Brad Cox of Skitzo Calypso

We had a blast hanging out with singer/songwriter/author and podcast host Brad Cox!

Brad is best known for his very popular podcast Mouthful of Graffiti which was recently nominated for a World Entertainment Award, he is the Lead Singer and Guitar Player in Skitzo Calypso and he is the brains behind the popular series of books, Children of the Program.

Brad lights up the studio with a  post-interview session of two kick a**, heart racing Skitzo Calypso songs along with C.A. Moon, "It's in the Way" and "Bound by Baal".

Enjoy!

Sesh

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Another public weatherly productions. And here comes Peter Cottontail. Oh, are we live?

SPEAKER_06 0:23

That's an interesting one. Hey, are you live? What a way to start. You sound like me and Kyle now. What's going on? Hey, man. Oh, it was Easter. Oh, it is Easter. It was Easter. How was your Easter? Uh, I don't really celebrate Easter.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Well, neither do we, but did you do something at all? No.

SPEAKER_06 0:36

I went on a hike and then the uh the kid had a good time with his mom and her boyfriend. They do like his family's like Uber Catholic, so they go all out for Easter. They do the whole church thing, then they do the whole tradition thing.

unknown 0:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 0:50

Which is great. I uh nothing all that at all. I I worked on Masters all day. Good for you. And edited a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I was behind the bar double groove all day on Easter. Yeah, it was pouring beers, but we had a good time. Um we didn't have a band and we didn't have a food truck that day. So uh my wife actually cooked this huge Easter dinner: ham, the potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the cornbread, the green beans, the doubled eggs, all of it. That's amazing. And she brought it all to DJ and she set it all up for not my just for myself, but for everybody that came into double group today.

SPEAKER_06 1:21

How sweet.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

So I figure, you know, I'm not a big holy guy, but um I figured I'd put a a fun movie on the big screen while I was there. So I put on um the Holy Grail. Um Monty Python. Yeah, Money Python's Holy Grail. I figured what's got holy in it? So I figured Money Python's Holy Grail. So we all there was a bunch of us sitting around just drinking beers and watching Money Python's Holy Grail on Easter. We had a blast, though.

SPEAKER_06 1:45

That's awesome. Yeah, we had a blast.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah, it's a fantastic movie.

SPEAKER_06 1:49

We uh me and Maddie watch that pretty regularly. We also watched the Faulty Towers series. You ever watch that? Absolutely. Yeah, those are really good, too. Right on. That's some old books. Yeah, great books. Yeah, great books.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I've they go way back.

SPEAKER_06 2:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah, they go way back. You know, speaking of books, it's funny. I was digging through a bunch of stuff that I've had in an old, old box in the back of the basement here in the house. And um, believe it or not, I mean, we've been up here for well over 16 years, and I still have a box that's full of books that I have not opened yet. Well, I found an old and original Dungeons and Dragons playbook. Oh, really? Yes. Dungeons and Dragons playbook. I don't know if you remember that, but back when it was massive.

SPEAKER_06 2:33

Oh yeah, dude. It was massive. I I swear happy dad moment was uh one when the kid decides to grab a Floyd record from the record collection, and two, when he came home and he was like, Hey, I need you to pick me up later on Tuesdays from school. I was like, Why? He was like, I joined DD Club. I was like, Oh, that's amazing. That's awesome, man. So now we have like a long going, an ongoing campaign just between me and him.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

You know, it beats being you know, it beats staring at a video game all a day long time. It does, you know.

SPEAKER_06 3:01

It does.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

And it does, it takes some skill and thought too.

SPEAKER_06 3:04

Big time. Yeah, the problem is that he's got like three different campaigns going, and when he's playing one campaign, he thinks that he's a character in another campaign, and like other kids are like, you can't do that. And he's like, Man, I keep forgetting. Right on. He's got too many things going on. So, what else is new? Same old, same old. You ask me that every week, ma'am. I know. Same old, same old. The rec the record is is coming to a close.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Good.

SPEAKER_06 3:28

Um, uh like I said, I worked on Masters all day Sunday, and it's interesting when you release music over an extended time period. A lot of things change in that time period. Right. One, my tones have changed. So there's a song that was on Story Hour that's now on the new album, and both of the guitar tones that are in Story Hour are not even close to any of the guitar tones on the rest of the album.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Really?

SPEAKER_06 3:54

So I uh I re-recorded them on Sunday and matched them as close as I could for feel and you know, to make sure that I was still kind of maintaining the vibe. But as soon as I start doing that, you know, it it just makes you want to go back and like just keep re-recording.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

But you are a stickler, you're one of these guys where you're never satisfied until you're actually beating your head against a wall when it comes to things.

