Chewing the Gristle with Greg Koch
Listen in on Greg Koch's conversations with his guitar-hero friends. Every episode Greg unleashes his fiendish humor and unique perspective as "one of the most famous unknown guitar players in the world", asking his often-famous musical friends the questions that we all want to know the answers to! Each episode is brought to you by Fishman and Wildwood Guitars
Chewing the Gristle with Greg Koch
Ben Eller: from Waffle House to Mastodon, Expression Trumps Speed
Greg Koch welcomes YouTube guitar sensation and touring musician Ben Eller (Uncle Ben) to the Gristle fire for a conversation that meanders from lighthearted Waffle House tales to profound insights about musical authenticity.
Ben shares how his guitar journey and popular YouTube channel were born from simple boredom - first as a homeschooled kid with time to kill, later as a guitar teacher with creative energy to burn. His candid "This is Why You Suck at Guitar" series emerged from the thoughts he couldn't express to frustrating students who never practiced. That unfiltered honesty resonated with viewers, launching an Internet teaching career that complements his diverse performing life.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when they explore how our earliest musical influences create the foundation for our tastes. From Ben's childhood memories of Van Halen's "Eruption" to Greg's transformative experience with Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland," they agree that understanding "where your clock starts" is essential to respecting diverse musical perspectives.
Perhaps most compelling is their mutual admiration for guitarists who communicate mastery without technical flash. "The hardest thing in the world," Ben notes, "is proving you're a supreme sorcerer without even breaching 16th notes" - a pointed commentary on today's "Instagram shred post era" where technical fireworks often overshadow musical substance.
Ben offers golden wisdom for creators navigating online criticism: "Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from." His ability to maintain positivity while acknowledging the gifts and challenges of internet fame reveals why his teaching connects so deeply.
The episode concludes with Ben sharing exciting upcoming projects, including a riff-focused solo album, potential metal ventures inspired by his recent stint with Mastodon, and comprehensive instructional courses revealing his "hidden Guitar Illuminati wisdom."
Ready to chew some genuine musical gristle with two authentic guitar voices? This conversation delivers wisdom, laughs, and inspiration in equal measure.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for another season of Chewing the Gristle with yours truly Greg Kauk. Can you believe it's already season six? We've got so many cool interviews lined up. Are we going to talk about music, you betcha? But what else are we going to talk about? Well, quite frankly, anything that comes to mind. So stay tuned, doggone it. Let's chew that doggone gristle. Season six come.
Speaker 1:This week on Chewing the Gristle, we've got a favorite of mine, Ben Eller. Uncle Ben, if you will, Internet phenom. He's a guitar playing fiend, but also a bass playing fiend and an internet content provider of unparalleled excellence. This week on Chewing the Gristle, my buddy Ben Eller. Come on y'all. Chewing the Gristle, my buddy Ben Eller, Come on y'all. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, once again we've gathered round the Gristle Fire for a little conversatian, a little Chewing the Gristle, if you will. Today's guest, the mighty Ben Eller you know him as Uncle Ben on the inner Googles, guitar player, educator, rascal, extraordinaire, recently seen on stage with Mastodon. I myself have been accused of being a Mastodon, but in another context entirely. But, Ben, how the hell are you, my good man?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I'm so happy to be here, gregory Cochrie. Dr Cochrie, I like to call call you, it's such a pleasure to be here on your show. It's a splendid podcast that you've got going and I'm honored to be a guest upon it and chew some gristle, do some chin wagging with you, you're on the show. So thank you, and thank you listeners, for uh giving this a listen with your, your hearing ears yes, well, you know what?
Speaker 1:you're one of my favorite peeps. I always enjoy hanging with you every time I'm down there in beautiful Tennessee and we have an opportunity to maybe make some music together, maybe just hang out, maybe just go to a certain Waffle House.
Speaker 2:Maybe we trash a Waffle House. Maybe we turn that Waffle House into a Waffle Home. Have you?
Speaker 1:thought about that. Oh, I am with you. 1,000%.
Speaker 2:When I'm there with you and I'm having that buttered pecan waffle and some smothered and covered hash browns, I feel like it's more of a waffle home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're damn right it is. You know, when I was a young'un and I was on the road with. I hadn't really been south all that much, and some of these other buddies of mine that had been on the road a bit were just oh, the Waffle House is the worst, We'll never go there.
Speaker 2:Don't ever eat at a waffle house.
Speaker 1:So I had this kind of prejudicial image of that establishment until I finally went and I thought those individuals were high on crack. Oh yeah, it is a place to engage in a delicious feast. And the waffles because it is the namesake item of the establishment. I'll tell you what it's a waffle like no other place, Am I right, or am I right?
Speaker 2:No, you're exactly right. They take great pride in their waffling there. I'll tell you that, yeah, and rightly so, I've got a concept for a chain of competitor waffle-based restaurants. Yes, maybe you can be like an investor in on this. Maybe this is a good idea. Trademark Ben and Greg, obviously I like it. Maybe we start a chain of waffle houses. It's like you know, we're trying to take it back to the scuzzy times before Waffle House had this family friendly jukebox on the table image. We got to take it back to where, like you, got to fist fight somebody to even get in the door. I'm talking about a Waffle Hostel. How do you feel about?
Speaker 1:a Waffle Hostel. Oh, I like that. It brings all kinds of things to the fore. Not only does it it kind of has a whiff of violence, but also kind of a homeless vibe as well.
Speaker 2:I need a place to stay sounds like adventure, sounds like intrigue, sounds like you're gonna make some memories to me ah, you are correct and I'm for it.
Speaker 1:One thousand percent waffle hostel coming soon. I'm in now. Where are you as we speak? I see that you're in your student people will be listening to this. They won't actually be seeing our activities, but I see many fancy amplification devices behind you. This is the official Uncle Ben lair.
Speaker 2:This is the Ben Cave which is full of WMDs, which is my shorthand for weapons of musical destruction. Oh, I see you. Things full of tubes and high gain and hot pickups and all the things that I love you like that rock music. I like to. I like rock music. Yeah, I like to play rock guitar. Um, I know Andy Wood. If he's listening to this. We'll be pleased to know that every gain knob on all of these amps is at 10. There's a boost pedal in front of them as well.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I like what you're doing there. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm fond of it personally.
Speaker 2:You're bringing the filth as any co-proprietor of the waffle hostel wood I'm not only the owner, I'm also a client exactly, exactly correct.
Speaker 1:So you have a very, very successful YouTube channel and it's excellent. You do a great job of dissecting some pretty complicated and also some more. It's for all levels of play, of course. But I'm wondering when did you get hip to this whole idea of internetting and doing this instructional aspect with your own convivial charm, right, right?
