John Amoriello of Old Man Jones

We had a blast hanging out with John Amoriello, the powerhouse behind the Maryland rock band Old Man Jones. John finished off the evening with two killer  songs off the newly released album, HarCo, "Pour me a drink" and "What's in it for me"

Old Man Jones  just release a brand new album titled "HarCo" along with members-Kyle Ragan, C.A. Moon and Eric Holt, it's a nod to their home town and they'll be  backing it up with some killer shows, it's going to be a great year for OMJ!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Another public subject session friends.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

With Weatherly Productions. Chris, how are you? I'm doing well, Michael. How are you? I'm good. Well, I was good until I went to the gas station today. Oh no. Yes. Well, as you know, I drive a Jeep and uh my Jeep is lifted, and it's uh it's a uh gas cuzzler to begin with. I mean, that thing has consumed a lot of dinosaurs in its time. Yeah. But uh today was uh I was sticker shock today. Pulling into the gas station and bam! four dollars a gallon. Welcome to Maryland. That's wild. That's insane, dude.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

I always tell people when they come into Maryland that we should change the welcome to Maryland signs to just say what's in your wallet.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, yeah, it really should. It's it's it's gotten ridiculous. Um you know, it's it's really sad when I pulled in there was um there was an older gentleman there, and um I think he stopped within a couple, you know, those he pumped like maybe three or four bucks. Yeah. And uh I kind of looked at him and he was like, Hey man, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I said, I dig you, brother. I got it.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

I mean, hopefully he's just a local in town commuter and that'll get him from point A to point B for a couple days. But I mean, work-wise, if I didn't have a company gas card for my truck for my work travels, I I would be walking to work. Like I can't I wouldn't be able to afford it.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

It's a tough took that's a tough cookie to eat, man. I'll tell you, brother.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Um It really is. It makes me want to gig more.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, um, I just had we just had a gig yesterday. Bill and I played at Lee's Landing in Port Deposit, Maryland. We had a good time.

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Yeah, went well.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

It was went well. It was the brunch crowd. So um everybody was getting their uh Orange Crush and their um Bloody Marys on. Nice. But we had a good crowd, a lot of uh a lot of familiar faces. And uh you've been busy. What have you been up to?

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Uh I've been busy. I mean, other than 70 hour weeks at work, um uh mine and Brad's album is definitely uh taking shape. We finished the last bit of tracking that we need to do. Uh we released the second to last track of the album, Bound by Baal.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Yes, I heard it is fantastic. It's fun.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

We needed a vocally driven, heavy song. Everything else on the album is so progressive and ambient and all these like like ethereal build-ups and stuff like that. Right. We just needed a song where Brad could just shine. And and what he did on that it just astonishes me. Um, I'm getting ready to post the last track, and we're gonna release that as the final single, and then we'll go back and we'll start working on you know mastering and doing the the album to make it cohesive. I mean, all these songs have been released individually over the last two years. Right. Yeah. So that's awesome. A lot of different influences and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, I listened to it. Um, well, actually, you sent me the sneaky peak. Yeah, it downshard it too. Yeah, it was pretty incredible. Um, yeah, man, you guys are killing it out there. The collaborations that you're working with are um it's impressive.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Yeah, I knew um You got work to do still, right? I'm still working on it.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, something it's good. I have a lot of stuff written down.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

I gave you a lot of material to start on. You gave me a lot of music. I'm glad we went ahead and just kicked one of the songs out. Yes. You know, that kind of gave us the momentum and gave us the direction for because I mean I gave I I flooded you with tracks.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Right. And you know, like I said, the first impression was um, you know, this is almost like a movie soundtrack.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

Yeah. Um kind of so dramatic.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

It is. It's it's it's uh I have a lot of things in the back of my head, and I got a lot of things written down too. And like, you know, I think I've discussed that with uh when we talked to uh Evan Buckley a few weeks ago. I said, I'm one of them guys, I don't throw anything away. If I come up with a line or I hear somebody say something, and I'm like, whoa, that would sound really good. I write it down. Envelopes, napkins, I mean, anything I got in a binder. But yeah, so I got a lot of stuff written down for these songs.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

He's uh he's and he doing the songwriter retreat. Is that this weekend? He was there this weekend. Okay, yeah. With it, manager.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Chris Christine, manager mom. Yeah, she uh sent me a text, she was really excited, and she was like, Man, I just she goes, I I hope he gets everything out of this. Yeah, and like I told her, I said, you know what, Chris, I said he's going to remember this the rest of his life.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

I mean, uh everybody knows I'm a huge Chris Jacobs fan, and and so is Evan. But to be able to sit down, not what just with Chris Jacobs, but all of the incredible, incredible uh musicians and writers that were there at that workshop all weekend long, man.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

I mean, the amount of influence that you get alone from just the collective. Yeah, oh, absolutely it's so inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah, I completely agree with you. I completely agree with you. So uh you were on a hike? How was that?

