Tomorrow - Episode 5: Tanlines and Josh meet the Phantom of the Beach

Episode Date: May 10, 2015

Brooklyn duo Tanlines — consisting of Jesse Cohen and Josh’s brother Eric Emm — take a seat in the Tomorrow studio to discuss their upcoming album Highlights. The conversation quickly turns personal as Josh and Eric reminisce about their upbringing, building a recording studio from scratch, and their formative years playing provocative heavy metal. The trio also talk about recent changes in the music industry, heart conditions, and earnings calls. If you're not moved to tears during this episode, you're probably not a human being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Tomorrow with Joshua Topolski is brought to you by Nadex, Binary Options Trading. Say you think the price of a global resource is going to go up. You can go to nadex.com and make a trade on that. You're not buying stock. You're trading on where you think the price will be by a certain time. Trade the most popular financial markets with thousands of short-term contracts listed daily.

Go to nadex.com and get started trading binary options. That's nadex nadex.com. Futures options and swap trading involves risk and may not be appropriate for all investors. Hey, and welcome to Tomorrow on your host, Josh Witts-Polski. Today on the podcast, we're going to discuss SVT, drywall, and Miami Vice guitars. But first, a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the easiest way to create a beautiful website, blog, or online store for you and your ideas. Squarespace features an elegant interface, beautiful templates, an incredible 24-7 customer support.

Try Squarespace at squarespace.com and enter offer code Joshua at checkout to get 10% off. Squarespace build a beautiful. Did you do the music for the show? I did, of course. I didn't even have to ask. I already asked him. It's good. It's very good.

Thank you. I wasn't looking for your approval, but thank you. Did you take it? It's very easy. You can't actually sleep. Go ahead. No. No, what are we going to say?

What were you going to say? And then I want to hear it's very. Did you consciously take the police song? Doodoo. Oh, I know you're talking about it. Walking on the moon. Yeah, I haven't heard that. Oh, that's an old, that was I did as a ringtone

for my phone like five years ago. The music. The interstitial music. The interstitial thing is just the arpeggio. You have it has a bomb, bomb, bomb, I donio. You have it has a bomb bomb. It's kind of kind of John Carpentery. It's a little bit like a escape from New York creeping around the neighborhood. But you wrote the theme for this. The theme I wrote for this on in a car on my way to the airport to go to London. Yeah. Before the first episode on your phone.

On my on my laptop in garage band. And what's weird about is the synth line in it. Yeah. I actually didn't play it. I had something happen. Like I had the keyboard open. You know that you can type. You can play with the keyboard.

Yeah. And like it recorded that part, but I didn't play it. It just like I hit the keys or something. And it just started looping that part magic. Yeah. And I was like, this is fucking amazing. It wrote itself. I'll do the intro afterwards. So we'll just do my guest today.

Okay. My guest today are two wonderful men who I know very well. Jesse Cohen and my brother, Eric M. Can I say your real last name? Eric Topolski. They probably could figure that out. I don't know. They have a band called TanLines.

That's right. And they're on the precipice of releasing a new record. That's right. Now wait a second, when's your record new record come out? It's coming out in May 19th and I appreciate you doing this at the top of the show. That's Jesse Cohen speaking. That's his voice.

You'll be hearing from him and Eric, do you wanna say hello? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? May 19th. May 19th.

So this is great. So this will not be out when people hear this. That's right, but it'll hopefully get them inspired to preorder or buy it. But you're preorder. You're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing a conference call. Tomorrow, yes. But tomorrow it'll beorder. You're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing the conference call.

Tomorrow. Yes. Well tomorrow it'll be the past. For people to be the past. What's the date? It'll be May 6th. Yeah. And can you tell me how you do a conference call for a record in what it will entail? Well, I don't know how you do it because I'm not sure if it's been done before, but basically we're just setting... We gave out a call in number, just like a regular conference call. And everyone who calls in is going to be on the line with me and Eric and maybe some other people. And we're going to play the album through it. We're going to talk about it.

Are you going to answer questions? Through Twitter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because often, I mean, I'm thinking of earnings when a company does earnings. On a conference call, well, at least an earnings call,

you know, Tim Coker, whoever will get on and they will take questions from analysts. Yeah. You're not going to be doing that. That would be much shorter call. If there's a, Tannlines earnings call. We should let's back up for a second. Let's talk about Tannlines. Sure. Tannlines is a duo that they produce their own music. They record their own music. They obviously play live. And the genre of music, if you haven't heard ten lines, what would you say, how would you describe your genre of music? I was really looking forward to you describing it.

I would say, well, I think you have a new record coming out, which I've heard, and not everybody's heard. There's a couple of songs that are out from it. I mean, I think that you make modern pop music. That's good. I think that's how I would describe it at. I think if I think of the bands that make modern pop music, you know, Vampire Weekend might be an example.

I'm not saying that you sound like them. I think there's some commonality between the two, but not really the same vibe, but 10 lines makes modern pop music for a discerning listener. I'll take it. I was hoping you were going to say, Electronica. It's not like tronica. It's really like pounding EDM, right? Electronica is going to come back.

What? It's come back. What? They're coming back. When I think of, you know, it's like Swedish house mafia, Tiesto and tan lines. In the body of two, 30 something Jewish men. Speaking of which, apparently David Goethe's Jewish father. Is that his name? Father, father. Oh, his father.

Well, you know, the important thing you listen, I don't see a religion or race Okay, I'm I'm colorblind and also religion blind Which is not a thing But I can't see it so tan lines is a band That formed in what year was it? 2008 in your old studio in our old studio in the brother studio That's right in Brooklyn Greenpoint

New York City Clay Street Clay Street That's where I met you Josh. That's right. That's where we met Record it while we were recording. How when did we meet? We met from what I remember walking in to record professor murder my old bands EP the same day I met Eric also Okay, that was the first time we met. We've not met for previous to that. I don't think so. I think those I think you guys came over to meet and talk about before we started. Yeah, and that was suggested you all sit down and meet make sure that the vibes are check out the best. So so let's back up. Let's really back up. Before I was a journalist and bond vivant. I was a I had a studio, my brother and I had a studio in Brooklyn called Brother Studio. What? Yeah.

