First Spin

All the Wine: Farewell Currents, Empire Builder, and Songs for Letting Go

• First Spin • Season 1 • Episode 8

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This week I finally got to sit down with the whole lineup of All the Wine—Danny, Mike, and Wes. Their debut LP Farewell Currents came out last July, and it’s been living rent-free in my top albums list ever since.

We talk about how they made it work with one member living four hours away, the story behind Empire Builder (one of my favorite songs, period), and the inspiration for 97 Astro. We get into album art, growing up in the suburbs, and why they’ll always sneak a cover or two into a setlist. And if you’re a drummer—or just someone who likes to hone in on a single part—you’re going to want to hear the story behind Concave.

Songs in this episode: 97 Astro, Empire Builder, and Concave—all from Farewell Currents.

Stick around for the Final Spin where they drop some great below-the-radar artist recommendations—and if you’re in Chicago, go see them live. Trust me on this one.

🎧 Listen if you like: The Gaslight Anthem, The Menzingers, The National.

Artists Recommended in the Final Spin

If you enjoyed this episode, it’d mean a lot if you left a quick review—it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show.

And if you want to hear more artists worth your time, follow First Spin on social:
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Thanks for listening—see you next week.

Speaker 1 (00:00.942)
Hello and welcome to First Spin, a podcast for people who are tired of explaining why their Spotify rap is just steely Dan and whale sounds. Each week I'm going to introduce you to an artist who isn't yet getting the recognition that I think they deserve. Now there are only two rules. Number one, I dig it. And number two, the artist has less than a hundred thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. Now the goal here at First Spin is to help the artists we like continue to grow their fan bases. And honestly, just by being here, you're helping to make that happen.

So thanks for joining.

Speaker 1 (00:41.038)
Hey, hi, hello and welcome to another episode of First Spin. I'm your host Hayden and I am very excited about the featured artist today, All the Wine. All the Wine is a Heartland rock band from Chicago, Illinois and for the first time ever on the First Spin pod, we've got the entire band. They released their debut LP, Farewell Currents in July of 2024, which some of you know was on my list of the 10 best albums of last year.

I've been listening to All the Wine for quite a few years now, so I was stoked to finally chat with them about their music, how they approach their live shows, and how they deal with one of their members living in a completely different state. We're gonna play a little bit of their song, 97 Astro, and then get into my conversation with Danny, Mike, and Wes of All the Wine.

Speaker 1 (02:20.718)
Thanks for joining me. Welcome to First Span. Why don't you, why don't we start by introducing yourselves? Sure. I'll take the first. I'm Danny, Danny Cozy. I sing and play guitar in All the Wine. My name's Wes Moore. I play bass and do backup vocals in All the Wine. My name's Mike Sportello. I play drums. Just, just that. That's all I do. I want to talk about the drums at some point because the drumming, think, especially in this kind of music, man, the drumming like really, really makes it, you know, like this

You know, you can have great writing and great guitar parts and stuff, but if the drumming is not locked in, you know, it, the whole thing falls apart. And I listened to all the fellow currency again today and the drumming is just so fucking solid man. Thank you. But my question, my first question is where, where did the name come from? Farewell currents or for the band? Well, both where, where did all the wine come from? And then, yeah, why, why fell recurrence on the, on the first album?

Sure, yeah. Well, before I started the band, I actually owned and operated a massive vineyard. It was very successful. And we stole it from the national song. You actually had me there for like a split second. was with you. If you had kept going, I would have been like, what? Damn, I should have stuck with it. couldn't keep a straight face. But yeah, the band name we just stole from the national song. I listened to that a lot.

growing up like as a teenager and it just has like a nice sound to it. The song I always thought was really special to me. So took that for the band name. It's for the record title. I feel like over time that just sort of became what it sort of to me artistically summed up what we were singing about, what like the songs meant to me.

as I wrote them and it all came together over a very long period of time, all the music did. it's sort of just like I enjoy sort of plays on words and sort of using words that might mean multiple things depending on how you're like thinking about it. If you're smoking a lot of weed and listening to the record, you might think about the different word and different meanings of the words, but it's a

Speaker 1 (04:42.932)
It's a goodbye record. It's kind of a way to just acknowledge that what happened is over and it's in the past and it's bad. It's not good. It's just, that's sort of the way I wound up connecting to the music and the songs I was writing that I was writing a lot of farewells and I always have been enamored by bodies of water, by oceans, lakes, rivers. And so

the way that it sort of plays on words, it sort of felt like, you know, the way the music came together was all very flowing and messy at times and kind of not really confined to a process that I sort of envisioned at first. So currents kind of has like a double meaning there where it's like, it's, you know, singing about like boarding a ship and never coming home again. But also I think like, you know, currents in electricity, but also currents in like time. it just, there's a lot of that sort of