SPEAKER_04 5:04

I was on a hike, 9.5 miles. Uh it was the first big hike of the year. Um, it was good, it was cold at the top of the mountain. Yeah. Uh, but then when we got down to like the forest and beam rocks and all that, just beautiful, epic views and peacefulness. Um funny enough, I wound up uh probably about four three hours into the hike. We just we're just walking in silence. So I was like, uh we'll put some music on. So I threw some music on and I threw on a random playlist.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

And uh as I was listening to that playlist, a friend of mine messaged me, and we have a new playlist in Harford County for local musicians. Yes, we do. Thanks to Joseph Swam.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yes, we do. Actually, I was getting ready to bring that up.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

I noticed that they're I'm on it with three different projects. I was like, oh, this is amazing. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

I saw that. That's good, man.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Um, I listened to half I listened to half of it the other day on Spotify, and um, he's he's got some good jams. I tell you, Maryland has some good music.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

There were people on that podcast that I'm shameful to say that I didn't know who they were, and I sure as hell know them now.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

I went and followed all their socials, added the songs to my playlist because there are some fantastic songs on there, and it's all Harko people. Oh, yeah, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Joe, you should add stories to be told. Oh, yeah, I think you should put that one on there too.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

I didn't I uh Brad and Kyle handled ours because we have some weatherly stuff on there. Yes, and then Brad had reached out to him and gave him a couple of the um Cox and Moon collab stuff. Very cool, very cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah. So uh a Strazeri. So after after the last one I did with you guys, you and Kyle the Weatherly. We listened to it, or I should say Mike listened to it. Mike Straziri listened to it. Al anybody that's not familiar with Mike Straziri, Mike Straziri is a local um school teacher in uh in Harford and Baltimore County. He goes back and forth over the line. Um, but he's also a local musician who um is into percussion, plays a lot of cajon. He's one of these guys that you know he he has a cajon and he will travel.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Yeah, actually. I'm gonna get him that t-shirt. He's got a nice Congo setup.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah, he's got great, and he's and he's and he's and he's progressed incredibly over it, you know, over the few years. So anyway, to familiar you to familiarize you guys with Mike Shavier. So he listened to the one that I did with you guys, and he goes, So how stoked were you? And I started laughing. I said, What do you mean? He goes, Well, you said it seven times. I said, Oh, then I really he goes, dude, you said stoked seven times, man.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

That's really funny.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Well, I went back and listened. I think he was right.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I'm learning.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

That's all right.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

I guess I'm really stoked about this one, too.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

I've been using super a lot lately. Yeah. I'm like, oh, that was super fun. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Hey, did you hear that?

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Is it was that the door?

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Uh yeah, I think so, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

All right, hold on. All right, hold on, guys. I'm gonna get the door. Hey, John. How are you? What's up, dude? Thanks for stopping by.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Oh, thank you for having me, man. This is cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, no worries. Uh you know, I I never realized how close you are to this uh to where we are recording.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

I'm very close. Ten minutes, ten minutes away.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Harper County.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Uh actually, not really, because we're just all original, but it seems like it's getting better.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Yeah, we got some cool stuff coming up. And we had some cool stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

With Old Man Jones. Yes, sir. Old Man Jones. So to uh give everybody a little info, John Amorello, right? Amoriello. Amoriello, yeah. John Amorello. He um is the uh powerhouse behind Old Man Jones, the band Old Man Jones. Um, they just released a brand new album, which is Harko. Harko. Paying tribute to Harford County. It's a nod to old Hazard County up here. Um love it. Yeah, I listened to the album from front to back when it came out. Oh, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. It's killer, killer, killer. I know uh Chris Chris, did you have a hand in that too? Of course he did. Yeah, he had a hand in that.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

I'm actually on that more than any other album. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Should be on it more. Chris, Chris is definitely on it. Yeah. Kyle's on it. Kyle and Chris produce it, did everything. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

So you said well, that's right. You're so you're all original. You don't do any of the cover stuff at all. I don't.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

So then one van and one van only.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So that's difficult to get booked as a as an original.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

I kind of like it that way. I don't, I'm not out there. I'm like so busy. Like he just well, working 40 hours a week, your normal job, and then this. I'm kind of dig. If I could do once a month, I'm good. Really? I'm good, yeah. Yeah, I know um it's I say that, but then you when you do a show, the next like, oh man, it's booked that more. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

