Behind the Music: BJ Mandrel & Bench Jeweler Melodies, Vol. 2

This is one of those special episodes — meaning we got together with our good friend “BJ Mandrel” and immediately stopped behaving like responsible adults.

If you’re new here, "BJ" is not just a recurring character in our chaos… he’s a real human being, a longtime friend of ours, and yes — he actually worked in our jewelry store for years. He’s also genuinely a musician, which he will remind us of whenever there’s a guitar within 30 feet.

Now, about the “music” you’re going to hear in this episode: let’s just say it was created with the cutting-edge technology of “us messing around with AI and pretending we’re a record label.” It’s all in good fun, and if it sounds like a genre that doesn’t exist yet… that’s because it probably shouldn’t.

As always, we take absolutely nothing too seriously, including ourselves. Expect questionable business ideas, even more questionable lyrics, and a level of sarcasm that should probably be regulated.

If you’re reading this far into the description, congratulations — you’re officially in the inner circle of people who understand that this podcast is mostly just an excuse for friends to hang out and say ridiculous things into microphones.

Enjoy the episode. Or don’t. BJ would probably say the mixing is off anyway.

Follow us on Instagram & YouTube @benchjewelermemes

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Coming to you live from Step Daddy Rum Studios, it's your favorite podcast, the Bench Jeweler Memes Podcast in five, four, three, two, one. We are here with Dusty Brad and a very special guest. Take it away, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

You count it down after.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

Alright, well, that's one way to get it started. Alright, if you can't tell already, and they shouldn't be able to tell. Oh, Lord. Brad, we are in Stepdaddy Ron Studios. Sure are.

SPEAKER_12 0:43

The one and only, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

BJ Mandrell is back in the studio. And for a very particular should we do a round of applause?

SPEAKER_13 0:51

Yes. For a very particular reason. Thank you for having me back, guys. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

Um it's always back. Make sure for someone to your caliber, don't forget to get close to the mic when you're talking. Don't make me slap you.

SPEAKER_13 1:05

I'm a professional musician. I know how microphones work. Your voice does carry.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

But we go we need it to carry about one, two inches from that microphone. Well, it's been a while. We haven't seen you since Well, we've seen you. But we haven't had you on the show since before Christmas, right? Yeah, it was just a little before Christmas. That's right. And if you want to give us some quick life updates on BJ Mandrail, I know you've had a busy year. The year is up. Fill us in on what you've been doing, where you are. Yeah. How you've been.

SPEAKER_12 1:38

The year is up. Uh, as some of you know, I had recently told you guys about the amazing musical opportunity I had where I was uh, you know, doing some traveling, working in these studios, getting some recording done. It was a fun contract. The uh contract technically has kind of come to an end in a way.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Um we were they were excited to renew it.

SPEAKER_12 2:00

Weren't they? There's there's a lot of talks about renewing. I just kind of haven't decided if that is exactly what I want to do. You know, things are clearly really taking off with the music, um, which was the goal of doing this contract in the first place. But you know, we got this the second album out, um, and uh we're we're feeling really good about it, which is what brings me here today.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Yes. That's what we on the last episode that got posted, at the end of that episode, we played the first single. Now, when people hear this for the regular release, let me look at dates and stuff. This Saturday, the Saturday after you're hearing this, you will be able to listen to and stream the new single, which we'll get to in a minute. Yes, we will. And then on May 30th is the volume Ben Stiller Melodies Volume 2 uh album drop. And I think this one best one so far.

SPEAKER_13 2:54

I I think we've really outdone ourselves.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

I mean there there are some really serious bangers on volume one, but uh And there's some just little um Easter eggs spread out throughout, which we'll get to. We'll get to that. The artistic value has definitely uh increased. I think. I think you pushed yourself. We thought you did last album. I think you really pushed yourself this album.

SPEAKER_12 3:15

And this is this is what we're here for. There's always new heights to reach in these industries.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

So let's do this because some people are new to the show, and some people, if you have not listened to the first BJ uh Mandrill interview that was back last year, go listen to that. But just a quick recap you do have jewelry experience. So briefly remind everyone your jewelry experience, a little bit of music experience, and how and why you mesh these two together.

SPEAKER_12 3:45

Yeah, I've been a musician my whole entire life, you know, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist. Um the music has always been in me. Uh to kind of you also been in the music? Yeah, I I I tend to go into the music. Okay. Me and the music have a very serious uh symbiotic relationship. Nice. Um little bit after college, I needed to find a way to make some ends meet as I was trying to get the music thing up and running, ended up uh finding a little job here at this lovely uh store uh owned by Dusty. Remain anonymous for now. Um and uh started working here, learned a whole bunch, learned the ins and outs of the industry. But of course, like I said, I am a musician first, so the whole entire time I was here, just constantly making little songs to myself about jewelry, watches, the industry, the job, this and that, until it uh really just took off to a place where it's like, yeah, we're we're gonna do this. And the jewelry was so ingrained into my brain, it was the only thing I could ever think about, and all the songs just came out about it. They're bangers, so it's okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

I think it's cool that you had all this talent trapped inside, and it really just couldn't you just couldn't figure out a way to put it together until the jewelry industry stepped into your life.

SPEAKER_12 4:57

That's what the jewelry industry will do to a person.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

You can you get you just can't get it out.

SPEAKER_11 5:05

Definitely not the worst aspects of it.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Definitely not. So the way we're gonna handle this uh special uh interview is man, my I just realized I didn't wear my watch all weekend and it shows that it's 4 p.m. right now. Um the way we're gonna do it is we're gonna just basically go through the album and then we won't do got dive too deep into it, but we're gonna take a look at, you know, play it, discuss it briefly. You can give us some insight into the heart, to the style, whatever you feel like you need to do, and then me and Brad maybe we'll have some questions. Some songs I think are self-explanatory. But this is this is a reminder, this is for this is for jewelers. This is songs that you could blast in your store really loudly.

SPEAKER_12 5:48

Oh yeah. Songs that you can blast in your store. Um, definitely songs that you can blast on your way to and from work at the store. Uh there's definitely songs that'll get you excited for the workday, definitely songs that will help you, you know, regain your sanity after a long workday, because you're like, okay, you know, I'm not alone in this. You hear that music and you're like, I am not alone in this. There are enough jewelers experiencing this that songs were made about it.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

So which um song is was the best one for driving to work?

SPEAKER_12 6:21

The best one for driving to work. Ooh, man, that is that is a really, really good question. Um uh I think the first one on the album, 365, can can can be pretty good for on the way to work. Um what about after work? What about after work? Yeah, um, well, it it it depends. Uh depends on the time of year. Like there's certain times of year where one beautiful week will definitely be. Um sometimes, you know, uh bench king can be pretty good for leaving work when you just really need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

That's probably the one I that's probably the one I would listen to on the way home.

SPEAKER_12 7:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's just some examples. You know, we can we can we can dive into that as we're getting into it.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Should we just get in right into it?

SPEAKER_12 7:09

Now I know these songs very well. I wrote them after all.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

We yeah, exactly. And we will get to there are some do we when do we address the interludes? I don't know. Because I can't play I can't play those, those are just a surprise.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

Oh I don't know.

SPEAKER_12 7:25

Maybe we can just talk about that.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

Those are a surprise.

SPEAKER_12 7:28

Okay, we can talk about it a little bit right now that that is included in there.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

So there are 14 songs but 17 tracks. Brad, do you want to walk us through we've never done this before, and by we I mean BJ has never done this before, but he we we have a lot we had a lot more collaboration on this album than the first. We did.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

So um we were listening to something on Spotify, and um it's like do you remember the MM song Um Stan? Of course. And it it's kind of like that. With the song we were listening to, it had like a voicemail from one of the band members or one of the band members' relatives, and and so it was playing some music, and then the voicemail would go and it was just somber. So we were like, why don't we talk to BJ, have him come up with a beat to play? I'll do the voicemail of a watch customer going through, you know, start of the process, the hope, and and the the promise of of fixing his watches, and then moving on to okay, don't say too much now.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Maybe this isn't going great, and then it's a little teaser that we want people to just listen to for themselves. But there is a it's three different parts, and they're spread out throughout the album, part one, part two, and part three. And I don't want to give too much away, but you guys are gonna want to make sure you listen to all uh I just want to say personally, uh BJ flew me out.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Where where were we? What island were we at? I forget.

SPEAKER_12 9:04

This uh well, the first two interludes we recorded in Aruba, but I think that third one we didn't because we couldn't record them all up, that wouldn't make any sense. So then I flew you out to um St. Thomas, right? No, no, no, no, no, Curacao, Kiracao. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

Man, when your island hopping, how can you even keep track of?

SPEAKER_12 9:23

It's it's really hard, you know, all those islands they start to burst after a while. But yeah, no, the interludes were really fun. It was really good to get these guys a little more involved creatively, uh input-wise, and also even get some of Brad's own voice in here.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Uh, you know, Dusty has a part to he's got that radio voice Brad does. Yeah, totally. I I my my part's a it's a secret. We'll get there when we get to it. We'll get there.

SPEAKER_12 9:47

Yeah, after the success of the first album and the success of this podcast, and clearly a lot of you guys are fond of Dusty and Brad. I was like, okay, you know, I I caved and let them in a little bit, so they've made it. It's pretty exciting. It's pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

So that we will not be playing the interludes today. No, those are for all of your listening enjoyment when you when the album drops May 30th. I don't know if I've have I mentioned May 30th. You did, you did. The album drops. Yeah, everywhere music is streamed. It might not be everywhere music is streamed, but it's most places that music is streamed. 30th. May 30th. Alright, so we're gonna start with the opening track. Okay. Now this one, before we even play it, we noticed the title is 365. What's that about?

SPEAKER_12 10:34

You might uh well, is is there any other thing that you have an association to the number 365 with by any chance? Not at all. Alright, so this is the number of days in a year. Oh what? Yeah, except for on a leap year. Oh yeah. So, I mean, you can see in the first chorus, you know, 365, that's my life. This is a song about, you know, every day. Um, the the the the the nonstop grind, the hustle, all these, uh just all the time that you spend slaving away.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

I think we're are we ready to give a little sneak peek? Let's go, listen, let's go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

And you did all the vocals again. Well, of course. Okay, just making sure. Except for your interlude, of course.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Oh, okay, right. Dude, the vibe. It's got kind of a yacht rot feel. Is that what you're going for?

SPEAKER_10 11:19

It's barely half past day. Another 14 hour baby.

SPEAKER_04 12:36

So here's what I find interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

The he rhymed Marseille and Day. You like that. I'm just talented like that. I didn't even know that's how it was pronounced. Very talented.

SPEAKER_12 12:47

Oh, okay. And it's it's it's Marseille and Day.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

What what I here's the part that I found interesting. Um this is really just talking about I mean, you can picture this, right? The the salespeople and the the management team, they get to take all these trips vacations, while the bench duelers just never rarely they don't even get vacations most of the time. And so what I found interesting is that you wrote this while spending a year traveling the world, while me and Brad were stuck in the shop.

SPEAKER_12 13:20

Well, you know, you have to understand a couple things. Um I want to make sure that you guys do get the full experience of being bench jewelers. So, number one, you're welcome. Uh also, I don't know why we're harping on the negative when we could be focusing on the fact that I flew Brad out to these islands to record. You're welcome. How often do bench jewelers get flown out? I've already said thank you. All right, cool.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

So no, I mean that was an interesting, it's like this weird paradox of a song. But with that said, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

I think he was like channeling, like, man, they're they're slaving away, and I'm enjoying this.

