Ep 184 The M80's

The M80's are Chicagoland's 80's MTV era new wave and alternative pop/rock band, covering songs from such classic 80s new wave hitmakers as The Cure, Depeche Mode, Til Tuesday, Berlin, The Cars, Tears For Fears, Flock of Seagulls, Simple Minds and Billy Idol.

The band members’ decades of experience, solid chops and willingness to embrace technology enables them to perform songs in interesting ways which combines the classic sounds and visuals of the genre along with new twists and turns. The M80s provide audiences with a musical and visual experience that goes beyond “80s cover band” nostalgia. Ray and Mike met with bandmember David Ballah what's their explosive music is all about.

Transcript

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this is Hollywood Mike coming to you with another exciting. No, no Sounds like I'm at u.s. 30 drag strip or something See that's what you get for doing something like I know I should anything no, no, I just off the top of my head I should probably plan this stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, so I um, I've been trying something new as you know You've seen it.

Yeah, I have the new the new black cat. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So we're keeping it. Yeah Yeah, you know what? I I've been I I played it during the Cadillac groove show and when you have in-ear monitors You're not hearing the guitar amp, you know, you're hearing microphone placement and all that other stuff You know the things on the stage and I went home and I was like, okay You know what? I need packing tape because I'm gonna box this thing up and send it back And then I started playing with it in my in my basement and the basements kind of boomy even though I've got sound deadening stuff It's still a little boomy and then I brought it out to the studio last night and I was like, whoa This is a different amplifier.

Hmm. Somebody may have Switched it on me, you know, but I mean it was the same amplifier, but holy crap. They never have a different sound So really? Yeah, I might be I might be holding on to this thing.

We're gonna have to try it with Cadillac groove again. I Don't think it's to make a difference because we know we have the in-ear monitors. Oh, that's true So it's always gonna you know, it's always gonna sound a little weird, you know with it, but I drew There is a direct out on it So I'm wondering if I go with the direct out into the board maybe monitors.

It might sound a little bit There may be well good so far so good. I'm enjoying. Oh, that's great.

So That all we're gonna talk about tonight, or I don't know We've got Dave from the M80 sitting here at the table, I think you'd like to say a few things Funny that's it. I just realized I replaced you last year at st. Patrick's Day over there at Gallagher's.

I Was your fill-in oh my god Yeah, I've never met you I do I remember that you were my fill-in I was your fill-in Wow You had like this mega fan that was here like He's not he's good Tom's like don't worry about dude. She's just like really, you know big into him or something like that. I'm like, okay fine, you know big deal So that's you guys funny as crap then we're just talk about this young so wait, okay So don't mention any names.

I'm not gonna mention any names either Oh, I will how did this come about that? You heard her saying stuff like that? Was she like talking behind you're just talking behind my back. I know she talked to I think she's talking to Tom Tom and then said something then, you know, what whatever whatever Whatever. Oh, yeah a guy who you know, I you know that Tom told me about this like a week before And I never did 99% of the stuff that you guys did never did it, right? And so, you know, I'm using my iPad trying to be all fancy and discreet and stuff like that And you can read off this thing and do it do your job for the day, you know, I mean, which is you know It was awesome playing with a horn section behind you.

Oh, yeah Pounding you and eat but yeah I wish it was I wish that was the case because most of the time I have the trumpet player and he's pretty much nailing Me in the back of the head Yoshi Goji goji. That's what I said. It's a killer man.

I mean it was it was a blast to do, you know You know cuz I'm more of a you know What the M80s I do something a little bit different because we do a new way But that my normal the singing voice is more like, you know Hard rock Sammy Hagar Paul Rogers things that elk that's more my natural singing voice, right? Right, right like that and be able to kind of belt out new 95 6 to 4. Yeah, right pretty freaking cool That's a lot of fun man, what a small world I can't even remember why I had to miss that gig I don't it was it was in it was in st. Patrick's Day gig. Yeah a year ago a year ago.

Yeah. Yeah Gallagher's I'm wondering why I couldn't make that gig. I completely forgot why I think it's your anniversary Someday like that was yeah, well, it could be because today is my wedding.

See how's I got memory for grace? Yeah, today's my wedding anniversary. I'm going home. Congratulations.

Well, thank you Yeah, today is the day that my wife gets to acknowledge that she's put up with me for 29 years She lets me do all it is crazy horse shit Me and my wife have married 30 years. We just went to London for it and it was amazing. Nice.

Oh my god It was just you want to go over there for rock and roll for architecture. Yeah history, right? Got to go to London I mean, I went to where David Bowie did Ziggy Stardust. I went to Freddie Mercury's house.

What a Jimmy Page Oh, you have to went to you know, everything you think Royal Albert Hall. I mean, it's all right Oh, they are you were the Beatles last hot, you know, the rooftop concert was it's now an Abercrombie and Fitch Oh, no. Yeah, really it is.

