EP 11 Spencer Hoffman On the Differences Between LA and PDX Music Scenes

Isabel and Kyle talk with longtime friend Spencer Hoffman about his new album Cherry Picker, writing through different stages of your life, and the differences between the LA music Scene and Portland. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Uh I hadn't like secured a podcast guest at that point, not a podcast ghost, obviously. I wouldn't be talking about ghosts. Spooky ghosts are scary. Um and it was just me answering mailbag questions, which are great questions, but uh that is the lowest performing podcast so far. Speaking of the podcast, this is the podcast. This is a podcast called currently Hey Smiling Strange, but as I said in a story earlier, I had a dream that I named the podcast Unk Slop Music or Unk Slop. And I can't get it out of my brain. So there's a very good chance this podcast might actually be the first Unk Slop podcast. Uh I feel like the kids would like that more. I am joined today by my co-host Isabel. Isabel, what do you think about Unk Slop?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I think it's I I think um I think it's You're suddenly less encouraged about being my co-host. I think I'm having a queasy reaction just simply to the assemblage of words in that game. Um like it has a real kind of like it has a real vomit adjacent kind of um like guttural, you know. I'm everything in my body is telling you is telling me not to do it. But is it funny? Yeah, I also do love I I'm having a real love-hate thing with it, Kyla.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I think I think it's I think that just answered my question. I think this is the Unkslop this is Unk Slop Podcast number one. Um Welcome to Unc Slop number one. Uh our guest, Spencer Hoffman, friend of the pod, friend of the podcast people. Spencer, how you doing, dude?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

I'm doing good every day, more and more chopped. Um, so I'm I'm more and more chopped, more and more unk. So yeah, I'm vibing with the new name.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah. Uh Spencer has been uh a longtime friend of myself and my wife and Isabel. Uh he used to live in Portland. He actually was roommates uh with my wife when we were dating first uh first up, and is a very talented musician now down in LA. Uh he's got an album coming out. Spencer, why don't you give us a little introduction to you as a musician? I think that's that what's that's the way to go. Not you as just a person, just you as the musician.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, leave out all the stuff about you as a person, actually. No one cares. None.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

No, no, whatever you want to say.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Yeah, I'll lead with my my persona. My uh I'll ignore the shadow self for now. Um yeah, I'm I've been uh playing music um live since I was 16 years old. Started recording uh my brother when I was 12 and 13, and um up in Sacramento um area, Northern California. Um we were in a band um and uh we were assigned to Park the Van Records and toured around a bit and ended up moving to Los Angeles um in pursuit of that, and then COVID happened and uh ended up being it was kind of the death knell of the um of the label and um I just had a lot of free time sitting around at home and um started making music just kind of haphazardly and then it turned into my first solo record. Um and since then uh since like kind of coming out of the pandemic, started playing it live, and that was kind of my first foray into uh being a solo musician, and um just kind of haven't stopped making stuff since then.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

I love that so I love that solo record, I want to say. And Spencer, I don't know if you would remember this, but the first tour that my band Baby Tooth ever went on, we played with you guys in LA. Yeah, yeah. And I that was like such a was that like right before or right after COVID? I can I actually can't even remember now.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

I think it was actually probably right after, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Yeah, I think it was kind of like a re-emerging from COVID kind of thing. I mean it all it all runs together. Um, but that's a that's a super special record, and I had forgotten that that actually was the first time that you recorded by her, like in a as a solo project. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, yeah. I didn't really know uh if you'd I I have known you uh only from you know music. I think uh we might have met you at a house show or something like that. And fun fact that I got um from Annie today, uh the only two bands of all the bands that Annie has played in that she asked to be in is Baby Tooth and uh uh what was the band that you guys played in together? What was the name of it uh at the time?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Holly Holly LeBabe.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Holly LeBe! Let's go! That is a deep cut. Yeah, Annie played bass with a Holly LaBabe, man.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah. Uh real heads now, Holly Le Babe.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah, the uh I played I played a house show under my like I don't I I guess I was too chicken to play music under my name um at that point, so I kind of concocted this strange uh pseudonym, and uh I spent the first six months living in Portland, living with this like kind of like an acid tragedy guy um in uh in Southeast Portland and um That's such a kind of person in Southeast Portland too, but go on. Yeah, yeah, he was it was just you know a little uncomfortable. Once I like I r left the apartment to go to college in the morning and he was laying on his bed splayed out with the light on. Like the light just completely overhead light just on, and I was like, oh, I guess he's taking a nap. And I came home like late at night and he was in the same position. Oh, that's uh with the light on, just like blasting. Yeah, he might have been alien.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

I'm feeling I'm feeling like he was not of Earth, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Honestly, that would track, yeah. That would definitely track. Um that was my best friend for that was my best that was my only uh like contact really uh for six months um living in Portland and um I was like, wow, I can't make any friends. Like I don't I have no idea how to make friends. And then um uh I had some old friends of mine from Sacramento had a house in Portland and they were putting on a house show, and uh I decided to play, and that one show I gained all of my friends in Portland, including you, Kyle, Annie, and like everyone else. Um and uh I was like, oh yeah, like music is the only way I know how to operate like a social life or anything. It's like it's like a boat club or something.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah, isn't it always also just like one thing that ends up like I I moved uh pretty recently or like a few years ago to uh Minneapolis and I was like, man, I don't even like I guess I'm just really out of practice or something. Like I don't remember how people make friends, and then it's like one thing happens, or you meet like one person, or you go to one show, and it just like everything kind of like cracks open. It's like so cool to hear different versions of that experience because it really is like you go from nothing to like oh I now I just have everything.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Oh, yeah, it's it was incredible, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, you only it's like a sales position, you only need like one or two yeses in the first year to really like get you through the whole year. But it's really hard when you especially when you first move to something, and I feel like it kind of gets harder every year that you get a little bit older because everyone gets a little bit more calcified in their own world or whatever. But like you have to have these environments where you can run into people like a couple of times, and that's why I think these DIY music scenes, these house shows and stuff, are so good for making friends, because it's it's a low pressure conversation. Spencer, I'm almost certain that the conversations you had with people that night, they probably all were about the bands that you were just watching, or about your set right then, you know. Uh I don't know if you remember uh how you started talking to everybody. How did you did you or Annie strike up a conversation first? And did she ask to play the band then? Take us there.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Yeah. So the the first experience going into the party, I think maybe you played this house show, right, Kyle?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

