Speaker 1: The Quest Left Show is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Quest Left Show. I'm your host Quest Love.
Speaker 1: As of late on this platform we have shown love
Speaker 1: to the low end, of course, with so many awesome
Speaker 1: bass players, and today is no exception. However, you know
Speaker 1: that we here at this show cannot pass up a
Speaker 1: good pivot story and we are pleased to welcome a
Speaker 1: newcomer to the game, a trumpet player from Los Angeles
Speaker 1: by the way of Melbourne, Australia. His debut album, Hanora
Speaker 1: is a journey into the world of instrumental interpretations both
Speaker 1: the jazz, pop, rock, soul ilk covering all spectrums of music. Incidentally,
Speaker 1: our newcomer is also a Rock and Roll Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame member, shows you how far as journeys come. We
Speaker 1: like to welcome for the first time mister Michael Peter Balzari,
Speaker 1: also professionally known as Flea. That's me, that's your name. Okay,
Speaker 1: nice to meet you, Flee.
Speaker 2: Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: All right, So what is your morning routine the first
Speaker 1: thirty minutes when you wake up? Do you have a
Speaker 1: morning routine?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, very ritualized morning routine, night routine. I'm a
Speaker 2: man of many rituals.
Speaker 1: Actually, I'm glad you said that. Yeah, what's the last
Speaker 1: because I'm very strict on on night routines. What does
Speaker 1: the last hour of your day look like when you
Speaker 1: know you're going to go to.
Speaker 2: Bed I'm winding down. Yeah, I'm pretty strict about it.
Speaker 2: First as the the well, whatever music I'm gonna listen
Speaker 2: to you before bed, which is lately he loved Him
Speaker 2: Madly by Miles Davis every night, but always something like that.
Speaker 2: It was revel before that, you know, but I picked
Speaker 2: the music, brush, teeth, wash face, you know, a little
Speaker 2: cream or whatever as I get older and trying to
Speaker 2: like keep things supple. Yes, and then prayers. I'm a
Speaker 2: praying man, so I pray every morning and every night.
Speaker 2: And then I read. I always read before bed. I've
Speaker 2: been you know, since some little boy. I love to read,
Speaker 2: so I read every day. And that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: What is your morning routine?
Speaker 2: Morning routine is? But once I like I wait, depending
Speaker 2: on if I have to get up or I have
Speaker 2: you know, flexible time. But no matter what the things are,
Speaker 2: I do exercises in bed before I get out of
Speaker 2: bed every morning, like stretched basically stretches and stuff because
Speaker 2: my back has gotten damaged before. So I have like
Speaker 2: things to do because it can settle in a weird
Speaker 2: way when you're sleeping and you get up all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you're like, oh, you know, I'm old. So
Speaker 2: I have like a stretching routine and then you know,
Speaker 2: ablutions and then prayers and then exercise.
Speaker 1: Wait, I gotta, I gotta Yeah, I think I told
Speaker 1: you the story once before.
Speaker 2: But oh wait, wait there's one crucial other thing too,
Speaker 2: which is a big rule. Is no phone in the bedroom.
Speaker 1: No phone in the bedroom, No phone in the.
Speaker 2: Bedroom, Like what especially when I wake up in the morning,
Speaker 2: Like those are the magic times, Like you're in that
Speaker 2: twilight in between sleep and way, that's when good stuff comes.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, good to know where the same person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will probably say that you're the first person to
Speaker 1: seed plant in me the idea of giving gratitude. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show you how you guys changed and subsequently save
Speaker 1: the roots without even knowing it. All right, I talked
Speaker 1: about this story in my first book. So this is
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. You guys are touring your and
Speaker 1: your arena status now soccer stadium status. You know, you're
Speaker 1: familiar with how stadium life is. That basically means you
Speaker 1: guys are playing anyway between. Some places are seventy thousand,
Speaker 1: some places are one hundred and twenty thousand, and we
Speaker 1: are opening for you guys. So even for us, we
Speaker 1: just arrived at our tipping point of not just being
Speaker 1: an underground band and you know, your band's favorite band
Speaker 1: or your singer's favorite singer, Like, we're actually reaching a
Speaker 1: new level as well. We're doing about a week with
Speaker 1: you guys. So Night one, I watch you guys, and
Speaker 1: you do something interesting. You do this magic circle thing
Speaker 1: where you guys sort of get in the football huddle, right,
Speaker 1: and then you go to play the music. Night two
Speaker 1: you do the same thing. Now the different and says
Speaker 1: I have a set list, and I'm like, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get out of my comfort zone. Like one
Speaker 1: of someone suggests, what.
