Jerry Becker: The Road to Train

A loud Cleveland house. Nine kids. A basement full of drums and harmony guitars.  We sit down with Jerry Becker, Train’s multi-instrumentalist and music director to trace a winding creative path—from a rejected teenager who formed his own band to a music store employee who told a stranger in a Steelers hat that his team “sucked,” then sold him a saxophone and changed his life.

Jerry takes us inside the machine of a modern touring act: how set lists are shaped, how transitions breathe, and why almost everyone in the band plays drums.  We talk about the lost art of album narratives, the rise of high-quality home recording, and the urgency of finishing a song while the idea is still in the air.

The biggest curveball? A four-year plunge into Broadway. Jerry, Pat Monahan, and drummer Matt have written dozens of songs for a stage adaptation of Begin Again, discovering the thrill and terror of hearing other voices carry their melodies. It’s the hardest writing he’s done—and the most clarifying.  

If you care about the craft of live music, the realities of today’s music business, and the courage to say yes before you know how, this conversation will hit home. 

Follow along, share with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.

www.slightlyprod.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Gary Becker Of Train
• 1:15 Cleveland Roots And Big Family Noise
• 6:00 Growing Up Musical At Home
• 10:40 Rejection, First Band, And Local Radio
• 17:30 Art School, Choices, And Early Gigs
• 23:35 Moving West And Meeting Pat
• 28:20 From Music Store To Tour Manager
• 34:00 Producing, School, And Rejoining Pat
• 39:10 Music Direction And Band Dynamics
• 44:30 Touring Formats And Corporate Shows
• 49:40 Streaming Economics And Workload

Transcript

Jerry Becker: 0:00

Like musicians want to be comedians and comedians want to be mus musicians, but I'm sure those guys are like, you get to sit and play in front of fifteen or twenty thousand people every night and you want to work in an office.

Jen Coronado: 0:10

Hi, welcome to everyone is. I'm your host, Jennifer Coronado. The intent of this show is to engage with all kinds of people and build the understanding that anyone who has any kind of success is successful because they're a creative thinker. So whether you're an artist or a cook or an award-winning journalist, everyone has something to contribute to the human conversation. Because everyone just did. Aaron and I were thinking about who we wanted to interview next. And a friend and a coworker of mine said, Hey, I'm friends with the keyboardist and guitarist from the band Train. Do you want to interview him? And I said, Stop name-dropping. And then I said, Yeah, of course. So we're lucky today to have the exact person join us. And that's Gary Becker. Yeah, welcome to everyone.

Jerry Becker: 0:54

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's so nice of you guys to invite me and to have me here. Thank you.

Jen Coronado: 0:59

Oh, of course, of course. I mean, we want to dig into your history, but you know, I don't want to just focus on your linear history. I want to find out like some of the whys of the things that have happened in your life. But the first thing that I do want to talk about is uh where did you grow up? Where were you born?

Jerry Becker: 1:16

Well, to me, it's all a big why. Like, why did this happen? No, just kidding. Uh I grew up in North Olmsted, Ohio, which is uh outside of Cleveland, about 30 minutes on the west side. And I'm eight of nine kids. I have a twin sister, and it was a wonderful place to grow up. I had a great loving family. We're all very close still, and uh, I don't know that I could live there ever. I I moved about 31 years ago. Uh every time I go back, I love it. But it's definitely it's probably not the best place if you want to be a musician or a painter or an artist or something. Now it's way better. But in the 90s, it was it wasn't it wasn't easy. You know, there wasn't a lot of people around going, you got this, you can do this. You know, you there was a lot of uh, well, what are you really gonna do? You know, and and there was the whole town is a like a plan B almost, you know what I mean? Which makes sense, but but everyone works so hard, everyone's great. They love, they live for the weekend in Cleveland, you know. It's all about the games. We had the worst teams in the world, but they were the best games to go to, you know. Like it's still it's still like that. It's a little better now, but yeah.

Jen Coronado: 2:28

This might be the point of the podcast where we're I reveal I'm a Denver Broncos fan.

Jerry Becker: 2:33

Oh my goodness, I'm sorry. So so many heartbreaking L Way wins. It was such a it was so bad. But it was I could say the same thing about the the Raiders or any other team. Like the Browns were always the other team in the poster, you know. It was always, you know, someone catching the touchdown and there were the Browns. But what a what a place that I mean, it's the Cardiac Kids. It's what I grew up in. I was 10 years old when Brian Sip and everybody was playing. And I'm not even a huge football guy. I just I just I like sports because my family liked it. And I did follow it. I know more about it than I I thought I, you know, like I don't know. I enjoy the hang. I like I love I love anything uh that has everyone coming around, drinking shitty beer and laughing. It's great. Yeah, you know.

Jen Coronado: 3:16

So it's very funny. I my husband's not a sports person, and I either's my wife. Yeah, and um I was watching the Super Bowl a few years ago, and my brother and I were like walking out of the room and we were so stressed, and then we came back in, and he was like, Do you like this? Because you seem so upset the whole thing, you know.

Jerry Becker: 3:36

She says the same thing to me. She goes, Why are you so mad? She goes, if you watch it or not, it's not gonna change anything. You know, and I watch a lot of Premier League now. I know uh Ian does also. Like we we really like watching a lot of soccer. I got friends here. I live in Berkeley right now, and we always go to Oakland, the Athletic Club here Saturday mornings. We did the whole World Cup at six in the morning and stuff. So I still really enjoy sports, you know. I'm in.

Jen Coronado: 3:58

Yeah. Well, I'm so curious because I know that um Pat and your band, he's one of seven children, right?

Jerry Becker: 4:03

That's right. The baby of seven, I'm the baby of nine. So that's right. Yeah.

Jen Coronado: 4:07

What was your house like growing up?

Jerry Becker: 4:09

It was loud, it was always loud, and my house is very quiet, and I really like it. Uh, I don't listen to music loud at the house. You you'd think I would, but I it's very cool. It's just it's such a different thing. My yeah, my oldest sister was 16 when I was born. So she was, you know, I didn't really interact with her much. She went away to college by the time I was two or three. So uh, you know, the k the brothers and sisters raised me. My mom and dad were awesome, but they definitely, you know, we were raised by the kids. The house was it was like a hotel because not only were was were there nine kids and mom and dad, but there were everyone's friends and family spending the night at our hotel. So like there were so many other friends at at uh, you know, there was just kids everywhere all the time. You know, yeah. And my family was a big soccer family, so my brother played their kids always in and out. We learned about the world in international like countries because my family housed kids from France or housed kids from for tournaments all the time. That was kind of a cool way to learn about, you know, the world a little bit, you know. So uh I liked that. I liked and my dad was like the president of our organization, North Homestead Soccer Organization. It was we had this big Fourth of July tournament every year. It was it was like the Super Bowl of of our town, you know.