SPEAKER_06 4:21

Oh, I'm never satisfied until it's out in the blue yonder and out of my hands. Yeah. And then I have no choice.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

But what you guys are doing, what you guys are doing is incredible. I mean, um, the album so far is so much fun. Speaking of uh new albums, I wanted to give a big, big shout out to a good buddy of mine, Scott Painter from Jaw Works. They just had a huge, huge show um down in uh Columbia, Maryland at one of the breweries down there. It was their big record release party for uh River of Life.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Um, me and uh Scott and I go back, we go back a few years. I've seen them around Baltimore and Virginia and DC a handful of times. Um we've hung out, had some drinks together. But um, it's been a few minutes since we've actually talked and we kind of reconnected. And um, man, I've been going down this rabbit hole for Jaw Works, man. If you guys really like some really good deep roots reggae, I mean, definitely get into it. So anyway, big shout out to Jaw Works for their uh big record release party.

SPEAKER_06 5:25

Yeah, absolutely. Sounds great too. Yeah, man. Oh yeah. Those guys are so talented.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:32

Is that with the doorbell?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Oh, I think so. All right, hold on, hold on, hold on, guys. Hey guys, how are you doing? Whoa, Brad, Brad Cox, dude, I had no idea you were swinging by tonight.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

I I didn't either until about two o'clock this afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

That's funny. How are you doing? I'm doing good, brother. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. I tell you, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta admit, I've been really excited about this one. I've been looking forward to this one for a while. All right. Well, I appreciate you having me. This is cool. So, to give everybody a little background on Brad Cox, um, you guys uh definitely should check into Mr. Cox. He's got quite the history. He um he was nominated for the World Entertainment Awards for his uh podcast, Mouthful of Graffiti, which is located in Harford County, Maryland. He also is an incredible author, and he has a series of books called Children of the Program. Is that correct? That is correct. And what is that about?

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Well, just to give you the reader's digest version, it's about these 12 individuals who are sent from like a purgatory state, and they're sent to enlighten humanity by basically by procreating. If you remember back in the 90s, there was this this the whole thing about indigo children, you know. Yes, I do remember. And they had like the purple irises, and they were supposed to be a little bit more like an enigmatic feature to them, but they were like a little bit more spiritually advanced than the rest of us, sure, right? And so um there's a a race of children known as the Crystalline, and uh it just follows the journey. So the first book is about the 12 that go out there, um, and then the second book follows the journey of those 12, and then the third book, the government gets involved, which the you know the government does sure naturally. So um it's a really cool twist at the very end, though. Um, it basically the first chapter of the book is tied together with the chapter before the last chapter of the last book. Okay, so unless you read all three, you're not gonna get like the real juicy moment at the very end. Oh, okay. It took a lot of years to to put the whole thing together. Started writing it back in like 2013, 2014 when I was laid off from patch.com. Is that what kind of Yeah, I was a journalist journalism major at Towson. Okay, and I wanted to kind of scratch the uh the itch to write, so started doing that, and it was daunting. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Very cool, dude. You know, it's it's you know, that kind of blows my mind that somebody can sit down that long and just I mean, I write songs, and you're a songwriter as well, of course. But that somebody that can sit down and have the patience to write an entire book, not just a book, but an entire series of books. So and stay on track mentally, you know?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So yeah, the the first book, a lot of people have this fantasy about writing books where it's like you go to Starbucks and you order your coffee and it just magically comes out of you. Sure, of course, right? It's not that's not how it happens.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So just going to the brewery with your laptop for three hours doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

You're not gonna get anything, though. Okay, yeah, yeah. I learned very quickly that you you need to spend that time planning what you're gonna write. Right. Come up with the scenes, don't just hope that they manifest and then so by the third book, I had this, I turned one of my walls into a dry erase board.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And I looked like Charlie from It's Always Sunny and and he's like trying to piece together. But like what would happen during the first book is um, because at the time I was still drinking a lot, and um I would I would forget I wrote things or think I wrote things that I hadn't written yet. Sure. So I would go back and start writing something, like this is so great. Let me go scope a little bit and see what I wrote last night. Oh crap, it's the same exact thing, but I have no recollection of doing it.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

So that was a big mess. Okay, yeah, gotcha. So aside from all of the other accolades that Brad has, he's also the lead singer and guitar player, right? When when needed of Schizo Calypso. Yep. Um Schizocalypso goes back several years in uh the state of Maryland. I've seen him I've seen you guys twice. Had it? And and and I know I didn't tell you this before, but you and I have actually met before. Okay. In 2012, uh I just got back from LA. Um we had just played the whiskey, and I saw your guys were on the bill for the Wrecker Theater in Towson, Maryland, and I stopped in and we hung out, my wife and I, and it was a couple other guys, and after your set, I walked over and I shook your hand, and I told you, man, it was a killer set. And you were like, dude, thanks. Proud in play. That was our first introductory. That is that is. But I never brought that up before. I just I guess I didn't want to be like I didn't want to be that guy be like, hey man, what's going on? You know, we've met before. What was the name of the group? Oh, your group? Your group. Oh, my group was uh Eye of All. Okay. Yep, it was Eye of All. I cool. Brian, um, I mean, um, Mike or Brian Smith. Brian Smith from Baltimore Sound Management was booking us back then. Okay. I don't know if you're familiar with what was the show? It was just something you guys were playing. I'm not really sure. I just know it was a record theater. That's the only thing I remember.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