SPEAKER_12 14:04

And I I also just wanted to know what it's like. You know, I've put in enough hours in this store that I I wanted to know what it was like out there. It's nice out there.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

It is. I wouldn't know. It's kind of obvious. Except for the three days that I got flown out.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

I like when songs have this kind of uh almost a negative story, but the music is very uh beat. I love I love when artists do that. So I I think I mean who doesn't love yacht rock? I did do some that's what I would call it. That's the style I would call it. Uh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_12 14:41

It's it's like an uptempo yacht rock. I can I can I could see that.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

So um I did some math. 365 days work and 14 hours a day. That comes to 98 hours a week. I wish I got paid hourly, not salary. Is is that what you're pushing for? For us to worth that much? Or or is that just like ha ha ha, they're working.

SPEAKER_12 15:13

I guess that depends on how quickly you get all your jobs done. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Yeah. So if it's piecework or salary or hourly, that would what if you're just not really a good ventular, so it takes you that long to get through all of your work to get one. And that's why you don't get a vacation, because you're always behind.

SPEAKER_12 15:32

Interesting concept. When I was in uh second grade, our teacher wouldn't let us out for recess if we were behind on our work for the day. Um so there was this one time where I was behind on work, I couldn't go out for recess, and then the next day it happened again, and then it happened like three days in a row, and it was really depressing, and it it really made me start, you know, not getting behind in my work.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

So life learning. True story. True story. So I figured in second grade, you were probably also behind. Some things never change.

SPEAKER_12 16:11

Well it's also for a lot of people a hyperbolic statement. You know, 14 um is meant to be uh a representation of being more than half of the day. Um, I get that. Yeah. Oh and it seems that more than half of our lives are just spent at the bench, you know, hyperbolically, you know.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Yeah, I gotcha. I gotcha. It's a good opening song, I'll say that. Solid. It's a solid banger.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Is that gonna be the third single or fourth single or second single? We don't get the first single.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

It's probably just one of those one singles. Deep cuts, you think? Yeah. This is side A. I know that. Side A of the tape. I can tell you that. What's uh song number two?

SPEAKER_12 16:55

Yeah, so the next song in the track is a song called Revisions.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

This is uh So here and here's the thing about this one. The last time we had you on, we were begging you for some insight into volume two, and this is one that you tease. This is one I teased.

SPEAKER_12 17:10

So if anyone heard the last episode, um you know that there was uh a little tease about a song, slight RB-ish style. Yeah, and it's all about uh customer who wants to keep making revisions to their custom design. Uh something unique, something that I don't think has ever been done before in the history of man, an RB song about this exact topic. So we are real trendsetters around here.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Are we ready?

SPEAKER_12 17:36

Play it. Play it.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Sounds like a like a boy band. A little bit.

SPEAKER_10 17:50

You walked in my shop with a vision so clear. Like boys to men, kind of something special, threw it out right here. I sketched it up perfect, thought we had it made. Then you call me back the next day. Still let's be designed a whole thing made. Make it white. Actually, platinum feels more right. Can we add some color? No, take it away. I'm losing my mind, but I smile and stay okay. Every time I think we're done, you come back with another one. My pictures wearing paper thin, but I draw it up again. We're on revision 29. Changing your mind, I don't know how I'm supposed to make this ring appear. When the visions never clear, hit an halo, then you wanna play. Yellow gold, no platinum again, baby. I've been trying to please, but you're giving me design feature. Three months deep in catalog, and dreams. Mind box full of your picture schemes. Can we make it bigger? Actually, more discreet. I'm drowning versions, can't even sleep. Said the centers, don't you face a different way? Love the Monday, hated by Tuesday. I've render this ring in every single day.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Still We're dealing with a customer like this right now. Sure are.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Do you uh you did all the vocals though, like even the background? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 19:26

I just went back and re-recorded and kind of overlaid, overdubbed, you know how it is. I got you. Yeah, this is um not gonna lie, this is definitely one of my favorites on the album. Uh, I I really kind of think I outdid myself with this one a little bit. Um, the the chord progression, it's just so solid, and it's just such a such a fun song, but it's so it's just so real because we've all been there so many times. We know exactly what it's like, and we it's hard to express these frustrations, you know, to the actual client themselves. They can be very not understanding, and you can very easily come across in the wrong way trying to explain to them how frustrating it can be to keep making these revisions over and over, how we end up doing lots of work for free. And um the this song we we I really just wanted to have like a a good outlet for like getting those thoughts and feelings out. So for any jeweler out there or any salesperson, any design person, when you're having that moment, you're dealing with that tough client who's just over and over, oh, let's do this, oh, let's completely change the whole thing. Oh, I want to do this now, I want to do that now.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

It it really does channel back to when I was, you know, way too young to be listening to 90s R and B. And you're just like, Man, I'm oh I know what it's like to have women w woman problems, and I'm 12. Right. And it kind of channels that that feeling that I had back then of just it just gets you in your feels a little bit. This one is a good one to drive home to, especially if you are dealing with one of those clients. And it kind of takes the edge off a little bit, kind of brings you down. Yeah. Not not down, down, but like chilled.

SPEAKER_12 21:02

Yeah. That's what I said. These songs can very much help you regain your sanity. You know, you're not the only one going through this. We're all experiencing, we're all gonna get through it together. Put this song on, enjoy it, and maybe you can even laugh about it.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

You're giving me design amnesia. What a line. Pretty good. Yeah, I wasn't professional.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Should should we go to the little little outro portion of that song?

SPEAKER_13 21:25

It is pretty good. It is pretty good if you want to hit that up really quick.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Sorry, I'm gonna press the right button first and get there. Let's just see how far I gotta go to get to it.

SPEAKER_10 21:35

Didn't even tell me that I can write all that yellow code and platinum tacos and halo, late night calls. You really had me thinking you believed in these custom dreams I was designing. Yeah, you bought it on some random website. Now I'm here alone on a Friday night with twenty designs, and I'll never see the light. That's just the jewelers.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

This is where it gets it sounds like the if I'm following the story, is you do all this work, you do all these cats, their changes, and then they show up and they ghost you and they show up and like, hey, just can I get this ring sized? And it's just something that they got on some random website.

SPEAKER_12 22:28

Yeah, we I definitely kind of wanted to take this in the direction of ending on the sad note. So hopefully that this song is more sad than the reality anyone listening to it experiences might help to cheer you up a little bit. It was also inspired by um a a ring that I I was working on. Um you know, before recording this, I can distinctly remember going back and forth about this ring, just so many changes. They wanted the most impossible thing with contemporary metals included as well, and did everything I could to make this a reality. They ended up just buying an Amazon ring, so you know how it is.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

That's uh that's the life we live.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

I remember you texting her and and just waiting for her to respond, and every day you would come in and say, Did we hear from such and such? I remember never did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Memories. My heart can't take another draft. I felt that. If you just read it, it doesn't do much, but if you really read it, yeah, you gotta read it.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

You can't just read it.

SPEAKER_12 23:38

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

There's some gold in these lyrics.

SPEAKER_12 23:42

But this is this is one of my favorite songs. I really hope you guys uh enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 23:45

How many of the 14 tracks are your favorite?

SPEAKER_12 23:49

Um, probably about 13 of them.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Which one's your which one did not make the list? Oh, you'll see when we get there. Okay. You'll see. Okay, we'll see.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Um to the third track. Let's go. Let's see what we got. I just have to find it. We don't have some Stepdaddy Ron Studios does not have all the updated technology. But one day.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

We're getting there.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

One day we're gonna this could be a little quick little buy me a coffee plug. Because Well, we do have now. But we're trying to introduce it now. If you want these uh interviews to go next level, send us a couple bucks. Alright, so track three.

SPEAKER_13 24:33

There's big things planned, guys.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Just pay us. Alright, so this one, track three is called Leaving Me Behind. I noticed you left off the G on leaving. I we'll see.

SPEAKER_12 24:43

Little apostrophe action, you know. There's a reason for that. You'll hear when the song kicks in.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

All right, let's see. Let's just get it, let's just get it going.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

Oh that's nice.

SPEAKER_10 25:05

Dust on the bench, flame in the night, old hand still working, holding on tight. I sit at this bench, like I did back in ninety two.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

I just I just real quick pause. Brad, how old were you in ninety-two? Uh thirteen.

SPEAKER_10 25:33

Torch burning blue. Hammerin' file, scolder and sweat, grabbing forever in a piece I won't forget. Cold's gone sky. Can't hardly breathe. Diamonds on the earth cost more of the knocking believe. Nobody wants it. Leave it.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Used to set a natural that chorus, that those background vocals come in. Hot. Yeah, we had a lot I had a lot of fun uh recording that.

SPEAKER_12 26:42

That's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 26:43

So I guess you just layer layered layered that. Is that like layered effect? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 26:49

That's actually uh four. No, it was five different takes. It's five different layers of me being a choir with myself, yeah. Yeah, no, this is a this is a really fun song.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

This song was um This one's this one's a a tough one to swallow for some for some people in the jewelry industry.

SPEAKER_12 27:05

This is a tough one to swallow, and I just want to make it known that uh, and you'll find that this is the case for a lot of my music, that the songs are not always representative of my own personal philosophies. Nor are personal philosophies here, you know, at the bench jeweler memes podcast. Sometimes they are just capturing an idea or trying to paint a picture of something. This song was uh very well said. Yes, this song was inspired by uh an older gentleman. I'm not gonna say any names. He's an older older than Brad, an older bench jeweler. He has a he has a little bit of notoriety. It is Mac. No, I'm just kidding, it's not Mac. He is old though. But um, this guy uh famously went on a uh a Facebook Live uh where someone recorded it, clipped it, and it went kind of viral, um, ranting about uh these fake fake diamonds, the fake lab grounds, and uh his rant, you know, really inspired me to write a song that's more from the perspective of an the older generation who uh sees the lab ground thing as a fake diamond and the world is just changing and what does this world come to, type of type of energy. You know, that was the idea here to capture that feeling.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

I kind of hope we can because we have time, so we could kind of get into the bridge of the song if you if you guys are opposed, not opposed to it.

SPEAKER_12 28:26

Actually, yeah, go ahead because the the the music in the bridge goes kind of nuts, the lyrics go hard.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

I'm not sure exactly where it's gonna pick up, but we'll wait until we get to that.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Because I like how the guitar solo builds, and then there's heavy distortion, and then slow bends. Yeah, let's listen to it. Okay, that's how I played it.

SPEAKER_10 28:43

I like that part of the flame, watch the metal glow.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

We need to leave.

SPEAKER_10 29:10

One more ring, one more chain, then maybe hang up the tools in the rain, but deep down I know rust. I'll keep on the fight. Last customer left with a live roll store.

SPEAKER_04 29:37

I don't want to give too much away, but um, yeah, that that um yeah, that little um guitar solo, was that you?

SPEAKER_12 29:46

Um that one was me actually. Now, like I said in previous times, I don't always do all of the electric parts on these songs, but this one you do. But this specific one I actually did.

SPEAKER_04 29:57

I like the I like the heavy distortion and the slow bins. The slow bends as well.

SPEAKER_12 30:02

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been practicing guitar, trying to get a little better.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

Yeah, this one really highlights the work you've put in. I think.