Is there a sign on the on the wall? I have it over there the rules respectful of history unlike the States and so, you know They have these big like think about this big plaques inside a building said on this day in you know 1971 the Beatles played the final concert. I'll quote this rooftop, you know, right, right amazing at those plaques even sound British I know they do. Yeah And they're all over the place.

I mean like they have I mean, I'm not in a hockey But they had like I guess Lord Stanley is the cup or something over there And there's a plaque inside of a building saying Lord Stanley Cup is from here. Wow. Yeah, so it's really cool Well, that is interesting.

Wow, you know, I never even thought about that. Maybe you'll go to England for yeah 30th No, and what was the name? I I used to know it What was the name of the of the of the pub where the Beatles played their first gig? It wasn't it called something like the cave was a cavern Liverpool's we went there after went to London. That was amazing.

Nice. Yeah, it's really I mean Go over there is a whole different world. All right, but I will say this is that when I'm when you go to London Everyone talks very nice Are you having a very lovely day if you'd like to get to some place to eat you get down here? But then when you go up to Liverpool because they're across Basically from Dublin.

I think you do it like this 20-minute flight goes like 10 times a day and they're like And and I'm half-deaf, you know, cuz we're musicians, right and my wife looks at me and I'm like she's like Yeah, I have no idea what the guy just said. Yeah, he's part ogre. Yeah Kind of like what's-his-name Robin Williams did a thing about that about a Scottish guy.

Yeah Nothing and they do crazy things over there too Cuz so the the vice president of sales and marketing for the company that I work for he actually lives there and he is a he's the member of a group called the Knights of Nottingham and they are actually men who dress up in full armor and joust cool, they literally get on horses and try to knock each other off and impale each other with a with a with a wooden pole and And they actually do that for fun and Yeah, he finally retired, but he did for many many many years This this group has been like he said every single Robin Hood movie That's that you've seen over the past 20 years the movie gladiator with Russell Crowe. He's been in all those movies They hire these guys. They hire these guys to play these roles.

There's awesome. Yeah, I mean it is I mean think about you don't have to hire a bunch of people to do fight coordination We got a whole guys that beat the shit out of each other This is how you get on your horse regolf this Just get over why? So, why are we here? Hanging out forget about it. No, that's what this program is about It's like if people want to see your band, they can go see your band But a lot of times people just want to know hey, does the guy play golf? We're looking for a fourth Why not the band have a glockenspiel? Yes.

Do you have a glockenspiel? No, actually don't so we're auditioning now for glockenspiel and kazoo So if you are multi-talented in the world of glockenspiel kazoo, yes, give me a call First you have to get first you have to know, you know, the prerequisite is you have to be able to spell glockenspiel That's right. Yes. Yeah, I must yes, absolutely I mean and these guys aren't good at it obviously because they chose a band name with three, you know, right integers digits Whatever you want to call them a letter and a couple of numbers We're musicians we've got to keep it simple man.

Yeah, no more than three You know, what did Louie say if his you know, two chords, it's rock and roll three chords. It's a jazz What is it when you record an entire LP of just static though cuz that's cuz he did that as one alternative I don't know. I thought there's Neil Young's weld when you did they just record all my feedback I think they call that Yoko Ono.

Yeah Let's not go there so obviously m80s you're an 80s cover band. Yes, actually, but we're we have Chicagoans one of only 80s MTV era new wave bands, right? We don't do hair metal. We don't do journey.

We don't do Bon Jovi. We don't do you know? Brian Adams any of that kind of stuff. We don't do classic rock.

We don't do alternative You know going on to the 90s and so like that We stick strictly into 80s new wave because me and my drummer zig We had this concept when we were in a previous band together and we're like what? You know as well as I you need a shtick You can't just say you you know for people that to me Anyway, if you go playing, you know, Johnny Cash, then you're playing journey Then you're playing this playing that then you can be stuck playing the same rinky-dink bars, right? Sorry, you got to pick a lane you stick to it. And that's what you do. So we were trying to figure out There's you can't even throw a rock without hitting an 80s hair metal band around here, right? I mean, they're all over the place and you know, they do a great job So let them do what they do But the thing is this lane of 80s new wave, which is the first half of the 80s was huge I mean when I'd be very first came out.

I mean my god, they open up with the buggles, you know We're gonna kill the radio star, but then you know, they're going on Duran Duran Billy Idol The fix the cure of the cult in excess all these bands were huge huge bands Blondie, right? You know and most a lot of them are in the Rockwell Hall of Fame now, right? Because they dominated that first half the 80s. So we said this is fun. It's upbeat It's very different and unique Women love it because it's fun and it's colorful.

So I said, let's just do this So that's what me and the drummer we started this initially decided to do and then We went along and you're trying to find musicians to kind of do this with and promise. We rehearsed in Whiting, Indiana Yeah, right, you know, so a lot of people didn't want to drive all the way to Whiting. So Eventually, you know you do the same things, you know put the ads out and blah blah and we got our drummer our bassist Dallas right, right and he joined up on board and then Later on we wanted to have a female singer With us as well because a lot of those things from back then we need talking about Berlin you talking Blondie In emotion and I'd go on and on and on.