The only reason I say that is because Brian Smith, and and you told me the story about your your experience at the whiskey with Gilby. Yes. O'Brien got us a gig with Dizzy Reed the same year that Guns N' Roses was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh, that's awesome. So we go and we we could we go to play this show, and the opening bands brought the people. Dizzy had no more than 10 to 15 people in the room. Really? So by the time he went on to play, there wasn't a lot of people, a lot of our people left. So I do backstage after the show, and he's just sitting there backstage at the record, and he's like, Where's all the drugs and women, bro? And like, you're Dizzy fucking read. You tell me where the drugs of the women are.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

That rebout, yeah. When when my band, when the band I of all, when we played the whiskey, we opened up for uh Gilby Clark for his super band called Halloween Jack. And if you guys don't know who Gilby Clark is, he was well, he's an incredible guitar player, but but he was also the guitar player for Guns of Roses for a little while. So, long story short, we got to open for them, and it was um it was Gilby, and then it was Stevie Perkins on drums from Jane's Addiction, and it was one of the members from Cinderella, and I can't remember who it's been a while now, but anyway, we got to open for them, and you're talking about where's the drugs, blah, blah, blah. Well, we well, we played our set, and then Halloween Jack went on. And so, of course, we went to stay downstairs with the whiskey, and we hung out, and we're hung out, and then they finished our set. Well, they all go upstairs, and Gilby comes down, he's like, Hey Baltimore, and he's talking to me because he kept calling me Baltimore because I guess you know he figured out where we came from. Come on upstairs, man. Because my room is your room. So we come upstairs, and I'm with my wife at the time, and I'm a I'm a very honest guy. Now, the guys that were in my band, they were much younger than me, and they were all single. So we all go upstairs and Gilby's like, look, got the blondes, redheads, brunettes, there's powder, there's all the booze, and there's plenty of green over there, Rhett Griefer. So, you know, me being the straight guy hanging out with my wife, and we're just sitting there and I'm having a couple of drinks, and I'm just looking around, and I'm in awe, of course. You know, I'm just I'm just some local musician from from Maryland. I mean, how in the hell am I? I I'm trying to figure out how I made it there, you know. Did you feel that when you played the whiskey? Well, like it's it's it's surreal being on that stage.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

It was, and living out there, I remember like every day at lunch, I would come out of um Tower Records and I would eat a cheeseburger at this place called the Greek, it's called the Mediterranean something, across right across the way. And I would stare up at the whiskey, and it was just like this, like you know, this place to to play at some point. So, you know, walking in there, it was it was surreal. But like I was saying pre-podcast, when we talked a little bit, it's got once you've been sitting in there for like two hours, it really has like old ocean city vibes, right? Like the either the Pirates Cove or like the old haunted house. Like, it's not structurally the most incredible thing, it's just the stories that took place.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, it's kind of dark and dreary, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, yeah, it's it's got a dank vibe, and like the floorboards, like they it doesn't feel like it's really that secure, sturdy. But um, I just remember getting backstage, and you just we were on the room on the right as soon as you come up the stairs, and just all the stickers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the last time I'd been there prior to that, well, not the last time, the time before that, I'd seen the neurotic outsiders there, and that was Matt Sorm, Duff, um uh Steve Jones and Johnny Taylor. Oh, yeah. It was for the Neurotic Outsider CD release party, and they ended up coming down to Tower and doing a signing. So I got to meet them all there. Very cool, and all I had was G and R stuff, right? So I get to Steve Jones from the Pistols, and I'm like, and I had like usual illusion too. I was like, You will sign this, and he's like, I mean, signed that shit. Get that shit out of here, you know. And Duff looks over at him. This was the Tower Records.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

