Franklin's Journey: From Garage to Stage on onstage music podcast

Rob and Dana Franklin share their 30+ year journey as musicians in hard rock, metal, and blues, offering insights from both sides of the podcast mic. The brothers discuss their musical beginnings, touring experiences, and how they've maintained their passion while navigating the industry's challenges.

• Rob was inspired to become a drummer after seeing a live performance at his aunt's wedding
• Dana followed his brother's path, switching from guitar to bass when he discovered his natural connection to the instrument
• Their parents were exceptionally supportive, attending shows despite the loud heavy metal and hard rock
• "Fool's Gold," an original song written by Dana, became one of their most successful tracks
• The brothers have toured with bands including Monolith from Reno and Eyewitness Blues from Sacramento
• They've opened for notable acts including Quiet Riot
• Teaching music helped Rob reconnect with the fundamentals of drumming
• Creating bands involves finding the right personalities, not just talented musicians
• Their podcast aims to help musicians navigate the journey from garage practice to professional performance
• Dana emphasizes the importance of relationship support when pursuing a serious music career

Visit franklinsgaragetostage.com and email rob@franklinsgaragetostage.com or dana@franklinsgaragetostage.com to join their mailing list for episode updates and giveaways.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:31

Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Wardrums Franklin and my co-host is Dana Thumberbys Franklin.

Speaker 2 0:42

How you doing, bro, good. How you doing, man, I'm doing really good.

Speaker 1 0:46

Cool. Well, today's episode is basically an excerpt from a podcast we did with a Canadian host. The name of the podcast is called On Stage Music. It's only video through YouTube, so we thought we'd put this interview that he did of us on our episode so that all the people that hear us through podcast sites could hear the interview as well. It went pretty well. Huh, Dana, that guy was pretty cool. Yeah, he was really good.

Speaker 2 1:16

That guy was pretty cool, yeah, yeah, he was really good. The guy was really informative. He's talked to a lot of cool musicians and stuff and yeah, it was good. It was kind of weird to us actually being interviewed instead of us talking to people. It kind of put us on the opposite side of the coin there. Yeah, it was pretty cool. It almost felt like a star or something. I was like damn, somebody's interviewing me.

Speaker 1 1:35

So, listeners, we've got some exciting guests lined up, so please stay tuned for future episodes, but we really appreciate all the new listeners and a couple new countries, a bunch of new cities, so we really really appreciate it, Dana, with that said, what else do you have to?

Speaker 2 1:51

say Well, you know, going back to what you just said, I just want to thank everybody that's tuned in. We thought it would be years before we got close to the 10,000 download mark. I mean we're a couple days away from that, so that's real exciting. And all kinds of countries over in Europe, I mean just all new places, it's like this is kind of blowing up to where I, you know, didn't think it would go so quick, so soon, and it's really exciting. You know, we talked to that Martin dude from Accept. You know that was just amazing talking to that guy. And, like I said, we've got a couple other really cool guests lined up with some other hardcore bands out of Sacramento and, just you know, maybe some doom metal stuff happening. We'll see what's down the pipe there, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 2:38

And I want to remind everybody, we have a new website. It's called franklinsgaragethestagecom, and then you can email us through that website as well. It's either rob at franklinsgaragethestagecom or dana at franklinsgaragethestagecom, so please do send us an email so you're on our list, so we can let you know about future episodes and any special things. Like we have some giveaways we're thinking about doing in the near future.

Speaker 2 3:06

Yeah, I like it. Well, you know, listeners, we need a couple things from you. Like Rob just said, emails you know we need your emails so we can start building our database. You know pictures, comments. You know need your email so we can start building our database. Um, you know pictures, comments. You know good or bad. You know we'll take your shit if we deserve it. You know throw stuff at us and you know, and then for you, people that have the availability, I think we need some money. I mean it's, you know, a little bit of kick down to keep this thing going. I mean this is you know, all stuff that just me and my brother do and my brother, rob Wardrums, he does all the editing and producing and all that stuff. So it takes time and money. So please contribute a few bucks if you can. We appreciate it. That's all I got to say today.

Speaker 1 3:47

Alright, well, stay tuned, because the excerpt from the interview we did is next. Talk to everybody later. Bye.

Speaker 2 3:55

Thank you Later.

Speaker 4 4:00

Oops, I forgot the thing here. Welcome to another podcast, the On Sage podcast. I'm going to introduce you to Rob and Dana Franklin, two brothers who are musicians. They've been musicians for 30 plus years, recording artists in genres hard rock, metal and blues. They've toured with two very successful bands and they love speaking about their experience in creating bands, performing and recording. They've taught music theory, beginning advanced drums and beginning guitar, and they love everything music. Thank you for joining us, rob and Dana, how are you? Very good.

Speaker 1 4:36

Thank you for joining us rob and dana, how are you very good? Thank you for having us. We appreciate it you're very welcome.

Speaker 4 4:41

Um, can you tell us what inspired you to get into music and podcasting and everything else?

Speaker 1 4:50

go back to the beginning okay, well, the beginning is, uh, basically I was one of those kids that, uh, I. My very first experience with the live band was at my aunt's wedding and I saw the first time a drummer play live and from that moment on I was mesmerized, I was, I was hooked. So after that just basically went on, started hitting on pots and pans with spoons and ladles and just progressed from there. So I went from that to getting into a band program at high school, initially marching band, a symphonic band, and after that starting my own bands and getting into rock music. And so that's the beginning of the musical journey, but the podcast journey I'll let my brother explain here.

Speaker 3 5:37

Well, the podcast we recently started I mean it's only been three, about four months now. You know this is something that actually Rob kind of came up with, an idea. He's like you know what about doing a podcast about all the music and everything that we've experienced? And you know all the trials and tribulations of starting a band to getting on stage and all that. And you know why don't we share all of this information to other people that are just starting bands or trying to figure out how to go through the process of, you know, getting the band going, getting band members and getting on stage and then, of course, all this stuff of dealing with, you know, the managers of clubs to try to play and the legalities of all that. You know all that fun stuff. So that's, you know, that's where the podcast kind of came in.