SPEAKER_12 30:08

Well, you know, it's uh I'm only getting better with age, and as you can see, this song has to kind of deal with age in a way.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

So we can tell you're navigating older, you know.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Getting older out here in these streets. I think what I love about this album is it is a roller coaster of musical genres.

SPEAKER_12 30:29

Of course. I really wanted to flex my versatility a little bit more. I mean, I thought I did a pretty job. I thought I did a good job with it on volume one, but I was like, no, we can we can take this to another level because I got a lot to offer. And I mean, why stay in just one lane? There's something here for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Before we leave leaving me behind, what is what would be your advice to duelers who find themselves in this situation? It's just hard for them. They they missed the good old days of hand fabrication and natural diamonds, and and now it's you know CAD and and lab grown. Like what would be your encouragement for them?

SPEAKER_12 31:06

Um, you know, here's the thing. I I think there is a way where you can find a balance of still staying true to yourself, but also adapting to the changing times, you know? Um there's a lot of things in society that we all constantly do and we all adapt to the changing times. I highly doubt a lot of these older people who would, you know, just fight so painfully hard for natural diamonds are also still using flip phones. You know what I mean? Like things are going to change, we're going to adapt, and there are definitely still ways to be creative and let your true craftsmanship show, even with something like a like a lab grown diamond. I know it's a little bit different, but you can still be creative. I mean, I've seen at this store there's been some amazing, beautiful creations where the center stone has been lab-grown, but still such awesome pieces, unique, nothing else ever like it, and there's still a very strong sense of accomplishment making something so beautiful. So you know, you have to understand that uh we live in a tough time. Some people might not be able to afford it, but it's not about, you know, the uh the the the stone itself, it's what it represents. So it's still a diamond at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

I wish I had a flip phone.

SPEAKER_12 32:26

I'm sure you do.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

You know, I I think it was um was it Callie that mentioned on our live chat last time that she likes having all these new uh lab grown larger stones because it's given her the opportunity to set larger stones. Because truthfully, personally speaking, I never got to set hardly anything over a carrot until lab grown hopped on the scene. Yeah, and it was terrifying like anytime you would see something that large. So yeah. Silver linings, right? Yeah. I think I think this next song really embraces. I think that one kind of was, you know, how the struggle of all the new changes, and I think this next song perfectly encapsulates the future.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yeah, and so what so this one like musically, where were you going with this one?

SPEAKER_12 33:16

Um you mean like within the uh like instrument instrumentation and stuff?

SPEAKER_04 33:20

So we're talking about track four, right? Track four, which is jeweler of tomorrow. Jeweler of tomorrow. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 33:25

So this one is kind of supposed to almost sound I don't know if I want to go as far as say futuristic, but almost kind of it's it's it's like that in a way, so it's definitely more like Cynthia. Um so in a way you can hear like 80s inspiration in there, but it's definitely a lot more like a futuristic, because like jeweler of tomorrow, you know? It's supposed to kind of match that feature. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

So I I personally I really like this when we ready.

SPEAKER_12 33:53

All right, let's play your vocals, by the way. All me, all me. Always always I'm very versatile.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Hmm. That is not your phone vibrating people.

SPEAKER_06 34:04

Neon laser light.

SPEAKER_10 34:11

Future in my hands tonight.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

I like where this is going. You can't help you can't help but bounce along the winner. Wait, this one's Friday night.

SPEAKER_07 34:34

21st century blow.

SPEAKER_10 34:42

Perfect and queen on him twin. Living in the machine, and okay, I wisper in a hand. Solid on him, calling. This is the feat of the new.

SPEAKER_04 36:01

Man, putting those back to back. That is quite the turn.

SPEAKER_12 36:06

It was a very it was a very intentional decision. It's supposed to kind of get your brain thinking.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

When I hear this one, I've heard it a couple times now. I always think of Jake Fox. Yeah. Yeah. I I I think um a while back I made a a little AI art of him as as if he was like half android, half robot, half Jake. It was pretty funny. That's one to half.

SPEAKER_11 36:34

Half robot, half android, half Jake. Oh, that's pretty good. But yeah, it's not too far from reality either.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

I think this one it it might help people to relate to the third song, third track, maybe say this is this is kind of a little glimpse of this is maybe it's an over-exaggeration of the future in a way.

SPEAKER_12 36:58

But it's supposed to be so the idea that I had for this song was one that was kind of difficult to capture, and I did my best. If you kind of slowly comb through, you'll see that there's like a lot of pros and cons that this future scenario is presenting, which is how I see life happening a lot. It's like new technology will happen, new ideas um that we'll adapt to that are great, but then there can also be like, you know, certain downfalls that come along with it. So for example, something like um, you know, an electric torch might not be the worst idea, might be very useful for some people. Something like, you know, AI deciding how to cut and facet your stone and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

For precision purposes.

SPEAKER_12 37:48

You know, it might be a little it might be a little different, or AI making all your your your designs for you. Um so there's like some aspects of the future that it's like, yeah, we can look forward to, but also, you know, there's there's there's there's pros and cons, like I said.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

I could see a scenario where someone listens to track three and they're like kind of bummed, and then they listen to this when they get mad.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Oh I I got hopeful by being the old one in the group. I was like, man, future is gonna be exciting.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

It's gonna be yeah, just a dude, a dude on a computer screen doing doing everything. Doing everything, I didn't go there.

SPEAKER_12 38:24

Screen flicker in blue. Watch the designs flow.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

I actually do want to play verse two leading up to that pre-chorus. Um I just think it's I think this is such a good song. We can go a little bit further longer with it. This one is a banger.

SPEAKER_10 38:42

Load up the resin, layer by lay arise. Tiny worlds forming under ultraviolet skies. Yeah, I suggest it optimizes the page.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

What is Pave exactly right there?

SPEAKER_12 38:59

So this is uh actually a fun Easter egg. Um this is a fun little Easter egg, and this is uh so it's actually kind of funny, like you said, how you listen to that third track, then you listen to this one and you might get mad. This is something in there that trigger people. It's literally supposed to trigger people.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

But when customers come in, they're like, oh, can I get that pave set? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

You obviously know it's pave.

SPEAKER_12 39:25

I it's pave. Yeah. I I almost wanted to put it, try to put the like some kind of micro pave or maybe even macro pave to really be a troll. Yeah. Um, but that is that is supposed to be Pave.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

Not a mistake, it was genius, not a mistake.

SPEAKER_12 39:42

Yes, yes, no. That is Pave, but intentionally said like Pave.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

I'm like, did you think about saying that as Pave and then next line, just the future we crave? So there you wanna you want to hear it?

SPEAKER_11 39:56

There was see how you sung it. Go ahead, go ahead and play it, and we can talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

I'll back it up just a time. I'll snap what an idea. Let's just keep going. Always no mistake, just the future we crave. It would have been crave.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

If you had sung crave, that would have been pretty good. Right. And I I wasn't saying you had to do your job, but that would have been.

SPEAKER_12 40:16

That actually is an idea I have. Like, how funny would it be to go pave and then crave? But then I feel I feel like it would just it would just mess people up too much, and they would just be like, all right, I'm done with this. So uh you don't need all those.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

I like how this was supposed to be a little subtle Easter egg, and we've made it the main part of the song. The main point of it. I love it. Um, I'm gonna keep going just with this verse too, because I think there's a few interesting lines.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Watch the legacy throw.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

I think it's cool that um because this is such a futuristic song, um I like how the and I know this is not the case for you most of the time, but a little you could tell it was a little auto-tune, but like in a subtle in a subtle way. Yeah, to match the all the electronic musical components with the auto-tuning. I love it.

SPEAKER_12 41:37

It's a very tasteful creative use of the auto-tune to try to match the vibe of the song for sure.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

Uh any final thoughts on that one? Is that one of your favorites too?

SPEAKER_12 41:47

Um, that is definitely one of my favorites. I'm a very big fan of Synthwave. Uh, and I hope you guys really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun making it, had a lot of fun recording it, those pre-choruses. Legacy Three.

SPEAKER_04 42:02

So, you know. That was probably one that you could you could make that one like on the plane rod because it's it sounds like it was just made on a computer.

SPEAKER_12 42:12

You know, that's actually funny. A lot of this was made straight up just the computer. Um not there was only like one actual instrument that I used. Most of this was all very synth. There was even a couple certain sounds that I use with the literal like computer keyboard, like typing. And uh there's a thing you can do in the software to assign certain notes to keys on the keyboard, and I thought it would be fun to throw a little bit of that in. I'm a big fan of computer music like that.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

I I thought about just playing the very, very ending because I think you described it to us as a fading arpeggi arpeggios.

SPEAKER_12 42:52

Mm-hmm. Yes. Fading soil little echo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Let's just play the very end of the song because I think it's pretty good. Ending.

SPEAKER_10 43:00

What the future is the joint.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

So if you're hearing that in your headphones, you notice it bounces from left to right.

SPEAKER_04 43:39

That was man, what a these have those have to be fun to make. You can just you don't have to break out, you know, so much equipment and just open up the laptop and just make us.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

You don't really need to have any musical stuff. No, did you get any?

SPEAKER_04 43:54

So this one I guess would have been tempting. There's so much there's so many teasers in this one about incorporating. AI into designing. Was it tempting to use AI into making the song and writing these lyrics?

SPEAKER_12 44:07

Not at all. Not even in the slightest. You didn't even think about it. You showed some real constraint. Yeah, no, not even in the slightest. I mean, there is zero percent temptation ever. I mean, why would someone on my caliber of musician ever even dream of using AI? I mean, like, I don't even want to ask AI like, like, okay, oh, I'm searching through the the production software trying to find a certain sound and I can't find it, so I'm Google where is the sound, oh I can't find it. Oh, maybe I'll ask the AI. Maybe the AI could tell me where this sound is. I'm not even gonna do that. There is no AI present at all.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

You know what I think would be an interesting con we could do like a concept album where we like volume three is just AI and we can see if people can tell the difference. Oh, that's a good idea. Between the real it'd kind of be like we can call it like lab grown studio.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Let's see if we can think of a Oh, he's onto something.

SPEAKER_12 45:04

He's onto something with this.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

Because I I really questioned it when I saw the pave instead of the pave. I was like, oh crap, you let it slip. But now I know you were kind of like that. You can only do that on a human level, actually. Right. That level of you were calling out AI, like, AI, you make these mistakes. I don't. Exactly. I do it intentionally. Yeah. To mock you.

SPEAKER_12 45:26

It was very, very intentional, very intentional creative decision. Yeah, the AI, they they the AI sometimes will just try to make things too precise and too perfect. The AI definitely would have said Pave.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

Yeah, nobody would assume these songs are perfect.

SPEAKER_12 45:43

So I mean you can hear the perfection.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

Well, I I I think this actually this conversation leads into the next one because on the next one is really where we get to see you push your voice to the background. And if I'm not mistaken, this one was teased. We we you teased this one months ago.

SPEAKER_12 46:01

This one was teased, and this one goes nuts.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Do we just do we just just jump right through?

SPEAKER_12 46:08

Let's go ahead for this next song. Um I wanna turn it up at all?

SPEAKER_04 46:13

Well, the title, the title is Platinum Reigns Supreme. Platinum Reigns Supreme.

SPEAKER_12 46:19

You know what, Dusty?

SPEAKER_13 46:20

Just go ahead and play the track. Alright, we're just gonna let's just let's just get to it. We'll let the song speak for itself.

SPEAKER_10 46:35

The heavyest crown, the ultimate pride, and the same.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Um we did get interrupted in the stepdaddy Ron studios. What happened there, Brad?

