out with accelerated breathing, that's all just accelerated breathing, nothing special, just a more volume of air than normal plus music and a group setting

with some body work and then artistic expression and sharing at the end is a really complete package i did this for from 2003 to 2009 without really trying psychedelics and get you through some mental shit for sure yeah i was like drinking a lot i was kind of you know young guy kind of risk taking that looked a little self-destructive you know death wishy like i was taking a lot of risks on my snowboard rock climbing a lot doing a lot of dangerous shit and you know i'm paying for it now in my body but it allowed me to work a lot of that stuff out on the mat while laying down as opposed to you know killing myself with booze or something because i was you know full tilt party animal were you depressed i think so i think it was more self-esteem and anxiety.

So you got into this breathing. How long did it take until you kind of felt the effects of, wow, this is really fucking helping me? Probably a year. So I probably did it. So it's not the kind of thing you can do at home. You have to go do it with people. Does it take a while to learn?

No, you can, again again it's just breathe and if you're in the right context you get substantial change and why are people teaching this shit i teach it here i got a workshop february break a ridge yeah february 8 here i um my business partner does it and in the east my teachers are in vermont there's people all over the world doing this stuff holotropic breathwork our brand is transpersonal breathwork um it's awesome i do you have to have like a license to like do you know because it's kind of new agey it's kind of like a yoga thing like you would need a yoga cert to get insurance but if you're not worried about that you just do do it. So fucking drugs are 2019, baby. 2020 is all about breath work, dude. Yeah.

So for 2020, let's learn what we're putting in our body. Let's learn how to fucking breathe. Let's be okay and take out the stigma of psychedelics. Yeah. Because they're not that bad for you. It's like anything. If you overdo something, because they're not that bad for you. It's like anything. If you overdo something, it's going to be bad for you, right? Right.

Everything in moderation. I'm really on board with legalizing everything for a harm reduction measure. People wouldn't be dying from fentanyl and cocaine and heroin if heroin was legal and regulated. There's a ton of people dying from fentanyl and cocaine and heroin if heroin was legal and regulated. There's a ton of people dying from fentanyl in these drugs, and we could totally prevent it through regulated markets. Well, let's not take fentanyl. I've had it a few times. Have you had it?

No. Only in surgery. Only in surgery. Fentanyl? Yeah, they use it as part of an anesthesia regimen for surgery. Why are people addicted to opioids? It's just, there's this awesome psychiatrist, Gabor Mate, who he kind of wraps in a bunch of theory and other people into one cohesive whole. It's amazing. And he talks about how childhood trauma and addiction are intimately linked and ADD and

addiction are intimately linked. There's a ton of people with ADD. Oh yeah. Tons. And they dose everyone with methamphetamine. Right. To, to quote unquote treat it, which, you know, it does impact people in a helpful way sometimes with ADD, but you know, is it the right move i don't know um but there's a there's an interesting link between childhood trauma add adhd and addiction and you know this writer gabriel mate he was addicted to buying vinyl or classical music cds almost to the point where we got a divorce and he writes about it quite a lot and he's like it doesn't need to be drugs it just needs to be something like you know people are addicted to porn like you're talking about porn heavy and you know anything snowboarding risk-taking behavior booze you know i was certainly an alcoholic in the past and so what can we do what can we do to make people if if listen for this we'll leave it this before this is the end of the season advice

um before we go into season three and jim we're gonna be off for three weeks people so i'm taking a break i gave you a lot of podcasts this year i'm gonna take a break i'm gonna great podcasts you have great podcasts too i started diving into yours yes go listen to psychedelics today um it's everywhere like mine, right? Okay. So what advice can we give people who are afraid to accept

their anxiety and who are afraid to accept who they want to be if they're stuck? Like what do you think the first steps we should be? Therapist? Talk to somebody? Or take some mushrooms and figure out what the problem is? Sleep, exercise, diet first.

Sleep, exercise, diet. Okay, so get some sleep. Yeah, try to get eight hours. Try to not eat garbage. You know, figure out what that is on your own. Diet, food. A little bit of exercise. And then a little bit of exercise. At least go for a walk. At least go for a 20-minute walk if you're not going to go to the gym. You think your body controls the bad? Huge. The body has enormous influence on the mind. I was talking to my philosophy teacher last night,

and we're like, the mind isn't necessarily the brain. The mind is diffused throughout the body, at the very least. Healthy body, healthy conscious. Right. From there. And then figure out what works for you. Like if it's a therapist, like I think you should probably get a therapist

if you're not feeling great. Everybody should get a therapist. I feel great. I have a therapist. It's awesome. It's old Jew. He's teaching me everything. Excellent.

Okay. So like a rabbi. He's like a rabbi. So I want to, I need to start seeing a therapist probably cause I'm maxing myself out with multiple jobs, bodily injuries. But I,

and then from there start reading about psychedelics. Maybe take our class. We've got a great class on this subject, but you can get a lot of the same info just by reading books, read the classics. Don't go towards like the new age the culty thing like if it looks like it's religious perhaps pump the brakes and like have a little bit of a critique like i don't want to say that stuff's wrong i just don't think it's

what you should go for first yeah and then you know carefully consider if you want to go do it if you're comfortable with legal use or illegal use. And, you know, I don't want to say you should break the law, but, you know, maybe it's okay to break the law once in a while. But what do you want to do and how do you want to do it? Do you want to do it with a guide, alone, friends at a festival? Maybe you start going to Bonnaroo or go to 420 Fest at Sweetwater. That looks awesome. I want to go now.