Speaker 3 6:22

And you know, musically I started, you know, mostly because of watching my brother here. He's a few years older than me, so I'd watch him in the basement banging on drums and like, oh, this is cool. You know I love music, I want to, I want to, I want to be in a band with him someday. So you know I started a little bit later in life, about 17, 18,. I picked up the guitar and you know messed around with it a little bit and you know it was.

Speaker 3 6:44

It was decent but not great and you know I knew I wasn't going to be good enough to play in a band as far as with guitar um, with my brother here, so you know he mentioned once he's like hey, think about getting, you know, picking up the bass. You know bass players are kind of hard to find and you know, think about that. And so I picked up a bass and it was kind of automatic as soon as I touched it it was the feeling I can't describe, it was the perfect thing. And you know I started practicing on that and A couple years later we started out with bands and haven't looked back.

Speaker 4 7:21

What kind of relationships did you have with your parents and your other siblings, if you have anybody? Did they encourage you to get into music or they were like, no, don't touch anything. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 7:32

No, actually my parents were extremely supportive. I had never once heard them say you know, stop that racket, or you know any of those kind of things that you hear. They were always very supportive because they were, I mean, back when they were earlier. My father was actually a vocalist and my mother was a pianist, and so I think because of that they kind of encouraged us and they were, like I said, very supportive. And we have another brother who's actually a guitar player and we have two that aren't into musical instruments at all. But they've always been very supportive and by our side through the whole process.

Speaker 3 8:12

And our parents. I mean every show that we played, even with the crazy heavy metal and hard rock that they were, we were doing they. They came to every show that they possibly could. You know, mostly in the back, so you know, wouldn't hurt their ears.

Speaker 4 8:54

But but they were, they were always there and definitely supported everything we did very true, very true I like the fact that it says that you, um you, that you're recording artists in genres rock, hard rock, metal and blues. But what I really want to know, Rob, is that you toured with two very successful bands, and who are they?

Speaker 1 9:19

Probably the two most successful was one was from Reno called Monolith, and the second, from Sacramento-based, was called Eyewitness Blues. Those were the two most successful as far as consistent gigging and traveling.

Speaker 4 9:34

So what's your favorite genre?

Speaker 1 9:37

Rock by far only because to me it's more intricate playing for a drummer. Blues is more of a steady-type pattern for the majority of the songs. I'm not going to say all, but you know blues is more of a steady type pattern for, you know, majority of the songs. I'm not going to say all. But for rock there's more intricate breakdowns in style and you know timing and dynamics and there's just a lot more elements to rock than there is to blues, in my opinion.

Speaker 4 10:04

Hey Dana, is there any music or songs or that rob plays that you say? Can you turn that off please?

Speaker 3 10:10

you know I don't like it you know, no, there isn't, because we, we pretty much agree as far as musically, what kind of stuff we like and what we don't like, um, we're pretty much on the same say, wavelength with that. Um, I mean, I'm not a big fan of country and hip hop and stuff like that. So you know I don't have to worry about that, cause he doesn't listen to that either. But as far as you know, even with the music, um, I mean, I might say I I learned, you know, listening to Iron Maiden, black Sabbath, uh, you know the true creators of heavy metal in my opinion.

Speaker 3 10:52

So my style of playing mostly emulates Steve Harris, gezer, butler, that type of stuff. But the more I started playing bass, I started listening to more genres. I'll even listen to some of the old-style funk and Motown stuff, just because the bass is so prevalent in that style of music, you know. And just to hear different, different types and stuff and kind of incorporate in my, in my playing. So you know it doesn't all sound the same, like it's just rock or just metal, you know, throw a little bit of different styles in there, you know, which I think all musicians you know should do.

Speaker 1 11:24

And if I could add to that, actually Dana is our primary songwriter. I mean he comes up with the foundation of our most successful songs. He's been the songwriter. I mean he's basically written down. You know the structure and you know the dynamics of the song and everybody's kind of developed the song from his foundation of what he's written.

Speaker 2 11:49

So he's the primary songwriter.

Speaker 4 11:49

thanks for that do you remember the first song you ever wrote or played? What was that like?

Speaker 1 11:56

uh, the first song that we really played that was real successful as far as you know crowd response response was a song called Fool's Gold that my brother had written, and it was just once we played that together on stage. That was just one of those moments where your hair tingles. You just knew it was, it felt great and it came across great as well. And great crowd response. It was just one of those moments.

Speaker 3 12:23

You can't't, you know, you can't, you can't copy definitely definitely it's uh you know when, when you play your own music and you can the crowd and the people are getting into it.

Speaker 1 12:35

There's you know, with your brother, yeah, yeah, when you're doing it with family members, it doesn't get any better.

Speaker 3 12:40

But you know when the crowd is loving something that you wrote and you're not covering it. I can't even describe the feeling. You've talked to a lot of musicians so I'm sure they've said the same thing. There's just no feeling. There's no drug that can copy that feeling.

Speaker 4 12:59

Oh yeah. What was your mindset when you knew that, okay, we're going to play this song Fool's Gold for the very first time. What was going through your head? Like they're not going to like it, they're going to throw tomatoes. Do you have the tomato bag with you?

Speaker 1 13:13

No, I don't think that fear was ever in our mind because, you know, we felt that it was a great song and, if we could express that, when we played it we knew it was going to come across well and it really did. It really did.

Speaker 4 13:29

Yeah. So I always ask an artist whenever you write a song, it's based on experience, like a breakup, relationship, failure, death, For instance. I always use this example Dan Reynolds from Magic Dragons. They have a song called Wrecked. He wrote it in the death of his sister-in-law, Alicia, who died of cancer. So what is the song Fool's Goat about?