Speaker 2: Do you mean you have a set list? Like you're
Speaker 2: making your set list.
Speaker 1: No, no, I'm looking at your set list. I'm standing by
Speaker 1: the mindset list, right. And so the thing is is
Speaker 1: that by this point, various people are trying to talk
Speaker 1: me out of the safety zone. I come from the
Speaker 1: school of Prince where George Clinton wants joke that Prince
Speaker 1: is a master at rehearsing his spontaneity. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: there's the point where people are like, you guys are musicians, Like,
Speaker 1: how come you don't jam more? How come you don't
Speaker 1: you know? I was like hyper sensitive about not becoming
Speaker 1: a jam band because I was like, oh, critics will
Speaker 1: use alive if we're you know. But I was learning
Speaker 1: to loosen up and hey, guys, do do another sixteen
Speaker 1: bars or whatever, like something off the grid of just
Speaker 1: not something that we do. Right, So you do this
Speaker 1: magic circle thing and I'm like, oh, they're going to
Speaker 1: call an audible another song. And then I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's still on the set list. Okay, Night three, you
Speaker 1: do the same thing. I'm like, why do they keep
Speaker 1: having these huddles and circles?
Speaker 2: It was before the show though, right, No, during the show,
Speaker 2: you would do three songs, all right, see me, I
Speaker 2: have to I segue a song on like a jay.
Speaker 1: You would stop a song And then we're talking at
Speaker 1: twenty thousand people, right, I.
Speaker 2: Thought you were talking about before the show where we
Speaker 2: like hold hands in the circle. I got you.
Speaker 1: No, You're just you're talking about something and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're gonna switch songs or something. And then you go
Speaker 1: back and you still stick to the script. So I
Speaker 1: hit you up and I'm like, Yo, what are y'all
Speaker 1: talking about when y'all in that circle, you know, because
Speaker 1: you're still sticking to the script, so you're not saying like,
Speaker 1: let's switch orders or whatever. And you gave me my answer.
Speaker 1: So I go on the Roots tour bus. You know,
Speaker 1: we're young and dumb whatever, So I get on. I'm like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: because I was talking about it, and you know, my
Speaker 1: manager's on there and maybe like two other members of
Speaker 1: the band, and I said, yo, man. I asked a flea,
Speaker 1: like what are those guys doing? And he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, he gave me some like hippie dippy shit, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, we just you know, we I had a
Speaker 1: great once this morning, and you know, I went to
Speaker 1: the museum and da da da dah. And then I
Speaker 1: went to Anni. I'm like, what are y'all really talking about?
Speaker 1: He's like, oh man, it's like, you know, we're just
Speaker 1: just kids from La man. We're just like just taking
Speaker 1: in the moment.
Speaker 2: I was like, he's just.
Speaker 1: Talking about a hippie, dippy shit man, real dismissive of me,
Speaker 1: and I'm going back to play my my xbox and
Speaker 1: my manager says, yeah, it makes sense. You know, I
Speaker 1: can see it. They actually like each other. I was like,
Speaker 1: so I go back to the thing I'm playing and
Speaker 1: I'm like, forty seconds later, pause, I go back to
Speaker 1: the front of the bus. I'm like, what do you
Speaker 1: mean they actually like each other. He's like, and it's
Speaker 1: almost about to become the good Fellas. You think I'm
Speaker 1: a funny moment. He's like, uh, yeah, they actually fuck
Speaker 1: with each other. They like each other. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: as opposed to what? And he looks at me like,
Speaker 1: come on, dog, I'm like, what you're talking about? Because
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm like, yo, like we were buskers
Speaker 1: on a street corner not even ten years ago, and
Speaker 1: literally day by day like we're here, Like what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? And he's like, well, if you want
Speaker 1: to call it that, yeah, I mean technically, he says, Look,
Speaker 1: my job here is to keep the train running no
Speaker 1: matter what. But what you guys think is your friends,
Speaker 1: like you used to be in high school, y'all don't
Speaker 1: even talk with each other. You're the one that has
Speaker 1: a griffin door bust and a slithering bust and y'all
Speaker 1: might show up the sound check, he said, I said,
Speaker 1: you say we're phoning it in. He's like, well, you
Speaker 1: guys are still good, but y'all ain't friends, like you're
Speaker 1: just going through the motions. Like He's like, dude, the
Speaker 1: Beatles broke up after seven years like this, this is
Speaker 1: year fourteen for y'all. So y'all lasted twice as long
Speaker 1: as the Beatles, And that really messed with me. Man.
