Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Aric Improta of Night Verses

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Aric Improta. Improta is a Grammy-nominated drummer who plays for the prog-metal band Night Verses and formerly FEVER 333. Beyond his blistering showmanship, Improta often incorporates technology into his playing to push the boundaries of the instrument and reimagine a different future. “The goal is always to feel as possessed by the music as possible. When I see a performer with absolute control, it’s usually impressive but rarely breathtaking. I prefer to see that expert level of control pushed to its furthest limit,” he wrote in 2023, accompanying a photo of the drummer in mid-air. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? I'm Joel Madden, and this is artist-friendly. On this episode, I'm talking to Grammy-nominated drummer, Eric Improda. Let's go. I don't want no bad times. I don't want to have bad. The thing about this show that makes it unique is like it really does feel like we're in the studio or we're like at dinner talking for the most part.

You know what I mean? And so I feel like if you come in and then we catch up and then we sit down, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. So I always have to feel it out. I'm sure it's weird when you have that catch up and then they're like, go. And you're like, all right, let's repeat all the things. Let me ask you some questions. Yeah, totally. So sometimes my friends will come in here and I'll be like, yo, let's not talk until we sit down.

Right, right, right. And they're like, cool. Or they're like, that's weird. And they're like, okay, let's talk. So, you know, you have to feel it out. Yeah, I actually, I think this is the third time I've been here. But obviously, we haven't met. Yeah. First time was with Zach. And I think it was like the week he came here. Yeah. So shout out to Zach because he was going off to do his own thing. I know you guys like reached out right away.

Yeah. And I hit him with a project that I don't think anybody ever wants to mix. I just finished a 40-minute drum solo. Oh, wow. And I again, I don't know very much. many people that want to mix that, let alone listen to it, but it was for this, like, performance art piece in Germany, and he was down and killed it, and it sounds incredible. And then me and Steve, the old guitars to fever, came in to do some work with Zach and Poppy. So those are the two times I cruised through, but this place is sick.

Thanks. Like, I'd love to, like, record here, like, just making music, like, the way that you guys have everything set up is such a good vibe to kind of, like, explore and do things that don't really feel like, I don't know, it just doesn't feel sterile like a lot of the other studios I've been to, I guess. Thank you. It's, uh, it's been like nine years of trying. Nine? Yeah. I didn't know guys were doing this that long. Yeah, nine years of trying. We've been in this building for eight. That's awesome. And we actually ended up buying this studio from Will Smith, which was so cool. Is he a cool, dude? Oh my God, he's so cool. That's like the last person I would have expected that you bought the studio from.

How did that whole switchoff happen? He had this studio. It was called the Boom Boom Room for years. And he did like the Fresh Prince albums here and, you know, all the Will Smith, Will Smith stuff. Yeah. I don't actually think it was called Fresh Prince. The albums were it's called the Fresh Prince album.

Will Smith as a rap artist. He did his, you know, his iconic records here. Gosh. And I guess I just call him Fresh Prince because I was. such a fan of the show. Now, but I would assume when you say that you mean like the Men and Black soundtrack and stuff like that. Yeah, all that stuff, all the Will Smith stuff was done here. And, um,

and you know, obviously DJ Jazzy Jeff who's like legendary DJ for any DJ fans. Um, the boom boom room, he bought it. He recorded here. Jada had, um, a heavy band. Like she did metal. And she

recorded here. And then the studio, they opened it up and it was just, uh, running as a studio. So, you know, when they weren't recording, everybody recorded here. I mean, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, whiz Khalifa. The list goes on and on and on and on. So did you guys come through here at that time? We had worked here.

Me and Benj worked here with like, maybe it was Swedish House Mafia. We were writing with someone here. Okay. And I mean, everybody worked here. There was so many artists here. It was insane. Like Christine Aguilera recorded here. There were just so many records made here.

And when we worked here, I remember thinking, wow, this is such a cool vibe. This place has such a cool vibe. I would love to, I would love to have a place like this one day. Yeah. That's the dream. And then the studio was coming on the market. They were selling it. I guess after probably two decades or something of a long time owning this place.

Anyways, they were selling it. And we came, my friend who's a commercial real estate person, was like, hey, there's a great studio coming in the market. and he sent us the link before it was on the market. And we were like, holy shit, that's the boom boom room. Yeah, yeah. The place we worked, we'd been here like three times. And we came for the open house that they were having and it was just packed.