I don't remember. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

But you were there.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

We were there. I think we were just going to shows at the time. This is like before we really played much, Annie and I. We were just going to every show we could possibly get our. Anytime somebody said there was a show, we would just go to it.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah, and I I remember there was you sat down on the drum set, and I was like, you know, I came in with my guitar and I was like tuning my guitar or something, or like plugging something in, and then we played music together for a little bit. Oh, sick.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

And then and then I'm a I'm an outgoing, rambunctious younger zero memory of this.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

We we like we jammed, man. Oh, that's awesome, man. God, young Kyle, where'd it go, buddy? And then I played a set, and then I think Annie started talking to me in the kitchen and and asked to uh be in the to to play music with me, and I was like, hell yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, it's a good one. And then you and then you came in and yeah, we had a lovely conversation.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

We I think she was looking for a bass project at that time. She always likes having at least one thing where she keeps up on the bass. Uh and uh yeah, I don't know. Isabel, you you got her to play lead guitar. I think it was the first time she ever considered herself the real guitarist. This is a very Annie heavy podcast, by the way. She will listen to every single word of this, so I'm happy to I'm happy to keep the focus on.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

So we can't we can't talk our we can't talk our shit because she's kidding.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

No, that's a Patreon exclusive one if she wants to hear that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

It would be it would be so difficult to even try to talk shit on Annie. That's like the thing that I love about that idea. It's like, hmm, okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Someone really I think I would burst into tears if I even attempted to do that.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

It would like hurt, it would hurt me to try to do my feelings to try to do that. Yeah, totally. What would the first time you better? Oh yeah, go ahead. Me? Oh, oh, oh, okay. First of all, I did want to say it's very um what you described about like just going to a show no matter who's playing, is um it's a very transportive like I I I do think that's something you kind of lose as you're I mean, you're talking about like calcification of social groups, but it's also like calcification of your music taste and what you think is cool. And I mean, I I know all of us try our best to resist that and like stay flexible and learn things all the time, and I think we do, but like that um that just like knee-jerk yes to every mention of like a show happening is like so uh sweet to remember and like maybe good to like re-embrace sometimes, like not even following up about like who is playing or what the music is like and just being like cool, I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

One of the weirdest things that uh has happened as we started to play more music, and obviously, you know, Annie's in everybody's band, so uh like we used to go to like four or five shows a week, uh Annie and I, like when we were first dating, just to go see who was playing, see what the shows were like, and we've stopped doing that over the last couple of years, but we realized like, well, we have band practice three nights a week, and then one of us has a show every week, so we're still going to like four music-related things in a week. And then the idea of like on one of the nights that we have off, instead of like going and playing pool or something, we're gonna go watch another music thing. That's the part where uh that's the weird trade-off. What's like as you get more involved, you start playing more music, you kind of lose uh some of that that feel for you lose, you know, some of the motivation you had originally to go see more music. But like, you know, like Spencer was saying, when you're early on in a new city and you're trying to get away from your friend who's just cosplaying as a uh Kentucky fried chicken sandwich just waiting under a heat lamp, uh you're just like you know, if you feel in that kind of that like man, I gotta go find friends or something like that, go play shows, go watch shows, like there's plenty of stuff. It's a good problem to have that you're too busy to go to shows. If you aren't too busy to go to shows, just grip it and rip it, baby.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

And go to as many as possible, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Well, yeah, well, in particular, I think like as you get older, I think you're desperately clinging on to your dignity, and uh it's very undignified to uh you know put yourself in the position to make a friend sometimes, you know, because you're you could you know it's like it's like a mini, you know, uh rejection possibly. So you're just kind of trying to protect your protect yourself. So like uh going to a show where you have all these reasons to talk to people and all these reasons to and also you have something other than yourself to talk about. You have this other thing that you're both interested in to talk about. Is very helpful, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, I think that's uh that's funny. That's honestly like the the biggest thing. It's just like it's a low when you think about how easy it is to make friends in school, a lot of it is like they set you up to make friends, like they push you together, like go hang out. But the other part of it is like you're just gonna sit next to a kid every day for three months, and like if you have any ability to be friends with that person in the three months of sitting next to them in class, you are gonna figure that out. Like, it's just low stakes, hangs, just saying little things like you know, in school you had like, hey, what what did the teacher say, or can I borrow your notes or something? At a show, it can be like, Hey, uh, that was a you know, you just talked to the musician as they're packing up. That was a great set. How many times have you guys been asked, Oh, what what pedals are you guys using? Oh, that's a cool comedy going on there.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Mercifully few, because I'm visibly not male.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Hey, Annie has had many pedal conversations over the years. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah, she I mean, and she deserves she deserves them. Oh, yeah. Because I because I love because like she does do things intentionally, obviously. But it's like, does anybody like that conversation of any gender? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Uh Nathan Erbach, have you you've met our previous podcast friend of the pod, Nathan Urbach.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Standing corrected, there are people who enjoy that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Sorry. Cool. I could call him up right now and just be like, you want to talk about pedals real quick? You'd be 25 minutes, solid pedal talk.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah. I um I got a call. I hope this doesn't embarrass her, but our friend Maddie Heidi, who plays as Canary Room, her music is awesome. She's like plugging in her guitar, kind of for the first time, actually. We live in the same city now and are really, really close friends. So like she called me and she was like, Hey, I can't ask a man this. I refuse to ask a man this, but I really need to know what the little cables are called that you that you put between your pedals. I was like, those are called patch cables. I'm 97% sure. If you go to the guitar store and say that, they will give you what you need. So, you know. I learned something that we're all make and do. I learned something. Yeah, I get right. I'm like, that can also still really be wrong. I'm like, there's the ones that well, I'm like, okay, so there's the ones that turn them on, and then there's the ones that make the sound go. And like, and you need both and you need both of them. Like one of them's a daisy chain. I'm like hesitant on every single syllable. But um yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Well, let me explain to you.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Uh thank you for acting like you aren't able to jump in and and correct me at any point. Um, yeah, that's anyway. So let me clear this.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Let's uh let's go to your your history with music. I know you said you started playing at 14. I always like to ask, like, were your parents musical? Did they play a lot of music? Did they play an instrument? Like, how did you start playing at 14? Were you just like, yeah, dude, I think this is this is gonna be my thing? Like, what got you to the point where you're like, I'm gonna go because if you're gonna learn how to play an instrument, you're basically signing up to like I'm gonna go be really shitty at this for like six months in the hopes that at some point I might not suck completely. What brought a young teenage Spencer Hoffman in the mean streets of Sacramento to uh take the plunge on the guitar?