Yeah, it has a female foil So we have Janice who's our female singer. Mm-hmm. So I sing About 60% she sings about 40% we do a number of songs together where we throw things at don't you want me, baby? You know, so we're doing that and then you're doing them obsession by an emotion Yeah, yeah session session.

So, uh and with the male and female vocals It's just a powerful thing to come together in a unique thing, right together. So that's how we went about it How many how many in the band total for four? Okay. Yeah, I play guitar and sing Okay, the only guitar player in the band.

We have a bassist who also doubles on a little bit of keys, right? We have our drummer and we have Janice, okay, sorry, you got a bass player that doubles on the key So so he puts the bass down and he's playing all the bass notes on the on the keyboard as well And yeah, yeah, excellent. That works. Yeah works for Geddy Lee.

Yeah He's a freak of nature he could play with his butt cheeks if he had to So, let's go back and talk about this whole thing You know, we started talking about hairband and and everything else and I'm a child of the 80s I graduated from high school in 1988 and and going back. I remember I always remember Hair metal. Yeah was the alternative of the mid 80s until real alternative like Nirvana came around and killed them all exactly But you know, I was you know back in fifth grade I remember the big thing was, you know, all the guys wanted to be cool, right? So I went to a little Catholic school and I remember a whole bunch of kids got sent home one day because they decided hey We're gonna bring the blizzard of Oz.

We're gonna bring The blizzard of Oz album to school right all gonna, you know lunch lunch hour We're all gonna read the jacket and stuff and of course, you know Sister Mary Holy Water comes walking in and she sees this album cover Ozzy Osbourne but the upside-down cross and he's on his knees and everything and he's and he's got the thing in the forehead like like like Charles Manson and you know, she pretty much has a conniption fit and says Girls everybody out and takes the album literally breaks them throws them in the trash and send everybody home because we were listening to the Devil's music. That's right. They're in Catholic grade school And then then along comes around seventh grade along comes Motley Crue and you had all in by the way They were all called heavy metal at the time, right? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. They sound nothing like heavy metal today I mean you listen to nothing. I listened to Motley Crue from that from that era and I'm like, this isn't metal This is just rock and roll music.

It's glam to me if you really kind of listen to old Motley Crue, you know It's supposed to the first home had a lot of David Bowie and that kind of glow Yeah T-rex kind of a thing to it, you know But later on they started getting more it was still commercial. I mean, you know, they're great really good songwriters So that's what it all boils down to the end of the day, right? Right. I loved their too fast for love album and then along comes I'm shouting at the devil, right? That's when that's when you started hearing those other types of influences, but I remember Well, all of that stuff was kind of in the background What you heard on the radio all the time was Prince and Michael Jackson and stuff like the animation, you know And I mean it was just it was pop 80s video and all of a sudden the hair metal comes around and it was literally Like the alternative of the 80s era.

Yeah So what one of them trying to remember when that came in? But what year were you hearing stuff like Cinderella and but 87 something? Yeah Something 86 87 because where you had your white snake with it You know white the white snake white snake 87 album came out here. I go again It's right, you know, they'll come I right, you know So all that stuff kind of hit, you know, it hit hard and everything else I think a slippery when wet was probably about 85. I think so I think I was about 85, you know, right so that came and then you know Then Cinderella came up probably about 87 88, right, you know, so, you know a lot of those bands to me I think I got a bad rap because I mean Cinderella to me Was not really a hair metal band I mean, you know, they got marketed initially with the first album because that was just the look but you know to me Brought you blues rock.

I mean, you know Tom Kiefer is a great slide player and they're really good songs You know, which is what it boils down to the end of the day. You're a good songwriter, right? Or you're a half-assed band because and the ones you're gonna remember the ones are the great songs, right? That's why Beatles are gods right because they're the best songwriters on a planet, right? Right, right. Yeah, you know the one band that I still listen to and I've seen many times out of that era is Tesla Yeah, you know and they tried to do the same thing to Tesla, you know They tried to they tried to put the aquanet in their hair and the whole bit and turned him into a hair band But they were one of the bands that were like, yeah, no, we don't do that That's that's not us enough.

You want to talk about just a quintessential blues band I mean when they when they came out with that five-man acoustical, you know acoustical jam Yeah, everybody realized that man. These guys are these are blues guys. These are blues musicians Fantastic they really are absolutely I tell I can talk about 80s music.

I can go all day Blame me. I have 8,000 CDs. So believe me I can go all day long you know, I Had probably about that much died.

I had a CD rack about the size of this wall right here Just all CDs and finally when he's pointing to a big wall. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah yeah, 10 feet high and and then 12 feet wide or so and I Just I did I just had no room to keep all those things anymore. Okay, give them to me I'll just add it to my collection, you know, I mean me and a wife actually don't Collect together. So it's really good addiction for the two of us to have and we and I have two of those Oh, wow.