Touring Experiences and Favorite Genres

Speaker 3 13:53

It's. You know it's about a, you know it is. It's a personal thing, it's about a relationship that you know it just didn't quite live up to what it was supposed to be like. Everything about it was, you know, I mean, we. Originally my original name for the song was going to be Pyrite, which is pretty much a synonym for fool's gold, and I like the way fool's gold sounds a little bit better. But yeah, it's all about the idea of, you know, a relationship that is supposed to be rock steady and you know you think it's going good. But when you really break it down and investigate it a little bit more, you find out that everything about it was all fake, and so that's definitely what the song is about. And a few weeks after that I went through my first divorce and so this kind of solidified what was going on in my life at the time good enough am I?

Speaker 4 14:49

under your impression that the fool is you I mean, I guess it could be. I was definitely fooled so what is your song creation? Like, like, how did you put fool's gold together? What was? What was it? Like? You went outside and we're going to write the song, or we'll do the lyrics first, we'll do the music, the melody, everything. Like you said, dana was the main songwriter, so how did you start it?

Speaker 1 15:15

Basically with just Dana and myself. We were actually at my parents' house at the time we didn't have a rehearsal studio, so to speak at the time and we were actually in a room at my parents' house, just me and him, and he had created the bass line and I developed the drum riff and the timing behind it and it kind of snowballed from there. Then we ended up being with two guitar players that were phenomenal and they added their parts to it and they added the lyrics to it and it just all fell together really nicely.

Speaker 3 15:46

Yeah, it was music first and then the lyrics. You know, once we recorded, you know the music part to it. You know, I just sat at home and of course you know my state of mind at the time and wrote down Fool's Gold to match how the music was already written.

Speaker 1 16:02

But a funny story to back that up is when we were actually rehearsing that song getting our two pieces what we call the bottom end bass and drums.

Speaker 1 16:21

While we were developing that in this house at my parents' house, which know pretty big house up in the virginia highlands in reno, nevada but, um, we went downstairs after taking a break and my mom's pet guinea pig was dead because of the volume. So, okay, this is probably a pretty good song. That's just kind of a funny little thing that happened. But I mean, it was sad for my mom, but it was just something that's.

Speaker 3 16:35

At the time we kind of thought that's funny yeah, that's how we knew it was going to be a good song. You know, you kill a guinea pig, that's that's. That's a heavy metal song.

Speaker 4 16:43

It's good yeah yeah, I can imagine you pranking your brother. Dana say hey, dana, I think I got a really good name for a song guinea pig. That'd be funny, that's awesome. Yeah. So who were your big musical influences?

Speaker 1 17:03

Like, how did they shape your work? For me there's a few Tommy Aldridge, bill Ward and Tommy Lee from Motley Crue. Those are my three primary. I mean, they're the ones that kind of influenced my style and of course when I was just starting it was Buddy Rich learning the rudiments and the rolls and all that. As far as technique it was Buddy Rich because everybody said, well, you've got to listen to Buddy Rich if you want to really learn your rudiments and perfect your style. So that's kind of where I started and obviously that guy's phenomenal. But then for showmanship I started listening to Tommy Aldridge and Tommy Lee, you know, just for showmanship and for how to deliver what you've learned in a more professional way and the way to appease the audience.

Speaker 3 17:53

And mine, you know, being a bass player, you know, steve Harris from Iron Maiden was definitely the guy that I listened to the most and you know, a lot of my style is a lot like him, a lot of the galloping and fast. And then, of course, you know, geddy Lee from Rush is just absolutely amazing. You know how he can play. The way he plays and then sing at the same time is beyond me. But you know, those two are my biggest influences.

Speaker 3 18:22

And Steve Harris, of course, not only the way he plays but just his showmanship, the way he runs around on stage and the energy he brings. And you know, and of course he's, you know, the main songwriter, you know, for Iron Maiden too. So I really like to follow a lot in the footsteps of what he's created. And you know, of course, like I said, I've listened to some other stuff and you know bootsy collins from parliament just you know the, that funk stuff, and you know, and flea from chili peppers just you know different styles. But you know, my heart is still with the, the whole. You know, um, heavy metal and hard rock, that's. That's that's where my heart is, still with the whole heavy metal and hard rock, that's where my heart is and always will be.

Speaker 4 19:03

Okay, so if you ended up, you guys walk into a room and you can choose any guitarist to be part of your new band. You have Geddy Lee, you have Sting, you have Robin Zander from Cheap Trick, you have, let's say you have the whole room is filled with these big, important musicians. Who would you choose?

Speaker 1 19:27

Wow, that is a good and very tough question For a guitar player. I'm going to have to give that over to Dana.

Speaker 3 19:35

You know from what I've been listening to lately and what I really like as far as what I think would fit into what we're doing right now, I would love to play with Zach Wild. I mean, he's just got the way. His style is the way he plays on stage, and not only that, he's got an amazing voice. I would love to get together and jam with him. That would be, absolutely amazing.

Speaker 4 20:01

Well, now I'm going to throw Jimmy Page in there. Oh yeah you can't go wrong with.

Speaker 3 20:05

Jimmy of course, you can't go wrong with any of the classic.

Speaker 4 20:10

So you choose Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton goes. Excuse me, I'm here too. Really. That's like, who are you going? Excuse me, I'm here too Really. That's like, who are you going to choose? I don't know.

Speaker 1 20:20

Well, someday in heaven, hopefully, we'll get a chance to jam with them all when it happens.

Speaker 4 20:25

Yeah, I mean if Paul McCartney knocked on my door, which is really weird.

Speaker 1 20:28

Oh yeah, I wouldn't send him away.

Speaker 4 20:29

No, I'm Paul McCartney. I hope that you want to play with me. I that you want to play with me, I do know, but I'm in a podcast right now, just joking. Do you have a favorite instrument you love to play, besides guitar, of course, and why?

Speaker 1 20:47

Besides guitar.

Speaker 3 20:49

I mean I'd love to learn how to play drums. I already got a good drummer in a band. I guess if I really had you know the option, I would you know, even though I don't see it in in metal and rock, is that much is. You know keyboards? I mean there are some cool stuff that you can do with the keyboards. You know, like the guy from dream theater I can't think of his name, but the way he does it in in their music is absolutely phenomenal. Um band called pretty maids, you know hard rock band. I think they're from sweden. You know they use the keyboards. Really nice, you know. But I would like to experiment a little bit with keyboards, by the chance, definitely or did you mean specific type of instrument?