SPEAKER_02 17:29

It was my brother. My brother, um classic older brother. Yeah, yeah, my older brother started it, and he he's a bit of a um savant, you know. He's a he's an excellent guitar player, and he always, I swear from the moment he touched a guitar, it just sounded good. Um and so I saw him playing guitar, I thought it was uh waste of time. And uh I wonder what your opinion is now. And um and uh, you know, he uh I I uh vividly remember one day um we were killing time in the apartment, and Mason downloaded some like freeware like recording software um onto the uh the like family, my our mom's like desktop computer. The family. Desktop work computer. It was like a Dell. Um and uh and I think like the the sound the output sound would go like because it was the free version, it would like go like blank every like minute or something like that. Um but anyway, he he you know he was recording this guitar track and he didn't wanna you know he like I guess you know the limitations of the freeware, like he couldn't get reach the record button in time to like get over to the microphone or whatever. And so he had me in uh call me into the room and I'd pressed record, and um that was kind of my first even before I played music, I'd helped him record, and then you know, just in the car we'd always you know sing harmonies together of like whatever was on on the radio so we wouldn't like walk over each other. And so that day I like recorded a harmony on his track.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Beautiful. Um yeah, and like I I was like 12 and then um that's just like comically young, like that's awesome. You're 12 and you're recording music. I interrupt you.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

I know it was I it's beautiful, it's such a beautiful thing to for for a kid to do. And it's all Mason, like Mason was the like you to answer your question, Mason had that spark of like I don't I don't care, I'm gonna suck at this and get better. Like he had whatever that was, and then I just sort of saw him blazing this trail, and I was like, Well, that looks really cool, like that looks easy, you know, like you make it sound pretty good. And he was always an excellent songwriter too, so I just kind of had to like you know, kind of jump on his shoulders, you know, and kind of like see what was happening.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

There's this classic uh little brother maneuver here. Uh Annie and I always joke because we both have when we first uh started playing music together, we both would play guitars that were purchased for our older sibling because everybody in the family was like, oh, they are the ones with the musical talent, and then we got all younger siblings jealous of it, and when they abandoned the guitars, we took them. Annie's pink guitars, her sisters, and then my the guitar I still play was my brother's graduating from high school gift. Um, but I also remember I recorded my brother in high school on free software that probably bricked up an old PC for the very same reason of like he's just like, I need somebody to push record on this thing, and then I had to go and push record the audacity of these older siblings to just be like, Oh, well, I have an ass I have an assistant. I have him right there. He's ready for me at any time to go. I can just give it audacity pun, Kyle.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Didn't even make it. The fruity loops of these individuals.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah, I okay, Spencer. I'm actually so the the second like half of this phenomenon that you're describing, Kyle, is that like older sibling is assumed to be music more musical, and then by the time everybody is adults, maybe the younger sibling has overtaken them. So I'm curious, Spencer, like what may it do you say his name's Mason? What like what is his Relationship to music, also very much knowing it's not a competition. It's just interesting to hear how people start with this and then how they like grew up. Like, do you guys still play together at all? What's the vibe?

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yeah, we're still in the band that we started um when when we were when I was 16. Um it uh we we actually just finished uh another record. Um so we're really excited to put that out. Um and uh he he lives like a few blocks away from me right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

And you know, that's his scenario answer.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah, he he you know, we we're both um, you know, we both like play slide guitar and you know, are like trading licks and techniques and stuff, and uh um and I I kind of see it in a funny way too, where like he um because we've always played together throughout our entire you know musical li or my entire musical life, I kind of learned how to like play in the empty spaces, you know. Like I think it prepared me in a really unique way to sort of not be walking over him or kind of fit in all these different areas, and he's an excellent lead guitar player, so I kind of focused on finger picking and rhythm guitar and stuff like that. And um yeah, so it's kind of it we we're kind of like purpose built to play together, so we still it's still our sort of like main source of joy, I think, is to play with each other.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

That's cool. Yeah, that skill you're talking about about like uh figuring out what the song needs and not necessarily what your I don't know, I guess, ego is calling for. I feel like sometimes it can get really hard when you're playing music with people of like, well, I want to do this thing, you know, I want to do this thing that I w you know have worked on uh or whatever, but that specific song doesn't really call for being able to take in what the other person's given you, fill in the space like you're talking about, uh essentially figure out what the role you can play towards making the song better is like that is a huge part. Uh that's like more important than chops. Uh I'm not saying that you or your brother don't have chops. You're both better at better than I'll probably ever be at guitar, unless I get like really into it when I'm 50 or something. That's a chance. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll get into practicing someday. Uh but like, you know, uh just uh I think I hear that a lot in your songwriting is like it's very intentional songwriting, it's very kind of like there's a craft to it that is very easy to appreciate. I think even early on when we were first listening to uh Holly LeBabe play solo in somebody's living room, like you have uh a sense of the craft of it. Uh did you develop that like in tandem with uh developing your music musical taste at all, or is this just sort of like this all made sense to you intrinsically? What what do you think helped shape your songwriting and your brother's songwriting as well?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah, I have the same question.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Um I like for whatever reason I was always um so like excited to write, to r to write a song. Like I think I learned three chords trying to learn some other song, and then instead of like, you know, the due diligence of learning how to play this other song, I just wrote a song, you know. Uh and I think it was like I think that's kind of the relationship I've had with it, is like every time I learn something new on the instrument, um it immediately can't wait to express itself in in a song. Um uh you know, I'll learn, you know, other songs and then all of those chords kind of get jumbled up and those changes just sort of like regurgitate, you know, themselves into something else. And um so like since I started playing guitar um I started writing songs. Um and I don't I think it was partially laziness. You know, it was a lot easier to like just you know write something than to remember someone else's thing or like how the actual proper way to play Blackbird or whatever. I was just like, uh, you know, that was my first song. Uh yeah, which I'd I'd you know, like you know, you gotta learn the whole point.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

