#46 - Nic Stevens talks brutal booking stories, going solo vs bands, and where is Jeremy Matheson!?

Episode 46 of Good Times, Noodle Salad features musician Nic Stevens for a wide-ranging conversation about life in the local music scene and the weird social games that happen at concerts. Nic talks about the differences between playing in bands versus going solo, the creative freedom that comes with each, and the realities of performing and building a career as an independent musician.

The conversation also dives into what it’s really like working as a booker for a music venue in the age of social media—from dealing with endless DMs from bands to navigating online promotion, egos, and the constant hustle required to fill a room.

Of course, things go off the rails as Matt and Paige talk about telling way too much truth on the podcast, and the ridiculous games they play at concerts. These include searching the crowd for the mysterious “Jeremy Matheson” (a completely made-up person) and confidently lying to strangers about being much older than they actually are just to see what happens.

Music industry stories, comedy chaos, and questionable social experiments — it’s all happening in this episode.

Topics include:

• Playing in bands vs going solo
• Booking shows and promoting concerts in the social media era
• Oversharing on podcasts
• The fake search for “Jeremy Matheson” at concerts
• Convincing strangers you’re way older than you actually are

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:38

I went to the dispensary down the road yesterday and I said I was like I want to try a sativa this time. Like I was too scared to do one because I was like, I don't want to be like all panicky and shit. And uh but I I bought this hybrid and it was fine and I didn't have any issues with it. I'm like, all right, let's go to like the full-on sativa and see how I do with one of these pens. So she's like, Do you have any brand preference or anything? I'm like, no. I'm like, just uh just give me one that like doesn't taste bad. I you know, and she's like, Well, do you have any like do you want fruity? Do you want this? Do you want that? I'm like, I don't get like whatever you have too much of. Like, I literally don't care. But it was because I had uh I'd had one of these uh Franklin Fields vape pens that have zero flavor at all. That I'm thinking, like, oh, flavor's not important at all. She gave me this one, this Jungle Juice Durban Poison. It tastes like coney dog chili, it's the grossest fucking vape pen. I'm like, I'm gonna go back up there just to fuck with her about it. Yeah, like dude, I thought.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Cody dog chili is not usually bad. Hit button, I'm good. Just taste it. Just give it a taste.

SPEAKER_05 1:52

Nope. Peer pressure. No, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

I dare you to. Are you the type of person that'll still smoke it even if it's bad? Well, yeah, dude, I'm cheap. Yeah, for sure. I'm gonna fucking still smoke it.

SPEAKER_08 2:01

Yeah, of course. This was like 25 bucks. For sure I'm gonna smoke it still, but it tastes terrible. Yeah, it's awful.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

I know some people were like, even if it's like three-quarters of the way full, they'll just toss it. And I'm like, give me that shit, I'll take it. You know, yeah, dude. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 2:14

Fuck yeah. So, Nick Stevens, dude. Uh I couldn't find fucking anything of yours except for a couple of reels. And I was like, I was really wanting to like find some music. The the reels I I I found, you were playing, I think it said that you were playing an original song or an unreleased original. Correct. And then you were like, but you were fucking shredding, like live, and I was like, oh, sick. And I like, but I couldn't find anything else, man. What's going on with that?

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Yeah, I don't have any music out yet. My first single is supposed to be coming out hopefully sometime next month. And what I've been doing at shows is just like giving out free CDs with the single. Uh, and I have three or four songs recorded, and I have like five or six that are original songs ready to go. So I've been playing out live with uh five or six originals and then a couple cover songs I throw in as well. But uh quite honestly, I've just kind of been I'm not used to being a solo artist, I'm used to being in a band and kind of everybody having their roles. So I found that it's tougher doing everything on my own uh opposed to having a team of people. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_08 3:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's I mean, when you have to completely rely on yourself, for sure, it's way harder. The uh so you do live shows, but are you do are you having like buddies come in to fill in as the musicians or are you doing like a tablet deal?

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Or right now I pretty much just have like my uh computer and it has drum tracks and then I sing and play guitar live. Uh I also have a pedal that emulates bass, so that way it sounds kind of like a full band.

SPEAKER_08 3:46

Oh, right on.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Um for a tour I'm doing in June, I'm gonna have a live drummer, so it'll be like a two-piece band. And then the hope is down the road to probably have like a hired gun drummer and bassist for tours. For local shows, they'll probably just be me. But when I go on tour, I definitely want to have a band behind me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

The videos I saw, you had a drummer with you.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Oh, yeah. There you so to take you back, the first run of shows I did as a solo artist, that was back in March of I think last year. My time frame's bad. But uh, I had my buddy Colton, who is my former drummer from Horror Movies in the Morning. Um great name. Thank you. I can't take credit for coming up with it, unfortunately. That was our guitarist Hammy, but um he filled in for the first run of shows that I did as a solo artist.

SPEAKER_08 4:38

Um there any interest in bringing him on with you and and making this a new group?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Most definitely. Uh originally we were gonna call it Scenic because his name is Colt or Colton, so we're gonna do Colton and Nick, Scenic, but um he's really busy with work, so at this point it's kind of like you know, I would love to have him at every show, but he's a busy dude.

SPEAKER_08 5:00

That's the rum with like you know, chasing dreams as you get older. It's like you know, people start that over there. Yeah, I mean no worries. Everyone hits these mics down. I can't wait to I'm gonna buy new boom arms and I'm gonna mount them in the center of the table so they're like as out of the way as possible because this set up is everyone hits these every single episode. I know like people like people are like trying to like talk with their hands around the arms. I'm like, just fucking it moves in like every direction, man. Just put but uh that's the that's the rub of fucking uh chasing dreams as you get older, man. People get busy with life and kids and jobs, and then all of a sudden you're like, Where'd all my buddies go? What the fuck, man?

SPEAKER_03 5:45

That's what I that's what I found um was growingly tough though with being in a band is when you have more people, there's more uh commitments and people have lives, and you know, oftentimes it'll be you'll book a show and or I apologize, you'll get offered a show, and three out of the four members right away are like we're in, and then you're waiting for two days for that last member. By the time you get back to the venue, they've already got it booked. So um I found it easier as a solo artist where it's like I'm in, and then if I can get a drummer bassist, great. If not, I can still play the show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 6:20

Um, oh that's that's excellent. That gives you so much freedom to just fucking spam all these local venues and go, like, here are my avails, dude. Like fucking, give me every date you can. Yeah, that's perfect. And then and then if you can fill it in, cool. If not, all right, cool. You're getting replaced by AI, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Then if I cancel, I'm really fucked, you know. So that's on me. But um, yeah, it's been uh it's been cool. It's a little different. I love uh going to a show and you know, having uh bandmates to talk with, have a drink with at the show and whatnot. But what I found cool now is like I'll go up to a band that I'm friends with and I'll fuck with them. It's like hey, I'm in your band, honorary band member for the night, you know. You got no one else to hang out with. Yeah. Um but you know, I found it cool.

SPEAKER_08 7:05

Paige was saying that you had you'd done some shows with uh what King Norman. King Norman and then um breakfast at two breakfast at 2 p.m. p.m.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Yes, yep. Um I always fuck their name up.

SPEAKER_08 7:16

I say 2 a.m. every single time. And I sat in here with them for two two and a half fucking hours.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Funny enough, when the first time I met both of them was uh at the new Dodge Lounge, and I sent a poster to my band, and they were like, So we're getting breakfast? They were like genuinely serious. They're like, We're getting food. Hysterical. I was like, no, dude, that's a fucking band name. So um, but they're a badass band, and uh we ended up playing with them there. Uh, and then we linked up recently at a show and it ended up being the same lineup, which is cool with a couple other bands. Um, except now me is a solo artist as opposed to with the band.

SPEAKER_08 7:52

What was that? What's that venue called again? I'm gonna write that down.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

The one we met at originally was called New Dodge Lounge that's uh out in Detroit. It's really cool because uh it's like a two-level venue. There's a downstairs and then there's an upstairs balcony, and they've got like old uh antique stuff for sale, and they've got old pinball games and shit like that for sale. And downstairs uh towards the back, there's like a pool table and some more arcade games and shit like that. It's a cool spot to hang out.

SPEAKER_08 8:20

Right on. Do we uh so like I I grew up in metal bands, and then Paige was always around the music scene because she sold merch and she was friends with a bunch of bands, and then like we're like getting older, and I'm like, it's weird, like I feel so disconnected from like you know, being in the that wasn't like a terrorist, it's just my six-year-old outside being an asshole. Either way, we'll be good, we'll figure it out. It sounds so much louder, like over the headphones. Yeah, it's like when I hear my beer is like it's just a magnetile tipping over and it sounds like a grenade just went off. You know what? Before this gets any worse, I'm gonna tell them no more magnetiles because I've heard them drop like four times.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

It hasn't even been that bad. It's fine. It's so distracting. He gets so distracted when they're here. No worries. We don't bring them often, but what do we do? They get he gets so distracted and I just ignore it. But that's what I do all day long at work too. I work with kids, so I like hear it all day long. You're used to it. I'm used to it.

SPEAKER_08 9:29

Yeah, you know what's that's the stupid thing about me is like so I'm a pipe fitter and everything I do is loud at work. Grinders loud as fuck, like certain welding processes are super loud, torch cutting, loud, like the places I'm in are just loud, and then I get home and I'm like, if you guys talk in the car, if you talk in the car at all, you're getting murdered.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

I can't handle it. I'm I'm like that, but with phone calls, because I'm on the phone all day at an insurance office. So by the time I get home, it's like I don't want to take any calls. My parents even call and it's like, all right, love you bye. Like it's a two-second phone call just because I'm so sick of being on the phone.

SPEAKER_08 10:08

Oh, dude, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Um, and you know, it's not a bad gig being in insurance, it pays the bills and it's a consistent nine to five, um, which allows me to go out and gig consistently at night and uh take time off when I want to go and tour and stuff. So that's been cool.

SPEAKER_08 10:24

Oh, that's perfect. Selling insurance though, huh?

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Yeah, well, I'm the customer service rep.

SPEAKER_08 10:29

Oh are you working from home then?

SPEAKER_03 10:31

No, I work at an office out in Davison.

SPEAKER_08 10:34

Oh, okay. Right on. Nice. Yeah, it's funny. Like, I that's one of my favorite parts about doing this podcast is meeting all these like local artists, like comedians and musicians, and and then I get to be like, what do you do for a living? Yeah, like I don't want to talk about that. Like, no, no, no. I know you ain't fucking making a living doing well.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yeah, no, it's not music. Yeah, if if if if you want to do that, you have to play three or four hours of covers and bring your own PA. Yep. And you know, that's what I've preached to bands because I'm a booking agent too, and it's like people ask me, How do you make money out on the road? It's like, well, I don't. But if you want to make money on the road, you bring your own PA and you'll book 10 gigs, and then five of them, you play three or four hours of covers, bring the PA, and they'll give you your four or five hundred buck guaranteed rate, and then you use that as your kitty to get to the next show. Because the the gigs where you're playing 45 minutes of original music and splitting the bar with four other bands, you're you're not making shit.

SPEAKER_08 11:31

Not making shit. Dude, I yeah, I don't I I have some uh I don't know, I guess cognitive dissonance about the doing the covers because it really annoys me that people will go out and play fucking sweet Caroline and you know, all the bullshit no one wants to hear. Like, just turn on the riff if you're gonna play shit no one wants to hear. But also, I want people to go out and make make a living or or go out and play live music, man. So I'm like, oh man, like how do I feel about this? Is this fucking bull is this garbage or not?

SPEAKER_04 12:04

You know I saw a cover band, what was that last weekend? Um they did it was all covers, but they changed all it was almost like listening to a Pop Go's punk album. Oh live. So it was a better way of doing covers. Right.

SPEAKER_08 12:19

But I I guess if you're putting your own spin on it, I mean fuck a A perfect circle, they're they're on they're behind you on the wall there. But uh A Perfect Circle put out an album that was like almost all covers. Yeah, yeah, that was what but so I I guess I don't know. I if you're putting your own spin on it, I guess, you know. And depends on what songs you're covering. If you're doing if you're playing the songs that everyone plays at those venues, oh we're at a brewery, I better play fucking Alanis, or you know, it's like, oh, stop it.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Right. Yeah, that that's my opinion with it as well. It's like if you're gonna at least put your own spin on it, then I respect it. And that's what my band used to do is like we were a new metal band, for example. Uh the guitar, bass, drums, everything was like corn. If you took me out of it, it was just sound like corn. Um, but I'm not a screamer, uh, I don't really sound like the vocalist of corn at all. So it ended up being like bright vocals over dun dun, real heavy ride. So uh it created a kind of separation from other bands, which was cool because what's in now is just like that screaming into a microphone. Yeah. So sorry, I forgot where I was going with that. I have brain fart. But um marijuana affects the memory. Memory, memory.

SPEAKER_08 13:36

Dude, uh yeah, there's you know, there's a new style of this like this like pop, you know, like crossover with metal that like what is that fucking band every girl is obsessed with right now? Uh they all wear masks.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Oh, um sleep token?

SPEAKER_08 13:54

Sleep token. So like like I grew up on new metal. I you know, I'm th I'm 32. So like corn and coal chamber and tool and fucking limpiskit and whatever, like deft tones, like all these bands were like the shit. But the only one out of any of those that like really had clean, like excellent vocals sometimes was Tool. And uh but so like I always appreciate that about Tool because I fucking hated the you know what what my dad would be like, oh Screamo, fucking Screamo, I can't handle Screamo. And uh, but like I really I mean I had a hard time listening to Screamo, you know, depending on the band. And uh I was like, man, I wish more fucking metal bands would just sing. There's nothing wrong with saying, and but now there's this um oh god. There's so sleep token, but there's another one that's never never more or something. Is that the right name?

SPEAKER_03 14:49

I'm not familiar with them.