But then my body, your throat, your I feel like it's easier to get booked down in Baltimore, down in the city, as an original act, as an original band, than it is up here for whatever reason. Uh, the first band I was in was we were all an original dance. And it was nothing, I mean, you can get booked anywhere down in the city because there was nobody doing covers down in the city where we're where we were playing. So I just assumed that uh most of the um the bigger uh original acts are playing.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Yeah, it comes in spurts. Well, back in the day it did. It's just fairly a new project. What would you say? 2022, Chris, when we started 2021, 22 when we played out. I think it was 21 or 22. Yeah. We had one album out and only played maybe like three or four shows.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Right on.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

But I mean, there's some good stuff happening in Hartford County. It seems that uh they're doing original music at the tower.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

And now at Foston Barrel House, it was called uh um Barrel House Live, live at the cellar, live from the cellar, Foston, but the tongue twister. Yeah, live at the cellar, Boston Barrel Barrel House. That's a good one. Yeah, and we're playing at April 15th. Terry Hahn's involved in that one. Terry Hahn's, yeah. Sure reached out to me.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Big shout out to Terry Hahn. What an incredible human being. I've yet to meet her in person. It's all yeah, we can't wait. Sweetheart and an incredible fan. I've heard nothing but good things about Terry. Incredible person, yeah. She is probably one of besides Elle, who is the face in owner of the False and Pearl House. Everybody knows El. I call her the queen of rock and roll, local rock and roll, because besides besides Elle, I I think Terry's probably the second, if not the third, because I know you have Last Set Girl out there as well. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Yeah, yeah, Stephanie. Um well Ed's Ed's playing with us that night. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

That's three, that's three powerhouse um women out there who are huge supporters of our local music scene. Oh, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

That uh so the gig you're playing with Ed, which is that at Barrel House? Yep, April 15th, Wednesday, April 15th, tax day. Who else? Oh, tax day.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, you won't you can't forget that.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Uh E. Joseph and the Sparrows, Old Man Jones, and uh band called Act 109. Act 109. I believe we played with um that night that we played at Tower a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

How'd that go?

SPEAKER_03 12:41

They were really good. Yeah. Well, there was a little snafu that week because they lost their liquor license for five days. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, yeah, that was a that was a tough one, you know. Yeah, I mean I I guess that does affect attendance. You know, you shouldn't think you would think that it shouldn't. Well, but unfortunately it does.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

It does. It does. Especially our our demographic is Gen X and you know, they they want to go out on date night. They don't want to sit there and sip uh no, you know, soda water and eat. They probably want to have a few and cut loose. You don't get out much. I completely, you know. Right. So when they want to go out, you know, they're all next door until we went on. That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I well, I mean, yeah, I I mean I your Gen X, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yeah, I'm in my 50s.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, so am I. So we're probably around the same. Yep. And uh, yeah, that's the way I am now. I I don't I you know 72.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Me too. Yeah. Oh well. Well, 717 72. Nice for me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

All seven.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

116-72. Really?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Capricorn. Yep. Well, yeah, I'm canceled. But I mean, I I think our generation now, where we are in our lives and in our age, you know, we just want to it's fun. Yeah, we do sometimes we need to go out there and kind of un unwind, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

We used to always call it our bowling night. I don't bowl. I hate bowling, so I mean we can play music, you know what I mean? I take it back. I don't want my going bowling, but I suck at it. Right. So don't say I suck at music because then I ought to quit. No, no, no. But no, yeah, we uh I love it, man. If you can go one or two times a month for me, I'm stoked. I love it. Any more than that. I mean, unless I'm super famous and have people doing everything for me, you know what I mean? Yeah, I can't imagine walking up just picking, grabbing a guitar and playing, you know, but lugging at stuff and doing this and taking it back and all that. It's I don't know how people do it. It like you know a couple of times a week.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

We just had this conversation yesterday. Um Bill and I have a duo from our little or five piece the break band. So Bill and I go out and we do a little duo thing, and um he sent me a text earlier in the morning because it was it was it was an early gig. It was like 12 to 3. It was like the brunch crowd. And um he says, Hey man, did you get all your gear put together? And that's a joke because I'm the singer and I feel like gear I carry as a backpack and nice, you know. And of course, I said, Yeah, I got everything. He says, I got I got my mic in there, and you know, I have a change of clothes in there just in case something happens. Nice. I gotta try that to sing it for that one. That's right. That's right. Yeah, I guess you know, it takes a while to get to that point where you can actually have uh people moving your share. That'd be awesome. Yeah, that would be a dream come true. I mean, we have we're we're lucky because we have some really good friends um who never miss one of our gigs. Right, that's cool. And yeah, shows up at at Bill's place, helps load the vehicle, helps us load in, stays the whole time, helps us load out. One of our biggest fans in the world, Glenn. Glenn Ross.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

And um shout out to Glenn.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Glenn's not busy.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Big shout out to Glenn Rodgers. Let you do it on the 15th, Glenn.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Well, yeah, we're very lucky to have people like Glenn in our corner.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

