Patrick and the People - 12/21/24 PATP Present's Patrick's After School Special featuring Sean Danielsen of Smile Empty Soul

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

PATP Present's Patrick's After School Special featuring Sean Danielsen of Smile Empty Soul #Seandanielsen #smileemptysoul #patrickandthepeople #angrypatrick

I appreciate it. Man, it's an honor to have you on the show. You guys have put out some amazing music, Sean. Thank you. Yeah. A lot of people may not know you're also an accomplished painter as well. I don't know about accomplished, but I appreciate that, too. I do enjoy painting, and it's a great little kind of side creative aspect for me.

And I've turned it into something that I sell and also something that I do for my own artwork, my own album artwork or merch designs or whatever. So, yeah, it's been fun. Well, you have one, I think called, uh, prophecy fulfilled. And, uh, that that's one that you did that I really, really liked. I thought it was an amazing piece of art, man. Thank you, dude. I really appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome. Now we have something in common, I think a little common ground, uh, because something I, I respect when people stand up for what they believe in. And back in 2021, you made a stand when it wasn't real popular to do that at all, pertaining to saying, hey, we're not going to require our fans to get vaccinated to come to a show. And you actually canceled a few shows as a result of that.

Yeah, yeah. canceled a few shows as a result of that yeah yeah you know that was something that I felt very strongly about I think that tyrannical governments utilize moments of crises as as a moment to seize freedoms from the people. And, you know, I already questioned the vaccine industry quite a bit leading up to the pandemic of 2020. I don't trust big pharma. Right, right. They sit there making, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars off of sick people and somehow managed to not really cure much. That's very true.

And so in my mind, there's no trust there. I don't trust they're coming from a place of good intentions or sincerity. I think that they're making money, and I don't think that they care about people's lives. And I think that that's proven time after time. You know, the Oxycontin pandemic. I's, there's so many things that you can reference. Oh, no. Historically there, there've been a great number of them, but I think, you know, probably all of us, um, had some sort of, uh, I shouldn't say all of us, let's say most of us had some sort of awakening, that time frame and went, wait a minute, maybe, you know, we need to look at this a little more because it was something where all of a sudden, you know, unlike any other time I've lived through, the government decided, well, we're just going to jump into everything.

And it got a little crazy for a minute, but I really respect that you stood up and uh and fought for what you believed in now another thing that that i you know it definitely it definitely caught me way more um negative uh black overall than than i ever would have guessed based on the fact that i i was simply saying, I want people to choose. I wasn't saying- You weren't taking a stand either way. Don't get the vaccine.

No. I was just taking a stand for the right to choose, which in my mind should not, that's not a position that should be attacked, right? Well, I agree with that. And that's, that's a position. And so, and so, you know, it was crazy. The level of backlash that I received for that.

It just, it still blows my mind. You know, that people were so. Vitriolic. Vitriolic.riolic pissed off yeah uh people were ornery and and they were ready to go after anyone that was questioning things more than they were and uh the irony of that is if you think about it uh and i know you do uh but but rock and roll has never been about the system. It's been about going against the system. It's been about pushing back. It's been about questioning what we've been told.

And so all of a sudden, you know, it's like, hey, rock and roll guy, I want you to get with the system. And like, wait a minute, that's not how it works here, you know? Well, and what it really shows you know a small little band like like smile empty soul you know we don't have a push from a record we don't have the machine behind us and we still there were still so many attempts to squash us from from the rock and roll publications that still exist and from even other bands that really that sending me messages and and uh attacking me wow um publicly on social media that the singer guy from that um uh falling in reverse band he was attacking me personally on wow and and and

then all of his little followers were coming and attacking me and um you know it really makes you realize that you know the extent of how record companies these only push the bands that will fall in line right no and and and so if you look around the landscape at that time period um the reason that you didn't have all these voices in rock and roll questioning the narrative and questioning, um, government authority and, and, uh, and the medical industry is because the bands that are propped up by the record companies are the ones that do as they're told. They tow the line. Yeah. They, they carry the corporate water. Right. That's something else that I wanted to bring up that I have a lot of respect for. I know that your first album, you did a true studio release album. But shortly after, you went independent.