SPEAKER_08 14:50

Nothing more, nothing more. The uh I don't know, either if you come across their shorts, it's the dude who's like always fucking shirtless singing on stage. Oh, yeah. And he's always like painted his torso black, or like he just looks like he got drugged through like an oil field. He's got an excellent incredible voice. I mean, fucking so good. I'm like, I love the dichotomy of like metal music with like an excellent, almost operatic skill singer.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

Yeah, yeah, and I I really appreciate that because I growing up my biggest influence was Queen. And I think Freddie Mercury was like one of the best vocalists of all time, and their music blended opera and hard rock and a bunch of different genres. Um, and now when I started with my band, uh their sound was real new metal and fucking headbang and shit, and it was like I was almost scared away at first, but I kind of put like my Freddie Mercury twang on stuff, and it all kind of blended together. Um and I've I've always appreciated that sound as well, where it's like the real bright vocals and soaring over the heavy guitar opposed to just you know, it feels like it's all the same if it's just sorry away from the mic. Take it with you. It moves, take it with you. Garbled uh vocals with garbled guitar, it's just sometimes it can just get mundane after a while. Right, it just gets muddied up.

SPEAKER_08 16:08

Like I don't wanna like I love Lama God, but I don't want I want to listen to like three songs and then I'm done with it for like a week. Right, you know what I mean? But like Tool, I could listen to all I mean, and I'm not one of those like cringy fucking tool fans who are like they're so deep. They're not, they're just good, yeah. They're just they're just fun. Yeah, but uh I you know what I like in the middle of this conversation, I realized I need to confess something to you. I fucking live on the air. I fucking hate Blink 182. Like with a passion. Oh, that's okay, that doesn't bug me. I fucking hate no I knew that I know I know that you know that I hate Blink 182. What you didn't know is that I auditioned for a Blink 182 cover band. I just randomly remembered that.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

I feel like you told me this before, but did I tell you that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 16:53

Oh, all right.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

As a drummer?

SPEAKER_08 16:55

Yeah, yeah. They they brought me in and they're like, do you know I can't compare to Travis Barker. I was in jazz band. Alright. Like, listen, Travis Barker is excellent at what he does. I'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Can you play the drums upside down?

SPEAKER_08 17:12

I have never had the opportunity because I wasn't in a pandering band that wrote songs for 16-year-olds when I was 30.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

No comment.

SPEAKER_08 17:23

I guess if I did that, I'd have the opportunity to. I saw him do it. That's all right, cool. Neat, great, grand, wonderful. I appreciate like good drummers, and he's a good drummer. He's good. He's just like he is what he needs to be. He's like this. I feel about Travis Barker the way I feel about Ringo Starr, which is like if you put him in a different band, it would be like, ugh, but because he's in the band that he's in, it's like, okay, you did exactly what you should have been doing in that band.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

That's a that's a good analysis. I agree with that. He doesn't he's not the member of the band where you necessarily say, Oh my god, you know, it blows you away. In my opinion, it's the vocals, because that's like the most jaunting thing. Like everyone's, where are you? and they're trying to impersonate the vocals. Yeah. Or or oh, I was thinking of the guitar riff, but that's Weezer. Um so Buddy Holly or whatever.

SPEAKER_08 18:22

Yeah. Fucking uh Yeah, Weezer's one that I'd never have like I haven't spent a lot of time listening to. I've just kind of Weezer. Yeah, like we have a bunch of Weezer vinyl, and I I've listened to one of those. I've listened to the blue album, whatever that one is. It might be called the Blue album. The blue album. Okay. Uh yeah, I mean it's good. But like I feel like I should dive into it more. You should. I don't know. But like I'm like I came up, I I grew up in jazz bands, you know, like or like or jazz band in school and like orchestra and then like drumline and marching bands. So like listening to bands that are like four on the floor, just like fucking just power chords and you know, regul like just regular rock bands, I'm like bored as fuck immediately. I I can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

When I was younger, that was definitely my thing. But as I've gotten older, I like drift into shit that's more complex. Like, if you heard of bands like Thank You Scientist, I fucking love Thank You Scientists.

SPEAKER_08 19:20

Yes, I was listening to them on the way and it's like fucking getting all over it and shit. Dude, like dance gavin dance, thank you, scientist, fucking sewing, I don't know, periphery, you know, like yeah, dude. If you're playing in some obnoxious time signature, I'm fucking for it. If you do it in some like obnoxious Egyptian scale, I'm fucking hard, dude. Fuck yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Yeah, that's the type of shit I love too. And it's like sometimes it can be a bit much, but like when you're just fucking vibing, that's some cool shit. Especially when there's some intricate bass lines, that's what I love.

SPEAKER_08 19:50

Fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

That's something that uh as a live band, I'm excited to hopefully incorporate with uh bassist is like that's something I do miss having a full rhythm section and stuff like that. It definitely fills out the sound live. Oh, for sure. When it's just me, it's kind of boring. I can wring my head around and go crazy, but still just one person.

SPEAKER_08 20:12

Do you do you are you a f like a are you like a fanboy of like bands in general? Like, do you know the members and shit?

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Um of ones I really like, yeah. Okay. But not of like, you know, a vast majority of bands. Right.

SPEAKER_08 20:24

Okay, so is there a basis that you're like that guy's fucking that's the base player?

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Um it sucks because I don't even know his name. Have you heard of the band Stop Drop Rewind? Um they're kind of they're blowing up on like Facebook and Instagram and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_08 20:38

Stop drop rewind. They're kind of like a pop punk, they're like a bunch of 40-year-old dudes, right? They're proggy and then play like in a basement band, basically, like all their contents like in their basement.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Yeah, well that, and it's usually just like the bassist recording like this and doing videos. Okay. Their basis is fucking crazy. Um who else can I think of?

SPEAKER_04 20:58

Uh I'm gonna have to look at them because stop, drop, rewind.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

They're like real proggy and poppy and pop punky. It's like they're fun. They're like Midwest prog. Um they're fun.

SPEAKER_08 21:10

Who else could I think of? Dude, you know who I think is underrated is uh the bass player from Rancid. I'm not familiar with them. Dude, what? You don't listen to any punk? He's only 22. Yeah, I know, but like that that doesn't mean anything. Like I love 80s RB. I was never I wasn't there, and I fucking love 80s RB.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

What era were they? Uh 90s.

SPEAKER_08 21:30

Like eight 80s, 90s.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Yeah, I'm maybe late 80s. I my a lot of my music taste growing up was like 70s, and then now it's like oh, so it doesn't even matter. Yeah, now it's just like random shit that comes like stop, drop, rewind, or wh whatever the fuck. Uh thank you scientists. That's what I was trying to say. Um, bands like that.

SPEAKER_08 21:50

I fucking love Z Thank You Scientists. I forget about them. They're one of those bands where like I'll get obsessed, and then it's like, okay, I need to calm this the fuck down, and then I like take a break from them for like two months.

unknown 21:59

And I'm like,

SPEAKER_08 22:00

What was that? That wasn't Dance Gavin Dance. Who was that? Was that between the buried? Was that between the buried and me? No, that wasn't between the buried and me. And then it takes me like a month to like, oh, fucking Danky Scientist. There it is. I gotta come back to this. I fucking love danky scientists.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Do they sound like Dance Gavin Dance?

SPEAKER_08 22:15

Dance Gavin Dance, Between the Buried and Me, fucking I don't know, pretty like they're in the universe of Dance Gavin Dance and Between the Buried and Me, and I I hate to say periphery because periphery is like gent, but like that kind of melodic prog almost like snarky puppy, but like heavier. That's not helpful. I'm sorry, that's not funny. But I'll look at it. That's a vegetable. Never mind. I just start like naming more and more vagues. It's like King Crimson, but modern. Like I don't know what else.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

Are they actually like King King? Sure. King Crimson? First time talking?

SPEAKER_08 22:53

They are, they are, but modern. It's like Celtic Frost, but Prague. And just like get even worse.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

But yeah, with them, it's funny. I forget about them every year or so, and then I'll be scrolling through Facebook and see a tour poster where they're the openers on the bill. It's like, oh my god, and I go back, listen to their music, go on a binge.

SPEAKER_08 23:11

Fuck yeah. That's how I am with every prog band I love. It's just like I get like so like I'll like obsess for a few months and I'm like, fuck, I can't, I gotta, I gotta go back to like my home base is Dave Matthews band. Oh, okay. So I can just circle like everyone base, that's all he listens to all the time. It's not the all I listen to. Listen, just because I'm in the 0.01% according to you according to YouTube music, I got a notification today. You are in the.01% of Dave Matthews' listener. He's fucking excellent.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

I only know one of his songs, but I fucking love it, and I don't even know the name of it. How dare you? It's bad. I oh, I could find it eventually.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

I've never met anybody who's as obsessed with Dave Matthews. They're so good.

SPEAKER_08 23:54

Okay. As the the sheer musicianship of that group of men is incredible. It's fucking insane. I don't know how they all got like so lucky to like one guy. Dave Matthews is a bartender at this bar. Carter Beaufort is a drummer who's like playing with a couple of different groups that do shows at this bar, and then all of a sudden they just put together, they just kind of like, hey, you want to play? Yeah, you want to do something together, blah blah blah. And then they put together this like six-piece group of men, and it's all of them are fucking murderers on their selected, you know, on their particular fucking. I don't know that's how they met. Yeah, they all well, they all were kind of like circling around this local bar in uh Virginia or something. Amazing. Like, what are the odds you find? Like the fucking some of the like the most interesting and influential fucking musicians in a bar. Yeah, exactly in Virginia. I think it was Virginia. I should you gotta chat GPT me to fact check you gotta fact check me as we go. That's this is your job. You're my Jamie. You don't Google shit, you chat GPT.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Google that, Jamie.

SPEAKER_08 25:05

Just I don't know, say like where did the members of Dave Matthews meet? Do it with your mouth. It'll take three seconds.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

I'm not 45.

SPEAKER_08 25:14

But you tried to Google something. Dude, I I tried to go I tried to use my watch to Google something at work because we were like we were talking about Legionnaires disease.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

It was Virginia.

SPEAKER_08 25:24

It was Virginia. Alright, cool. Um I tried to uh I tried to Google something on my watch. I was like in I was in a position where I couldn't like get my phone out, but I was like, dude, no, Legionnaire's disease exists in moving bodies of water, you're fucking full of shit or whatever. And uh so I tried using my watch and it was like sorry, I don't understand. And I asked it again, it was like sorry, I don't understand. And I asked it again, it's like navigating to and then just some random fucking bar. I'm like, I was like, can I switch you to chat GPT? Google, you're fucking useless.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Wanted you to get a drink.

unknown 25:57

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_08 25:58

I didn't knew what you needed. I did go, I did go drink at lunch with my boss, so I can't get in trouble for it.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 26:04

We took like a two-hour lunch today.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

What's that like to be able to do that?

SPEAKER_08 26:09

Do I need to put you on blaster? Please don't.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

My record lunch is actually at my current job, and it's like pushing an hour, which that that's a new experience for me. Because at my old insurance job, it was a half hour. So now it's like after 30 minutes, I'm like constantly watching the clock. And I feel like I spend the first 20 minutes of my lunch determining what time my lunch ends. It's like I start my lunch at 120 and I got 45 minutes, so that means it'll be 2.05, and then like five minutes later I'll look and like reevaluate, and then the time keeps changing, and then like once 150 rolls around, I like freak out. It's like what the fuck? Um and every day it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

You know, it's like I don't really get an actual lunch break. So I just kind of yeah, that doesn't really I just eat as I go. I don't know. Yeah, see, I can't do that. When I was a teacher my job, when I was a teacher, we got 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_08 27:05

That's a short lunch. It's stupid. Yeah. And now it's just kind of like you'd whenever the way the teachers are treated is ridiculous. They like I I I suspected a lot of the stuff, but like when I started dating you, and then it was like, Oh, I I don't get a break, I buy my own fucking you know, markers and shit, and I gotta be I gotta provide half of the stuff that I need for my classroom, and then also the administration blames me for all the issues that they're having with the parents, and then the parents are like blaming the school district and me for the issues their kid are having, but then when the things are going well, they don't give me fucking credit. But then when they graduate, they're like, Oh my god, I loved you. And you're like, I fucking used to give me panic attacks. Like I used to not be able to sleep at night because of you, and you love me, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Well, all of that way, unfortunately, being underpaid compared to you know, yeah, jobs, you know, it should be a lot higher paid for dealing with kids and shit like that.

SPEAKER_08 27:59

Way underpaid. Yeah. I mean, she was making I was an app when we met, I was an apprentice and I was making the same amount of money as she was, and she has a master's degree. It's insane. It's asinine.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Needs to change. Um and I mean even with the m being a musician, a comedian, whatever it is, it's it's tough in in certain areas to make money, and it shouldn't be that way. And I'm not saying that everybody should make the same amount, but there should at least be a standard I like everybody should be able to live comfortably and have some disposable income where they can go out and live their dreams, whether you know, start a podcast or me doing the music thing. Right. Um, but unfortunately for a lot of people that's not the case. You know, I know so many people that just go to work, go home, have a couple drinks, go to sleep, and repeat day after day after, and that shit fucking kills me.

SPEAKER_08 28:49

I'm literally I'm I'm working on a bit talking about this. I'm working on a bit where I'm like, I feel like I lost 10 years to Groundhog's Day. You know, I just like I had kids young and then it was like rinse and repeat every day for a decade, and I'm like, what the fuck? I was in my 20s yesterday, and like now I just oh, I spent 10 years consuming other people's art instead of creating it like I was like I always wanted to. And then I'm like, why am I depressed? Why am I fat? Why am I like impulsive and angry and like you know what I mean? It's like, oh, it's because like I'm not doing anything for me, I'm like only existing to pay the fucking consumer's bill again, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Yeah, that shit is fucking training, dude.

SPEAKER_08 29:31

Yeah, I mean it's you know, and you're like you're you're 22, so like just keep stay focused on it, dude. Don't don't lose it, don't lose it. Because like 22 is about the time that like I was like, fuck, I'm so sick of dealing with my dumb friends like not showing up to practice.

SPEAKER_03 29:46

Yeah, it's you know, and yeah, it it can be frustrating, and um, you know, it's it's cool being young, but at the same time, I've had scenarios where people like are ageist against me because I'm too young and don't think I know anything. But you know, at the end of the day, I've been on my own for four years, and uh, you know, I realize that it's fucking shit to be an adult. Sucks to pay bills and to go to work and have responsibilities. But it's like on the flip side, you know, I could leave this podcast and go on a week tour. Uh and the only thing that's stopping me is myself, you know. Um, I got a car, I got the meet, you know, got my tablet and shit. So and thankfully a supportive fiance. So that's the biggest thing. You gotta have a sport system.