Speaker 1: Once he made me aware of the fact that damn,
Speaker 1: like when is the last time me and Tarik just
Speaker 1: like went out to dinner or went to the movies
Speaker 1: like we were like brothers. Yeah, and then when it
Speaker 1: became a business, I think in my head, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: for the sake of the business, like let's separate and
Speaker 1: just keep the business running and you know, and not
Speaker 1: just figure like most people would have killed each other
Speaker 1: by now. I mean, yeah, because we were also like.
Speaker 2: Just in a I get it, man, I get it,
Speaker 2: But in a way, it's like, because there's times I've
Speaker 2: wanted to do that when it's become so difficult, you know,
Speaker 2: because you grow apart. You have different world views, you
Speaker 2: offend each other, you hurt each other's feelings. You're in
Speaker 2: this no matter what, even if someone's a leader and
Speaker 2: the marching orders. You're clear, you're always making yourself vulnerable
Speaker 2: in the creative communal, creative situation, and you hurt each
Speaker 2: other's feelings, it's easier to keep it organized clean. Look,
Speaker 2: this is what we're gonna do. Let's get it done.
Speaker 2: We're professionals. Just do the job. But when we're in
Speaker 2: those little circles, it's not always hippy dippy fun support.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. I love you like sometimes
Speaker 2: I mean oftentimes it's like I can't hear shit, I
Speaker 2: don't know what to do. The monitors all fucked up.
Speaker 2: You know, there's that a lot too, Like I just
Speaker 2: can't fucking hear it. You're too loud, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? Which loud. Sometimes it's complaining, it's all that
Speaker 2: you know, and trying to be respectful of one another.
Speaker 2: But sometimes it is just like like this is beautiful,
Speaker 2: Like we're doing this right here, right now, and you know,
Speaker 2: our band, we've been through all different you know, emotional states,
Speaker 2: but like you're talking about you and tyre. Like me
Speaker 2: and Anthony we met when we were fifteen. We're about
Speaker 2: like we're street kids. We're running around like we had nothing.
Speaker 2: We're like like, how we're gonna eat, How we gonna
Speaker 2: you know, get anything we you know, I came from
Speaker 2: a very difficult household. There was a lot of violence,
Speaker 2: There was a lot of chaos. There was a lot
Speaker 2: of like I'm not it was not like a sanctuary
Speaker 2: home to go into. So I kind of searched for
Speaker 2: my family with my friends. And when I met Anthony,
Speaker 2: I really found that, you know, and there's something no
Speaker 2: matter what, no matter what the professional obligations are, no
Speaker 2: matter when we piss each other off, there's always and
Speaker 2: no matter and we hurt each other too, but there's
Speaker 2: always like brothers, you know, but there's always this striving
Speaker 2: to try to make it right, to try to harmonize it,
Speaker 2: to try to get it into a good place.
Speaker 1: Have you guys ever had a like a I mean,
Speaker 1: right now, we're in the beginning stages of what I
Speaker 1: call the some kind of monster Metallica thing. There's a therapist, okay,
Speaker 1: and we're okay. So my feelings were hurt when you
Speaker 1: told me that the bridge wasn't good, And yeah, have
Speaker 1: you guys ever had to have like, no, who's the
Speaker 1: person that will? I think we have to have a
Speaker 1: band meeting?
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think we could use it sometimes, but
Speaker 2: I don't know if we could all get on this
Speaker 2: same page about it. But there's been many many heart
Speaker 2: to hearts, gotcha, like not that long ago, you know,
Speaker 2: just cut towards the end of our last tour, like
Speaker 2: there was a blow up that was really difficult for me. Difficult,
Speaker 2: like I was in a fury, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like I left in a absolute fury, and it took
Speaker 2: like a week to like let me just settle down,
Speaker 2: try to have some perspective and then go, hey, you know,
Speaker 2: let's let's talk about this. Let's talk about what happened,
Speaker 2: because you know what I mean, like you feel that
Speaker 2: someone was dismissive of you, or you know, you feel
Speaker 2: must understood in a way that touches you to your core,
Speaker 2: you know, and you know, but we managed to have
Speaker 2: the talks and to get through it, you know, to
Speaker 2: varying degrees of success too. And professional help probably could
Speaker 2: help because being in a.