But yeah, it's like not to destroy the mystique of it, because it's an incredible place, an incredible feeling, but it's like it it become you feel like you're an autobar, honestly. You know? Yes. It's that's the best thing I can compare it to. It the the only thing And I love Autobar, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Sure, of course. Autobar is fantastic. The only thing that kind of was out of a body out-of-body experience was you know, looking stage left and the whole Jim Morrison bust was still there with the candles. And actually, the night we played, they actually had the the go-go dancers upstairs, hence the whiskey of go-go. But um, so that was my big rock star experience, you know, in LA back then. But I know you've had a share.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I think the bus was piping draped off because the entire room was set up for this event. It was all it was all balloons and um step and repeats, and just like it it didn't actually feel the way the whiskey felt to me when I saw a show there. I'll put it that way. But it was really it was an incredible experience, and the sound there was awesome. Oh, yeah, the the production they weren't playing around. Like, I had like a little bit of a buzz coming out of my bass, and the guy was like, he worked with me for like 10 minutes to fix the problem. You know, it was that's like I'm not gonna have that bass on the stage. Yeah, I was like, oh well, I don't know what to tell you because it's the only bass I got.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Like, look, this is the way it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

And we figured it out. It was it was a tone knob issue.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Very cool. So outside of Schizocalypso, I got to hear the new song Chris uh C A Moon, aka C A Moon. You guys have been working together on that, right? It's incredible, dude. Your voice is thank you, it's prime right now, dude. It's prime. I mean, your voice, your vocals I have to work a lot harder right now. But you're but dude, your vocals are freaking prime. It takes me back to when I got to see you guys earlier when you first started.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

It's impressive, man. Thanks, man. I I really appreciate that. It's uh like I said, like I used to be able to just drink and smoke and get up there and do that, no problem. And actually, Steve Whiteman was my vocal coach, so I I do owe a lot to him for kind of getting my voice where it got to. Right. But um, these days there's a lot of vocal warmups, I don't drink a lot of anything except for energy drinks and water, and I don't even think I should be doing the energy drinks, honestly. But um, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, dude, I and I'm being very honest. I I told Chris when I first listened to um uh Bound by Bao. That's it, yeah. Bound by Bao. And it's uh his brand new song, by the way, guys. It's available on all streaming platforms. But I was blown away. I told Chris, I'm like, damn, dude. I said, just between the production and and Brad's vocals, it's just it's sick. I mean, it's it's literally radio ready.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

It is that that song literally, Chris sent it to me by lunchtime. I already had uh a verse and chorus like mapped out ready to go. This was the easiest one. A lot of Chris's stuff is it's kind of complicated, and um, he he blends a lot of different tones that you just don't hear. So you're almost hearing it would sound like, well, should this be major? Should this be minor? I don't know. And so you're just like weaving vocal lines through it and finding what works. This was not like that. This was like a straight-ahead rock and roll tune. I was like, I know exactly what to do with this. You know, the song before that was called Pedestal, and I'm like, what the right am I supposed to do with this? You know, so um, and then this other song that will be released probably um in a couple weeks called uh Pulled Beneath. Pulled Beneath, okay. It's it's not even it's a mid-tro, really. It's like a three-minute and 20-second mid-ro that is just I don't think it actually has a chorus. I don't even know if it has a verse. Okay, but yet it's got a lot of parts, and it is just really it's one of my favorite tracks on the record. And you're writing everything, is that correct? No. I mean, Chris writes the music, I write the lyrics and the vocal melody lines. Okay. So there is a partnership there. He's basically got these um canvases, sure. And I'm I'm painting atop them. Sure. So let me ask you a question. He doesn't get in my way either.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

He lets me do what I want. Well, that's that's that's fantastic. I I love working with Chris when it comes to that aspect. With as long, with as long as you've been doing this, and you've got a lot of time under your belt as a musician and as a performer, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, um it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

What is your what is your approach on production to marketing to song release?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Wow. Okay, so I will say one of the things because I've been doing it for a long time, it is compounding, compounding themes. I will take lyrics from a song from 1998, and like there's a song uh 2012, you brought up 2012, Dead World. Sure. And um, it goes, Here I go, I'm down, I'm lying, and here I go, I'm down, I'm lonely, and I'm dying line here on the side of the road. Well, in the very first record, on the very first song, it starts off with laying me down on the side of the road where the dogs and the kids can eat my soul. So I'm picking up on those themes. That's pretty deep. And so I just that's that's kind of my methodology, and and I weave a lot of things in. So, like Bound by Bao, the character in the novels, Children of the Program, is Nico Bao. Okay, I had a project called Nikki Thunders, which is Nikki Six, Johnny Thunders, it's a rock and roll punk thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

It's a punk rock project. Okay. Um, so I was in on the joke, but um anyway, Nikki Thunders. Well, Bao is the Egyptian god of thunder, and so Nico was a a kind of a derivative of Nikki. Uh so I'm always kind of like weaving all these things together, and that becomes part of the approach, but it also helps with the marketing. Sure. So we just put out a song called Akamith, and Akimuth is she's been kind of part of the artwork since 1998. It's the fire, girl of fire, faithfully pulled apart. Well, she from the Gnostic text. Yes, she is the daughter, the fallen daughter of wisdom from Sophia. Sophia came from the source. This is going back from the this is the I know you're getting deep. But anyway, she creates uh what we know from the Old Testament, if you believe in this kind of thing, to uh the creator God.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