Jen Coronado: 5:26

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 5:26

Uh so we were a very, very big soccer family, and and we still some of them still play. And my brother did very well in high school. He was all American. He was on one of the teams that would have been picked to go to the Olympics in the 80s. My siblings are the best. They they're I just sat back and watched everybody. No, I wasn't quiet.

Jen Coronado: 5:47

Yeah. So you mentioned, you know, um, that your siblings, your older siblings were really kind of guide guides for you, you know. Definitely and I imagine with having nine children, parents can only manage so much, so they have to rely on their older children. And I say that as an oldest child myself. You've said before in other interviews your family was pretty musical. What did what did that look like? Who who drove that?

Jerry Becker: 6:08

I think my first memories, my my sister Teresa was a really great piano player. She played in the house. I heard piano coming from the house all the time. My older sister Katie played as well, but she had already kind of left, so I didn't really hear her play. Uh, my older brother John had the best drums. He had a drum set and it was loud and it was great. And then George was incredibly great. He played bass and guitar, and I think my brother Jim played flute. Everybody played something. My other brother Joe played a little piano as well. He was great. Everybody was great. I was just kind of like, what? All I wanted to do was play drums, you know. And then uh my brother Jay was he's the one that gave me my first guitar. He went away to Ohio State and he kind of handed me a guitar. I was already playing drums a little bit as a kid. And remember, he he peeked down the stairs, and you know, I had this beat-up old like Muppet drum set. The heads were all beat, and I used Tupperware cans to try to make it sound good. You know, it was like it was the best, but it was the worst, right? And I remember one day I think my brother Jay went to my mom and dad, goes, We really need to get Jerry a drum set. Yeah, like this is bad news, you know. So I did get one for maybe my 11th birthday. I got a little, little set, and it was the coolest thing in the world. I still have a picture of Christmas morning of me playing it. And I thought I would all I would do is play drums because everyone else in the family played that, played other instruments. And I was lucky to sit with them. Every get together had guitars, everybody played Crosby Sales and Ash Beatles songs, everything. So I was I thought every family was like that. I didn't really know that people didn't play music. But Teresa played Scott Joplin and all these incredible songs. And I I never took a lesson, I didn't know anything. She would leave and I'd walk over and go, What's going on here? You know, how does that go? But I think it helped with my ear, it made my ear good, but I still don't read music and I I can't. I failed out of my high school music theory class. Like I couldn't I couldn't get it together, which is really great because my son just aced his class in Berkeley High. So something happened.

Jen Coronado: 8:08

It's an evolution, as they say.

Jerry Becker: 8:10

That's right. That's right. But but yeah, growing up in the house was weird. It was just like a hotel, and I really loved it. And we had a basement that was very loud. We they'd let us play in high school. I got to play in bands. I had all my friends over, and it used to be that I played drums, and then carrying those around was a pain in the butt. People would leave their guitars at the house, and it just became way easier. My brother Jay did go to Ohio State, gave me his old guitar, and that was kind of it. That's where I got excited, you know.

Jen Coronado: 8:35

Yeah, I've heard you say before too, like the best way to learn playing guitar is to have a crappy guitar.

Jerry Becker: 8:40

Oh my god. Because either you that's right, either you're gonna stick it out or you're not, right?

Jen Coronado: 8:44

No.

Jerry Becker: 8:45

And I think my I think it was a harmony old guitar. When I hear this, I hear like I read articles about uh Jimmy Page and he had this, you know, harmony guitar, and I hear about these people using these harmony guitars, and they were kind of garbage, but you know, people saw it after them. Mine was not great. I do remember uh I'm reading the Mike Campbell book right now from uh Tom Petty, and his first guitar was a harmony guitar too. Yeah. I keep hearing these the same word get brought up. Uh no, the action, which is the the height of the strings, you know, it's it's it really is everything. And either you have to push down, you're gonna get it, or you're gonna quit. You know, it's two different things. You're gonna get good or you're gonna quit. Right. And a lot of a lot of people quit. And luckily, I I got decent. I don't know that I ever got good because everybody all around me was a much better guitar player. I went to hire guitar players for my bands all the time. You know, I was like, I want to play rhythm. I love rhythm guitar. Let me play the chores and you solo, you know.

Jen Coronado: 9:41

When did you start thinking about like, I want to have a band?

Jerry Becker: 9:45

I think middle school, I really like middle school, beginning of high school, there was this other band called After Dark. I know this is a little too much info, but no, those guys, they ended up becoming really good friends, but I was so jealous of them. They were playing the the the rec. They would play Friday nights, the ice rink. They play the parties. I'd walk up and see these guys, and I was so furious that they gotta do it. And I was just getting my feet, I was just a couple years behind them, I felt like. And then one day I was like, I think you guys should hire me. I think, I think you should bring me in your band. You know, I got really kind of like, I think you need me. I thought I was arrogant or something, you know. And they're and they're like, they go, let me think about it. And then they came back about a week later and said, No, we're good, right? And I was like, kind of devastated. I didn't, I thought, why don't why don't they want me? Right. And and I found out, I mean, they were kind of like, hey, you play guitar, you play piano, you play drums, you play everything. We don't want competition. This is our band. Like, kind of like leave us alone, right? Right. And then I was so mad, but I also it was the that no was probably the best no I ever had because I I made my own band. I found four other guys that to this day I they're still like my best buddies. I text them every day. Like the that band came from not having a band, you know. And we got real musical and played, wrote songs, and then one year we beat them in the battle of the band. So that was kind of the highlight of my career.

Jen Coronado: 11:14

You're like, how you like me now?

Jerry Becker: 11:17

No, they they were very, they were very talented, great dudes. I like all of them very much. And and I mean, one of them went to play with Lincoln Park. One of them, I mean they they they we had this weird little like thing that happened in Northomestead. There was so much music. I had no idea. Uh, there's a book about WMMS, our radio station there, and and it was all about breaking uh uh Bowie and breaking KISS and breaking Rush and breaking all these bands. For some reason, Cleveland was this like weird thing in the 80s where or late 70s too, where you know it was just one of the towns that you would go to to break. MTV had like a their pilot program was there too. So I saw MTV when it started and all the like it was supposed to just be New York, you know. But I didn't know radio and other places wasn't as good, you know. So we were very, very lucky. We had a great radio station, and I had brothers that loved Genesis and King Crimson and and every cool hip band. And plus the Beatles were just always being played. It was there, was never like we love the Beatles, it was always like that was just part of it, you know. It was loud and musical and fun. And yeah, so I'm I'm lucky that it's interesting.