It's the band's there. It's the true. We recorded bands, we build it and we recorded bands there. One of the earliest first bands we worked with was Professor Murder, which is Jesse's old band. That's right. And we made an EP. Professor Murder Rized the Subway. Yeah, that's right.

And it had some great art and some great songs on it. And we spent a long time working on it and just having a great time together. How long have the studio existed when that happened? I don't know. I think that we did that in 2005. Yeah. June? Was it the summer? Yeah, something like that. did that in 2005. Yeah, June, was it the summer? Yeah, something like that. It was the summer.

Yeah. We opened up shop in January. I think we started working on the studio. We started building it in October of 2004. Three or four. Right around my birth, they actually, I have photos from the night, from the day that we started doing construction.

We broke ground. Yeah. It was October, it was like October 19th, I think. Did you guys build it yourselves? Did you do the work you built the live room? Do you know this? I want to hear about it. Are you talking us?

I've always, it's hard for me to imagine you guys doing the physical. We had a friend of ours, Alex, who did construction. We said we want a carpenter. He knew how to build things and we said we have this space that we want to build a studio in. we want to build a space. We want to build a floating room now. I don't know. People listening to me and I know this.

But when you build a live room and you're in a control room, in fact, we're sitting in a live room now and there's a control room on the other side. You want to essentially create an air gap. That room should be floating if at all possible. Typically, you want to build it on concrete and then you float it on rubber and you build a room inside of a room. So we built a room inside of a room

but we couldn't we couldn't pork concrete because it was an old wood building but we floated the room on a bunch of pox. Neoprene. Neoprene pox. How did you know how to do that? We did, I don't know how. There's no internet back then.

I don't know how it's created. The way to research any of this, it was all books. We went to the library. We took out a huge stack of books on carpentry and building acoustic spaces. No. I don't know how we knew. I actually eric did a lot of research on this and Alex may have known. I think he worked on this studio.

Alex built another studio. That's right. He had some knowledge. So he had some knowledge. We went and did this thing. So we started building, but then at some point in the project, Alex left, I think during the dry walling. So let me explain the room.

The room was floating. It was in a, how big was this space? Maybe 400 square, 300 square feet. Three, yeah. Three, three, four, four, four. Good room. It was a great room. So the whole room was built, set off of the walls,

set off of the floor on the pucks, and set off of the ceiling. So it the floor on the pucks and set off of the ceiling so the it wasn't a box inside of a box right and In addition to being a room inside of a room We had to build double we did double dry wall on the outside walls and double dry wall on the ceiling to create more sound insulation and More air gaps,

I think, air space between the drywall pieces. Anyhow, Alex left somewhere around drywall. And Eric and I are two, let's just say we're two guys from a family, I wouldn't say our family is known for, I don't know, I don't think that's the question. This is why I asked the question. I think both of us are pretty good at, and the more dexterous, I would say.

I think we're both... You sort of have a can do get it done attitude. Yeah, I don't think that's true, but one thing I'll say is, I can say I'm very technically minded and very... I'm good at sort of the idea of a complex system or whatever, but what I found with construction is that I'm very easily frustrated and impatient. And good construction, I think Eric will agree with this, requires patience and a kind of like rigor

that neither one of us, I think, are particularly suited to. And he had the long and short of it is that I remember a day very vividly, it was near the end of it. When Eric and I were drywall in the ceiling, we had the device that you would crank it in. We would live drywall up to the ceiling and you'd get the drywall up there. And you'd have to screw in the drywall,

you know, with a drill and there'd be drywall dust in your eyes like falling down on you. And it was like late at night, it was like 10 or 11 at night. We've been working all day on the studio. We were spending money on it with no money coming in obviously because we had Professor Murder had him to arrive. We were maxing out every credit card that we had.

And, and you know, the worst thing about drywall is the, is the, is the mudding. The mudding and taping. Mudding and taping, yeah. That's the worst. Where you put mud, you put tape on the drywall and then you mud it and then you kind of like. It's a real art to it.

No, no, it's, it's truly, it is. I learned. And you put the mud on and you put the tapewall and then you mud it and then you kind of like. It's a real art to it. No, no, it's truly, it is. I learned. And you put the mud on and you put the tape on and then you let it dry then you have to sand it down and there's dust everywhere. And I just remember us having a huge screaming argument where I was like, I was like in tears or in your tears, like this is never gonna end.

We're never going to finish this. And you know, anyhow, we did finish it. Hey, look how it turned out turned out. Now I work at Bloomberg and you guys have a band. That's right. It does not work in that studio. Both careers were birthed from that same studio. That's true. We learned a lot there. No, but then Professor Murder came in and it made it all worth it. That's right. That's right. So anyhow you guys came in to record and that's the start of a of a friendship, a long friendship. That's right. Coming up on 10 years.

I guess so. And at some point, I started to move off of music to start writing. Yep. And, and Eric was basically, was his studio at that point. Let me describe the scene in the studio in the days before, while you were still there though, for the listener. Josh worked the computer pretty much.

Josh was in front of the computer and Eric sat in a brown desk chair, like a 1970s desk chair alongside the computer. And he would lean back, sometimes he'd have a guitar in his hand, faux, you know, a cup of coffee in his hand. And he was like the vibes guy. You were like the executor and he was the vibes guy.

And also if you needed him to like set up a mic, Eric would run into the studio and pass it. He was the master of micing. Yeah, I can mic anything. Yeah, see, credible talent. It isn't talent. You know, he'd get a great sound with a mic. That's right.

Anya, go on. And so that was the partnership. So when you left the studio, when you decided you didn't want to do it anymore, Eric had to transition to being the guy in front of the computer and I sort of came in as the guy who became alongside the computer. Well, I didn't think the transition made a lot of sense. I remember I was, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I do remember one time, I remember one, I don't remember who was Dutch ax or the EP. We had to leave the room to go discuss whatever we are arguing about. We're like, Disguised Bane coming in here. We can't be arguing like this in front of the... Something like that.

I do remember having a thought though. You guys would talk shit about other bands that you were working with. And I remember talking to my band. I was gonna get it. We never did that. I don't believe we ever did that. And then my band was like,

I wonder if they talk the same way about us. I don't think we did. I don't think we did. We would say the same thing that we said then. I think we were trans. You guys are cool. I do, I remember. I don't know if we thing that we said then. I think we were trans. Nah, you guys are cool. I do, I remember, the first word that we never said anything badly.