And we went up to the real estate agent and he's like, yeah, we got like 10 offers. That was about to ask. So this was an open house for people that were like considering buying. Yeah, like buyers. It was just going on the market. Yeah, yeah. And we were like, oh, man. you know and this was eight nine years ago he was like you could of course make an offer but it's

going to be really competitive and we're like okay cool and then we we we huddled up and we were like should we you know make an offer and i was like i know will's one of his best friends is also one of my father-in-law's best friends this guy al al silfin he's a incredible photographer like sick photographer has photographed everyone like he's he's a famous photographer but he's my father, one of my father-in-law's best friends. And I've known him for years just to the family. Yeah. And I was like, Al's close with Will. Maybe I can just call him and see if we have a shot to just like ask Will. Right, right, right. He'll sell it to us. And I called Al and he was like, I'm with Will right now. No shit. Let me call you back. I'll ask him. And he was like, Will,

the Madden brothers are at the studio. It's going on the market. He's like, yeah, we're selling it. And he's like, they want to buy the studio. He's like, I love those guys. Yeah, sell it to him. way. He was like, I'll tell, I'll tell the realtor, I'll tell the realtor that they want to buy it and to sell to him. See, and it's such a trip. It was so cool. Do you, and then you specifically remember this place being one where you came and you were like, damn, this is such a cool vibe. Like, I want something like this. I said actually, I want, I would love to own this place one day. Okay. But in my mind, I said, but that's probably not possible. So a place like it. Right, right, right. Okay. So the reason I'm asking this is like, I'm sure you've had a ton of these

experiences given the amount of time that you've been working in this industry. But you know, those moments when, like, it's exactly like you presented. You're sitting there and you have it and it's like this brief feeling. Like, that'd be cool. But at the current place you're at, you're kind of just like, but I don't know when that's going to happen. Yeah. And then you have the moment where you get the studio, right? That like jump of time, like it's almost like a, and my wife was actually listening to Amy Poller's audiobook recently. How long have you been married? One year. Oh, wow. But we've been together for 14 years. Congrats.

Thank you. And she was listening to her audio book, and she was talking about how she thinks that's her experience with time travel, is being super focused in a moment. And then, like, you leave it. And when you come back to it and it's like fast forward, you get like propelled back to the moment you first felt that way at that space. The inception point. Yeah. And I've had that a lot. So that's why I'm curious.

Like, it's so cool to hear that because like, like last month I filled in for Goldfinger. And I remember I'd done it like a few years back. and then I had done touring with fever and I came back and just did it this month. But the first time that I was sitting in with them learning their cover of 99 red balloons, I totally forgot that at like the age of 12, I downloaded that song illegally on like LimeWire. And that was one of the first songs I heard where in my head I was like, damn, I want to drum in a punk band. Like I want to play a song like this in front of a bunch of kids with my friends.

And I totally forgot about it. And then on stage while I was playing. You remembered it. Yeah, I look at my hands and I was like, holy shit. It's now, it's happening. So you having that moment with this studio, it's awesome, but it's also cool to hear that you're still having those in your career, even, you know, 15, 20, 25 years in. Yeah, because I got to say, that's how everything in my life has worked.

Really? Everything. That's awesome. And I think that's like what people would say, like, manifestation. We don't really kind of complete the thought when we just say manifest it. Right, right, right. Because I think the idea of manifesting something is thinking it, but then the actual practical value of manifesting is the work.

Right. Totally. Towards the thing. And if you just think about the end game, every day while you're working, you might get overwhelmed or underwhelmed and you might quit. So I think forgetting is a good thing. Yeah, I could see that being the case. because you know, like, there's a deeper side of this, right?