And you've kind of remained, to some degree, very independent of the mainstream industry. Is that an accurate statement? Oh, 100%. Yeah. The only record that we ever had a push on was our first record. Do you feel like that's been a benefit to you? Do you feel like you've had more control over your music? Do you feel like it's been a good thing?

It's a double-edged sword. You know, it's, would I have loved to have had a legitimate promotional push behind all of the music industry altogether. And it's a lot harder with a lot less... Accolades. You know? Yeah. um, you know, and, but, but at the same time, I'm able to just sit back and just run my business exactly how I want to run it. Say what I want to say, sing about what I want to sing about, create, want to create. Do you feel like the internet as big as it is now versus back then

is helping you to get more out there with your music on your own push? back then is helping you to get more out there with your music on your own push in a sense yes but also the internet is flooded with noise yeah and um you know even for a band that that has cut through before like mine it it's still hard without that machine behind you to cut through everything else even with an established brand name right so at times you just find yourself kind of kind of one in a pool of a billion just kind of um you know fighting for scraps right well certainly you know over the years you've put out some amazing music let's talk a little bit about uh your music so tell me about you know when when you were young uh and discovering a passion for music who was it that that really got your attention and you went man that, that's what I want to do right there?

Well, I mean, I was in my young impressionable years in the 90s, and so I was heavily influenced by the 90s rock scene. So grunge like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, those type of folks? Okay, okay, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I think Jerry Cantrell is a phenomenal composer and guitarist for sure. Oh, yeah. I've always been a fan of his work.

Chris Cornell was a special voice. I miss that voice, actually, literally. I miss that voice, you know. But who were some other influences for you well i mean you know nirvana stone temple pilots um i was i was also into some of the heavier um side of the the 90s popular music rock music which is like you know tool and deftone oh yeah bands like that um i don't i don't really i'm not a big fan of rock music anymore um in its current form in its current form there's there aren't too many artists that i'm that I'm excited about um and I've just been doing this for so long it's just kind of it's it is my job you know so um I still look back at that 90s time period as kind of a

golden era for rock music and I don't know if that those were my impressionable years so it's personal to me but absolutely rock music seems like a shell now of what it of what it was in those you know we've time we've talked about that before it's a really interesting phenomena i'm kind of a student of the history of how music works in in mainstream and popular culture and you, if you look at the eighties, for example, uh, it was unlike any other period in that you had every single thing you could put in a dish in a dish, you know, and, uh, rock though, pop or rock, whichever it was,

they were kind of synonymous in a lot of ways then, uh, dominated the chart. You know, rock was everything. The the 90s the early 90s come in grunge takes hold and it ran up the chart and then after that what happened in my world because you know i spent 20 years on radio here and i watched when you know and i've said it before when and and and i think they put out some great songs and everything, but Avenged Sevenfold, when they become the billboard artist for the rock station, you know, we had pushed it so far, so hard away from, you know, the melodic, the things that people could sing along to and get down to that people started migrating away from it. and it really put us as rock people in a position, you know. And so what happened was, meanwhile, in the countryside, they opened the doors and everybody went over and started jumping in on the countryside.

And so a lot of what, to be honest with you, comes out of country today sounds like rock of yesterday to me. Well, and if you look at artists like Colter Wall, for example, you know, cutting records with minimal Pro Tools magic, you know, bricks. And, you know, writing songs from the heart that actually say something. And then, you know, for example, he also I don't know if you're familiar with him or not, but he also is one of the few artists that took a stand during the during the pandemic era and canceled, I think a few national tours and cowboy on his, on his ranch instead of, um, fighting the vaccine requirements and all the things that were right. All the red tape. So if you really look at an artist like that, like Colter, well, he is far more punk rock than anything that exists in the rock world um today and so i think you're right about that you know that that some of the qualities that used to attract people to rock music have

been sucked out of rock music yeah there are some guys now that that actually have those qualities there there's been and i knew it was coming it had to come i mean again when when and again both of these bands have put out quality music that people love but again so avenge sevenfold and then um slipknot uh you know they're they're very aggressive they're very hard they they do not carry the melodies and the sing-along and the the vibe, that was the other thing I think that happened too is everything went super dark in rock. You know, I mean, if you think about rock of the 80s, now the 90s, grunge did get pretty dark. But it still had some of the better feeling melodics to it.