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting. It was kind of a project that was born out of, I would say, boredom. First, you know, which is actually even the reason I started playing guitar in the first place is out of boredom. It seemed like something to do. You know, when I started playing guitar it was because I was homeschooled, and so, you know, my graduating class was pretty small, so it isn't exactly what I would say. I could wake up in the morning, get all my schoolwork done by 11, and then just have to wait around all day until, you know, my friends that live down the street came home from real school or whatever. So it was like I need something to do. My brother has a guitar. I really wanted to play bass, but I might as well give this a shot. So that was kind of born out of boredom itself. And so was the YouTube channel. So if you go back and peruse the archives of the channel and dig really deep, there's a few just like kind of random covers that I put up, just recorded on a little you know digital camera, and it'd just be like oh, here's like a cover song of like a Macedon thing that I learned, or this or that Right, but when I got kind of serious about it was when the instructional aspect kind of came about and that's when, like the this is why you suck at guitar series sort of started and took off pretty well because the entire mindset there was.
Speaker 2:You know, at the time I was teaching a lot at a local shop, at the guitar vault in Morristown, tennessee, used to be called the fret store, but now it's the guitar vault. Go and visit him, tell him Uncle Ben sent you I was teaching at the shop and I mean, as you can imagine, dude, it's like I'm a pretty kind and gentle instructor man. I want people to feel motivated, I want people to feel positive and stuff. Sometimes that's hard when timmy has come in for six weeks and he's never practiced once in between, right, so, even as I'm sitting there, you know, across from in the, in the teacher chair, giving him good, encouraging stuff to work on, in my head I'm going, timmy, this is why you suck at guitar. You didn't practice, you didn't do anything we talked about. This is why you suck at guitar, right?
Speaker 2:You know, at the time before I started that series, um, I was in, I was in a band called ark. It was this progressive instrumental um, mutant band, really, really awesome, three guitar players. It was rad man, uh, more on that later. But I was in this band and that band kind of imploded and so it was just like dang it. I got all this extra time now.
Speaker 2:My wife was working nights a lot of the times. A lot of my friends had moved off to the big city and I was still out in the country, so it was kind of the same spot I found myself in when I started playing guitar, where I was like I kind of got to wait for my friends to come home. I need something to do. So my wife and a couple other people encouraged me. It's like you're such a good teacher, you love teaching so much.
Speaker 2:You should put some stuff on on this YouTube thing that's getting started off. It was, like you know, 10, 11 years ago at this point, maybe 12 years ago at this point, and I was thinking to myself, if I'm going to be putting this stuff out there for free and I'm not getting paid for it, I'm just going to tell it like what I'm thinking as I'm sitting in the chair across from Timmy. Timmy, this is why you suck at guitar, right, you know? I'm just going to say what I'm thinking. If I'm doing it for free, right, and somehow that worked for people, I got a sneeze coming in, I think. I think I got an epic sneeze.
Speaker 1:That's all right, do what you got to do. Humans going to God. Bless you. Oh my goodness Bless you.
Speaker 2:Uncle Ben Freight train. So yeah, it just kind of spawned that way and somehow people caught on to the snarky humor and I think they understood that I wasn't being mean or anything. It's all in good wit, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course. Of course time. Thanks to the oracle that most of us carry around in our hands or back pocket or whatever it might be, we have access to information unlike at any point in human history, and certainly as a guitar player, we have access to anything we're even mildly curious about. We can do the deep dive instantaneously. But I find that, even though that is the case, people don't. And I always say there's really no reason to suck at this juncture in time, other than the fact that the age old thing is, if you don't put the time in, it doesn't matter how much informatian you have at your fingertips. If you don't do the doings, you're going to suck the seconds. Am I right, or am I right?
Speaker 2:No, it's all the time put in. You know, you're right, though it's like, with the information that we have available, you can really shrink those timeframes. I mean, rather than digging around and trying to find something, trying to find the technique that so-and-so used to play the song, and spending hours on that before you come to the conclusion, you can just go straight to YouTube, watch a live video and be like, oh, he did it with this technique or whatever, and get right, you're collapsing time frames now. Yes, but at the end of the day, is it you putting in the hours, is it you doing the work? Right, it's on that thing and mashing that rope a little bit.
Speaker 1:You know, that rope gotta mash, that rope gotta be now tell us a little bit about your musical journey, how you got into, the tunes you got into, and so on and so forth oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So okay, I I didn't really grow up in a house full of musicians. My dad had an acoustic guitar that was a gift to him. It was an old yamaha, one of those like fg. It was fg 120 or something you know.
Speaker 1:Yes but not a bad little guitar, not a bad first foray into the six string at wilderness, oh huh no, my brother still has it too, which is cool.
Speaker 2:Um, he would get that thing out probably about once every year or so. Open up the case like. I still remember what the case smelled like.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you know what I mean you know that's an oft uh undervalued thing. Is the is the memories of the smells of guitar cases the case with.
Speaker 2:It's changed over the years. I find a lot of new guitar cases are noxious smelling, but like the ones from the 70s, 80s, 90s, they had this like cake frosting smell to them.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2:They had a thing.
Speaker 2:They're doing it all wrong. They're doing it all wrong, that's right. So my old man would get out the guitar about once a year and I remember like he could play like the riff from Smoke on the Water. He could play a basic blue shuffle, just a doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, yeah, and he just had like another riff or two and then go back in the case, you know, for the rest of the year. So that was kind of my guitar exposure growing up.
Speaker 2:But both of my parents were big music fans, you know, and had a big record collection and my dad had a lot of classic and Southern rock stuff and my mom had a lot of classical music, you know, bach and Beethoven and all that, as well as stuff like the Beatles, you know. So I would say like a lot of my childhood was spent listening to classical music Van Halen, zz Top, the Beatles and, like Leon Redbone, a lot of Leon Redbone. Yeah, what a mysterious cat. I know you're hip to Leon. Oh yeah, you know that guy died and like we still know nothing about him, like nothing. There's no info about when he was born, how old he was, like there's no info about the guy Guy, there's no info about when he was born, how old he was Like. There's no info about the guy.
Speaker 2:Guy's an enigma, I love it I kind of grew up with a you know a wide array of different musical influences, I guess. And man, like some of my, my first memories that I have in life are of listening to eruption on my, my parents, like turntable, like racks, you know my brother putting the needle on that thing and be like, what is that sound? You know what I mean? It's like I remember that, uh, I just remember that so clearly in my head. One of my first memories is van halen one I, I remember listening to.
Speaker 1:Uh, I was telling the story the other day about, um, my sister had this old, like 77 chevette you remember those? They were really, really a small, small car and it had this am radio and running with the devil would come on and I'd be like I, this song is so awesome.
Speaker 2:But I'm terrified because I actually think these guys are in league with right yeah, dude, on this car horns at the front of it, like it always creeped me out as a kid man, like just hearing the car horns at the front of that. It sounded so ominous and like it did, and that bass just bam, bam, bam right.