But she's kind of a tortured soul, and so sh I've used her as kind of like the um the symbol of my muse. So in the early days, sometimes because if I was writing a song about suicide or something like that, sure, I wouldn't say I, I would say she. So I would just attribute those feelings to another character. So people that were in my life weren't worried about me. Yes, that makes sense. So over time, sure she became kind of a theme. Okay, and anyway, so she she kind of gets revealed on the last the last schizo song that was recorded was Akamith. It's it's in the way. Okay. So to your question about marketing and putting it all together, it's really kind of just this weaving of themes, and it's because of that that like I feel like I can't even turn the falsehood off. So ideas are always flowing through them. Wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, I um I I was kind of I wanted to pick your brain on that because I know you've been quite successful with you know your distribution and um your reach um with your music, because you know, it's just something a lot of musicians, including you know myself, sometimes, you know, you you kind of struggle with okay, I have this product. Um I really feel like it's a fantastic product, and I really want to get it out there, but it just seems like you got all up against walls. Sometimes with distribution, you know what I mean? Yeah. You know, I mean it's hard, man. And you can't just depend on social media and all that stuff nowadays, you know. There's so many other things. There's what, DistroKid now, and there's other stuff out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

And I've gotten to the point with releasing music where I know that people know that I'm doing stuff. Sure. And promoting to the same people on Facebook, I actually feel like I'm getting on people's nerves. I'm because I've I'm getting on my own nerves. So I spend more of the energy promoting outside of Facebook and social media. Like, I would rather try to get on some playlists and get in front of some new ears and to keep hitting the same people that either have seen me live. People at a certain point have already made up their mind what they think about you. They either like you, don't like you, or they're completely ambivalent to you. I agree. I completely agree. So um if somebody doesn't like you or they're ambivalent to what you do, they're not gonna suddenly be like, that now that you've played me that, now it's all changed. Oh, absolutely. I'm the biggest fan you have now.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Yeah, I get it. I I I've I figured that out. Like with this podcast, you know, um you look at the numbers, the listens, and the follows, and you know, you certain artists surpass numbers, and then you know, certain some people don't, or whatever. It's it's fine. And then you just kind of look at yourself and I'm like, okay, so what can I do to make it better? What can I do to make this more attractive to the public? Yeah, you know what I mean? So I guess it's the same aspect, but um, yeah, man, I'm super excited. I'm super excited about uh your uh future for schizo.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I I'm very excited. So at this age, it's very difficult to hold a band together. But the good news is there will be a Schizo Clipso concert on July 18th that nobody knows about because I haven't announced it, but now I just said it, so there it is. It we will announce it at some point. Um, it's gonna be uh I can't, I'm not gonna say where it is. Okay, there'll be an announcement, and there'll be I don't even have a band put together for it because two of the guys have three kids each, and only one of the guys has time to do it. So um I'm I have a guitar player, um, I need a bass player to fill in and play eight songs. Right. And he's waving his arms, so it's probably pick me. Pick me it, I will tell you that so I've been I've been venturing out for the past like year and a half doing the acoustic thing, which was completely new and different to me. But as you know, uh a schizo calypso concert is a is a different animal. Right. So that was that was a really hard mental transition for me. Okay. Because I knew that I couldn't like put on the show that I felt like people were used to seeing, but I still wanted the acoustic thing to rock, you know?

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Do you are you because you just not do you do you feel like the energy is different?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, okay, yeah, for sure. Like it's like you don't have the drums and the bass, and I'm not running around and I'm trying to dial it back, but I'm probably still not dialing it back enough. And so it's just been a transition. But when it's when it's right, it's right, it's great. Right. Played a couple shows at Zen West. We've played, uh I've played a bunch of shows at um a lot of the local breweries. Sure. Most of them are are great, but every once in a while you just kind of you find yourself in a room like this is not gonna fly here, but it's gonna it's gonna have to because it's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Well, I get it. Well, I I saw that you had posted a picture recently, um, something about your new album coming out. It was you and Gary. Is that and you that's what you guys are working on currently, is that correct? Let me can I tell you a quick story?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Sure, absolutely. So, Gary and I, we were playing together 200 uh two until about 2004 or five. And we were sitting at the tower one day, and somehow we started making like connections, like we'd like we'd never talked or something. But it turned out that our families knew each other. Not only did our families know each other, now I met Gary at some dive bar down in Baltimore card, How Daddies. We didn't know each other.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

I remember how daddies very well.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