You know, now, you know, it's just sad, a lot of it. You know, it's like, damn, man it you know it's like damn man can we quit singing about the worst things in the world today uh but and even uh you know satanism is like you you know satanism in mainstream rock is is just everywhere oh yeah every yeah it's as is just everywhere oh yeah every yeah it's as as you can get when it comes to the the message the lyrics the sound everything about it is as dark as you can get and i i enjoy dark music but um i'm just i'm tired of it's boring no i i i'm the same way you know i was so excited when the the the backlash started or i shouldn't say, the boomerang, which is bands like, why did I draw a blank?

All the retro sounding bands that have come out recently that have that old rock vibe sound. What's the band? And I don't know why it's slipping my mind. They've been compared often to Led Zeppelin, you know, the band I'm speaking of? Yeah, Greta Van Fleet. You know, bands like them, Dirty Honey.

Some of these guys have come back around and circled back to that old rock sound and are more embracing it now. And I think that's what it's going to take if you're going to ever get the numbers that it once had. Because right now, rock just doesn't show up in the charts very often. Well, that's been happening. I mean, look at Jet. You know, look at like the old, you know, look at Wolf Mother.

Yeah, Wolf Mother is a great example. The old throwback rock and roll sound has been back in the mainstream for 20 years um so i mean i don't know what it's going to take it's rock has been killed by by corporate takeover basically yeah i mean you're probably right there's no rebel left in it there's there's nothing left in it if you don't tow the corporate line and it's the rings of, of clear channel and cumulus and, and you know, then, then you are on the outside. And I am a,

I can tell you that I spent 13 years full time at I heart AKA clear channel. And it is a soul sucking piece of shit. I left there at the end of the year last year and started this program for that very reason, because my on-air partner of 13 years and a show that I was affiliated with for 20 left. You know, he retired. And the show that they wanted to do,

I didn't want to toe the line. And so we couldn't come to terms, and I just said, well, then I'll move on, you know, and I have, and, and here we are, you know, and, and I, you know what, I'm happier than probably I've ever been doing it because now I talk to people I want to talk to, I do what I want to do. And you know, that's it in the story, you know, and I'm sure you must feel similarly in that regard. I guess I've been doing that for a long, long time. Yeah, man. Like I said, you know, there are people that will sit there and be like, oh, you know, your band sucks.

You're a one-hit wonder because you only had mainstream success on your first record. is that I had the backing of a major corporation that put millions of dollars behind my band then. And then I lost it because I wasn't willing to play the game. And I've been doing it on this tiny level with no money behind me ever since. But at the same time, it's more soul satisfying. Yeah. And I have to say, I i mean i look at your calendar and man it looks like you say pretty booked as you want to you know it sounds like you could work just about as every day if you wanted to yeah we we still i mean we do um i have a family and and um don't tour like i used to but i still do four tours a year of about a month and so i'm i'm on the road about a third of the year yeah yeah now uh how the hell did you end up in arkansas my wife's from here ah

okay that makes perfect sense now how did you end up uh connecting how did y'all meet may i ask we met a long time ago when i was actually in Arkansas on the road. Okay. We, we just kind of kept in touch and she ended up living in California for school. And that's where I was living at the time. We, we actually started dating. And then in 2013, we kind of decided to give up the California grind. You know, that you were ahead of the game. What's that? You were ahead of the game. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking of the of the taxes and the cost of living and the overcrowding and the oppressive laws. And so we moved back here to

Arkansas 11 years ago now, and it has been the best decision ever made. You know, people are starting to find out, but for a long time, look, I traveled all around the country. I performed standup. I was in the military, you know, I've, I've traveled. And, and when I was young, I thought, man, I'm going to get out of this crappy state, you know, but, uh, the older I got, the more I realized this is a pretty great place. You know, uh, everybody here is pretty cool. They're pretty nice. They mind their business for the most part. They're helpful. Um, it's just an, and it's a slower pace, but you can still do anything you need to do, you know, and. Just tell people it's a hidden gem of a state, you know, people in California are general,

generally so self-centered that they don't even know the geography of the United States. Once you get east past Colorado. Yeah. And so when you tell people from California, friends, family, whatever, yeah, I moved to Arkansas or I'm moving to Arkansas. They just go blank. They have no idea. They don't know where it is.