Speaker 1:Oh man, it's like how, how evil do you have to be to actually exercise with the devil? You?
Speaker 2:know what I mean. Let's go for a run satan.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean I've always found the ultimate evil um about all of that is just the track listing itself and what they did to us, because it starts off with, you know, running with the devil, van halen. One starts off running with the devil and it's like, okay, this sounds like a rad ass rock band. These guys are swinging. They're definitely drunk. Like these guys are awesome, the guitar playing in it. It's one of the van halen songs about everybody can play, like even the flow in it, not ferocious at all. Right, everybody played such a cruel joke. Track two eruption right, it says hello, that's the most evil trick in music history. It really is, really, really is. But yeah, the same memories I hold for Eliminator by ZZ Top. That was a record that my dad had that we listened to all the time. Man, I can probably sing. I've probably been able to sing every note on that album since I was like four. That's like embedded in my DNA.
Speaker 1:You know, what's interesting about that is being slightly older than you, uncle Ben Is that I was a huge ZZ Top fan and when that first record, when that record, came out, I hated it originally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you know, I just saw ZZ Top on the El Loco tour and it was awesome and they had just started to do the you know the choreographed maneuvers together, but it was a bare-bones just started to do the you know maneuvers together, but it was a bare-bones stage.
Speaker 1:You saw the marshals. It was the loudest concert I'd been to up to that point and um and I may have, may or may not have been imbibing in something to make enhance my you know sensory perception of the events. Uh, but it was awesome. I was a. I was a guitar fiddler at the time and my one of my favorite buffet of tones was tahash that I mean there's just so many good gnarly les paul tones, awesome strat tone.
Speaker 1:The whole gamut is on that record. And then all of a sudden, eliminator comes out and I'm listo. It's young dylan calling me. I can't talk right now, young dylan, I'm engaging in spirited conversation, um, anyway. So I did not like. I was like what are they doing? One of the greatest tonesmiths of all time has like reduced himself to playing whatever atrocious shit box.
Speaker 1:And then all of a sudden I spent a little time with I was like, oh no, this shit rocks, oh man, and then I was all in and then of course I had it and I played it out and I knew every morsel on the whole damn thing yeah, it's funny because because, yeah, it's like I had the opposite experience, where that was my first exposure, so I didn't know any better.
Speaker 2:It would be I mean forever, forever. After that that I heard, you know, some of the early records, trace hombres and all this and, right, you know, learned about this other side of the band that wasn't drum machines and keyboard and all that kind of stuff. Um, I mean, I, I just I love it all. Because of that, I don't really have a preference either way. Can I tell you my cool billy gibbons story? Please do, man. So it was september of. I gotta think about what year this would have been. I think 2021, if I'm not mistaken, might have been 2022. I think it's 2021. You'll know my math based on the story here.
Speaker 2:But I went sort of last minute with a couple of friends Actually, I think a couple mutual friends of ours went to see Jeff Beck and ZZ Top, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, outside of Nashville and it was incredible and I'm so glad that it went, because we lost Jeff Beck. I think it was like two months later, right, exactly. So I got to see him right before he passed Again. That's where my math on the years is getting fuzzy, but you know, zz Top was playing. Billy Gibbons was up there and it's like you know, a different rad guitar every song right me and my buddies are just oogling over all these different guitars that he had.
Speaker 2:Joe Wyatt was there, we were just oh, yeah, you know, joe, yeah and um, so I can't remember what song it was during, but they bring out this just like incredible, definitely like a 59, you know, burst, just legendary museum piece, les paul, it's got this gorgeous flame top. It was just amazing. And so, like you know the whole song, me and my buddies are just oogling over this thing and drooling over it, being like man, I bet that thing's worth a bajillion dollars. That's so cool, man, you know that should be in the smithsonian, right, right.
Speaker 2:And dude billy gibbons beyond cool, he's the coolest guy that's ever lived, obviously, right, you know, at the end of the song, with this priceless 59 bursts that he's holding dude, he like he lifts the guitar so that he's kind of like showing the crowd the back of the guitar inverted, yeah, and it has this ginormous sticker that covers the entire back of the guitar and it says beer and he kind of points to it and gives us like it's cool, huh, look, and then just hands it off to his tech. You cannot be cooler. You can't be cooler than that Beer, that's it.
Speaker 1:There. It is Only thing that would have been better if I said waffle house that's the only way, man, the only way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's the uh. Only billy gibbons can get away with gilding the lily, quite like that, correct?
Speaker 1:but yes, uh, the top, uh, one of my favorites and one. And billy gibbons, always one of my, uh, uh, my favorite axe ticklers, especially that funky-ass vibrato of his.
Speaker 2:You know, Hank.
Speaker 1:It's just so damn juicy.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that show with Jeff Beck and ZZ Top. One of the things that was a real revelation for me about it is I got to see two examples of what I think the hardest thing in the world is to do on guitar. The hardest thing, which is prove to everybody in the crowd, everybody in the room, that you are a supreme axe wielding sorcerer, without even breaching the realm of 16th notes. Yeah, that's true, absolutely. I mean, you know at that point too, both those guys they're up in their years anyway, but neither of them have ever been like shredders. Exactly, that's true, just back a little more so. But you know, even if you watch like live at ronnie scott's like there's not a lot of right 16th on there, you know exactly a scant sextuplet available pleasure. But to me that's the hardest thing in the world is when you can prove to everybody that you are in total command of the instrument and not use speed to get there. Yeah, I'm with you, that's the hardest thing, yep, for me anyway.
Speaker 1:It's well, yeah, in most of the guys of that era you know that were where the electric guitar was elevated to the pantheon of godliness. You know were practitioners of that activity. You know Paige would get a little sticky. Diggity, diggity, diggity, here and there.
Speaker 2:And Jimi Mernie Mernie too.
Speaker 1:And old Jim Hendricks would throw out a salvo or two, but for the most part it was not to your point. Not a 32nd or 16th note onslaught.
Speaker 2:Exactly, man, exactly Kind of getting back to some of the musical origin stuff you were talking about. You know from there, I think, and this is something that I think has changed so much over the age of youngsters these days, with the availability of music and streaming services and all that, and I'm sure you remember this exact experience for yourself too, and I want to know what yours is. But, like for a lot of people in the pre-streaming era, a big turning point for me was finding music that I wasn't introduced to by my parents. Yeah, you know, and for me that was. I remember my brother coming home this one time. My older brother, noah. He came home this one time from a friend's house and he's like dude, I just saw this music video by this band called Weezer.