Playfulness with the language that has always been something I've enjoyed doing so in terms of it being Saying goodbye is it like saying goodbye to a particular period of your life? Is it saying goodbye to particular person or place? What because you wrote these songs over like you said like a long period of time, right? Yeah, I think it's sort of summed up in all three ideas you suggested it's it's

It's a goodbye to people, not necessarily specific people that I intend to call out in any song necessarily, but sort of the idea of what it means to let go, but also have that sort of grief still with you, with, you know, a connection or a relationship that's no longer either part of your life at all, or it's in a different way, it's still a part of your life, but not, but you still grieving some aspect of that.

And places too, perhaps in the same way, you know, I think about, um, I think about home a lot where I grew up, I think about the places I've been that have been meaningful in my life and just sort of how time just transcends all of that and sort of blurs all of those lines into, all of those different things into one like idea and sort of a farewell of like maybe who you used to be or a person or a

Speaker 1 (07:08.61)
thing in your life you thought you might do that didn't end up happening. So it's just kind of a, it's an acknowledgement of those things happening to all of us really. It's a very relatable experience. think a lot of us, we're about the same age. You might be a little younger than me, but I think, you know, when you get into your mid to late twenties, early thirties, you can start to realize no matter how great your life is going, like there are certainly aspects of it that

are turning out differently than you expected them to for better or worse. so yeah, letting go of some of those ideas that you had of what your life was going to look like when you were 15, the way it actually looks at 25 or 30. Somehow it turns out to be a different. Yeah. You like write the songs acoustically and then bring them to Mike and Wes to kind of flush them out. Or do you guys all get in a room and write songs together? does it vary? It's a little bit of everything. Yeah. Please, you guys, I mean, you guys are...

The two of you have helped me write different aspects of songs, entire songs. So like, please like, yeah, let's hear you first. Yeah, it's, it's a mix. There have been a lot of songs. feel like Daniel will bring to the table sort of more or less complete having been written on acoustic with lyrics and stuff, but sometimes they'll bring just a riff and we'll jam it. we, try and stay versatile in that regards, you know, just, just get together, jam something out, figure it out together. I think Farewell Occurrence was.

was more so Danny bringing us pretty complete songs. I think for the most part, those songs Danny would bring, you know, mostly fleshed out and then we'd add the bells and whistles, so to speak. Particularly, I remember like the first time I ever jammed with Danny, we played Empire Builder, which wasn't really Empire Builder yet, but it was mostly, I don't know, a couple of verses and maybe the chorus or something, but it was...

special I remember feeling like me. This is not just a song that I'm playing drums on. We are doing this together and then adding Wes in was like next level too. So I think it's really a special thing for us when we, we love when Danny brings a completed little present with the bow around it and we can just kind of jam out underneath it. But it's, it's a special time when we get to put it all together. Here's Empire Builder by All The Wine.

Speaker 1 (10:15.906)
that was actually the first time we jammed together. We also more or less finished the song. I don't know if you remember that because I had we jammed a couple like complete songs that were already like in the all the wine, you know, discography or whatever. was like, by the way, I've got this new one. That's kind of different. It's a little slower, a little heavier. Like, I don't really know how to finish it, but you want to play it. And, you know, you were just so into the idea right away. And I remember we

ran through the verse chorus idea once or twice. And then we were like, well, we need a bridge. We need some kind of transition to the ending. And it just hit. Like we played those, those, uh, uh, those G chords like for a long time. And I was like, well, I didn't know where to move with this chord progression, but it feels like it should just stay on this chord for the whole bridge. And that was it. That was the whole song. And it was done the first time we jammed. I knew I was like,

Cool. This isn't just like a guy who can play drums. This is a songwriter who uses drums to write his music. you know, it changed everything. There's no better compliment for a drummer. He's a songwriter's drummer. I've spent most of my life just trying to convince people I can read music, know, let alone compliments like that. So thank you, Danny. Wes is like a songwriter's bassist, a bassist songwriter, like...