Jen Coronado: 12:24

I so I grew up in Central Valley and they would test a lot, they tested a lot of stuff there, like credit cards came from Fresno. That's where they first tested credit cards.

Jerry Becker: 12:34

I didn't know that.

Jen Coronado: 12:34

Yeah, wow, and Zima, that wonderful liquor uh of the 1990s, that was also tested in uh from and I think it's because you go to small towns or you go to what what they consider Americana, and you're like, do these people like this? You know, versus what are defined as elite circles.

Jerry Becker: 12:55

Wasn't Zima like uh it was a malt liquor though, right?

Jen Coronado: 12:59

It was a malt liquor, yeah.

Jerry Becker: 13:02

We we would go and hide. I mean, I can't talk about it now because I have high school kids, but yeah, Zima in high school. I I knew I hated it, but but the joke was like, oh, there'll be a bunch of Zima there, you know, like it was the worst.

Jen Coronado: 13:14

And also wine coolers were also very popular.

Jerry Becker: 13:17

We were the Bartles and James generation with Zima, right?

Jen Coronado: 13:20

Yeah, that's right.

Jerry Becker: 13:21

I know. I I I love the Gen X thing. I love that that we're at at this point where we lived without the internet and then we ended up making it or adapting it, and then now we can really cherry pick the best parts of it, I feel like. You know, yeah.

Jen Coronado: 13:37

I frequently say to my husband, I'd be fine now if the internet boiled down to uh maps and what time restaurants open. Yeah. And uh I'd be good with that. That would be my my need for the internet.

Jerry Becker: 13:51

This new AI stuff on every search is freaking me out. But what are you gonna do, right?

Jen Coronado: 13:56

Yeah. Also, I'm like, I don't wanna, I there's a big part of me, and maybe it's the gen, to your point, the gen X part of me that is very suspicious of the first answer being the right answer. You know what I mean?

Jerry Becker: 14:06

Wait, it's not.

Jen Coronado: 14:08

I'm like, where'd they get this from? You know? That's my first impulse.

Jerry Becker: 14:13

I that's a good point. I know, I know. It's frightening, and it's fast too. Yeah, so fast. It's creepy. But I mean, I'm sure you see it in your work and everything you're doing. It it has infiltrated the music industry. But if you can use it, I think as a tool, it's gonna be it's great. You know, there's some stuff, there's some stuff, you know, that is pretty incredible, you know.

Jen Coronado: 14:32

Yeah. I mean, one of the things your your friend and I were talking about the other day is like if you have a good ear, you have a good eye, if you're creative, it's an things can be another tool in your arsenal. Um if you if you're not very creative, you're gonna not gonna get very creative things out of it at the end of the day.

Jerry Becker: 14:49

Right when that mid-journey, you're familiar with the mid-journey art stuff, right? When that came out a couple years ago, I was paying 30, 40 bucks a month just to make these images because I thought it was I thought it was like these are the paintings, these are the things I always wanted to make, and I don't have to even paint them now, right? Yeah, but but I was fascinated by what they thought the future looked like from the 50s style or art deco style of the future. I I was blown away by it.

Jen Coronado: 15:15

But you you tried art too when you were younger, it wasn't just music.

Jerry Becker: 15:18

No, I uh I think that I think that that's what my mom and dad thought. That's all that's all I did. I would draw and paint and draw and paint, and I I was decent, I think. And then through high school, I would do all the stuff and murals and everything, and and I thought I was just an illustrator. I wasn't like coming up with this incredible new art. I could just illustrate. I feel like someone could give me something and I could paint it really well on the wall.

Jen Coronado: 15:42

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 15:42

So I never could I never was like that guy, you know, he's he's got great ideas. I just had good, I could I could finish it, you know, I could blow it up.

Jen Coronado: 15:50

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 15:51

And so I did a lot of that, and then I did get a scholarship. I went to Cleveland Institute of Art. Like that's really where I really thought. I mean, I was maybe better than I I don't know, the teachers thought I was better, but remember one teacher said to me, You gotta make a choice because he knew that I played music all the time. And it and my Mr. Shardell, I the guy was great, he cared about everything I did, he made me work hard, but he did say you have to make a choice. But I was 17, I didn't know, yeah, and I was like, I don't really want to stop playing music to do shitty paintings because I didn't think my paintings were that great. You know, I was still doing acrylic, and but in my mind, he's like, You you're gonna put your energy somewhere. He goes, You should put it somewhere. He wasn't saying do art, but I really think he's saying you should, you know, make a choice. Yeah, and it kind of always stuck with me. And then maybe maybe what's happened to me, at least the last 20 years, it's been music. I don't paint, and it's kind of a heartbreaking, but it's also like the next painting I do is probably the best one I've ever done. That's because I'm just waiting to do another thing. Yeah, you know, and I I I should do more. I just have all the canvas, everything sitting downstairs. I just I my the time that I spend right now, I it's not doing that anymore. But I think I will. I'll get back to it, you know. But I did go to art school, I liked it. I played music while I was there too in a band, and uh I really thought that was it. I thought, and you know, but art schools are expensive. And I yeah, it wasn't a good time at the Becker house. There was a lot, my parents were getting old, my mom had some heart trouble, and and it wasn't really the time to be messing around and not getting incredible art grades or whatever. I think I got straight really good grades, but it was just like there wasn't a lot of money, you know. And I was already pretty in debt with just this first year, you know. Yeah, but I just remember those moments of going, well, maybe I'll play in a band for a little bit, and I did, and and that band did okay, but it wasn't like we were on the radio a little bit, we would play 500, six, 600 seat venues, which was big.

Jen Coronado: 17:47

That's great.

Jerry Becker: 17:48

It'd be like playing at Slim's or one of these cool plays. To me, that that was we were as good as we were gonna get.

Jen Coronado: 17:53

Right.

Jerry Becker: 17:54

And then and then the band couldn't get along, just like any band, you know, like we just can't get along. People people don't get along. I don't know if you know this.

Jen Coronado: 18:00

I've I haven't noticed.