Okay. So yeah, there's an idea, you know having another one made right now. So it's kind of like yeah Yeah, it's a serious addiction old old stereo to play my three of them three of them nice one in each level the house Yeah, excellent And plus a CD player in the car.

Yeah, try and find that nowadays. I do have one in my truck I do have a CD player in the truck In fact, I had a stereo that looked almost like the one that's kind of behind you right there we pointing to a stereo on I was I was 15 years old so I wasn't of legal age to work right anything and I and There was a lady that owned a Hallmark store and by a white hen pantry and by my house Okay And growing up and I walked in one day and said, you know I need a job because my father wanted me to go caddy at the Medina Country Club and I'm not carrying anybody's golf You kidding me that sucks. So as I'll go work in the card store and she says well, I can't really do anything She goes You you good with like, you know carpentry and stuff like that.

Sure Yeah, yeah So she literally paid me to build shelves in a bathroom in her store in her stock room at 15 years old and then the store I'm in the middle of doing this we finish it up got the toilet working in the whole bit and Then she goes well, I've run out of money I have to close the store down she goes, you know She gave me like 50 bucks and she goes, you know that stereo that you were listening to all you've been working in the bathroom Yeah, she goes you can have it right and it was this old Lloyd's. Oh, yeah Lloyd had a track in it had a cassette ahead the record player Everything was built into it and stuff and then I donated it to the gym that I used to work out at our local Park District and they remodeled the entire building and Demolished the building with my stereo in it So then I went on a 10-year journey. I finally found one on eBay and bought another one exactly It might even be my stereo and they just took it and put it on eBay You know Damn this looks familiar.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.

So where'd you come in from or new Lennox? Oh, okay So you're right. I'm born and raised new Lennox. And so yes, I have a brand new legs a bassist from Okina It's the girl singers from Munster and in drummers from Whiting Munster Wow.

Okay. Yeah, so like so I'd go from here. I drive from here whiting for practice Wow every week Yes, there's a little bit of a drink of water Yeah, you know, but uh, you know, what can you do? You think I usually gotta go where the drummer is? Yeah, you hear what he said? He once a week he drives for practice once a week.

I don't know what that what is What is this practice? You We're digging so much we've been digging a lot so we didn't practice but now we want to add songs So then let's get together learn the new tracks and get together. And so some you know, it's stuff doesn't get stale after a while Right. So yeah, we did that.

Yeah, and we're auditioning actually for a full-time Keyboardist right now. Gotcha. Okay, so if you know any keyboardists out there want to do new wave Have you ever had a keyboard player in the band? No, no Okay, like say yeah, really the bassist plays a little bit of keys and stuff like that We want to have a dedicated full-time full-time guy because that stuff back then is so keyboard laden Oh that you had to a very distinctive.

Yes board sound as well. That's that's the kick Really? It's not even a matter of skills a matter of developing the sound you have to have that sound Yeah, really dude and that's the tricky part of doing new wave because as I'm telling people and get you know, Some friends of mine like what we're doing new ever said. Have you tried playing it? Well, I know it's you know It's a until you get down and you learn something like a one thing leads to another That funky right-hand rhythm and different things you're doing You don't know because most rock is very blues based you have to do in Zeppelin bad company or whatever case may do you go? Yeah, you're doing the same crap But that once you start getting into this which is you know, funkier has a little bit of the the funk alternative, you know early Alternative stuff punk right and you're trying to approach that.

I mean, I'm going from doing you know Stay or should I go now to one thing leads to another to doing new sensation to doing You know missing persons, right? So you can't get more disparate than all those different influences, right? I think a lot of it It's very similar to the blues genre in the fact that it's not difficult to play It's just so different to play that you're not used to it. You don't know exactly When they come in, you know Sometimes you have to come in behind the beat in 80s and and people don't understand that and I and you get the same thing With blues they're like I'm not playing that stuff. It's primitive music.

It's simple. It's stupid Okay, then do it. Yeah In fact, it was just at the jam it was just at the jam last night where a group of guys wanted to play blue Monday Okay, and and people were complaining.

Oh, that's real simple. Come on. We got to do something different The drummer's like well go ahead and play it here.

Here's he laid down the beat and nobody could do it They couldn't get it together. They're like, you know, it's so simple. Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't nobody could follow Yeah Tricky thing also with it with us is that you know, so I had to learn how to Play effects in a way, you know, I mean like you're getting delays and they have to be you know Let's just say you're doing I ran my flock of seagulls.

Oh, yeah, John John I said there for freaking hours trying to get that exact pattern and exact spacings if you don't have it The song goes to crap not an easy song No So you have to do that and try to sing it at the same time and so you it's all those different unique things are doing Um words by missing persons. I'm going distorted clean distorted clean distorted clean back and forth and what we do is kind of a unique thing on it, I'll think you guys do this, but What you using real amps whereas I'm using a headrush mx-5 a pattern, right? Okay So what I did is I created all the sounds and then we have our computer does the changes for me so I can be way Over the other side of the stage doing a lead and this thing's doing all my changes for me I even have to touch it. It's brilliant, right? No, perfect.