Speaker 4 21:30

yeah, like if you could. Just okay, I want to learn another instrument.

Speaker 1 21:32

Oh okay, yeah, for me it would be I well, I, I do play guitar, but I want to learn another instrument. Oh, okay, yeah, for me it would be. Well, I do play guitar, but I want to be able to play better. I've been playing for quite a while and, unfortunately, while I was going through all the bands that I've been in in the past, I didn't really take the opportunity to learn from some phenomenal guitar players, and I wish that I had taken more time to pick their brain and learn more. But guitar for me, I mean I want to get better at it. I mean I can do some chords, but I'm not a guitar player.

Speaker 4 22:07

What do you think of Edgar Winner?

Speaker 1 22:10

I love his stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time since I've listened to it, but yeah, he's got some phenomenal stuff.

Speaker 4 22:16

That's awesome. When you perform, do you guys have an opener and a closer song, and it's always the same.

Speaker 1 22:22

No, our mindset is always open and close strong. Of course you want the whole show to be strong, but we always try to pick our like strongest songs for opening and typically our strongest if we're doing cover songs our strongest original to close. So it all depends on the type of show that we're doing, but I would say, yeah, that's our mindset yeah, definitely.

Building Bands and Managing Relationships

Speaker 3 22:45

Um, I'm a big fan of always closing with what you feel is your best original song. You know, if you're a cover band, if you're doing just all originals, then you know you should still end with your best original.

Speaker 1 22:58

Yeah, you want people to walk away thinking about that song because you know that's, that's a lasting impression. Usually is the last thing they hear yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 23:06

How do you connect with your fans when you're performing like? Do you do it mostly on online social networks or just like someone walks up to you said, mr franklin, unless they don't know your name?

Speaker 1 23:16

yes, that was a great song.

Speaker 4 23:18

How do you do you know?

Speaker 1 23:19

well, it's a little bit different nowadays because now it's all about social media, so we've really had to adapt as far as that. But yeah, I love, I love participating with when we do shows. You know, typically they're, you know smaller shows anywhere from. You know 500 to a thousand, but smaller shows where you can get out and actually meet people, I mean that's the way to really connect.

Speaker 3 23:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:43

I agree.

Speaker 3 23:43

That's, you know smaller places, I think are you know more personal. You know you're seeing everybody, almost everybody in the crowd and, like I said, when you take a little bit of a break, if you're're doing a couple of sets, you can actually get out and talk to the people out there. You find out. It's like, hey, how'd you come out? You know, how'd you hear about us? And you know, just get the stories from everybody and you really, you know, connect with the crowd and the audience that's true.

Speaker 4 24:10

Can you share the story behind one of your favorite songs you've written or performed? A good story or a bad story whichever one you want to choose, and you don't have to use fool's gold. You can use another song, something that, uh, something that's memorable, whether bad or good.

Speaker 1 24:26

We just want you to open up a little bit more okay, uh, well, we were doing, uh, one of our very first real big shows, but we had a new singer uh, he'd only been with us less than a month.

Speaker 1 24:40

I mean, the guy was phenomenal, but we were playing this song. It was actually another band song, it's called swords and tequila by riot, but halfway through our set we used it as like a song to introduce ourselves and to kind of, um, how do you describe we walked, um, we did. Halfway through the song there's kind of a part where we stopped playing, except for the guitar, and the guitar would try, was doing the rhythm in the background and I would come down off my drum riser, come and like, like, slap hands with people in the front of the crowd and all that kind of stuff. And while I was doing that, I had accidentally kicked the lyrics off the stage of because our singer was like reading off the lyric, because he wasn't familiar with all the songs yet, and I had kicked his lyrics off the stage and got back up my drum wiser, and he's up, he's looking at me like what the hell did you do?

Speaker 1 25:31

it's like so that was kind of a moment where I mean it ended up ended up coming across fine, but it was just one of those moments, like it was an oh shit kind of moment. Excuse my language.

Speaker 4 25:42

Yeah, wow, that's amazing. If someone walked up to you and said how would you describe your music style to someone who hasn't heard it before?

Speaker 3 25:53

Ooh, that's you know's so many. You know, we just talked about this a couple days ago on one of our podcasts. You know there's so many different titles and subtitles of even rock and metal now that if you say you know just regular rock music, I mean that could be mean 30 different genres, different things. Now, you know because you got death metal, you got screamo metal and you've got new metal and you know there's just so many different genres, different things. Now, you know because you got death metal, you got screamo metal and you've got new metal and you know there's just so many different genres out there.

Speaker 3 26:22

So I think the best way to describe the type of music that we play, um, would be just to, you know, name a couple of bands. Like you know, black sabbath, um, you know, maybe scorpions, something that's in the classic rock, maybe hard rock genre, judas priest, something like that. That you know it'll give them a good idea of the type of type of music we're playing. Because you know, you just say metal now, and that could mean so many different things okay, let me test you oh van halen metal or not?

Speaker 3 26:59

van halen, I would say no, I'd put that more on a hard rock, you know.

Speaker 1 27:07

But okay, okay, I agree with that. I mean, this is my riot quiet, right that's.

Speaker 3 27:14

That's kind of a funny one Commercial rock. Yeah, commercial rock. I mean we actually opened up for Quiet Riot once back in the day and that was a great show. It was amazing to meet all those guys. I've got to say the late Kevin Dubrow. He was a character, he was interesting, he was a character.

Speaker 1 27:35

He was interesting.

Speaker 3 27:38

He was a character, without a doubt, but it was really nice to meet those guys. But yeah, I think they're kind of on the edge of maybe being metal, but not quite. I mean, throw some other names out out there Metallica, definitely metal. Quite I mean, you know, throw some other names out at there metallica, definitely metal. Yeah, they've gotten a little bit more commercial than I would like to to say. You know, I love their first three or four albums and lately they've gotten more commercialized, but their newer stuff seems like they're trying to get back to where they were. I mean, I'm a huge fan of cliff burton, their original bass player, so I, you know I love the old stuff tool tool I would.