I never learned the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yeah, just enough.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I got bored and started making stuff up. It's a very similar thing. That's the I mean, I do, yeah, I think there's something super magical about um failure turning into like a different kind of success. Because this is like a universally described thing where people are learning someone else's song and they can't actually play it right, so they just write their own song, which is actually way cooler than just learning the other person's song. But it's like you can't come up with anything creative unless you kind of fail in at the first thing because that makes it sound different, and you can like hear something else that you couldn't have made up all on your own. Like, I just think that's such a that's such a like special way that songwriters kind of like communicate with each other across time. I know that sounds very corny, but I think it's super real.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

That kind of corniness is entirely my brand. Have you watched the reels that I've made? Communicating through time is actually a theme I've talked about multiple times of like I don't know, I I I keep uh Spencer, I um you might appreciate this, but like some one of the thoughts that's been swirling around in my brain all the time recently is like how much of the stuff that I was doing when I was 20, 21, 25, whatever, that at the time I had no idea what was happening, it didn't seem to fit. I didn't I felt totally like lost, aimless, whatever. Uh how much sense all of that makes now that I'm 30 something? We're not gonna say exactly. Uh now that I'm in my 30s, uh, I look back and I was like, well, yeah, for me to get here, I had to do this, this, and this. And just the realization now is like I'm trying to figure out uh what is it that I'm doing right now that feels like what I was doing in 22, where I'm like, I I have no idea why I'm even doing this thing, it feels kind of lost and aimless. But I'm trying to see it from the future, right? I'm trying to communicate through from the future back to me now. And like, what would I say at 45? I'd probably say, well, you gotta do that so that you can get to this thing and this thing and this thing. Uh do you feel a similar similar compulsion from the future pulling you towards yourself, Spencer?

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Yeah, I think I yeah, I've been really reflective over the past three years and just kind of taking stock of I I turned 30 um in 2024 and um Me too.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah, and like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Sorry, Kyle, no comment from the Yunk. You will just continue to remain silent. But I'm glad you guys turned 30 in a year. Congratulations in that year.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, we're you know, we're the youths. Um yeah, and I just I don't know, like I had a very sort of classic existential experience with it, I think. Um and yeah, and was going through a lot of different transitions too at the time, and this record um that's coming out is kind of like a um it was with me through like that all of this sort of transition, big transition moment. So it's I think even just through finishing the record, I was constantly sort of like faced with um with myself a little younger, like you know, all these decisions that I'm that I've made that are when you're 30, like finally there's some like consequences that you have to face, I think. Or like there's some like you know um certain means have their end, you know, and you have to like actually like take stock of what's working and like what isn't working, and I think that there's a lot of I had to feel a lot of disappointment, I think, in how certain things turned out. And um I think that it's hopefully it's building a kind of resilience. Like I do like I think that one of the positives that I'm experiencing now is like I feel a little less of this like emotional immediacy of like sending an email or whatever, you know, whatever like the technical thing that I have to get done is, like the threshold that I have to cross to like finish like one of these musical pro like a song or like you know, get it in the hands of someone else. Like it used to be so emotional and so like tied to my sent personal sense of validation and stuff. And now it's like I do feel like I have a little bit of a thicker skin, um, and I'm hoping maybe. I don't know, in like 10 years that'll lead to something, you know, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Yeah, I mean uh I think that's that's uh an apt description of a type of maturity and that idea of like especially like the uh the vulnerability of an email of like, hey, can you listen to I get uh kids all the time that are sending me stuff that's like hey, can you listen to my song? I think you'd like it, because now I'm a guy on the internet that talks about this stuff. Uh and I listen to everything that everybody sends me. I try not to like I don't really want to comment on a lot, especially like the younger kids stuff, because it almost feels like uh you know, I remember being 22 and asking somebody to listen to a song, and their opinion of it held so much sway in the moment, and now I look back on it and it's like, oh, they just didn't like my music, but I liked it. This was for me, and I don't want to like interfere with some kid that's like going in a direction. I don't know, Isabel, have you found a a similar vibe when you send your your stuff out for people to listen to?