There's other moments that he's, Wes has like contributed in the same way. Like specifically with Wes was, I couldn't figure out certain parts of our song 10.03 and Wes, you wrote that kind of pre-chorus riff. the first one and the second one, I think we wrote together, but I kind of had an idea off of your inspiration or inspired by your idea. like, it's just, you know, things like that, like I'll bring them more or less full packages, but they're missing the shipping label or like I haven't.

actually box them correctly. And then these guys will just like do that with me. And then it becomes something much better than I would have created my own. Wrapping up presents is definitely a lot more fun when you have friends to do it with. That's true. I'm glad you brought up Empire Builder because as you know, Danny, for sure, I've been a fan of what you guys are doing for quite a while now, a number of years. And Empire Builder, well before it was on Firewall Currents, you guys had released it as a single.

Speaker 1 (12:40.566)
I think it just popped up on a random playlist on Spotify or something one day. And it immediately was just like, yeah, like this is, this is fucking awesome. And it to this day, I'm not exaggerating to this day. Empire builder is like one of my absolute favorite songs, like period. Like that song comes on and I'm just like, I'm ready to just take on the world. Like I love it so much. you guys definitely struck some magic with that one. That's so awesome.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And I, that means a lot to me. And it's also kind of how we became friends too was, cause like this is our first time chatting in person, so to speak, other than just like Instagramming or texting that, you know, just getting to know you and talking about the music. So that's, that's such a terrific compliment, man. Thank you. Yeah. I will. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I mean it. So I know Wes, you don't live in Chicago, right? Mike and Danny, you

You grew up just outside of Chicago and you still live in Chicago, but West you live in Indiana. that correct? That is correct. Yeah. Richmond, Indiana, which I Google maps today. It's like a four hour drive. Yes, that is correct. I feel like that complicates some things, but that's got to make it challenging sometimes, right? When you've, you know, band practice and gigs and

It does. Yeah, it does make it more complicated. And I, especially because I moved back here, my hometown to start a family. have a child now. that's definitely the first couple of years after moving back, it was difficult. We, I think you've at least played a show a year since I moved out of Chicago. Just about. But this year, I mean, I think I'm coming up for fourth show or no, maybe third show. So now that my child's a little older, it's a little easier to get up. So yeah, it's still, it's difficult.

But I find things are getting, getting a little easier to balance. I, know, it is a four hour drive, but I, I mean, absolutely love these guys. I love playing music with them. when I told them I was having a baby, they, there was like no question that they were going to let me just sort of handle that those first initial years and stay in the band, which I appreciate a lot because I love writing music with them. But yeah, it's, it's, it's complicated, but it is, it is getting a little easier. When Wes told us, were like, yeah, you know,

Speaker 1 (15:01.666)
You got a kid go do the dad thing, but like, this is your real thing. Like, you know, you take some time and, you know, sort your shit out, but this is the real thing. Have fun on your side quest, you know, the whole, the whole being a dad thing. That's real cute. Have fun with that, let's back to business. She's exactly. Yeah. She can take care of herself. Basically. Yeah. She's basically a grown woman. She's fine. So.

I want to talk about, so Farewell Currents came out July 5th. So we're coming up on the one year anniversary. What's the inspiration behind the album cover? Cause the album cover is so cool with the birds and the thank you street, the telephone poles. That was such a cool process. So we worked with a woman named Haley Cantor, who I met her through this band called Carpool. They're based out of New York. I think she did the record art for Carpool's most recent.

LP or the one that had come out in 23 or 24, I think 22 or 23, excuse me. And I just loved it so much. thought she did terrific work and her style was really interesting. So I reached out to her and I just kind of sent her the demos. sent her the lyrics and a bit of some background of the band. And we just emailed back and forth for like three, four months and she sent back several sort of concepts and the guys and I talked them through and

just decided over time, like what was working visually and with the typography and the font choices she used and the colors especially. She just really honed in and understood what we were about. I think she captured something visually with the art that had I done the record.

art myself like I have with other releases. Again, like with Mike and Wes, like I wouldn't have been able to come up with something as cool and as striking and as meaningful if I didn't sort of trust that her expertise and her skill was gonna really boost what the vibe of the record was gonna look like. And she did a terrific job. You look at the album and you can, like you look at the cover of it and you can almost like immediately tell what the style of music is gonna be.