SPEAKER_08 30:29

So dude, that's huge. If especially, you know, being with the right person is massive, you know, absolutely fucking massive. Being with the wrong person can be such an extreme detriment that like it's like you you like you can lose your entire purpose because you get lost in trying to appease a relationship that you probably shouldn't even be in. You know, so like being with the right person is fucking huge. Definitely I don't know. I I I wish that there was a more simple answer than like universal like basic income, where it's like like that's a fun idea because like we want to be in a renaissance. We want to be we want things to be so abundant that we get the the the big the people that could create art get to. But so many people are not doing it because they can't, you know, and it's it's a fucking shame. It's a shame. I mean like I'm I'm like starting over here at you know 30-ish, you know. I'm I'm 32, so like I started doing this at 31 and started comedy at 32, and it's like I've been wanting to do those things since I was a teenager, you know? And I'm finally in a position where I don't want to say I have disposable income because it's like I mean we No, you don't we we make we make good money, but it's like I don't know, things like the bar has been moved so far that like what I thought was my end goal for making money is like oh I'm like just barely able to pay my bills making that money now. But but being in a position where we can have a studio and and and have a podcast and you know bring on fucking random people that we meet on the internet like our moms told us not to is awesome. It's it's fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_04 32:23

It's not in our house anymore, so it's fine. There you go.

SPEAKER_08 32:26

Yeah, dude, yeah, doing it in the house was like absolutely we cannot do it. We cannot have fucking guests from the you know random fucking musician forums or whatever, and like, hey, come on over.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Yeah, you never know who you're gonna meet, especially musicians. It's we're crazy fucks. Like, I can convince random people from the internet to just stay at my house, and it's convincing because they'd rather do that than sleep in a van, you know, and we're on tour.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

My my friends growing up, they they're from Chicago and they were touring here. Um they needed they needed a place to stay, and I was like, all right, you guys can sleep in our camper. There you go. They were like, all right, they got beds in there. Cool. Really?

SPEAKER_08 33:11

Slept in your dad's pop-up. That's hilarious. Who was the band?

SPEAKER_04 33:16

Um, they're called She's Alive.

SPEAKER_08 33:18

And they slept in your dad's pop-up.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

They were they were following warp tour. Oh, that's cool. And that's what they're some of they the warp tour was right down the street from my parents' house. So I was like, yeah, if you guys want to stay here, you can either you can sleep in the house, but you could all have your own beds in the camper. So they slept in the camper.

SPEAKER_08 33:37

I think your parents would have let a bunch of random dudes sleep in the house with their 16-year-old daughter. They ain't no fucking card. I don't think I was six.

SPEAKER_04 33:43

I might have actually been a little I might have been 18.

SPEAKER_08 33:45

I don't know, I might have been older. There's no fucking way. There's no way your dad's like, yeah, come on in, fellas. Either that or he's putting open mattress next to his bed to make sure.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

I think I was 18. But yeah, they slept in the camper. That's fine. And then we were late to warp tour the next day because Timmy, their singer, or was he singer? Guitar player, guitar player, had to straighten his hair.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Sounds like the singer.

SPEAKER_08 34:08

This is this is one of his why warp tour is no longer.

SPEAKER_04 34:12

They were they were all just happy because they all got to shower too, so they were just happy that they got to shower.

SPEAKER_08 34:17

That's fucking hilarious. It probably feels amazing if you haven't known.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

So they're just like in a random like I was I if I was friends with Alex was their singer. My friend Alex was their singer. I was friend better friends with him than the other guys, but yeah, you got they so they all were at a random house and they were just happy because they had a bed and a shower.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Yeah. That's a luxury on tour I found. Um my showers are usually usually like Planet Fitness, or uh recently I found loves for like 15-20 bucks. You can go get a shower and it's unlimited time. So my fiance and I will like, you know, take turns and we can stay in there for freaking two hours if we want, which is nice when you're on the road, just fucking have like a little sauna to yourself, pretty much. Yeah. Um, and it's a truck stop, so it I mean it can be kind of gross, but typically the showers are at least clean, and we put down like fucking four towels and use like half a tub of soap and fucking do a little disinfectant. Um, which I don't know if he does anything, just spraying hot water and soap on the ground. Feels like a yeah, exactly. It feels better than when you walked in, right? Uh and wear sandals. Um yeah, for sure. So right. But that's actually like a peak touring experience, just like the love shower and like a day old fucking roller hot dog. Um that's like peak living.

SPEAKER_08 35:40

Oh man. So how many how many tours have you gone on? I mean, you're pretty young.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Oh fuck. Uh five, I think. Four or five. Um, let me let me do the first one. It was a Midwest tour with horror movies in the morning. Um, that was like our debut run. We did like six, seven, or eight dates across the Midwest, like a big circle. Um, and then I did a follow-up tour with them. That was with Scottie Austin, a saving able. We uh went over the east coast. That was fucking dumb because it was in December and roads were snowy, driving through like mountains and shit. I was white knuckling it. That was dumb. Um following that, I did some hired gun stuff where I was a guitarist for Brendan Starr. She's out in Pennsylvania, so for rehearsals, I'd like fly or drive out there the day before tour. We'd jam and then we'd go on the road. Um, we did one tour going down the east coast, and then we did another tour. Shit, where this is getting bad. I usually remember this stuff. Um, yeah, we went down the east coast on the first one, and the second one we did Midwest again, which unfortunately half the gigs like ended up either canceling or not really going as planned, but it's not his fault. It's just when you're DIY on the road type of shit happens, unfortunately. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 37:05

So that's fun though.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yeah, dude, I fucking love it.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Yeah. And it's it's a strain financially, definitely, because you're not making any money. It's like you're I'm always calculating like it's gonna be this for gas, hotels, this, all that bullshit. Yeah. Uh ends up costing usually a couple grand each time. Um, but you know, at the end of the day, I'm hoping it'll eventually lead to something. It's just I gotta be more smart about when and where I'm doing it, you know, not just going on tour to go on tour. Um gotta be smart about which markets I'm playing and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_08 37:42

What what happened with the band that uh my original band? Yeah. Four movies in the morning. Four movies in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

And slight side note, if you like New Metal, Cold Chamber, Slipknot, all that shit, you would love our two albums, so you gotta check that out.

SPEAKER_06 37:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:57

But uh basically we got to a point where um we had some festivals lined up, some cool opportunities, and uh the the we were all just kind of in different places mentally, so we ended up breaking up. Um and that was that was about it.

SPEAKER_08 38:16

Is it kind of like just kind of fit?

SPEAKER_04 38:18

That's how it always goes.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

Um trying to think how much I want to say because I do love everybody in that band, it just broke my heart. But um basically it was just kind of a who fucked whose girlfriend?

SPEAKER_08 38:32

No, I'm just kidding. Cut no, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Um but uh anyways, no that no, anyways, what it was just like a towards the end of the band, it just fizzled out quickly. Like I said, we're in different places mentally, and yeah, um, like I'm of the mindset where it's like if you had a tour opportunity and I can do it, like let's fucking go. Um, and some of us just had more commitments to our jobs than others and sure, um, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_08 39:06

Yeah, it's hard to it's hard to pick like real life over the dream, you know. Right. It's like it I mean, there's times where you know, like this pot like this podcast, like I have a a national touring comedian coming on next Thursday, so I'm gonna miss a day of work to do a podcast. And I'm like, God, is that fucking worth it? And it's like, but it is though, like eventually it is, and if it can expose me to his audience, that's huge for that could be huge for me, you know. And but like, God, yeah, it sucks. It sucks when you have opportunities and then you're like, what? Like, what why? Why not? You know, like what the fuck? Me and uh I I've told this story a hundred times, but like me, my brother, my best friend uh Matt and uh our friend Scotty, we had a a band we were called like fucking high viz, then we were called shoot to kill, then we were called fucking uh intra most recently. Like we had all these iterations of basically the same band. And when we we got real serious, but like everybody was in a terrible place in their life. So it was like the moment that we picked to get serious for once, like actually start recording, actually start putting out music, actually like I was like, dude, let's do behind the scenes YouTube videos, let's start a we I like started a podcast. This is in 2016. We're like, let's do a podcast, we'll call it uh our band was called Intro. And I was like, Introspective is kind of like a funny like play on the word, you know, play on the words, and like we talk about the music and then shoot the shit. And and I was like, this is gonna be so fucking dope. And it just I don't know, like Matt, my my best friend, he's he you know, he was in the throes of heroin addiction. And my brother was his relationship with his wife was ending, my relationship with my ex was terrible. At the you know what I mean? It was just like everyone was in such a bad spot in their lives, and it was just like, hey, I'm not I'm not gonna make it. It's like two hours into practice, like and getting it getting a text message, like, hey, I won't be there today. Well, no fucking shit, you know. And then just like no one shows up one week, and it's like, what the fuck, dude? What are we doing here? And and it was like, alright, like we're just kind of done. Like, this isn't working, and you know, I just realized I didn't put on the fucking the lights.

SPEAKER_09 41:22

I don't have the mood light.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

I I have to correct myself about the band name.

SPEAKER_09 41:28

What was the band name?

SPEAKER_04 41:30

I just remembered it was the other band that he that my friend was in. It was they were called Seven Minutes in Heaven.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

Seven Minutes in Heaven. I don't know why that's familiar, but that's the kissing thing. Oh, oh yeah, that's probably yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

I don't know. I feel like a lot of people knew who they were at that time. I don't know.

SPEAKER_08 41:52

That's the ki isn't that the it is the kissing game in the closet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:55

I was gonna say in the closet, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:57

But yeah. Seven minutes is too long to be kissing. Who came up with that? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

245 is good for me.

SPEAKER_08 42:07

Dude, like fucking 30 seconds. Like that's enough. That's plenty. Ten seconds. I know my breath stinks, so you don't need to fucking announce it to the whole world on the fucking podcast. You drew I'm scooting away from you. I heard you loud and clear.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

I'm just kidding. Relax.

SPEAKER_08 42:23

I'm so fucking high. It's awesome. Oh boy. Okay. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

There we go. But back to your band.

SPEAKER_08 42:29

That's uh I don't even want any more weed. I just want to fucking taste the chili again. It's so gross.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

The more you the more you smoke it, the more addicting it is. It sounds like I try it.

SPEAKER_08 42:40

Yeah, it's like it's like sucking on a fucking it's like sucking on a coney dog, dude. It's gross.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

Oh my. He really wanted that Cody dog taste. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Oh, I'm a I'm a fiend.

SPEAKER_08 42:51

I I wish I didn't tell you what I think it tastes like so I could hear your opinion on what do you think it tastes. It's not good.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

See, my taste buds must be fucked because I would say it's like an earthy mint. I swear to God.

SPEAKER_08 43:02

That be that might be the mix of my coffee breath on the wiped at first. He did wipe it. Earthy mint. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

I feel like we all need to go get Coney dogs.

SPEAKER_08 43:13

My buddy was saying, don't start talking about food. I'm fried. My uh my buddy at work today was was like never mind.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 43:24

He uh he had this one before, and he's like, Oh, this the fucking the the Durban poison. He's like, that wouldn't taste like uh he's like there's like natural oils and there's like synthetic oils or whatever. So like the ones that are like closer to being like natural are the ones that taste real earthy. So he's like, this is that's why. And I was like, okay, I get it, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

So you're healthy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 43:51

I was like, it works better than the first one I bought. Like the first one I bought was from Franklin Fields, and it was like I'd have to hit it like fucking 15 times to get out. And I'm like, this thing, I'm like one and done. I'm like six right now. I'm fucking fried.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

I actually, when I first started smoking, I preferred the fruity flavors, and now my fiance even still, she prefers the fruity stuff. But I'm to the point where it's like, give me that funk, you know, I want the earthy shit, you know. Um, and I feel like that gets me a little higher. Uh, but unfortunately, it's to the point where like I could literally, no bullshit, take like an 800 to a thousand milligram edible, and it would barely affect me. What the fuck? I know it pisses me off so bad.

SPEAKER_08 44:32

You gotta take like a year off. I that's you gotta reset, you gotta reset yourself.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

What happened was well, my tolerance is fucked, but uh I played college baseball and I was so nervous they were gonna drug test me. So for the first couple months, I went cold turkey, which is like the hardest fucking thing ever, but I did it. And one of the seniors one day told me he was like, they don't test. I was like, really? He's like, Yeah. I was like, what the fuck was I doing this for? And he was like, You want to hit? I was like, fuck yeah. Uh I took a couple hits and I got a nicer buzz, but it wait faded away in like 20 minutes and it like pissed me off. And then I realized it's like shit, I'd have to take like six months to a year to get like a real fucking effect. It's so caked up in me, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_08 45:14

Dude, I I my favorite story is the edibles story where I'm like, I'm so high, I was about to panic.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

You've already told that before. I know. You don't need to tell it again.