Like, you know that your life is going to be creating. Your life is going to be making music. And if it gets you this studio or a bigger studio or a smaller studio, it's kind of besides the point. It's like, you know this is the journey you're on. But when it lines up like this, I'm sure it's a cool reminder that you're taking all the right steps to do the stuff that you set out to do. I think we have what are like these verification moments where we're verifying what we

thought or what we hoped or what we believed. So I think these are these bigger verification moments, but there's also small ones and you'll miss them if you aren't looking. Like I said, if you only think of the big goal, you miss the little verification moments along the way. Like let's say someone is trying to improve something in their life, right? Maybe that's their financial situation. It doesn't happen overnight. It happens over time. I always say that to my kids like, doesn't happen overnight. And they're like, we know, dad. It happens over time. time. They get tired of hearing it, but like the incremental gains are the most important gains we can make, I think, in the journey towards the big gain, which is it's like putting money in

the bank every day. It's healthy to look at the balance to make sure you're right side up. But if you don't look, if you only focus on that balance, it's not going to grow fast enough for you. Right. So you have to like check in on it every once in a while and go, are we still in line? Are we still heading up towards that mountain we're trying to climb? No, but I think the reality checks out of it's what's important, right? Because, like, you can also fall in love with the art and totally lose sight of where you are in life and in your career. Yeah, you can be directionless. Totally.

And then on the other side of that, when you're just checking your bank account, sometimes you forget to make any art because you're just trying to sell whatever the last thing you did was. So I do think. Exactly. I agree with you. And you lose the feeling of, like, also the joy part of life where you like enjoy what you're doing. Totally. Sometimes it is good to go spend money. I'm curious now that we're talking about this, how do you regulate those time periods?

Because I've found I do like an intense six months of creating and then an intense six months of showing the world that thing and finding out like how to make what I created connect with people. But do you have it like, is it kind of like always going at the same time or does it feel like it trades off? I think that that's a really good question. I think that and I don't know if I have an answer. I think I have a perspective of all I can say is over time is my life better or worse. Yeah, yeah. And then if it's better, I think I'm on track.

And if it's worse, I'm not on track. And then if we can put together a few years of better, then we really start to get some momentum in better. And I think that like people get used to better a lot faster than they get used to worse. Definitely. And so we hold on to better with all of our might. Yeah. And that allows us to do better and better and better.

I also believe that all growth is chaotic. So none of it's organized. There can be like an organization to the chaos, but in the organization, there's just chaos during growth. And so when you haven't gotten used to that chaos during the growth periods, it'll freak you out. I think I've seen it with all of our companies. Whenever they grow, it's a little chaotic. And people that are a little newer are like, oh, my God, I'm a little shook.

And you're like, no, no, trust me. we're going up, it's just chaotic because there's a lot of opportunity and we've got to sip through what's the right opportunity, the wrong opportunity, all the nuance, right? The timeframe of like what you're saying, I create for six months, I promote for six months, right. In general, try to- Call it promotion or whatever. Right, right, yeah.

Show the world, but I call it promotion, right? Fair enough, yeah. Just to label it. But you may create for three months and promote for six months or you may create for six months and promote for three months. Right. the balance is as you get more and more time behind you, you have to watch the game tape and go like, what part could I, what part did we, like, how do we optimize everything we're doing?

And so, like, what, how much of that six months do I think I really made an impact? And how much of it do I feel I was just over-exerting myself out of anxiety? Right. And then if I can, like, really thoroughly, like, watch back the game tape and with, with no judgment of myself good or bad and just go like I feel like the four of those six months were really impactful right right right other two I was just anxious and I really wanted to force a result that I didn't get or that I wanted to get and like there is like a like I always say like the the nuance of all of this is like it's the magic part that everyone like the things we can't control right we could

predict they might happen but we can't control when those moments happen and like I may be over-promoting for six. The six months I might have just been three. And I may burn myself out if I'm not like in touch with. And all of that just comes from experience. It's just being willing to like step back and go like, let's analyze this. How did we do right? What did we maybe just like what how did we use our time? Totally. And like I don't know that we're good at that yet. I'm Anna Mena. And, like my music, my cabo changed with me and

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That is music for your ears. No, you'll do you guys. Your business will be a super-exit to Shopify. But like we try. I was going to say is I feel like for the time you've been doing this, you have to get it like honed in at a certain point and like at least look back like you're saying and be able to like honestly reflect like,

okay, two of those months were super efficient. And the rest, the four, I was just anxious. I was just trying to force people to look at my thing. And so you find like the ebbs and flows, you find the give and the take, you find the like oh lean in it's time to lean in and sometimes you get you could be in a creative moment and something pops off right right right and you might go i got to lean in i got to go out and promote this and you got to find the balance there that's a hard lesson to learn and try to be flexible

to like the the chaotic nature of growth absolutely no i think i think your point there's a really cool quote by the way that says chaos is the law of nature and order is a dream of man and i think about that that that's that's a great quote who said that dude Dude, I need to check back. I have a National Geographic book that goes through different periods of nightlife. And that's like one of the big quotes in there. And I think about it, especially in the creative process, because you're right. Like you could be in like this moment where you feel so inspired and you're sitting there.