Speaker 1 (17:18.934)
in a weird, you know, in like a, in a cool way. But I think that's rare when you like see an album cover and you're just like, yeah, I know what, I know what this is going to be and I know I'm going to like this. That's awesome. It's the best example of judging a book by its cover and being right. Yeah. In a good way. I love that. I love, I love the album cover when I first saw it, Danny, I don't, I think we had this conversation. I was like, that image of the power lines and the birds,

just like transports me to the suburbs. Danny and I are both suburban boys from Naperville, Illinois. you know, say what you will about the suburbs. They're pretty uncool in general circles, right? But there is a vibe out there in these like liminal spaces, you know, like the power line alleys that go between towns and stuff. I don't know, with the theme of farewell currents, like growing up and

leaving home behind and all these things. just like brings me, takes me back to, I can like hear the picture, these weird like views you have when you're growing up of these weird liminal spaces on the fringe of your world, you know, and birds flying out of the power lines. It spoke to me immediately. And I was like, I'm almost not surprised Hayden that there's like a vibe from that little image that translates to the music. Cause I think it just makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah. Well, it seems like it was you would say her name is Hayley. Excuse me. I, Halley.

Hallie Cantor is right. Well, she did a great job. So kudos to her. Now, did you, Danny and Mike, grow up together? I know you're from the same town, but you know each other as kids or? Not at all. We probably were in the same place many times, but no, we didn't meet until 2017, I think. Mike, I think you came with...

Ellie to a, our friend Ellie to a, open mic or something that I was playing, or maybe I just did an acoustic show. Actually, even before that, I fell in love with you before I knew you. Danny, I used to, I worked at the time I was working at a recording studio in Chicago that's now closed, but it was called Ivy lab studios and one of my RIP was a great spot. Good times there. One of my co-engineers there, Paul Alucalesi. I believe it was Paul.

Speaker 1 (19:43.148)
was doing a master for Letters to Laura, I want to say. That's right. That would have been it. I walked into the control room while Paul was working on this and I was like, Paul, who the fuck is this? He's like, this is my buddy Danny, blah, blah, blah. was like, I'm going to be in this band, Paul. It's decided. I'm in. I was like, who's playing drums on this? He's like, it's just Danny now. I'm not sure he even has a band anymore, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, you're hooking me up, Paul.

How do I, how do I meet this person? And I'm like, maybe embellishing a little, but that was basically how the conversation went. So, then other mutual friend, Ellie, ended up getting me the, you know, the meet cute with Danny at the, think it was an open mic that you were playing. I went to go see and then the rest is history. It was at the elbow room when that was still around. also RIP. Although I think they, I think they reopened it now. a different, it's called book club. Book club.

I think it's some folks who had like a DIY venue called Book Club and then they took over the elbow room space. that? Legendary space in Chicago. Everyone's played there. There's also a little more to the backstory with me and Mike because we started, we got connected, you we started chatting and we met for a beer at Four Moon Tavern, I think in Roscoe Village and we were just sort of talking, found out.

We were both from Naperville, you know, never like we said a minute ago, like never met, never really rolled in any of the same circles, despite loving the same music, playing in bands and doing, you know, the city thing. And then we started talking music and two records come up between us that more or less define, I think, how we first connected. And it was a 59 sound by Gaslighting Anthem and Home Like No Place Is There by The Hotelier. We just immediately we're just like, OK, then we're doing this. This is like

These are two of the best records ever and we have to do it. 100%. I'm glad you brought up the 59 sound because that was one of the things I was thinking about today, Mike, when I was really, I was really dialed in on the drumming today. You know, it's fun when I don't know if everybody's this way, but when I'm listening to music that I'm familiar with, sometimes I'll just like really hone in on like the, you know, one particular instrument or one particular portion of the song. And today when I was listening, like I was really honed in on the, on the drums.

Speaker 1 (22:05.998)
And there were, there are a couple of tracks in particular, concave and was the opening track, be still both of those. was like, is this Benny? Is this Benny from the gas? I'm doing this drumming like amazing. He's better than Benny. Oh, come on. I would never, I could never. Sure. Benny would concede. I'm sure Benny would agree. Yeah. Hey, and I'm glad you brought up concave because I also remember.

listening back to the first rough cut of Concave from the studio, we had played that song live and together in our practice space a million times. And I, for whatever reason, just never fully appreciated what Mike was doing behind that kit until the instrumental break in Concave before the big outro hits. And I'm just listening to Mike's fills in these heavy moments. And I was like, God damn, like that's, just.

I mean, I've always been impressed with Mike's drumming, there's, there's intensity to those fills and to the rhythms he did on that song. And that one similarly like rings, it resonates with me just by focusing on the drums, like you were saying, like listening to just the drums on that track is such a experience. Thanks. I'm particularly fond of my part for that track.

G.

Yeah

Speaker 1 (23:28.032)
I was very inspired at the time by, and God, I should have looked up this person's name. I don't know their name, but whoever is the drummer in piano's become the teeth that their album keep you was on my like constant rotation that year that we were writing that one. And, I'm just, I love the way they write their parts. It's very like, I hate to say Tom heavy, but it is Tom heavy. Yeah. Or about like the.

