Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 78.5: A Quarantini with Brian Schwartz

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

Another end-of-the-week check in from your friendly, neighbourhood quarantiner: Andy Frasco. A familiar, guiding voice emerges from the eerie silence of lockdown... it's Andy's manager and voice of reason, Brian Schwartz! Ahri reviews. Spotlight on the incredible, John Craigie at the top of the show. Stay inside, y'all. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, tour dates, the band and the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new album, "Change Of Pace" on iTunes and Spotify Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

I just got up on stage and this is what I said. I said, Everything. Everything is fucked I'm sorry, that's no way to start a show I apologized I started again I said most, most, most Most things are fucked.

But please don't give up on me now. Because I'm here to get you out of this dark hole. That's my job after all. Craigie, make them laugh, make them cry. Oh, that's what it says in your bio Oh, make them cry That'll be easy tonight Way too easy tonight

But make them laugh Almost impossible It's like a funeral out there. Don't let the darkness break you, my friends. There are so many of us and only one of him. So I, I, I, I did my research I tried to find some silver lining But I didn't have much time and it ain't great So I hope you can appreciate my findings

Here's what I found it's historically proven that when the president is a republican we have better music artists are better when they're bummed that's how it goes that's how it's done When times are good, musicians they get lazy And the bad music slips out and it drives us all crazy For example, in 1995 A new band named Nickelback came out And in 1995,

the Democrats were in the White House. I'm just saying. Same goes for Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, Matchbox 20. Mmm, bop. Oh. I'm just saying. Macarena, Justin

Bieber, all the results of the Democrat leaders. I'm just saying the world may go to shit, but we'll have better music. Don't let the darkness break you, my friend. There are so many of us and only one of him. Now I'm not going to get up here and tell you things have to get worse before they get better. Oh, it's just not true. Things could just get better, stay better, continue to get better. Oh, that's just not true. Things could just get better. Stay better. Continue to get better. Oh, that's not what things usually do.

Just ask Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King. Every now and then, there's a bunch of bullshit. You gotta fight it. And when we fight it, we always win. Oh, but the pessimist in us wants to scream, Craigie, shut up! What about the battles that we lose? I tell you, fool,

them just the battles that we haven't won yet. Don't let the darkness break you, my friend There are so many of us and only one of us Yeah, yeah, yeah All right, all right, all right. Here we are again. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco.

How's everyone doing today? Another two for two fucking week. Quarantini edition. Light on the sauce today. We got Brian Schwartz, my manager, stopped by the Frasco Quarantini house with his fucking mask on and shit because he thought I had the Rona. He doesn't know where my fucking body has been via crowd surf.

As you know, through all the voicemails, the neurotic dad he is sometimes. But we got Schwartzy coming in. Man, but I'm telling you, man, shout out to everyone who watched the I'm So Excited video. That video has 400,000 views. That has more plays than my music, y'all.

Shout out. That's fucking awesome. You guys are dope. I'm just trying to make people happy as much as I can. This new one we're putting out, it's good. It's good. I'm not going to spoil it. Maybe I put it out before this podcast release,

but we got some gems of special guests on the video. It's been so fun learning iMovie. I'm like, you know, it's like, I realized this is your opportunity to learn something you don't know anything about. I didn't know how to edit videos, and I've always wanted to do it. I mean, it looks so fun.

Everyone, you could like, I'm like OCD, so this is perfect for my brain. I get like all the timings of each voice. It's like, it's fucking awesome. So shout out to the quarantine for giving me a little free time to like do stuff that, you know, I've always wanted to do, but that should give you guys some motivation to get off your ass. Netflix will always be there. This is what we should do. Because we'll probably be in this motherfucker for another two or three weeks.

The way our fucking government planned for this shit. So, this is what we're going to do. I want you to write down, get a piece of paper out right now. I want you to write a list of everything you wanted to do when you were younger to self-help yourself. It doesn't have to be like fucking, oh, like motivation, like yoga, or like, I've always wanted to be spiritual.

It doesn't have to be that. Like, what do you want to do to help yourself? Like, do you want to learn a language? Give three weeks to at least get a C in like language one. You could do that. You could go read language one. You could do that. You could go read a book. You could learn an instrument. I want to learn the guitar today

after I do all these cameos. Oh, shout out to everyone asking me to do cameos. I've been having a blast doing them. I'm just getting wild in my house. I look like a crazy person. I hope my neighbors don't peek through my windows because I am just trying to pump people up via telephone video. So shout out to everyone who bought Cameos.