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Well, I'm kind of thinking about this more from the kind of like other side of like offering an opinion because I'm a I'm a teacher right now. Um so I'm not teaching like creative writing classes and um so much of you know, like a lot of my job description even is like giving feedback on people's like poems. And uh I actually feel like 99% of the time the most helpful thing I can possibly say to these kids is like just keep writing. Like the best thing that you and kind of actually the only thing you can do is to just not stop writing. Because also like they're whatever they're I mean, some of them are actually great, some of them aren't and will be, some of them like aren't and don't care about being that way. But if they care about getting better, they absolutely it's guaranteed that they will if they keep writing, you know? But I don't I also don't want them to just write stuff that I like, you know, like I have things I like and don't like, and I that doesn't mean that the world doesn't need writing or music or whatever, that it's like outside the scope of my taste. So I think it's like, yeah, those those things, those like opinions that feel like they are make or break for you in that moment when you're like younger and more vulnerable, like also those people don't have what you think they have. Like they don't have the like power or happiness. Like part of what's coming up for me when what you're talking about, Spencer with like fielding I feel like disappointment like is a word that resonates with me, but that there's actually something really helpful about like either not achieving some things that you thought maybe you might or achieving those things and realizing it doesn't feel the way you thought that you're like, oh, this is like never, this is never over. Like this project of trying to search for what it is that I want to do artistically and kind of trying and failing, like that's not only is that never over, but it's maybe like the whole point, you know. So you have to just like stay with that and and ultimately you I think get enough opinions from other people that you realize that you're that none of them are that helpful unless they're a very specific kind of person. But like guy you're emailing with your music is probably not the best mentor for you anyway. So who gives a shit what he thinks, you know? You gotta just send him the stuff to send it. And I mean, yeah, I think that does get easier the older you get.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah, I think uh Spence, oh I'm I don't know, my brain's going to this idea of like growth through the process of uh trying to be a musician. You know, I remember you were one of the first people when I was in Portland that like at the time you guys had signed that record deal and you were, you know, uh living in a house with Annie, and I was not technically living in that house, but I was there a lot. Um and you know, we talked a bunch uh at that point. And I just remember Annie and I like uh being somewhat in awe of this idea. It's like, oh, he's like going for it. And we, you know, our whole thought process is like, well, if anyone's gonna go for it, it should be Spencer. That kid could write the shit out of a song. Uh and it's like, but we were like fascinated by this idea. It's like, oh, he's really gonna go for it. And I I think at the time, like it's one of the more fun parts of my life was just talking to you about your move to LA to like go seek this thing out. And I think what was fun was it wasn't like I'm gonna go, I'm gonna be a famous musician. It was just like I'm going, this is part of some process in my life that's gonna teach me about myself. I don't know, but I guess uh talk me through like the growth you've discovered from yourself in your own personal commitment to music, right? Like how much have you learned about Spencer just from taking yourself seriously as a musician?

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, I mean, I I was really motivated when I was living in that house.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Um get as far away from us as possible. I get you. Yeah, we're great.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Yeah, it was like I can never come back here. Um, like it was uh you know, I I think I was I was I think I was 22, 23, and I had all these um you know markers that I wanted to hit at certain ages. You know, I was like by 24 I want to be signed and I want to be touring and blah blah blah. And when I was even back when I was 14 when I uh really started getting into like independent music and um me and Mason were obsessed with Dr. Dog and obsessed with this this label Park the Van. And we uh you know I was I read you know I watched and read every interview and I was like, oh, like that I want to be on a label like Park the Van. Like that's what I want to do. And um for whatever reason um ended up getting signed to Park the Van. At first it was it was another label started by the person who ran Park the Van, but then it uh eventually became Park the Van again. And um these things are all right. And so like there is this immense amount of excitement and anticipation um when I was living there because my band hadn't moved up there, they were still in Sacramento, and I was like kind of the point of contact, and we flew down to um Los Angeles to make the debut record, and you know, like I like ended up taking over mixing it and like learning how to mix and like mixing it into Portland studio, and um, and then you know moved back to Sacramento to release the record, record comes out we go on tour, and I think it's like the first you know instance of like what is he talking about, this like you know, getting to the like um the presupposed, you know, like level that you wanted to be at the age, you know, you have everything you want that you thought you wanted and um and that tour was just really hard. Um and uh you know it did, you know, it looking back, I think the record did relatively well for, you know, but I I think my expectations at that point were just so like overblown, you know, and um and then you know uh moving to LA was just sort of like a continuation of of that pursuit and trying to make it more sustainable and trying to make it more um you know, just trying to get bigger and trying to do something else. And I think like I kind of tell myself um, you know, obviously the pandemic was this massive thing that had oh plenty of horrible outcomes. Um but personally I think like at least just isolated to music, like I think I was about to make a kind of mediocre record, I think, with the band. Like I think I was about to like I was like trying to like you know get all these producers in on it and like all these aloof dudes who couldn't give a shit, you know. And like I was just waving money at them, you know, my labels money at them, like, hey, you know, like do you like this stuff? And they're like, Yeah, whatever if you pay me. And I just think it was gonna be another like really unfulfilling experience, you know. And then like what happened instead was like I had this whole drum machine and tape machine at home, and like I was the loss of that like record deal and like and that future, because I I couldn't see a way out of the pandemic really at the time, was really devastating, and I started writing songs like like uh for the first time in a long time as like um self-soothing, you know, like cooking myself like mac and cheese or something, you know. It was like it was just like a comfort food kind of mentality to the music, and like and I just loved those songs because of that, you know, because it was like for me. And when I started recording it, I was just like having a blast and just like I didn't um I didn't care about like what anyone else could possibly think. I was convinced that no one would hear it.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

And then um I love the narrative on this whole thing where it's like uh my mom's always got this quote that she says, uh if God really wants to test you, he'll give you what you want. So it's like uh and you got this thing that you thought, you know, oh, this is the this is the finish line, you know. I'm getting my gold coat from the golf club. I don't know why that was the thing that popped into my head as a as a meta club, but hey shit. Um I don't even know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

That sounds very mystical.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Every time I mention anything about sports around any of the people that I talk music with, it's always just a lot of blank stares. Yeah, all enthusiastic. They like they know that I like sports, but happy for me. Uh yeah, but yeah, have fun. Yeah, um, I I it's that idea of like coming back to when it's all said and done, like through this whole process, you rediscover. I love the mac and cheese analogy. Uh it's about do you have mac and cheese songs? You are you back to writing mac and cheese songs? Totally.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Yeah, I I have like I I think it's also a very fitting analogy to think of like songwriting or any kind of writing as like a a relationship that you have with this like process. And it's very easy to get into a toxic relationship that you might not even know is toxic, that's like more about ego than it is about love, as human toxic relationships often are too. And that's I mean, yeah, COVID was such an opportunity to be like to remove all of the potential for ego from that whole process and that whole relationship. And I thought that was very powerful. I also definitely learned that like I don't write as much as I wish I did when there is nobody to share it with. And like that's also fine, whatever. But like um, yeah, I think if there's a way to make writing songs like not um painful, I think sometimes writing is hard work, at least for me, and that's fine too. But like it does really feel like um some kind of I don't know, extra sensory, supernatural experience when it's like, oh, something I am creating something, and it's like also. fun.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