Like I have like sometimes eight hour drum days where I'm like, this is where I need to be to figure out. Like I don't know if you have this. This would be a little bit of a tangent. but like you're working on a project and you know what it's supposed to feel like, but you haven't seen it done exactly the way you want and you can see the hints of where you're at. They're closer to what it's supposed to feel like, but you're not there yet. Yeah. And like as you start to get closer, you get this momentum and you feel like, at least for myself, I feel like, okay, these eight hours, like I'm getting there, I'm getting there.

And like you said, especially with the internet being what it is, something takes off and you're like, okay, as much as I love this state of creating and seeing where it goes, like it's also the responsibility in my career to lean into this aspect that's now taking off and make sure that I don't just let that slip away. And that balance. If it feels right, there are, there could be a moment though where like something takes off and you don't feel like you. That's the thing is it gets so like nuanced. Right, right, right. Like there's, there's no rules to art. Yeah, it's hard to. How can we contain it to like to box it up and sell it is what we have to, we have to figure out how to do so that we can sustain ourselves.

Right. So we can keep making art. Yeah. But finding how to do that is the question as old as the music business. Right. Totally. How do we do that where it feels like we're still making art? And yet we want to do this for a living.

So what does that mean? Well, that means we have to make money. We have to find a sustainable pattern of how we do it, where we can actually live a life that we're building. I mean, it's a great idea to go like, Oh yeah, I just want to make music and then get big and rich and famous. And you're like, that's a wonderful, shiny kind of banner to put above something. But what does it mean?

It doesn't mean anything, actually. It means to be successful at art at a level where at scale, where enough people are engaged that I can do this and solely this to sustain my real life, which is every day I'm in the world getting up, going into the world and living. and if I don't have the ability to pay for my food, pay for my house, do all the, like, that's the reality of life of like we're all people living and we need to have sustainability. And so how do we do that? How does art support that?

And how do we find the balance of like not letting that perceived need of more? Because we all need more because that's human nature or we want more. I think healthy people always want more of good things. I think that's a fair assessment. And I think unhealthy people want more of bad things. I haven't actually heard it articulated that way, but that actually makes a lot of sense. There's patterns we fall into, and the work of life is figuring out which patterns do we want to keep or which patterns can we break and get rid of.

And some of them are generational, like, just deep shit. Right, right, right, right. So that's where my head swirls all day long in these, like, kind of philosophical conversations around, like, the how, the why. and then the reality of our actual real life where we're living in the world walking on the ground. Yeah. And we're not just bodyless consciousness thoughts.

Because we are all in our heads a certain amount of time. And so we're not in our body. We're in our mind. And what is our mind? It's not our brain. Our brain is an organ. Our mind is something else.

And we're in our mind more than we are in our brain. And so like our consciousness and our subconscious and all of that is in us somewhere. Totally. And so, like, we have to find a way to acknowledge that, but then also be in our real body where we have to, like, eat, we have to take care of it or we don't live long. Right, right.

Well, it's very interesting to hear you break this down the way that you are, because I would have wanted to ask you these questions anyway in general because for me, my career has been very, like, weird, like unexpected. Yeah, you've got a very interesting career so far. How old are you? I'm 34 now. Oh, cool, you're young. I don't feel young. I'm way older than you.