They think that you got a corncob pipe and a barefoot wife. Yeah, they don't know anything about it, but that's great. No, the less that know the better to me, you know, I, I, I'm not trying to spill the secret to everybody to come here. That's for sure. Because that's one of the great things about it is look, even on my worst day, I can get across town in an hour. You know, I mean, that's the worst day that they could be in California. When I lived there, I get on Ventura and I'd be there for three hours just trying to get home. You know, it was crazy. Yeah, no, I mean, it's, this is a great place to be. And, uh, you know, I have a daughter now and it's, it's a great place to raise her. Yeah. And,

um, that, you know, I've, I've traveled this country probably as much as anyone, um, probably as much as anyone i bet um you know for 21 going on 22 years now i've been i've been on the road here in the united states yeah and not only do i do the the tours but i i mean i drive you know i'm hands-on in in the travel experience at all times you are the travel experience yeah yeah and and i i have to say there's not a place that i would that i would necessarily rather be than arkansas i think it has a great balance of things you know it's um it's it's great in so many ways that i really enjoy living here i i i don't have any plans to leave no i nor I, nor do I. And I had every opportunity along the route to do it. And I just kept coming back. You know, it just felt right. Um, so how may I ask, how old is your daughter?

Seven. Yeah. Oh, wow. You've got a young one. Okay. Well, how is it being the dad of a daughter after being a rocker for, you know, 20 some years? I mean, that's gotta be mortifying, man. her for you know 20 some years i mean that's got to be mortifying man it's been a it's been a wonderful experience that's great and uh you know she's she's my main focus and uh i wouldn't have it any other way and raising her here is amazing um being a hands-on dad when it comes to you know taking her to dance and baseball and and music lessons and whatever it is it's just it's fun that's awesome i'm with it that's great that's great uh well and let me ask this uh first of all what uh what's next for smile empty soul what's what's coming up what do people need to know right now uh how do they get with it what's going on well we're about to release our fifth single from our new upcoming swan song ep um so the song violence will be released next month and then the full ep will

be released uh in fe. Oh, okay. And we've already released the majority of the music, the way it goes these days. It's different now, yeah. Trying to get as much bang for your buck on each song as possible. So yeah, we have our new Swan Song EP coming out. If you haven't checked it out yet, we've released Savior, The Rope. We all fall down and broken wings off of that with the next month we have a uh a short run coming up next month as well we're doing like chickasha oklahoma little rock at the rev room um we're doing a bunch of texas

dates and uh louisiana date or two it's a it's a pretty short run it's like 10 days yeah um then we come home then we go back out in march of next year uh doing a co-headlining run with tantric oh that's awesome yeah that's great and and then uh in may we are booked on welcome to rockville in daytona which is a very big thing man yeah it's a it's a nice size rock festival yeah we're currently building a tour around that which will probably take us um up the east coast okay um and then after that i mean we'll have you know we'll have another run over the summer and we'll have another run over the summer, and we'll have another run in the fall. And that's pretty much what we do these days is just release music, do tours.

I learned recently, I have a friend of mine who is beginning to meet some success. And in this market, a lot of people know each other. I don't know that you interact with a lot of musicians here but do you by chance know luke shoemaker i don't think so okay he and alex alex hutchins have a band called vantage ruins but they're uh starting to get some traction but the reason i mentioned that is we were talking the other day about an album you know and i was like you know do they even still call it that do you release albums and he said man it's different now you know and i was like you know do they even still call it that do you release albums and he said man it's different now you know i mean technically you do he said but really you just release a bunch of singles and when that's done it's the album and i was like oh okay and he's also operating out of nashville versus the west coast uh because that market has apparently

exploded for musicians you know not that it wasn't always big but i mean other than country now right right yeah it's a it's an overall music industry hub now where i think it used to be just country and now it's it's just big for me general you know people got tired of the west coast man or the east coast for that matter either coast i mean i don't really want to be at any of you know i'm i'm good here in the middle yeah yeah i mean it's it's you know if you like pain live in la live in new york you know those are true true any day of the week live here be greeted by kind people at the supermarket yeah get some fried fish for lunch. You know, it, this is

the way that I want to live. I lived in LA most of my life and, and I've had enough of that shit. I had a friend that moved here from California and the second day they called me and said, Hey, is this something here? He said, I come to stop signs and people wave. I said, yeah, yeah. I know you're not used to that, but yes, that is a thing here. People will wave at you at stop signs for some reason they do, you know, it's just how it works, you know? Yeah. Well, it's, you know, I've told so many friends and family this, this story, um, that lived back in California still, you don't realize the impact of other people's energy on you until you really shake up that energy by moving in California you know you've got