If you still want to get Cameos, I'm here. I'm chilling. Go to cameo.com slash andyfrasco. I'll make a video for whoever needs a little pump up. That's like my only source of fundings right now. So if you want to support the cause, support the cause. It'd be killer. But back to development. Whatever you want to do. You want to fucking learn YouTube Taekwondo or something or fucking do it, dude. Get fucking ripped. I want to pretend like this is prison

I want you to have that prison body Fucking yoked up By the end of this You have this fucking nasty beard And fucking yoked out bod You gotta remember Summer is coming after this You heard it

First Or you didn't hear it first Probably watching CNN Or you know what I try to do Probably watching CNN, everyone's like, or you know what I try to do? I try to put my face in the sun and close my eyes and pretend I'm at the beach. It kind of works until it's like, until someone yells at you or the paramedics

drive past your house or something. But it's crazy. People are getting sick. A lot of old people are getting sick. A lot of old people are getting sick. A lot of young people are getting sick. Just stay the fuck home. All right. Enjoy Brian Schwartz.

And I will catch you, probably not on the tail end, but I'll catch you for next week. We got a fun guest. We're going to do two for two for the next two more weeks or three or hope it's only three. Fucking stay home.

All right. Love you. Bye. for the next two more weeks or three or I hope it's only three. Fucking stay home. All right, love you, bye. All right, we're here. Still alive. The quarantini episode where we have a very special guest. Actually, my manager.

No more voicemails for this episode because we have him live in the flesh. Brian Schwartz, how are we doing today? We're doing good. I think we're only about four feet apart. We're four? Should I move over two more? Yeah, a little bit. Okay. Brian brought his mask and he brought pizza. So I probably already got the Rona from the pizza, him holding the pizza,

but at least he's being safe and wearing a mask. And I wiped down this mic because you know this mic is full of whatever the fuck you've been doing. Too long. So what's going on? Should I be worried about my career? No, if I were you, I'd be concerned. I think that there's so many different reports. There's a lot of confusion. I think that it's important to properly plan for maybe even the summer being gone

as far as doing gigs. The whole summer? It's possible. I don't want to think that way. Right now I'm thinking that we resume in June, mid-June. Though a lot of agents and other managers and my peers are talking about August. And so I think that if we,

I think that we'll have a better sense of what's going on in the next few weeks. And then there'll be a little clarity. What's your gut say? I mean, my gut is probably based on my will to want to see this thing turn around. So my gut's a false veil, I think. My gut's giving me information that I want to hear.

And so I don't know that listening to my gut's going to make any sense for anyone. Though I'm an optimist. And so now I think that if we look, it's like Dr. Fauci said, if we look at what's happened in China, a number of cases are going, it's going backwards. It's turning around. It seems to be on the decline. And if that's the case, what was that timeline like, two or three months? I mean, I'm just regurgitating here, so I don't know. It seems that it's two or three months.

And now, you know, if that same thing happens here, you know, we're looking at June. We're looking at June. And so, and if it goes past June, we're all going to figure out how to make it. And we're just going to prepare and we're all going to band together, no pun intended. And we're going to take care of your band guys

and we're going to take care of your band guys and we're going to take care of the artists that we all work with and our peers and we're just going to do what we can. Who's going to go down first? In what way? What do you mean? Who's going to lose their jobs first? Well, I think you mean in our industry? Yeah.

Well, I think it's already people at the club, on the club level. You know, production, you know already people at the club, on the club level, production managers, loaders, people who have already lost their job, ticket takers, ushers, people that you can't just keep on salary, they get paid per show. So those people have lost their jobs for now, and hopefully they'll come back and they'll be able to figure out how to bridge gap.

I think there are a lot of newer assistance at some of the agencies that might go first. I think some agents are concerned. I think that there are management companies that are going to have layoffs. I think it's a cash flow issue. If you look at your calendar right now, the way we have it worked out, you have somewhat of the fortune

of rescheduling a lot of what's been, not a lot of cancellations for you, a lot of more postponements. So you're deferring your money. So it's a cash flow issue. And it's the same thing as an artist. You pay commissions to us. And so we have the same cash flow issue. And it's the same thing that, you know, as an artist, you pay commissions to us. And so we have the same cash flow issue.

So we have to figure out how to manage that cash flow issue in our business the same way you do. I imagine it's the same thing for agencies. You know, it's the major conglomerates that have debt structure I worry about a little bit. Like what? Well, I don't know. Some of these corporations.

Live nations of the world? I don't know. I don't want to, you know. But like that big. Yeah, those behemoth companies, yeah, they must have some debt structure. Yeah. That's how business works.