We never talked badly about the first word. There was a low moment in the Professor Murder Brothers relationship where I think you guys spent all night doing like an edit for us, because we couldn't quite unlock the magic of the song Dutch Hacks. And you guys, do you know remember this? I'm vaguely. You guys spent all night working on this edit for us. And then you sent it to us

and we just listened to it once we're like, yeah, this is totally wrong. And I think, wow, yeah. I don't remember that. So, you know, can I, let's talk about the first off, I, hey, let's pass forward. No, but I just want to say undoubtedly this is for people who don't care about music and don't know what we're talking about. It's mostly very boring. Yeah. And I apologize to you if you're not enjoying it. But you know, on the other hand, it's a free podcast. You can turn it off, whatever you want.

What I think is actually interesting in talking about this conversation where we had and this, you know, we stayed up all night and all of the pain of all of it, because because, you know, you think like making music is fun and it would be so awesome if you're in a band or your music producer you sit around all day making beats or whatever. But the strangest thing in the world and I used to think about it all the time and I still think about it from time to time is the idea that you would sit in a room with, you know, what was six total people. It was, it was us plus professor murders for the guys. And we would like, belabor the sound, like the snare sound on a drum mix. We'd be sitting there,

I mean, literally for hours sometimes, going like the snare, and need to sound more, like has more punch and a little more bottom. And I would go and I remember just sitting there for hours kind of and trying to mix and tweak and compress this and put like distortion on that.

And you would actually get down to these extremely granular, the kick is doing this kind of trying to mix and tweak and compress this and put like distortion on that. And you would actually get down to these extremely granular, the kick is doing this and the snare is doing this and the highest doing this. And it's such a strange, when you look back on it or when you just think about it generally that anybody sits in a room anywhere ever and just obsesses over how some thing, like a guitar seems like the most pure instrument in the world. Like you strum it, you play a chord on it, you hear the chord, the chord is discordant or not, you know.

But to make music is you have to think a ridiculous amount and critically about things that are insanely granular. But I think it speaks to the fact that you built that studio at a time in music and technology when options like that became available to many, many people. It didn't used to be like that, you know. Right. You would have, you had four tracks. Yeah.

You had one compressor. Yeah. You were going to get what you're going to get. They stick a mic somewhere. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And our music, our band band is a product of that transitionary time in music production.

And how much do you think, how much of your process is plagued by options? I mean, how much is... We try to make it now less and less, you know, for the reason you can just get completely stuck in like those granular decisions that I don't, well, I think we've learned through doing this that those decisions actually don't make a big difference at all.

I mean, it's like the tyranny of choice, right? I mean, that you can't actually get to the end point because- This is the one way we're different. He's Eric's much more detail-oriented than I am, so- But is that true? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, everything's in the details for me. They do add up to something, the important. That's the idea. Yeah. But I think that if you were to ask me, I don't want to speak for Eric, but I think, but I think that, you know, the, the, the best moments that we've had in doing music, you know, they have

very little to do with those decisions. Right. And for me, it was all about production. I was obsessed with the idea of production. In fact, when I look at my music, the music I made and the stuff that I was really interested in, it really is a session with the process of creating something and stacking things. And not necessarily, I mean, not that there weren't songs and that didn't appreciate songs

and I still do obviously, but I'm interested in the process of making a thing, not so much that, I mean, I am interested in the end result obviously, but it's in that work that I find the most pleasure. I wanna hear about, when you guys first started playing music together growing up. Yeah, Eric and I. What was that?

I was just, well, I was ever calling this recently. I know you're doing something for a bio. And we used to play in the basement. Oh yeah, when we were writing the thing for invisible ways. I wrote a piece on medium about it. Yeah, we recorded it in your basement I read it. We can talk about it in a second. Okay. All right, I will get to that. But you asked a question. That's right

Eradot the earliest thing I can think of so first of the earliest thing I think of is that my my uncle Jeff Was me very musical and and at my grandfather's house he had a drum set a Ludwig jazz kit set up and sparkling the color of sparkling pink champagne which we still have and they sound brilliant and in fact I may be on the professor murder records. I've never seen the kid I don't think you keep it out of you've seen it. I don't think you've seen it. I don't think I've actually seen it. I know about it but that's surprising to me because I found it. And anyway my uncle Jeff had a Ludwig kit. There was a piano, a baby grand piano on my grandfather's house. When we were very young, we used to bang on the drums if given an opportunity or play the piano, just messing around because we were kids. At some point Eric decided he wanted to play guitar

and electric guitar. On two occasions I decided I wanted to play guitar. But the earliest part I remember is my father took us to a pawn shop in the north side in Pittsburgh. Correct me if I'm wrong. Feel free to go. I will. And because Eric said he wanted to play guitar. And of course if Eric wanted to play guitar I wanted to play guitar. I think I was 11. Yeah, and he took us to a pawn shop where they sold cheap Chinese knockoff strats. And he bought us both, he knew the guy. Yeah, he knew the guy. And he bought us, Eric got a shirt.

I think you were to high school at the time. Eric got a hot pink, like a Miami Vice hot pink, Yeah. Snock off strat. Court was the brand. Court. And I got a turquoise blue. Miami vice turquoise blue. Ha ha ha. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you still, you don't have either of those guitars, do you? Not fortunately, no. No, that's a shame. Because I think it sound great. But I never learned, I didn't learn to play guitar at all until much later in life. I never learned on that guitar either. We had them and we played around with them, but I remember what happened when we got those

guitars, we were, I said, I wanted a guitar and they said, well, we'll get you one, but you have to take lessons. And I said, oh, sure, of course, I'll take lessons. Anything for an electric guitar. And they found a guitar teacher who was an 80-year-old guy, and he tried to teach me how to read. And I didn't want to learn how to read. I just wanted to learn how to play. You want to learn how to read to songs.

You want to learn how to read to songs. Yeah, I didn't want to read. So after one lesson, I gave it up and the guitars that I just, I think I walked away from it. Yeah. But you picked it back up. But then a couple years later, I wanted to play acoustic guitar. I got into acoustic guitar somehow. I think REM might have been involved.

I was into REM and like that kind of stuff. Yeah. Soft. So did you want an acoustic guitar? No. Actually what happened was around, after the whole, I was always begging to, I wanted to play the drums.