But the reason I'm bringing it up is like those incremental shifts, you don't always know what they mean. You look like you're 24. Really? Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, I'll cut you off. That's all good. It's just funny to me because like when I look at, like from what I know of your career, right, like you were in a band. And then the shifts that you made after that band, that's just as much an investment of time and energy and thought and creative navigating as being in a band. not more. Yeah. It's hard. It's awesome to hear though because I don't know when you're young,

you have this image, at least for me, of what I thought my career was going to be. Yeah, you have an idea of what you think success is anyways when you're young. Totally. And I have these check marks and I feel like every time I get those check marks, it's never the way I thought I was going to. Like, it's satisfying, but for me it wasn't, it was like the most obscure way towards a lot of these things, but at the same time, hearing how creatively driven you still are gives me like a lot of inspiration thinking about like, I'm at a point now where I just assume I don't know what's happening next. Like I put things into motion and I give them my fullest effort. Because like I think sometimes music fans get this image of us, this idea of us seared into

their memory. Right. And it's more of an emotional take. Absolutely. It could have been because of the time of their life that they experienced it. It could have been like what you're saying just that it was that artist's first record instead of their third. Like there's so many factors. Right. And of what's good and, you know, so like challenging that idea of what you think of me at musically is going to be my artistic mission for the rest of my life. Right.

And I may never succeed at it. Yeah. And so far I'll tell you I have it. Interesting for you to say that. So the idea of people have of me musically is an old idea that I love. It's definitely a part of my. Right, right, right. In the catalog of things I've done, it's the most noteworthy, the things that most people would go,

oh, that song, that song, that song. I could see that publicly. But knowing what you do in your own career is, like, from my perspective, feels like it holds equal weight. It's just less, it has your face in the front less. Right. But it's, I mean, it's hopefully. You do a lot. Like, I don't know.

Well, hopefully it's a influencing the world in a good way for what we think is good art. Yeah, absolutely. Artists we believe in as people, we share values, we share, I don't know, like all the artists that I get to work with, I really like them personally. I don't know that I'd be able to work with someone that I, in fact, I know I couldn't work with someone I didn't think I share at least some values with that we all meet in a place where we all kind of, I think just like people who want to bring good things to the world. Yeah, absolutely. So hopefully, we're building things that affect the world in a way that bring people joy, that bring people, I think self-esteem, self-love, self-belief, inspire people to do their, to make their own art.

I think that's something that gets killed in a lot of us early on as we get made to feel like making our little art projects isn't important. Right, right, right, right. At a young age, if you're just, what are our kids supposed to do? They're supposed to play. Yeah. And I think they're supposed to figure out who they are. And how do we do that?

We experiment. Totally. We just try stuff. And then something sticks because we like it. We like the way it makes us feel. And we like the way it makes other people feel when we show them. And I think at our early age, I think that gets killed somewhere by like adults who had it killed long ago themselves.

Right, right. And I think that's usually what it is. It's a pattern. It's a cycle. It's usually somebody that didn't get to do the things that they wanted. And then they've dedicated their life to what they think they're supposed to do. Yeah. And they're looking out.

Sometimes I think it's out of love, right? Sometimes I think they're trying to make sure that their kid doesn't, like, have that same heartbreak they did. Yeah. But ultimately, obviously, in our experience anyway, like, you should never give up on the things that you want to do. I think even now it's getting harder and harder because there's so many external motivations. So kind of going back to what we were talking about with the love of your art versus

the side of promotion, right? there's a pretty famous study where they were breaking down, I think it was kindergarten students, and they were all drawing for fun. And then the minute that the teacher gave them a reward, even something as simple as a gold star, all of a sudden the experience shifted for them. And it was like if they drew but didn't get a gold star, then they felt like they weren't having the same experience. They'd be like, what about the gold star? Or like, they'd ask if they're going to get one before they even start drawing. And the reason I bring this up is like, obviously with social media, that's such a big factor and that like when we were kids and we were just writing in a room,

we just wanted to end up with a good song. There wasn't this instant moment of like, how does this do on Instagram? How does this do on TikTok? It was like, does this sound cool? Do my friends like it? Can we play it well? And that sort of shift, I think it's a, it makes it harder and harder for people sometimes, at least from some of the younger musicians I've talked to,

to fall in love with the art because so much of it is driven by like, How is this art performing when I put it out? And when you talk about that shift of like deciding to do a regular job or kill your dream versus like dive into it, it's almost scary because you get reception right away that now it's not just parents. I think even like when you put stuff out in public, there's this more instant response to your work that makes you feel whether you're doing a good or bad job versus just hanging with your friends and letting your art incubate until it's at. actually ready for a live show or actually ready for people to hear. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's feedback. So I think that, like, we don't recognize that we are all looking for feedback all the time.