SPEAKER_03 48:21

Oh Lord, so UPS came by. He was like, Why is it all dark in there? Like started asking questions. Yeah, and then a customer pulled up, and I'm pretty sure she's at the door now, so I'm just kinda. I think they just got back in their car. Good. Because she saw me getting the package.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Yeah. Oh, they must be open. That timing always works that way. We haven't had nobody pull up all day. UPS pulls up and it's like, oh, I need a watch battery. He's like, Why is everything so dark? It's like, it y'all shut down. Yeah, man, for the day. Um, but back to I don't want to distract from because this one is absolute fire.

SPEAKER_12 49:01

Yeah. Yeah. So this one um was kind of created a little bit with uh Dusty in mind. This is something I kind of always wanted to do for him. Uh around the time when I was uh, you know, first working here in the store, you know, songs would just be playing uh on our store radio, and I would love to just make these little like screamo heavy metal versions of songs and just like start singing along like this. And Dusty used to always think it was so hilarious, and I was like, Oh, one day I will actually make a a real song where I'm flexing that vocal ability I have for Dusty.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

And it makes sense that you would use that style when talking about platinum. Well, of course. I mean the heaviest of precious metals.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

I just love it. Braddy, what's your favorite part? The 2145 part. Yeah, I was thinking about that.

SPEAKER_12 50:00

Um the it's the weight of kings. Oh it's the weight of kings. Yeah. I don't know, it's not not not to be confused with um 945, like the time. Not to be confused, just want to make sure. Oh, actually, it's not it's a it's like a weight measurement density thing. I thought it was pointing to like the time of day. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

It's it's like a it's a weight and density thing. Like the evening towards night. It kind of looks like platinum, the moonlight. Oh, wow. It was a secondary meaning out badass which is.

SPEAKER_12 50:34

Sometimes I realize that I write these like double meanings by accident because I'm just that talented, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:40

We're gonna have to skip a little bit, we're gonna have to get in this one a little deeper because I think a lot I think a lot of bench toolers are actually gonna really get into this one. Um it just it goes so hard, and I know we have to skip down to the bridge and the little breakdown because I want to see what you did with it. So I'm just gonna keep it playing, okay?

SPEAKER_10 51:01

Soft and malleable, it's broke, Silver's just don't wanna be cloaked! No steps components, perfection, go on the code!

SPEAKER_07 51:51

Platinum went supreme, eternal unyielding machine, silver weeps in the shadows below, gold's just a theatrical show.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

What what does that mean? Platinum never surrender.

SPEAKER_12 52:06

Um, it never it like will you platinum it's like on the it's it it wears the crown, it's on the throne, it's on the mountaintop, it will never unyield from being the metal. Never surrender, never back down, dense, heavy, forever.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

It is. I like how it's also hypoallergenic and you were able to work that in.

SPEAKER_12 52:28

Yeah, I did. You know, people be coming in here all the time having to deal with their white gold allergies, their fake metal allergies, not platinum, you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

It's I mean, you did say lifetime warranty, we ain't giving those out though.

SPEAKER_12 52:41

Oh, we're not we're not doing that anymore? Um, that's that other store down the road.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

That was just you. Should we you would you would sell lifetime warranties for things that we we don't honor. They'll honor it. It's fine.

SPEAKER_04 52:54

I do want to, I I know we're just giving so much of the songs away, but I do want to play. I like playing the endings of some of these songs because I think at the end of every song there's just little I don't know what it's just it's kind of the the climax of some of these songs, really on top. Mm-hmm. So we're let's just play the very ending.

SPEAKER_12 53:45

There's very specific warm-ups uh that I have to do before doing this, um, and also very specific concoctions that I take. It's uh tea with a lot of different vitamins and various things I put in there. Um one thing I'd love to point out, Dusty, you might have noticed this. Like I said, a lot of this song was written with you in mind because I know you uh love when I do the screamo thing. I know you're a big fan of platinum as a metal. Um and you'll you might notice how there's a lot of various moments in the song where I pronounce platinum platinum, like very, very distinctly. Little throwback to uh the the jeweler who taught Dusty uh the bench would always pronounce it platinum. He was uh he was from uh Eastern Europe and uh yeah, platinum. Wow Yeah, that was just a little fun Easter egg uh just for you, Dusty.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

Just for me. That was yeah, I I I wondered that, but it was good to be confirmed. Yes, yes, you could have told me sooner, but you just live on the air.

SPEAKER_12 54:43

Live on the air wanted, you know, a little podcast special.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

You know, I don't handle surprises very well. But man, I I love that you can hear like it sounds like the Sometimes it might sound like we're being a little funny with this, but I could tell that that final scream that you put your heart and soul into it and we appreciate it.

SPEAKER_12 55:01

Oh, like I by the end of recording this, I felt like I appreciated platinum and loved platinum even more than before. So that last one was like platinum! Like it was for real. I can tell you love it. I love that plat. Well next song. Yeah, so um the these these songs, I hope that you guys um who are listening, and also you, Dusty and Brad, are enjoying these songs so far. I know I had a lot of fun making them, and these are they're sounded really good.

SPEAKER_04 55:34

Another thing that we're gonna see here is I love throughout this album how we've talked about just the the roller coaster of not just musical genres, but to to finish on that uh emotional scream of uh platinum, and now we're gonna go into time keeps moving. It's such a it's almost like platinum was like you got made the top of the roller coaster, and now we're going like not one of those roller coasters that just goes down, but it goes like under. Because it's such a stark contrast in in your in your range. Peaks and valleys. Yeah, this is um I don't know, I guess well, I guess we'll just we'll just listen. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 56:38

My grandmother wore it through the years. Now it's mine with all the hopes and fears. The spring is winding down, the hands won't turn, and there's only one that I could ever trust to learn the secrets hiding in these gears of gold. I walked to the shop on Maple Street, where the sun is still haze, but the belly, the door is a mouth, the window's talking about this.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

But I wasn't here when no one left you. Understands these are wheels and jewels, this brings the soul inside this precious So Kind of sounds like Wilson Phillips, not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_12 57:57

You know, you're actually that's actually kind of funny that you say that, because you're you're not the first person who brought that up.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

Who else brought it up? Uh who else you let and listen to this.

SPEAKER_12 58:07

One of the um custodians in the studio happened to walk by as we were listening to one of the final masters of this and brought that up just out of nowhere. And I was like, hey, this is private, you can't be listening to that. Got you.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

But he was the janitor was like, Man, Wilson Phillips, am I right?

SPEAKER_12 58:26

Um it's 2026. We use the term custodian, not janitor. Please don't be so offensive. What is wrong with janitor? Wow. That you're you're just you're just such a bigot, aren't you?

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Starting to be janitor, this guy. So Where did you go, old watchmaker? Where did he go? What is this song about?

SPEAKER_13 58:50

Um, where did old watchmaker go? Old Watchmaker Sounds like this place closed down. This place is closed down and not to oversimplify the song.

SPEAKER_12 58:59

Old Watch it's a it's a little bit of a sad. Old Watchmaker did go to Old Watchmaker Heaven. Um but it's also it is also representative of watchmaking just as a dying art form, you know? It is slowly dying out. It's very hard to find watchmakers like you're used to. A lot of times now you got you know guys that went to Rolex, you know, a couple guys that know a thing or two here and there. But you know, it used to be you just find a watchmaker in your your local supermarket, there'd be a watchmaker posted up, you know.

SPEAKER_03 59:29

You go into the the drugstore, there's a watchmaker, you go to the jewelry store, there's a watchmaker, but yeah, old Sherman worked in the drugstore, not a lot of watchmakers at the Walgreens anymore.

SPEAKER_12 59:40

Not a whole lot. No, if you take a watch to Walgreens for a battery, they're gonna look at you sideways. So, you know, it's um where where'd you go, old watchmaker? It's kind of not even just one specific watchmaker, it's like all of them. It's like told through the verbiage of one specific watchmaker representing all watchmakers. It's about Sherman, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:02

It's an ode to watchmakers.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:04

Sure, Sherman has some influence in this, but it's not about Sherman specifically. There's a lot of Sherman influence, but writing a song about Sherman specifically is one that's it's gonna take a little bit of time and precision. The word every single aspect of that song has to be so carefully placed to honor his legacy. Right. Uh, but there's definitely some inspiration here from old Shermi Warmy, so I mean it was Watchmaker, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:32

It got me. Where did you go, old Watchmaker? I need your steady hands to make her whole again. That got me.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:39

I hope you guys have been enjoying the sheer amount of times throughout the entirety of this album where I use the word again as a slant rhyme. I I do it quite a lot, and very often no one notices, and that's how I keep getting away with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:52

I didn't even notice.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:53

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:56

Is there any other parts of this song, Brad, that stand out to you that we should inquire?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:02

Not really.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:03

I'm trying to just figure out how he went from like just some passionate Screamo to a much higher, higher register. Yeah. Obviously, these weren't recorded back to back and then they're just on the album back to back.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:16

But yeah, no, um, like I said kind of earlier, you know, just to reiterate the two big things, I do very specific catered vocal warm-ups depending on what I'm about to record to help get my voice to sound how I want it to sound. Uh, and also uh again, just really wanting to show my versatility, my range. I have quite a range when it comes to uh, you know, dynamic, genres, sounds, uh, tone, intonation. So, you know, just putting all of that on display.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:46

Well masterfully done.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:48

Yeah, you know, it's it's what I do. It's why I'm the one recording this music.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:54

I'm sure we probably don't want to spend too much time on that one. So we're gonna just keep on going. You know, that there's that one of your favorites?

SPEAKER_12 1:02:00

It's definitely one of my favorites. It's definitely up there. Um and I would say, yeah, just go ahead and listen to it and really dive into the lyrics. There's gold in there.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:09

The next one is our single. The first single. The first single of the album. And I'll we're gonna play it and then I'll see. I mean, I think why I wanted you to talk about why this was chosen as the first single from this uh highly anticipated album. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Let's see, let me get it uh let me get it all cued up.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:50

Three hundred sixty-four days now.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:53

Before we get too deep into it, we do have to kind of address the twice in this album. It mentions days of the year, I'm assuming, but one song says three sixty five and one says three sixty-four.

SPEAKER_12 1:03:09

Well, one is about the three hundred and sixty-five days a year. This one, as you can see, says we've got three hundred and sixty-four of those days down.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:18

Yeah. Oh okay, yeah. Dang, okay. Well, let's keep it going. I'm sorry I interrupted.

SPEAKER_12 1:03:23

Oh no, no worries. I'm here to clarify.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:30

Christmas Eve, I set stones, New Year's rings for someone else's home. Valentine's style to go. Every holiday is never so. Close up shop and walk away. Bloody circle one weekend, and then one week starts today. But the oldest call, and the coolest gold and full. It's the jewelers.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:41

That that one just I think is it maybe I'm I'm inserting myself here. This album is dropping on basically right after Memorial Day. Maybe. It kind of feels like this is like the perfect just summer kickoff song.

SPEAKER_12 1:05:01

Oh, absolutely. It's definitely supposed to be a summer anthem. Um definitely supposed to get you hype for your vacations. Oh yeah. What are those?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:10

Exactly. For a for a bench schuler, yeah, this is we usually get maybe one, if we're lucky. And it usually comes in the middle of summer when the store's dead. And um I think I mean, I think I can relate to this song. I'm assuming Brad, you can too. I mean just I want to sing it right now, actually. I wish it was um I wish it was uh August when I get to take my vacation. But yours is coming up pretty soon, Brad. You you're gonna be listening to this one on the weight on the drive to the beach or sitting out on the sand.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:45

Yeah. And we'll be jamming it the whole week. The only song you should be listening to for the whole album. That is the only song.