I imagine I'm not their accountant, so I don't know. But look, we have to be optimistic. And the one thing that we should all take faith in is that music is important and it's important now and it's important later on. In your case, thankfully, your lyrics, this mask is making my glasses fog up.

I know, I can see you. You're fogging up, dog. That's a silver lining. I'll take off my glasses because I'm keeping the mask on I'd rather be blind than have the Rona the Rona lives in the Frasco house I hope that if this actually makes a podcast

that Chris is going to play my Sharona every time I know I love that he's so good so what was I saying? So you said the debt type of companies who are bigger...

Oh no, I was talking about the positive side of things and music and how we need to bring music to people. And I'm really glad that we're in a position to do that. Especially you. You don't need me to do that. You can do what you did three days ago and just get on Insta Live or Insta TV and go have 150 to 300 people watching you without announcing it, without promoting

it, and just play songs and uplifting. I know you well enough to know that was uplifting for you too. You were in a funk, you were pissed at me, and I was giving you shit to get online, and then next thing I know you're online. And it was awesome. And I watched it, and your fans, even though you didn't ask for money in Venmo

and they were Venmoing you money. Sean did the same thing yesterday. And he did, he got some Venmo tips and did great. I'm really happy about that. And I encourage. Do you think it's too soon that we're asking our fans for money? Well, I think the way it happened for you

was you didn't ask for money. Somebody chimed in and said. No, like the scene, how everyone's doing these live streams asking for donations right now, and what about in three months? I don't think that it's our place to judge what people do. I think that if somebody needs money today

or if they feel they need to save money today and get it today, I'm a fan of get it while you can. So I wouldn't say defer it. I would say get it. But that's just me. I'm just nervous asking my fans for money right now. I don't think you should ask your fans for money.

No. I think your fans... You should just continue to make great music and content with the podcast and maybe this new show you're working on. Your fans are going to support you if you keep

bringing them joy and hope. And the cool thing about you and your music is that it's uplifting music. Keep on keeping on, change your pace, feel it in our bones. I mean, all the new songs are just uplifting. And I love that. And a lot of them are sort of anthemic at the time.

A lot of them have taken on more of a different meaning to people. So who's surviving now? Where are you getting... What are you banking on? All the money that comes from the estate accounts?

You're talking about from my business? I'm banking on my partners and Ellen in our office, who's amazing, that the four of us just have constant communication and we're coming up with a really good strategy for cash flow management and how we can keep everyone afloat. Our reality is that we have a great team of people

and they're really important to us. I'll speak specifically about my team, you know, Rachel and Crawford and Amy. And of course, everyone in the office is amazing. Everyone. Who knows, you know, it depends on how long it lasts. You know, we just kind of tried to do everything we can to keep them. And even if we all have to make have to, um, make some changes, you know, then, then I think we will have no choice, but the idea is, is how do we make sure everyone can pay their bills? Yeah. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour.

Welcome back to my quarantine update. I'm your host, Ari Finling. I'm on day 11. I'm losing my mind, guys. I don't know what day of the week it is. Time is a suggestion at this point. Yesterday, I sat in the bathroom for three to four hours just staring at myself in the mirror, talking to myself for human interaction. don't know what is happening. I'm losing my mind a little bit. I'm watching the news. If I see one more 21-year-old person bitching and moaning that they have to stay in their apartment, I'm going to kill them myself. Forget about coronavirus. I'm going to show up at these kids' houses with a fucking ax, and I'm going to cut their goddamn heads off, okay? Our grandparents had to go to fucking war. We can sit in an apartment for two weeks. That's all you have to do.

Just sit in an apartment. That's it. Watch Netflix. Watch Pornhub. They released their entire website. Everything behind the paywall is all open. Just go and jerk off. That's all you have to do.

Just sit in your fucking apartment for two weeks. That's it. Just fucking do it. Please just fucking do it. I want to leave my apartment right now. My wife and I are going to get divorced if we have to sit together for another fucking day. Just please stay home.

Do you think state by state they're going to start giving grants out to musicians? They're not worried about arts right now. I don't know if I'd say that. It seems as though there's a lot of concern about arts. I mean, Music Cares and the Grammy organization,

they're doing things already that I've seen a lot of people, a lot of organizations are rallying, and it's incredible to watch. And certainly in Colorado, Jared Polis, I think, whether he did this on his own or through lobbying, included arts in his proposals and grant write-ups or whatever he's working on. So I think there's a lot of support out there

from organizations and charities to help benefit those in need in our world. Well... And Music Cares, even, you know, I'll just say this about Music Cares. You know, having managed bands for this long... How long have you been managing bands for now?