Right, right, right, right. But when I was younger, I used to look for the negative and that's all I'd see. But I realize that you get, you will find what you're looking for, period, in the world. If you're looking for friends, you'll find them. If you're looking for people who love you, you'll find them. If you're looking for people who love you, you'll find it. If you're looking for people who don't like you, you'll find it. Yeah.

If you're looking for people who don't respect you, you'll find it. There's plenty of everything. It's a all you can eat buffet of whatever you want to find. If you look for friends, you'll find them. If you look for people who think you're special, you will find it. And that's when I shifted my whole life, I think when I was around 30 something. I think I learned it from my wife. I think I learned it from a couple of my friends.

I would kind of go, why does it seem so easy for you to just be comfortable in your own skin? Yeah, yeah. Why does it seem so easy for you to just be happy with whatever? You're just happy. Did you find a common thread in that? And the reason I'm asking is, as we're talking about this, so I worked at the YMCA for eight years. Oh, that's cool. As I was going to school. Is that a volunteer job? No. At the time, it was a part-time job. It was like after school helping with homework and stuff, but when I was going to college, I was a communications major, but I focused on film. And at the time, I just needed something that was going to like not interrupt band practice college. Where did you go to college? Cal State Fullerton.

Where did you grow up? Fullerian. Okay. So I was literally like, I went to high school across the street at Troy and I kept, I spent all of college waiting to get a tour to leave college and then got my first tour a month after I graduated. Wow. So you were working at the YMCA and what did you discover?

The confidence kids have, I had fourth graders. Fourth graders were rad because they were just old enough to have sense of humor and be down to participate. It's the best. The best age. Fifth grade, there are. obviously a bit smarter. So they start to question things. And by sixth grade, a lot of them are cool. And then I would say 95% of those kids when they came back to visit from junior high, the part of them

that would just like dance on command or sing in public was gone. The joyful part. Yeah. And I'm not saying you can't get it back. But like, I think that when you can hit kids with a creative aspirations at a young age, it's a lot, it's a lot higher chance for them to carry that out through the rest of their life. Whereas if you try and hit a kid with that sort of like goal or mentality once they've already sort of entered that like self-conscious phase, I think it's a lot harder to break through, at least from my experience of working with kids. But I think that is where most of us get our creative streak that we all have, I think. It gets killed and we start looking at the way other people were respected if I do it. What feels like worth trying? And most of the time I think

gets killed early on where we're like, why would I even try that? Like, why would I go buy some paint and get a canvas and try to paint? Right, right, right. Make some art. Who would care? What would it matter? Who am I to do art? And that's always interesting to me is like, how do painters? You're a painter, right? A little bit. I illustrate in general. I paint guitars, though. So you draw? Yeah. And do you do it on pencil and paper? That's where I started. So a lot of the works there. And when I do that, I'll design like tattoos for people and stuff. but I started transferring over to honestly music-based mediums just because that's what my audience was and I thought like what else is here. So I have symbols that I work with a partner and we like

rust the designs into the symbols. And then I work with Schechter and we do, they'll have me paint guitar. So it started with just pencil and paper and then started to stretch out to other mediums. And where can people get the guitars? Where do they buy them? I mean, I sell them just like. Checker's a dope guitar. They're great. Their bodies are also great to work off of and like... Big bodies. Yeah, because that's the thing, right?

If you don't have a lot of workspace, it gets tough. Yeah. And it's a cool challenge because it's not a square, right? So you grow up and you're used to drawing on paper. And with this, like, you have to create designs and line work that conforms to the shape of a guitar and complements it. So that's all been a challenge. Have you done like custom guitars for guitar players?

Yeah, I did one for Jerry from Papa Roach. Cool. a year ago, I think. Cool. And then a couple friends. But honestly, like, it's just a, it's a side hustle. So when I'm home from tour, I'll do, like, four. And then I won't do it for, like, six months.

And then come home and do it for fun. But that's always been, like, I think I got lucky staying inspired by art because my dad is an artist. So my dad designed the sets for married to children for 13 years. Oh, wow. And then when that show got canceled, he went to design for Disney. A little Americana for you. Yeah, yeah.

When we were kids, he used to take us to like the screenings and stuff when we were like four and five. Did you get to go on the set? Yeah, I was on the show twice. You were on the show? Yeah, like as a kid. That way. And we would do, they'd have like these rap parties at the end of the season where we'd all go like mini golfing with the cast. And I was like five, six, seven.