We didn't know any each other from anybody, right? So I was like, wait a minute, you know this person, this person knows this person. Well, it turned out our grandfathers used to drink and hang out together. And his father came to my father's wedding. It was like all these intertwining pieces. I used to get babysat by his aunt. I have no, we have no memory, like I don't have no memory of this. So anyway, but there's a there's a um a uh photograph of the two of them gardening and doing the thing, so they're part of the album cover. So we took a picture of us at the cigar shop smoking cigars, very and in the background is the picture of our grandfathers.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

That's cool. So it's funny, I actually had written down some of the stuff that I wanted to talk to you about, and one of them actually was um quote this picture, and it was the picture you posted, and Gary was you were kind of just kind of like looking away, and Gary had his had his head in his hands like this, and I want to show you to it and say, quote this picture. What is Gary thinking about right now?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

I I I some of the candidates were the ones that worked, yes. Um, he didn't like that. He he didn't like the way he looked in the picture, but that that's that's the one I wanted. He he wouldn't go for it because I felt like that really captured. But what is he thinking in that moment? He's got three kids. He's got two of his kids are in like playing three different sports right now, and he's just overwhelmed and he's tired. Adulting, he's adulting, adulting, and mine's mine's 25 and moved out. Yeah, 24. I don't even know anymore. It's been a lot of years, yeah. So um, 24. Uh so it's just uh we're different different ends of the spectrum. I'm able, I'm free, I can go do it whatever the hell I want to do. Absolutely. So now we're kind of getting to that point where it's like, dude, if you I could take, I'd really like to take this band out because there's I can still do it. Yeah, yeah. So, but I think he's just he was overwhelmed, and he was overwhelmed when we were doing the photo shoot. So that's what that was a very candid shot. He's like, I don't know, man, what do you want me to do? I was like, I don't know, man. And I'm just like looking away, like Lisa, like direct us.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Sure. Yeah. So if you had to compare yourself to when you first started as a younger man to where you are now, lyrically, um writing, and um instrumentally, would you say that you were stronger now as a wiser, yes, more mature man? Or as you were when you first started getting into music. Now.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Now, yeah. I was probably more interesting then because it was very dark and weird and there's a lot of alcohol and whatever. Sure. A lot of things evolved. Sure. I mean, obviously, like getting into like really weird like basement prophecy videos. There's an album called Stignation, which the entire out premise of the album is everybody being inflicted with stigmata at the same time. Sure. That's not that's I don't even know how you enter that headspace at this point. I go back and listen to it, like, well, that's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

So everybody has the everybody has their crazy, and I and I know that you are completely sober now. And I know that you live a fantastic lifestyle, and I I give you all the love in the world for that. Thank you. Um, and I know that you did party at one point. Everybody has that one crazy rock star story. You have got to have that one crazy rock star story while you were still partying, that at the you know, you're always gonna be able to remember that one and be like, it was fucked up, but I'll always remember it because that it was either a lesson learned or it was, yeah, I'm gonna remember that one forever because damn that was fun.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

I mean, I just think that the thing that sticks with me, and it's still like I I almost have like an inability to process it was running off to Hollywood. And it's not even like a story per se that, like, oh, the time you fell off the stage because you were drunk, or the time the this happened or that time. It's more just like uh this window of time that is just so wild for a 17 and a half year old, 18-year-old kid. It was just like mind-blowing. Because we're still we're at that age, we're super impressionable still. I mean, I mean, like I I look back on it, I had the accordion style maps and the ADCs, yeah, the ADC maps, yeah. And I'm just like, I'm driving myself to Los Angeles, California, because I'm going to live there and do the thing, and it's completely directionless. And you know, I I ended up getting there, got a job at Tower Records, was at one point sleeping in my car, ended up telling a bunch of people at UCLA uh campus that I was gonna be starting uh school in the fall. And um, so they let me move in. I was not starting school in the fall.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Of course not.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

But at that point I was there and I was paying the bills, and um just the the whole life experience that was the Los Angeles trip. Um, we did an outrageous amount of just an outrageous amount of shows. At one point, the band was doing in 2002, three, four, five, seven, like we were doing like eighty to a hundred local original shows a year. There weren't they weren't cover shows where it's like, I'm gonna play the tower time, I'm gonna go play here. It's this was like we were doing the thing, and it was just insanity.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

That's that's all that's all I mean, uh, but that's what you dream about, right? Yeah, you know, you really do. And and I had this conversation with somebody the other day, and they said, you know, I I looked you up and I know you played here, there, and there, and it had to be a great time. And I'm and I said, you know, it was. It was a fantastic time, and it'll be something that I will always hold close to my heart. But you're cold, you're hungry, you're broke, you're looking for somewhere to sleep. I mean, you know, it's it's a rock star dream. Oh man, I got to play this place, this place, or this place. Okay, well, did you make any money? No, I drank it all. You know what I mean? Or I used it for a hotel. So I'm literally just playing to exist, you know? It's it's it's it's fun, but sometimes it's not fun. Right. You know what I mean? And it's a lesson to be learned.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Um yeah, I mean it's fun in retrospect when things work out. Sure. But it's it's pretty sad.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