The way that they compose the parts, sort of, it veers off from like your typical punk rock or emo drumming where like cymbals become, they have a different function than usual and you're like sparing the cymbal hits for when it really matters. And there's a lot more of this like sort of repetitive, I guess ostinato is like the musical term, but like these repetitive percussive sort of layers that come in and out and build. And I just love that the record keep you and I love the drumming on it.

Shout out to Pianos, Become the Teeth, and whoever their drummer is. I'm sorry I didn't learn your name, but... The nameless drummer. The drum part for Concave definitely wouldn't have happened without being inspired by that album. Here's Concave by All the Wine.

you

Speaker 2 (24:49.708)
Time to get showtime!

Speaker 1 (25:55.342)
So Wes, do you have a meet cute story with Danny as well? I sure do. Or with both of these guys? It was a pretty fun night. Spontaneous too. Yes. And I did, so I played in another band for a while and we had actually years before had played with All the Wine and I remember seeing All the Wine and I was like, oh that's cool. And we were actually, that other band, we were meeting up to sort of celebrate an album release or something and Danny had went to school with members of that band. And I think maybe they hit Danny up to

just come hang and we were near or something. And Danny and I just really hit it off, became fast friends. We bonded over music of a different sort. And I believe it was Kenny Loggins. And I want to say that when we had the conversation about, cause I told Danny I played bass in even another band at the time I had played. So I played in two other bands and I'd said, I played bass. talked about it. And I believe we had the conversation about me playing bass in all the wine while we were pissing. I think we were at urinals talking about it. You can be vulnerable, right?

It was one of our many sort of corporate meetings at the urinal. We have a lot of important conversations at the shared toilet. A lot, like often. Well, because there was one time we were at one of our practice spaces and Mike and Wes jump in the bathroom and I'm like, I got to go too. I might as well just walk in there. And they're both at the toilet and I just barge in and I just go, well, isn't it?

Is it not just a couple of piss and peedies we got here? Neither of them turn around and I panic thinking it wasn't my band. Because I don't think they realized it was me. Who else is going to saying that? It's a weird town. Chicago. I don't know. Yeah, it could be anybody. Plus, actually, we also bonded over Brian Adams. was...

The summer of 69, that's why we played it at one of our first couple of shows together. Two of the first shows we played as a band. Yeah, that was a cover. I forgot that we did that. That's classic. Those were the before the end times. Actually bust that one back out. That'd be fun to hear. We might have to. that would. We've lately started adding one or two covers to every show just to just for the hell of it. Like we've played, you know, just to warm up at practice and just to sort of get the rust off if it's been a while.

Speaker 3 (28:02.318)
You guys should,

Speaker 1 (28:19.628)
for between jams and everything. We throw down a few covers here and there. I think, you know, there's fun and they're fun to play. They keep people engaged in the show if you mix them in there. I think it's great. Even when even when, you know, really established artists play covers, I think it's fun. When I saw Gaslight last time here in L.A., they did a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul to Squeeze. Just.

It was the one and only time they've ever done it. Brian's such a big Chili Fervers fan and he was like, I'm gonna do a Chili Fervers cover. And it came out of nowhere. Like nobody was expecting it. And it ended up being the highlight of the night. Cause it's just like, what is happening? know, it's a, that actually sort of lends itself to kind of my, like, I guess my philosophy as a musician and as a performer is that there, there is definitely always like the bulk of the show is to express our artistry, like our songwriting and

the things that means to us, but that we've created. But at end of the day too, we're also entertainers and we're performers at heart. And for me, that's all about making sure that people that are not on stage are also having a great time. And sometimes even, you know, they can, a good cover can save an otherwise maybe not so great set. I mean, you pull out a good cover and people who maybe are chatting or you lost them to whatever is going on in the bar or the venue.

They suddenly go, oh, hey, I know this one. And then can sing along with this one. And exactly. Yeah. And I feel like we've always picked songs that are both really fun to play, but also fun to participate as a crowd member. Summer 69 was I remember like some even today, I remember some faces of people getting excited that we were playing that one. We did what we do at the last show we play. I think we played that Buzzcock song ever fallen in love.