a lot of bitter people that either were born in there and are just born into it or have moved there in an attempt to make it. Of their their talents. Yeah. And. You know, a lot of failure there, too, you know, and in the midst of that failure, you're you're fighting too many people. You're being overtaxed. Everything costs more than anywhere else. And so you're just constantly fighting, right? Yeah. And that creates unhappiness. Yes. When you go to the store, even just to go run some errands, you're greeted by a cashier that hates you for being there.

Yeah. They resent you for showing up right yeah they resent you because they have to be there to help you and you're making them do the job that they hate right so that you're feeling that yeah then you pick up and you move somewhere like arkansas and you go to the store and there's a genuine kindness there that replaces that negativity. And you, you expound that to, to every aspect of your life. And man, it, it is a weight off of your shoulders that you can't really understand until you do it. Now, when, when I moved, uh, the first day I moved to LA and I was out there, I was walking down the sidewalk to the liquor store to get some cigarettes and very unfashionable now.

But anyway, I was walking to the store, walking down the sidewalk and this guy was coming towards me and he probably got about five feet and I said, Hey, how you doing? And he stopped and he looked at me and he said, do I know? And I said, no, I don't know. He goes, then why are you talking to me? And I was like, oh, shit. What is going on here, man? It's a different world, you know?

Yeah, absolutely. And that's and that sums it up. That's the energy. That's the energy. Absolutely. Yeah. And that affects, I mean, everyone's different when it comes to their level of sensitivity to other people's energies. But I've always been sensitive to that. And so for me, the move has been just a blessing because it affects me.

You know, when when everywhere I go, everyone is angry. It's hard to keep your soul at rest in that situation. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's difficult to live out there you know and so so for that same reason it's easy to live out here yeah and uh and and i really appreciate that about it sean uh it's i know that you've got to go and so do i but first of all let me thank you because i talk to a lot of people and I've talked to, I can't tell you how many rock stars in my life that I've interviewed. You know, I appreciate your very Arkansas sensibility down to earthness. You know, you're very down to earth, very kind, very thoughtful. And I appreciate that a great deal because so many are bombastic and they,

you know what I'm, you know what I'm talking about. You understand that. Yeah, you do. Listen, I know that you're going to be doing a show in the rev room and I don't know how your schedule works and, and I wouldn't want to put a burden on you, but man, I would absolutely love to have you in the studio. If you could, but, you know, between here and there, maybe even the morning of it, just for folks to hear about the show and, and you know,

learn more about you whenever you have time. That is, I know you're very busy. Well, unfortunately I would, I would be down to do that, but I live up in Northwest Arkansas. Oh, you're in Northwest, not in Conway. Okay. You have relocated. Yeah, yeah. No, I wouldn't come early either. What's that?

I wouldn't come early either then. No, not from there. No. And also the show that we have the night before the Rev Room show is Chickasha, Oklahoma. Oh, yeah. Becoming from Oklahoma City area, even further out than that. So we aren't going to be able to get there early. We just have too much travel to do.

And then. Maybe the week before. No, no, you're good. Maybe the week before we could do another Zoom and at least talk about the upcoming show and help fill some more seats for you. You know. Right. Totally. Totally.

That's more doable. Yeah. All right. I'm down with that. And if you ever do get a chance to come to the studio, of course we'd love to have you here, but I, I understand how busy you are, but, uh, yeah, I'll, uh, we'll work out something on a future zoom so we can get you in here and promote the show. And anytime that we can help you, uh, if you've got a new video, you're dropping anything at all, please let us know. We'll be glad to share it and push it out there on everything we got for what that does. You know, maybe a little bit and every little bit helps.

Absolutely. And I appreciate that. No, I want to support people who are good people, man. I mean, that's what this show is built on is just helping lift people up because there's enough in the world of people pushing each other down. You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. So, uh, ladies, gentlemen, Sean Danielson, uh, this is a smile, empty soul. I hope that you'll check them out at the rev room coming up and check them out online. Check out their new music. Uh, it's very worth your time. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it. All right, man. Have a good one, buddy. Bye-bye. All right. That was great.