But now that we're older, we can look back at it and kind of laugh now. You know what I mean? We're like, oh my god, I was chasing the dragon all over the place thinking I'm gonna be this big giant guy. And it's it's really not um it's really not all that it's cracked up to be sometimes. Sometimes just being um local and hanging out and being respected and loved for the art that you provide is way bigger and more meaningful than it it, you know what I mean, than having Mr. Hollywood hanging over your head.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Um meeting guys like Chris along the way, absolutely, John Amarillo, yourself, thank you, Gary. That I mean, their whole family was like a second family to me. It's just that means more to me than a lot of this. This is like really cool like mental photographs, but outside of that, you can't you can't live there. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah, and I'm I'm I'm definitely one of those guys that like I don't want to live in the past.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, you know. As a matter of fact, I I see people doing that sometimes where they're constantly posting just old photos of themselves. And it's like, go out there, make some new memories, man. Sure. You still got it. Yeah, you can still do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Yeah, I um that's funny. Every once in a while I'll go back and look at some of the old photos, but um, them days are gone, man. You know, I was a younger man.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Yeah, but you're doing something new now. And actually, the song you did with Chris was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Oh, I appreciate you guys.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

You got a great voice as well. You remind me a little bit of uh do you like Pearl Jam?

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Yeah, yeah. I was waiting for that one to come out. Yes, I absolutely like Pearl Jam.

SPEAKER_06 33:32

I mean, we have a tribute band in the making called Red Mosquito.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Yes, we're actually working on a uh a Pearl Jam tribute band called Red Mosquito. Yes. If you're not familiar with Red Mosquito, Red Mosquito is actually a Pearl Jam song. And it's uh it's one of those, yeah, it's a deep cut. It's one of those songs that Eddie doesn't sing very often, if ever. And it it goes back to um he wrote it, they were on tour, and and this is what I read, and I had a couple of hardcore Pearl Jam fans tell me, but um he wrote it, they were on tour and he was in a hotel room and he was sick. I don't know if he had the flu or whatever it was, but his temperature was through the roof. So he's got all these crazy thoughts and he's seeing this fucking red mosquito in his room. And if you listen to the lyrics, it's like the the the mosquito won't let him won't let him leave the room. It's almost taking him captive. Well, it's kind of uh what do they call those dreams when you have the high temperature? Yeah, it's just and so I love the song. It's just one of those B-side songs. If you're a hardcore fan, you know what it is and what it means and the kind of the the fun behind it. So um I figured let's run with something that not a whole lot of people are gonna know, you know what I mean? Anybody can name their Pearl Jane or Alive or Jeremy or you know. Actually, there was just one in Myrtle Beach called Jeremy. Where there was it really? Yeah. So let me ask you a question. Speaking of which, do you play any covers at all? Are you one of those guys that's against playing covers, or are you strictly an original guy?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

No, I'm not against it. It's the problem is that I've spent my entire life writing original music. So, like, uh it's almost now 25 albums for EPs. That's a lot of music to be out there. The catalog is crazy. But like, I don't know, I know still to this day, probably like eight to ten covers. I can learn them. Sure. But like I I never really have to. So I don't have to. I'd rather spend my energy. I I only get so much free time between the college and everything else. So trying to do something creative, whether you know, writing books or sure new songs or whatever. But um, no, I'm not against it at all. As a matter of fact, I have a gig independent in November that I'm like, I guess I should probably learn some cover songs. So it's probably gonna have to happen. But it he did say he was like, I was like, do I have to play covers? He's like, you can do whatever the hell you want. Oh, very cool.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

So it's gonna be a solo thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Very cool. We'll see what happens then. I'll have to stop. I might just do like a schizo set, a veteran avenue set, and a we love the underground set.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

So let's see. Schizo Calypso, Nikki Thunders, you had already brought up, and you explained to me what the whole Nikki Thunders was, which is cool. And you also have in your uh repertoire, We Love the Underground and Veteran Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