And you know, and also thinking about the last show I saw, just saw Local H at Liar's Club. It was the 30th anniversary of the bar and Local H ended their set with a fucking excellent cover of Ain't No Grave. And it's not really something you'd expect a loud, noisy rock band to jump into, but they killed it and it was a terrific way to end the set. so I think it just lends credence to the idea that like

Speaker 1 (30:41.23)
Play your originals, do your artistry thing and express your originality. But there's also this sort of, what's the word I'm looking for? Like a synergy between yourself and the audience. if they're not feeling it, I'm not gonna feel it. So I need to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to keep people excited, enthusiastic and engaged. And also just really it's about connecting with people through the music.

playing our songs has clearly been a big part of that, but playing other people's songs, it's just as fun. Well, you guys also released that really cool cover of Mexican guitars by the Menzinger's that was on that tribute to the Menzinger's album. Yeah. What's the story about how, like, how did that come to be? Like, was it just like somebody who's bored during COVID and they decided they wanted a bunch of bands to cover Menzinger songs or, you know, like they're still together, they're still playing shows. It's like, yeah.

Yeah, it's a it was more or less a COVID project, like a lockdown project. But this was because 2021. But there is this label out in I think they're based in New Jersey, but they're in the Northeast somewhere called A Few Good Records. And they do this sort of thing a lot where they just put comps together of a bunch of bands covering either like one band's music or like a style of music. think at the I think just after

the election last November, I believe they released like a protest music comp. So they were doing that sort of thing all the time and they did a men's singers one once and they reached out to us and just asked if we'd like to do a song for it. And we went back and forth between Max Team Guitars and one or two other songs, I think. But yeah, that was that was really fun to work on. And that was also recorded, I think, entirely remotely. I did my guitars in like

I think I just did Kocach Band. I just did some plugins on Garage Band that sounded cool. And then I recorded the vocals in my closet with the mic set up. It was very, it just really captured our spirit as kind of a DIY band, but it was also by necessity due to lockdown. So it was a really fun project. Yeah, no, that's really cool. I want to get back to talking about Feral Currents a little bit more too. There's another song on it besides Empire Builder that I just love.

Speaker 1 (33:03.854)
97 Astro, speaking of the men's fingers, I get, I get men's fingers vibes big time from that song. And there's, there's a line in there that, that really jumps out at me. Um, you're a painting hanging up on Spanish and an empty wall reminiscent of the place that we knew when we were younger. I know I said that really fast, but like, what a fucking lie. So talk to you about that, where that, what the meaning behind that is and the song in general. Cause I feel like there's, there's a story behind that song as a whole.

Yeah, sure. Thank you. Again, that's a really lovely compliment and it means a lot to me. That line, I forget quite how it came to be, but I was writing that song for a couple of weeks and I really liked the of the chord progression of the bridge as being kind of just moving between the, you know, just like just a couple of notes here and there for the change of that chord. And I just wanted to take that moment of like the songs are being broken down and just kind of

slow but steady and just say something that felt really emotive and and I have had this sort of lyrical image in my head for years of like hallways have always been kind of been interesting to me like with depending on like the lighting in them and like I started painting in like 2017 2018 and I really

really took to it. had something I had always wanted to do and I started realizing how incorporating different creative hobbies just as I got older started impacting how I wrote and it started inspiring me in different ways. And the idea of kind of hanging up a painting unfinished as sort of a metaphor for, I guess, for all of us being

incomplete or imperfect and being very flawed, but still being displayed on display. just felt that, you know, when we're young, especially, we don't quite know how we're fucked up. We don't quite know ourselves. And I had experiences as everyone does in my twenties where you sort of look back on that and you're like, what the hell was happening back then? Like, who was I?

Speaker 1 (35:26.092)
Like, why was I surrounding myself with them or with this person or why was I acting like that? Like, I don't want to act like that ever again. I sort of just, I wanted to acknowledge that feeling of just like recognizing when

you are not in any shameful way, but when you're not your best or when you've not treated people in the way you wish you would have or whatever. And I felt like that's like hanging up a painting without finishing it. Like you just kind of, you're like, all right, here it is, fuck it. And it just meant a lot to me to include that visual in that song, because that song was sort of inspired by moments and memories like that where

I either felt like maybe I wasn't the person I wanted to be or experienced a person at like a low point in their life where in other circumstances they might have been a better version of themselves. And it's kind of a, I sort of joke that that's a song for Tony Soprano because he's just, he's a broken flawed and kind of a sort of an unforgivable character. And yet there are so many people who just like

love that show, love his character. And there's a real fear and sort of frightened child deep down in that big mob boss. So I felt like, damn, if this show can humanize someone like that, I can at least try humanizing other people too in my music. That's great. I love that. Yeah, the unsungish painting thing, I think that's a beautiful, beautiful analogy. am

constantly surrounded by actual unfinished paintings. My wife is a brilliant artist painter and she doesn't know when paintings are done sometimes. And so we have paintings all over our place, like that, like sometimes just disappear. And I'm like, where did that go? And she's like, I kept, decided I wanted to keep working on it. And I was like, but I liked it. She's like, yeah, but it wasn't done. So I'm just constantly surrounded by it. So think that's, I think that's a really, really cool analogy. The last song on