They were always super cool. Actually, I didn't think about us for a long time. All of my toys as a kid, like I had all these Star Wars toys that were in Bud's room. and then when he got too old and they had to redress his room there was just like do you want to give all these toys to your kids so I ended up having like his room as a kid what an iconic uh set yeah yeah he uh it was supposed to so your dad was super creative both my parents were so what's your mom do uh my mom started as an actress and then quickly realized she loved teaching so like she started canceling auditions to substitute and then became a drama teacher wow so she taught theater

And like, did she have any like superstar students? She had a couple kids that went on Broadway. She has a student on some like seal what seal team show right now. But the part that's crazy about that is she taught at an academic magnet. So nobody went to that school to be an actor, actress. So people coming out of that loving drama, it was like almost against the agenda when you decide to go to Whitney High School. So she had a crazy impact on her students And both my parents worked hard.

Like my mom worked like five hours after school was out For as long as I know. Set design is hard work too, dude. It's insane. And my dad retired right when COVID started, but he was doing like, like at like 65, he was still doing 12 hour days for Disney sometimes. What was he doing at Disney?

He went to do parade floats. So the minute that like reality TV kind of took over, and married a children had had its final season. He was just like, all right, I need something consistent. I got two kids. And, like, pilot season, like, it's exciting because you've got new shows. But at the same time, if something doesn't get picked up, you're just, like, waiting for it to roll around again. Yeah, it's hard.

Yeah, so he did Disney for a minute. And all of that, I think for me, it was great because I just saw how much they valued art. Like, it wasn't, like, nothing I did ever looked or sounded like what my parents did. but it was almost like in the level on the level that people like involve religion in their family life like art was just everywhere and we went to movies three times a week

and like talked about movies it wasn't just like like we'd leave and it was like what was your favorite part did you expect this like everything was about it so I think there was kind of like an analytical kind of like unpacking of like what you guys you'd watch a movie and then together you guys would all like break it down and like talk about like it's

critiquing art. Yeah, but without losing the magic, right? Because they, it was always like, what did you connect with? But they never like, they like still made us feel like anything could happen. You know what I mean? Like there was never that aspect of like like really ripping some, I guess sometimes my dad would rip on some stuff. But other than that, they kept it pretty. He was, he was likely honest about. Yeah. From his experience. I mean, that's a, that's a high level, you know, doing that what he did. That was like doing something at a high level. Yeah. It's like creating something that is in the fabric of people's, a generation of people's entertainment. Absolutely.

You know, diet is that. I feel like we're the same way in our house with music and fashion. So I always listen to music with a little bit more of like a, I guess because I've been doing it for so long, I hear songs. I can hear every part while I listen to it in real time. I can hear the lyrics, the melody, the music. I can hear the mix. I can hear everything right away. Yeah.

And I share what I think always. Do you see your kids connecting with like different forms of art or like in music, do they like different stuff from each other? Or do they like align a lot with what you like? Like how does that go on? They don't really like what I like. Really? But I like what they like.

Interesting. They're more modern music fans. So they are huge fans of like, you know, Travis Scott, Playboy Cardi, Drake, you know, all the modern stuff. Right. And I like it too. Yeah. Sometimes I have notes because I hear people's music and I feel like they didn't spend

enough time getting a guitar sound. If I'm doing something at a high level, I think anyone doing anything at a high level, they should consult on things that maybe they don't have as much experience in. And sometimes I hear on the mix on the, and it's not just guitars. I'm saying I'm a guitar expert. I've just been around them enough to know if something's coming out of a box and it's a sound that anyone can use

or if it's been toiled over and their right tones been found or if good guitar players played it you can kind of always tell like drums are another one like you can hear drums. I'm sure you hear drums and you go God I wish they would have just track live drums on that and mixed it in.

That's I mean, yeah, I think I'm curious if you have this though because as you're talking about this it made me think. There's two questions here. One, I'm curious if your kids appreciate it if they're like, we get it, Dad. Like, you would do this. But two, for me, I do when I, like, I do when I feel like it was so close to something I would have loved if this one thing was different. But I also do have a, like, and I'm sure you have this because of your range of taste. I also have

an appreciation for things that are drastically different from how I would do it, right? You know, where like, sometimes you're just like, yeah, I mean, those drums should have been recorded with one mic in a room and it sounds like he was in a garage. And, other times when it's like this close to being my favorite record, I think that's when it hits me the most, like, I would have just changed this or whatever else. Or like copy and pasting vocals, right? Right, right, right, right. Just sing the chorus three times.