Yeah, you know, that's good That's and you need something like that for all the sounds that you need Yeah, put them producing in the type of music that you're playing was it in your singer like I mean You know, you can do the dang tap dance You're trying to sing and then you can put your foot around here and next thing you don't wrong patch Oh crap, you know, but then you still gotta sing this song and be in beat Yeah, so hence hence the recent Acquisition of the black of the the black cat or the bad cat amplifier that I bought because I hate pedal boards You know, yeah, I've got you know, I've got a sing. I got a shake a little ass I got to remember the lyrics right and the last thing you want to do is do with the tap dance exactly I wanted an amplifier that I can control with the volume knob on my guitar because I always know where that is Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean because my favorite amp actually as I have a Peavey Delta blues with 113 love the amp great I'm great out and I'd love it to death, but you really I've gotten quite lazy being bring I mean all I bring you know, it's a pedal board two guitars a Stand in a bag. Yeah, that's all I bring was before you bring a new amp.

You bring in your amp stand You bring it to guitars. You're bringing your you know, I mean After a while like come on. I mean I get enough crap to do, you know, then God bring it back I wrote back up amp.

I just bring it back up pedal board now. It's the same thing I have all my settings in there So just like I got on one in bags I'm taking care of and it sounds great 99% of the people don't know it now. Let's the musicians go It's not a tube am it's not this is good.

Yeah. Yeah, but you know what come on, bro. People don't know your guitar Yeah, yeah, the 606 has got to be burning Yeah, no kid, you know, I've actually I listened to quite a few of your videos I do you guys have a really good songs like thank you, and it's not easy songs Every single song that you guys have picked is pretty difficult to play the one that The one that really stuck out because I know I was in a band that played it and I can't remember the name of it the the song from the Breakfast Club Don't you forget about me? Yeah.

Yeah, that's not an easy song to do. No, that's another one of those That's got kind of like a you know You got to find the rhythm in that in that song Especially if you're playing guitar and singing at the at the same time Yeah, I approach it. I always thought I should approach it like I made it did it? Yeah, so you got do they don't dig a don't dig a don't dig a don't dig a don't dig a don't dig a day Yeah, you know, don't you forget about me? Like that.

Yeah that I just kind of in a tricky part. Just Hey, hey that what I'm doing is I'm hitting the vibrato bar while I'm going. Hey, hey, hey Hey, and then I hit the other chord that hit the harmonic up here and do hit die bomb that well still singing Oh, so that's that's a tricky part to try to pull all that off.

Yeah, no kidding. No kid. No kid Well, I think he should whip out the old get fiddle over there.

I think so I think you should get in the studio and we'll be right back. Yeah You're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast. Hi, I'm Rick Anthony I'd like to thank my radio brothers Ray the roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast The someone you should know podcast We spotlight musicians authors and interesting people and we like to say we're making a difference one artist at a time The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays And you could check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web at someone you should know Podcast.com that's the someone you should know podcast with me Rick Anthony making a difference one artist at a time I'm Christy from crime cave podcast I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of snapped back in the mid 90s I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time With each episode under 20 minutes.

I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years Join me in the crime cave So apparently for the first time ever Unplugged take it away You see That's Me One thing Word goes in the right I know you've been lying to me This is up Side But when the world gets a door it's like a bulge on the throat You're not covering this heat. Why don't they do what they say say what you mean? One thing leads to another Call me One thing I Can't believe he picked that song that is so cool That's a you have no idea how many times I've tried to get somebody to play that song. Really? Yeah acoustically No, just to play just to just to play the song because that's kind of I love that funky You know almost Nile Rodgers guitar.

Yeah, you know in your thing and it's awesome. It's all right here, man It's just like like I said, you know You don't have that. Yeah, right and you got to be consistent the whole song It took me a while to try and sing that and play that at the same time Absolutely was just got put that in autopilot forget you're doing it.

Yeah, just sing it. Yep. Yeah, that's exactly right Okay, that's such a cool song.

That's just a great song It really is they're a great over totally overlooked that song and a rock and roll Chicago podcast exclusive. That's right It's an exclusive anywhere because he has never played. That's right I've never done that song unplugged acoustic shows quite often.

Oh sure. Okay, so it but what can I do? Um, I've called the acoustic rocker when I do solo shows It's I do everything from Elvis to Oasis Beatles Bodine's to Bon Jovi to current classic country, whatever whatever they pay me I don't care. You know, it's right right.

Let's do that. You know, yeah 80s music is you know, I think the hook of though. It's a genre.