My old band. I mean, we we were together from what 14 to 2021, and we did always have two or three guys always there for us. Oh, that's which is really fun, really nice. They were very helpful. It does, it really does. So, I mean, that was definitely you know, we had the trailer and we would go out, and that was fun, but uh a little older, a little wiser, so you know you besides Old Man Jones. What else do you have going on? That's it, man. Yeah I mean, like music-wise, yeah, old man Jones is it. I mean, I constantly write, and um, you know, Benny Clow, he's he's yeah, he's in the midst of uh writing a new album, and I um play guitar for his last single, did a solo on that, and he just sent me a new song. Very cool. So yeah. We always talk about writing together, just like uh Chris and Brad have been doing. So I'm available, man. Everybody wants to write music. I love writing too. That's like my passion. I think you and I discussed before we're gonna do a song. We need to do a song.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

You got that, you got that raspy, growling vocal range. Exactly. We got the deeper vibrato going too, though. But um I can't do that. But uh, I think it would sound awesome, you know. Right put our uh put our heads together, throw something down on the paper. Absolutely, man. Have Chris work as magic.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

I'm I'm ready. I'm like I said, I love writing and playing. Writing's my passion. Like it's like I think Kyle said I was prolific at it. I took that as a huge compliment because that's maybe the only thing I'm good at.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

That's a fancy name.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I can't fix cars or do drywall, or you know what I mean? I get it. Can't, you know, I gotta pay people to do that. I get it. I could write my own songs.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

So, what do you play? You play guitar guitar. Guitar, you play anything besides a guitar?

SPEAKER_03 17:50

No, just guitar. I mean, I can, but I don't. Yeah, yeah. I play guitar and uh sing, try to sing.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

What kind of what are you playing? What kind of guitar are you playing right now?

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Um, well, it's funny you ask. I usually am a Les Paul guy throwing through, and I literally just bought a uh telly from the mod shop. Right. I'm a lefty, you know that, right? Yeah, I know. So I'm cursed. Yeah, I saw that. So I always wanted a lefty with double humbuckers, and you couldn't get one unless you go right to the mod shop. And sure. I just pulled the trigger on one, knowing that even those humbuckers aren't gonna be what I want. But it's getting you the quest. Yeah, so had the holes. Sure. So my buddy Scott Rosenberger, you may know him too, probably. You know Scott, he's a great guy. I bought the pickup that's actually in my slash um uh Victoria West Paul, the same pickup. We put it in a fender and it's it's evil. Oh man. He even said he goes, Why do you want your guitar's all stuff? Like, just these two, man. This one's now lighter.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

So you record with that one too?

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I may. I have a um I have a standard I record with, okay, which for some reason stays in June better. It just feels better for the studio. So I should just leave it at Kyle's, actually. How many albums do you have out? Uh for Old Man Jones, three. Three. Yeah, we have um first one Crashing Down, second one was 2023, I want to say. It's called uh Shine Your Light, and then the new one Harko. Right. Yeah, and you write all the lyrics? Yep. All the music? Um, I mean, I write all the music, but those guys are free range to do whatever they want with it. You know what I mean? Like Kyle does all the bass. Yeah. Chris will come in and do some guitar stuff. There's several songs on this new album where if Chris wasn't on it, it wouldn't be good. Oh I mean, it's that's a huge compliment. Did you hear Chris?

unknown 19:38

I did.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Okay. The more and more I hear him on the slide or the slap still, it's like I want every song to have it. We might we may just become the Black Crows, Chris. That's I'll tell you, it's um it just gives it that element of awesomeness. I mean, when you listen to um we have a song called Poor Me, and it doesn't come in right away, and then when it comes in, that whatever lick came down from the gods that he put in Poor Me is amazing. It's my favorite lick on the album, actually. And it just comes in and you hear it, and you're like, Dad, it's so cool. Oh, yeah. There's something special about Sly. Yeah, the stuff he did in uh Hillbilly Beach, which you're from Marford County, you know where Hillbilly Beach is off of Laurel Brook. It's a real place. Yeah. Decided to write a song about it. That's great, Hillbilly Beach. That's fantastic. I thought they called it. We just called it the water in Laurel Brook, but everybody kept telling me it was Hillbilly Beach. So I'm going with that.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Speaking of beaches, with uh summer quickly approaching. Uh you have any plans for the summer?