SPEAKER_08 45:26

I'm gonna tell it again. The uh so we don't need to tell I had we had people over, and me and the people did edibles. And you know, like whatever, a couple a couple of my buddies are like seasoned pros and I'm not, you know, and like it was uh I think it was was it the first time I did an edible? No, it was like the second time because I did a little bit of the fudge and it did nothing. And so the second time I like I cut I I cut this like 10 milligram edible into like a I don't know, I I cut it down to like two and a half milligrams for myself. And uh I'm sitting on the couch and I'm like, I'm not feeling anything, I'm not feeling anything. And then I watch a video that like at best was cute, and I was fucking dying laughing, and then and everyone's like, uh, I think it hit you, and I was like, oh shit, maybe I am high. And I was like, I I want to go to bed, like I'm gonna go lay down. I you know, and uh so I went down into the basement and I was like, my my like nightly routine is kind of the same as like take a piss, whatever, fucking take the contacts out, hit you know, do the nose, whatever. I go into the bathroom, I completely forget what I was doing. I like I hit that event horizon and I'm like just standing at the sink, and she she comes down into the basement, she's like, I got a pee, what are you doing? I'm like, what the fuck am I doing? Like, how long have I been? Why am I in here? Why am I in here? How long? Why have I been standing here for like I've been like scrolling at videos for looking at videos for like fucking god look god knows how long, standing at the sink like a psycho. And I went to go lay down and I was like, oh my god, I'm so fucking high. And I'm like, oh I'm gonna panic, I'm gonna panic. Like, oh, you know, like everything felt like a memory. I was like, oh, everything I've everything I did was I thought was a I was so I thought I was remembering it, but I was doing those things, and I was like, oh my god, and that freaked me out. And I like I laid down, I was trying to stay calm, and then I remembered that everyone there ate like quadruple what I ate, and I was like, I was like so close to fucking freaking out, but then I remembered that like everyone I'm asking to comfort me is on another planet, like I'm like, oh my god, yeah, they're not gonna help. I'm like, that's fucking hysterical. Like, I'm like, please keep me from panicking, the guy who ate two and a half milligrams. Oh, it's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

Yeah, edibles will get you. Oh, and um, I remember the first time I took them. That's like my best and only really experience enjoying edibles because the rest, it's been like, fuck, I just spent$20 and not gotten high. But the first brownie I got, I just remember it was like a half hour, and I was sitting like this, and I just remember looking over at my friend.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

He started fucking dying laughing, and he was like, dude, what's so funny?

SPEAKER_03 48:17

I was like, I get it, and we just started fucking dying, and you get like locked into the couch and you just can't move, or at least that's how I felt. Yeah, and that was like the best munchies I ever had. We had the McDonald's meal, the fucking cosmic brownies, the chips. Fuck yeah, and we watched like Pineapple or Express, some fucking stupid movie. Yeah, it's just the funniest shit. Yeah, um, yeah. I I I miss when an edible would have me like paranoid high. Even this, I miss when it'd hit it once. I'd get all paranoid and fucking be scared of the world.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

But now it's you miss that.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

Yeah, because that's when I was actually high.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

But now it's just I get that all natural.

SPEAKER_08 48:57

There you go. Let's trade. Oh man. Dude, uh, I would love that. I would love to be like, man, I miss being panicky.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

Well, it's just because then that's when you're fucking baked and shit. Now it's just like uh whatever. Dude, we uh I bought this two days ago, and this is a two-grammer. And it's like fucking halfway gone.

SPEAKER_08 49:17

Yeah, dude, uh, you you just sparked a memory in me. My me and my me and my buddy, we called Black David. Because he was. Um he uh we me and him uh he got a car and we were like I think we were like 17. He he bought a car, and it was like we have freedom. You know, and uh so like me and him, we went and parked somewhere. We're gonna go skate zero gravity skate park. We were skateboarders, and uh we're like let's go fucking smoke weed and then go skate. And we got so high, we're like, we can't skate. Like I was so fucking baked. And uh there's this hill in in the nature center neighborhood in Drayton Plains. There's this hill that everyone called like Dead Man's Hill, it's a big fucking steep hill, and it goes right into the nature center. So, like, if you don't turn, which is a real sharp turn, you're going into the ditch of the nature center. Anyway, winter time, we're trying to drive up it, and he's just shooting roosters of snow like above the roof of the car, and we're laughing so hard, and the car is just and it's just like sliding and like scooting backwards as he's like redlining the fuck out of his grandma car. And we're like we were laughing so fucking hard, and uh, but eventually we got eventually we got out of there and we got out of the neighborhood, and we ended up going down airport road where the airport is, and at nighttime there's all the lights like on the airstrip, and like there's like a thousand blue lights. And so we're driving along, driving down airport road, and he slams on the brakes in the middle of a main road, like a 40 mile-an hour two-lane road, just boom! And I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? And he's like, Look, and he points at the blue lights, and he's like, It looks like a bunch of smurfs, and he couldn't handle it, and he just parked there. I'm like, We're gonna go to jail, dude. Get the fuck, you gotta go. You have to, hey, fucking go. And he's like, I can't, I'm crying, I can't see. You gotta get the fuck out of the road, dude. Uh, it's good times. I I do kind of miss getting so fried that like the dumbest shit on earth is like the funniest thing.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Hell yeah. I remember when I was on shrooms, and um if my mom listens to this, this didn't happen. But I was on shrooms. Allegedly, yeah. My buddy did this allegedly, but um I was at a bar and my buddy was working until like eleven. Speaking of which, I'm gonna have one more beer. Oh, yeah. Yeah, do whatever you need. I'm gonna set this over here for now. Um we were at my friend's bar and he was set to work till like eleven. It was probably seven or eight o'clock. And I was like, I I sparked that it was a good idea to do some shrooms. You know, I was gonna sit at the bar. Uh thank you.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

I was gonna sit at the bar, do some shrooms in the bathroom, of course. I th or in my car. Can't remember where the shrooms are done, but I was sitting at the bar, and within like 30 minutes, I was looking at the TV and I just felt like everything go wrong. Like the TV starts like that thrasher, it almost looked like there's just like fucking fire on the TV, everything was melting, and my stomach hurt. And I didn't even tell my buddy I had to go. I just like threw like 40 bucks for a fucking beer and then just left. I was like, I just gotta go. Um, and I ended up driving home, but I just remember that drive home. It was like fucking sand, not sand or snow on the road. And this was in the dead of summer, but I was like, I was like, fuck man, it's snowing out. Like, this shit's is like when it's real windy and on a snowy night and the snow is like yeah, blowing across the road. And uh he texted me, it was like, what the fuck? Do you make and then later in the night I was trying to like get back out and hang out, but my night was cooked. I fucked, I fucked up.

SPEAKER_08 53:14

Can you give him that that tool? Isn't that where? Oh, he got it. Never mind. I thought it was just stuck, like sometimes they fucking they're like glued on there.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

I always I had one the other day with my fiance Sarah. Um we were opening Cokes and we were there for literally like a fucking hour trying to get the glass bottle open. Then we found out it wasn't a twist off. So that's terrible.

SPEAKER_08 53:36

Some Mexican Cokes. Yeah, I was talking about those today. Like I thought it was bullshit. I was like, this Mexican Coke thing, it's malurky. And then I had one, I was like, they're so much better. Yeah, they're definitely better. Like now I don't want to drink the poison that is regular Coke anymore.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

You know, they sell them a big ass pack of them at uh Sam's Club or Costco. So that's what I want to do soon is just get like a fucking 24 case of them, have them on deck. Those are the best Cokes.

SPEAKER_08 54:01

Hell yeah. We should do that for the podcast just so I can have something to mix my fireball with because I'm trashy.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

Oh, I love fireball.

SPEAKER_08 54:07

Dude, I can't drink, I can't drink I can't get drunk on beer. It takes too much. I'm like, I I don't need seven of something in my gut, you know.

SPEAKER_03 54:14

You just want a couple shots and throw them back and then sip on a beer.

SPEAKER_04 54:17

And he chooses fireball.

SPEAKER_03 54:19

It's the best liquor. I wouldn't say it's the best, but it's one of them. It's the best. It's one of the liquors. It's a liquor. It is one of them.

SPEAKER_08 54:26

Dude, everyone who's like, oh, you gotta try fill in the blank with something expensive, and I'm like, oh, you just got sold. Like the McAllen is not good. It's not that good. Blanton's not that good. Like everything that's like a hundred dollars for a bottle, I'm like, this is fine. But like it doesn't taste any better than Fireball. Fireball, you can buy a gallon of it for like four bucks. It's the shit, dude.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

I I can't talk any smack because I drink like five o'clock and shit like that, or it's like two dollars for a fucking handle. That shit is like rubbing alcohol.

SPEAKER_09 55:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

But perfect. You know, it gets you going, gets you drunk. And like most of my gigs, if I am gonna drink, I'll just have like a couple shooters in my bag. Go to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_04 55:10

Five o'clock?

SPEAKER_03 55:11

Five o'clock.

SPEAKER_04 55:12

I didn't even know they had little shooters.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Well, usually you get a half pint.

SPEAKER_08 55:15

Those cost ten cents for a shooter.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

No, you're the shooters of nickel. But yeah, you get like a half pint, or you get a couple double shots of the platinums. Those those come in double shots. That's if I'm it's funny, I'll fuck with the guy at the liquor store. I'm like, I'm feeling classy. Can I get like the three-dollar pint of Svedka or something like that? And he'd be like, buddy, it's not much better.

SPEAKER_08 55:40

Oh, dude, I'm I'm trashing. But I tell you, so okay. Do you have for me that I have a liquor, I have alcohol I can't have because it just triggers like disgust immediately. And for me, that is burnt like any flavored Burnett's is just like off the table. Absolutely fucking not. I'm not drinking strawberry burnettes, you know, just because I screamed it out of me at some party when I was 17, you know.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

Mine kind of is fireball, to be honest. Really?

SPEAKER_04 56:11

But you still drink it?

SPEAKER_03 56:12

Very, very rarely. Like it used to be like a thing where my buddies and I I shouldn't say uh routinely, occasionally, we would get like a fifth, and between me and one buddy, we would just sit and literally pound a whole fifth in uh evening or a couple hours. Um Jesus. And that was like by routine, I mean that was our thing for a while, and then it kind of switched to Tito's or something like fifth of Tito's, but for a long time it was fireball until I don't even know what statue of limitations means, but I'm gonna use that word, so fuck the cops. But when I was young, like 16, I had a shit ton of fireball and drove home and the cop pulled me over. And as you know, fireball, like you can smell that on your breath from fucking next day. Like that shit stank. But I had my phone on my lap and I had my navigation. It said I had like two minutes left, and I I'm a cooperative drunk, like I can handle myself even at that age. So I was like, sir, I have like two minutes left. I showed him my phone, he hit me where you go, and all this bullshit. I was like, I don't know. Staying at my mom's boyfriend's, which was the truth. Um, and basically he's like, I'll follow you. And he followed me to the neighborhood and then kept going, and I pulled in and we got lucky. Got lucky as fuck. Very lucky.

SPEAKER_08 57:41

So he for sure knew you were drunk. You think I would assume just because of the smell, not because of your composure.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

Like, even though I think I was composed, like I was a young lad on a lot of alcohol. Like, I yeah, the alcohol may have made me think like fuck, I'm I'm pulling this shit off, you know.

SPEAKER_07 57:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 57:57

But you know, I think it was just a perfect scenario of like I had my navigation out, I was like two minutes away from home, middle of the night, so no one was on the road. And the reason why he pulled me over wasn't because of my driving, it was because of course I had a fucking what's it uh tail light? Yeah, tail light out.

SPEAKER_08 58:13

Yeah, thank you. So dude, I had I had one of these moments. I was so when I was uh when I was a print an apprentice, I uh I would do Lyft or Uber or whatever to make extra money. And at one point I did solely Lyft or Uber for a living. And uh I was I went I went out in uh Royal Oak and I got fucking obliterated drunk. And something happened where like the whole vibe just got like real dark and shitty, like out of nowhere, and I was like, I gotta get out of here. Like, you know, like everyone's like miserable all of a sudden. Like every like and I was like, I gotta I gotta get the fuck out of here. I gotta go. Like this is gonna like I don't wanna be here anymore. But I knew I was hammered as fuck, and I was like, I just Woodward. Like I just gotta drive I just I just gotta drive up Woodward for like 10 miles, like I'm fine, it'll be alright. So I get on Woodward and I get into like Berkeley, like barely out of Royal Oak, and I get pulled over and I'm like, fuck. Like, you gotta be fucking kidding me. I can't believe this is happening right now. I get pulled over and I in that moment I was like, oh I have my lift light. So I plug in the light, the little the fucking pink bar. And so I get pulled over and they go, uh do you know why I pulled you over? And I was like, honestly, dude, I've been driving all night. I'm probably fucking swerving, I'm exhausted. And he's like, Yeah, you were kind of bouncing from you're bouncing from lane to lane or lane to lane, and and uh he's like, You never left your lane, but you're like hitting the white line on the left side, then hitting the white line on the right side, and I was like, Yeah, I'm sorry, man. I started driving like 12 hours ago. I'm actually headed home. I I live in Waterford, and you know, I just gotta get away from the city so I can shut the app I shut the app off and go home. And he's like, How far are you how far away do you live? You know, I'm like, uh like 15 minutes maybe. And he's like, Alright, you know, just uh maybe roll down the windows, you know, get some air in here. He's like, You're yeah, he's like, I can see you're tired. Yeah, just drive safer, man. Uh he's like, you know, get home safe. Oh, thank you, man. Dumb. I left and I was like, holy shit. Oh my god, holy fuck. Got off lucky. Oh my god, did I get off lucky?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

I feel like every all of us as like humans, we all get one. You know what I mean? Like you get one opportunity to fuck up at a young age or younger age, hopefully. And then it's like you either learn from it or you continue to fuck up. And I'm not saying I don't fucking, you know, I have a I'm but it's like I'm having a beer or two where it used to be like we're getting obliterated, yeah. We're synth of yeah, we're getting fucked up, and then let's see what happens, which is dumb. It's not smart. No, and thankfully I was a good driver, but everybody probably thinks they're not.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:55

Everyone thinks they are until like someone slams on their brakes and you're like, Whoa shit, you know. So dude, my uh God, me and my buddy Austin, he's uh he I I have some of my favorite drinking stories, like being reckless, we're with him. Like we used to take turns blacking out, like that was our thing. It'd be like, Oh, it's yeah, it would be like It's my turn, it's your turn, it's my turn, and we would do it on like the grossest shit. We'd drink like two 30 racks of fucking Keystone together and like just be like Ew. And uh, but my favorite story of him is it was his turn to black out, and all I had, he only had money to like cover himself, and I didn't have any money, so I stole like Irish cream from my dad because it's all he had in the house. So I'm walking around this party looking like I'm drinking fucking milk, and he's running around drinking a water bottle that's filled to the brim with like burnettes, so he's just like chugging vodka, and so like I was like talking to a girl or whatever, so like I got distracted because I'm like trying to fucking hit on someone, and I hear like a crowd like cheering out in the backyard of this house party, and I'm like, what is going on? So we're like, we should probably go see what's happening. And the mom was burning their old wooden like entertainment stand, like though like one of the huge 90s ones where like it was like seven feet tall. So like the boys all like the guys that were all at the party like carried it out of the garage for her and set it on the bonfire. So like you just see this like silhouette of a burning entertainment stand and a hole where a fucking 90s TV would have been. And Austin's like, I'm fucking doing it, and the whole crowd's like, Woo! And I'm like, Well, you're doing what, dude? He's like, I'm diving through the TV hole. I'm like, you're no, you're fucking not. I was like, no one here knows that you're obliterated. He's like, fuck up, let's go, and just like runs and jumps through. The back of the fucking stand was still on the stand. So he like got he like ran and jumped, tried to jump through it, and he just kind of like boo collapses into it and lands in the fire. Like the thing tips over and he's just in the fire. I'm like, dude, what the fuck? So I grab him and like pull him out of the fire. He's an instantly all blistered up all over his shirtless torso. I'm like, you fucking idiot.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:15

Is that a real story?

