WEBVTT - Dan Wilson 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Podcast. My 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.599 destiny is Dan Wilson, singer, songwriter, producer, you know and 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.600 from Semi Sonic. You know, from the songs he's written 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.400 with a Del Josh Grogan and Dixie Chicks and so 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.160 many more. Dad, good to have you, Thank you, Bob. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.040 It's good to be here. Okay. So what are you 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.440 up to these days in the COVID ever? Dare uh 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.879 making a lot of music and currently moving house, putting 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.120 books into boxes and getting ready to move. Okay, so 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.519 you're moving from where to where? From Sherman Oaks to 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.720 loose Felis stand in l a. Okay, and what's that about? Uh, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.680 you know, it's the usual thing. It's uh school kids, 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:55.040 proximity to school, um, parenthood. You know, it's nice to 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.400 be up in the hills far from everything, but you're 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.840 also very far from the kid's friends. That kind of thing. Okay. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.120 So your kids go to public school or private school? 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.360 They private school and one is is graduated from high 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.200 school and lives with us. How many kids you have 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.720 just to graduate from high school? What's the plans there? Oh? 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:18.360 Our older daughter is um cognitively disabled and the plan 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.160 is for her to just hang with us for us 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.680 as long as we all shall live, and she takes 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.119 music classes and various things. She's musically quite talented, but 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.160 essentially nonverbal, which is an interesting combination. So what will 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:39.200 happen when you and your wife pass away? Lord have mercy? Yes, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.680 this is the the very very slow, white knuckles question 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.480 of of a parent with a disabled child. Yeah, we 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.720 laugh with our thirteen year old telling her, you know, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.600 could come a time when the twenty year old lives 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.720 with her, but we don't want to press the issue 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.680 too too hard. Well, I know, I've another friend in 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.120 the identical situation, and he was commenting to me that 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.680 up to twenty one, they're all these services for these kids, 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.200 but once they reached twenty one, all of a sudden, 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.560 these governmental services fall away. Yeah, it's up in your experience. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:19.200 Well yeah, and it also um in a way when 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.560 things are medically stable, which they've been for a while 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.840 for us. Uh, the you know, we've been able to 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:29.280 figure out ways to make make a life that's um 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.600 interesting and enriching for for the whole family, I guess 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:34.880 you'd say, but you know, just on our own. So 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.240 we haven't really needed specific services, but I do. I 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.640 see that the same thing. I know what you're talking about. Okay, 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.880 so you're moving. Are you a pack rot? Are you 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:49.760 guy who has no problem throwing things away? Um? I 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.200 am a pack rat and my um. I'm trying to 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:59.440 apply uh a metric or whatever, a rule of thumb 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.200 to this, of which is, if it's a book that 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.040 I brought to l A from Minneapolis ten years ago 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.600 and I still haven't read it, then how it goes. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:16.480 If it's a guitar pedal that I brought from Minneapolis 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.679 to l A ten years ago and I have never 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.200 plugged it into my guitar, it's going on reverb dot com. 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.080 I'm trying to like, I'm trying to use the you know, 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:27.920 when you look in your closet, if you warn that 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.720 shirt seriously, even to a wedding, no, I think you've 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.560 got to get rid of it. So that's my little thing. Okay, 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:39.280 So how many books do you think you'll move like them? 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.880 And how many books? Is that? I'm a big reader, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.160 so it's not a library full of books, but I 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.440 have a lot of books. I read a lot of books. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.320 I don't know, I can't really have more books than 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.400 anybody that I know. The reason I mentioned this is 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:56.960 I moved about a year ago and I was confronted 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:02.240 with the same problem. And I have a lot of music. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.480 I kept all my vinyl. I never you know, and 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.480 I'm never going to get rid of my vinyl. And 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.320 that's thousands of records. Terms of CDs, I cleaned those 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.840 out a few times, but a few computers with the 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.839 money I've gotten, and uh, they were you know, these 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.560 promo CDs are worth nothing there. Now they're worth nothing again. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.960 But for a long time there it was astounding. Um. 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.360 But the books, it was interesting in terms of the 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.599 physical books. I all, I have the stuff I bought, 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.200 and I also have the stuff that sent to me. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.360 And there was so much stuff that I didn't really 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.320 know what to do. And then I have another friend 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.920 who says, well, you know, once I've read a book, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.040 what should I do with it? You know, I'm not 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.440 gonna read it again. I'm not a rereader, but I 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.560 certainly come from the background where you want to walk 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.360 into someone's house and see all the books. So I 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.960 started to throw things out, and then I said, I'm 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.200 gonna keep all the music books because a lot of 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.800 those were only innted once, and I may have the 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.679 only copy extent, but I literally tossed everything else. And 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.200 I'd like to tell you I miss him, but I don't. 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:12.040 The other things. I've been reading on a kindle for 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.680 about ten years, and I'm really into it. You know, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.240 there's some physical books that are sent to me and 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.920 I see this the future. And I have a friend, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.360 my close friend from college. He was in the book business. 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.560 And I go to his house and every room is 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.600 full of books, and he goes, yeah, my house is 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.320 a monument to dead treat media. I said, you know, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.040 that's enough for me. But I'm a pack rat too. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:38.680 But how much are you saving stuff for legacy reasons? Well, 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.280 I don't you mean, what do you mean by legacy? 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.839 Tell me that? Well, you know, I was talking to 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.760 Pete Wentz, a fallout boy. You know, he literally has 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.200 kept everything because at some point he's gonna die and 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.960 it's gonna be his museum. Bill why Bill Wyman did 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.039 the same thing. He kept one of everything, although he 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.200 recently sold a lot. Are you keeping it? Thinking? Well, 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.280 you know, I'm Dan Wilson, I've had some six says 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:02.600 the other thing you know. The other big thing now, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.279 which you may or may not be aware of, is 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.760 you can donate your archive to UH colleges frequently for 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:13.559 seven figures. WHOA well, um, Bob. I love all this talk. 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.520 I I I my my relationship to all the books 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:19.960 is actually pretty selfish. At the moment, I'm not thinking 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.039 about my legacy. I'm just thinking I might want to 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.280 I might read that book again. If it's poetry, I'm 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:28.159 gonna keep it all. I have a lot of poetry books, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.080 and I do kind of like I do like to 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.680 just randomly pick out a book from the shelf and 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.320 read it, or just be reminded of something and read 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.360 and read some poems. And but I probably I don't 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.480 think I will read most of the novels that I 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.080 that I've read again. I probably won't. I don't know. 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.880 It's it's a funny question. If you lend a novel 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.640 to somebody, do you insist to come back. No, I'm 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.960 actually I don't mind when I lend a book to 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.880 somebody unless we make a pact. At that moment, I 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.679 really don't expect it's gonna come back. I'm fine, I'm cool, Okay. 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.479 And if you had to pick two books out of 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:11.040 your reading experience of fifty odd years. Wow, what would 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.200 you recommend or what are the most important to you? 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.520 I can't really recommend, Like probably the books like um, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:26.040 Labyrinths by or Hey Louis Borges is probably the most 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:31.200 important book, just because it was when I read it, 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.640 I had an idea what books were, and then this 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.360 was one of those books that just completely changes your 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.000 whole idea of what a work of art could be. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.040 I just love that book Labyrinths, and then from my childhood, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.480 I don't know what I keep. I was once at 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.960 this conversation with Matt Hale's a friend of mine who's 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.760 a great producer, and he, um, he said, what's the 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.520 most influential book in your life? And I said it's 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.960 probably Lord of the Rings and he said, no, no, no, no, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:02.360 it's Winnie the Pooh. And I was like, Okay, that's 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.000 a closed call. So I'd probably keep Borges and Winnie 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.720 the Pooh or a load of the Rings. I can't tell. Okay, 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.040 let's jump back. So what are you working on career wise, 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:17.040 work wise, music wise these days? Yeah? Um, Well, the 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:24.880 big surprise of the other than everything going to crazy 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:29.920 hell in a handbasket. Uh is that? Um, Semisnic put 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.280 out My band, Semi Sonic put out an EP, and 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.199 the first single has been sort of floating in the 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.280 teens on the Triple A chart, which is not what 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.480 we expected. Is on the radio and people are hearing 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:48.680 it and sadly, Um, we had to cancel a whole 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.800 bunch of shows. We had a very fun um maybe 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:56.760 uh a lazy man's touring year planned and Uh, we're 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.240 gonna go to UK and play a bunch of shows 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.400 there and we're gonna hit as much of the US 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.439 as possible. That's gonna go. Maybe maybe they'll have to 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.520 happen next year. But even the fact that we've been 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.160 doing these ridiculous and great, um, you know, live from 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.520 home performances, and the fact that we've been talking to 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.520 each other aloud and and I'm still writing new songs 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.040 for Semi Sonic, That's like that's been a big focus 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.360 and I'd still write songs with folks like let's stop 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:27.720 stop with Semi Sonic. Semi Sonic a spense essentially broke 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.199 up or faded away and you put out albums independently. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.520 What made you decide to work with semi sonic again. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.120 I had the guys and I have been in touch, 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.559 like you know, close friends all this time. There's never 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:45.880 been like a fight or a falling out or a problem. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.880 John and Jacob and I are pals. Okay, just one second. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.920 Was it an actual agreement to break up twenty years 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.400 ago or suddenly you just didn't get back together to 0:09:56.440 --> 0:10:00.199 make new music. I at that time are older, her 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.480 Coco was kind of emerging into like she was getting 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.360 She had been very medical as a as a as 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.880 a you know, we are our family was very medicalized, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:14.360 you know, in from nine to two thousand and one, 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.600 and and yet I was also on tour a ton 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.840 and I found that conflict between having a little baby 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:27.720 on a ventilator, um, you know, an undersized PREMI toddler 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.720 on a ventilator at home while I was in Birmingham 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:37.000 or you know, Bristol doing shows. I found it painful, 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.320 and eventually it just seemed insupportable for me to be 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.720 gone so much so I and the guys and I 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.920 had been on the road for like eight years at 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.000 that point. And it's not like we're mad at each other, 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.680 but there weren't a lot of things, and you know, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:56.960 you couldn't really put on our plates something that that 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.280 we hadn't already done a bunch of like there was 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:01.120 it didn't really seem like they were going to be 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.600 like brand new. I'm not, you know, just being bigger, 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:07.720 like doing the same thing and being bigger. That was 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.800 the only thing that was sort of like on the menu, 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.680 and that wasn't enough of a draw. And I kind 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.280 of felt I needed to be a dad more more 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.600 of a dad in this you know, difficult situation. So 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.120 we just kind of slowed down, and I know the 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.440 guys didn't exactly know what was happening. Jacob started writing 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.319 his book. He wrote this wonderful book called So You 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.720 Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star? During those 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.679 those next like four years or so, um, but then 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.040 as time passed, you know, John bass player from Semi 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.719 Sonic would say to me, like we'd get together on 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.160 Christmas time in Minneapolis, or we'd have a benefits show 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.440 that we would do, and he'd go, have you written 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.000 any new songs? Let's let's come on, let's just do this. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.240 It could be great. And I had to confess I 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.960 hadn't written any good Semi Sonic sounding songs during those 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.679 I tried, but I didn't have any. It was either 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.800 a bad song that sounded like my band or a 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.000 really good song that didn't sound like my band. And 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.160 I hadn't been able to figure out how to do that, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:10.880 to to make a to to make a great song 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.760 that sounded like semi sonic. Again, I needed to have 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.520 a stroke of luck to get to that point. Okay, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.200 first point, you've continued making a living from music. The 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.400 other two members of the band, what have they been 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.880 doing for the past twenties years? Essentially, Well, John in 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.360 Minneapolis has become kind of uh. First of all, he 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.640 has he has a jazz band called the New Standards, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.079 and they they do they play pop songs and then 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.360 they shred. It's a trio h vibes piano and upright bass, 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:48.040 and they have become kind of a uh icon of 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.160 Minneapolis St. Paul Music um. And every year they put 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.400 on a big Christmas show with with all the artists 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.320 that they know, all the all the performers that they know, 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.720 and it's kind of become sort of it's like a 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:05.280 destination for families and and and fans every year. So 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.120 John kind of slowly turned into an impresario. He puts 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.160 on gigs. He you know, he's produced a few records, 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.400 not a lot, and then the new standards, you know, 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.120 go to Beijing and play shows or Alaska. They do 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.280 fun stuff like that. Jacob has been working on his 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:25.520 second book for quite some time. He has a punk 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.920 rock band in New York that plays loud and very fast, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.439 so whenever he gets together with us, it's like our 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.640 tempos are that just the laziest thing, and he's got 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.840 absolutely no trouble, you know what I mean. It's just 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:45.679 like Semisnic is all this medium speed, you know, Lope 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.520 and Jacobs, you know, much more accustomed to hundred and 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:55.200 sixty beats per minute these days. Okay, but Jacob have 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.480 a slide gig because being in a drummer and a 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.800 punk band doesn't tend to pay that. You're gonna have 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.080 to get Sakeavon to ask him how he pays the bills. 