Jerry Becker: 18:03

Just people don't get along. And I love all those guys individually. They're we're all still friends. I like the butt but too many directions, too many alphas. I I find like band bands need one guy or two, what you know, and the other guys fall in, but not fall in in a negative way, like, oh, you're you're only this guy, you can only do it. It's not like that at all. It's like we need everybody, right? But we someone has to make a decision. That's right. We can't all be, you know, uh alpha-e or whatever. I hate that word, but you know what I mean. Oh no, yeah. I feel like that band didn't work, and luckily I had a my a brother in California who uh was already here since 1980. Like I said, it's like that's what happens when you have such a big family. I he I he was a I was eight years old when he moved to California. Right. So George lived here, and I I remember hitting him up and going, dude, you know, I kind of, you know, my girlfriend thing's not working out, my band's breaking up, like everything's awful, you know. Uh can I visit can I visit for the summer? And he's like, Of course. We just got a new house, we got room, you can help with the young kids, like it'll be great. And I'm like, and I honestly met my girlfriend, which became my wife, within weeks of moving to California. We met at this killer little cafe, and it was so weird. It was all just kind of like I was on a summer vacation, and I didn't think I would stay, but once I started like meeting some of the nice people, and George was great to play music with every day, and she ended up playing tennis and getting um recruited to go up to Sonoma State, and then we moved up there, got an apartment, and that's where I met Pat. So that was like 97. I just met him, you know, at a music store I was working at because she was finishing school and I was working there, and he came in and he was very, very uh I think his wife, his ex-wife used to come in with their little kids to the music store that I worked at, and I would let him play the instruments. It was no big, you know, I didn't really it didn't really bug me to have kids playing music.

Jen Coronado: 19:57

Is it the one on Petaluma Boulevard?

Jerry Becker: 19:59

That's right.

Jen Coronado: 20:00

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 20:01

You know this place?

Jen Coronado: 20:02

I live in Petaluma, so yeah.

Jerry Becker: 20:03

Oh yeah, it was. It was it it's funny because yeah, I just remember I just needed to have a job for about a year until she was done with school. And I really liked it. I didn't mind. I had already sold guitars for a guitar company. I I'd done a little traveling with that. So next thing you know, she came in. I let the kids play a little, or his son play a little bit, and and then one day this dude walks in and his hair is like down here, and he's you know, he's got a I think I've told the story a lot on it, but it's like he has a Pittsburgh Steelers hat on, right? And and he goes, You guys got saxophones? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, you know, and then he goes, I looked at him, I was like, Yeah, you know the Steelers suck.

Jen Coronado: 20:40

And it was like And yet I sold to you with the Broncos right at the beginning of this, didn't I?

Jerry Becker: 20:45

No, I mean it it probably changed the course of my life by making this guy laugh, right? Yeah, and he goes, Why would he say, Why would you say that? And I'm like, I'm from Cleveland, and he goes, Oh, Jesus, you know. And then we headed off and started laughing and sold him a saxophone and he said he's in a band, and and they weren't signed yet. They weren't, you know, luckily they they'd are, you know, they were still doing clubs and stuff. And I I thought they were the coolest band. I loved them. I thought they were great. Next thing you know, they would bring in their instruments, I'd help them, I'd work on their gear with them a little bit, I'd sell them other stuff, and and then out of nowhere, he calls me, he's like, Hey man, we're going on the road. We just got signed to Columbia Records, you know. Do you want to do you wanna come and tour with us? And I was like, what do you mean? Because he knew that I played music, but he was like, we need a guy that's good at everything. It can you know, balance the books. You've been in bands, you work in a store, you seem honest, you know, like you're not gonna steal from us.

Jen Coronado: 21:40

And I'm like, Can I just say that is such a young guy band thing to do? You work in a store and you've been helping me with my guitar. Please manage my tour after I just signed uh with Columbia.

Jerry Becker: 21:52

I don't know anything. I mean, I'd done shows. I did shows. I've done local shows. I never toured in a van, I never toured with gear. So we had to all learn it ourselves, learn it, you know, and it was really fun to be out with those guys, but man, it was probably it was by far the worst job I've ever had.

Jen Coronado: 22:11

Why? Tell me why.

Jerry Becker: 22:13

These guys were all between five and ten years older than me. And and it was very hard because I'm not I'm not great, I'm not the most organized person. I was too much like them in my head. I was just kind of this flighty artist where I always like, you know, I'm on time all the time, but I was kind of always like expecting someone else to help me with where's the hotel, where's this, where's the flight, where's this, where's that? And I'm like, oh shit, I have to do this. You know, I'm the guy, I'm in charge, you know. But I was, you know, it was so funny to watch them go from 4,000 records to half a million records in the time in the time that I worked with them, you know.

Jen Coronado: 22:52

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 22:53

But uh, so I just I I knew that they needed a guy who loved tour managing. That was like my I was like, I gotta get out of here. I'm gonna go crazy. You know, like I'm not very I gotta get out of here before I'm fired, first of all. But but but luckily I was friends with them enough that Pat and I were were tight and we laughed. And and there was always a little bit of hey, we can't wait to have you play with us, can't wait to get you in the band, can't wait to, but it was always a little bit of a string. It never it and I understood why would they want someone else? Why would they share at that point, right?

Jen Coronado: 23:23

So what did you you left, but what'd you go to? What what did you do next?

Jerry Becker: 23:27

So that's that's so funny. I I moved to Chicago. Oh because that's where Emily, my wife, got a job with United Airlines, and she got out of school and became a flight attendant. So I was like, where do you want to go? And she's like, they just they just stationed me in Chicago. The hub. The hub. But it was kind of amazing because I it was like a clean slate, it was awesome, you know. And I mean, yeah, working for Columbia Records, where I mean, and then watching your friends blow up on TV, right? Yeah, that's that was kind of a little bit woof, but there was no doubt that I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I I I I saw it happen. I mean, we were in the middle of it. I saw it on the charts, I saw these their first songs doing really well. Uh but but it was great. It wasn't, I felt really happy for them, but I was definitely it got me. I said I want to go make records. You know, it's kind of really what I wanted to do because I was able to sit in on a lot of their sessions and watch producers like you know, Matt Wallace and these guys make their records, and I just loved being in the room going, Holy shit, this is all I really wanted to do. I didn't I didn't realize that you could just do this for a living.

Jen Coronado: 24:32

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 24:33

So I bought a bunch of gear in Chicago, started recording some bands, and I really, really enjoyed it just for the short time that we were there. Came back to San Francisco, went to music school at San Francisco State and did the recording program there. And I I honestly thought that's all I would do.