SPEAKER_08 1:03:17

Yes. And the mom, I wish I remembered the mom's name. So the mom took him like into the house to get him cleaned up and stuff, and like whatever. Like, I don't I don't think she bandaged him up, but like maybe just get him away from the party for a minute. And so, like, I go back to like just talking to whoever, because I'm like the DD, and again I hear a commotion and I'm like, what is happening? And Austin decided he needed to shit outside. So he was he was squatting against the owner's car, and as he's shitting, he's also throwing up shitting on the ground, dry heaving, and the mom is like trying to feed him a peanut butter sandwich all at the same time. I was like, this stupid fuck, dude. I love him so much. I miss him. He he moved out to LA, so now he's like a nomad. He's like between LA and Atlanta now, but it's stupid shit. I should have Austin on just to tell stories of like the three years we hung out before he went out left for college.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

You know, it'd be some interesting stories. Um the the the most fucked up shit I did, mostly to my friends, it was really mean. We went to well not it wasn't my fault. I fell asleep, but basically we went to a frat party and I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. So I went to the top floor and sat down and then fell asleep, locked the door, and didn't respond to fucking shit. They were slamming on the door, a whole line compiled. And apparently, like 45 minutes later, they literally went up like from outside and climbed through the window to come get me and open the door.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:57

They thought you were dead or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:58

No, they knew I fell asleep. Yeah, they were like, this fucker fell asleep. They know how I am. So uh I'm a I'm a well-known puker from youth, unfortunately. It's just my thing, even for alcohol or anything like that. I've always been a puker. So they were like, this fucker's probably doubled over the toilet or something like that, but I was just I didn't even make it to the toilet, I just fell asleep.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:24

I fight the the the the feeling of needing to puke with everything I have in my body. I hate puking so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

You gotta be at peace with it, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:35

Ah, dude, I fucking hate it. I hate the feeling of it so much. Nobody likes it. I'd rather be I'd rather be miserable for like a week than throw up for a second. I fucking hate throwing up. But I the correlation between uh Paige feeding me her dad's jerky and me scream puking is unfortunate. I don't think it's f it's not from his jerky because I've had it since, but I I ate a lot of the jerky that he gave us one year. And I was like, I don't know, I don't feel good. And I was like, I gotta I gotta go to the bathroom. I throw up and I come out and the most unhinged fucking sentence of all time comes out of her face. Do you remember what you said to me?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

Something about you being an inconsiderate puker.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:23

You don't need to scream. Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:26

Sarah says that to me too. She's like, it's kind of loud sometimes. She thinks I'm yelling on purpose. So you gotta like, you know, exert some force.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:36

Dude, you're such an You're an inconsiderate puker. I'm an inconsiderate puker? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm sorry. My insides were trying to come outside.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:44

I'm a pretty quiet puker.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:46

Yeah, I don't I she throws up like a fucking cat. I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

What? You throw up like a cat. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_08 1:06:54

Have you ever seen a cat throw up? It's all dramatic and fucking just have you ever seen me throw up? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:04

Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I've definitely thrown up and nobody knew I was throwing up in a quiet place.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:10

So you should tell the story of your 19th birthday.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:15

We don't need to tell that on the internet. Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:18

So I wasn't even there.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:20

I don't want to tell that.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:21

Oh my god. How can you have good stories and not want to share them? That's fucking rude. Don't be selfish. I'm gonna clip it. I'm gonna tell a story the next time you're not on the podcast. I'm gonna clip it. Clip that shit. Did she uh yeah?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:37

We went to Canada and I threw up a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:41

It happens. The fucking worst storyteller of all time. I take it because you can drink under 21 there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:51

When you turn 19, you can drink. So we went to Windsor for my 19th birthday. I don't want to tell this story out of the internet.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:00

Okay, don't. That's fine. We can tell you, we can we could we can tell Nick after. That's fine. Off the air. Yeah, that's fine. We can keep some secrets.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

There's a story I'll tell you guys off the air as well.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:11

I'm there's a there's a couple that I would I wish I didn't say on the podcast, but it it is what it is. The Mario Party one.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:21

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:22

That's why it's always important to keep like, you know, you can get buzzed, but to keep like some level of soberness. So you're like, absolutely not. No, absolutely not. Dude, I'm an open book.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:33

I'm an open book.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:34

I'll tell like it doesn't matter if he's sober or not. Yeah, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:37

You know what it is what it is, in all honesty, which it always is. I don't know what a normal amount of truth is because I grew up around liars. So I was like, when I I started to have that habit of like just embellishing and just like straight up lying, not just embellishing, because now I'm kind of like undercutting it and softening it. I was straight up lying in my like late teens, early twenties, just making shit up all the time. And I heard I I heard somebody like it was eavesdropping on someone else's conversation. Someone talked about me the way they talk about my relative who is a well-known liar, and I was like, oh no. And just the shame, like just the sour diarrhea feeling of shame, just like hit me in the gut, and I was like, I gotta stop this. And so I was like, all right, let the pendulum swing the full other way. I'm gonna be as honest as I can possibly be, stream of consciousness honest, and it's caused some issues for me. I definitely like rub people the wrong way. And I'm not a I I'm not one of those guys like I'm just honest, but I'm like a fucking prick all the time. I can be a prick. I can be a prick, but there's people that like there's definitely people that use honesty as a way to justify them being an asshole. I don't do that, I just tell like as much of the truth as I possibly can muster because I don't want to ever be talked about like that again. That has caused problems. Like my son, me and my my oldest, I gotta say this quietly because my kids are outside in the in the fucking lobby or whatever of the studio, but my son, my oldest son had learned about longitude and latitude lines, and he was asking about like he thought they were real, and uh, so I'm like, well no, they're you know just a way to kind of mark where you're at and what time zone you're in, and you know so I pull out Google Earth and I like put on the all the longitude and latitude lines so we can see them, and then I shut them off so you can see them, and then I'm like, so you know, like they all originate at what would be the north pole if there was a north pole, and he's like, There's not a north pole. Oh, you fucked up. Yeah. There's not wait, is there no Santa? And I was like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not I I'm saying, like, if there was the line there, there's no lines, the lines are not real, but like everything else is real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I mean, you're not gonna be able to see it on Google Earth because they gotta they can't show you where it's at, you know. But so I'm like just trying so hard to backpedal. I'm like, motherfucker, dude. Like, I don't need to tell the whole truth about everything. You know?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:12

You messed up.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:13

Is there anything that comes to mind when you think of like me telling too much truth that you're like, why did you fucking tell me that? I would love to hear.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:20

I mean, there's a lot of things. Such as um what's it called? The the person from Adventure Time?

SPEAKER_08 1:11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:35

Lumpy Space Princess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:39

Is that the Vasist or no that's Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time? Oh my god, fucking Oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:47

Apparently he had sex with a girl and that's what she sounded like. Like there's just certain things that I don't need to know. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

It's like TMI. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:55

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:56

It's fine. Well to be okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

At least now you at least now you know. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:01

Like I don't mind knowing, but you'd it's not necessary to know.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:05

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:05

Yeah, it's definitely not necessary to know that. Yeah. Oh, now I want to tell that story.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:10

You don't have to tell the story. You told it last time. I want to tell that story, though. You already told it.

unknown 1:12:14

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:15

Maybe we should get back to what Nick's doing in his life. Why? Not about how much truth you tell.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:22

Listen, this is what this podcast is. Like, we just talk. We uh I had a I had a guest on, and they were like, every time we started talking about a subject that was interesting, they would like cut it off and be like, we need to get back to the music. I'm like, this isn't just like an advertisement, you know? Like we're like, we're we're talking about like the person behind the music kind of dealing with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:44

Showing that they're real people.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:45

And uh I was like, come on, man. Like, we're gonna get every time we get momentum, you're like, you interrupt it to get like we gotta get back to the music. Well, no, we no, we don't. It'll be in the description. Anybody that and by the way, anyone that watches it is probably gonna like already know of you guys and is gonna watch it as a way of support.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:01

So it's like you know, and the way I look at it is it's like there's there's tons of videos out there of me, which I guess are hard to find, which I can show you. Yeah, you gotta work on that. Dude, it shouldn't be that hard to find your shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:14

Um I was able to find like the videos where you're like, hey, I'm playing here, yeah, doing all this, like that stuff, but finding your actual music was kind of hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:24

Yeah, that's because I don't have any of my original music out yet. Right. But makes sense. Um that'll change shortly.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:32

I'm looking forward to it because with a couple of clips I saw you actually playing, I was like, oh, are you fucking shreds, dude? So but like the I feel like like I'm I I feel like I'm pretty good at social media and like we're like getting starting to get a following, but man, the local comedians and local musicians that I've met are so bad at it. Like the audio, the video quality, garbage, the audio quality is always fucking terrible. Or like my favorite is when people like link lip sync to their own music and it's bad. It's like stop, you look like a Korean movie that was translated to fucking English, like and it's your own lyrics. You wrote these lyrics. How are you gonna sing them off time?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:13

Truthfully, I'd probably be shit at that if it weren't for so horror movies in the morning, all the social media was done by Hammy, our guitarist, and he kind of had a golden rule of like we're not posting anything unless it's pristine, looks good, fits the branding, so we look professional. Um and for a while it was kind of frustrating. Like I would send him a poster or something like that that I made and it wouldn't go up. And it's like, what the fuck, man? But it's like after a while, I'd kind of get it, you know. He kind of wanted to keep everything looking a certain way. We wouldn't put stuff up unless it was a music video or clips of said music video and professionally done photography. Um, so I've kind of taken that over to my solo work because it's like, you know, I want people to at least see like that I try and put out professional stuff. So with my my music, it's like I get it recorded a studio, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:12

Yeah, still I do think people like seeing progress too, though. So I wouldn't kill I wouldn't kill the babies, you know what I mean? Like like keep keep the old shitty videos that people can see that like you're you're progressing and they can come along for the ride with you, you know what I mean? That's a good point. When we when we first started this, I had a GoPro Hero fucking black I mean and a cell phone and like the quality was so so different, it would take hours of editing to make it look even remotely the same quality between the two angles. And I don't know. I mean, like I go I look back at those now. Like the first like five episodes of this podcast was shot with just one GoPro like basically at the end of the table in our six-year-old's bedroom, you know, and I'm just like this is so funny to look back at. Like now we have like 4K fucking clips out in a real studio, you know, it's fucking hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:09

But what's crazy is that's what I mean, truthfully, that's what initially drew me in. I was scrolling through I don't know, Instagram, Facebook, one of the two, and I saw I was looking and I saw like a a reel, and my first thought was like like my first thought was literally this is a professional podcast with the clips and everything, and this is cool. And then I clicked, I was like, Michigan, and then I reached out and you got back to me like right away. It just worked out perfectly. But truthfully, I didn't even expect you to get back to me just based off of how professional it all looked. Yes, and uh you know I'm getting hard, there you go.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:46

Speaking of being professional, I'm tipping the table over.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:50

Keep telling me how good my podcast looks. But um, yeah, and that that was really cool to see because, like you said, too many people don't value uh putting effort into something that you you really care about. It's like unfortunately with social media and whatnot, it makes it too easy to put out music, to put a podcast out, to what have you. But the ones who I feel succeed are the ones who put in extra effort, and in your case, like you know, I know that takes a ton of work to make all these extra little clips and put them out and put them out consistently on all these different platforms. Yeah. And people don't often think about it's like truthfully, if you want to build a following, a lot of times you got to put money into marketing and stuff like that. Um, and with social media, they've tried to make it easy by just like literally paying for pretty much views and likes, but I found a lot of times that can not really lead to much. I feel what's more successful is is a sense of consistency. Like, you know, my channel or my Instagram only has like a hundred followers, but I'm getting like 15 to 20,000 views per month, and I feel a large part of that is just because I post like every one to three days. And so 80% of my following is they're not following me, unfortunately. Yeah, but my hope is that you know, when I do put a song out, I'm just gonna keep keep consistently posting and uh I'd like to try and build it as organically as possible. That's the only way to do it.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:22

I my my brother um my brother is trying to do music for like he wants to compose for television and and film, and he is he he has these like conspiring ideas about like how this is all supposed to work and how to go about it, but then he pays for he'll pay for advertising and I'm like, what are you doing? Like, why are you giving Instagram fucking five dollars a day for a set budget? And then he's like, Oh look at my video got 20,000 views. I'm like, sick. Like we like I just put out a fuckload of videos, and like some videos get like a hundred views, and like I have a video like we have a couple of clips that are like six hundred thousand views, and like you know what I mean, and and and then there's like the random, like like semi-viral for us, it's like 14, 15, 16,000 views, and that's just organically, and it's just because I post a lot, you know. And I'm like, I was telling my brother, like, dude, stop paying for views, just put stuff out consistently and be authentic. And uh I I think those two things are what people will snuff out. Like, if you're inauthentic for a second, people are like, this fucking douche, and like immediately, like it turns off an audience. Like, and I was telling him, you know, so he's like trying to compose music, and he's like, he doesn't know what to like he he doesn't have a solid idea of like what kind of videos he wants to put out. So like sometimes he'll be like, he'll put on a blazer and like sit down at the piano and be like, play, and I'm like, it comes off corny, like you're a dick, be a dick. Like that's who you are as a person, you're an asshole. So, like, and he's like, So he sent me a video of him being like way over the top being an asshole, like to make to be funny to me. And uh he said it to me, and I was like, You did this as a joke, do this a million times. This is so fucking funny. Because he's like, he like gets on the video and he's like, If you think you can fucking play this in this key and it's gonna fucking do anything, you're a fucking idiot. Let me show you what you should be doing. And I'm like, that is captivating immediately. I'm interested. But you sitting down at the piano wearing a fucking blazer in your like spare bedroom and you're like, do don't give a fuck. Immediately don't give a fuck. I he I don't care about the greatest piano player in the world. I might stop to watch the greatest piano in the player, greatest piano player in the world. I'm not gonna stop to watch some guy wearing a fucking blazer in his spare bedroom. But like, if I come across a video where this guy's yelling at the screen, going like, you're a fucking idiot. Let me show you why you're sucking your music sucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:01