That's like uh that endless kind of I don't know chasing the dragon of the way that it felt the first time you wrote a listaloo baby it's a listaloo because your gold that's a flow state yeah yeah yeah but like honestly that part is uh it's why I like the fucking TV show ping pong the animation because the whole point of that at the end of all the episodes is just did you play ping pong because it's fun you're having fun doing all this all you all the work all the effort all the struggle like making music is a struggle a lot of the times it's hard to finish a recording but you do it because it's fun and it's it's it's nice to hear you you got there in a really roundabout way but uh do you find you you're still holding on to that feeling with music? What how's your relationship to music these days, Spencer?

SPEAKER_02 44:46

Yeah I think it I think um I knew when Applecore rapped like I knew it was like a really special thing that it like circum certain special set of circumstances that I couldn't like readily create you know that's the name of the album by the way I don't think we've mentioned that that's the name of the album and it's that's the solo record.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Yeah the first my first solo record and um go listen to it not you you've you've heard I should I should listen to it. We'll pause we'll pause we'll keep we'll keep the podcast going you go listen to it we'll watch it listen we won't say anything the listeners will be here for the next 45 minutes uh play it softly in the background no like when that record wrapped it was like like I very intentionally wanted it to like feel good the entire time I never wanted to like reach that part of the record making process that feels inevitable usually that you kind of hate it you know you hate the record and you're like this sucks why am I making this like it's useless and so I was really thankful that I was like okay this is like one I got one in that like I just feel great about like start to finish and um it's sort of been my like guiding uh star um even as like music again is more social and like more there's more opportunities you know around the you know possibilities around the music blah blah blah um but I I don't know like I found I think like I did reach a point where it was hard again to to make music where I just kind of I really just stopped caring about my music career at some point and um I was like oh I actually like need to like live my life a little bit maybe and like I was just like setting myself up with all these like really bad jobs like in order to like maintain flexibility to like tour and stuff and like I just found myself really burnt out and um and so that kind of happened but um I think I'm like just with the release of this record and this record took a long time this record took like three years to really finish and it's very emotionally heavy it's about like you know just like a really challenging time so I think it's a little less like of that light feeling that I had when making Apple core but I think um I think like maybe it's like a cycle you know maybe I can sort of like maybe I can kind of go dive deep and come back up for air and like you know figure it out maybe because I I don't know I feel like right now I'm coming back up from for air a bit and uh have a more healthy relationship with the song writing right now.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

What's the what's the new record gonna be called how can people find it? When's the new record uh if it is if you have that arrangement it's coming out March 13th Friday the 13th um so this week yeah uh this Friday maybe and uh it's maybe coming out this week this podcast will be released when it is released I thought you were saying like well Friday the 13th who knows if it's gonna come out it's also very free retrograde in case you in case you want to prepare for that anyway you know yeah it's either coming out or has been out um and uh it's called cherry picker nice um it was recorded other fruit type he's a hungry boy he's just hungry I'm a hungry boy it's healthy it's healthy it's it's vitamins baby um it's coming out on anxiety blanket records my friend Sam Plecker produced it um and yeah it's recorded in LA over the course of like three three ish years yeah thanks and um I like uh yeah I was just thinking um I like the way that you describe you know one album being kind of this this lighter version of you everything's kind of easy you're it's reconnecting with your love of music and then this one touches on stuff that's a little bit deeper.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

One I think that's a natural progression you you rediscover the fun and now you get to use the tool again as like a big part of the reason that I like to play music is that it's autobiographical. Every song I make I'm trying to make it about me hopefully it's a part of me that I don't fully understand. I put it into a song and now I have this thing I can interact with to maybe figure out what my head's thinking most of the time or whatever. But like that you know that natural cycle of going from something sort of playful and now you've you've recharged your battery you can go back to dealing with some of the real stuff in life you know uh there's that phrase you can't live on the mountaintop you live in the valleys man you go to the mountaintop you see the view it's nice it's worth the effort but you gotta come back down eventually and uh I don't know I I I feel do you feel an autobiographical pull to your songs?

SPEAKER_00 50:26

I think I I hear it in there but uh maybe I'm reading into things yeah I I don't usually write like character songs I I don't know how people do that consistently um like yeah I don't know I I I feel very pulled to just like express whatever's kind of eating me up or whatever's bursting out of me you know um and I think like I end up writing a lot of songs that uh are kind of gifts to a future self that I know like I know I'm gonna be in this position in a in a second and so I'll write a breakup song before a breakup maybe or like you know so it's like gotta rehearse these things you know yeah or or it's like you don't know what you want until you write exactly a song about it and you're like wait maybe I do want maybe I do need a different job or like maybe I do have depression or like you know like any of these things that are like oh now I can now that I understand what what I even want I can actually like put my life closer to it you know but writing is a is a way of finding that the great sometimes it's sometimes it's like the first um the first avenue where you feel comfortable expressing something is when and maybe it's because you can't really help yourself you know like when you're writing you're like the melody's coming out the words are coming out and they kind of in my experience at least like the melody is kind of is pulling the words out you know it's kind of telling you exactly what needs to be said in a way and so it kind of feels a little bit more um like you're decoding something so yeah I feel like it's emotionally more safe to like decode your own feelings as you're having them and then if the song's good you're like well you know I gotta I just gotta sing this you know right I guess it's like the ultimate deflection to really to be like you know you can you can be like well but I'm singing it it's a song it's a piece of art it's an artifact it's not my life you know but then sometimes if you're honest with yourself you're like um well maybe that is my life it's a benefit of death of the author even if you're the author of the thing it's like well maybe I'm not actually that I like I like the depressed things like maybe I'm not actually that depressed.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