Yeah I mean you can call 80s music a genre you really can you can yeah And it's and it's a the hook to it is the fact that the songwriting back then I should say the lyric writing You could write about anything, you know nowadays, okay It's got to be a love song or it's got to be you know You have to have some type of a of a topic but back then you can write about anything I mean just write about absolutely anything you want to write about it It did matter as long as the words rhymed and the chord progressions were great and it had a look Everything was great and people love to sing along with it. Yeah, you know I mean, that's a remarks of a great song right there. Yeah, you know, I mean doesn't have to be complicated.

I was watching a was a brick a guitar guy in YouTube who's on all the time? He was talking about songs with just two chords Yeah, you know like a horse in no name sing two chords the entire song or dreams by Fleetwood Mac Right to court never thought about it. You know, yeah, but the great songs that plain and simple You just have to have a hook, you know, you know something memorable people want to sing along to it They want to you know, tap their toes and tap their toe to it and do whatever. That's right.

Well, it was great Wow, where did this a matey's name come from? I stole it from a friend of mine One of my best friends Sean he's a sound man was in the year he moved to Florida and him and Ron I guess we're talking about doing I Sponsoring like a bunch of youngins to do new wave stuff and this is the band name that they came up with to do it So then I just said I'm gonna do the F new wave thing. So I'll take that Thank you. So I just ran with it and there's other m80s around the country.

We're just we're m80s Chicago, right, you know, so you got here, you know, you differentiate from invade Moldenstein and invade Jay Moldenstein Well, Ron, if you're listening, he's here right now in the studio if you want to come and get him Yeah, yeah, so I guess where's home base for you guys where where are the where are the places that you play most No, we've been playing all over the place. I mean, yeah, it's just uh, we've been together a little over a year Okay, so and since June 30th, we've done about 25 gigs I was gonna say you guys got some you have quite a bit of footage on out there on the Internet on the Internet's There for not being together that long. Yeah Well, we tape that we videotape every show so we can sit there the next day and go, okay, that was good Yes You're flat there.

You know, you're not supposed to don't do that to yourself We do we just torture ourselves like that. We just want the product to be as best as possible. So so I'm the one who does 95% of the booking.

I'm the one who does all the phone calls and knocking on the doors and everything else now I've also used you know, United Talent isn't sure you and In Steve Coleman, there's another guy who's get put us up with a couple events But majority is just me calling up talking in different venues and saying hey, you know You know, this is what we did this way, you know, we were like So we own our own PA. Yes. So which is a great things We're real nice QSC system So we walk into a venue and have top flight sound and lights and everything so we can do the full package But definitely prefer when you go to like like we played it.

Um, but now called humos used to be Brower house Yeah, okay. We played there Saturday. Okay, not a big stage just to like that They have their own sound on it lights everything there.

No, it's great bad. You played you played the back room. Yeah Yeah, yeah, that's nice day.

So that part of it's still there. Yeah, the whole thing So the whole thing's still there and it's gonna change the name everything. Yeah, they just changed in there I'll the Brower house name still on the front.

Is it really? Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah So you tell people go to humos or you're like, where's Bob? Yeah, they're using the Brower house Facebook page, too Really? Yeah.

Okay, like change a name. Yeah, right Go with it or don't so by it. So, um since half the band lived in, Indiana I said well, I was trying to be nice and book some Indiana venues, you know So we had went down and rents the lair now we got one.

Um, and in the March we're playing out in Valpo Okay, you know there then we're gonna be playing no place in Cheryl. So we got a few Indiana gigs, right? But majority have been my goal with the band I want to go north of 88 because what I want to do is establish Us as the new wave band in the Chicagoland area, right? There's a few others that are kind of doing similar stuff But I want to be the band, you know known for this and you know As well as I do just got knocking doors play play play get get the following one at a time, right? Yeah Yeah, sounds like a plan to me. Is there a favorite place you guys like to play? I know honestly, I played a lot of clubs, you know, you know how it goes I like Brower house a lot and not because we just play there because it's a good rock Club, I mean, you know as well as I do some places play at you know, it's a sports bar Are they sticky in a corner one a floor one bulb? There's your light, you know You know and I don't really like those places at all because it's kind of like, you know They're there to watch the TV when they turn don't turn a TV off.

I just want to go smack somebody Yeah, right, you know, you know and plus, you know If the game is on then we're paying attention to that not paying attention to you. Is this aggravating? So I want to I like playing places that are dedicated to music that you're there For the purpose of entertaining that crowd and not having another Alternative source, right? Right. Yeah.

I mean that's I mean that's almost like a pipe dream in the Chicago area because you know, it's it Places either want cover bands. Mm-hmm, you know and Most of the time it's you're almost like a jukebox, you know in a way, right? Yes, so to find those places that are just dedicated music venues around here. I we need more we need to have more.

Absolutely I go to so many other cities, you know I travel around to so many other cities and it's shocking to me how I can go to some small town in Somewhere, Minnesota and there's more live music venues Dedicated to live music than in the entire city of Chicago. Oh, yeah You go down like I like Tampa st. Pete.