Speaker 1: Band is is a marriage.
Speaker 2: It's a marriage and it's an intense marriage, and you know,
Speaker 2: and all of us, you know, and everyone like Chad,
Speaker 2: he's pretty mellow, he's the easy one. But me, John
Speaker 2: and Anthony, like we're all, you know, intense people. We
Speaker 2: have our feelings. We're very passionate about what we think,
Speaker 2: you know, and it doesn't always align.
Speaker 1: All right. Even if my version was the idea, it
Speaker 1: was enough to scare me enough to literally, i'll say,
Speaker 1: four years later, once the Tonight show came. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: somehow morphed into the idea of what my manager was
Speaker 1: talking about on like suddenly I love playing with these guys,
Speaker 1: like we never laughed so many times, and even the
Speaker 1: fact like when you face each other in play, like
Speaker 1: that's such an intimate act that I think it's hard
Speaker 1: for people to like, I see that, and we use
Speaker 1: you guys almost as are the idea of what I
Speaker 1: think I see is our GPS.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, that's I never told you that. I
Speaker 2: really appreciate that. And you know, I think as a
Speaker 2: musician and we all know this, it's like you're always
Speaker 2: striving to get to that place beyond thought, like beyond
Speaker 2: calculation and beyond you know what I mean, like getting
Speaker 2: to that place where you're just playing and channeling to gods,
Speaker 2: whatever they your gods may be. And like, as you know,
Speaker 2: when we're looking at each other and playing, it's like
Speaker 2: always that yearning to get to that place where we're
Speaker 2: just like one throbbing thing together, you know, beyond thought,
Speaker 2: like just surrendering to the moment. And sometimes we succeed
Speaker 2: and we're really connecting in a beautiful intimate way, and
Speaker 2: sometimes you know not, but it's always that trying, you know.
Speaker 2: Like I think, like if you idealize, like the things
Speaker 2: that you said that are very kind, thank you, Like
Speaker 2: I'm glad to be of service. But when if you
Speaker 2: idealize them at their best, we're always yearning for that.
Speaker 2: You don't always and I think like with any artists,
Speaker 2: like you know, you always try.
Speaker 1: And Ma, what is the first concert you ever went to?
Speaker 2: Well, definitely my stepdad, you know, playing, but I don't
Speaker 2: know if that counts like he's playing it. I don't
Speaker 2: count Hotel Wax Station, right, you know, he didn't even
Speaker 2: play like, you know whatever, like jazz gigs, you know,
Speaker 2: little jazz gigs in the middle of nowhere. Pizza place
Speaker 2: on Librea actually played a pizza place Lbrea with Philly
Speaker 2: Joe one time. So it's pretty awesome really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One time I was randomly eating in a damn it's
Speaker 1: a it's a noodle spot in LA and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that guy looks like James Gatson. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: like all these LA cats were like it's like is
Speaker 1: this normal? And then the manager was watching me like yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to surprise you. Lets you know, I got
Speaker 1: James Gatson and like all these like yeah, my entire
Speaker 1: childhood record collections.
Speaker 2: Just like purposely like got in there because yeah, no, no.
Speaker 1: No, they were like this this spot was crustaceans from
Speaker 1: all places like Crustaceans just happened to have like one
Speaker 1: of the top session musicians as so yeah, on the
Speaker 1: weekends we have a band's player. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah Gotson you know Gotsam. Yeah yeah, maybe he's such
Speaker 2: an awesome dude. You know, I've never been a religious man,
Speaker 2: but I was talking to him and he invited me
Speaker 2: to come to his church play in the band. And
Speaker 2: I was like, he plays in the band. He plays
Speaker 2: in the band church, And I was like, man, this
Speaker 2: is gonna be banging, and I got there and it
Speaker 2: was like James Goatson kind of playing in this kind
Speaker 2: of square band, you know, And I was like, I
Speaker 2: was like, damn, but he got me to.
Speaker 1: Church, you know where during the pandemic.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Once I figured out that he was much more than
Speaker 1: I knew him strictly as Bill Withers drummer, I didn't
Speaker 1: realize all of his motown work more importantly, like his
Speaker 1: high hat is like I will survive love hanging over
Speaker 1: such a very distinctive sound of his. And I think
Speaker 1: he was doing a session for Beck or something. Someone
Speaker 1: broke in his crib and stole those high hats. It's
Speaker 1: like the most legendary. Like whenever I hear those high hats,
Speaker 1: I instantly know that scats and playing drums, which is
Speaker 1: normally I can identify a drummer on their stare drum,
Speaker 1: you know. But for me to identify you on the
Speaker 1: quality of your high hat, it's such a travesty.