Speaker 2:It's called the sweater song. Dude, you won't believe it. They're nerds, they have like sweaters and glasses and they play rock music and it's so cool. And we got the blue album by Weezer, which has remained one of my favorite things humans have ever produced, but like that. And then Dookie by Green Day. Those were both incredibly important records for me because they were music that my parents didn't introduce me to. It was like I found this. It's mine that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what. What's interesting is that you're from a generation whose parents were in, were in the were in the original rock generation. I'm the youngest of seven, so my parents were world war ii people, right. So my parents were World War II people, right. So my parents were not interested in any of the music I was into until later on. They're like, you know, I kind of like this song or I like that, and they were into it, but only after my entire youth. They were like turn that noise off.
Speaker 1:So all my stuff was from my older siblings. So my older brother is 14 years older than I am, so I was exposed to his record collection. So I guess the most you know would be what music I was introduced to that you know he wasn't already into, and boy that that could be all over the all over the map.
Speaker 1:But um, you know probably a lot of the you know older school blues stuff and so on and so forth. But I I will always remember my brother bringing home Electric Ladyland from Jimmy Hendrix, because he always told me, because that was one of the records we didn't have yeah, dude.
Speaker 2:And for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:I was really young and I was really into Hendrix and I'll just always remember him saying to me man, you haven't heard anything until you've heard Electric Ladyland, wow. So he came home one night after being out and we had to share a room because we were the only two boys and my I had five sisters. So he came home and I remember waking up and he put on still raining, still dreaming, and I still remember and I heard that it's like I know what I'm doing it just clicked.
Speaker 2:You know it's like you heard something and it just clicked and you're like, but this is what something in me is looking for yes, exactly correct which brings us to the whole thing of you know.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting because the internet is filled with people with various opinions.
Speaker 1:Right, I've noticed you've got you've got all these different people saying this, that and the next thing, and I've just come to the feeling of you know, you just have to be cognizant of where everyone's clock starts. Like you just told me where your clock started, of what you know, like ZZ Top, you heard that it completely depends on that as far as what you value and you know you can do homework and you can, you know, figure out where your perspective came from. But where you start the clock musically and how that imprinted on you is your desire to pursue. It is a very specific thing and, as I said, you can inform it from past and current stuff and so on and so forth. Said you can inform it from past and current stuff and so on and so forth, but depending on where that clock starts is where those real kind of intrinsic beliefs, beliefs are held, and you should respect that, and other people too, because it's going to be different for everybody, because there is no right or wrong. Am I right or am I right?
Speaker 2:No, no, you're exactly right, and you can't glean that information off of a generic username and a stock. You know avatar of that person. You don't know, like you don't know all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the internet has I don't know, man, I mean obviously there's, there's amazing things that have come from it, you know, I mean it's, it's the entire world we live in, you know. Now I mean hell, we couldn't do it, if you know, we couldn't do this interview if not for the internet. That being said, I think that it's probably grown faster than the human brain. Here's what I'm talking about, greg. Like, when I think about, when I think about my grandparents over the course of their lives, how many people do you think they knew? Like, maybe 70 people living out in the country, living out on the farm? Like, maybe they knew 70 people over the course of their lives. And now you know our brains that were formerly just hiding out in caves and eating nuts and berries and foraging all day and maybe knew 70 people over the course of a lifetime. Now we have access to every human on earth. Right, exactly, that's a potent cocktail, right there it is indeed, you know it's.
Speaker 1:It's uh, it's a fascinating thing. A buddy of mine, um, he was about my older brother's age, he worked, he's always been a musician, but for a time he had a a straight job, if you will. He worked for a military contractor, because he's very, he's, very, smart guy, and, um, and he was working for, and so they were hip to, you know, because the first access to the internet was through, you know, the defense industry, right, and so, being a musician and being, um, you know, exposed to this technology, he foresaw all of it. He's like music's going to become digital, all this stuff is going to, you know, he, he knew it was all the writing on the wall, yeah, and um didn't do any good, but I'm just kidding though he's, he's done just fine, but it was just interesting how he knew it was coming.
Speaker 1:He did an article for a a local uh uh paper or did an interview, or they're kind of saying, hey, all this stuff is, stuff is coming and and you know and I'm not somebody, and I know you're not either that's just like, oh, you know, it was so much better. I mean it's just different. I mean you go, different things happen and you just pivot and you go and you enjoy it for whatever it is. I mean I personally, from my career point of view, it's like I couldn't do everything I'm doing if it wasn't for the current situation.
Speaker 2:I mean when, totally, I grew up in Talbot, tennessee, dude, you know how close that is to anything important or relevant for the music industry.
Speaker 1:It gives you the ability to communicate, as you said, with people all over the damn world, and that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally man.
Speaker 1:It can be used and harnessed for the for the purpose of good we interrupt this regularly scheduled gristle infested conversation to give a special shout out to our friends at fishman transducers, makers of the greg caulk signature fluent gristle tone pickup set can you dig that? And our friends at Wildwood Guitars of Louisville, colorado, bringing the heat in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Well, on the subject of interfacing with people on the inner Google, how much do you engage an individual post? Because I find it if someone asks like a very specific question that hasn't been answered a million times, I'll pipe in and say something. But if someone says something like really obnoxious or even like astoundingly stupid you know trying to get a rise out of me or whoever else I will not engage at all. I'm just curious as to have you fluctuated in your levels of engagement in this regard, as your star has risen, if you will, as far as followers and so on and so forth? How do you approach that?
Speaker 2:Right? That's a great question. I think the golden rule that anybody that is out there using their time to create content for the consumption of others, especially free content, stuff that nobody is forcing anyone to watch and no one is getting billed for, you know, I think one of the golden, you know rules that everybody should abide by, buy and it's very simple, but it's totally changed my approach. Don't ever take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. It's that simple, Excellent. Yes, Simple, you know, because obviously you know I put a lot of stuff out there and I'll tell you the feedback is 99.9% great. I mean people that I engage with and the comments that I see from people are vastly positive and very thankful and very, very cool people I want to engage with, you know that's because you are positive and it's a positive thing thank you, I.
Speaker 2:I like to think that whatever you put out there is what circles back to you. You know, um, and that's kind of evidence of that. But, like every now and then one slips through the cracks, maybe no doubt.
Speaker 2:He just wandered in uh off the streets and found himself in one of my videos and does not like the cut of my jib, right and there, you know there'll be a trash talk comment about like, oh you know, that's not how he plays it, you're playing it wrong, you're doing this wrong, you're an asshole, like whatever you know. Some people just don't like your thing and it would be really easy to get down in the ditch with them. You know it would be really easy to get down there and sling some mud. But at the same time, do I know this person? Do I know their pedigree on the instrument? Do I know that they know what they're talking about? Why would I treat like they do?