That's what I wanted to play. And I would always bang on the drums at my grandfather's house and people would give very mad. Why did your grandfather have drums? They were my uncle Jeff's drums and they were set up in his... It was sort of on display in a bedroom upstairs. That's right. Across from the bedroom.

They were decorative. Right. And I begged my parents, I was like, please, can we take these drums? Can we take them to Pittsburgh because Because I want to play them. And he wouldn't let us take the drums. But he let us take the snare. And the agreement was we could take the snare if I took drum lessons.

Same. And so I took two drum lessons or three drum lessons. And I obviously showed a natural talent for it. The point where he didn't need lessons anymore. The instructor was so impressed. He said, you don't need me. There's nothing I can teach you that you don't already know. Where he's exactly. He had a mug. It's like, we've played on pads.

That's right. It's not playing drums. No, anyhow, at some point I swindled everybody into getting the drums there. And then and then Eric got a guitar, is around the same thing Eric got a guitar teacher that he actually liked. Yeah. He was a cool dude with a kid. Marty Rideell.

Marty Rideell, who had a mullet, if I recall, I can't tell if this is the worst podcast I've ever done or not, by the way, I just wanna say, because it's... Well, would you put that out into the world? That's because I'm a transparency. So am I. Me too, well, apparently not.

I'm not sure if this is good or not, but I'm enjoying it, that's what I wanna say. Then it's probably good. I don't know if you say so. All right, anyhow, you'll edit that out, right, Magnus? That's the best part. That's the best part. So, but yeah, Marty Rideell, and then you got like a CZ 5000, which I think you still have

in the studio, Cassio, because Marty Rideell was not only a guitar teacher, but he wanted you to get some like drum machines. Was any response from that? No. He told me, he had a drum machine, he sold me, I was interested in drum machines. That's right, and I said, yeah, I really want to get a drum machine. I said, I got one, I'll say, I don't want to use it.

Do you remember the model number? Yamaha RX-7. Was it the RX-7? Yeah. The RX-7, which was used on a record that changed Eric's life, which is the first Michael Penn album. I don't know if that was used on that album. But I remember I think they've talked about the sounds.

I remember thinking that the sounds were similar and I they're identical. I told myself they were, but I think he didn't. I think you thought the Yamaha RX-7. Yeah. Yeah, there was like 200 bucks. Yeah, which is a lot of money in the 80s. Yeah. I guess I played 80s. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. The 80s. Did you I guess so. Played 80s.

Maybe. Did you guys have a band ever? We had, we had, with sessions. Well, for a long time, we just made noise in the basement. And then Eric, being older in a teenager, graduated to hang out with real people, not his brother. And so he went off and actually started. But weren't you in

What was that band we had a vehicle flips? Oh, oh, no, no We had a band with some of our friends from the suburbs. I used to play with those guys. Yeah, yeah We played a we played a battle with the bands in Mount Levenon before that before that was just the two of us And that's what I was thinking about when we wrote this piece Jesse wrote yeah, no, we used to play in the basement. We used to play a couple songs We actually wrote we wrote a bunch of metal song metal song right stalker stalker Six the bees There were some others that we did I don't remember I don't know I was thinking

It's weird because we were I was pretty young I don't know how much you knew about metal, but we were doing like kind of sludge, sludgy metal stuff. There was all about like suicide and Satan. It was pretty heavy. I saw some of your paintings too. Yeah, they were pretty darn. Yeah, they were. I was a pretty darn, I was a pretty messed up kid.

And... Anger is an energy. That's true. That's a line from a P.I.L. song. P.I.L. is Public Image Limited, which is a John Liedon, Johnny Rotten's band, post sex pistols for those who don't know. Yeah.

And it's an amazing band, and they're actually, they really change the face of music in many ways, but... Major influence on our youth. We don't have to go into that. Yeah, let's not, yeah. At any rate, I feel like we should take a break, and then we'll come back and talk more about whatever it is we're talking about. Okay. Another feeling you get when you can get things done was just a click of your mouse. It

can't get more convenient than that. I mean, unless you psychically just make things happen, which I think is probably a far off technology. But now you can get your mailing and shipping done without leaving your desk thanks to stamps.com. Stamps.com turns your piece of your Mac into your own personal post office that never closes. It's very convenient. You can buy and print official US postage for any letter or package using your computer and printer. Then you just hand your mail to the mailman and drop it in the mailbox and you'll never have to go to the post office again. You know, my producer Magnus, he told me he signed up for stamps.com. He couldn't take going to the post office anymore. I mean, I think he's very lazy, but you know it doesn't matter what your reason is.

He signed up for it. He loves it. He's been frankly, it's annoying how much he talks about it. And you can sign up right now as well. Use my name Joshua for a special offer. It's a no-risk trial and you get a $110 bonus offer, which includes a digital scale that calculates exact postage for letters and packages and up to $55 of free postage.

So don't wait, go to stamps.com. And before you do anything else, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in Joshua. That's stamps.com and enter Joshua. I mentioned Squarespace at the top of the show, and I just want to talk about them. Again, it's a great service if you're building a website.

If you are maybe like me, not totally literate in the creation of web destinations. I know a lot about building websites. I don't know how to physically build the websites. Squarespace is great for that. It's simple, it's powerful, it's beautiful. It's got responsive design, which is, I think, a must-have now your website will look good on any mobile device, on a tablet, on desktop. Commerce has included every website, comes with a free online store, and they have 24-7 support via live chat and email. But not telephone support,

so please don't call them. If you can find the number, which I don't think exists. Anyhow, you can start a trial with no credit card right now and start building your website today. When you decide to sign up for Squarespace, make sure to use the offer code Joshua to get 10% off your first purchase and to show your support for this podcast. Thanks, Squarespace, for your support of tomorrow,

Squarespace, build a beautiful. and an Eric Am. That's right. Why, can I ask you something? Can you tell the listener why your stage name, your last name is not Topolski? Yeah. When I was like 19 and at that point new, I was gonna be a performer of some kind. Music or otherwise. I just knew Topolski wasn't gonna fly. You can't spell it, can't spell it can't pronounce it

It's true top a lost ski top a lost people want people loved to add an extra. Oh in the name. Yeah I remember is even a kid sort of dreaming and thinking about what my name would be if I became an actor or a Did you have a name performer? You have a name. I'm when you were a kid I think I had a lot of names. I don't remember. But for whatever reason, I thought spelling out my middle initial was a really clever idea. I thought it's not bad. You know, I could say that.