That's just a depressing song it's not me it's just that I really wanted to write a very depressing song. Yeah and there's a lot of songs that I have that are completely unlistenable that were made just for me to like exercise some sort of demon to for me to understand myself uh because you know I think especially you seem to record a lot right like your first uh you know musical interface was from the recording side it feels like the act of recording to you probably has some significance in this whole process yeah yeah I I would um I think that's kind of one of the things that happened recently is I stopped recording myself like I I kinda you know did here and there but I really I think that was my major like block like creative block was I didn't want to record I like just it just like it was like nails on a chalk chalkboard for me for some reason myself I I so I kind of relied on Sam during the making of Cherry Picker to record um for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

I did I did end up recording a few of the tracks um but uh there is an em there there is an emotional stake that I have when I'm recording that often feels like composing where um yeah where sometimes I don't really have like access to that or I I can't like give myself access to that maybe but I think in the process of my writing when I'm when I have I'm looking forward to having a healthier relationship to it again because the best thing is when I'm kind of finishing songs to record them, you know, and like almost finishing them on the page you know like getting them into the into the interface or onto the tape. Like sometimes I'll if I'm working on a tape machine the scratch track uh you know or maybe even the acoustic track that ends up on the record or something is me like kind of live like assembling the verse and chorus structure of the song and then I'm like yeah that's good enough and then you know record the the lyrics and stuff and you know a lot of a lot of it is just tricking tricking myself that I'm gonna like change it later and then it's gone.

unknown 55:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Isabel do you do that too? Because I do a a very similar thing of like uh good enough is a very powerful tool to get past the impulse to make everything totally perfect and like exactly what you're talking about like telling myself like this guitar is just a scratch track I'm totally gonna re-record it later but like eventually nine times out of ten I end up keeping it in there. I'll record over it with like more guitars or something like that. But you know. Yeah Isabel, you're very similar do you have little tricks to keep yourself from uh hyperfixating on perfect?

SPEAKER_00 56:24

Yeah I think it's kind of well it's that it's like that thing where the moment you fall asleep is the moment that you stop like worrying about whether you fall asleep or not. You know there's like some reverse psychology I think uh involved in making something and being like letting go of whatever anxiety you have about the result while you're making it. Uh I think it's very helpful for me to be like very uh limited anyway in the scope of what I know how to do technically like both on guitar and I'm really not being like falsely modest I'm not I'm I'm definitely still learning how to play guitar. I'm definitely still learning how to record um either myself or just like what you know like I it's it's all like stuff I'm still very much in the middle of learning and I think that can almost like be an advantage sometimes because like I don't think that it's possible for it to be perfect. And I also like really don't it's like funny that that anybody at least in our kind of music world like expects a perfect take from themselves because I don't even know if we're seeking that out in the music that we listen to. Like yes sometimes depending depending on genre depending on whatever mood all of that like I absolutely appreciate like a a good performance and good playing but like I don't know there's like a first take best take principle. I so I work at a I have a very part-time job at a radio station right now too and there was a live session it feels like you're cheating on my podcast that you're working on another radio station actually two if you really want to talk about it. All right all right I guess we'll talk about it's kind of but I can say that you're the primary partner if that makes you feel better.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

Just make sure those other radio stations are tested. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Yeah I will but yeah one of them had um just to give you the the the scope of difference between this and that this radio station had a live session with Jeff Tweety a couple months ago um who he is my he's my father he's everything's but he um got through a whole take with his band of a song and because of some like really stupid technical issue they actually hadn't recorded it and everybody was so upset and he also which like totally was deserved but he also said this thing where he was like I just think first takes are the best and I'm so sad that we didn't get a first take because like the first take is always the one and it's like never it doesn't have whatever whatever you start to think about starting with the second take the first take doesn't have that and I was like yeah that's all that's always kind of stuck with me and then of course they did another take and it was awesome but like yeah there it's like the it's that idea of just like just doing it one time. If you can, you know if you can get through it. I think I often end up keeping at least some of a first take of anything.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Yeah I like the idea that uh songs are lies every time you play them uh like the first time is the first I do a lot of recording where I I just try to write it as I'm recording because it's like that is to me there's you I think you can hear a quality of that which is actually this is a take that I got from uh Penn which one's Penn and Teller which is the comedian that talks I can't remember I think it's Penn I don't know yeah he talks about this uh on some video I watched on YouTube in like 2010 where he talks about like the first take you hear of a song and he he has this whole collection of recordings that are just first takes of them writing the song as they're playing it and it's like I think there is a quality there that you can hear. Spencer it's it's been an hour we try to keep these things roughly to an hour.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:15

We didn't talk about the music that you listen to.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

We should talk about that briefly if you want. You want to talk about uh Dr. Dog or anything else?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Well yeah I mean the I mean the biggest thing in when we were teenagers um was for me it was Dr. Dog was my talisman band and then Mason it was Wilco. Oh and um so those are yeah very uh heavy influences Jeff Tweety is definitely my father as well yeah it's a large family it's a large family get in his son is named Spencer so yes you could just swoop right in just move right I just swoop right in you know but yeah like that it was nice to have like um you know really positive father figures you know uh I love my dad too but like uh what's the appeal of uh Dr.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

Dog over any of the other bands that are out there Dr. Dog or Wilco like what is it about those bands that you were like was this one of those things where it's like before that you hadn't really listened to a bunch of music or were you already listening to a bunch of music and this just spoke to you in a way that was different than what everything else you were hearing at the time?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

I think like now that I'm talking about it like in the context of this conversation too like maybe me and Mason were both drawn to these bands because they were self-recorded bands. And maybe that's what we thought we were doing and so like like that was sort of a huge deal to us like the ability maybe that's like we felt empowered to be like oh like this band is recording themselves you know and and look where they're at you know and we had simultaneously the dream of making it as a band was always having our own studio and like you know um and uh yeah and like for for Dr Dog the the record me and Mason have this theory that like 2007 2008 is like one of those you know pinnacle year you could probably select a 12 month span of of music that came out in that time and like it would be you know it's so fundamental to us and it's so like it's like 1977 or like right you know like you know there's all these like I don't know like these weird pinnacles um uh and you know for Wilco it was Sky Blue Sky and for Dr. Dog it was this record fate. And um those just I mean we wore holes in those records and um those are also not the um I don't know so much about the Dr.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Dog discography but Sky Blue Sky is like it's not the most popular Wilco record. Like even yeah not by a lot. I love I love that record though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:26