SPEAKER_03 20:42

I do you do anything? I do, yeah. I mean, I have a 15 and 17-year-old, so okay. I uh we just got back from a cruise in February. Yeah, we were uh MSC World America. It was I don't know how that thing stays afloat. Really? It's so big. And uh my kids were bored. Were they ruined? Yeah, I'm saying it sarcastically because I don't know how they were, but they managed to figure out a way to I'm gonna go home. So I'm like, yeah, go swim back. Go ahead. Wow, but no, it was amazing. You know what I mean? The boat was huge, food was good, the islands were awesome. Weather was not as good as you would think because you went in February, like I'll never do that again. Oh, yeah. I'll go and I'll guess I know the weather would be good even if it's raining, you know. But no, I like the beach. I love the name of your band, man. Oh, point through one of my I might actually get it tattooed on my body. One of the coolest phrases from that movie, it's hesitations will make your worst fears come true. This is absolutely correct. When I jump out that plane, man, it's my favorite saying that.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

That's um when um when Bill and I first met, I was running well, I'm still running the Open Mike's at Double Group Rowing, but I was running Open Mike and he came in. And uh when we first met, we started playing together and playing together and playing together at Open Mike. Then he invited me over to his place and uh we started jamming together all the time. And he's like, so what are we gonna do with this? You know, oh I said, let's let's put something together. I said, I'll come up with a band name. And you know, uh, it was kind of a nod to a kind of it's I shouldn't say cheesy, you know, cheesy cult surf movie thing. That movie's amazing. It's one of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

It's I could quote it for it. It's a great fantastic. Uh give me two. Oh, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

So um you say that all the time. Yeah, so we ran with it and we've had a blast with it. Um that's great. Andrew, our drummer, he's always wearing some sort of point break movie t-shirt with something, one of the characters or a saying on it. I will intervene that the remake sucked. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't give it time on my TV. Well, just call it something else, man. Dude, I am so I don't understand why they keep remaking these movies. Like when they did the karate kid. Yeah. Come on, man, leave it alone.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

I did like the Kerber Kai series. That was okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Well, that's fine because that was still a lot of the originals, but why try to fix something that wasn't Ghostbusters? I mean, when they did the uh that completely new cast. I didn't watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

I didn't want no parts of that. No, Point Breaks got it. Man, I saw it in the theater like five times. That was that was 1990s. I was just graduating. I just watched it last week. Yeah. But they um did you ever take notice in that movie? Obviously, you know Anthony Keatis is but when they get in that fight where Anthony Keatis is so easy shirt, he's got a leather or some kind of shirt shop from Dundalk, Maryland. Oh, it's from uh Hellbent for Leather. Hell Ben for Leather. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got a local shirt on, man, which is cool. Yeah, I thought that was cool. I was like, he must have been there. Somehow they got it, you know. You know what's funny?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

There's a story about Hell Ben for Leather. So I was born and raised down in the city. So Dundalk was one of those kind of like taboo places you didn't go to because everybody said it was Dundalk, which is stupid. But anyway, so there was um there was always an old guy in the old neighborhood, and it was a biker guy, and he would always be like, you know, man, you can go and you get paraphernalia, you can get all kinds of like bowls, and you can get this and that. And there was this place, it's a leather shop in Dundalk. So as little, you know, as kids, we were completely fascinated. We would skate our skateboard past it, and we'd go to kind of real slow. Yeah, real slow. But you know, it turned out the guy was full of shit. Right. It was an actual legit leather shop. Nice, which um it's funny, yeah, it read it takes me back um back to the 80s walking through a mall when Wilson's leather was still around. That smell was like overpowering, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Do you remember walking? Go like I grew up, like I could ride my bike to Whitemarsh. Okay. But I remember going to the mall, or my parents would chop us off in the eighth grade, which is crazy. I wouldn't do that now with my kids. You know, that's the sad part about life. But but we would go eighth grade, and when you went to the mall, it looked like you were in Disneyland. That's how many people were walking. Like it wasn't like you could just walk, you had to like wait. There's so many people there. I was trying to find because I used to take pictures with a real camera with film. And uh, I would just remember there was tons of people, like it looked like a sea of people at the mall.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

We used Friday nights for us was uh was Putty Hill Skate Land.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

Yep, I used to skate there, it's where I lived.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

And mom used to drop me and everybody off in the neighborhood in the station wagon. It would drop us off at like I think it was like 6 p.m. back then. And once everybody got in, they closed the door. There was nobody coming in. Yeah, if you left, you couldn't get back in. I remember that, yeah. And we were there until what 11 o'clock, I guess. 10 or 11. Yeah, something like that. It was a late. I used to remember the guy that owned it.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

I think his name was Ed. Really? I think I lived, that's Ridge Road. Yeah. Yeah. We got to the point where we're old enough, I guess we thought we were old enough. I was probably only in the eighth or ninth grade, probably eighth grade. We used to put our skates on and bring our shoes and skate to Skate Land. Did you really? Yeah. Oh wow. Down Ridge Road, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

I I ate it that Denny's right in front so many times over years.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

I got we didn't get to that point until I was one of us was driving, but we used to go down Skate Land like seventh, eighth grade all the time. Skate Land was the place to go back then. It just finally closed, I think.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw that's kind of sad. I hate seeing uh places like that that I grew up going to. We have a song about it.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

That's right, way back. Yeah, on our first album. I mentioned skate line. Yeah, what's the lyrics of that, Chris? You're better with my lyrics than I have.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

So let me ask you a question. Yes, sir. How long have you been in music? Like actually performing, writing, playing?