SPEAKER_12 1:05:51

This one I'll be able to do. The other fifty one weeks are for the rest of the album.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:55

This one, yeah. I like how y you really are about The days and the weeks of the year. Absolutely. Right. Just 365, 364. You just said 51 weeks. Exactly.

SPEAKER_12 1:06:07

See, I I I know how to quantify time. Now, here's the thing. There's actually a fun little hidden thing in here. You guys might not have picked up on it. So I'll go ahead and explain. Uh up here at the top, you can see 364 days down, but that only leaves one day. And so now it starts talking about this week. So it looks like there's there seems to be six days somewhere in there missing. This is actually supposed to be symbolic. Um where it feels like you work all year long and you get this one week, but sometimes that one week can literally feel like one day. It goes so fast. It can go so fast, it can feel like it's just one day. So it's like, yeah, I worked 364 days, but now I get this one week where you do actually have a week, but that one week is almost just like the 365th day, in a way. So it's like a fun little kind of wordplay, math play.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:58

I like how there's so many references to because as been strugglers, you know, we pretty much most of the year we've got stained black fingertips. And it's really only one week a year, and it takes the whole week to kind of get that to just gradually wear off. I think maybe the salty water does it. I don't know how the science works. And then you finally at the end of that vacation week, you've got clean fingertips. Mm-hmm. And I I love the little nods to that because we can all relate, right, Brad?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:25

I wear gloves when I polish.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:27

So Brad can't relate, but I go home with clean hands. It goes on to say, I think in one of the verses, that while the salt water heals these working hands and cleans these tired, beautiful golden hands. Lots of hands on that line.

SPEAKER_12 1:07:42

But I mean jewelers jewelers use their hands a whole lot. Hands are very essential to the job. But yeah, it's the fun, it's the fun little details.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:50

Did you rhyme hands with hands? Did I do what now? Did I rhyme hands with hands? Play play that part, Dusty. Can we get down to that part while the saltwater heals these working hands and cleans these tired, beautiful golden hands? We should we can surely try. We'll see. Don't call me Shirley.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:14

Baby, never fear. One week, one week, one beautiful week. It's the July.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:15

I love this one so much. I want I want a TQ bar drink right now while we're in the studio. Yeah, you do. Should we mix it? No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_12 1:09:24

It was not me rhyming hands with hands. It's more like me overemphasizing hands. Like you can hear how that music starts to break down.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:31

What exactly are golden hands?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:34

You go ahead. You explain it, bro.

SPEAKER_12 1:09:36

Yeah, uh it's like when you, you know, you being a bench jeweler, you are also kind of a goldsmith, and a lot of times that gold dust can also get really caked up in there. So you I don't know. I've I've seen it on Dusty's fingers a lot where it'll be like so black with gold, gold accents, just all glittery.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:56

I was thinking more of like I interpreted it. That's what's the beauty of music, right? How we all interpret it. It's just everything, you know, we're everything we touch turns to gold. That's how I interpret it.

SPEAKER_11 1:10:06

Oh, yeah, that was the second meaning. Thank you. Forgot that was the second meaning. Obviously. It's a double entendre thing. It sure is.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

Anyway, I'm looking forward to that one. Um, I cannot wait till that one drops because it's gonna come out a single the week before, and it's really just getting me amped for summertime.

SPEAKER_12 1:10:22

I don't know about everybody else, but I hope all of uh all of you out there listen to it while you're on your way to your vacation.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:28

I think that might be the first one to hit a thousand downloads on Spotify. I think so. Maybe because none of our other songs have gotten there yet, PJF.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

Well, it takes time, you know.

SPEAKER_12 1:10:40

Don't worry, it's wait, we're still cooking. This is only volume two. I don't know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:44

I think by volume six or seven, um I think we'll I think we'll yeah. There you go, right.

SPEAKER_12 1:10:53

Volume sixteen or seventeen.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:56

Obviously, we've skipped a couple interludes already, um, which I know we've teased, but um another another twist and turn on the album is going from One Beautiful Week to this next track, which um you you have titled Uh 10K Pristine. Do we need to get into this to explain it? Or is this one of those let's play it and then you explain it?

SPEAKER_12 1:11:22

You'll probably want to play it and then we can chat chat about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:24

Alright, so we're just gonna go right in for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

And this is all you, right? We had no uh contribution in this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:32

This one's this would have been tough for us to pull off.

SPEAKER_12 1:11:35

Every song, in a way, will have a little bit of contribution because I'm always thinking about you guys. But yeah, this this is this is me. This is pretty much just me. I'm sorry, yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:44

I actually ain't want any emails. I like this one quite a bit.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:50

Yo, it's the children and laugh, no cap. No cap. Make it shine for the people, that's a map. That's a map. The flexing on your budget, not that way. Not that way. Real ice, real gold, but the price intact. Pink A gold, lap room, V VS. Pristine ice, done, no stress, no mess. Lemon's dance and they spot over like the best. You can cap a loom, but I'm smelling your chest. Affordable drip, yeah, that's the flex. Bullet for the people, respect on the set. Whatever you like. So much lip precision on the stumbles, one by one. Listen, one number thing came. Speaking, flap, same thing, it's just no blue cut, no man. Just the skill, making the jury work. Tennis, change, fitness, look like a million. Pristine ice got no stress, no mess. I must dance in a sparkle like the best. Affordable trip.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:15

Now, some of these things you'll have to explain to Brad. Of course. I don't know what any of this means.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:22

What's no cap mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:25

Um that you're not wearing any headgear?

SPEAKER_12 1:13:28

Uh, that is a slang that the younger generation is using. It cap is basically uh a lie or something. It's not necessarily here, guys. Telling the truth. No, no cap, no cap. Okay. Yeah, this was a really fun song. We were we were bouncing in the stew making this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:45

Uh we were we were all bouncing in our bench jeweler chairs just now. There's something about listening to these songs with headphones. I think these this whole album, if you really want to appreciate the subtleties of this of the work that VJ does, you're gonna either want to be in your car with the windows up, turned all the way up, or headphones. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:14:07

It's a good way to take them in because there's a lot of little hidden fun things here and there, a lot of nice little production things. Um yeah, I mean, this song was a real bop. I really wanted to capture this side of the jewelry world where, you know, sometimes, you know, you you just you just gotta be with that bling, you know. You just g gotta get out there and flex that ice, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:31

And uh I think the beauty of lab grind is we can do so much more than we could with um when it was all natural. The prices just got out of hand, and now we're able to do what what you called pave, a lot of pave setting. Um with lab grown. And when we're quoting out jobs and we're just out of budget, we can say, hey, well we can we can do 10 carat, and we can do lab grown, and and everything and then that way they're getting something that's well made, something that looks amazing, lots of sparkle, and they can save some money. I don't sound awesome. I don't know.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:08

I mean, you have to understand the block, the trap, and the nine to five crew, they need their bling as well.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

Is there a reason you made it like a like this type of song?

SPEAKER_12 1:15:19

Yeah, I just felt like the the overall vibe would really help with that kind of like, you know, iced out kind of um, you know, it's lyric heavy.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:29

You could squeeze them all in if you rap them.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:32

Yeah, it's it's very lyric heavy, and I felt like the rap would just really kind of fit the vibe of the song, you know, help to relate to a lot of uh working class people. Um I feel that. Yeah. And you know, I also just feel like uh it's it's it was very hard for me to use the word VVS in a song without, you know, going at it in this style.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:57

Yeah, I got you. So it works. I kind of want to listen to a little bit more of it because there's there's so many lines in this song. Like this is one you're gonna have to like replay. Yeah. You ever do that when you get it literally get a new album and you just listen to it, you're like, that was good, but then a couple months later it feels like you really listen to it. Oh yeah. Alright, so we're gonna this is gonna simulate that. Really listening to it this time. From Myrtle to the Bay. What's that about? Coast to coast.

SPEAKER_12 1:16:34

Coast to coast, Myrtle Beach to the Bay Area, San Francisco, baby.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:37

The whole country, they rocking my pieces. You couldn't found and they're playing my music. You couldn't find another beach on the east coast. Just you just went with Myrtle. Well, I mean I'm not gonna.

SPEAKER_12 1:16:48

Okay, name name another East Coast beach where you think this song would hit as hard. I mean, I guess well, I could have gone Miami.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:54

But like Miami actually would have been a pretty good one. Miami probably would have been a good one. But you went Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_12 1:16:59

Yeah, you know, um Myrtle is you I I it's it's really hard to explain. You've been to Myrtle before, right? So you can't get it.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:09

Yeah, he actually got it. He's actually he went to a day class resort. We mentioned that on the podcast before. Yeah, for graduate.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:15

You should get it. You should get it.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:16

If you've been to Myrtle, you know, that's why I don't get it. All right, Dusty, keep playing this song. So there's gonna be some more words and lines that you might have to explain to Brad. Alright, I'll do my best.

SPEAKER_10 1:17:32

I flood the game so everybody can slay gatekeeping and slay, Brad.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

Do you know what that means? So he's saying, I'm not uh basically uh I'm I'm letting the people get the get the drip. Get the good stuff. You know what drip means? Get the get the good stuff. Do you know what sleigh means? Slay queen. No.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:54

I'll take it. I'll take it. That's a good enough answer.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:57

Custom grills, bezel sets, baggets aligned, line heads roaring, stars that realign. Man, that's just a money drink.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:07

It goes on to say you don't need to morg you don't need a mortgage for a flooded AP face. Oh man, that's just which is right off the tails of AP and the swatch collab.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:17

Whew! Do you see that mess?

SPEAKER_12 1:18:20

Mm-hmm. How could I not? You were Brad from Bench Jewelry Memes keeps posting about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:26

At Brad from BJN. In case you guys don't know. Um Yeah, there's a there's a there's this is one of those, there's just so many lines. Like I'm gonna have to listen to this one over and over and over and over and over again. And maybe one more time after that. You'll have to slow, slow comb through this one. Um you wanna play we want to play this one out at the end just so we can move on to the next one? Sure. We'll play like the last 30 seconds. Yeah, go ahead. Shine on shine on shine on just a little musical outro. Man, it is so hard not to not to bounce in the chair to that one.

SPEAKER_12 1:19:18

You got me bouncing over here. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with that one. It's um it was it's a really good song. We uh we like that one a lot. Okay also, if anyone wants to try to um attack me, BJ Mandrell, for any type of cultural appropriation for that song. I hope I hope you I hope you I hope you do that for every other genre. You know, did I culturally appropriate all the country music? See, people don't know this about BJ Mandrell.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:48

Well, you might you know, I mean I I know we're getting there, but I might have spoken too soon. Maybe. I'd say we we we just shelf that, circle back, and then we're gonna circle back to that in a couple more songs.

SPEAKER_12 1:20:01

We're gonna circle back to that in a couple more songs. I guess what I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:04

The reason one reason I want to get ahead and keep moving is because this one that I'm about to play, this next track, Vidigang, is probably my favorite song. It's in the top three, probably top two easily, but it might be the top after all. I'm gonna have to listen to the album several times. Do you want to set it up? Nah, play it.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:27

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:28

Okay, are you sure?

SPEAKER_13 1:20:31

Alright, here we go. You'll see when it plays.