Speaker 2: I want you man, you know, dude.
Speaker 1: Well, is there a food you hate it as a
Speaker 1: kid that you love now?
Speaker 2: Damn? Not? Really? No, I know what is? I think everything?
Speaker 2: I mean that probably is No, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: was always a good eater. I always just put it down.
Speaker 1: You're forever a teenager to me, like, what is your lifestyle?
Speaker 1: Are you vegan? Are you no?
Speaker 2: I mean you know, I'm pretty strict about stuff. I
Speaker 2: don't eat sugar, I don't eat gluten, I don't eat dairy.
Speaker 2: Is that yeah? And I tried to eat organic, clean food.
Speaker 1: Okay, but yeah, I eat animals, gotcha.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have a recurring nightmare as a kid
Speaker 1: or do you dream about the same thing over and over?
Speaker 1: I used to.
Speaker 2: It was funny because I did that bed wedding joke
Speaker 2: yesterday I found but it's true, Okay. Yeah, And when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, I was thinking about it yesterday
Speaker 2: because I was like, you know, doing that joke, and
Speaker 2: I was like, when I was a kid, I would
Speaker 2: always dream that I was getting up and going to
Speaker 2: the bathroom and I just had something where I just
Speaker 2: didn't wake up, and in my dream, I'm getting up
Speaker 2: and I'm really proud of myself. It's like a great dream.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I finally beat this bed wedding thing. I'm
Speaker 2: going to the bathroom. I can do it. And then
Speaker 2: i'd wake up and no, you weren't going to that
Speaker 2: you weren't walking down into the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Used to do that a lot, like imagine I'm going
Speaker 1: to the bathroom, but never feel that relief of yeah
Speaker 1: and realize right right, yeah that had happened.
Speaker 2: But I know I had like nightmares. It was always
Speaker 2: kind of like like it's report card day at school,
Speaker 2: you too, Yeah, yeah, and it's coming and it's bad,
Speaker 2: and like I'm gonna have to pay the piper for
Speaker 2: all my misdeeds, which was what often happened. Like there
Speaker 2: was a couple of years where I like really tried
Speaker 2: and did good, but mostly I was a disaster.
Speaker 1: You know, Well this always occur even after you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it would just come out with that feeling,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, like oh, you get it,
Speaker 2: and you're just like you know what I mean, like
Speaker 2: hiding it from your parents and stuff that. And I
Speaker 2: haven't had it in a while that I can remember.
Speaker 2: But flying dreams that really beautiful, like really beautiful but
Speaker 2: also scary. Like I would have this dream where I
Speaker 2: would fly, but it wasn't like Superman like flying up high.
Speaker 2: I would just kind of like by power of myself
Speaker 2: kind of float above the ground, levitate up i'd be
Speaker 2: like ten feet up, fifteen feet up, and I still
Speaker 2: do have the dream now I'm thinking of it. I
Speaker 2: have it, and I'm just kind of like I kind
Speaker 2: of get this energy. It's like bigger than me, and
Speaker 2: I'm like floating. But in my dream, I'm always liked
Speaker 2: everybody like I'm up pero, like can you can you see?
Speaker 2: Can y'all see? And but in my dream no one
Speaker 2: ever notices. So it's like but it's like I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, I'm finally like really tapping the source.
Speaker 2: I'm using this energy. I'm floating, but no one can see.
Speaker 2: I can never get my props, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And the dream, and that's it's kind of a weird
Speaker 2: a cross between a dream and like this feeling of
Speaker 2: not being seen.
Speaker 1: Entree three thousand gave the same answer. Really, the thing
Speaker 1: is I when I tell you, okay, so if you
Speaker 1: know about like how the brain works, your brain doesn't
Speaker 1: know the difference between reality and a fantasy. So if
Speaker 1: I were to tell you about like a horring car
Speaker 1: crash I had or whatever, like I'm taking you through
Speaker 1: the journey, like your brain wouldn't know. If you watch
Speaker 1: a movie your brain will process a bad guy chasing
Speaker 1: you the same way as if it happened in real life,
Speaker 1: so your body sort of goes through that. And I
Speaker 1: told him because he also said, like, I dream of flying.