Jen Coronado: 24:48

Well, I have a question for you there, because like which I was happy with it. Yeah, I loved it, yeah. Yeah. Full disclosure, I came out, you know, I came out of acting school and I went, Yeah. Man, I'm not gonna go to New York, I'm not gonna go to LA, I'm gonna go to Seattle and like do my art. You know what I mean? So you didn't do LA and you didn't do New York and you did the Bay, which you know, there's a lot of music in the Bay, but it's not the hub of no.

Jerry Becker: 25:13

I mean, I I made I made the worst decisions I feel like in the world. I have 18 nephews and nieces, right? And the joke is once I once I got back, got playing and touring with the band and started being on TV and stuff, I would make jokes with them. I go, you know, stay in school, don't do drugs, you know, or you'll end up like your Uncle Jerry on TV. Like, like every every single thing you could do wrong, I did, you know. Yeah. Drop out is drop out of school, you know, just like bad decision after bad decision. But it wasn't bad decision, it was just the momentum.

Jen Coronado: 25:44

It was something like we're waiting on, yeah.

Jerry Becker: 25:46

That's right. And I felt like the Bay Area just it was so great. I loved just the people were so funny. Everyone, everyone was optimistic, at least when I moved here in the 90s. And look at we just saw the internet, everything blew up. I mean, man, boy, I screw up on that financially. But we all did.

Jen Coronado: 26:04

Why didn't we all invest in Apple? Is the question.

Jerry Becker: 26:07

You could have just gone like this, and you would be fine. But anyway, I uh yeah, that it was years later I made a lot of local records with some people and I loved it. I loved producing albums and engineered, but it was it was on a small scale. But the K-Fog people were great. Um Renee became a really good friend, and all the people at K Fog because uh they would let me they would let me come in and we'd play songs of bands that I was producing. And to me, I was successful. That was like that's all I ever I was like, you're kidding me. You know, I get to be on K Fog. And then uh yeah, luckily Pat called me a few years later, maybe 2006, and said, I'm making a solo record. Do you want to come and play on that? Do you want to come and be? He was all he was always like, When you're finished school, let me know. When you finish school, let me know. And it just worked out at that time that I finished school. I started playing with him. I did his tour. He asked me to put together his band, so I music directed his tour, and then then I thought, oh, that was it. And then luckily Train did have a keyboard player that that quit a few months before we recorded Hey Soul Sister, and then that was 15 years 15 years ago, and that was pretty funny because I've been on the road ever since. Like we've just been waking, making records and touring. So yeah, so it it wasn't it's one of those things of being being available at the right time, but also it's not you never know if that's the right moment, you know. And this is back in like the 90s, and I was like, Well, I have other stuff I can do, you know, but but he was so driven, and being around someone like that was it's intoxicating to find someone who knew what they wanted, and they started a business. The difference is I started a band with friends and he started a band with business partners, you know. And and I not that that it never quite made it was friendship, but it's definitely different, you know, because they didn't hang out, you know. And and I didn't know that. I just thought you share music with your friends, you know, this is what you do together. You don't go, we're gonna we're gonna write songs and and do well, you know. And I never met anybody like that, just driven. And and they had talent too. So I was like, well, this is different. I think a lot of our band, and we've been through a bunch of different members of the band over the years, but this this lineup right now is great. I love everybody. I've had to audition all the new guys. Like it's funny to be on the other side of it and to kind of be the guy going, What about this guy?

Jen Coronado: 28:31

You know, you're the music director now, right?

Jerry Becker: 28:34

Yeah, it's it's more of a someone just has to run the show. It doesn't mean anything. It's not like you're at a Broadway show and you're the guy going, like, the, you know, it's it's not a conductor or anything. It's just kind of like, here the here are the this is what we got to get done today. You know, hey, when when Pat comes in, I usually try to get the band ready so that when he comes in, we're ready. You know, we got 10 songs, five songs, 15. We'll put the sets together with him and make sure that the songs flow, you know, between each song and stuff that I didn't even know existed. I didn't know the job really existed, you know.

Jen Coronado: 29:04

Wait, so that's something I want to dig in with you because you have you've had this tendency in your life to pick up something that you didn't know what it is, like and just take it on.

Jerry Becker: 29:13

Like like marriage? No, I'm just gonna go.

Jen Coronado: 29:15

I mean, that's everybody, my friend. But um why did what drives you to do that? Why why do you feel comfortable just like jumping in because I didn't know how to I didn't know that you could fail.

Jerry Becker: 29:31

I mean, I didn't I've never I've never been fired, right? So I didn't know that there was a consequence to say if you don't get this done, we don't want you anymore.

Jen Coronado: 29:40

Right.

Jerry Becker: 29:40

You know, so I didn't I didn't really know. That's a good point. I never really thought about that. Yeah, I got thrown into some things, and but it's I think maybe I care maybe to to like I I I don't want I I want Pat to my singer and the band to always look and sound as great as good as we can, you know. I don't like phone. I don't like any of that stuff. So maybe he saw that in me, just like, hey, you know, I can I can lean on him and we're gonna be okay, you know. Yeah. And and and I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea.

Jen Coronado: 30:12

Do you ever think that maybe comes from being in a big family of people who have to be responsible for each other?

Jerry Becker: 30:19

Oh, they they didn't care about me.

Jen Coronado: 30:22

That's fair. You were the youngest. The youngest was kind of an africot.

Jerry Becker: 30:25

My my family, like they tease me so much because they just say that I was my mom's favorite. I had a lot of health stuff when I was born. So there was a lot of stuff wrong. So I think I did get extra attention. And I think to this day they're like, oh, Jerry's calling, Jerry's home. We gotta, you know, we got so whenever I would visit, they would all, you know, so they're they like to tease me about that. But they gotta spend a lot more time with my mom than I did, you know. Right. So uh yeah, mom loved music. She was always telling me, you know, check this out, check this out. My dad played piano, he was pretty good, but I never saw him play piano unless he had a beer and a cigarette in his hand, you know. So it it wasn't like, hey son, you know, the four o'clock, four o'clock on a Monday. Here, here's this new thing I've been working on. It was always, you know, Saturday night roll out the barrel music, you know? Yeah. And and so to me, music was happy. It wasn't, you know, it was always like associated with that, you know.

Jen Coronado: 31:24

Yeah. Well, you talked earlier about how you guys have been touring, like just touring and touring. And you play Yeah, you've played, you've played different size venues, obviously. Do you add do you guys have to adjust your adjust yourself and your style to the the venues?