It's always been very active musically, you know, so that's great, right? You know, I mean, they're doing music four or five seven nights a week down there, which is an awesome thing We're in here. We're in the third largest city in the country. Yeah, right.

It's pathetic Yeah, you know live music one night DJ the next night. Yeah, right. That's pretty much like a bingo Questions or some crap, you know, you know, it's just it's to me It's just I think it's so disrespectful to musicians when they do that when they leave the TV's on there when they you know Well, they don't pay attention or else I'm not a sports person.

So for anyone who is I'm sorry But I hate playing at when they make you wait two or three hours after the games over, you know to play so Well, wait a sec. Then you bitch at us because our crowd didn't stick around Well, because you had us play two hours after the fact, you know Yeah, right. Yeah, that's right.

Well, you know, it's like, you know, you're paying us X amount of dollars, right? You're not paying us that amount of money to play for three hours. Yeah, you're paying us to haul all that shit around Absolutely. I told my kid the exact same thing literally last face.

Yeah, I would play for free Yeah, you know if I had somebody all I had dudes walk on stage. Hey me guitar I'll sing do my three four hours of tap dance and get done handing guitar back later. Have a nice night But you know, but yeah, you're paid for leaving a house at five for dragging equipment there We get you set it all up doing a sound check having a blast of feedback.

Hey, you know, yeah You know every freaking time then you do it, you know, you you play your gig you get done. You're hot You're sweaty. You're stinky, you know, then you drag it all back in the car to go home and go stairs And then we're all gonna go to a podcast and we're gonna bitch and moan about how much we hate it What a hassle this is and this sucks and then we're gonna be back out there on Friday and Saturday night doing everything that we Absolutely love doing so we can complain about it again.

That's right. That's that's just it. I think that's I think that's an addiction That's the quintessential definition of an addiction We're either addicted or the stupidest people on planet.

I mean, it's one of the two, you know a little bit of both Yeah, maybe a little bit of both sometimes when you do the stuff I know your fans out there are saying themselves. What's Dave's history? What did he do before the m80s? Oh, well, um, how far back you want to go as far back as you want. I mean, I was born a embryo Okay, what good I just kind of give the brief run down was my understudy in Canada I grew we had That was my first started music I was the understudy so yeah But um now I've been playing for 40 years and I've been singing pretty much my whole life It's just you know, it's been one of those guys who always like to entertain, you know do do impersonations and everything else So so then um, well, I start playing guitar at 14 because like most teenagers trying to find yourself And so I start, you know, pick up a guitar say I look pretty cool as opposed the dork I normally look like and so so I started you're playing practicing learning getting to get an initial bands and stuff and Then I was playing around the area, you know all the typical haunts and stuff between here in Indiana and everything else and probably for me Really getting into I had a band back in 2010 called red DB that we played all over the place and we did 52 shows our first year out Boom, which is a lot.

Yeah, you know first time out and I said I booked 99% of these things, too Right. So, uh, so with that band, we kind of did, you know, typical rock world, you know, Sammy Hagar Aerosmith You know the cold things like that harder rocking stuff like that UFO. I had another really great guitar player who I Delegated most of leads to because he was more the Van Halen school.

He did that well, and and so so we played there for but we did that about two and a half years and I left from there I would join this other bank all Was the name of that one hit parade or hit parade? Sorry After a while, you forget. Yeah. Yeah So we did hit parade for about a year and a half or so and they did more, you know Pops up journeys usual things, you know, I was gonna say that and that was the magazine from back in the 80s Yeah So then I did that I joined a bank of rock this way which is primarily an Aerosmith tribute We did like 90% Aerosmith everything from mama can all the way up to pink, you know So did everything in between and a few other scattering of other stuff and then I joined another band after that which was And I'm leaving a few out.

Oh, well then after that joined up a band initials called a track which was a 70s rock tribute and We morphed from that into shock the system which you're doing You know, like I said, you know, Sammy Hagar and kiss and Alice Cooper and stuff like that And then mean a drummer who's in with me now met there that we started this so Yeah, excellent. That's a short version. I was in as we were talking.

I was in radio for a number of years I was a salesman for the cat 105 5 and And even then we I did a on-air band with my kamado the morning personality So that was rather comical, you know, I mean we did like spoofs of songs and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, we did.

Um, okay, we open for this funny that we opened as this country band one time over there at the Shanahan lanes and Again, it was a spoof band, right? Right. So, you know, we have opened up we came out in the country country proud big huge boobs Okay, you know semi drag right we opened up with Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, yeah This country crowd just looked at us like I mean, you know, it's like we're gonna hurt you. Oh My god, that's gotta be hilarious.

It was fun. I wish I had videotape of that one. They'd be good That's crazy So where can people find you guys socially social media wise whatever and well, we have a website M80s Chicago.