SPEAKER_12 1:20:33

Yeah, we will. The setup sets itself up.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:45

Dirty hands, silver dust in my veins, torch in my fist, burning out the stains. 22 years old, solder on my jeans. You think you know diamonds? You don't know what that means. All the rest in the light flashed over my head while you're selling dreams. I'm raising like that, broken bronze, crack stags. I've seen it all before. Don't knock it on my pants. Don't do that, dog. I don't like it. Running it down.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:58

That's fun.

SPEAKER_10 1:22:00

Running it down.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:02

That is Dusty loves that genre.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:05

I do. I I I that kind of like pop punk genre. Yeah, it's so good. And it it kind of takes me back to when I was younger and you got this kind of angst, young like I know everything kind of vibe. That's right, that's right. I've been, you know, a bench jeweler for a year and a half, and now I'm I know everything. I'm a master jeweler. And I I wonder if anybody listening to this can relate to, you know, you're an old bench jeweler, you don't like this style of music, you don't like the young person's attitude, and then they come in and this might make him angry, but I think if you're in that 35 to 45 age range, man, you're gonna be blasting this on the way home.

SPEAKER_12 1:22:46

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. Um another one that I kind of had you in mind when I was making this, Dusty, because I know how much you love this music. Um and you're the bench king, Dusty. Oh, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:58

Um I think it's good for even if like we've been doing it for years, it's just uh, you know, like I don't need the customer running their mouth. Like we're we're gonna fix it.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:10

That's why this genre took off so well um for so long. Um back in the early late 90s, early 2000s. Very, very blink 182-ish, you know. Yeah, yep. Man, I um I kind of want to just play the hole in, but I'm not, but I will skip ahead if we need to, just to kind of keep keep the vibe going. Keep the vibe going. Let's go.

SPEAKER_10 1:23:36

I'm the best day. I don't need your crown. I'll hold this old damn store up while you're running it down. Maybe someday I'll learn how to stay. Good morning without it sounding like a someday I'll walk through the tail door without feeling like I owe you.

SPEAKER_12 1:24:17

It's not arrogant.

SPEAKER_10 1:24:19

If you can actually do it, just but maybe like to try. I've been holding up these walls so long, I forgot to ask you why. American, I rough around Jeffrey X I've got, but I'll pour everything I have into every single knot.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:41

I'm the best like a uh Pearl restringing reference there at the end, which is kind of a fun um little paradox picture, just like this. Emo punk young Ben Schuler restringing pearls. Mm-hmm. Just not I like it. I love I love this song so much. I'm so glad. It was a fun one. It's not arrogance if you can actually do it. Maybe of the album.

SPEAKER_12 1:25:11

I had a lot of fun with the drums on this song. Dude, I meant to mention that.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:15

They went so hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:16

Yeah, I was like, that was uh I I are your is your right foot that fast, or did you were you utilize it like a double double kick?

SPEAKER_12 1:25:24

Um there was one fill in this song where I did do double kick, the rest all single foot, baby. Dang. One of the fills though was a double kick. One of the really big ones, towards the song.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:36

I'm uh making uh my son who I've mentioned on here takes drum lessons. He has a drum lesson today. My wife's already texting me about it. But um he's working on some a Blink 182 song, All the Small Things, which sounds like it could be a bentular song. All the small things, small diamonds, small diamonds. But this past weekend, uh, we installed a double kick onto his drum set.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:56

Oh, let's go.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:57

So fun. So fun. Yeah, this is fun you know, we only got so much time and so many songs, so we'll we'll keep it moving. Um and this is what's crazy. So that song going into this next one. That's why I said it was hard to choose a favorite, because I think Bench King and this next track called Timeless is probably my top two.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:25

Um do you want to explain why, or let's just play it and you did get some studio time on this one. This is the one I got some studio time.

SPEAKER_12 1:26:35

Dusty, Dusty did get a little studio time on this.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:37

So why don't we play it, listen to it, and then we can kind of circle back and kind of break it down a little bit. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:42

Try to find where Dusty is is participating.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:52

Another one walks through the door.

SPEAKER_10 1:26:56

Same old story Same old score I keep my band so clean you can eat off the velt.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:11

Every two every stone double.

SPEAKER_10 1:27:15

I love the simple line, the classic curve, a solitary spark that's got some time as they call it Elegant and true, like a Gershwin blue, but they come and clutch in the relics of the time expecting miracles in this house. Steady hand, clean lines and classic. That's my delight. Yet they keep bringing yesterday's fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:09

We're gonna get into the to the little bit of the song here in a second, but I just love this song so much. It's really it's really fun. What a contrast from the emopunk to this just jazz standard. I mean very Michael Bublé-esque. I never even heard you sing like this before until today.

SPEAKER_12 1:28:29

Yeah, it was uh just a uh like a few weeks before um writing this song and recording it. Like it was recorded very soon after it was written. I was experimenting with some different vocal warm-ups and had my voice sounding in a way where someone was like, You sound just like Michael Buble.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:46

It's probably when you record early in the morning when you first wake up. Got that morning voice.

SPEAKER_12 1:28:50

There's a little bit in there, yeah. And so I um I was like, ooh, maybe I should do a Michael Buble sounding song, and boom, this is this is what we came up with.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:57

Um, should we get to the uh yes, your contribution? Yes, yes, yes. We gotta we gotta get to the let's keep going, see if we can get into it.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:04

The dusty moment, it's the best.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:07

Start over clean, but they want the ghost of what's already been!

SPEAKER_06 1:29:13

There he is, folks.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:29

So I wasn't there. Well, he flew me, he flew me out. That's what I want to know. But this is not like your studio day.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:37

You don't so this is not like a whole island flying out. Where'd you go? Where did you take me?

SPEAKER_12 1:29:42

Um I took Dusty, where were we? We were in Iceland, right? So it was kind of an island. Iceland. Iceland, yeah. It was summer. Not summer, but it was warm. So it felt like summer, so it was nice. It was very green.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:56

A lot of people get this confused because Greenland is very icy, but Iceland is actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:00

No, I get that point. It just seems like a long way to fly. For a saxophone cell.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:05

When he asked me for the saxophone cell, I said, Hey, do you want to you know meet down in New Orleans or you know, in in New York City? Right. And he said, No, Iceland.

SPEAKER_12 1:30:15

That's where I happen to be. I was like, I I I you're flying to me, I'm not flying to you. And I we're not flying in a to meet in a third-party location. Like, you're coming to me. I'm in Iceland.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:25

I was like, let's just you know, let's record this in an old cabaret where Frank Sinatra might have played. And he's like, now there was Jack Daniels there, so I do appreciate that. He did his best to make it kind of feel like that. But it was Iceland, yeah, apparently.

SPEAKER_12 1:30:39

And it was really nice there. Dusty, uh Dusty played the saxophone way back in the day in in high school.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:45

I was a little rusty.

SPEAKER_12 1:30:46

And I I told them Rusty Dusty.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:48

They called me Rusty Dusty the whole day we were in Iceland. Um he got it eventually. It it took a lot of takes, I'm not gonna lie. Improv is you have to to be good at improv, you have to practice improving.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:00

Yes, and I definitely was like, Dusty, I'm not even gonna tell you what key the song is in. You'll find that out when you're here. I want it to be so raw.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:07

It was like 72 takes.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:09

And it's probably hard to get inspiration being in that geographical, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:14

It's like even in the summer it's a little chilly. Right. A little bit and exciting for the saxophone. Then you're fighting you're fighting the elements in the atmosphere because uh the the instrument was cold, so you're sharp most of the time. Which is I thought it was wrong key, it was just the saxophone sharp. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:30

Luckily he's a professional and he nailed it. I mean, you heard how good that sounded.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:35

I haven't even played since college, but um I kind of just it was this was it was very therapeutic for me to kind of get back to that. Yeah. Don't know if I'll ever play again. That might be it for me, but um, I appreciate you letting me and Brad be in on this album just a little bit.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:50

I mean, I wouldn't be here without you guys, so it's the least I can do. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:53

It was the least you could do. Literally. We're gonna see how the song ends. Sure, of course.

SPEAKER_10 1:32:04

For the day, they'll just let the old thing remain.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:41

Stop it. Yeah. Stop it, stop it. I think this one, you know, the the the heavy metal and the the punk and even some of the the higher register songs that you do. I think this one just real I think this is the the version of BJ that I like the most.

SPEAKER_12 1:32:57

I'm I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty fond of it. You know, there was uh it's it's a nice it's a nice balance, it's a good vibe, it's fun. Everyone can enjoy it, you know. Not everyone can enjoy the pop punk, not everyone can enjoy the RB, but this kind of stuff, like everybody can enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:13

My kid, I can promise you, my kids will will that will be one of their least favorite songs.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:18

Well, they're kids, so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:21

I think when they get 40, 50, they'll they'll that's how I know this song, this album is gonna it's timeless. That song the song is timeless. Timeless. Literally, literally.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:36

That's why it's that's what it's called. Um, I'll probably won't be listening to it just because Dusty's playing in it and I don't like him.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:44

That makes sense. And I I was kind of hesitant to put him on for that exact reason. I was like, I'll get one less listener.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:50

But I told him, I said, do not accredit anything towards me except in this interview, because on the album you're not gonna see my name. Right. But as we all know, it's me.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:00

So we do know it's definitely Dusty.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:04

Once again, we take a very different uh genre turn here. Turn in the roller coaster. And this one, this one really tells a story, and I don't know if you want to set up the story or if we should this one is a little bit more. You seem to just be wanting us to get into it without pre-explaining anything.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:21

Yeah, I mean, a lot of these will kind of explain themselves a little bit, and this one this one is kind of hard because this one is this one really is a story. This one has some depth to it. This one is one that we might not even be able to dive too deeply into because this is one that you really just have to take the whole entire thing in, you know? Maybe we can talk about it a little bit. I mean So it's called Hank's Fine Jewelry.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:46

Which is a fictitious store. Which is a fictitious store. Just to be clear. If you it I will say, if you're listening to this and there isn't Hank's Fine Jewelry, please send us an email at bench jewelry memes. Fictional did I say? Fictititional. Did I say fictitious?

SPEAKER_11 1:35:04

BJ said fictional.

SPEAKER_12 1:35:09

Listen, I'm sorry. As someone who is trying to push the boundaries of music, I also have to push the boundaries of language. We know, yes, we know that's part of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:17

We know. You make up your own words sometimes.

SPEAKER_12 1:35:20

I mean and by the way, it's Mandrell. I think I just heard you call me BJ Mandrel. It's Mandrell. It's something.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:28

Hank's fine jewelry, everybody. Not a real place, not a real name. Brad, I know you're liking this one already. Is that a fiddle or a bottom? Sounds like some old rascal flats. One second.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:47

Daddy's got a sign.

SPEAKER_10 1:35:53

Hanging crooked on the cold house, square, squirk. I'm a strings, the purpose, and daddy wants the movements. And I've been bending over this workbench since I was barely a teen. I got sketches in a notebook, the ring set with sapphires, diamonds cut like starlight, gold sponsor. But the folks have come through that door don't find creation. Just a timex battery, and a watch band on their stands calling me like a big step. Comin' with Jordan. It goes on the camera. I need to hear banana TikTok.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:04

Somebody else is time. Me and Brad have a we have a soft spot in our hearts for this kind of music. And I I don't I don't want to I don't know if you were pandering to us, but it worked if that's what you were doing.