Speaker 1 28:21

I would consider a more more progressive kind of metal actually great bass interesting, interesting.

Speaker 4 28:28

So I asked a musician once. I said what's the difference between um death metal and heavy metal, like, what is the difference? What's considered death metal and heavy metal? What is the difference? What's considered death metal to you?

Speaker 1 28:36

To me, it's all about lyrics. When you start getting into subgenres, it's kind of what they're trying to portray in their lyrics. To me, that's the huge difference between at least those two that you mentioned.

Speaker 3 28:51

When you get the vocalist, that's doing more of the. That's what I would call death metal they're doing.

Speaker 2 29:03

What are they saying?

Speaker 4 29:05

Exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 29:08

Actually, last summer I had the chance to see a band called Avatar, which I think they're out there as like a maybe a death metal. I'm not sure what genre they would be labeled under, but you know, I didn't know how I would react to it and how I'd like it, cause my, my son, actually invited me to go see that show and and they were actually amazing. But I would kind of throw them in there with the death metal, because some of the stuff you really couldn't understand. But the music was definitely metal and yeah, yeah, death metal. I, I, I consider if you can hear some of the lyrics, but not all of them.

Speaker 4 29:48

Yeah, Uh metal. Heavy metal doesn't mean, you're sure, but, um, I know tool does that quite a bit, saying ah, I don't know. But I know Tool does that quite a bit and I'm not really into heavy metal. But it's kind of interesting to find out what is death metal, what is heavy metal, like Led Zeppelin? Is that metal or not?

Speaker 3 30:09

Yeah, and I guess it really depends on who you ask and what style of music they're used to listening to. Some people would probably say Led Zeppelin is heavy metal, where I really wouldn't consider them heavy metal.

Speaker 1 30:24

That's more of a hard rock I would think Classic hard rock.

Speaker 4 30:26

I would say yeah. So it says that you're a music teacher, both of you, or just you, rob.

Speaker 1 30:35

I did it for about 10 years, basically music theory, beginning intermediate and advanced drums and beginning guitar. I mean that was a great experience. It actually helped me to get back to learning the fundamentals, because as you play a lot, you tend to forget the fundamentals as far as like the basic rudiments and things like that. So it was great. I actually enjoyed it. Seeing that light bulb go off in somebody else when they learn something they really always wanted to learn to me was the most exciting part of it.

Speaker 4 31:08

What are you teaching them first? What's the first day like?

Teaching Music and Performance Rewards

Speaker 1 31:11

First thing is basically just getting to know each other. I mean, that's what I did, and then on a chalkboard I would show them okay. Well, here's the very basics of like notes. You know difference between an eighth note, 16th note, 32nd note, whatever it would be, whole note, half note, just the very basics and then from there just how it might. My structure was just kind of getting to know them and seeing what they really wanted to learn and then kind of do that on an individual basis.

Speaker 4 31:40

Do you still do it or did you quit?

Speaker 1 31:42

No, I haven't done that for the last probably year. I enjoyed it, but I'd like to get back into it.

Speaker 4 31:48

Oh wow. So, guys, what do you think is the most rewarding part of being a musician?

Speaker 1 31:56

To me it's every part of it. I just love playing period. I mean everything from learning new songs to performing them, to setting. I mean every piece of it I enjoy. I really do.

Speaker 3 32:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:09

I mean the most rewarding for me, I think, was not only getting good enough to where I can play with my brother and be comfortable and playing in a band environment with other talented musicians and and them not saying, hey, who's this bass player? He sucks, you know, and you know being on the same level as you know someone you'd call professional musician. And then, you know, the highlight would be, you know, to play one of your songs, something that you've written, and for people to like it. I mean that moves me more than anything that I can even name. That would definitely be it.

Speaker 4 32:49

That's interesting, Rob. It mentions that you have experiences in creating bands. How many bands have you actually created, you might ask?

Speaker 1 32:59

That I personally created about four. Wow, between Dana and myself we've created probably two or three, but myself I mean four, and that's a great process. It's a great and frustrating process. Just getting the right people in the same room is sometimes the biggest challenge. And then even once you do have people in the same room is sometimes the biggest challenge. And then even once you do have them in the same room, how those personalities develop over time could be a huge struggle as well. So I mean it's fun, but it can be aggravating and rewarding at the same time.

Speaker 4 33:34

Were they all, four of them, successful, or did you just say you know?

Speaker 1 33:38

guys forget it.

Speaker 4 33:39

Forget it. Two weeks you're gone.

Speaker 1 33:44

Not me, not the initial project, but over time. Yes, I mean, when you're first starting a band, getting the right people in the room, like I said, is the number one challenge, so sometimes it takes, you know, some tweaking. You got to get rid of a guy, add another guy. It's a process, but all four that I've been in I mean the main ones that I've been involved in have turned out to be pretty successful.

Speaker 4 34:07

Tell me about the time that you met a band member where you're just like I don't really want to go up to him and say that you're not good for the band, that he should leave.

Speaker 1 34:17

There's been a lot of those actually. So I mean specifically, what are you asking me? How do you handle that?

Speaker 4 34:25

Yeah, give me one of the worst situations where you just don't know what to do. And they were good too.

Speaker 1 34:33

Yeah, I hate to even mention those because it might indicate who they are, but it's always a very, very painful thing to do, especially if they're talented. But if you're not getting along personality-wise, you're not going to be able to go out and play shows every weekend with this person, if you just can't get along with them. So it's a very difficult scenario actually, but we've had to do that on a number of occasions, but in the long run it's best for everybody in the band. So I mean you, you've got to do it.