We Love the Underground was awesome. That was um Schizo was kind of like dovetailing down, and We Love the Underground. I'd been working on that project since 2009, and in 2013, I did an EP with this guy, Eric McCullough, called Nobody Likes Neville. Yes. And at the end of that project, his band fell apart, and he said he wanted to help me bring We Love the Underground to the stage. So we did that for about four years, hot and heavy, and we did um, I guess one full album together, and then an EP, but there was a couple albums prior to that, and um that was pretty significant. And then when that broke up, I thought kind of like probably like how you feel at times, like I don't know, maybe that that's that, you know. Like I didn't have the wherewithal or even the energy to do another band. Yep. So I put together Veteran Avenue, and Veteran Avenue ended up being um the idea started as a collaboration thing. So it was basically I would write these songs and then I'd build bands around the songs and then go record them. Like, for instance, there's a song called Dead Hour, and I brought in high school buddy Brian Rumbly and Todd Boyle. Todd Boyle played drums, Brian played bass, and I did the guitar and the vocals, and each song was like that, and then it slowly became a solo project after the first record. But the first record features 24, 25 local artists. It's a really if you've never heard dissonance and discord, um, it's it's a I'm extremely it's my favorite record I've ever done, really. Okay, except obviously the new schizophrenia, but well, of course, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So outside of Weatherly Productions, who else are you working with on all of your albums in the production market? Tony Corelli is the he's he's he's he's Emmy Emmy Award winning, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 38:03

He is he's Grammy nominated. Grammy nominated. Okay, Grammy. He's Grammy nominated, and he has won a few World Entertainment Awards. He's he's not just an incredibly talented musician and producer, he's just a very all-around great guy. He's a super nice guy. We've we've been doing right, I've god, I don't even know, since 2014 is when we started working together. So it's about 12 years, and met him through John Grant. John Grant did a record. Um, I did a record with uh Drew Drew Merserk. Before all of them was a guy in town. You might know Dave Pace. Yes. Uh did a bunch of schizo records with him. Um uh but mainly these days it is it's Mr. Tony Corelli.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

So was he in LA with you when you were there?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

I was very he he uh he played keys with Shelby. I played bass, Shelby Blondell.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Big shout out to Shelby Blondell.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Yeah, and so it was so Shelby was playing um and Tony's band played before Shelby's band, but he also played with Shelby. And we did a song called You've Got a Friend, and it was just to play the whiskey was a as you know, a very awesome experience.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

I uh yeah, but the strip isn't what it was. It's like it's it used to be like at eight or nine o'clock, like everybody, all the leather jackets and mohawks would come out into the street and they'd it was just rock and roll. Yes. Now it's like it doesn't it doesn't have that vibe anymore. Really? Not really. That's a shame. Yeah, it's a little bit different. It's it seems too clean.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

It doesn't have that that rock and roll crit anymore.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

It needs it needs that.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Yeah, that that that 3 a.m. bag of tacos and yeah, that that uh that 3 a.m. bag of tacos and then them stale beers after a good night of uh clubbing. Yep. Yeah, man, I them they were the good old days. But uh hey man, I greatly appreciate you stopping in. I greatly appreciate it. I I told Chris, I said, I've I've been really, really looking forward to this one. I was actually I was actually nervous. Don't tell nobody. But I was actually nervous about this one. Oh man, and you know, because it's and um I was looking forward to this one, I was a little nervous, but uh we got through it.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

And um I can't believe that we're being like given like the wrap-up signal already. It's like wow, that how many minutes was that?

SPEAKER_06 40:17

43.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

But that's great, it's a perfect conversation. Yeah, we didn't we don't think we stopped. Yeah, it was awesome. All right, brother. I greatly appreciate you coming out. Thank you. It was a pleasure, absolute pleasure. Everybody out there, we appreciate you guys hanging out with us tonight. Um, you know I love you. Big shout out to uh all of our listeners, and I will catch you on the rebound.

SPEAKER_04 44:18

I hear you God speaking to me Wake up before it's too late Your heart is in war with your pist yourself out of face Flash back I just spinning like a broker again I'm beating like a job TikTok I'm passing like a batch of line on and on and on moving like a resin kind of shit Stealin' energy and love Wake up How many years I gotta pass you back on and on and on And when she comes I can feel my world and Use your voice and take back the power right now Right now you're gonna do what we say Use your voice and take back the power right now Right now you're gonna do what we say Use your voice and take back the power right now Right now you're gonna do what we say Use your voice and take back the power right now Right now you gotta do what we say Use the voice to take back the power right now Right now you gotta do a we say we should force it back the power right now Right now you're gonna do a we say we the force is back the power right now you gotta do a waste of things Still reaching for through You cross the chasms alone The fire burning sight The fire burning side Consumes your soul at a prize Why are you reaching out to the sky You got me stuck in poor master my love It's fixed because you'll fly too eyes You clip the wings I went to home To spot the gather below You paint your shadows to I paint your shadows too To prove that you got a lot You got me stuck here for the bust of my love It's fixing cause you're fine too What's left in your day When nothing remains Looking back on your friend What will it say You got me stuck here for the worst of my life You got me stuck here for the worst of my life You got me stuck here stuck here stuck here You got me stuck here for the rest of my life seat I shall fly into all the