SPEAKER_12 1:37:20

Um there was a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of pander. Um not as much like for you, but as I was making this one, I kept thinking, oh, they're they're gonna love this one. Yeah. So what was this one about? Man, it's this song has a lot of a lot of depth and a lot of layers to it. You know, it's about the store itself, but it's also about this.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:43

I mean we I mean, we just played a little bit. There this is a story. It is this one's not gonna do it justice to to skip around. Right, right.

SPEAKER_12 1:37:51

Yeah, exactly. Right. You'll you you'll you you can hear it's about this relationship between the father and the son a lot, their dynamic, the son's dreams, and the thing that's holding him back at the store.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:03

It's to watch batteries holding it back to the street.

SPEAKER_11 1:38:05

Watch batteries. It's always batteries, batteries.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:10

Uh yeah. But Nashville's calling, though.

SPEAKER_12 1:38:12

Right? So he won't but I and I know I know that feeling as a musician who has had all this music that's just boiling on the inside of you, and you're at the store, and you hear Nashville calling, you hear it calling, and here you are changing batteries, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:26

So So this one is interesting because it feels like your story, but told in a way that me and Brad would appreciate it.

SPEAKER_12 1:38:33

Yeah, I mean, it was loosely inspired by my story. I mean, I'm I'm always pulling inspiration from everything, as you guys know. Um so it is it's not my exact story, but it's very much so inspired by it.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:46

Because he wants to move to Nashville, right? He wants to be uh he wants to make it big, but but he doesn't want to go there for the music, does he?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:54

Well, what do we want to should we pick up in the um in the bridge? Yeah, let's let's go there.

SPEAKER_10 1:39:04

But there's a box of dead sequels on the counter. Alright, so now we're getting into the bridge. Looked at mama, looked at me and stared down on at the floor. He said, Boy, I've been watching you stay when you should have been going and I ain't gonna hang that weight on you no more. Mama took my hand and said I get the cheerless turn in the song. The watches, your granddaddy figured things out harder than this. There ain't a battery in this world worth more than you dreamin'. Go on and make us something beautiful. Go on and don't miss Nashville's calling me.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:23

That's an emotional man. That one gets me. It's heavy. There ain't a battery in this world worth more than you're dreaming.

SPEAKER_12 1:40:32

Man. There's some people who needed to hear that. Some people really need to hear that.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:37

So I want everybody listen to this to quit your job.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:40

Listen, if you find yourself in some small town jewelry store, change and watch batteries, but you got big dreams, moving to the big city, setting up a studio. Go for it.

SPEAKER_12 1:40:54

Yeah, I mean, you gotta live your dreams. And hey, if you're if you find your dream at the shop, you find your dream at the shop. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:41:00

We got a lot of second, third, fourth generation jewelry listening to this, and um and and they were like how could they not with lyrics like that?

SPEAKER_12 1:41:10

Turns out that there's a store called Hank's Fine Jewelry in some like little town in Texas or something. And uh it's like the the third generation, he's got all these dreams. He always wanted to move to Nashville. He's very confused right now. How did they know?

SPEAKER_04 1:41:30

So this was not based on a true story.

SPEAKER_12 1:41:34

Inspired by true events, but there is no real well, there might be, but there's no Hank's fine jewelry that I base this on.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:42

And this is where it gets a little, you know, tricky because we were listening to Hank's Fine Jewelry, and then earlier in the album we're listening to 10k pristine, and it's it feels like there's so many how do we say this? It feels a little pandering. It feels a little um you you were gonna touch on it with 10k pristine.

SPEAKER_12 1:42:04

Yeah, I mean, you have to understand that well, first of all, it's less there's there's a lot that goes into this. At the end of the day, a lot of this music is still a reflection of me as a person, BJ Mandrell. And I am one, I'm very versatile in life. Even outside of music, I'm a very versatile person. I'm also a very uh dynamic and diverse person, you know. So many people don't know this. Maybe you can tell by looking at the picture on the album covers and stuff of my face, but I am biracial. What? Yeah, my mom is black, my dad is white, and I've always had a lot of influence from many different cultures. Even with that being said, we lived in a Hispanic area one time. We also lived out in the country one time. Um we lived in the city, we lived in the suburbs. I've seen a lot, I've been a lot, jazz clubs, done a lot, been to a couple jazz clubs here and there. So it's like I I have this, I have this influence of like that RB, some of the rap kind of stuff like you hear in 10K pristine, and I have that old country kind of like folk classic sound like you'll you'll hear here in this. So that's why I was kind of saying earlier, like if you're trying to get on me for cultural appropriation, I am all the cultures. That's true. I really are. Yeah, play that up. And while you cued up, I guess is one of the things I was gonna say is, you know, it's not necessarily pandering, but more that I'm trying to make something for everyone. You know? Because not everyone, not everyone's gonna be able to get down to Hank's fine jewelry the way they get down to 10k pristine, but you gotta think, like there's certain jewelry stores where these two different songs might be might be bumped, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:43:54

And and it would be difficult and so much work to do a country album with you know 10-12 tracks and then do an RB album with 10 tail 10 to 12 tracks, and then do and then do an album like this one, which is called Crystal Fire. So this one is even more diversity, and I would love to hear about maybe something in your past that kind of where this was inspired from, maybe.

SPEAKER_12 1:44:19

Yeah, this actually does have a pretty big inspiration from the past. So yeah, go ahead and play it.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:29

From the depths of the earth, she calls.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:42

Is that you, Brown? Listen. Just now. Light, light, light, light. I can promise you I've never been in an environment where this type of music is played. Sounds you've never gone to like an HM store in the mall?

SPEAKER_10 1:45:08

Cobb fire time. Fractures the line. One perfect. Always want one crystal crystal fire fire that is shiny.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:06

That's what we uh I will be a hundred percent honest. I do not know what the song is about if you care to explain this.

SPEAKER_12 1:46:14

Yeah, I mean, it's it's about crystal fire. It's it's kind of about the like diamond formation process underground.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:24

Okay. Oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_12 1:46:25

Yeah, you know, crystal fire. Um, and you can see like here at the beginning, a million years of pressure and light deep beneath the ancient stone, a secret in heat and bone, carbon kissed by fire and time. See, it's it's about diamond formation.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:43

Yeah, the the start of it I was tracking, and then it just starts talking about crystals and glass and eight directions sixty-four.

SPEAKER_12 1:46:53

Yeah, so the eight directions 64. Um, it's it's kind of hard to explain. And if I were to dive into explaining that right now on this podcast, I'd probably be talking about exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:06

So we're just gonna have to we have you back together.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:08

So here's what we'll do. Um, if anyone's out there listening, if you understand what that means and you can understand what the 64 means, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:16

Send an email at uh PinchularMemes at Gmail.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:20

Yeah, go ahead and fire that email, and whoever can correctly guess it correct will win a free podcast. A free podcast and a free diamond, but you have to get it exactly correct.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:32

So this is like a this is like an electronic dance type thing. Like yeah, for sure. It's not it's not really my vibe, I'll be honest.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:40

No, I mean it's not for everyone, but like I said, not every song is for everyone. There's a lot of versatility here, and I was really kind of inspired after that synthwave song to do something that was a little bit more like electronic sounding, not necessarily the same genre, but um yeah, yeah. And I I I just thought it would be a kind of a cool, cool, cool vibe.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:02

We can kind of um play a little bit of the ending because I think it's got some cool um musicianship. Oh yeah, if you will.

SPEAKER_10 1:48:13

Cut and grind, sparkle, sparkle, lose your mind, sparkle, sparkle.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:20

Ancient gold, sparkle, sparkle, won it all.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:31

Um, I got people they might we should we should have put a warning on here to turn the go on your radio in your car, maybe turn the bass down just a little bit so you don't speakers.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:41

Yeah, that bass bumps in that song. Oh, it's so good. So good. Well, we got two more songs, fellas.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:46

Two more, two more.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:48

Two more. Um how many people are listening at this point, you think?

SPEAKER_04 1:48:51

Yeah, no one is getting this far into the episode. Oh, yeah. Unless they are background music. Oh, they show our awesome.

SPEAKER_12 1:48:58

I don't know. I think I have a lot of really big fans out there, so I appreciate all of you who are still listening. Shout out, go ahead and send us an email. Let us know that you are still listening. Uh, we'll know that you made it this far if you email us the word kangaroo.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:14

I bet people are like, we're all there's two more tracks left, and they're probably someone going, There's not a single blues song on the album.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:21

Well that's what I've been thinking. If that if that's what you've been thinking, blues.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:25

Well, you're in love.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:26

Y'all ready?

SPEAKER_04 1:49:26

Oh. Where's the blues? I'll show you where the blues are.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:29

Right here.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:39

Hops on an acoustic guitar. Who? Alright, we're gonna have to rewind that because I was right in the middle of the song. I love him, BJ hops on an acoustic guitar.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:00

Yeah, me too. We're doing so well.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:05

It's like the pain in this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:12

It's a little upbeat for the boys.

SPEAKER_10 1:50:14

Woke up this morning. Sun barely cracked the sky. Grab my old timers. Say, watch today we try. Shuffle down the main street. Eight o'clock on near. Sign says open at nine.

SPEAKER_09 1:50:32

Oh no.

SPEAKER_10 1:50:33

That sign weren't there. I can see them in there sippin' on the group, laughing and a chattin'. Got nothing else to do. One little battery lord. Is that so much to ask? But they hide behind the glass like it's some holy tags. Got the timex battery blues. Rattling on that door.

SPEAKER_09 1:50:56

Yanking on that handle like I never yanked before.

SPEAKER_10 1:51:02

Watch it's been storm dead since Tuesday. Baby June got the timex battery blues. Open up this afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:14

What's this first two play?

SPEAKER_10 1:51:17

I pressed my face against the glass, left a foggy smear. Young gal at the counter. She looked at me, I swear. Turned back around and poured another cup.

SPEAKER_09 1:51:34

If I could get inside this door, I drink it all myself.

SPEAKER_10 1:51:38

Um fed up.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:42

Well this one's this one is um this one paints a picture um that we're all familiar with.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:49

Yeah, I thought it would be really fun to tell the song from the other perspective.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:54

I love when you take on the customers personal and they go in at that way. Love it.

SPEAKER_12 1:52:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:01

Maybe uh it really, really helps to uh, you know. But put I mean put yourself in their shoes. You know, they got up at 5 a.m. Their watch has been dead, he said, since Tuesday, maybe June. Not sure what that means exactly, because it's May, but it's been dead for a long time. He gets up, he had his breakfast, had his coffee, shuffles on down here at 8 a.m.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:25

only to find out if they open at nine. Yep. I'll put myself in his shoes. And he and he sees the people, he sees them in there.

SPEAKER_12 1:52:32

Just laughing in the chat. Am I supposed to I see I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm in his shoes. Am I supposed to be feeling sympathy?

SPEAKER_03 1:52:39

Am I supposed to be feeling right? This is why this works, because it's like like we see it on the side of like, man, these people are so annoying.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:48

Yeah, like clearly we opened at nine. You could have Googled it. We're setting up the store, we're having our coffee, maybe a little uh pre-opening meeting, lots of stuff to discuss, and now you got someone. What did he say quite literally? He yanked on the handle like he never yanked before. Don't know what that meant.

SPEAKER_11 1:53:03

He was yanking, and he was sh smearing up that glass, getting all foggy.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:15

I see him in there. Yanking and okay. He was yanking on that handle. Fogged up the window. My old TV.