Speaker 1 (37:44.364)
the album is behind the bar on the 4th of July. It just feels like an album closer, which I think is great. And I think that's really cool. you guys close shows with that? Just about. We do an older song that is also a closer off of our first EP called I'm Tired, I'm Wasted, I Love You Darling off of our summer parade demos. Behind the Bar is always the penultimate. It's always at least right before. It's kind of a

It's sort of because it's the closing song on the record and it fits so well there as like sort of the bookend of that album. And then we're like, all right, we're going to really close the show with this song. like, I'm tired and wasted. I love you, darling. That's like, OK, we're partying now and everyone goes home after. But behind the bar, it's that's more or less the end of the show. Is it a coincidence that it was released on the 5th of July and there's the it's got 4th of July in the title?

wish, but no. We had planned to release that record probably a lot earlier than it wound up coming through, but it just kind of the way it worked out. in a way, looking back, I'm actually stoked that it's like a 4th July weekend party album. that being the title of the last song, it's more serendipitous than anything else. The last segment.

The pod is called Final Spin and it's just kind of rapid fire questions. So I want each one of you to take a stab. First question is if you could open for any artists living or dead, who would it be? Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash, A-F-I. I thought someone was definitely going to say Gaslight Anthem. So I'll Gaslight Anthem. They are making a biopic about all the wine who's playing it.

Ryan Gosling. Yeah, for sure. Shaved head. I could see it. Yeah, that would work. He would capture you, Wes. I don't know this guy's name. This is my theme today. Not knowing some people's names. You know that show 13 Reasons Why? I'm familiar with it. Netflix show? When that came out, the main character in it.

Speaker 1 (40:02.454)
I had like three different people in my life contact me and be like, my God, you're in this show. And he's like a teenager in the show, but he does kind of look like me as a teenager. So whoever that guy is, he can play me. He's much better looking than me, but you know, that's the point here. I mean, unlike Wes, cause yeah, there must be, it must, it must work. Danny, who is it? I would want Nicolas Cage to play me. Totally. I think his style of acting mirrors

how my life often feels. Wait, I'm gonna need you to elaborate on that. Just chaos and a little bit eccentric at every turn. He keeps you guessing with the way that he gets into character. And I've seen enough of his movies to know that he and I would get along. I think we'd understand each other. Have you seen a dream scenario? No, I have wanted to though.

It's.

Speaker 1 (41:00.044)
wanted to watch Emily ever since it is fucking mind blowing. You go watch it. It's so good. I'm do that right after this. Yeah. And then, then text me and tell me what you think. I just thought of, I thought of a backup answer. Robert De Niro with aging down technology, like in the Irishman. I want to include, I want to include new Hollywood. We love De Niro. He's like our hero as a band. We quote him more than probably anyone. So yeah.

I'd say even more than the Sopranos. quote Goodfellas and Casino pretty regularly. For sure. Even more than Tissy and Petey. Yeah, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Scorsese reaches out to us to get some licensing to use that in a movie. For sure. It's coming. Because these are our character. Who's a band or artist that you love that people might be surprised by? You know, every once in a while I can be a bit of a death metal head.

there's a band called behemoth that is outstanding. don't even know where they're from, who they are, but they have an album called the Satanist, which is exactly the record is exactly how it sounds. And it's just, it's fucking brutal. It's one of my favorite albums to listen to. Just while you're like doing dishes or when are you listening to the Satanist? When I'm cleaning, yeah. Cleaning, doing dishes, you know,

carving a pentagram into my floor, just basic household stuff, know, things like things we all do at home, right? When we're alone. So for me, it's a Björk definitely just, you know, I had heard of the artist before and then saw her on YouTube and, uh, blew me away. was like, Oh, Björk's supposed to be real weird. And then I just fell in love immediately. So yeah, that would be mine. I could see you liking Björk. Mine, guess is probably.

The 1975 British pop rock band. Their first record, I forget when that came out, I was immediately like, if you're not into this, you don't have a soul. I'm not even embarrassed. It's so tight. It's so the melodies and everything are so good. I'm just a sucker in general for like super slick pop. of that slick British pop shit, I just can't get enough.