Speaker 3 35:05

we made one mistake, and that that one I, we, uh, we had, we had a really good, you know, successful band and we brought on a new singer because our old singer had had to quit for some reason, and the new singer suggested we get rid of another member of the band because we were looking for more of a look instead of the way we were playing. We were basing on looks, and one guy just looked a little bit different than the rest of us, and so we parted ways with him, and that was a big mistake. He was a very talented guy and to this day I hated the fact that we did that, because the band pretty much went dysfunctional after that good, good example, good example oh wow, right.

Speaker 4 35:52

So you know um it's, it's drums, you know right right?

Speaker 1 35:56

I think right.

Speaker 4 35:56

Well, primarily yes yeah and yeah, and I know that you taught beginning advanced drums. Now, when you teach someone how to play the drums, what do you tell them? To work on the snare first, do you teach them how to do the thing and be able to do this?

Speaker 1 36:15

First, well, primarily, I mean I teach like a 4-4 pattern to begin with, because that's, you know, the obvious one, the 2,. You know you hit the snare on the 2, and the kick on the 2 and the 4. It's, like you know, eighth notes on the hi-hat, just a simple 4-4 pattern and, believe it or not, most people can do it. That don't even think they can. There's always like 1 in 10 that just does not have the coordination to even do that. But most people, believe it or not, have the ability to play a basic rock song, which is your basic 4-4 pattern.

Speaker 4 36:50

So what about cover songs? What cover songs have you performed, or do you like cover songs?

Speaker 1 36:57

That's a tough question because I do like cover songs but I'm not thrilled about performing. I prefer originals only because it's something you've created. But we're currently playing cover songs some cover songs and we really enjoy them, like War Pigs by Black Sabbath, because that's a classic and everybody knows it and loves it and it's got some good changes. I mean it's not a typical pattern for most songs. It's got some different cool changes to it. So I mean it's a tough question but I do enjoy playing the good ones. In my opinion.

Speaker 4 37:36

Yeah, so have you faced any challenges or setbacks in your musical journey? How did you overcome them?

Speaker 3 37:42

oh boy good questions yeah I mean there's been, you know, quite a few setbacks and you know, I think the majority of them, you know, and it's not even because of the musicians, it's you know, a lot of it's just personal, the personal stuff that gets in the way, you know, whether it's somebody got married or somebody got divorced, or you know somebody had to move for a job. You know those kind of things are really tough to overcome because you know, if you've got like, you know we had this one band you know, monolith Reno Nevada. That was very popular in the area and we did a bunch of stuff on the West Coast and when it ended up being twirled we had a band member that had to leave for a job or move out of town and it was tough to duplicate, duplicate, duplicate that, um, that band again, with just adding a number, another member. So you know, so you know we started over again and, yeah, the the obstacles that that come with keeping it.

Speaker 3 38:50

You know I envy some of these bands, like you know, the iron maiden and some of these guys, scorpions, that have been on the road for 40, 50 years together. I mean they've had a few lineup changes but the majority of it is, you know the same band and I mean that's a hard thing to do. I'm amazed at some of these guys. You know Rolling Stones and Ozzy Osbourne, some of these guys that have been doing it for the number of years that they've been doing it and are still live. It's amazing.

Speaker 4 39:22

Yeah, I know that people like Chicago, but I know Chicago originally started with Terry Kath and then he died and then Peter Cetera became the lead singer. Then he left. So would you consider that Ozzy Osbourne was Black Sabbath? So when he left, Black Sabbath couldn't continue.

Speaker 1 39:43

No, they actually continued pretty well with Ronnie James Dio and they continued on pretty well and I think they I mean Ozzy himself obviously continued to be very successful. But I think Black Sabbath carried on well. It obviously didn't have the same feel, so to speak, but they carried on very well.

Speaker 3 40:04

Yeah, one of the few bands that I think lost their main vocalist and identity to the band and still carried on well. Both. Like I said, Ozzy carried on very well and Black Sabbath did, but you get some bands that lose a major part of their creative process and they're not the same.

Speaker 4 40:28

So what do you think about Linkin Park and the death of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda resurrecting the band by using Emily Armstrong as the lead singer?

Speaker 1 40:37

I'm not familiar enough with them to actually give an opinion.

Speaker 3 40:40

to tell you the truth, I mean, I've heard a little bit of them but I don't think it's the same. You know, with the change, to me it doesn't work. It's kind of like Van Halen I loved early Van Halen with David Lee Roth, you know, and I love Sammy Hagar, but together it's just for me it didn't work.

Speaker 4 41:07

Wow, um, how do you say motivated?

Speaker 1 41:09

inspired when creating new music. Uh, just working, I mean working on it, and you, you, you know if it's going to really initially, you know if it's going to work or not. I mean, if you've got a like for us we're like the bottom end, the bass and the drums If that part's solid and it's got a good foundation, the rest of it is going to come together, and if it doesn't, you just move on.

Speaker 4 41:34

I mean there's a lot of times where you have to scrap things that you think are going to be good, but this just doesn't gel in the end. Yeah, wow. So what do you think of AI music? Would you ever loan your voice to record a song?

Speaker 1 41:50

Not my voice. They don't want to hear my voice, would you?

Speaker 4 41:52

ever use AI.

Speaker 1 41:55

Well, once again, that's an area I'm not familiar enough with, but I don't like the idea of AI being involved in music. I think that it takes away from the music is personal, I mean it comes from your heart. I mean it takes away from that aspect of it.

Speaker 3 42:12

Yeah, and personally for me, I hate to see some of these bands that are using backing tracks you know, and even live. If you can't play the stuff that you recorded live anymore, then maybe it's time to be a greeter at Walmart or something. Because you know, when you see and I know this has surfaced on YouTube and some other places but when you see these bands that you know, all of a sudden the track and it sounds like they're still playing everything, but the guitar player isn't touching the guitar singer's not singing, but yet it's still all there in its natural glory. It's like you know, that's just not. It's not right to me. I mean, you know I understand that some of these guys are getting up in age and maybe you know the vocalist can't quite hit those high notes, but you know that's expected and you know people want to go see the band for what they are not for.

Speaker 4 43:14

You know what they're pretending to be, rob Dana. Does the technology play anything in your music creation and performance process?