Just sing it and don't copy and paste it. Right, right, right. I think great rock bands exist today. But there's something about that last era of music before digital. This is about to ask you, when do you consider the ending? 2000 to 2004 or five kind of like I really want to hear what you have to say about this because I've felt something similar so go for it so if we call it analog just call it analog just to just to say just to sum up before everything kind of went in the box right not to say people aren't making

live records I know they are and and and so I'm not lumping all bands together because I'm a huge fan of modern bands too no I got you I won't talk it that way there are and will continue to be classic bands. Right. There will. But that 90s era was so special. It's like what classic rock in the 90s was Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendricks.

Those are the era of bands that I think we idolize now as the greatest. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stunstimple Pilots, Allison Chains, just like a bunch of my favorites. I love all those bands. Incubis. I just think it was this era of music that was so free and raw and creative. And now I think that they're seeing it in real life. Like I think those bands are,

their touring is bigger than ever. That's what I've been told. It's bigger than ever. I'm telling you just from what I know. I mean, the few tours that we've done with those bands, it's crazy. It's bigger than it's ever been.

And it's the way live rock and roll was meant to be experienced because I think the layers of depth. in an incubus when you look at the musicians in that band. Oh my God. A band has like verses on the radio in like seven, eight. Like stuff that no like a musician can dive into, but when you're just listening as like a 12 year. And then Brandon goes, which is interesting too because for a time,

because it was radio, it was on the radio. Right, right, right. And in a time when radio was really important, I would not be doing music if I didn't have alternative radio. When I was a teenager, we listened to the local alternative station. we discovered bands and then we tried to make music like those bands. Yeah, absolutely.

And so radio turned into kind of a bad word somewhere in the 2000s, but in the 90s, the alternative radio was like everything. The H.F. Festival was this big festival in D.C. that was in a football stadium. It would sell out every year in an hour and the biggest rock bands would play it. Everyone played it. Like every big rock band, raging against the machine, the Stunstimble Pilots. Yeah. Allison Chains, Nirvana, everyone played it.

And it was just iconic because of that radio, because we all listened to that radio. And there was this unified source. And at the time, that's all, especially if you grew up as a kid in a small town far away, that was the source of cool. That's where you'd find a new band. And then you'd go to a record store and look for their t-shirt and read through a magazine and try to find an article. And you'd start searching for the internet, before you had access to just searching

their profile. So there was a rawness to it and an unpredictability and an authenticity to it that like I don't know if we get that all the time now. We certainly do. So I'm not saying that bands now couldn't make that great of music because they can. But there's something really special about it. And then to see it now and how generationally big it is, it just it's pretty iconic, I think. No, absolutely. I think it holds the same weight as like what you're talking about. And he's like quietly iconic. Like he's not out there selling anything. You know, like he's hard to find. He's a very genuine person, right? Like he's an artist and he's a genuine person. And then whatever else comes of that, it's just a reflection of how good his art is. Like he's not out

there like trying to promote his personality, like at least from my experience and getting a hang with him the few times and work on projects, like, he's so thorough and he's dope. His enthusiasm for what he's working on and his attention to detail is like the same, at least, again, in my experience of collaborating with him. He's a big artist. Yeah, his visual art is amazing. And even he wrote on a night versus song for our new record that's coming out. Oh, that's cool.

His attention to detail, like, he had so many layers of vocals that he tracked and, like, hand wrote lyrics and and even when I first started talking to him like he had messaged me because I was using some effects pedals like guitar effects pedals on drums and he was just like hey we should do something at some point if you've got time he had just finished a record and I was like let's face time let's just figure out something and I do these collaborations every once in a while that don't have any purpose other than to create that's cool like uh with Justin from tool we did a video where we just jammed in a mirror room and there was no like tool bro tool is another one that I think is just, again, touring bigger than ever.

Right, right, right, right. Well, I can't wait to hear the new project. Thanks, man. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, dude. Thank you for having me. It's awesome. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Artist Friendly.

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