That's going to be a good fest. That lineup looks great. And then you start small and then work your way up. Don't make yourself, don't push it. Like, go easy on yourself. That might be the thing. Go easier on yourself.

Yeah, like we take, we're too hard on each other. Not each other. I need to be perfect. We're too hard on ourselves. We're not hard on everyone else. We're hard on ourselves. And that's what I think

is fucking us up. You know, with all this social media bullshit and everyone just liking everything everyone does. And we have to take a step back and realize, do I like myself right now? And how can we fix that, right? Yeah, yeah.

How do you get a better relationship with yourself? That is the question you should probably start asking yourself. I think a lot of this stuff comes from questions. Not necessarily go do this, but what are the right questions that could help you improve your life? asking yourself. I think a lot of this stuff comes from questions, not necessarily go do this, but what are the right questions that could help you improve your life? So for 2020, we're going to find out how to be better to ourselves, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks for coming on the show, Joe. Absolutely, Andy. Love to be here. Pitch your psychedelics today. You have a website? Yes, sir. PsychedelicsToday.com. We just launched psychedelic education center.com and we do classes for therapists, clinicians, partiers, whoever people with a spiritual inclination or otherwise.

And we've got probably 170, 180 episodes now. And we're, we're really growing quickly trying to serve that clinical audience and try to make party animals safe, safer. Amazing. So guys, that's it for the season.

I hope you had a great season with us. I had a fun learning about all these artists and these guests. And, um, I just want to leave with this, you know, be safe out there. If you have, uh, your parents or you're, you're pissed off at your parents or your sister or whatever, you're pissed off at your parents or your sister or whatever, fuck it. Enjoy the day. Enjoy having family around you. Comb your hair. Be better to yourself. Don't worry about whatever people think about

you. I was having this thought last night. I was worried about what people thought. I had a lovely person tell me to calm it down and now I feel better. So be safe. Comb your hair. Wear condoms. Fucking overpopulation is real. I'm going to save that

for the holidays because you're going to go back. Get tested. Get tested. But I'm going to save it for the holidays. You're going to fly back to your fucking town

when fucking local Billy or local Susie is going to be at the bar and you're going to fuck because you're going to be drunk and you're going to be vulnerable. You're going to miss those old times. So wear condoms

be safe out there episode 69 thanks Wood Brothers um thanks Joe uh Arno take us out

with something nice sweet and something that'll keep them interested for season 3 love you guys be safe thanks for being on the show

Joe oh bye well thank you for listening to episode 69 of Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast produced by Andy Fresco

Joe Angel Owen and Chris Lawrence please subscribe rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this

a worldwide phenomenon for more info on the show please head to our Instagram at world saving podcast for more info on the blog and today head to andyfresco.com

better your love life with change of pace from the shameless andy fresco although hardly instructional possibly not even stimulational it was consensual in the making that's a start this week's guests are the wood brothers find them online at thewoodbros.com b-r-o-s woodbros this week's special guests are sean eckles and the avila ari findlings brian swartz and arnold buck and we have reached the end of the second season and yes we hope to welcome you at season number three in the year 2020 in the meantime life will not stop politics will not. Global warming will not disappear, nor will the homeless. Your tribulations, your imperfections, your mood swings, loneliness, your anger, nor your angst, nothing will vanish. No matter how lengthy the list of resolutions you will draw up,

it will not make you perfect. No matter how many push-ups you do, that in itself will not make you a better human. That struggle towards improvement needs direction. We are not alone in this world, on this earth, in this country, in this city, in this relationship. We are not alone. If you are well equipped, let this be an assignment. If you're struggling, let this be an arm to lean on. Find each other. You're not alone. You are not alone. Be gentle.

Be safe. Be. Now, a message from the UN. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, doing his Santa cocaine. Vixen, Blitzen, and all his reindeer blowing lines the same.

Bells are ringing, children singing, but there's not much time. So hang your stockings and say your prayers, cause Santa's ripping lines. Hey, Rudolph, get over here. Shut that door, man. Yeah, nobody else. All those elves are trying to get

my stash, man. Yeah, this is good shit. Come Santa Claus here. Let's go, man. Shut that door, man. Okay. Yeah, nobody else. All those elves are trying to get... Oh, it's keeping my stash, man. Yeah, yeah, this is good shit. Come Santa Claus here. Come Santa Claus coked out of his Santa Claus brain. He's got a bag that's filled with seven eight balls to help him make the rounds again. Hear those sleigh bells jangle, jangle. He's in for a long ass night. It's 24 times over 12 short hours.

He's fucked right out of his mind. To the moon, Rudolph. Good one, man. No, this isn't for you. Not what you think it is, man. Get out of here. Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus.

Doing his Santa cocaine. Vixen, Blitzen And all his reindeer Blowing lights all day Bells are ringing, children Singing, but there's not much Time, so hang your Stockings and say your prayers Santa's women lies

I can't feel my face. I can't think at all.