SPEAKER_11 1:53:24

Oh, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:26

Oh, this is uh I'd I'll be honest, this one, this one it feels weird because it's kind of it it could be infuriating. It could be like we're laughing about it. But I think when you're living it, I mean we we've already we were already there this morning. Mid podcast. Mid podcast handle yanking over here.

SPEAKER_11 1:53:47

These customers.

SPEAKER_12 1:53:49

They love to yank your handle, they love to yank your chain.

SPEAKER_11 1:53:55

That's a little little pun in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:57

What's wrong with Dusty?

SPEAKER_11 1:54:02

Dusty can't handle all the yanking going on around here right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:06

Yeah, who's lost Dusty?

SPEAKER_11 1:54:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:11

Do we need to play any more of that? Everybody get the idea.

SPEAKER_12 1:54:14

Uh, if you want to play maybe a little bit of the bridge, I kind of like the bridge. It's very, very symbolic. Oh lord. If I want to. Because you can see how here in the bridge he starts to like go into his life story.

SPEAKER_11 1:54:26

You know, these people love to go into their life stories over their watch.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:29

I'm just gonna pick a spot.

SPEAKER_10 1:54:32

Got the time it's battery blue. Railin' on that door. Yanking on that hand never yanked before. Watch has been stone this since Tuesday. Bridge June got the time, battery blues, open up this afternoon. Now this watch has been through everything. Korea 53. Still means the world to me. Take a lickin', keeps on ticking. That's what the man said, but it ain't keeping nothing now. Cause the battery's dawned. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:22

I got a question for you. Go ahead. Um and I really don't know the answer. Okay. Were there battery watches in 1953 in Korea? I think so. You think so? I think so. I was just I don't know.

SPEAKER_12 1:55:35

Um, yeah, the first quartz watch made its way onto the scene in the late 40s, I want to say.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:43

Were the first quartz watches made in Korea? I don't know.

SPEAKER_12 1:55:46

The first quartz watches were the Japanese.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:49

I assume it was in like the Korean War. It doesn't really imply that, but I mean maybe he visited. Oh. Yeah, I don't even know if the Korean was probably with his first wife.

SPEAKER_12 1:55:59

He did a tour in Korea in 53, and that watch made it through the whole tour. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:03

And and through three wives.

SPEAKER_12 1:56:05

And through three wives, and a bad hip.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:07

And a bad hip. I wonder if the bad hip came in, like wife number two or three. It's usually how I there's a lot to explore with this um character, huh?

SPEAKER_12 1:56:16

Oh, he's got quite the story, and he will gladly tell you if you let him go into it.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:20

It's just there's there's yanking and there's licking and ticking, and there's just so many things at this point.

SPEAKER_12 1:56:26

He ticks, he licks, he yanks. What can I say? He yanks like he never yanks before.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:31

So I think we should go ahead and get to the last song. Last one. Nobody's listening at this point. Um now this one is Ooh. I know we kind of all right, we're we're not, Brad, let's be honest. We're anything, we're honest. If we're anything, we're honest. And this is one of the few times where we told BJ, this is what you're gonna do. This is the song you're gonna make. This is true. And normally it's like you just do you, and this one we're like, you know, this one's personal. Yeah. We wrote the lyrics ourselves, collect col we collaborated. Cool, and but truthfully, we just wrote the lyrics and said, Now you do with it what you will. Oh, yeah. And he did, and I had a blast. And he did. So without further ado, I think we might just play this whole song to finish it out. So we can go ahead and do our wrap-up now, and then we can play this in its entire thing. Do you think we should do that? I think it's the perfect last. Oh, wait a minute. Is the last track? This is not the last track, this is the last song. The last track is the final interlude, part three. Yes. Yes, yes. And um it's just perfect. Um, but before we play this song, before we play this song to close us out for the day, BJ, thank you so much for doing this. I know this is not easy. We put you on the spot. Oh, it's okay, guys.

SPEAKER_12 1:57:57

And um Yeah, to fly in. I had to fly in. I really appreciate it. You know, I'm moving all the time. I'm getting confused. I most recently came here um from uh uh Newfoundland, actually. So not too far, but can't Canadian, Newfoundland, Canada, yeah, up there. Newfoundland. Um yeah, but no, thank you guys for having me. You know, it's always good to be back here, always good to be with you guys. Really appreciate uh talk about the new music. I'm really excited about the album drop coming May 30th. Are you gonna be touring this summer? Um The tour is not going to start this summer. We're gonna go ahead and get the album out, let it get a little buzz going, and uh later on we will announce the uh the tour dates, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:40

And so what were you gonna say, Brad Place?

SPEAKER_03 1:58:43

We definitely have some merch coming out.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:44

So merch. I know that's why I don't know if we spoke too soon, but we have some some merch that is gonna allude to the tour. That's all we can say right now. Now we will say if you want to find out about what we're talking about, you have to hop on our Instagram. Um, it's like a little, I forget what they call it. It's like a channel. Or Instagram channel. It says it in the bio merch uh merch drop or whatever. I don't know what it says. Who knows what it says?

SPEAKER_03 1:59:13

But that's where you find all find out about all the things.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:17

I made it pretty far until I got some verts. That's his new thing to after I talk too long, I just start. And I start saying names. So we're just gonna be able to Andrew. Um at least there wasn't music playing while you said it. Oh no. Um this way, um, yeah, I think this is the perfect the perfect end to this album and to this interview. Perfect. So thank you guys for listening so much. And we are going to play the song, or I'll be ready.

SPEAKER_12 1:59:44

We're ready. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:57

Crack prongs and a customer who won't leave me alone. She swears a diamond shifted since she brought it home.

SPEAKER_10 2:00:10

I've got rouge on my fingers, flux fumes in my hair.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:15

Should use a laser, a stack of ring shanks, and a thousand yard stair. My loops fogged up from breathing too hard again. Brad's re tipping the same tennis bracelet for the tent.

SPEAKER_11 2:00:34

Yeah, he is. We hit record just to crack it.

SPEAKER_10 2:00:39

Someone out there had a worse day. So pour me another cup. I'm running on food, got a sizing job, doing no air in this room. The client's one miracle, the milgrain's one thing. But if you're listening, baby, just throw something in. We don't need but just enough for the rent. Maybe some beans that aren't already spent, keep us going. You know what we mean. The tip of jars open in the coffee machine.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:14

Dusty's gotta repair the cane with no photo. It looked just like this. She said, drawing a circle. I smile through my mask like a man who is fine. Went home and cried to a podcast by nine. We talk about battles, we talk about grief, we talk about customers looking for relief. We hit record just to hear ourselves say someone out there understands. And for you guys, pour me another cup.

SPEAKER_10 2:01:42

I'm running on foods, got a sizing job, doing no air in this room. The clients want miracles, the milgrains won. And but if you listen in, baby, just throw something in. We don't need much.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:55

This is this is one of those songs that you definitely play at the end of the set list. Yeah, yeah, and and then they you go offstage, yeah, and they're like Encore BJ, BJ, BJ.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:07

Come out and you sing it. Play that one about yanking the handle, BJ. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 2:02:11

I come out and yank the handle a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:18

We learn to set stones before we learn to sleep. We learn to smile back when the markup runs deep. The flexhaft lullaby, the ultrasonic comes, and somewhere a listener is sending us funds. Please we're begging with love. Just a couple of jewelers with burned up hands and a microphone.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:53

We have two microphones, I've built something tiny. We share it.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:57

And called it a home. So if this show ever meant anything to you, buy me a coffee, or I swear I'll retip that bracelet again.

SPEAKER_12 2:03:51

You talking about this banter thing still or something else? What are you talking about? What can't you do? What are you talking about? What can't you do?

SPEAKER_01 2:04:02

What do you mean? What can't you do?

SPEAKER_13 2:04:03

All right. We're just chopping it up. We're just talking.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:06

I'm excited for this. Heck yeah, you are. This is our favorite. This is our favorite episode style, and it's everyone else's probably Lee's favorite. Yep. Sure is. I felt like we start gaining some momentum, and then we hit them with the BJ Mandreau interview, and they're like, I'm I'm done with that. Where are we going?

SPEAKER_03 2:04:25

They're really trying to sell this AI music to us. It's like uh SpongeBob when they just randomly have the what were the two like um superheroes that Spongebob liked? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_12 2:04:37

Yeah. Superboy, right? And something like that. What's the other one? I can't remember that one's name.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:43

I don't know. But like anytime you'd have one of those episodes, it's like crap.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:48

Here's a tricky part too. When we play these tracks, because obviously I kind of want to play a s I guess we're just gonna play a sample of all of them. But do we just start at the beginning and let it go through the first chorus and then cut it off? Because the choruses are the best part, typically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:04

Or do we just try to think we need to play the whole song?

SPEAKER_04 2:05:06

Yeah. Or do we just like skip somewhere random in the middle of the song and just see where we pick up?

SPEAKER_12 2:05:12

Each song can maybe be a little bit different. Like some of them you can maybe do like the back half of the verse going into the chorus, some just the chorus, some full verse, full chorus, depending on the song.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:23

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:25

It's also hard to guess where because all I can do is like fast forward the track, I don't know where it's gonna come in. Not that level of expertise.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:36

Okay. Is anybody hot? Should I bump down the temp one degree?

SPEAKER_03 2:05:42

Yeah, probably. With all this equipment in this studio.

SPEAKER_12 2:05:45

What studio? Is that about to make the vent come on and be all like?

SPEAKER_03 2:05:50

Maybe it's the stepdaddy Ron studio.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:54

Brad, do you want to introduce us live from the stepdaddy Ron studio? We have a special guest. Stepdaddy Ron.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:00

You're the intro guy.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:01

Okay. I'm the intro. Are we ready? You're the I'm just the I realize that we don't actually have to clap unless we're doing video.

unknown 2:06:09

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:10

That's why I didn't understand why you did it with Ron.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:14

Well George Dick. Oh yeah, his it kind of helped because I have to, if it's just me and you have to do it, but with him, I do have to clap. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:20

But yeah, because it's a secondary audio.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:23

But also it only makes sense if he clapped, not us.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:29

Anywho. Like I'm clapping. I always clap. Okay, man.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:35

Oh man. Alright, are we ready? It makes you feel official. Take one. Alright, we'll count it down.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:42

Or I or BJ, do you want to count it down? Oh, I can count us down.

SPEAKER_11 2:06:50

Coming to you live from Step Daddy Robert. Five, four, three.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:57

I mean, we can do it that way. I think that's great. Let's do it. We have a voiceover for the first time. Obviously, you haven't been keeping up with what's going on at the show, BJ.

SPEAKER_12 2:07:13

I haven't. Where I've been didn't have the best internet reception. I haven't kept up with most things in life.

SPEAKER_04 2:07:19

Well, we uh so one of our favorite listeners was on the show. His name is Ron. Ron. And he is what did you call him, Brad? Our chief benefactor. He's our chief benefactor. That's fancy for he gives us money. He gives us money. So we gave him naming rights. So we started calling him Stepdaddy Ron, and I can't rem all because Daddy Stoller was already taken. So we started calling him Stepdaddy Ron. Because he's the the dad that stepped up.

SPEAKER_12 2:07:46

Wow, yeah, facts. I see.

SPEAKER_04 2:07:48

So we we named this studio the Stepdaddy Ron Studios. Stepdaddy Ron's studios. Now that you are up to speed, are we doing a voiceover? No, let him do it. Let him cook. Alright. Three, two, one,