Speaker 1:I don't know this person, you know exactly and then you look and they have like two followers and no videos, or if they have a video, it's like oh yeah, believably foul, Totally. If you even bother to engage, but sometimes they're so the comment is so out there. You're like where is this coming from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think this is about me. I think this is about something else Exactly, exactly Correct, else, exactly correct. Call your dad, right, call him, call her, you know, you know it's. It's kind of a funny thing how all that stuff works out, because you're exactly right, man, and I get a lot of people that you know talk to me and they're like I thought about doing a YouTube channel, I thought about putting more of my playing out there, but I'm I'm so scared of the haters, I'm so scared of people that will just rip me up and talk, smack to me and all that.
Speaker 2:And, dude, it's like I'm here to tell you, as somebody that has done this for a long time, and as somebody who does the thing you're not supposed to do and reads all the comments. I do, I read all the comments on my stuff, um, and I I check it out. Whenever somebody has some you know, some some, uh, some smack to talk, right, I go check out and I see, well, what have you been up to, Right, and I'm here to tell you everybody who's scared of doing something or putting something out there, because they're scared of the haters, the haters have time to talk shit because they're not doing shit. Exactly, it's a fact. Right, like seriously, like right, like seriously. Like I've never gotten. I've never gotten a smack talk comment from steve I. You know why it's too busy making the best guitar stuff ever exactly exactly correct.
Speaker 2:So don't don't fear the haters, you know, don't. Don't do it like don't don't take criticism from them because you wouldn't take advice from either. It's like you don't know these people and most all of the time it's entirely projection and they're not doing anything to make the world better themselves that's a fact.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the comments are so, as you said, it's like somebody just wandered right in. This is the thing I mean and I and I understand it to an extent. I mean, I, I do. I try to put myself in other people's shoes at all times and that helps me from any number of different kind of knee-jerk reactions to things I would regret later.
Speaker 1:But you know, you get people who it's like they don't do any research at all, like you're just some random dude, you know who, just you know like they don't do any homework on. Well, maybe this person has done X, y and Z and maybe they'll take this one thing completely out of context. But again to your point, it's like they're projecting whatever mental hellscape they're in on somebody else, some random person on the Internet, and to even engage them whatsoever is to give credence to their own dysfunction. But how about the whole thing of? You know you've explained something. You've even explained it in the description in terms of you know what it's from, what the tune is, what gear is this? But then it'll just be the same questions all throughout. I just I'm like I'm not answering that.
Speaker 2:You reach that point right when you're like. I did my part by putting it out there in the first place. Exactly, Sort out the details later, Right.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, unless it's something you know. For instance, if you do anything on slide guitar, anything at all the first question you'll get is what tuning is that? So I always go, I'm in standard tuning or I'm an open G and without a doubt you know right down what tuning is that, and so then I even did a video. It's like you know what you can tell when you're in open tuning. Well, this happens. You know if you hear open strings ringing, then you can go.
Speaker 1:Oh, if I'm borrowing at a certain fret, then you're like, oh, okay, well, that's got to be this tuning. But I find that you know, and again I empathize, I understand, but at the same point in time it's like we had to figure all this shit out on our own back in the day. And now it's as if people want to just like take some kind of device, medical accoutrement and open up their craniums and for us to just pour the shit in and close it back up again.
Speaker 1:Okay, now you're good. It's like no, you got. You got to do a little footwork in this case.
Speaker 2:Just read the description of the video, right yeah, we're not quite a downloading uh kung fu into uh keanu reeves's cerebral cortex like we did. We're not there yet, right it's? It's a matter of time, but for now it is fascinating for me as somebody that puts out content stuff all the time and and has dealt with the exact issue you're talking about. It's interesting to me to kind of play the game of psychology there and be like how do people assimilate information? How is it getting in their heads? Because, like, if I did this, this and this and it still didn't click, it almost becomes a game to me where it's like how do I get the little ball into the hole?
Speaker 2:Right right, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you wonder a lot of times if it's just. They know damn well that they could find out what it is, but they just want to engage with you.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, totally there is that. There's the dog peeing on the rug for attention, which is very real.
Speaker 1:That's a great. That's a great image, by the way, but we can incorporate that in some of the waffle hustle, yeah probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's dog peeing on a rug in every corner of the waffle hospital.
Speaker 2:But you know, on the positive side of the interaction thing, um of the internet, you know I get so many, so many great questions and so many great comments on on my channel and on my Instagram and my Patreon community and I think sometimes you can tell when people have that genuine desire to learn, to know more. You know, even in text form, with an anonymous picture and username, sometimes you can tell when somebody has that spark of like they legitimately want to know more and excited to help them, because I remember, I remember being at that phase. I mean, I'm still in that phase of wanting to know more, I'm still learning, but Absolutely, when you have that spark, you can recognize it. You've recognized it in other students and stuff you've worked with over the years, I'm sure, where you can see, ah, this person has the spark, I want to feed it. You know I want to get, I want to help. So I'm always happy to engage in those kinds of conversations on the various platforms in that way as well.
Speaker 1:And to your point. I mean, 99% of the people that engage are positive and they're saying positive things. And then you, and then you go out there and you know we're touring all over the place with the band and these people come out and they're like hey, thank you so much, and you really get this feeling of man. This is cool. You've you've connected with these people on the internet but, of course, as you know musicians which we are when some at some point we were so needy that we had to do something so people would go look at me. We have a that, that insecurity thing where it's like a thousand positive comments but two sorry sons of bitches come along with some weird and they're like what? This is outrageous.
Speaker 2:I don't deserve this. But, you know human's got to human.
Speaker 2:What you can always do and it's always worked great for me. Whenever somebody does have one of those you know, again it feels like this isn't really about me, I think you're having a bad day and just taking it out on me or something right? One of my favorite responses, and it works every time I just say, hey, man, thanks so much for watching. Your refund for what this video costs you to watch is in the mail. Stay right, exactly. Would you like a refund? Right and because, really, like, at the end of the day, what are you going to say Like well, I guess I didn't pay anything for this.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, I'm with you a thousand percent, especially you know if you're covering anybody else's stuff? Yeah, and of course I'm not. You know the stuff I occasionally like I did a thing on Funk 49 the other day, just for how I play it. And you know the stuff I occasionally like I did a thing on Funk 49 the other day, just for how I play it, and I even said like this is how I play it. And you're like, well, that's not what Joe did, that's not Joe's tone. I'm like you are correct.
Speaker 2:You are 100% correct. That's right. That's right. You know Well the thing that I always kind of run into as well man, anytime I am doing one of those like meticulous, you know, transcriptions of somebody else's riffs or solos or whatever, and somebody is in there and they're like hey, that's, that's not how he does it, you're playing it wrong. Like, I'm very much of the I picked this up from like Kevin Smith, the film director, but he's very much into the mindset of like man, don't, don't curse the darkness, light a candle, you know, right, right. So a lot of times, even with those kind of hostile comments, I like to respond back to these people and be like hey, man, I went to your channel looking for a video on the right way to play it. Didn't see one, looking forward to seeing you enlighten us all on the right way to do it, right.