It seemed cool, but it was only once I heard it repeated back to me by like a guy at guitar center. It's like, thanks, Mr. M. Thanks for shopping with us. And that was it. It's like, that sounds stupid. I wanted to say that. I mean, I got rid of my, I just used my first middle name on I DJ. That's a classic Jewish.

I couldn't do that. You know my middle name is so boring. It's I mean the famous like my name is Jesse Aaron Cohen I would be Jesse errands. Yeah, that's a good. It's a it's a I mean it was impossible to get anybody to spell it or even try to get Anybody to spell the last name It's a tough name. Do you have a trick like P as in, P as in Paul T as in Tom. T as in Tom O P as in Paul O L S K Y. But you tell my mother always spelled it. Yeah.

One thing I'll say is I remember reclaiming my actual name when I started writing. Yeah, I remember the conversation about that. Yeah, what was that decision? Oh, it was, I think it was, some of it was born out of guilt about, you know, my parents and the family name and not really owning it.

And yeah, I think it was just a, it was just like, it just made sense to use my full name, just felt right. Do you ever regret it? No, and people have gotten better at spelling it. I think thanks to the internet. Yeah, you probably have thousands of bylines with it on there. That's right. Now people will use Josh instead of Josh. If you really paved thousands of bylines with it on there. That's right.

Yeah. Now people will use Josh instead of Josh. If you really paved the way for to Polskies, like Joshua or Josh. Well, my byline, I prefer my byline to be Joshua, but in conversation, Josh is obviously much more conversational. Yeah. It's much easier and less formal. Oh, that's a great question. That's a good question. Magnus is a question. Very fast if because we're all Jewish, well, we're all raised Jewish. I consider myself an atheist. That's cool. It is cool. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.

I mean, I'm culturally Jewish, socially Jewish in that. I understand the sort of Jewish, the East Coast Jewish condition. And I feel like I have a lot of the kind of idiosyncrasies. All men includes atheism. Right. Which so. It's sort of a key component to everything you just said is part of it. But Magnus' question was, did we feel as performers that we had to hide our Jewishness

or that it was an issue. Like people did in the 40s. Well, you're the ones who changed your names. I use Jesse Cohen. So, of course, Cohen is the most common and easiest to pronounce and understand and spell Jewish surname that exists. There's no mistake here.

I mean, the thing about Tepolsky is, you know, it doesn't just sound Jewish necessarily. No, it sounds ethnic. And that's actually Eric. Eric is really responsible for Zelda's name, my daughter Zelda. I mean, he's responsible for the impulse because we had names that we were playing around with, we were trying to figure out what we're going to call her. And Eric said, with the last name like Tepulski, you got to go big.

Yeah. And so we started thinking about names that were Polsky, you gotta go big. Yeah. And so we started thinking about names that were outside of, you know, we weren't gonna make up a name, we weren't gonna call our denaries or whatever, which apparently is Coliseus. It's a very popular name now for truly. Yeah, Coliseus is like in the talk 10 in the UK last year or something.

Wow. It's disturbing. I know. I know. I know. Anyhow, but that's when we started thinking, like, let's expand our search. Let's go a little bit larger and then we stumbled upon Zelda and hit every possible. But I don't think, I don't think we tried to hide our Jewishness. But I think mainly it was a matter of convenience changing our last names when we were performing.

You also want to have a cool name. Yeah. So you guys have a new record coming out. What's it called? Highlights. Did you labor over the naming of this? I heard some early names for this record. Oh, yeah. Do you remember any of them? Yes.

Let's hear it. There was a record name that Eric had run by me before you chose the name. OK. That I thought was one of the best titles for an album ever. And you didn't use it. I'm pretty disappointed. OK. It was Phantom of the name. Okay. That I thought was one of the best titles for an album ever, and you didn't use it, and I'm pretty disappointed. Okay. It was Phantom of the Beach.

Phantom of the Beach. And you put it in the mouth there, because you may use it. We had so many lists. We'll never use that. No. Phantom of the Beach to me evokes everything about tan lines that I think you need to know.

Yeah, it's the dark side of the light side. Kind of. Yeah. It'd be like a good last song on our last album. I would love to. It's a good description of, yeah, the last song. I also, it's like the idea of a, like a fan of the opera character, but at the beach.

Yeah, that was the idea. Right. Well, you can be taken many ways. He has the mask when he's wearing like a Hawaiian shirt. Oh, see, see, I'm picturing him as being wearing the whole outfit, but he said the beach. Okay. Which I think would be very uncomfortable. Yeah, you know, yeah.

It's like in addition to having to haunt people. I almost made a joke about his tan lines from the mask. That's, that's, that would be the big reveal that he wasn't disfigured. He just only one part of his face was tan. That's right. So you went with highlights,

which is a fine, it's a fine name. Thank you. I mean, I can't nitpick highlights, but. Yeah. So you went with highlights, which is a fine, it's a fine name. Thank you. I mean, I can't nitpick highlights, but good. So, so tell me about, so tell me a little bit about this record, the creation of this record. You guys, we already talked about it, but you, some of it you wrote in a little bit of it, you recorded in Pittsburgh. That's correct. Yeah. In my parents' basement. We moved everything to your basement. Your parents wrote out of town. Yeah, they were in Florida. Right. Yeah. And We set up in the basement. It took like a full day to get set up down there. We yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're probably taking your time though.

Well, you know me. Yeah, it takes him a long time to do most things. Yeah, you know, he's taking a side. Are you the same way? No. Are you joking? I'm just talking. Is it, I'm the exact opposite. How so? I feel like you're setting me up here in some way. I'm just asking. I'm like in a hurry about everything. Everything is like, I can't do it fast enough

and I'm constantly trying to. Also, I have terrible ADD, so I get distracted very easily, but I get distracted quickly as well. So that's Eric. Eric is. I'm not sure what I have terrible ADD, so I get distracted very easily, but I get distracted quickly as well. So that's Eric. Eric is... I'm not sure what I have. I think you also have ADD, I would imagine. Maybe.