Jerry Becker: 31:40

Or that's funny. That's a good point. The band itself can break down into an acoustic trio, which we do a lot. Uh for we do a lot of corporate shows. Companies will have us come in, and that it's really good for the band, it's good for the crew, and it greases the wheels for the whole year, so no one has to go get another job or anything, you know. Uh so the band itself does take on different forms, but when it's a full band, I always laugh at this. You're right. Like we could play Madison Square Garden with the same exact set that we play, you know, Bill Gates' wife's birthday party, which we played.

Jen Coronado: 32:14

What? Bill Gates wife's birthday party.

Jerry Becker: 32:17

I think she I think she turned 60, and we were like, what are we doing here? You know, but she was very nice, and everyone's very nice. We get to do some oddball stuff because I this this band is uh it's generational. There's people now in their 50s and 60s that love the band whose kids love the band, and we have more young kids at our concerts than we've ever had. You know, young is in like 30s and then they're kids, you know. So and we're not offensive, we're not bumming anybody out, we're not doing anything crazy on stage, but all the songs have lasted for 30 years. So it's part of a lot of fam. It's like we've become those bands that I grew up listening to, you know, and and that's what does well business-wise for Pat and everybody, where I feel like we do do a lot of corporate things. And and it used to be 20 years ago, it wasn't it didn't taste very good when you did them. Sometimes they just felt funny, you know. And you didn't want to tell other people you're doing private shows, you know. And then now it's just like, oh yeah, that's because no one buys records anymore.

Jen Coronado: 33:21

Talk to me about that.

Jerry Becker: 33:22

Like how when did that like once everything became an MP3, once Mr. Steve Jobs made music a dollar, you know, even though we like, I'm okay with Apple, I'm not funny, but but once that dollar U2 has a song that's worth a dollar, then some kid in his bedroom makes a song and it's worth a dollar too, you know? Yeah, that's that's that's not really fair, right? And then I'll I'll take a dollar any day now because now it's 0.003 cents for a spin, you know.

Jen Coronado: 33:54

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 33:54

So I think for every million, I mean, think about this, people, when you're listening to music, it takes a million spins to make around about $4,000 or something, you know. Wow. And then that $4,000 you have to split with the other writers and your publisher, you know.

Jen Coronado: 34:08

Right.

Jerry Becker: 34:08

Uh so this isn't a negative. I mean, then again, that's forever. Like that's that's the only positive way to look at it, is unless unless some lawyers come in and they can make that royalty royalty rate better. And then next thing you know, people are making really good money. But uh, we have to tour much more than we used to. Um, but people are listening to music more than they ever have.

Jen Coronado: 34:30

Yeah, just right at the time of life when you want to tour all the time.

Jerry Becker: 34:33

Uh I mean, I'm gone. I just got I think we have 85 shows or something this year. I just got back from Australia a couple days ago or last week, went to Nashville, did some shows, and then I leave for Spain on Saturday, and then I'm back at the end of the month, and then we do a US tour for two months. Wow, yeah. My kids are thrilled.

Jen Coronado: 34:55

They're like, Dad's gone again. Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 34:58

It's all right. We they they've not known anything since I mean it's yeah, it it's not like you know what I'm saying? The pandemic was definitely odd. Yeah. Because they're like, I mean, out on many levels and very sad, but also like to have me home, I didn't I don't know what to do with myself, you know.

Jen Coronado: 35:16

Yeah. So I can understand that. I was gonna say something I think, because I'm gonna sound like an old lady now. Here I go. Something I think that kids kind of miss out on, which I think is the story of albums, you know what I mean?

Jerry Becker: 35:32

Oh, completely.

Jen Coronado: 35:34

And yeah, and like I think about like David Bowie had the album, and it's the name is alluding me, but it was like an entire story about a village of people, and it had I'm afraid of Americans on it.

Jerry Becker: 35:44

Not low. What what album is that? Um oh you're gonna make me look like a bad Bowie fan. Sorry.

Jen Coronado: 35:50

No, no, it's okay. But I'm forgetting myself and I love David Bowie, but it was a story, like the whole album was a story, and if you listen to it from if you had to buy the album, you were sort of forced to listen to how everything fit together. Do you know what I mean?

Jerry Becker: 36:07

No, I know. I mean, I from Abbey Road to Lamb Light on Broadway, these records that are my favorite records. You're right. They it's it's a journey, they bring back the same themes from the first, second, and third song, and musically they have different lyrics now later, and then and then yeah, I mean I I love making records still. If we can make records, it'd be great. And we still do, but it's also they're recorded half and half at home now because everyone got so good at recording at home and it sounds really good. We'll still go in together and track, but it it a lot of this the hard work in the pre-production starts at home, you know. And uh yeah, you can't really. I mean, all the Floyd stuff, all that stuff, but I mean we're just in a different time. They they oh totally they would sit around and and be able to live in a house and work for months on one song, you know. It just doesn't it doesn't exist, you know. I don't know. That's a that's an interesting thing. We don't really have themes, yeah. We should have more themes. I like that.

Jen Coronado: 37:10

I think about like um the bands of the 80s and 90s, like you know, I think about Rage Against the Machine or even some of the albums that you too did, and they were all message albums, you know?

Jerry Becker: 37:21

Oh yeah, yeah.

Jen Coronado: 37:22

And I wonder are there are there new musicians or acts that you can do message? Yeah, yeah.

Jerry Becker: 37:30

Yes, I think there's a ton, and my son would tell you all about them. I'm just better.

Jen Coronado: 37:33

Oh, really? That's a great deal. Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 37:35

He's he's locked in, and my daughter too. They they I love sneaking in and looking at their Spotify playlist and stuff, and every once in a while there'll be something in there that'll surprise me. But I mean, could you imagine growing up with Spotify?

Jen Coronado: 37:48

Just the access to the thing. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah.

Jerry Becker: 37:51

Any song anytime. Any song anytime. Yeah. And and I my I read this book my wife read told me to read. It was about they got some guy from the 1800s or maybe even the 1700s, and they threw him in a room and they they say, Hey, nowaday in the future, you can listen to music uh, you know, like this. And he goes, Well, let me hear it. He listens to a song, and they go, What else do you want to hear? And he goes, I just want to hear that again, right? And it's this idea of they could never, unless you went and saw music, you could never hear the same song twice, right? Right. And now you could listen to it a million times, you know.

Jen Coronado: 38:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jerry Becker: 38:26

Which is yeah.

Jen Coronado: 38:28

Yeah, I think about that. That's so true because there was that, and then there was an era, probably when we were my parents were young, our parents were young, where they would just had to wait for that song to come on the radio, right?

Jerry Becker: 38:40

With their record, with their tape player ready to record.