Well, I've been in music for 22 years and I've been, you know, full-time managing bands since 2014. Sorry, 2004, excuse me. Is this the craziest you've seen in the industry? This is the craziest I've seen in my entire life. I remember seeing the towers go down.

I went to a wedding on Windows on the World or Over the World, whatever it was called, which is on the top floor of the World Trade Center on September 1st, 10 days before they went down. I remember being woken up when they were going down. That was the most impactful event in my lifetime that I won't ever forget, especially being a New Yorker and watching all the men and women first responders.

and women first responders. This time, it doesn't have the same impact as far as yet, and I'm hoping it won't ever, as far as the loss of life, because certainly all in one day in our country, and for no fucking reason but terrorism. This time, the issue is that we have to press pause on our lives

for a much longer period of time. So whereas in that scenario in 9-11, you had the flight industry that was affected negatively, but that seemed like it was just a blip on the radar as far as them resuming their normal flight scheduling. And now, it could be months before people start flying again. And that's, that's, that's catastrophic. And so this is, this is, we're going to see, we're going to look back and see pictures of the people who are struggling

right now. We're very fortunate. We are very fortunate. And I'm about, you know, sure. Some of us are going to have to go into debt more than they would like right now. But most of our peers, the people we know, even in the clubs, even, you know, at any level of our work life, we're most of us are fortunate. And I don't want to sound naive, because I should, I should be clear that there are people who, who aren't and who are losing their jobs and maybe get sick and don't get healthy. Our reality is not we have a roof over our head.

We have food. I just brought this. Thanks for the pizza and the cauliflower. Is that cauliflower? It looks like a fruit. I can't see without my glasses. I think it's carrots actually. What about restaurants? What do you think restaurants are going to do?

Well, I think restaurants are going to hurt. I think, yeah, everyone's hurting. Restaurants are a shitty business to begin in the first place. Sorry, excuse me, to any of my friends that have restaurants or the folks that work there. Even some of the busiest restaurants you'd see in Denver, the amount of money they net at the end of the year is slim, slim margin. So imagine what two weeks being shut down will do or a month.

So this is a big concern for everyone. And I get why it's so important for us to not go out and mingle. And for the record, the only reason Frasco and I are sitting next to each other, me with my mask, is that if he goes down, I'm going down with him. Yeah, that's how it is. We're like Jack and Leo from, or Kate and Leo from Titanic. I'm Leo. No, I'm Leo. I'm going to go first.

You're going to, I'm going to put you on that door and I'll freeze before you. Will you play me a song on the way out? A violin, baby. All right, good. Heart will go on. And I want to say this too. We're not that dull. We're not like high-pitched Eric.

Yeah. I'm not going to mingle. When I leave here, I'm washing up. I'm going home. I'm washing up. I'm taking a shower, throwing everything in the wash. I'm going to be very cognizant. I really do believe the only way to stop this

is if we can contain it and not spread it. And I'm very thankful that my parents don't live in this state because I would be over there seeing them. And I just, I'm so glad that I'm not near them and that they get to be home because they're the ones that, at least if we listen to the media,

we need to be concerned with. If we listen to the media. Yeah, that's a good idea. So what about, what kind of advice, so if this is the last time you're going to see me for two weeks, what kind of advice can you give me while I'm here alone? Well, first thing I would tell you is to not drink every day.

Because you don't normally have that opportunity. And so I would tell you to please try to dry out for a couple weeks. In a good, healthy way. I've only smoked one cigarette a day. That's great. Try not to smoke any. Seriously, I'm not worried about cigarettes either. I've only smoked one cigarette a day. That's great. Try not to smoke any. Seriously, I'm not worried about cigarettes either. I'm worried about drinking.

Yeah, you're right. I'm not drinking all day. I'm drinking right at 8 o'clock. I can't wait for you to listen back and hear yourself say that. I'm not drinking all day. Okay, well, fucking boo. Amazing. Clap, clap. All right.