Speaker 1:Perfect, because I am.
Speaker 2:Honestly, if I'm wrong, I look forward to learning how to do it right, right.
Speaker 1:You know you should share, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:You are correct. I like it, ben. These are good tools, that's right. They need them.
Speaker 1:So in the various years that I've been down, you've done various things with our buddy. Andy Wood, we were actually playing bass and what's your regular gigging scenario? Is, or is it always fluctuating?
Speaker 2:It's always in a state of flux and that's honestly how I like it. I mean everything from touring with, you know, death metal bands like White Chapel playing shredding guitar and brutal riffs to get people punching the snot out of each other down there in the pit to. You know, I play with like a. I occasionally play with a yacht rock band here in town and play a Strat through my, you know, sarabella and play Christopher Cross tunes and Steely Dan, and all that Playing various bass gigs. You know, whether that be like a funk band, disco band, andy Woods act, whatever, I like the variety.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I kind of like think I would wither if I had one of those gigs where I did the same thing all the time Cause I liked a big variety of stuff. You know, some people, some people thrive in those environments and they're like I like speed metal. That's all I want to play, that's all I know how to play and I played 30 years in the speed metal band and that's awesome. But I I just like a little bit of everything and I like to play a little bit of everything. I just like a little bit of everything and I like to play a little bit of everything. So I feel very fortunate that I've gotten to do so many different kinds of gigs, especially on bass too, because I love playing bass. Man Like I'm the I think I'm part of the rare guitar community that doesn't feel like I'm getting grounded from soloing when I play bass Like I legitimately love big guitar and I wanted to play bass first. That's what I wanted to play originally bass.
Speaker 1:You wanted to rumble those polyps with the great low end.
Speaker 2:You know, I did. You know I really didn't have a bass. My brother had a guitar. So it was like, well, you know, pick this up, see if you, you know, think it's something you want to stick with and maybe we'll get you a bass later. But by the time that point came, it was like, well, I'm gigging and teaching now, so I guess this is me.
Speaker 1:Right, I can dig it all. So how much do you figure you gig a month, I mean, is there like a? I mean obviously you're doing the YouTube stuff that I know the incredible amount of time that takes to maintain, to produce those things, to figure out, to engage all of that kind of stuff. So what kind of a balance do you have between your internetting and your your going out and shredding?
Speaker 2:Right, you know it really depends and varies month by month, year by year. You know, I mean in the past. In the past month alone it's like we've had a couple, a couple of gigs with a skank banger, which is your metal tribute band me and Andy Wood and Andy Campbell and a couple of our other buddies, chris Cook on bass and various different vocalists that work with that band. We've had a couple of different skank banger gigs going around doing the eighties thing lights, tights and catfights. People love it.
Speaker 1:Lights, tights and catfights.
Speaker 2:I don't understand it, but the people love it. So we're here to provide. I like doing that stuff, man. We had an andy wood gig that just got canceled because apparently someone fell through the stage and they had to rearrange. Outrageous, yeah, exactly. So that was on the books, but now it's no longer. Um, as well as doing, yeah, the mastodon gig, you know over the past months too, down there playing in the dominican with them. So it really varies a lot, man.
Speaker 1:I like what you're doing and I like it. Thank you, and I like what you've done. I like what you're doing and I like what you've done. Say what.
Speaker 2:Get it. I bet that tablet. Could you send me tabs for that?
Speaker 1:You know, I wanted to ask you something, you know again, I don't want to sound like I'm negative, Nancy, because you know I'm not- no, you're not, but I can't help.
Speaker 1:I mean, I understand this, what I'm about to explain. I understand the methodology. I understand why people think it's a thing, but you and I both know it's not a thing. But what is with this constant need on social media, whether it be on any of the platforms, the need for people to vigorously discuss the greatest guitar players, the greatest bass player, who's the greatest rock drummer of all time? What the hell is the deal?
Speaker 2:dude the sith has invaded social media. We're dealing in absolutes. What's going on anymore right?
Speaker 1:exactly. I just like you like what you like. You know if you want to talk about why your favorites are what they are, but again, it's all going to come back to, as I said before, where you're starting your clock. Yeah, but this need that there is some kind of inside scoop of who really was the best one.
Speaker 2:It's oh shit it is. Yeah, dealing with those kind of extremes and absolutes gets absolutely nowhere, because really it all comes down to well, best. Best at what? Exactly Best at what?
Speaker 2:Because, especially with our instrument man, with the guitar in its various different forms, you know, going all the way from the pointy super strat to the telecaster, to the arch top, to the nylon string, all the different forms of guitar, there's oftentimes very little communication between the languages of even just the various forms of guitar, right? So, for example, if you take somebody like that, you think of one of the greatest electric guitar players on earth, like a Steve Vai. For me, steve Vai is like my dude, right? I think of that Steve Vai as being, in my opinion, you know, my favorite guitar player. Guitar player. Well, if you handed him Paco de la Silla's flamenco guitar and asked him to play with Paco and do flamenco stuff, suddenly there is no translation of that musical currency anymore, correct, correct, now he is definitely not the greatest.
Speaker 2:Steve Vai is not the greatest flamenco guitar player, right, because there's, you know, those are two completely different realms of technique, of harmonic language, of everything, and oftentimes there's not a lot of cross talk between those things. So, yeah, it's like comparing somebody like Paco to Steve Vai. It's as Andy Wood likes to say, it's not apples to oranges, it's apples to bicycles. Like why? How can you even compare and say what's better, right, completely different, absolutely? Talking about favorites is one thing.
Speaker 1:Sure, you can have a personal favorite, exactly, but I think, especially in the realm of the non-musician that likes to talk about music, sure, I think that that's this, you know where, I'll see. I don't even know why I end up seeing them as I'm scrolling through, you know, twitter or whatever the case may be, or X, whatever it's called, or any of these other different platforms where they're like the greatest of this. Well, I think so-and-so is the greatest. It's just like kids, it's not a thing, and a lot of times it's you know, whatever. I just find it to be amusing because I mean, I remember when I was, that was something we would do in high school. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And I remember in high school there was a buddy of mine who was more of a he was, at that time, more of a prog guy. Of course, you know that's. That concept has changed quite a bit but he thought steve howe was the greatest guitar player of all time. And I would say, yes, steve howe is unbelievable, but I like hendrix better, because that's he. He does a thing that I like better I've now. Can I? Can Jimmy play with Steve Howell plays? Absolutely not. Can Steve Howell play with Jimmy plays? Nope, nope. So and that's cool and that's the way it should be. You like him, I like this, but it's not like one guy's got a, you know, can walk around with a more decorated military ensemble, with with medals and so on and so forth, because he's achieved a status that is superior badges, exactly. It's just. Uh, it's a curious thing and I always get back to wouldn't it be better time spent, instead of talking about it, just playing your instrument?