Jen Coronado: 38:43

Yeah, with the the tape player. And then it's now it's everywhere, and you can get it at all times, and you can play it over and over again, and you just have to have a subscription, you know.

Jerry Becker: 38:54

That's right. I'm gonna take a turn here. You ready? Go for it. The best thing that happened after the pandemic is my singer and I and our our drummer Matt, we started writing a Broadway musical.

Jen Coronado: 39:06

You're kidding me.

Jerry Becker: 39:07

So we are four years into a musical right now that I think is might end up going next year. So that's another thing. I don't even think Ian knew that we've been working on this.

Jen Coronado: 39:16

So wow, what made you want to do that?

Jerry Becker: 39:18

Oh, I I don't want to do it. Uh Pat Pat's, you know, people love the guy. He's he's he's one of the most incredible singers and writers. Like, wonderful boys. Lucky to be in a room. I I just put up this mic, I put up a mic, and and it doesn't matter. You're in a hotel room, you're in a studio, and and people just gravitate towards his what he's what he sings and what he sings about, right? And uh, so I'm I'm very lucky that he lets me hang out with him. Anyways, he did a little thing in Broadway a couple years ago called Rocktopia, where he just did a couple weeks of um classic rock songs with an orchestra or something like that, you know. And I think like the guy from Cheap Trick did it after him, D. Snyder, all these it, you know, I don't know what it was called, it was fine. I saw it, it was great. But I think he met some producers through that, and they said, Hey, we we're thinking of doing this thing, we're we're looking for musicians, we're looking for writers. And I think we had a demo, you know. We'll we've written 50 to 80 songs for every album, and then you whittle it down to record 15, and then you might end up with 12 on a record. So sometimes there's other stuff laying around that are still pretty good, just didn't fit on the records.

Jen Coronado: 40:34

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 40:35

And these people heard one of our demos, and they I think they the producers, and next thing you know, we're writing the music for a show. Wow. And and it's been probably the hardest thing I think we've ever done, I've ever done. Uh, because we've now written over 40, 50 songs, and now we're only using 20. Uh, but but the people involved are really great. Like they're all slick and pro, and they're in New York, and we get to go there and sit and watch these actors, and they're they're in the middle of it. So this is an adaptation of a movie called Begin Again from about 15 years ago. Do you remember this movie?

Jen Coronado: 41:11

Yeah, I do.

Jerry Becker: 41:12

Uh, so it's about a songwriter, a woman that goes to New York, and her boyfriend cheats on her, and she ends up becoming a songwriter. So uh it's great, it's fun, it's different. But we just did rehearsals in I think April with a whole 40 people, 30, whatever. It's crazy.

Jen Coronado: 41:30

That's a big production.

Jerry Becker: 41:32

I mean, yeah, sorry, these are all the everybody around. Probably there's fifth 10 or 15 in the cast, but I don't know. It's just it's fascinating to sit there and watch your songs come out of someone else's mouth.

Jen Coronado: 41:44

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 41:44

You know, because Pat did the demos, so I'm so used to his voice, and then you hear someone else sing it, and uh you're so used to Pat, you know, but yeah. But then again, it's it takes on its whole other life, it just becomes something else. We're not even in the band, it's these other people in the band, and then you have to say, do it a little more like this, do it a little more like this, or other things happen that you weren't expecting, and it gets it gets incredible, you know.

Jen Coronado: 42:11

So who's writing the book on it?

Jerry Becker: 42:14

We've had a few different writers. We're on our third uh writer right now. Uh uh Jenna Embry, you know she is. She does all of the uh uh Lincoln Center stuff. She's amazing. She's become great. But we had two other writers that were wonderful, Kate Gersten and our friend Chelsea. We we it's been a really interesting experience because I I didn't know it's kind of common to have people come and go while while something's being worked on.

Jen Coronado: 42:43

But for us, it takes so long sometimes to prep a musical like that, too.

Jerry Becker: 42:48

That's right. That's right. But uh I learned a lot. We'll see. You'll definitely become if we get it out. I promise we'll.

Jen Coronado: 42:54

Oh, I I definitely would want to. I it sounds to me like Pat convinces you to do a lot of things, Michael.

Jerry Becker: 43:01

What am I supposed to do? What do I say? I'm gonna sit this one out. No. Yeah. I can't. Like, like uh I think that's the thing about Pat is I I mean, think of the stuff he must turn down if this is as much stuff that we do, you know. Where we're really lucky that people care, they show up and they they I mean, we like I said, we went to Australia, we hadn't been there in eight years, and we sold thousands of tickets more than we've ever sold. And it like some of the numbers don't make sense. His uh, his son, Pat's son's name's Rock, and he's this budding musician. He's 13 and playing guitar and singing a lot. And he I think he said a sentence to Pat. He asked him one day a couple weeks ago, he's like, Hey, when was train's peak, Dad? Like, imagine this kid wasn't even yeah, and then you kind of go, Oh my god. Well, and Pat goes, you know what? I like we saw more tickets than we've ever had, you know. Yeah, and like like I have a I have a plaque downstairs you get you get your you know platinum things, these you never thought I'd have these gold records and stuff in my house, right? But I have one for a billion, or sorry, it's this one is uh 10 million hey solstice is diamond, right? And there's only been like 60 or 70 songs that have ever done it. And then I think Train will have another one later this year with drops of Jupiter will go diamond. And like it doesn't make any sense. So we're all just as fascinated that that people still listen and it keeps on moving, you know.

Jen Coronado: 44:27

What do you think um uh 10-year-old Jerry from Ohio would think about that?

Jerry Becker: 44:31

He says, Why aren't you playing drums?

Jen Coronado: 44:35

Kids are so fixated on things.

Jerry Becker: 44:37

I really I really thought, and everyone teases me that, you know, because I'm not very good at at all anymore. Like I don't even know if I ever was, but in my brain I'm good. Like Pat's a good drummer, he plays drums too, my singer. So he he will jump back there and get a chance almost every night to play a little bit. But I think our whole band, you know, Hector, Matt, everybody, we all play drums, and I think that's a good part of why everybody plays a little bit of everything, right? But it's a good part of why the band has good rhythm, you know. And and it sounds stupid to say that, but if you grew up as a drummer, you know, uh yeah.

Jen Coronado: 45:13

It it doesn't sound stupid because it the rhythm section is what holds something together, right? Yeah, and if you don't understand how to hit that rhythm, then it it fragments things a little bit, right? You know what I mean?