SPEAKER_03 26:46

I I started like it's a cliche. Like I being a lefty was tough for me. My neighbor gave me my first guitar, I guess when I was like 10 or 12, something around there. And of course it was a right hand, it was acoustic. So I would strum on it, and it'd probably sound like ass, you know. Sure. And then my mom's like, Do you want to take lessons? I'm like, Yeah. I went to Perry Hall Music, Perry Hall Music lessons. And um learned all that acoustic, and I and the guy kept flipping it over. I'm like, No, no, I gotta hold it like this. He's like, No, no, no, you gotta hold it. I was like, No, dude. I I can. I feel like I have no hands. And he goes, Well, we at least have to string it the right way. And we spent a lesson stringing my guitar, right? You know, and then the next day I came in, he just showed me chords, and then got to the point where I was like, I'm ready for an electric, you know. And then I'm like, Do they make left-handed electrics? Like, yes, they do, and I got offender. And I just catalyst him there. But the ironic part about it is my first band, because my one buddy Mike was better on guitar than I was at that point. I said, Screw it, I'll just play bass. And we had a cover band. And we covered like the cure, the cult, REM, the mighty lemon drop, stuff like that. And my first gig was Maxwells, man. I was 16. Oh man, Maxwells. I can't remember the other the band, Deep Six was the name of the band. They were a big band back then. So it was a Thursday night, and I was just like, I'm doing this forever. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

You're up here playing. Thursdays was teen night. Yeah. And we would go there. That was another great one. It was teen night. And I can remember Mike D from the BC Boys being in there one time.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Oh wow. Yep. Yeah. Dude, I saw them in '93 in Michaels Eighth Avenue. I was there. Yeah. Henry Rollins and all that. It was crazy. But no, Maxwell's was our first gig, and I was just like, okay, this is something I really want to do, you know. And I still play bass. I think we played The Rage. Remember that place? Oh, yeah, yeah. There's a place on Eastern Avenue. Um Senex? Yeah. No, no, no. Before that. Oh, okay. I played Cenex. Maybe it was. I don't remember. I'm so bad. There was there was another big band around that time that we played with them because we were covers. We didn't even have originals yet. Sure. Like I didn't start. Like when I first started an original band, I wasn't singing. I was actually playing guitar. And then he that guy picked up and moved to California. And we're like, who are we gonna get to sing? And I'm like, I'll try it. And I'll just look at me like, dude, where'd that come from? I'm like, guess I'm singing.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

It went from there. But yeah. So have you been writing just as long?

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah, yeah. Probably since that guy took off for California. That's when I wrote my first song. I remember it was called Lack of Ventures.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Have you ever gotten writer's black?

SPEAKER_03 29:22

I have it right now. Do you really? Not musically, but lyrically, man. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't think about that. No, I do. I have it right now. And I I and I and if you obviously look at my lyrics, it's pretty basic. I mean, I don't like books. Right. You're lucky if you get a third verse.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Do you do you find that as one of your bigger challenges as a creator?

SPEAKER_03 29:44

Yeah, but I mean the funny thing is when I write a song, I write the music, and I have the melody of the lyrics in my brain already, but don't have the words. Like if I could do la la la la la for a song every day, they rock, you know? Of course. But I that's when it'd start to break it down. And then I'm like, what did I want this to be about? I'm not a tortured soul. I don't have a horrible life. I'm actually having a great life.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

You're not writing emu.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Yeah, I'm not doing emu. I'm not depressed, you know. So I take on other people's problems. Like if you hear a song about a breakup, it's not mine. You know what I mean? Like try something new, it's not about me. I one of the baddest soloists Chris ever done is on that song, by the way. But I mean, yeah, I mean, stuff like that. I have a tendency to just maybe write about somebody else's problems.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Who is uh who's one of your biggest musical inspirations? I mean, it's easy to say Jimmy Page.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Yeah. But I mean, I'm a Ace Fraley is why I picked up a guitar. Okay. I solve him and I was like, I want to do that. But I mean, I'm not dumb. I know Jimmy Page is the reason why he's probably picked up a guitar, you know. But I mean Jimmy Page is probably but Led Zeppelin's probably my all-time favorite band. I have a lot of favorite bands, but Led Zeppelin, I'd even take him over to Beatles. Yeah, I mean, I love the Beatles. Yeah. But if I'm gonna head choosing one, I'm going to Zeppelin. Right on. I just think that they have they have more not so much, they have a bit more. Obviously, their catalogue's probably almost the same. I think they have a more spread out of catalogue of music. Was that one of your first albums? Uh actually Destroyer from Kiss.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Was it an eight-track or was it a big one? No, it was a vinyl.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