But you're much more chill. You eat slower, you know, you're slower to life. If we have to meet somewhere, you may be a little bit late. I'm always late. Late. Not that I'm early or late. I'm always late. Late. Not that I'm early or anything. I'm late too. That's a family problem. That's a Tepulsky family problem. Really? Yeah. We're notoriously late as a as a clan. Really? Your parents too? I don't know.

Yes. Yes. Yes. True. Oh, really? Why do you think that is? Really? You have no recollection of always being late when we're going to events as a family. I guess I blocked it out. It's a fact. What do you think the source of that is? Well, for me, I feel like there's, I don't know about my familial lateness,

how that, the family lateness, I don't know where that comes from. Uh-huh. I'm sure it has its roots in our motherland, but maybe. For me, I feel like I'm taking control. I have the subconscious like where I'm trying to take control of my schedule By owning you know if I'm a little bit late. I think subconsciously. I feel like I'm in more in control of because my I have such a regimented Instructured schedule now. I have so many meetings and things to do. And this is to your point. Jesse said before we did the podcast that he thought

that the podcast was mainly about how busy I am. Yeah. That I talk a lot about it. Yeah. And then I went down to just say it was only 50% about that. I don't remember that part. But now it's maybe very self-conscious. And so I can't talk about what I want to talk about,

which is I just feel like I'll be sometimes I'm late because subconsciously I'm trying to like regain control over my, I was a power move. It's like a self defeating power move. I'm trying to regain control over my my personage. My personhood. Interesting. This is just a theory. Oh, it's a, yeah, everything's just a theory. I don't think about it. So you're a climate change. So you're 80, I don't think you're 80, Derek. I wish I was. No, I don't think about it. So you're a climate change. So you're ADD, I don't think you're ADD, Eric. I wish I was.

No, I don't think you do. It's not good. It's a great thing to blame stuff on. I'm sure you can find so many of your words. I'm so ADD. Yeah, I'm OCD. Oh, I think you're so old. I think that could be.

I'm so old CD. I think it could be ADD and OCD. Yeah, I think that could be the. Yeah, I think we can, there's no, you can't disagree that there's, we both have problems. We're both troubled. No question about that. We're troubled people.

Yet highly functional. High functioning. High functioning, troubled people, you know. But that's the bad, I think that's the best, all of the best people are high functioning in very- Do you guys, do you think that you guys are more similar or more different? I feel like I'm on, I feel like I'm on your podcast now and I like it.

Do you? I'm enjoying it. I love to do it. I love to do it. I love to do it. We'll do it. If only there was an invitation. There's been an invitation.

That's true. That's true. It's called No Effects. With Jesse Cohen. That's right. You should listen to it because he's a wonderful man who gets wonderful guests. Thank you. Anyhow, you can get a little taste of it right now. It's right. You should listen to it because he's a wonderful, he's a wonderful man who gets wonderful guests.

Thank you. Anyhow, you can get a little taste of it right now. It's like a preview. It's like when you get show time for the weekend. That's right. That's where you're getting right now. That's right. Anyhow, are we more alike or more, what was the question?

More different. I think we're more alike. At our root, at our decor of our personalities, I think we're very alike. And then I think everything, the stuff that's really different is just like. Unfortunately for those closest to us, yes, this is probably true. Yeah, I think we're similarly vaccine. Hmm.

What do you think? You know both of us. I think you guys have the same vex, your word, vexing. Sometimes vexing, sometimes endearing, combination of characteristics, I think that they're just slightly shuffled in various places. Can you give us some examples?

I think you guys both have a combination of ego and self-doubt or a low thing that, from the casual observer would seem to be things that wouldn't coexist, but they somehow do coexist in both of you. Well, it's true. Yeah. It is, that's a really great, really astute observation. I do think our particular damage, one of our particular

damages is that we are like really, we really, really are down on ourselves. And then we really think we're the greatest thing ever. No, in equal parts. Yes. Which is a highly combative set of emotions. Vexing. Vexing, yeah.

And creates very difficult situations. I don't know where it comes from. Yeah, I think our parents. I don't see it in our parents' problem. I don't see it so much in them. I think, no, I think our parents, I mean, who are wonderful and insane people, but, you know, of course they are.

But I think they did a lot of, you know, kind of giving us enormous amounts of credit and a sense that we are, you know, great and capable of anything and smart and funny and all the things that, you know, we may think we are and perhaps we are. But then I think they're also like, you're constantly getting scammed by your friends

and you're, you know, you're a lot of fear. A lot of fear, like, you know, you're getting scammed by your friends or like, you're not, it was like, I mean, just, I can't describe it. And they're probably listening to this because I know my mother has, she texted me a picture of her listening to the podcast.

So this is going to end, this one and badly. I can't imagine them not listening to this. But you know, for example, I go on the tonight show. Yeah. And often, you know, my parents are very excited. They'll email around, you know, oh, Josh is going to be on. Everybody will get these blasts for my mother. Josh is going to be on the tonight show.

But then when I'm on, you know, some, like after the show, I'll talk to them and they'll say things like, you'll be, well, your beard's getting pretty long. Yeah, or it was a story with that tie. That's my dad, you know, who's going on with that tie? Yeah, there's something like that. My mother's the same way.

Where it's like, she's so much on stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, it's like critical about the kinds of things that you're most worried about. Like, did I look stupid? Did I say something stupid? Yeah. I think that's well meaning, but it makes you feel, you know.

You start to doubt. Yeah. But the fear and paranoia stuff. Talk about that. Your friends are. I think I have a lot of, I juke, you know, I think we do something and I don't know if Eric does it, but I jump to the most ridiculous scenario

in a situation where things may go bad. I jump to not like the, oh, this could be a little bit bad, or I'll have to do, you know. No gray, it's extreme. You go right to the, I go right to the, I see it, sometimes I'll just jump to a completely crazy situation. Like, oh, I've been, I've been poisoned with anthrax. Yes, like, like, I get a jump to a completely crazy situation. I've been poisoned with anthrax.

I get a letter from a, I get a letter that I don't recognize where it's from and I immediately think there's going to be an anthrax in this or something like that, which is a completely insane. That might be a product of our modern world. For me, a lot of it is about suppressing the crazy paranoid thoughts and recognizing that they are not possibly real. But I don't think I'm actually negative or I don't find that stuff daunting. I just kind of plow through things.