Yeah people call like people say it's like they're when they became dad rock or they became soft you know or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

I think that's and yeah whatever disagree.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:36

Yeah I think it's really absurd and like all like it's him like I my I think you need sky blue sky in order for Ghost is born to be my favorite record. You know like it is like Ghost is born is my favorite record but I need the hope. I need the like getting out of the anxiety that he was that he was racked with while making a Ghost is born like you need the the light at the end of the tunnel of and like Sky Blue Sky is like he you know he's talking about like you know love and like the how complicated it is. Like it's not like he's not like shying away from how complicated it is it's just a more beautiful record that's coming from a calmer more like reflective place instead of in the midst of like the I'm gonna die you know totally I also read like there's a lot in that record I do read a lot of we could talk about this for another hour but um I feel like there's a lot of this one's probably going on Patreon so okay awesome this is this is for the deep cut fans so I hear in Sky Blue Sky a lot of like lyrically what sounds to me like drug withdrawal.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Like he's um like he's happy to be sober. But yeah totally he's like he's there's a lot of like waiting a lot of boredom um a lot of like people not being around and he's like understimulated like um I do feel like yeah that record is not all like fun and hope at all. It's very much like how do you fill the void that you're left with when you have to quit an addiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

That is something that uh you hear a lot of addicts talk about is like when you do get clean there's this euphoria at first of like oh my god uh I'm not you know drinking every night I have my nights back like and then they get used to it pretty quick and it immediately goes from like oh my god I can't believe I have all this time back to oh my god there is so much time in the day I used to only have to make it to like six pm and then I could just you know fast forward through the rest of it and fall back asleep. Now I have to do something every day and I'm just stuck here with the same thoughts that like brought Me to the bar every single night. It's like uh I love that. Uh I I haven't listened, I honestly haven't listened to this album, but uh I'd love to hear it now under that context. I don't even know the backstory here. Uh who quit what?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:12

Oh, Jeff Tweety quit uh pills like um painkillers. He was very, very addicted to prescription painkillers, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

Horrible migraines and yeah, and I think yeah, just a lot of yeah um self-medication and and over prescription uh through bad doctors and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

It's a really sad story, dude. It really is. But he's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

I'm so happy he got through it because it's like yeah, I just I I love all the music that he's he's made since. I love his solo record too.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:52

Me too. Wait, have you heard the have you heard the um the solo Scott McMickan records? The Dr. Dog guy?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Yeah, yeah, I love I love Scott McMickon's records. Um I honestly love every single thing that he does, like everything he produces. He produced that Twain record, Rare Feeling, which was a huge one for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

Um he's done some big thief stuff, which I which I love, but he's he's just done everything he does has like I I don't know, I just like developed my taste, like um, so much of my taste while listening to Scott McMickin and obsessing over his interviews and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:37

Yeah, he just seems like a sweetheart too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:40

That's also a good thing to have is like uh I don't know, some some of these bands are just like the rudder on the ship that is your taste, and it just kind of drives you in the right direction. You know, I think about that with Lou Barlow all the time of like it always comes back to Lou Barlow for me. I'm like, that's my dude. He he's the guy that drives all of this forward. Whenever I can't think of anything else to listen to, I'll put on something that he's doing. And so it's like that's always been the what steers the ship forward for me, and it's like that's a that's just it's so nice to have a band like that in your life.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:11

Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, and like and you know, his whole that whole like park the van sphere of that time and like uh floating action and Michael now, and yeah, they're just always up to just the best stuff. It's so fun to listen to. Like, you know, like you're saying, I can just like I can put any of those people on shuffle, like their entire discography, and just be happy.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:41

It's a lovely feeling.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

Alright, uh, that should probably be enough podcast. I uh, you know, I'm I'm getting it's guys, it's 8 30 at night. I am uh a sleepy little baby sometimes. It's 10 minutes. But uh Spencer, I'm gonna ask you off camera when you're coming back up to Portland. Uh, and I think I'm gonna be coming down uh pile up a band of menace doing a West Coast tour, and I know the dates, but I don't remember the dates, and Nathan'll be mad at me for not plugging yourself on the podcast here, but uh we'll we'll we'll fix it in post. Um is there anything else you want to say uh one more time? Give us the name of the album, uh, when it's dropping, and any shows you got coming up or anything that's on the docket.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

Yeah, my new record is called Cherry Picker. It's out March 13th, and I'm doing a record release show in Pasadena, California at Healing Force Records uh April 19th. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:46

Isabel, anything you gotta plug this week? Um everything I have going on is always like hyper local, and there's probably like less than zero people from Twin Cities who listen to this. But if you're in the Twin Cities, my friend Sam and I host a letter writing club. We just sit around, write letters, we'll give you nice stationary and tea, and Anne-Marie makes homemade pastries, and that's happening at Mirror Lab. It's really cute. It's really, really awesome. We're basically doing cute stuff out here. So if you if you're in the fitness and you want to do something cute, please message me. It's gonna be on March 22nd. And uh I think that's it for now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:28

Nice. All right. Well, thank you all for listening to Unc Slop, the newest to hottest podcast. God help bless it. Um and once again, thank you to uh how strange it is uh for supplying the music. Uh and I and thank you. Let's all say thank you to Annie for listening to this. Hopefully not with me in the house. But uh Yeah, thank you, Annie.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:52

We also thank you, Spencer. It was really great to see you and talk to you. I'm very excited about your record.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you both. I'm always happy to talk to either of you. Yeah, totally. Oh man. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:05

All right, uh podcast. Bye. All right, everyone on