So m8 0 s Chicago comm should go on there if you're on Facebook m80 Chicago And if the Instagram for all the young pups down out there under 30, we have m80 Chicago So we make it nice and simple like that. So but we're playing it anywhere and everywhere playing up March 23rd We're over Embers Lockport March 30th. We're on Valpo April 5th.

We're at We used to call the heroes now. It's these be the quarry quarry Now's here. We're playing there April 5th.

We're opening up or with Animation, which is a rush tribute then April 12th. We're playing at mug shots Which is in Homer Glenn? Mm-hmm. All right, so that's just ones that come quickly to mind, you know But we have the whole listing on there.

He did all of that one out looking at his phone. That's right Very rare that people do that Like okay, we gotta get the sound man on to this thing we gotta get this guy get this, you know, yeah Yeah, nice. Nice.

So can you take us out with another tune? Absolutely. All righty Ready When you close your eyes and you fall asleep Sounds to the sound of a heartbeat Let me hear the things that you're dreaming about You tell me that you love me you tell me that you need me you tell me that you want me And I know that I'm right cuz I hear it in the night night I hear the secrets that you keep When you're talking in your sleep When you're talking in your sleep Don't you know sleeping in a spot And I When you talking in your sleep The secrets that you keep When you're talking in your sleep I hear the secrets that you keep When you're talking in your sleep Says you keep When you're talking in your sleep with close your eyes and you fall asleep Everything about you is a mystery You tell me that you want me You tell me that you need me You tell me that you love me And you know that I'm right Cause I hear it in the night, night I hear the secrets that you keep. All right.

Man. I heard them secrets. Yeah.

I can listen to 80s music all day. If I could bring up one more thing, actually, I released my first solo CD. No, you've had your time.

I'll get there. See you later. That's another podcast.

I'll get there. We're done. Oh, go ahead.

Okay. Well, I released my first solo CD of original music four years ago, which has been for me a huge labor of love. I mean, for me, I mean, I've been blessed to be able to open for heart and soul sign of smithereens, fog, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But for me, the biggest thing is to release that CD of all original music, because, you know, when you're doing covers, you don't know who you are, you know, you know, of course, you know who you are as Paul Rogers, bad cop, you know how you are doing this, that, you know, but you never find out who your voice is. And so that's the one thing that really was great in the CD. If I had to describe it, nothing new wave at all.

It's more like if Paul Rogers, a bad company, joined the Eagles and had 10 new gin on guitar. Oh, okay. So it's kind of a mosh and it's called think outside the burning box.

The burning box. Okay. Where is it available? I can come up to me at any show and I'm more than happy to sell you one.

Yeah. Yeah. I do acoustic shows.

I sell it. The acoustic shows and so like that. My personal website is davebellamusic.com. So you can get it there too.

All right. Yeah. Yeah.

Very cool. Yeah. We could have talked a bit more about that.

I want to talk about the band. The band's what's out there. We do.

We're really pushing it hard. You know, we put a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort, money, everything else. And plus they said, don't you dare bring up that guy, damn CD.

Yeah. I'm tired of hearing about the CD. It's about the band, man.

Don't talk about that fricking CD. Use it as a coaster next time. That's it.

Yeah. It's a coaster. It's a real deadly weapon like top hat of James Bond.

You know. Alrighty, Dave. Thanks for coming in.

Yeah. Thank you. It was a lot of fun.

Great meeting you. A lot of fun. Yeah.

Thank you. Boom, baby. Boom, baby.

Boom, man. That was the M80s. M80s.

Or at least one M80. At least one. Yeah.

25% of the M80. What's 25% of an M80? I think that's just a black cat. I think it'd be an M20.

It's more like a. Yeah. Yeah. That's all it is.

This is a little bit. And to get it to blow up, you got to hit a stamp on it with your heel. The snap it's or pop it's or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. Those snakes that used to come out of the.

Yeah. You like those things and the snakes have come out. I hated the smell of those.

They did stank and they left a black mark My dad's always slapping the shit out of me because I was good. What are you doing? The red caps and you hit it with a rock. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it was cool, too That's that's if we were lucky enough to find a rock. That's right.

So Fireworks in the 4th of July that was the m80 e one m80. Yeah, that was great, man He's right. You know this new wave type music.

There really aren't many bands out there. I think about it There's all kinds of 80s hair metal. Yep Nobody's doing the stuff that they're doing that the 80s pop stuff.

All right, right. Yeah, that's that's really unique I think they're gonna go a long way. They've got a lot of videos online, too I was really I mean their their song selection is really really cool.

Yeah, it's impressive. It's stuff I haven't heard in ages Yeah, I mean who thinks is and who thinks that they actually do a really good cover of love shack by the b-52s. That's cool I was like, I always liked that song.

I was like that song but well, that was very cool It's nice hearing from Dave and as always Thanks for listening and tune in every Tuesday for another exciting episode of the rock and roll Chicago podcast See ya The rock and roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin theme song courtesy of M&R Rush The rock and roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show The music is used to promote the guests that are featured