Yeah, I think that that's true. You have a, you seem to have a eye on the prize sort of, when you want, you seem to have a, um, I on the prize sort of, you, when you want something, you seem to just grab it. I, I think that I think of all the really most terrible things you can imagine in any situation, but I ultimately am a very optimistic person. I think anything that anything you're going to do or want to do or can do is possible. You have an immense amount of willpower as well. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. I don't know what that means, but. You know, watching you leave the studio and start writing for Engage It and how the way

that you pushed your way into that career, really, I mean, there was a period where you, Josh was living up. One timeline started, Josh lived above the studio and was writing for Engadget. And he heard us work on our whole first album through the floor. That's right. I mean, we heard, I mean, Laura and I heard those songs,

mainly the bass, the bass of those songs, more than anybody except for you guys. Absolutely. Just over and over again. And I was, of course, working at home all day. Laura, I think, had a job in the city at that guys. Absolutely. Just over and over again. Yeah. And I was at, of course, working at home all day. Laura, I think, had a job in the city at that point. Yeah. And so it was just, uh,

Yeah, that must have been torture. You're pretty cool about it. Yeah, you know, you know, I'm not like, I don't like, you're a crying baby. It doesn't bother me. I don't get, I don't get annoyed by like, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by,

I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I get annoyed by, I of a light buzzing drives me insane. So now let's get back to your record. You release one record. It was actually pretty popular. Actually.

Well, I mean, I mean, it was actually. Actually, yeah. We get a lot of actuallys. You know, yeah, one of the most important. Yeah, they're actually pretty good. They're actually pretty good. Okay, I could see how you could take that negatively. It's okay.

I guess what I guess the way I meant it. Here's how we usually hear it actually. Let me explain. I mean, I think I heard you work on these songs for a really long time and you guys were a band for a really long time before you had a record out. And of course, I thought the songs were great and I love both of you and want both of you to be successful.

But before, you had a little bit of success with a couple of songs that you did, like you did an EP, some stuff. And a couple of, you know, little pops of success, but it wasn't clear that the tan lines was gonna end up being songs of people would sing along to. And it could cross over from the internet to real. In a room of thousands of people or whatever.

And so, but then when the record came out, it started picking up steam and it became very popular. And I wasn't actually actually wasn't prepared for how popular it got and how popular you guys got. I mean obviously you're not like you know maroon five. But we're like maybe though like maroon seven eight. I feel like you'd go down. We're going to run one. We're going to run one. We're one. I would take that. Yeah. But, you know, I've been to, I've been to your shows in actually several cities. Yeah.

And, and I've seen rooms of people, like large rooms of people, just singing along to songs that I heard only through the floorboards of, of my old apartment. Yeah. That I thought were just the songs that you were working on that were very, essentially very private and small and not owned by anybody but you and then they became things that were owned by a lot of people. That's correct. So the actually is, I was surprised by how much people loved what you were doing, not

because I didn't think it was good, just because you just don't expect it. You don't expect it. I mean, I want it. That's right. I think Eric and I have worked on many things in the past where we put a lot of time and effort and energy into it and it didn't turn out to be the most loved thing in the world. We spent a lot of time with bands

and doing our own music separately and together where, and this is in the music, and the music industry is very, it's a very, very terrible industry, in my opinion. It's like one of the- The record industry. The record industry. I mean, musicians are wonderful. The record industry is very, it's a very, very terrible industry, in my opinion. It's like one of the- The record industry. The record industry.

I mean, musicians are wonderful. The record industry is terrible. And I think it can be very hard on people, and it's tough to have success, any success. So the actually is, you've found success, and that was surprising. I mean, particularly because the music is not like straight pops, you know? Speaking of actually, I think it's a much better time to be doing music now than it was 10 years ago when you were when you guys built that studio, right? That's just something that comes up on my show a lot. In what way is it better?

I think that there's a bigger space for bands like us who, for the Maroon ones of the world, you know, there's a lot more, there's, no, it's true. Maroon mod is also a really bad name. Yeah. There's like, I could just take it. You know, you started back up a Maroon one. Well, that's why they're five, right? There were already four Maroons. Adam's Maroon one, first of all.

But no, I really believe that like, it's the internet, it's the long tail thing basically. It's like, you might have been able to sell more records in the late 90s than you do now, but a band like Taylor has can just reach. The struggle for being a musician is just having people hear your music, period. Like, and in the late 90s,

if you were in a non-major label band, if you wanted something to even hear you or know that you exist, you pretty much had to be a person who shopped at a weird record store, listened to a weird radio station or read a weird magazine. You had to live in a place that had those things or had a weird friend or had a weird friend. That's like who did those things? 25 people in any given city. Stanlines couldn't survive in the 90s. It would, it just would have been, it's, I don't know. I, well, your music would have seemed really well.

I don't know, you know, maybe we would have been signed to Columbia in the 90s. It's hard to say. Maybe you would have had it up a couple of other altruists. What's that? You would have had it up like, uh, what is that band? You've got the music in you. Don't give up.

New radicals. You'd be like. New radicals. You'd be like a new radicals kind of. My point is today, for people to hear your music, there's just an infinite number of more ways to happen. But there's a lot more music too. Yeah, but still. But you think the stage is bigger than you think it's 100%.

I mean, but you think that the potential for success is larger. Absolutely. I mean, we got paid more to do a show within a year of starting this band than most bands would have ever gotten in the late 90s. Right. And I'm not saying that to brag. I'm just saying that sounds like a brag though. No, I'm just saying that it's just like it's a fact of the man. Wasn't that much money.

It wasn't. It really wasn't. But by comparison, but by comparison, you know, it's like, Tamline sold out the empty bottle on our first tour of In 2012, you know, and it was like not a big thing That's where Don Cab used to play their shows and they were a really big successful indie band in those days. Right. We should say that Eric was in Don Cabillero

Cabillero depending on how you pronounce it. Yeah, I don't I don't pronounce it the first way. I'd say Caballero. Caballero, depending on how you pronounce it. Yeah. I don't pronounce it the first way. I'd say Caballero, but- I say Caballero, too. I think most people do. Yeah. But I just think it's interesting, you know. Yeah.

No, it's true. I mean, listen, I mean, I look back and I think that did I get out of music at the wrong time? Who knows? You would have had to, because you did, you know, progressive house. Yeah. Well, by the end of it, Eric and I were doing very different stuff, but stuff that never would have flown.