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:11.880 But uh, I think the book helps the first book, okay, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:13.720 and it was a great book. I certainly read it. 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:19.840 So you had problems writing semi sonic songs? What changed? Uh? 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:26.119 It really was a specific event. I had a really fun, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:30.200 inspiring meeting with one of my favorite singers, Liam Gallagher. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.680 We got together um at my place one late morning 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.840 and sat out on my my deck in the backyard, 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.560 and he just basically was a rock star, uh. And 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.520 we laughed and I got to ask him some of 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.880 my Oasis fan questions and not all but not all, 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.480 and we played him a few songs that I'd written, uh, 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.280 and he said, well, I'm going back to you know, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.400 England tomorrow. Send me anything you have have that you 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.040 think I could do when we could, when we could 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.080 discuss that. And I was like, yeah, sure, no problem. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.200 So over the next week and a half, I had 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.440 a bunch of ideas and I wrote like five songs, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.680 thinking these are pretty good Liam Gallagher songs. I like 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.160 these songs. These are cool. So I sent them to 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.960 him and his management and they got back to me 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.640 right away and said, oh my goodness, it's the album's done. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.600 You know, my mistake or whatever. I don't know if 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.680 they hated them or if they literally were like, oh geez, 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.840 Dan wrote a bunch of songs. So but when I 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.920 listened to them again, they sounded they bore Liam Gallagher songs. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.480 They were just me. They were my songs. And a 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.040 couple of them sounded like Semi Sonic songs, and even 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.160 though we didn't use them on the EP, they were like, oh, 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.240 wait a minute. I don't know, maybe just meeting I 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.320 had met Liam before at festivals, at gigs, backstage and stuff, 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.880 but maybe seeing him again reminded me of that time 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.440 in a way that other things didn't. And I I 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.960 had told John and Jake, we're not going to update. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:05.600 We're not going to upgrade our sound. We're not gonna 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.000 try to sound like you know, Post Malone does Semi Sonic. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.880 I don't need that personally because I do pop music, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.160 so I don't need to be updated. And I just 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.440 said to the guys, let's not let's just do what 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.560 we sound like and have it be fine. So we needed, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.720 I needed to get back in that mood. Okay, so 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.600 you're back in the mood. But needless say, in the 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.080 twenty years since Semi Sonic was on the boards, the 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:34.760 music business has changed completely. Okay. It used to be 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.920 the big threshold was getting a label deal, and if 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.800 you had one of the label deals, they would give 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.840 you a shot in the marketplace, assuming they believed your 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.080 music was okay. If not they'd either drop you or 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.320 get your some publicity. So what was it like saying Okay, 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.760 I'm gonna enter back into this sphere twenty years later. Well, 0:16:54.240 --> 0:17:02.680 I mean I think one, um, one thing that you 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.920 have to do now is piece together the whole thing, 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.000 like piece together, like as though you all the departments 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.639 that used to be a label and now separate people 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.080 working out of there, you know, home offices or or 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.080 offices or whatever, you know, as as subsidiaries of things. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:27.119 We ended up getting distribution and some um uh services 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.520 from the Orchard. We did a bunch of things ourselves. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.760 We have um, you know, publicists that have worked for 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.200 you know, worked for me, and they ended up also 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.800 working for the Semi Sonic record. We you know, it's like, 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.560 I mean, I'm fortunate enough to have these relationships, but 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.119 we we have. You have to sort of almost like 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.760 it's all all a heart. You just find this and 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:49.639 that and this and that and and then you have 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.719 your own temporary label structure or whatever you wanna call it. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.680 And you mentioned the record the track is on a 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.840 triple A radio. How did it get there? Because nothing 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.480 happens by accident anymore. Well, um, I think there was 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.400 I think between the Orchard and Jim Grant, my manager, 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.879 I think they and everybody who was involved in like 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:19.680 the team, I think, um, you know, Mega Forest the label, uh, 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:24.919 I think they. I think they all thought that that 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:29.680 was a reasonable hope that we could get some airplay 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.080 on this kind of station. Like I knew. I knew 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.800 we could get played on if we got lucky, we 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.000 could get played on x RT in Chicago, and we 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.240 could get played on k XPN and Philadelphia, and we 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:44.080 could get played, um, you know here on k c 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.560 S n uh, you know in l A. I mean 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.280 I had this. That's the kind of station I had 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:51.840 in my mind. And those are all of what's called 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.080 triple A station. So that makes sense to me if 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.520 Mega Forrest and Jim and everybody else, we're going to 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:02.600 decide where to go. And I honestly though, I thought 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.200 if Casey MP and St. Paul played it a bunch 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:12.000 of times, a non embarrassing number of times in my 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.760 hometown and then it was over, I was I probably 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.240 would have been like, yeah, high fives, let's do that again. 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.119 So I didn't really think of it as likely to 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.720 be played all around the country like it is okay, 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:25.800 because you know, there's a lot of people making music, 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.840 however good that gets nowhere to play at all. How 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:30.800 are you the type of guy who's more of an 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.160 artist or are you also a student of the game. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.280 If I were to talk about charts distribution, is that 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.640 you have expertise in that area? No, No, I'm I'm not. 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:46.359 I'm not that guy I had. Um. There was a 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.400 period when I tried to start, to some degree, out 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:55.680 of a sense of obligation or oldest son duty or something, 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.640 I tried to learn more about the business and try 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.879 to be very involved in like are very up to 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.679 speed on how Semi Sonic was doing, for example, or 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.600 what my what the songs I've co written are you 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.480 know doing? But I I kind of learned pretty early 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:13.840 that if I did that, I would just write songs 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:19.160 about money, you know, and like record sales and distribution. 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.200 It becomes it's like whatever you focus on in your 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.159 life is what you end up writing songs about. And 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.400 those are very very boring topics. And I really noticed 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.560 when I was really plugged into the business side how 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:37.840 much my songs would suck. So I kind of unplugged. Okay, 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.520 when before COVID when uh Semi Sonic was going to 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.160 play live dates. How many live dates was this? Well, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:50.560 we would I mean we were going to play. I 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.159 would say the grandiose plan was something like thirty shows. 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.240 I think that's you know, I know that's not a lot, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.879 but it's it's okay. But yeah, but that's the balance. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.800 My question being that you've put out this track and 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.480 the track is more successful than you anticipated. We all 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.040 know that the old game doesn't exist. Nothing crosses over 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.080 from triple A to top forty, etcetera. So they are 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.840 not inherently lucrative. They're not inherently large in terms of 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:25.520 social cultural impact. However, when what it has s sccess, 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.560 it does light a flame or turn the gas up 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.440 a little inside. So now that you've had this success, 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.800 to what degreed? He say, Wow, I'm turned on, I 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:39.280 want to go further down this path. Well, i'm m. 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.720 We put out the EP, we we made the EP, 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:46.080 and we were done with that at the end of 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.800 last year. Maybe the last mastering was done in December 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:55.040 or January maybe, and the it was always a plan 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.320 to just do this EP and then get started to 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:04.080 make another EP. So I didn't I think we probably 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.480 would have done it, whether we've gotten any airplay at all. 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:09.719 I just think it feels like the time, you know 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:16.520 for it, and we've done enough shows where you know 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.000 where we haven't forgotten how to be a band, but 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:21.720 we're all pretty excited about like kind of hitting it 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.119 a little harder and and also spending that time together. 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:26.520 There is a big part of this is just that 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.160 we're we cherish each other. It's kind of weird to say, 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:32.600 but we just because we love each other, we want 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.960 to do this. Okay, let's flip it over. So you 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:40.800 have this personal situation, you put the band on hiatus. 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:46.920 How do you become a song writer for hire? Oh man? Well, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:52.320 I I had the picture in my mind because of 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:56.600 Carol King, who was my kind of one of my 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.440 childhood heroes. And she her name was on all these 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:02.560 records and she had hits of her own. So I 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:04.520 always thought that was one thing that someone who was 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:08.080 really cool could do. So I had that picture in 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:12.320 my mind, and the on the last Semisnic album, I 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.920 ended up writing a song by Crazy good Luck with 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.560 Carol for the Semi Sonic album. So I watched what 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.960 she did with me that was interesting and uh, well, 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.120 well let's slow down a little bit because Carol does 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.640