Jerry Becker: 45:27

We toured with uh Maroon Five 10 years ago or whatever, and we learned a lot about touring from them because we had Soul Sisters done really well, but those guys had already been on the road, they're a little younger than Train, but they'd already done pretty good size amphitheaters like Shorelines for years. So there we were, kind of in the best way learning how to put on a big show because we had already done clubs and theaters, but we didn't know how to do that. And that was a great tour we did with them. We learned a lot, but watching every single sound check, Adam Levine right on the drum set, all he wanted to do is play drums. Like everybody just wants to play drums, it's the most fun, yeah.

Jen Coronado: 46:05

So well, you get it, you get a you get to hit something over and over and over again and get the aggression out, too.

Jerry Becker: 46:12

But like, yeah, 10-year-old me, I think, yeah. I don't know. It's hard to say. What about 10-year-old you? What would you expect?

Jen Coronado: 46:21

That's a very good question. All right. When I was that about that age, they were auditioning for Annie, the musical across the US. Oh my gosh. And I was a little girl who lived in Rapid City, South Dakota at that time. Wow. And so I would sit on the front fence of my babysitter's house and belt out tomorrow, hoping that an agent would drive by and see me.

Jerry Becker: 46:53

That's pretty loud.

Jen Coronado: 46:55

Yeah. So uh I was hoping to be Annie maybe for my whole life. I don't know. And then yeah, no.

Jerry Becker: 47:02

Uh I don't know.

Jen Coronado: 47:03

I don't know.

Jerry Becker: 47:04

Yeah, I I'm jealous if you're a singer. I'm not a I'm a singer. Like I I'm around great singers, and it's always been something that everyone's like, oh, you play piano, you play guitar, you play other things. And I feel like I'm only there to support great singers. So did you did you grow up wanting to sing just not only Annie, but everything?

Jen Coronado: 47:25

Or um, you know, I uh I can carry a tune. I would not call myself a great singer. Like I can do a musical theater that's a little talky, a little you know. Um but I I've always loved I love the idea of pretending to be something else and always using your imagination, you know?

Jerry Becker: 47:50

That's that's not too bad, not too shabby. So I thought we were gonna talk about Andor.

Jen Coronado: 47:55

Oh, that was ties to Andor on this podcast.

Jerry Becker: 47:57

This is my my my ILM, I'll do real quick, and then I know we got a hangout. I think my brother Jay's birthday was it's July 22nd, so 1977. They take me and him and my sister. We all went to the drive-in to see Star Wars, right? And so I'm five years old, and I get to see Star Wars at a drive-in, and I swear to God, like the ship came, it was all stars, and then the ship came over your head, and I was just like, Well, what is going on here? Yeah, it it changed my life. Like, even just the word ILM, like I went home and made a storybook of the whole thing, and I drew everything, and everything I did was all about the miniatures too. I built all the miniatures, so my my favorite people were you know, Phil Tippett or Dennis Murin. Like those were my stars in my life. All I wanted to do is work at ILM. So part of my brain was to go to art school, and I was like, I gotta get my shit together. I'm gonna start doing this. And that's when the cube computer graphics started, right? Yeah. And I took a couple classes there, and that was like it wasn't anywhere near what it is now. It's just awful, like these like stiff like things moving around. But it's so funny in the back of my brain. I was like, I I I know I have something about the Bay Area, I need to get out there someday. And then it's been so funny for me to run into people who worked there. Yeah. And then Ian gave me some tours, and I was like, I can't believe that I'm you know walking through this place, you know. And then uh Bruce, did you know Bruce Holcomb? I think, you know, yeah, he worked for me actually. Yeah, yeah, he's such a sweet guy. He's come out and seen shows and stuff, and and in my brain, what they get to do for a living is like anything that I wanted to do at 10, right? And then here, like like musicians want to be comedians and comedians want to be musicians, but I'm sure those guys are like, you get to sit and play in front of 15 or 20,000 people every night and you want to work and you want to work in an office. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's such a different, yeah, it's such a different thing. Like that was my I mean, I thought I work at Skywalker Sound. I honestly thought that's where I would end up. I would be there making records or making movies or doing Foley or something like that. What an interesting, weird turn. Yeah, too bad I too bad I have this awesome job instead, right?

Jen Coronado: 50:13

Too bad. You suffer so I do have a final question for you.

Jerry Becker: 50:17

Uh-huh.

Jen Coronado: 50:18

So our whole premise of this podcast is that you don't we sometimes conflate art and creativity, right? And you can be creative and artistic, and you can be artistic and not creative, right? Meaning and so and being creative is really about problem solving and finding the next thing in my mind. But for you, Jerry, Star Wars fan, what does creativity mean to you?

Jerry Becker: 50:52

Wow. I think to me, if it it feels like the fact that I have I get to live in a place where my kids they don't know where money comes from because they they're like something that doesn't exist in the morning but does later in the day, I think that's creativity to me. And and to me, it's either an a painting or something you've started or an idea you have that you could turn into a a joke or something, like that that's what something that didn't exist that you get to bring life to that other people can enjoy. Like it's and then you get paid for it. Like it doesn't make any sense. But that that to me is like I get so excited still when a new idea comes up, if it's music and and we finish it by the end of the day, you know, and then and that that idea is sometimes if you don't finish it and you try to chase it, it it doesn't, you know, it it it'll go in the folder, you know?

Jen Coronado: 51:54

Yeah.

Jerry Becker: 51:55

And I I love when we can get something done in a day. So that's I think that's those are the things that's it to me, is that if you can actually like it, it exists already, and if you have to be able to grab it or it's just slippy and someone else is gonna get it. Yeah. So so to me, that's I think that's where my antenna works pretty well, is I can you know move on it quick, hopefully, you know. And and if if you're slow and you can't work in the studio very well, it's you know, you gotta be able to show show up, you know. So I think that's it. Sometimes we'll yeah, start something in the morning and we'll be mixing it at 10 o'clock at night and it's finished, you know. So to me, that's that's exciting.

Jen Coronado: 52:38

Well, it's great.

Jerry Becker: 52:39

Yeah, I don't know if that's very that's what it means to me.

Jen Coronado: 52:42

Well, that's what I'm asking you. And thank you so much for talking to us today.

Jerry Becker: 52:46

Yeah, this was great. Thank you. I can't wait to listen more.

Jen Coronado: 52:49

Thank you for listening to Everyone Is. Everyone Is is produced and edited by Chris Hawkinson. Executive producer is Aaron Dusseau, music by Doug Infinite, our logo and graphic design is by Harrison Parker, and I'm Jen Coronado. Everyone Is is a slightly disappointed productions production dropping every other Thursday. So make sure to rate and review and like and subscribe. Thanks for listening.