Speaker 2:you know what? How about that? Because you're right. It's like how can you quantify greatness? Can you just put on an album and hold up the greatness meter? Right, I'll measure it. It's nailing the red line Indeed.
Speaker 1:This thing is going crazy, it's going haywire, it's beeping off the charts.
Speaker 2:Right Now, favorites is one thing, though you know favorites is one thing and you can't quantify that and you've always got to ask like okay, best, in what way Are you asking fastest? Right, are you asking best songwriter? Because that's a whole nother thing, nothing to do with each other, exactly All you know, I mean, if that's the case, you know, paul McCartney is the greatest guitar player that's ever lived.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. And then, of course, songs are completely subjective. You know people say well, you know the recipe for a great pop song is this yeah, you're of course, you're right. You know, of course there are. You know certain aspects of how songs are made to be commercially successful.
Speaker 1:But even the aspect of you know what goes into great songs is is very subjective, so it all just comes down to where you start the clock, what your level of sophistication is in terms of how much you've listened to things, and so on and so forth. But even that it's completely subjective and in the end no one gives a shit.
Speaker 2:It is, and I'm sure that you know exactly what I'm talking about here too, but the average level of technique of young guitar players now is, I mean, astronomically higher than it's ever been. Oh, totally, absolutely unreal, unreal. The shred arms race is at an all-time high right now. Totally. But on the subject of songs, how do you feel about this? Where, where are the tunes? Now, you know?
Speaker 1:well, that's it, or even any kind of context for those chops that is, it just grew. Give me a groove, for fuck's sake you know what I mean. Give me something I want to give me something I want to listen to, other than to be amazed by. You know what I mean exactly, man, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, songs are always at the heart of everything to me, you know, I know, even on my own channel, you know I have a lot of videos about technique and like exercises and hey, learn this lick, it'll help you with your picking and stuff, and I love doing that stuff and I love approaching it that way, and people love learning that way too, which is great. I think the greatest teacher of all is always going to be songs, though, right, and I think that's something that in the you know, 15 to 60 second Instagram shred post era that we live in right now 15 to 60 second Instagram shred post era that we live in right now I think that the value of playing and learning songs is really undervalued right now.
Speaker 1:I think you're correct. I love figuring out you know what and I don't know about you, but I, uh, even though I won't say I, I haven't done it in the past, but it's a rare occasion where I'll slow something down to figure it out. Let me quantify that and just saying, if I'm learning the exact line of a song, yes, in terms of the actual melodic content, that's another matter. But if I'm like playing along and you know, if I'm hearing a lick or something like that, I'll be like how's that go? And then I'll, I'll learn it, but I won't Cause I, however, I'm going to figure out, I'm going to twist it anyway. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I'm just getting back to the point of, you know, going in and figuring out those various different things. I just like playing along with records, like all the time it the blast, but then learning the actual songs and then figuring out how am I going to do that song in my own way? Not, I'm not, I'm not really, but of course that's. That's my own perspective. However, anybody else does, it is is their own thing and that's another thing.
Speaker 1:It's all good, however, you're doing it is good yep, but as I was just bloviating on this other bullshit, I was thinking about asking you, asking you about this whole thing that's come out, about these individuals who have doctored up their videos. Sure, yeah, and you know A lot of fakery, a lot of fakery about A lot of fakery, and you know to your point. I mean a 60-second video. You can make anything sound good for 60 seconds and then, if you really want to take your time, and you know slow things down, speed them up and all that kind of stuff for the purpose of astounding folk. But what is your? Obviously you know it isn't great to steal other people's material. That's a whole nother thing.
Speaker 2:This is something I've been going about lately, Exactly, but and then so you have two separate material. That's a whole nother thing. This is something I've been going about lately, exactly, uh, but, and then.
Speaker 1:So you have two separate things. Obviously you've got this the stealing of other people's stuff and making it your own for the purpose of internet notoriety, and then doctoring up performances, uh, for internet. Internet notoriety is, you know, in the end, if people are enjoying it and the person is profiting from it, is it icky? Yeah, but in the end, I, if people are enjoying it and the person is profiting from it, is it icky? Yeah, but in the end, I mean, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, there's a lot to unpack there, honestly. And there's part of me that I'll play devil's advocate here. Okay, there is part of me that whenever I hear people talking about how like, oh, did you know? This section on this record was recorded at half speed, or this was recorded one note at a time, he wasn't really playing, that, that's a sampler, whatever. Um, there is part of me that, again, to be devil's advocate will be like, well, it's, it's art, it's not the olympics, exactly right, performance enhancing drugs is in fact, encouraged, like, really like it. It's not the only thing, so you can't get disqualified for however you choose to be creative Like. Here's an example I remember reading years back Are you familiar with the band fear factory?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that band. Yeah, like industrial, like this cyber metal thing. Man, I've always been really into their stuff. I think it's very fun. It just sounds like metal from the Terminator 2 soundtrack is what it sounds like, you know.
Speaker 2:But I remember reading an article when they released their Digimortal record which came out. I mean, I think that was early, early 2000s, early days of digital recording at home and stuff you know. Well, not at home in the studio, but I remember dino the guitar player. He had this thing where he was talking about how a lot of times with the, the songs on the record, which again are very terminator, cybernetic, you know, inspired industrial metal stuff he's like, yeah, I just played the gallop thing like once, and then we'd copy and paste it. So it was literally the same every time. That way it sounded less human and that was part of the entire aesthetic. It was made to make it sound like a machine dude, right. And there was like part of me I remember reading that like a guitar magazine and reading it, and part of me being like, oh, that's cheating. And then part of me being like, no, that's done for aesthetic purpose. That is making it less human than human, right, and if that's your intent, there's nothing wrong with producing art that way, absolutely, you know, I mean. So there is that aspect of things to me.
Speaker 2:But I will also say to counter myself I don't think that's how a lot of people are using this. I don't think that a lot of people are making these choices for art purposes. Exactly, I think that a lot of people are using this. I don't think that a lot of people are making these choices for art purposes Exactly. I think that a lot of people are using these tools that are available and very easy to access, yeah, to do things that are cheap, shock and awe and get the attention. I think it's almost a sign of a lack of creativity. I can't think of any better way to get your attention than doing something inhumanly fast or precise, so I'll just do that. That only shows a lack of creativity to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, like when I hear you play a guitar and you make those squawks and squeals. And again, that's that area I'm talking about where you have that factor too. You don't have to touch 16th notes to prove to anybody you're the baddest dude in the room. You don't at all. You have mastery and command without ever putting your foot on the gas pedal. Dude, oh, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Tell him again but thank you.