Speaker 1 43:21

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

Speaker 4 43:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1 43:31

So what role does technology play in your music creation or performance process? Not a whole lot. We don't use a lot of synth sounds or anything like that. But as far as technology, I think that's more based around recording, like practices and recording period. But I mean I use, I use a trigger for my kick drum, but that's the only really part of that that we really use I mean, some technology is good.

Speaker 3 43:54

You know, like rob touched on a little while ago, it's ago back when we first started playing, we were recording everything on a little boom box in our storage unit. And so now that we've gotten better 8, 16 track, 32 track recorders that you can put in your practice spot and actually know your recording sound better and you can hear your mistakes or your progressions and and what you want to do better, you know I like that technology. Um, and you know I I do got, you know, a pedal board that has quite a bit of technology in it with, as far as you know, being able to use different sounds and different different pedals and, you know, creating different sounds with different amps, whether it's tube or solid state. So I like some of that stuff, but, yeah, I would figure that the drums doesn't use a whole lot of technology. Yeah.

Speaker 4 44:50

Do you have any rituals or habits before performing a recording?

Speaker 1 44:55

I have one. I always do a shot of Patron and a beer. That's my pre-gig ritual. But other than that, really no rituals, Other than you know, just getting together with everybody and say, hey, let's have a good show and move on.

Speaker 3 45:08

Yeah, I think, something that just lets you relax just a little bit. You know, not a big fan of those guys that want to drink a lot and, you know, hit the stage and they're halfway drunk and don't remember what they're doing.

Speaker 1 45:21

We've had problems like that. We've had that problem, yeah.

Speaker 3 45:24

If you want to hit the pipe and get a little quick hit in something just to ease you a little bit, then I'm okay with that.

Speaker 4 45:34

How do you feel that your music has evolved over time?

Speaker 1 45:38

I think it's been a natural evolution. I mean, you know, the better you get, the more relaxed you get with your writing process, I think. And I think what tends to happen with like a lot of new artists is they try to overplay everything, and I think we've gotten to the point where you know not to overplay your parts but to play them in a solid way, and that's actually a learning process. A lot of new performers they want to overplay everything and that's something you learn over time.

Speaker 4 46:09

That's very true.

Speaker 1 46:10

Sometimes less is more.

Speaker 4 46:14

Yeah, less is more exactly. Unless you have a guy named Les playing for you, then that's more. Yeah, Ladies and gentlemen on drums, les Moore, I'm not saying you can't more exactly. Unless you have a guy named less playing for you, then that's more. Yeah, gentlemen on drums, less, more I'm not saying you can't be technical.

Speaker 1 46:23

I'm just saying you know there's a time and place for for all that yeah, um.

Speaker 4 46:29

Can you share a moment when music profoundly impacted your life?

Speaker 1 46:33

for me it was when I was a kid, went to my aunt's wedding and saw my first live band. Like I said earlier, that's, that was the moment I was hooked and I'll be. I'll be playing drums until I can physically no longer do it because of that, that first encounter with a live band.

Speaker 3 46:50

And mine was. You know, like I said, listening to my brother play in the basement all the time I knew I loved music as far as listening to it I didn't. When I knew I wanted to be a musician was one of the first concerts I saw was Ted Nugent, and the guy came swinging on the stage off a rope and just yeah, I mean just a crazy guy that he is and just seeing how he acted on stage, how the, how the audience reacted to him and just the energy and the feeling around it all, it's like I don't want to be a part of the audience. I wanted to be on stage myself and that Ted Nugent concert definitely did it for me.

Speaker 4 47:33

Yeah, what do you think of Triumph? I mean, we have the Metalworks studio just like 20 minutes from here and Prince recorded his Musicology album there. Nelly Furtado recorded there. If you walk into the recording studio you'll see the platinum records behind the frame and their autograph of all the people and it's owned by Gilmore from Triumph. Gilmore behind the frame and their autograph of all the people that and it's owned by gilmore from um triumph. Gilmore and uh, they come in during the week but they have like um tours every so often and uh, the recording studio is amazing. What they did is um queen literally allowed them access to the original recording of Bohemian Rhapsody and the guy behind the fairly large 100 to 200 lever recording thing.

Speaker 1 48:30

The board the mixing board.

Speaker 4 48:33

Yeah, so he would. This is Freddie Mercury's voice and he would isolate that. And this is then he'd isolate all the others, then he'd isolate. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I think it was awesome to see that. It's awesome.

Speaker 3 48:51

Yes, as far as Triumph, I mean I love, I've always liked Triumph. I mean there's, you know, like I said's, there's quite a few canadian bands that I absolutely loved, you know, triumph, and of course, rush, and I think lover boy was even from, you know, canada, and it wasn't a huge fan of that.

Speaker 1 49:09

Chrissy, chrissy steel.

Speaker 3 49:10

Oh, chrissy steel, yeah oh yeah, that's right yeah um, but yeah, I, I love you know, and funny, you know, not that this has anything to do musically, but you know, for a while there I lived on the West Coast and you know Santa Rosa, napa Valley, and for Thanksgiving, you know me and my family would go up to British Columbia for Thanksgiving, because you know it's not a holiday for them up there and we always, you know, to get away from America and all the traditions, we go up to British Columbia and Vancouver and I, I absolutely love Canada. I mean, I'm a huge, huge fan of of Canada, with the exception of, you know, and I don't know if I should probably be saying this but we, we went to the East coast once and and into Montreal and wasn't a huge fit. That's a different Canadian, that's a different Canadian, that's the French Canadians, you know. I mean, I like, I love British Columbia, absolutely, loved it up there. Never been to Toronto, which I'd like to go to someday.

Speaker 4 50:11

I'll give you a good tour of Toronto if you like Take you up to. Cn.

Speaker 1 50:13

Tower.

Speaker 4 50:15

Take you to the El Macombo, which is almost 60 years old. That's where most of the bands play. You should look it up, el Macombo.

Speaker 1 50:21

Okay sure it's been there for years.