I mean, I'm about 70, I came out in 76. I was only four. So I think when I was about six or seven, my sister had it. I'm like, what is this, man? Right on. And I put it on. I think somehow the needle skipped the God of Thunder. I'm like, what the hell is that? But I mean, that's 50 years old this year. That that makes me feel wow. Like, okay. 50 years old. Yeah, I mean, but I'm a huge clutch fan, man, from Maryland. Like one of my favorite bands. Yeah. Jane's addiction. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

I saw um I saw clutch. The last time I saw clutch was at the it was down at the old Sears building down in the city.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Um, it was at the outside show. Yes. Dude, David just had it so good. That was incredible. It was the um the the Shindig. Shindig, yes. Because Jane's addiction was there too. Oh, yeah. Okay, so did you know? They said a terrible first five seconds. Do you know why? Because his aunt wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

No, it was because he was tripping on asset. He was. Um Barry? Barry. Yeah. So they interviewed him a few days afterwards, and he said, I ate too much, smoked too much. And he said, I just yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Well, I thought, well, I couldn't hear Navarro's rig. And I don't think he was in the mix for like the first four songs. Yeah. But clutch, man, they said they were so good that day. That's the first time I've ever been to an outdoor show where you felt a kick drum in your chest. Nice. And I like it.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Did you go to the one that Dropkick played too?

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Was that the first or the third? First one. No. I only went to the side. You didn't go back to the one where it was Godsmack and all these guys. I didn't. And Chester with STP. I did not go to that one. I miss, I missed the Shindig, man. That was great. It was the the area? But I mean, you start a day. But I mean that, I mean, I just remember the dude from uh um oh my god, what's the name of that band? They were there. They had like the whole ska thing going on. Oh, yes. Um they they they're not even together. Fishbown, yeah. Well he got up on stage and did Idiot Roll with James and he played the trumpet or or sax phone, whatever it was. Very cool. Yeah, I mean he was just walking around in the audience. Yeah. That was a good show. Oh, Hailstorm was there too, weren't they? Yes, they were. Yeah, I think do you like playing outside gigs? I don't care. I mean, I do I really miss, I wish we would have got to play. We were supposed to play the uh what was it? Sandwich stock. Oh, yeah. And it got rained out, and I was so excited to play that, man. I was very excited. If they want to do it again, I'd love to do it again. So put that out there.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

I'm going to ask you a question. And you're either going to laugh or you're looking at me like I'm nuts. So there is this thing. It's an unwritten rule, apparently, and I it never I never heard it until I moved up to Harford County. Um when you play, when you're performing, do you always wear jeans or pants or do you wear shorts?

SPEAKER_03 34:06

I never wear shorts.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Neither do I. Okay. I never wear shorts. And is that is this because of the unwritten rule as when you're on stage?

SPEAKER_03 34:13

I mean, I see a lot of guys wearing shorts. I just feel weird holding a guitar, wearing shorts. Like if I'm doing that, I should just be playing some Bob Marley, maybe. Okay. I don't know. I just don't, I don't mean Scott Ann from Anthrax. He's infamous for wearing shorts and running around like a maniac. I just for me, maybe because I'm short, I don't know. I'll look if it's like I got shorts on, and I look if it's shorter, I wear pants. Yeah, okay. Yeah, you I'm the same way. You want to talk about cutting sleeves is a different story. We used to get made fun of for never wearing sleeves, yeah. But uh, you know. But it's not that that big of a deal to you? Not I personally will never wear shorts on stage, but I don't care. Yeah, I could care less if my band did.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

You know what I mean? And I can't explain why somebody asked me not long ago. They were like, well, what is this thing with you guys not wearing shorts when you're performing? I'm like, I don't know. Maybe I don't want my putt my foot up on the monitor and shorts and you know what I mean? How are you doing? Sing something.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

I don't need that. No, we I I I mean, I don't think I've ever played a gig in shorts. Never. Yeah. I'd have to you know what, you know, Nathan, I mentioned it. My very first gig, I might have had shorts on. Really? Yeah, because it was summertime. Remember EJ Bugs? Oh my goodness, yeah. Yeah, I think it was EJ Bugs, and I think I was so hot. We I was like, I gotta I'm wearing shorts. But I didn't know, I didn't know the unwritten rule yet, you know. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

I mean, I've gone to the extreme to where I was in shorts up until the last few minutes prior to us going up to perform, and I'll strip down, I'll put my jeans back on and I'll play my set, and then I'm right back in the shorts again.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

No, I've done that, absolutely. Like, especially we used to do a lot of outside stuff in um Fish Heck Cantuna. Oh, yeah. And we would we I mean, you gotta get there at noon and you ain't going on until seven or eight. I would definitely wear shorts. If I was built better, I would never wear a shirt on stage. I'm working on that. Oh boy. Guns out. It'll never happen. I like food and I'm Italian and I'm shorts. I'm like three curses right there. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

But uh so uh what's for the future? What's going on with uh Old Man Jones?