Yeah, like I'll fucking tune in.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:03

Immediately I'm invested, you know. But yeah, social media is a fucking weird, it's a fickle game, dude. It's uh it's it's a weird one. It's a it's a weird one trying to manipulate the algorithms to benefit, you know, the the audience or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:19

And and I've talked with so many artists and I book a lot of artists too, and unfortunately they get this warped perception in their head of like, say they got a hundred thousand views on their video, so they'll tell me we want a thousand dollars or we're not getting off her fucking couch, you know, and it's like, dude, what proves that? And they'll say, Well, my video got this many views and this many likes, and we have this many listeners in these cities. And I go, Cool, how many tickets are you gonna sell? They're like, Well, we haven't played there, but we have 20,000 monthly listeners in that city. I go, cool. How many tickets are you gonna sell? Yeah, and if they can't give me a straight answer, the venue is not gonna pay out a guarantee. Because to pay for a venue to realistically pay out a guarantee, they're not just gonna want me to tell them, hey, they can bring in 500 people, they want receipts for the past fucking three times they've played in the city, right? So it's frustrating to me as a booker to try working with bands that you know they'll buy the followers and the likes and the fucking credibility, and then they'll come to me and want me to sell it. Like if I can sniff out the bullshit in two seconds, you don't think these venues can?

SPEAKER_09 1:22:29

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:29

And it's it's an increasing issue, unfortunately. And it even can confuse confuse me sometimes when I'll work with a band and um say, for example, I'm playing a show in Detroit and I'll find a Detroit band that's got five thousand followers, and I look and they're getting consistent likes and engagement and all this shit, and then nobody shows up to the show, and I wonder why. And it's like I look further into it, it's like all these fucking followers are bought. Um yeah, so that's yeah, what a fucking issue, huh? Yeah, it's it's it's a struggle because you can only spend so much time trying to develop a lineup, you know, especially when you're trying to book on like I got five shows this month. I can't fucking dwell on every band, you know. I would love to, but uh how far how far in advance are you booking these?

SPEAKER_08 1:23:21

Because I book out like I mean, like I'm booked until like September right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:25

Typically I like to book like four to six months out. Yeah. Um if I'm booking out of state, I like to book six months to a year out, ideally. Yeah. Um, but some things kind of just like come up. Like, for example, uh breakfast at 2 p.m. We uh figured out like kind of a show swap deal.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:45

So I've been doing that with bands more recently, is like show swapping and uh sort of like are they booking one place and you're booking another, and you guys are kind of like yeah, basically scratch your back, I'll scratch yours.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:55

Yeah, when we play both shows. Right. Um that's cool. Which quite honestly, I'd like rather transition into that. Like if I can build a whole tour of working with bands across the country and like we work together, like fuck, that's amazing. Yeah, um, I always value community and shit. And yeah, they're they're cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:14

I I really like talking to that band, man. Speaking of breakfast, shout out to breakfast at 2 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:19

When they came in, was it the whole band or just Michael and it was Michael and Jordan?

SPEAKER_08 1:24:24

And uh God, what is the drummer's name? Oh, Ben. The drummer is the uh older gentleman. The older guy. I can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:35

I have a terrible memory. Forgive me, brother.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:38

I already Polly.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:42

I think Polly. Is it Polly? That sounds for my that sounds I think that's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:45

Okay, maybe. I was only here when they came they got here and then I had to leave.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:49

Yeah, I'm I'm bad about this. I like I meet so many people. We do four four episodes a week. I was gonna ask about that. That's a lot. It's a lot, it's fucking ton. And but and then if it's like it's easy with one-on-ones, they're like, I'm gonna talk to Nick Stevens for two and a half hours. Sick, that's easy to remember. But when it's like, hey, I talked to four bands with three members each this week, it's like, oh fuck, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:14

That's that's even something that's become frustrating for me, is like I I figure or I thought in my head I had this golden brain when it comes to booking. Like, I'll remember every band I've ever played with, and it's gotten to the point where unfortunately, like, I'll walk up to somebody and they're like, dude, we played together like multiple times. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm such a fucking asshole. Like it, like you said, you get to the point where you meet so many people, unless you have like consistent communication, it's it's hard to remember everything.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:41

Oh, for sure. Dude, I'm a pipe fitter, and uh we pipe fitters basically are like contractors, basically, like we get brought on to a contracting company for the duration of whatever project is being built, right? So, like sometimes you get lucky and you spend a couple of years with a contractor, and sometimes it's like, hey, you're gonna be here for like three months, and then you call the hall and go, Hey, I need a job. And uh, but because of that, you get new partners like every six months. Like, that's what I joke about. I'm like, I have a new best friend every six months, and like we work one-on-one together for the entire project. Like, me and my, you know, like I'm a I'm a welder, so like me and my fitter, or whatever, me and my apprentice. And I I worked at a fab shop this winter. I was working with a guy, and I was like, God, dude, you look so fucking familiar. Did we work together? And he's like, I was thinking the same thing. I don't remember, like, I don't remember ever working with you, but I feel like I know you. And it took us like three days, and one morning we came in and we had both figured it out, like on the drive-in. We're like, we fucking did war and truck together. We worked together for like six months, one on one, and we couldn't remember each other. It's just because you have a new guy that you're working with all the time.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:57

I'm really good at remembering people. Their faces I can see somebody at Kroger one day just randomly like happen to look at them at Kroger, and then I'll like see them somewhere else six months later, and I'm like, Oh, I saw that person at Kroger.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:12

Yeah, that's like your family's like you, your mom and dad like have this game of like, do you remember blank? And it's like some random obscure person who's also from Lake Orion. Yeah, like, do you remember fucking blah blah blah? That you and then your mom will be like, Is that the one that we had the barbecue with? And I'm like, Alright, I'm gonna play on my phone for a while because I've no fucking any of these people.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:32

I remember, but it's I remember people so easily that like when I see them somewhere else, like if I were to see you at a show in a few weeks, I would be nervous to come up to you because I'm like, he's not gonna know who I am. Oh, like it yeah, like I would want to say hi, but I'm like they're not gonna know who I am because I remember people so easy that I'm like Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:55

I never thought I'd never thought about that. I'm she is uh I'm The guy who's like, I'm gonna address the elephant immediately. And she does. I didn't realize that's why you didn't want to talk to people that you recognize. But like when we first started dating, she'd be like, Oh, that's that's uh oh, that's so and so, and I'd be like, Oh, okay. And I'd be like, Are you so-and-so? And she's like, Fucking stop. Why do you do this?

SPEAKER_04 1:28:22

Yeah, so now I just don't say anything. When I recognize people, I just keep it to myself until we leave.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:27

Yeah, I was gonna say, wait till I it sucks because that's such a fun game. Like, there's so many good stories because of me doing this.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:33

Yeah. Are you so-and-to- There was one time we were out, he was driving me and my friend for St. Patrick's Day, and we were in a parking lot, and I was like, Oh, that's that guy's wife, and he pulls up to her in the parking lot, rolls a window down, and goes, Are you so-and-so's wife? And she's like, Yeah, and he's like, Oh, I met you at this party, whatever. It was a complete lie, but like just because I was like, Oh, that's his wife.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:01

I only lie, I only lie for the sake of malarkey. I love it. Dude, my my favorite fucking yeah. That that is fun as fuck to me, by the way. To try to convince someone that I know them just for like no no good reason, just to just to fuck with them. Like, yeah, we went to that party together or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:19

She was like, I have no idea who you are. Yeah, because you don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:23

We've never met.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:25

I literally told him not to do that because he like moves the whole door and he's over there, like it's just saying hi. They uh my favorite so we when we go in public, like uh to concerts or whatever, we play like a couple of random games with like we do it for ourselves, but like we get people involved. And my favorite one is that we're always looking for Jeremy Matheson. It's a generic enough name that it's believable, but there's not a fucking Jeremy Matheson on earth, like we can't find one.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:57

We just yell Jeremy.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:58

So like Jeremy, yeah, we're like, we'll be at a concert at Pine Knob or whatever, and be like, Jeremy! And then like we'll like recruit people. He doesn't, he's right there in the fucking red hat or whatever, and like everyone's like, I don't see a guy not red. I'm like, help come on, and then like you'll get like a whole crowd of people yelling to no one. It's fucking so funny to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:20

And then they'll turn around and you just leave in the in the back.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:24

One time we were yelling Sarah on the staircase at Pineab.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:27

You know, the fucking death stairs. There's like 300 stairs at Pine Nob.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:31

Where I'm like, Sarah, Sarah. He joins in Sarah, and then all of a sudden everyone on the staircase is like Sarah!

SPEAKER_08 1:30:39

It was a hundred people. Just it's like, and the this poor girl at the bottom turns around and goes, what? And we we're like, oh no. I'm like, there was a fucking Sarah. So we had a we went down there and we had like explained what we were doing, and she's like, This is fucking hilarious, but that scared the shit out of me. Oh, dude, it's the best. And the other game we play is that I well, like the other game that I play is that I'll lie about my age. And like I'll be like, oh yeah, I'm fucking 49. Like, damn, you're 49. You look good for 49. Yeah, I look like I look like shit for 32, but fucking 49, I'm killing it, you know. So I had this chick convinced. We were at Dave Matthews and at Pineb last year, and I was like, Yeah, I'm fucking 49 years old. She's like, oh my god, good for you. Like, what do you do? She's just fucking peptides, you know. It's like I just do the right things, I only eat meat.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:30

Yep. I did that once when I first turned 21, and the bartender looked at me like I was fucking retarded. It was the funniest thing. Uh, he ID'd me, and or I apologize. He asked for my ID, and I told him I was like, Well, I'm honored that you would ask. And I just like freshly turned 21. He looked at me like a fucking idiot.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:50

He's like, What the fuck do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:54

You just turned 21 a couple weeks ago. And I explained. I was like, I don't often get asked. And he put a fucking thing on my hand, and I didn't end up getting that drinks, drinks at night, so I can't confirm it, but I'm fairly certain he put like a fucking X so that you couldn't get drinks. That's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:12

Don't I thought they did the X so that you could drink?

SPEAKER_04 1:32:15

No, usually X's meaning.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:17

He put something on my hand, it was like a stamp or something. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:20

Oh. Haven't you ever heard the song that says put X's on the back of my hand so that I'm extra unsafe?

SPEAKER_08 1:32:27

Negative. God, it's the most generic pop bullshit. Who sings that?

SPEAKER_04 1:32:32

Or X's on the back of your hand. There's a 303 song about it, too. Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:39

You know what? I think you're fired from the podcast. I didn't think this podcast would ever reference 303. What's next? Are we gonna talk about Hollywood Undead and how they were super underrated? Do you know Hollywood Undead? Have you ever heard of Hollywood Undead?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:51

I've heard of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:52

I'm not I'm not necessarily familiar with their music.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:55

Okay, they're like cringy rapper dudes that rap rock, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:59

Yeah, it's cringy as fuck.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:00

The uh God, so I I'm at we're at this weird age where like anyone who's like above 20 looks like they could be our age. And like, and I'm like, oh yeah, you're 10 years younger than me. How fucking weird is that? Yeah, like so you weren't on MySpace listening to fucking 303.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:17

You didn't have MySpace?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:18

No. And I'm even I'm young to be on Facebook, it seems. Yeah. Um, everybody shits on me for being on Facebook, but it's it's a much better platform for everything. Entertaining entertainers are concerned. Um gross. But yeah, I wasn't part of the Napster, MySpace, any of that era. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:42

Yeah, I I don't know why Facebook is not the biggest platform with younger people. Like, there's groups of like whatever niche thing that you're into. Like, there's there's so many reasons to be on fucking on Facebook versus like Instagram where it's like you you're just curated shit that you don't want to see. Right. It's like, oh, I slowed down because it's sad that somebody fucking killed their kid. It's like, oh, this guy likes real cop videos. This is all I'm giving him. Or I feel like all avenues on Instagram lead to like OnlyFans thirst traps and fucking workplace accidents. And like I gotta like reset my algorithm every few months.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:22

Or brain. What's it called? Oh, brain rot. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:26

Oh god.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:27

The kids, yeah. My kids watch brain rot shit, and I have to like I have to like, dude, shut this off. We're not doing this, we're not watching this. Like my kids will my kids watch these like stupid list videos or like the top ten uh fucking soccer players of 2025. And they're like, and what's so funny, I had this uh head comic James River came on, and he's such a brilliant dude. Like we we talked about economics for two and a half hours, and then he's like telling me that he absolutely loves watching Brain Rot. He's like, any like just like Brain Rot like list video of like so he started when he when he left, he sent me a bunch, or the next day he sent me a bunch of these fucking list videos. So I click on one of them and it's melodrama, just like black and white screen with like storms going on, and it's like the top ten British breakfasts. And I'm like, what the fuck is this, James? Like, this is what you watch, dude. This is so stupid.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

Banks and toosh.