Speaker 1 (43:23.502)
saw them on their, uh, their most recent tour. that was one of the absolute coolest shows I've ever been to just fans. I mean, they had a whole, like, was like, they built a living room on stage and like various people would just like come out and like sit in the chairs and they'd be like, you know, pretending to have full conversations and drinking. And they were all over the place. were TVs on the stage everywhere. mean, it was, it was incredible. Maddie, you only gets up on the roofs of the building at one point. Like it's, it's wild.

It sounds like a great show. My final question is, and it'd be great if I got three different answers, but it's okay if they're the same. Who's an artist on Spotify with less than a hundred thousand monthly listeners that you think people should be listening to?

That's a great question. Damn, I might need to check my Spotify. Yeah, check your Spotify. I want to give a good answer to this. What's the limit? What's the monthly listener? 100k. 100k. Damn. Yeah, this is a great question. I feel like I have so many potential answers. I've got one for sure. Because I just saw them this last week. I saw the Fall of Troy and the band that opened for them is called Lobby Boxer.

And they are fantastic. my God. They, they cause like not only were they really tight band and the music was really good because they're kind of like, I don't, I don't even know. Like, like they're punky, but with like a really kind of like hard rock and roll guitar riffs and stuff, but they just, they put on a great performance. They're like, it's, it's one thing to be a really good band, but they were really good performers. And I really admired that, but yeah, they're fantastic. They're on St. Louis, but yes, lobby boxer.

Wes, your answer helped me. The opener for Local H, show I just saw this last weekend, a band called Tough Suds, T-U-F-F-S-U-D-Z, they opened and they were just blew me the fuck away. First time I ever heard of them, first time I ever listened to them. And similar to what you're just saying, Wes, like their songs were incredible, the performance was amazing, and they were excellent performers. And I did just check, they only have a few hundred

Speaker 1 (45:35.544)
followers and listeners, know, so like they're definitely below the radar and they, I talked to the singer briefly after and I just was like, you guys, like, I was just so excited to talk with them because they, was one of those shows where you just, you walk away feeling almost more excited. You caught the opener than you caught the headliner and they were fantastic. That's why I'll never understand people that don't want to go for the opener. Cause like, that's how you might find your next favorite band. Like that's the best. It's the absolute, you go and you're just like, fucking love the opener. Yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's, uh, you're totally right. All right. Sorry. I'm not good with numbers. A hundred K. Is that what we're saying? Less than a hundred K? Yeah. Less than a hundred thousand. I'm like looking through my Spotify, like everyone I listen to is less than a hundred K. I'm I gotta get out. That's great. Except for the, except for the 1975, obviously. My most recent artist that I had just stumbled on that I'm super digging, that's very unique and I just can't get enough. It's like the...

the smell you can't stop smelling sort of thing. Is this artist named Meryl Streak? I feel like I just saw that name the other day. S T R E E K Meryl Streak. Yeah. And I thought it was funny cause it's like, you know, obviously the pun. Yeah. I saw that I saw that I didn't listen to him, but I saw the name. Man, the, the record that I've been really digging is called songs for the deceased, but, I can't even, I'm not even going to try to explain what it is, but check it out. It's like a little.

It sounds like nothing I've ever heard. It's pretty punk rock, but in attitude, not necessarily in sound, but super cool. Cool record. That's kind of our thing. Yeah, right. Exactly. Doesn't really sound like all the wine, but we could go on tour together. It would work. Love it. I love it. Well, hey, thanks again, guys, so much. This is so much fun. I really appreciate you jumping on.

like I said, I'm just such a big fan of what you guys are doing. I hope I can make it out to Chicago to come see you guys live soon, or hopefully you guys can do a West Coast tour and come play in LA. You got a place to crash if you do for sure. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you for having us. This has been such a blast. you know, it's also great cause we don't really, the guys and I don't really get a chance to hang out all that often. So this was a really nice treat.

Speaker 1 (47:53.462)
to add to it. So thank you guys for having us. I'm glad I get a good help facilitate the bromance. All the Wine is playing this Thursday, August 14th at Fault and Log in Logan Square, Chicago. They're also playing at Burlington Bar on September 21st, also in Chicago. So if you're in the greater Chicago area, you got to go check them out. And if you're in Indiana, know, maybe Wes can pick you up on his way. In the meantime, go listen to their music, buy their merch, tell your friends. That's all for this week.

Thanks to Brian for making this sound good. Thanks to you for listening and you know what? Send this to your mom. I think she's gonna like it. Okay, bye.