SPEAKER_03 36:19

Yeah, uh hopefully we get some gigs. I mean, we have 30 songs now, right? So I mean we could I could, you know, my now I mean I have two songs I've written already, but it just need, you know, no lyrics or anything like that. But I think the next album we do, I would like to super take our time. You know, make everything. I don't want to make like a pet sounds or anything, but it'd be really cool cool to just take your time and make everything.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Do you feel like you need inspiration to do that? Like some are you the kind of person I can just pick it up and be like, all right, I'm gonna sit down and just write? Or do you have to be inspired?

SPEAKER_03 36:58

I make it a point to I mean, I come up with riffs on a daily, and then very seldomly will it be like I come up with a whole song immediately. Right. But it's crazy. Usually they're the best songs that you wrote in five minutes. Like, what's it crashing down written in five minutes? So how did you know it was done?

SPEAKER_01 37:17

That's that's another thing I have. Never done.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

When you're writing, how do you know when a song is done? Because they talk me off the ledge. Is that what it is? Kyle or Chris Kyle's there a lot more than Chris when we're recording. And I'm like, dude, come on.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

I want to do it better. No, it's fine. Like, I I don't like singing. I really don't, right? I would rather just play guitar.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

I mean, I like singing, but for me to you know play and sing and hit buttons, I mean, if I could we work with Ashley now. Uh Ashley and Brett, I think it is. And Ashley's a soloist. And uh I've already I always tease Benny. I'm like, dude, we're gonna start a band. Like my drummer, our drummer Eric works where we're at now. I got Benny a job there. Ashley's there, I'm like, dude, we got a band.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 37:59

I said, I can now just we'll start a whole second band on the side, and Ashley's just gonna sing. And Benny's like, Oh, I want to sing too. And I'm like, You're not. You just you're just playing bass. And he goes, I went to school for singing. This is a with these like yeah, that's cool. You can help Ashley sing, you can do some backup. I want a girl singer and I just want to play. And he's like, I'm singing too. And I'm like, I'm sure Kyle would love to play bass. Oh, that's awesome. He gets so angry, he gets mad. So, Chris, if you went in on that too, man, we're gonna uh cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Well, I greatly appreciate you swinging by tonight.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

I appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Dude, I was uh when as soon as you had that uh album come out, I listened to it, and I'm like, I definitely gotta get him in the uh studio, man.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Very cool, man. Yeah, I I I have I think it's done. What do you think? You think it's done? I think it's done. Like I always want to go back and I think we gotta do some tweaks if you want to do a vinyl. Do some tweaks on that.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Yeah. But I mean Are you gonna do a vinyl release?

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Well, you can buy it right now on vinyl, but I want to go back and tweak it a little more than upload some better tracks. Right, only yeah, there's a pretty cool site out there called Elastic Stage, where don't you buy one.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

So, where can everybody see what's going on with Old Man Jones? Where can they purchase merch?

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Uh April, well, we have a show, April 15th, again, at um Boston Burrow Health uh Wednesday, April 15th, and any merch, right now I just have it on that big cartel site. Big cartel slash old man Jones. Okay. I do have to get a website up. I'm I keep joking, it's we're just old school, man. No, they have websites back then. Just find it at the show.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

And all your music is on all of the every streaming platform, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Anywhere you can find it.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Well, appreciate you, brother. Yes, sir. You be safe heading home?

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

All right. Appreciate everybody hanging out tonight. Listeners out there in podcast land. This is another session, friends. Signing off. See you next time.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Now let's do the two. Another last day of the other. Up in this way For as long as I could realize They can't be real But I still don't look them in the eyes I'm found a different way to understand all the things they say So far free You try and make me feel And be what I can be You act like there's no be What's in it for me What's in it for me for me I seen a way to be unbound from this circus I know it takes some time But I still feel worthless I've found a different way To understand how to get this play So far nothing I free You tryin' to make me see And be what I can be You act like there's no be What's in them for me What's in it for me nothing everywhere You understand everywhere we free So far is the only You try and make me free And be what I can be You act like there's no me What's in it from me So what's in it from me