I mean, if you heard the music that Eric and I made, you heard the music. Good morning. Good morning. Eric and I had a bank called Good Morning, which was like essentially a prog rock. I saw you guys play a good morning show before I ever met you guys.

Really? Yes. And you were like, these guys are something special. Yes. In the basement of lit, I was like, these guys are super cool, super confident, super like, are you serious? Yes, absolutely.

Can I talk about that? Then I met you. I remember the lit show. I remember the lit show, Vividly, here's why. Because I used to have a heart problem called super ventricular tachycardia, which is kind of a cool heart problem to have if you're gonna have one,

but essentially like a feedback loop, an electrical feedback loop is created in the heart that makes your heart like start beating like crazy fast for a long period of time, like 30 minutes at 200 beats per minute or whatever. It's really terrifying. I don't know if we ever, if I ever had any of my episodes when we were recording,

I don't think we did. I don't remember. But I remember that Lichio very vividly because we started our set and whatever, for whatever reason, this thing could be triggered randomly. It would be like if you had a lot of caffeine or if you were in a stressful situation Or just for no reason at all and as soon as we started our set it started and sense and I and I and I and I actually thought like I was gonna pass out while we were playing because our first song I think went through several tempo changes

Because we were like essentially so weird, like, prog rock. And I was losing it. Like, I was really hard for me to keep playing. And I remember eventually it stopped while I was playing. But show. Well, that's professionalism. Show must go on. But I do remember fearing for my life and thinking, like, this is, I'm gonna pass out on stage, which is.

I don't think they actually technically had a stage there. No, it was like a landing at some time. Anyhow, so the record comes out May 19th, and then you're touring. Yes. How long, where are you going? How long are you touring for? To the endless tour. No, we're doing like three, four weeks in June, July,

all around North America. What is a song that changed your life? The first, as you said that, I didn't even think about it. I'm just coming straight off the dome. It's a good morning song, isn't it? The first thing I thought of was the David Lee Roth version of Just a Jiggle O. Why did that change your life? I don't know.

That was the first thing I thought of. I loved that song. Do you remember the video for that song? Yeah. It's a cover. Yeah, it's a cover. I loved it. And I asked I begged my parents to buy the cassette

crazy from the heat for me. And they did. I don't know why. So I reflected from the heat for me and they did. I don't know why. So I reflected in your music that you make at all. No, not at all. But it was just very cool. It was one of my earliest memories of loving a song. But he's a great showman and you're also a great showman.

If you haven't seen tan lines live by the way, you should know that Jesse Eric sings, but Jesse does all the talking, essentially. Just like this podcast. That's right. All right, what's the song that changed life? His... Changed my life? Yeah. Well, the first Don Cap song I heard.

Really? Yeah, called Unresolved Karma. I don't know how or why, but that song when I heard it and that band became a thing. Is that on Forrest Back? It really did change my life because they were this like hometown band who was making it in a way that nobody else was. It all seemed, the world seemed huge. Huge footwear, there was a word there. I don't know what the word is.

Possible. Everything's, yeah. Everything seemed possible. Yeah. It's really interesting. Everything seemed possible. Yeah. It's really interesting. Is that the first song on Forrest Back? No, it's a single. It was an early second single.

I can still remember that. But I mean, yeah. That record. And I wasn't even a big fan. But I mean, we always talk about changing your life. I mean, that really, it just made me believe more that I could do this thing that I'm still doing. What you are still doing somehow. It's like 20 years.

Just because these guys from my town did it. Right. They weren't even popular though. Interesting. I think it's about the time that I think I hate to do this, but I think we have to wrap up. Was it too much, was it too personal? I think some of your listeners would like to hear about your former career.

Yeah. Did we talk much about it? I don't remember. Yeah. A lot of what I do is. I think this is something about my personality, but I don't have a great memory of having done things. What do you mean having done things?

Well, like this whole thing, I don't have no idea what we just did. I mean, I don't know if at the end of this, this is a great, I think, when I get, you're just actually true with music. I remember getting to the end of working on a song. I would always just think, I don't know anymore, what this is like, I can't tell. That happens.

I can't tell if this is good or bad. That's the process. This is a value or does it not have value? I just know we have to do that. That's one of those things that emerge seemingly out of nowhere so special and they're just done as soon as they're made. Those are the best things.

There's also probably songs that you wrote that you listen to and you're like, I have no recollection of doing this. I've recently discovered songs I had no recollection of. I heard them and I found something and you go found them and like, why didn't I do something with this? This is really good. Yeah, I've stuff that I actually, the interstitial music on this podcast, which goes in and out of ads, was something I wrote as a ringtone for my phone, you know, like five years ago. And now you wrote a ringtone for your phone. Yeah. Because that's the kind of thing I would do in my downtown.

Ringtone? That's the sort of thing that you would do in the in the 2000s, in the mid 2000s. Mid ringtones at a moment. Are they still popular? No, no, ring tones are over. Okay. Ring tones are dead anyhow, but I was like, this is pretty interesting. It's weird that I wrote this. Luckily, I found a use for it.

Yeah. All right, I'm getting a signal from Magnus here. Okay. Or he would just move. Are you think we got? Do we get it? Yeah. Okay. Well, hey, thank you for coming on. Thanks for having us. or he would just move. Are you think we got? Do we get it? Yeah.

Okay, well, hey, thank you for coming on. Thanks for having us. I mean, I hopefully this will not be the last time we talk on the podcast. Yeah. So May 19th highlights. May 19th. I encourage highlights.

I've heard it. I've heard it and it is good. And I think you'd be a fool to not pre-order right now on iTunes. Can you pre-order it? Sure. To pre-order on iTunes though, admittedly I think it's weird that anybody pre-orders anything on iTunes because it seems like a weird way to- It's such a faith-based transaction. Yeah, you know- But if you're gonna spend money on music-

Fandom. No, and people should spend money on this because it's music, it's music coming from a very pure place. Yeah, we're- Yeah, super honest. A place very pure place. Yeah, we're, yeah, super honest. A place of great honesty. Yeah, okay. I'm gonna. I'm gonna use our greatest.

I'm gonna leave it there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's the podcast for this week. I'll be back next week. Obviously, and as always, I wish you and your family the very best, even though something horrible will befall you in the very near future. you you