SPEAKER_08 1:35:29

Literally the first one. Yep, and then he was like, Oh, here's a here's a video you have to watch. I click on it, it was like a nine-hour documentary about Tyler Perry. I'm like, I'm not, I don't have nine hours to watch about the World War II. I'm not watching this. I haven't watched three hours of Tyler Perry content. I'm not watching a documentary about him, especially nine fucking hours. It's crazy. Oh, it's fucking asinine. Oh my god, he's like, this is absolutely like single guy activities. I'm like, I got fucking three kids and two jobs. Like, I'm fucking, I'm not doing that, dude. I'm not watching this bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:05

It's funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:06

There's always seems there's that unemployed friend that's always sending memes like fucking constantly, just like the fucking brain rot memes. I don't know if you have that person on your life. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_08 1:36:17

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like that I got I wish I had my phone. I could show you. My buddy Matt uh is that guy. He'll like relentlessly. I stopped responding to him at all on Facebook to kind of like get him to stop, and he still hasn't. But he like he'll send me this like random meme, and it's like the most irreverent bullshit. Like there was one where it was like it was like a cop. Uh a cop goes, Yay, nice bumper sticker, buddy. And it cli and it cuts to like the bumper sticker, the bumper stick sticker says, like, only gay cops pull me over. And he's like, Oh man, it's just a joke. And then the next cut is like the cop kissing the guy. And I'm like, okay, that's funny, but like don't send that to me at fucking 11 o'clock at night, you asshole. Like, you know, we he like we're both pipe fetters. You know that I get up at fucking four. Right. Like, come on. Uh yeah. My brother, my brother's, he doesn't send me like the real stupid memes, but he'll he's the other guy that's like the single guy who is like he sends me shit that he's excited to talk about or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:22

And I'm like, dude, it's fucking midnight.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:25

Don't send me a song about some new band or by some new band that you found at fucking midnight. My phone dings, and I'm like, what's going on? What's wrong? It's just it's just that I was asleep and he's sending me shit when I don't want to fucking get any notifications. Ugh man. Fuck yeah. So what do you uh so circle back to music? Sure. I'm curious about this uh doing the solo act. So do you are you programming like are you programming all the other instruments like on a cube base or fruity loops or something?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:04

Or quite honestly, I'm not sure how they're done. I had my uh the guy who mixes and masters all my songs, he makes my drum tracks. Okay. Um, so he makes them all digitally. I don't know how he does it through MIDI or something like that. Right on. But basically what I did originally is I sent him kind of my vision and then guitar tracks for all my songs, and then he made drum tracks. Oh, right on. Um, or a couple songs, the ones that I have like covers for. He basically just took the drum track and made it. Like he transposed it. Yeah, made it himself so that way it was all consistent. Right on. Um so the only thing right now that I have on tracks is just drums, and then I play the guitar and sing live.

SPEAKER_08 1:38:46

That's right. You said you had an emulator for your is emulator, is that the right word for the bass?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:50

Yeah, it's basically like a little pedal, and the only issue with it is it tricks your bottom string, and it if you're not you kind of have to configure your music to it, if that makes sense. Like when you're playing chords and stuff like that. Because like I'm a real chuggy player, so it can kind of just like it's not really playing proper bass lines, it's just kind of good if you're playing root uh bar chords and stuff like that, mostly.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:18

Oh, so this is uh I was picturing like a loop pedal when you said this. Like I thought you would like play out the bass line, but no, it's as you're playing, it's playing what a bass player might play along with those. Correct. Yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:29

Okay, and you can adjust it on the uh dial, like you can have it track like your all four strings, all six if you wanted to, but I have it set to where it's just the lowest string. Right on. So it's just basically emulating what like local H does. Because he's got I don't know if you're familiar with them, but he's got a uh um bass pickup. Speak English, Nick. He's got a bass pickup literally within his guitar. Okay. So that way when he plays guitar, it's also like bass at the same time. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:00

Yeah. Local H, I they have they have like one song that I know, I think. The uh oh god. I can literally hear the riff in my head right now, but I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:12

Damn it. What song is that? Uh bound for the floor. Bound for the floor or something. You just don't get it.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:23

Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:26

Copacetic is one of my favorite words ever. You never say copacetic. But it's literally one of my favorite words. I almost got that tattooed on me. Copacetic?

SPEAKER_03 1:40:34

I don't know what it means, but it is a nice word.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:37

Like good. Everything's good, everything's kosher. I almost got everything as copacetic tattooed on me. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_08 1:40:44

I'm glad you didn't. If I would have walked up to you and you had like relentless tattooed on your forearm, I'd be like, Well, okay, it's a knuckle puck reference, but copacetic is a knucklepuck.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:54

Everything is copacetic is knuckle puck lyrics.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:58

Knuckle puck lyrics. Jesus Christ. She's like, I'm gonna get the front bottom lyrics tattooed out of here.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:05

I would I I love the front bottoms.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:08

The front bottoms is one of my favorite bands. So I didn't really like I didn't really like them until we saw them live, and I was like, oh, they're fucking- Oh, we never saw them live. I saw Peach Pit Live. Peach Pit's really good. Peach Pit's the shit. I I was not a fan of Peach Pit by like just from like listening to music in the car with you. But then we saw them live, and I'm like, oh, they're like fucking legit amazing musicians. Like I would have never given them credit like that because they're a pop punk band, and I just yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:37

I thought I would consider Peach Pit pop punk.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:39

For sure they're pop punk.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:40

Look them up. Do you know Peach Pit?

SPEAKER_08 1:41:42

Look that shit up, Jamie.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:43

I think so. The name is familiar.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:46

You really want me to look up?

SPEAKER_08 1:41:48

Yeah, you're so bad at Googling too. You'll be like ChatGPT.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:52

I'm I'm on ChatGPT.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:54

Just Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:55

Oh wait, they use AI. What genre is Peach Pit?

SPEAKER_03 1:42:00

I've gotten into that that's a whole nother conversation.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:03

Yeah. Oh, we can get into it because Indie Rock. Indie Rock.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:08

Indie Rock, Surf Rock, Surf Pop, Bedroom Pop, Dream Pop.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:13

How about you just ask it directly if it's pot punk? Because that's all kinds of pop. And it's a punk band, so.

SPEAKER_09 1:42:19

Pop adjacent.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:20

Is Peach Pit pop punk?

SPEAKER_01 1:42:25

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:26

Peach Pit is not considered pop punk.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:28

Not the fuck ever. Okay. Breakfast at 2 p.m. came on and we debated the use of AI for like an hour out of the two-hour podcast. And they were like very against it. Oh yeah. Which I mean they're they're it didn't surprise me. After talking to them for a little while, I'm like, okay, you guys are like very liberal people. So and that's like one of the talking points with being a very liberal person right now is oh my god, AI, water, data centers, blah blah blah. But that's just not understanding that's not understanding how the data centers work and how how cooling towers and cooling systems function. It's just like a it's a it's a woke talking point right now, which Michael's the main guy, right? Okay, so Michael's Michael is had has good points about his his hesitancy in like being okay with using AI. He thinks that you know local artists should be used, and I told him like the I I talked about like the hell I went through trying to use local artists for my thumbnails and local artists for our you know, whatever, our episode art. And it's just impossible to get a it's impossible to get a graphic designer to get be a reasonable price, do it quickly, and not be a huge pain in the ass. Like it's just impossible. It's absolutely impossible. Why would I do why would I put myself through this hell when I could have Chat GPT generate something that is gonna make me no money, which is a thumbnail on YouTube, in 45 seconds and be done with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:15

Yeah, and uh it's unfortunate because it kind of gets a bad rap in a lot of ways because people use it negatively. People think when they think AI in terms of music, it's like an AI generated artist with AI generated music taking away from the bands and artists that actually do it. Whereas for example, me, like I I have uh I'm gonna because I don't want people to come after me because I already have. Like, for example, I have a uh booking platform that a friend and I have created called Musician's Show Show Pro. And it's a building platform, it's got 200 venues right now, and we're continuing to build it. And basically it's a booking platform for artists to book shows. It's got features like when you're looking at a uh venue, it shows the nearest hotels, the nearest airports. You can add it to your tour, and then it'll add it to your calendar. And then the one thing that's got people all worked up is the fact that within the calendar, you can click on AI poster generator and it'll generate a fucking shitty AI poster of all the dates that you've put in your calendar. And this guy, I'm not gonna name him off, but he was commenting on all my shit. Fucking don't don't associate with this artist if you want to work with a guy that uses AI, uh, to the point where he was commenting on all my posts and an Ohio bulletin board when I was looking for bands, to the point where the fucking venue made a post on their official page, like you know, basically thankfully defending me, but it was frustrating that he's even blowing up my shit. Like the I have look go look at my page. I have never ever put an AI poster on my page. It's just the if people want to do it, they can, you know, it's just an option, exactly. And I have definitely like when I'm sitting there at work and I get bored, I'm a big Steeler fan. I'll put in give me the Pittsburgh Steelers projections next year if they had this dude as their quarterback, and it gives me a whole fucking breakdown and I get excited, or it's like I'll get high, and it's like I want to build a camper off of a five by eight trailer frame, and it'll give me like a fucking detailed breakdown and shit.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:33

I do the exact same thing when I have time. I do the exact same thing. I love playing with one of the ones that I almost like set my phone on fire trying to calculate it was if reincarnation is real, how long will it take for me to live a full life span of every animal on earth? That's crazy. High as fuck pre-wipe sitting on the toilet. My phone was like crusty. My phone is like physically hot by the time it came out with an answer. What was it? I don't remember. It was like it was like several million years. That's crazy. It was fucking awesome. But there's a lot of animals, yeah, dude. It was it was it was a cool idea, and I was like, this is so funny. But I I think Okay, so the in the industry argument is oh, it's using so much water, it's this, it's but the water doesn't cease to exist after it's used in a cooling tower.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:30

I don't get that. What is the maybe I'm ignorant and I am, but how the fuck does AI use water? So am I dumb for saying that?

SPEAKER_08 1:47:41

No, I don't understand that either. No, because you'd think water has nothing to do with computers, right? But so there's cooling tower systems.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 1:47:49

If you go to downtown Detroit, any major city, you look at a large building, you're gonna see boxes that are the size of like uh like two semi-truck trailers, right, next to each other. And you'll see mist coming off the top of them. So basically what that is is you'll have some kind of cooling system where pipe is chilled water is running through the system and it's cooling whatever the utility that is that building is using. And by the time the water gets back, it has gained BTUs, it's getting hot. That water's hot or warmer than it uh needs to be, and it's fed to a cooling tower where that cooling tower is a giant waterfall, essentially. It it feeds the water down these ribs where the water trickles down so that it can uh release and off-gas these BTUs, which is heat, uh, into the atmosphere. So you're cooling water by trickling it basically down a waterfall, and there's a fan that's gonna be like sucking fresh air through these fins, I guess. Every single factory and large building on Earth uses, or at least in Michigan, use cooling towers to stay cool. So these data centers use cooling tower systems to cool these supercomputers and these f whatever, all this hardware that needs to stay cool to be able to compute. Like a huge thing in computing, I'm not a computer guy, but I do know that a huge thing in computing is temperature and you gotta keep everything cold. Like I like I've built a couple of IT rooms where we're like we we are cooling these rooms to like 59 degrees and they have to stay like that cold all the time. And uh and and a lot of them are up on raised floors because they actually like gotta have air moving underneath these systems. But so I don't know, someone along the lines posts oh my god, you can't believe how much water these data centers are using. It's like it doesn't cease to exist when the water is used. I don't understand. the argument here. I I don't get it. I I I I don't know. Maybe I need to read more about it or I but I feel like the ignorance is on that side where they're like you can't believe it. They just they they use 10,000 gallons of water for one generated video. And and the water still exists. It's just heated up and then it's cooled and it's circulated back through the system and there is makeup water because there's water lost through the cooling towers but so what? Every industry in the world uses water. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:37

So it's just kind of a sounds like a null argument because it's like every every industry uses it. So if you're going to cancel AI you gotta cancel everything.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:46

Yeah I mean I built a GM Lake Orion uh I mean we built this gigantic weld water system that uses two fucking huge cooling towers to cool off. I mean it's just like every industry uses them. And then the real estate argument is like oh my god they're buying up land to build data centers. Yeah every industry on earth buys up land to build a new thing. That's every fucking industry. So like I don't I don't understand what we're talking about here. It's just a new tool and I feel like if this was 200 years ago or 150 years ago these would be the same people that are like we can't allow automobiles to be invented because it's gonna hurt the bull whip manufacturers. What the fuck are we talking about? What are we talking about? Like the guy who makes dashboards for fucking horse drawn carriages is going to go out of business? Yeah that's what happens when there's like the next industry is invented. Like why would we hold ourselves back and not use the most incredible tool that works like a human brain but way more optimized. Right. You don't like a human brain it doesn't naturally go I want to research motorcycles. Okay let me go to the drawer that says motorcycles and find that does no we are like let me scan through let me optimize and go through these thoughts to get to what I let me get to the meat immediately instead of all these roundabout forums that we would have had to read on Google and then before that the books that we would have had to read to get to the information we're looking for. What it's it's a tool that just needs to be used with morals. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:32

Correct no and and I think that that's that would be a concern for me is like the fact of even now I can take a quick clip of myself and then there's a program I have called like Sora son of a bitch I keep trapping the cap. We'll get that after but um you can generate videos of yourself and they look really accurate to the point where like they would convince most like middle aged to sit senior citizen people like that it's a real video. It's like that convincing and I'm sure you guys have seen like videos of presidents stuff like that and shit where it's like all AI. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:53:10

And give it a couple years it's gonna be to the point where you literally will not be able to indistinguishable from last year to this year the the progress that AI generated images and AI generated videos has made is insane. Like I like the first logo that we ever had for this podcast was AI generated because I I I reached out to a couple fucking people and they just were impossible to work with. I was like fuck this let's try chat GPT and it gave me a janky fucking logo and I was like all right sick we're running with that because I'm sick of trying to you know ask for what I want and then it's like months later and nothing's happening right so um but now I can like take like we we for each episode we take a picture of some you know the the artist signing the wall and then we take a selfie together so I can use that as a reference and I plug into Chat GPT we're always fighting the guest which is silly but but each one of our thumbnails has Easter eggs of the topics that we cover. So it's like all right we like you and I we've talked about AI we've talked about it's fucking mushrooms mushrooms we talked about we playing music so like all of that will be in the thumbnail like some kind of like all these Easter eggs will be in the background of the thumbnail so I'm like I can't I could not get an artist to do this for me in you know within a reasonable amount of time like hey I'm posting I'm posting Nick Stevens on next Wednesday have a thumbnail ready for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:39

It would never happen or if they if they if it did it would be something that I was so unhappy with that I'd be like I'm not paying for this you know yeah that that's the frustrating thing like I I use Fiverr for a lot of stuff and I'm not sure if you do but I I don't use it but I'm familiar with it. Um like for example my I was sending my friends and cousins recently like an example of my recent single cover or what I wanted to be my single cover and they completely shit on it and they're like this looks like terrible looks like you made it on your phone which I did they're like pay someone on Fiverr which typically that's what I would have done. And I went on Fiverr and like all the options are like you can clearly tell these people are just AI or these are these are crap done covers that are done within Canva the same program I use and they're charging a hundred two hundred bucks and the cheap ones look like shit. So it's like Fiverr used to actually be like a legitimate thing of for artists to make a money make money. Yeah it will make money as well as like get you know I was using it for song promotion or album covers or I would send them clips and they'd make they I could like edit videos and stuff like that for upcoming shows to where now it's like scrolling through and half the shit's AI so it's you can pay somebody else for them to use AI or you could just pay for the program yourself and use it.