Speaker 3 50:25

I'm a huge hockey fan and I know all. Canadians are.

Speaker 4 50:31

Definitely so. Tell me more about the podcast. How do you find your talent? What's your first thing you do?

Speaker 1 50:39

Well, our basic philosophy is we want to help musicians. I mean, that's kind of what we started to begin with Everything from garage to stage. So we try to encompass the stages that a musician is going to go through Right now. We've talked to the CEO of GrassFit Music, which is in Los Angeles. We've talked to a producer. We've talked to the CEO of Grass-Fed Music, which is in Los Angeles. We've talked to a producer. We've talked to a mixing engineer Just all the kind of things that a musician is going to need to encounter in their journey from garage to stage and beyond.

Speaker 3 51:14

Yeah, I mean our first episodes. First couple episodes were based on okay, you're a musician playing in your bedroom. You know how do you get a band going, how do you even start the process of auditioning or going to auditions or auditioning people if you want to start a band, and so we talk about all the. You know, like Rob said, the journey that it takes from being a solo kid or an adult in your room to forming a band. Then, once you got that band going, you know how do you approach clubs to get to play into the clubs and all the trials and tribulations and all the all the fun and and the humor and the bad stuff that kind of goes along with all of it, because there is good and bad, I mean oh yeah

Speaker 4 52:00

yeah yeah, that's true. Wow. So to find a talent, you just reach out to them and email them, or do they come to you, or uh, kind of a combination of both.

Speaker 1 52:11

In fact, we're going to ask you the same thing is how do you get yours?

Speaker 3 52:16

yeah, I just saw one of. I just saw one of your recent episodes I'm not sure if it's recent, but one of your episodes where you were interviewing the bass player for Accept. And we're a huge Accept fan and of course I jumped on that right away. It's like I would love to be Martin.

Speaker 4 52:29

Motnik.

Speaker 3 52:31

Yeah, Martin.

Speaker 4 52:31

Motnik and I are good friends, he's good.

Speaker 3 52:33

What is your process to get in touch with these people?

Speaker 2 52:35

Because we'd love to know that secret.

Speaker 3 52:36

Okay, touch with these people, because we'd love to know that.

Speaker 4 52:39

We'd love to know that secret. Okay, I'll tell you the secret. You ready yeah?

Speaker 2 52:44

what I do that was good.

Speaker 4 52:49

That was good. I like that. So what you do, what you have to do, is you have to determine who you want on your podcast, and then what you do. You listen to their music and you go to facebook and see on the bottom it says to their music and you go to facebook and see on the bottom this is about info yeah and you check to see if there's an email.

Speaker 4 53:05

If there's an email, then you just email them. But if they don't, you go to the website, you go to contact. They'll tell you, okay, the manager to contact them. You have to contact them. Or if you just want to send me an email, here's my email and then you got from there. But if they in the menu, they just have a contact form. Fill out the form, who you are, and put in your email and they'll send to you.

Speaker 4 53:27

One of my old co-hosts, kylie. She originally just went right into Instagram and she sent a private message and they said, yeah, I'd love to. I tried the same thing nothing, I realized oh, because she's a girl yeah.

Speaker 2 53:44

That makes sense.

Speaker 4 53:45

But we're trying to get Sting, we're trying to get Alice Cooper.

Speaker 1 53:49

Oh, wow.

Speaker 4 53:50

Tomorrow we have one of the biggest opera tenors who is friends with Trump and all that stuff. So yeah, we're going, big man we're going big and Martin Montnick's great. That's why I wanted him more than three hours on the probe because I thought he was worth it Cool.

Speaker 1 54:07

I'm glad you're having success with it. I really am.

Podcast Goals and Closing Thoughts

Speaker 4 54:11

If you need anybody, let me know If there's anybody on there you need. I'm free to give their emails if you want.

Speaker 1 54:17

Sounds good. I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 54:19

It's a really good. I can get you a Martin Monick on there if you want.

Speaker 1 54:25

Love it. That would be ideal.

Speaker 3 54:27

As a bass player, I would love to talk to that guy.

Speaker 4 54:32

So, yes, that's great, wow, and we can exchange notes after as well.

Speaker 1 54:37

Yeah, sounds good.

Speaker 4 54:39

So what advice would you give to aspiring musicians or songwriters? They walk up to you and say, Dom, I want to be a musician or a songwriter. What do I do?

Speaker 1 54:48

Good question. I would just say stick with it, stick to your guns and follow your dream. I mean, take advice from things like this, from podcasts from other musicians. Take advice from things like this from podcasts from other musicians. I mean, just get every piece of information you can to get to that next level. That's really what it's all about. Is that drive? You've got to continue.

Speaker 3 55:15

If you feel it, continue with that drive and just go for it. And for me I would go more on the personal side of it of it also is like, okay, you love music, great, how is your relationship with your significant other? Because it's going to change. It will change overnight, and I mean between the two of us. We can't even tell you how many stories we've got of relationships gone bad because they just don't understand you know what you're putting into this band. They're like, well, what do you mean? You're going to practice again. You did last night. It's like, well, yeah, and then tomorrow and the next day. So I mean the commitment that it takes. If it's something that you're really serious about as, as I'm sure you've heard from other people you've talked to on the professional end, it's, you know it's. It's not only another job, it it's your only job. If that's what you want to do and it's. And you've got to have that support from the family or your loved ones, otherwise you're going to be writing songs like fools go yeah, um, I had one of the singers from little river band on my podcast and I asked him same question and he goes don't don't well

Speaker 1 56:25

that could be a good advice too, I guess yeah, you guys just said, don't.

Speaker 4 56:34

Well, I really appreciate this, guys hey, we appreciate it really wonderful guests. I really look forward to getting this on the platform because this is amazing. I really appreciate how open you are and boy everyone. Things will be linked down below Rob Franklin, his brother, Dana, and probably the music monolith, probably, and all the things you need to know. Thank you so much, Rob and Dana.

Speaker 3 56:55

Hey, thank you. Thank you, it's been a privilege.

Speaker 4 56:58

Wait right.