Speaker 2:But you know that and that's because you're a creative person that has something to say and you have things to say that aren't just let me grab your attention by doing the easiest thing, which is speed and technique and virtuosity. Yeah, virtuosity itself is just kind of the fastest way to get attention Oftentimes the easiest way to get attention. So I think that's kind of what a lot of people reach for very often, of what a lot of people reach for very often. Um, rather than using creativity without using aesthetic, artistic direction, identity as a way to grab somebody. I'm with you I'm with you it's easy.
Speaker 2:I mean, at the end of the day, the short answer is it's easier yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, it's easier.
Speaker 2:If your intent is to get follows, likes and clicks Right Now, if your intent is to make art, if your intent is to express yourself and make things that are going to mean something to people, make songs that people are going to remember and want to hear time and time again. I'm not going to say you can't do that with that tool set. I'm just going to say I think that tool set doesn't often align with that intent.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm with you. You know, I can dig it all. I can dig that all. As we're getting up to the top of the hour here, why don't you just give us a little load on of what we can look forward to in the in the nearish future from you? Is there anything you want to call out to the attention to the peeps?
Speaker 2:Oh, man, I think after this I'm probably going to go and make myself a pretty great post-workout protein shake. I think I might do that for myself. You should be happy we're not recording this and smell a vision. I just got back from the gymnasium getting harder to kill HTK every day.
Speaker 1:I was like to say which is why.
Speaker 2:I'm nauseo, getting harder to kill HTK every day. I was like to say, which is why I'm wearing it, my, I'm exercising, this is not back from the gym. So, yeah, a shower and the two S's the shower and the shake are probably in my my near future. But past that, I'm really, really excited, man, to be working on this solo album this year. You know that's going to be something that I'm very, very excited to put out there for you guys, because it's been on the to-do list absolutely forever and it's been kind of kicked down the road by having the the wonderful fortune of being so tied up playing everybody else's music for the past decade or so. You know. Um, so there's a saying I think it's either. I want to say it's a German proverb that said the shoemakers' children go barefoot, shoemakers' children go barefoot, and that's kind of where I've been. It's like I've been doing all these other gigs, which has been incredible and the best experience ever, but as a result of that, my own creative output has not been what I would like it to be. Sure, I've got these tunes, man. I've written, you know, tons and tons and tons of stuff that's ready to roll and going to be getting on some production and stuff on that here really soon. So I'm very excited about that. Well, I look forward to hearing that. I think that you'll like it, man, I think that you'll like it. I think a lot of people will be maybe surprised at how like not shreddy it is. It's a very it's instrumental, it's rock stuff. It's kind of progressive, not like, not like genti progressive, but more just like. I like, odd time signature is progressive, you know, sure, but it's very riffy, dude, it's very riffy. It's all about big ass riffs, because that's my love language, dude. My love language is riffs. I know I love them too. So I'm very, very excited about how this is coming together.
Speaker 2:There might be I'm kind of toying around with the idea of doing another metal project here too, which has been pretty fun. I just recently did that gig filling in with my friends from Mastodon, which is a dream gig of mine. I've adored that band for 20 something years now, so to get the opportunity to go and actually play with them was phenomenal. Yes, amazing, um, that kind of like. It got my metal hackles back up again, because it's been a while since I got to play some proper heavy, brutal stuff live and that's.
Speaker 2:That's kind of my home base. You know, I like playing a lot of everything really. If the players are good and the vibe is good, I like it. But, like, metal is so fun to play live, it's so fun to play aggressive stuff, yeah. So I think doing that gig kind of rekindled sort of a passion for that in me. Nice, excuse me. So there might be some more brutal stuff coming down the pike sometime here soon too, because I've written a lot of songs, just kind of while I've been on this high from that gig and, uh, they gotta go somewhere, they gotta go somewhere they need to be unleashed, you know.
Speaker 2:So I might be doing something heavy as well. Um, I mentioned earlier in the podcast my old band, arc, that progressive band, um instrumental band. We uh, like I, we broke up years ago but we had some unfinished tunes. We had some songs that we had put together but never recorded, and me and the guys who started talking and stuff again and everybody's on great terms and we're thinking about going in the studio and recording those last couple of songs for that project. So I'm excited about that. You guys can find all the the old arc stuff at soundcloudcom. Slash official arc. That's arc official arc. You can listen to songs that we recorded back then up there. I think it's fun. I'm still really proud of that music, so I might be doing a little bit of that stuff as well.
Speaker 2:Um, I've got some lesson courses. That's again another long-term project that I've talked about doing. That's kind of got kicked down the road a lot, but it's time, greg. I've been stepping over dollars to pick up dimes and the time is over, baby. Yes, the lesson course is I have some hidden guitar Illuminati wisdom that I'm so stoked to share with everybody. It's awesome Things about music theory and ways to approach it, scale, pattern visualization, technical stuff, all kinds of good things afoot. I'm so excited to put into these lesson packages. So that is again. That's been on the to-do list for way too long, but I'm excited to unleash it upon the masses now. So that will definitely be cool.
Speaker 2:Possibly some more Macedon touring Not sure about that yet. Everything's kind of up in the air right now. I've had a lot of my fans ask if I'm going to be on the next Macedon tour that they're doing with Coheed and Cambria and Periphery and they are taking another guitar player on that a very fine guitar player, I might add. Hey, they're just flirting around. You know what I mean. They're playing. Play that dating game. You just got out of a 25 year long band marriage, right? Why don't you go flirt around a little bit, you?
Speaker 2:know, I can dig it Right, so I won't be on this next tour, maybe some more later on down the road. I'm very excited for you guys to see who is on this next tour, though because it's I'm not at Liberty to say, but it's a very fine player and a friend of ours, so I think that you will enjoy seeing that as well. Stay tuned to MastoCamp for more news on that as it comes along. But yeah, very excited man. A lot of cool stuff afoot for the year, for sure.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Well, listen, ben. Thank you so much for taking the time to converse with us. It was a pleasure as I knew it would be the pleasure has been all mine, sir, and I look forward to hopefully crossing paths with you sooner than later.
Speaker 2:Am I going to see you at the Woodshed Guitar Experience this year?
Speaker 1:I have not heard.
Speaker 2:I know I'm traveling quite a bit around that time, but we shall see Okay well, I hope that we do, and if we do we will smash a meat wall at Bucky's, We'll find a Waffle House and hopefully engage in some musical chicanery. I love all of the above.
Speaker 1:My friend, thank you so much. Pleasure is all mine. Have a good one. Well, thanks for tuning in. Ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Chewing the Gristle. We certainly do appreciate you stopping by. Make sure you tell your friends all about us. I think they might enjoy themselves. So thanks again for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Bye.