SPEAKER_08 1:56:06

That's a scumbag move to pretend that you're doing the work and then they just plug it into plug it into ChatGPT and do it and they made a hundred bucks off of a prompt. Oh that's fucking dirty.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:17

I feel like a lot of people are doing that though and that's why a lot of people have issues with AI just because people are using it and set and claiming that it's something they made yeah their work.

SPEAKER_08 1:56:27

Yeah but that doesn't I mean that doesn't even stop at art though. I mean how many people how many people do we know that are phoning it in at their job using AI to do their job half the time you know anybody that I know do you know anybody? Yeah I mean I feel like a lot of people use it at work yeah I mean like especially well yeah any anyone that has like an office type job can absolutely phone it in.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:49

Even to like write emails like if you're angry like just taking it what you want to say and putting it into chat GPT and be like make this sound nice.

SPEAKER_08 1:56:57

Oh I do nice professionally I do that to communicate with my ex because I want to just be like you stupid fucking bitch you know but instead I'm like I'll like I'll type out the way I want to say it and I'll copy and paste it into Chat GPT and be like can you rewrite this so that the emotion is out of it and the person receiving it is going to be more receptive to the idea and it'll just be like instantaneously I'm like okay that's better right I got it to foster yeah we foster diligently it always uses diligently and foster. Yeah but I asked for a raise uh via email and I use ChatGPT to write it and my foreman walks up to me he goes Foster Foster I didn't know you liked AI I'm like oh I'm a big fan fuck he's like yeah you're not getting it but oh what a dick he actually used ChatGPT to respond to me and he's like and he was like he was like I didn't even read it I just knew immediately it was he's like the double hyphen no one actually uses he's like immediately I knew it was AI yeah that's the thing though you can still like if you use it like you can still kind of tell like scrolling through I can instantly tell when people's posters or promotion I called her out like that I called her out the other day she sent me an email and was like what was the I texted you all right I said email you texted what did you text me about your debt okay so she she told me to she sent me a she sent me a text message and it was like I feel I I'm just can I when we as we're entering this new stage of our relationship becoming a married couple in September I'm concerned about your I'm concerned about your attitude regarding your debt and how you know how seriously it could really affect me and and I was like immediately I was just like don't fucking text me using AI. I'm Matt I'm not some random stranger so I was like a me like I talked about on stage that night I was like you are an open rook I was like she fucking I'm like listen I know I'm delicate but you fucking don't don't generate I'm like if you're gonna generate text messages to me I'm gonna generate text messages back and eventually we'll just let our two like AI fucking cell phones just like talk in that transformer fucking language and then I'd be like okay it says we can fuck now like there you go I'm fairly certain I'm pretty fairly certain it was South Park.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:23

I know it was one of those cartoons South Park American dad one of those shows where one of the guys couldn't text a girl or he was scared to so no it definitely was South Park. So he started using AI to text her and like he was having so much success and then like at the end it ended up realizing they were both using AI to text each other back and forth because like it was one of those things where she was texting him paragraphs and he never knew how to respond and so he just started copying it into AI and then sending it back to her.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:54

It's hilarious I love it. It's the way to do it damn I'm gonna well fuck should I not write it and should I not finish writing that bit then? Because that's not like now it's like I'm stealing an episode.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:04

Fuck damn it speaking of which um when you go up and like are you pretty much doing like open mic nights are you doing full sets or how's that yeah it's open mic nights and showcases right now.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:18

How long of a set do you typically do when it's like an open mic it's like five to seven most most of the open mics are are five minutes. There's a couple of ones that were it's like oh there's not much of an audience or it's all fucking comedians here. Let's all do like seven. Gotcha. And then I did Keisha's uh Keisha's was like just fucking do it do it until we're sick of you you know and uh which was cool to do extra time but it sucked waiting because it was like I'm like fourth on the list. Why have I been here for an hour and a half like fuck let's go you know but yeah no it's uh I love it dude it's like a whole it's a new addiction I I've been a lifelong fan of comedy and then to like finally do it it's like oh I've like unlocked this like new fucking psycho mode where I'm like constantly updating the same five minutes or you know I got I have all these premises dude if you looked at my phone and looked at my notes where I'm like I have like ideas for premises and you didn't know the context behind them like this guy's a fucking serial killer.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:18

Like what the fuck but for a while I got addicted to kill Tony just watching like all the episodes of that and um the more I got into it the more I kind of appreciated it less and less because it's like a minute it just it doesn't give you enough time to really appreciate an artist and what they can bring to the table and um but on the same token I feel like I have so much respect for a comedian because I found on stage it the thing we're trying to fucking avoid both of us is dead space. We do not we want as minimal dead or I should say dead air as possible. Yeah. And so I feel like as a musician um I'm like up there and I'm like you know bullshit and then all of a sudden I feel in my head like that and you were saying what about dead space?

SPEAKER_04 2:02:51

Dead air we still alive yeah we're still going but that was uh Oh yeah just you can wait till he gets back but it sounded like something was happening like a fight or something I thought there was a fire so I thought I was like they're kicking us out do you play any instruments? I used to play guitar um but I didn't practice enough and I should have kept up with it but piano a little bit but like I took guitar lessons and I tried to do that. My brother was a my brother could play any instrument that he touched um he mostly played bass and bands so like you were talking about bass earlier and I I always pick up on bass and music so that's why you were talking I was like I need to write this down because I always want to hear like cool bass lines. But yeah my brother was a huge musician so I tried to like follow in that but I just I didn't have that so then I started selling merch there you go for bands. So I could still be in the scene but I'm not talented.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:13

Well it it it can take a lot of time to it can take a lot of time to pick up and I know for me it was like the first year I was so frustrated in myself like trying everything just to get it and now it's to the point where after years and years it's like I built these calluses and my dad was telling me the other day he's like he was watching my hand he's like all your fingers are picks. It's like the only reason it's that way is because you know you just get comfortable doing it. For a while shoot I was you know scared to play and uh I shouldn't say scared I was nervous to play nervous to play and sing at the same time and it just took a long time to develop all that yeah at least a good I'd say a good couple years before I was able to play and sing at the same time on ukulele and then I transitioned to guitar.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:01

I used to play ukulele too that's cool. Yeah I have all these instruments that I that I played for a while and then kind of gave up on I used to sing too and just gave it all up with everything okay out there?

SPEAKER_08 2:05:17

Uh I'll tell you off mic there's a just some building drama gotcha I'll tell you what happened but um I I don't know if you guys could hear me but I literally yelled at them like go because they're scaring Jamie no I didn't hear that but sorry dude that was that was like the most annoying literally talking about how people don't want dead air when they're on stage that was like quiet.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:40

I was like what were you saying about dead air yeah sorry yeah if God I yeah you're good I'll tell I'll tell you off air I don't want I don't want to ear out the fucking drama in the building but that was annoying that was that that actually like pissed that that's got me completely in my fucking head now I'm sorry dude brother oh man so what were you saying about not wanting dead air oh yeah not wanting dead air so I have respect for comedians because it's like I have that internal thing in my head where it's like I've said some dumb shit or whatever but it's like fucking drums start or guitar start like and I can hide you know what I mean even though I'm the singer I can hide in the music. Sure. Whereas like you don't get that opportunity it's like I I could imagine like a fucking a bad joke and it's just silence and there's no fuck the only thing you get to fucking get you out of that silence is to keep talking and the right and I could imagine this has probably helped in some ways it's like just keep talking keep it going. Sure yeah because um you know I'd imagine that's probably important.

SPEAKER_08 2:06:46

Yeah you you definitely develop a muscle on like how to keep a conversation going and like and you the an unintended consequence of doing this podcast is I'm realizing how bad regular people are at talking. Like just like in regular life I'll be like like at work I'll be talking to like a a coworker and you just see them kind of like fizzle out energized like energy wise and like don't know where to go and I'm like it's alright man we're just working we don't have to talk. But uh yeah dude the the I told the kids we're gonna wrap up now that that happened because Jamie's scared. Okay. Yeah but uh so there I told them to clean up so that's what all the ruckus is out there. But um so what a fucking stupid situation that was um yeah the only out is to keep going and just like and you know what it like you you give yourself an if you fuck up and like you start bombing you gave yourself an obstacle and now the now the audience like almost doesn't want to laugh and you're like all right game on motherfuckers like alright now I'm gonna fucking now I'm gonna get you now I have a new you know now I have a new obstacle I gotta overcome which is I think it's good to bomb because it like it reveals where like the laziness in the writing was or like where the where you're phoning in the performance or whatever. And uh I I think it's I think I've learned more from bombing than I have from doing well because like if I do well I'm walk off like all right cool that worked.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:09

Yeah and then I go and eat an absolute plate of shit at a different room and I'm like what the fuck this all worked before like why is that you know but part of that is probably sometimes not you it could be the crowds as well which it's like a it's like a two-way street some you never want to say oh the crowd sucked but at the end of the day it's like you said if sometimes you killed in one room and you go somewhere else a half hour later and it bombs it's like what was the demographic what type of people were in the room because if you have a set that's catered to a certain type of people like if you're telling jokes to me about fucking MySpace like sure I I can tell you yeah I know what MySpace is but it's not gonna hit the sand right you weren't on there and you didn't experience the the MySpace days right yeah that I mean for sure yeah there's absolutely a thing there and uh yeah yeah yeah I so like I was I was I'm reading this book about stand up and uh and he said in there that I I wish I could remember the the author's name Steve Sabo maybe but in the book he says that if if you killed in the room it's half your fault.

SPEAKER_08 2:09:16

And if you bombed in the room it's half your fault. So like and but it's also half the audience's fault if you kill and it's half the audience's fault if you bombed. So like no matter what it's only half your fault no matter how it goes. So like you can take that home and and be distraught you can take it home and be content or you can take it home and be like exhilarated but just remember no matter how it actually went it's half your fault. Right. You know and I I and I think that was kind of an important thing for me to learn in by reading that book I'm like man so like this is a way to keep yourself neutral no matter the outcome of the night because there was I mean there's a couple days where I ate absolutely shit and I was like not yelling in the car just like I fucking wasted so much time. I've been I've been driving for three fucking hours to hit three mics tonight and I ate shit twice like what the fuck you know and I get home and I'm like all right all right let's shake it off listen back and then like she's been like listen back to the set maybe it's not maybe the set was okay it was just like you know you didn't jive with whatever that room and and then I listen back to the set I'm like actually like the way I the words came out in a better way or the performance was better but the reaction was way worse. I'm like oh so I'm making progress even though that room sucked you know and yeah it's a it's a it's a fun fucking discipline I I love it. Yeah but dude I I I I gotta wrap up I got the kids clearly okay but wait do you have anything coming up uh when will this drop? Probably in like by I would say like next Wednesday.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:54

Oh okay let's see if I can remember um my bandmates used to point at me for this shit. So uh this was the first thing I had lined up on in the month. Thank you guys so much for having me on I really appreciate it. I feel like we should uh grab a drink and a bite to eat sometime and I'd love to come to one of your upcoming open mics or shows let me know. I'll sit in the crowd all menacingly get them all fucking but like you can talk you can also like fucking shit talk me look at this loser looks like John Lennon and hopefully that gets you a few likes John Lennon John Lennon and Jeffrey Dahmer had a baby it's the glasses it is the glasses but um I I think you ask for it is Sarah my fancy Sarah she's the one who fucking when I was getting these I was like uh huh she's like serial killer I was like uh for some reason but it's okay I'll make this quick uh March 11th I'm playing at the blind pig in Ann Arbor uh March 14th I'm going over to near Cleveland, it's Maple Heights, Ohio. Going to be playing the Maple Grove Tavern with my good friends in yellow number five. They're going to be going on a national tour next month. Shout out to them. I love those guys. Um, following that, it's March 14th in Ohio. Um after that, it's March 21st at the Diesel Concert Lounge, Chesterfield. Uh Satur that's on Saturday. That's an Infused Productions show. Michael from Infuse is a really cool dude. Uh then the 25th at the Lager House in Detroit. That's a show that I booked with yellow number five as well. A couple other local bands, Capstone Volunteers and Simulation. Uh follow finally, I'm playing a private event on March 28th in Port Huron, which I will not say where that is at because it's private. Right on. But uh you're busy.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:53

That's good.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:54

Do you have uh people can find all this information also on like Facebook or it's uh on Facebook, you can just look up Nick Stevens or and I'm the dude with the crazy hair, or on uh Instagram, Nick Stevens Music. That's where my link tree is. I got tickets to all my upcoming shows. Plan to be going on tour in June, releasing my single either next month or the following. Um and if I see anybody at a show, hit me up, you'll get a free CD or sticker or both. Oh yeah. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_08 2:13:24

Killer, dude. Well, thanks so much for coming on. We'll definitely have you on again when there's not a fucking argument going on on the floorway.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:30

Let's go be a let's go get them in here. Let's all fucking argue.

SPEAKER_08 2:13:33

Let's air, like, air it out on the mic. Purpose is not survival, it's it's finding purpose in what you want to be branching out and be like, hey, we're gonna sit down and have a couple hour podcast.