That's one thing about this thing that's kind of a blessing in disguise. I am becoming healthier because of this, because I'm scared of my health. Listen, now's the time for you to recharge your batteries. I'm not trying to be a dick on your podcast about the drinking, though. There's no reason to drink every single day. Have a drink

occasionally. That's fine. But most importantly, just take care of yourself. I'm happy you get to work out every day. I'm happy that you get to sleep. Yeah, I've been sleeping a lot. 10 hours a day. And that you get a shower and brush your teeth and floss and all that jazz. But I think the best thing for you to do is just to really recharge your batteries and feel really, really good physically and mentally and take advantage of it and drain and drown out the noise. You know, don't, um, you know, don't listen to the media, like you said, all the time, you know, tune in here and

there, but be selective about it. A lot of it's just repeated throughout the day anyway. That's what I'm scared about too, is like, you're my, uh, you're my power. You're my, uh, you're my muscle. And if you don't, and if, and maybe you're just holding it in, but you're not scared, you think we'll make, we'll make it through? I'm definitely, I'm not scared. And that's, it may sound really naive to people. And if, you know, this thing lives on and I proved to be wrong, um, then, you know, so be it, make fun of me, I'm not scared I'm in a weird way I'm very calm about it all in some weird way

I think it's you've been waiting for this your whole life? no, I never even thought of something like that I never thought about a pandemic I'm like Trump, neither of us ever thought about it except the only thing, the difference is he's the president of the United States. Moron.

What the fuck? Anyway, so I'm not scared. I do like Dr. Fauci, though. I like him. I like him, too. He sounds like he's sick all the time. I don't know what's up with him. I just listened.

He was on Barstool Sports to talk to Gen X and and millennials you your glasses keep fogging up it's cracking my shit up i can't um but uh he was on fox uh you know sports show and he was talking to the kids and um he's like if we calm it down i mean he's like we could be done in three weeks that's what i'm saying i like fauci that's why i don't want to listen to a lot of my peers because I think a lot of us are neurotic. And me included, of course. And I think we just are going straight to doomsday mode. And I think part, I'm very grateful that we have a lot of folks in our industry who are thinking that way. And I'm also grateful there's people who are maybe a little bit more calm about it. I'm not worried. I have concern.

I just want to be wise. I'm very grateful that I have partners. And I'm very grateful that I work with amazing artists. And together, if we communicate properly uh we'll all figure out the best way forward no matter what happens well thanks for not firing me on your doubt when you if you ever downsize i hope you don't fire me i'm not firing you at all firing is not a word i would use i think it would be called letting go oh would you let me go i would not let you go never no no no no no no really no way are you Really? No way. Are you kidding? I fucking love working with you.

Okay, cool. All right, Schwartz. I'll let you go. I'll see you in a couple weeks. Is there anything else you want to say? I want to say I love you. I love you too. I hope you feel better.

Anything else? I'm sorry. No. Is it your birthday? No. Oh, yeah. Thanks for shoveling the snow out of my house you're welcome and thank you for picking out that uh liability by my house too but you really didn't have to do that i really

appreciate your that's get a manager who will shovel snow off of your fucking roof because you don't and here's the thing andy has a corner lot so it's not just like a little bit of shoveling. I forgot how much there was. And it was a heavy snow too. And I'm feeling a little achy now. No, I'm kidding. My pleasure. I'm going to leave you that shovel so you can do it. It is a rule. As a

homeowner, you have to shovel your property. What's that mean? That means I have to do that? You have to do that because if someone slips and falls because you didn't do it, you're going to get a citation and they potentially could sue you. And we live in America and it's a litigious society.

Okay, well, I'm learning something new every day from you, Schwartz. So thank you. Be safe out there. If you're going to be a homeowner, act like it. Okay, I will.

And thanks for just keeping my business afloat. Hey, feel it in our bones, Andy. We got a new single called Feeling in Our Bones. And then in a week, we'll have another one. None of those things. We're going to have another single

and we're going to have an album. How are you feeling about this new record? I love the new album and I love working with Side 1 Dummy and I don't want to push this release. Maybe we'll push the physical release. I mean, unless the rest of the team overrules my thinking, I think we put this thing out April 24th,

and we just let the music do what it's supposed to do. Let's heal people. That's it. All right. Thanks for being on. You tuned in to the third season of Idiotic Interviews at Andy Fresco's world-saving podcast. Thank you for listening to episode 78 and a half.

Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo and Chris Lawrence. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. For more info on the show, please head to Instagram, World Saving Podcast. For more info on the blog or tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. This week's guest is Brian Swartz from Sevens Management. He will find you when he needs you.

Our episode 78 and a half liner song is Presidential Silver Lining by John Craigie. For you to enjoy in the safe privacy of your solitary confinement from April 24th, Andy's new album, Keep On Keepin' On. This week's special guest is Ari Vindlings. It's a short episode, it's a short epilogue. Since all work got shut down now two weeks ago, I am more busy than ever. All the piled up jobs round the house jumped on me like fleas after the summer holidays.

Cleaning, painting, digitalizing the family slides, rebuilding the home studio, making up tracks for a joint project, writing these silly world-saving podcast segments. I gotta run. So stay indoor, be creative, or sweep the floor, and we will be back shortly.