Speaker 1: And when I finished that interview, I live pretty high
Speaker 1: up in my apartment in New York, and you know,
Speaker 1: people always ask like, aren't you free to heights or whatever?
Speaker 1: And I cannot dream of flying without the feeling of
Speaker 1: me crashing. Like even though if I were to close
Speaker 1: my eyes right now and say, okay, I'm here, I
Speaker 1: want you to imagine your own eighty stories up and
Speaker 1: jumping off a ledge, like fly to that building over there,
Speaker 1: I can't. It's such a fear of even dreaming of that.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's metaphorical.
Speaker 2: It's definitely metaphors.
Speaker 1: So you can fly, and I'm not like.
Speaker 2: Hi, it's not like scary, it's not like I mean,
Speaker 2: there is the thing like, oh what I fall? But no,
Speaker 2: the feeling is that like did I have this power
Speaker 2: within me to do it? And that it is like
Speaker 2: we all have our own you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: We have our energy that we know is only ours
Speaker 2: and like it our job in life to nurture it
Speaker 2: and protect it and take care of it. But it's
Speaker 2: this thing that like, yes, it's there, but nobody cares.
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of the fear, Like that's the
Speaker 2: fear that I grew up with that like it's not
Speaker 2: no one cares.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're the brilliant tree that fell
Speaker 1: in the farest that no one knows?
Speaker 2: I don't feel like out of my day to day life.
Speaker 2: I mean feel really fortunate to be able to have,
Speaker 2: you know, expressed myself how I can with what I've got,
Speaker 2: and to be you know, being able to touch hearts
Speaker 2: with it. But yeah, I don't know if I I
Speaker 2: think it's childhood shit you know too?
Speaker 1: Yeah, name me five records in your childhood household collection?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Cannonball, utterly God, wish he were he just
Speaker 2: a preacher.
Speaker 1: It's live a country preacher. Yeah, why my treat is
Speaker 1: so bad?
Speaker 2: I think the country preacher is not the name of it.
Speaker 2: I can't remember, but country preacher. So as a kid
Speaker 2: and when I when I was really little, it was different.
Speaker 2: But my stepdad who came to my life when I
Speaker 2: was seven, okay, six or seven, he was a jazz
Speaker 2: guy and had a great record collection. But I remember
Speaker 2: hearing that and like thinking, whoa, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: It really blew my Okay that the Beatles the White album.
Speaker 1: Okay, is that your favorite of the of the Beatles.
Speaker 2: It might be, but it's been it shifts, got it shifts,
Speaker 2: But yeah, it might be might be my favorite. It
Speaker 2: might be my favorite. But now that I have a
Speaker 2: little boy, like and I play stuff songs that he loves,
Speaker 2: like he loves the Abbey Road stuff, so kind of
Speaker 2: into that little Kid records. I had a Louis Armstrong record.
Speaker 2: Uh satch plays Fats All singing Fat Swaller songs. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I really love that Clifford Brown Max Roach that
Speaker 2: Quintet I you know, that was a record as I
Speaker 2: was starting to play trumpet, and you know what I mean, It's.
Speaker 1: Just it's what you said to Clifford Brown.
Speaker 2: That wasn't good enough to shedd it. No. I just
Speaker 2: listened to it and knew it was possible. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: still like that, you know, then your last album, what's that?
Speaker 1: Your last album?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Four? Just trying to think of little Kid records
Speaker 2: and I don't want to go too far like Sympathy
Speaker 2: for the Devil the Rolling Stones. Yeah that song?
Speaker 1: And when was that on The Woman with the Bathroom?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, I beg his.
Speaker 2: I have a very distinct I have this distinct memory
Speaker 2: of my step dad. He frowned on rock music, but
Speaker 2: for some reason he had that eight track and we
Speaker 2: put it in and it would play and he would go,
Speaker 2: pleased to meet you, won't you guess my name? You
Speaker 2: know he's doing these verses. I've been around civilizations ancient
Speaker 2: and he was like, who's he talking about? Like who's
Speaker 2: he talking about? I was like, I don't know, Like
Speaker 2: I'm okay, like trying to think, like who's he singing about?
Speaker 2: Like who's pleased to meet?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 2: Who's he taught me? And I remember him like, look
Speaker 2: at me going to the devil.
Speaker 1: That's how you met the devil?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. What was your first job? Well?
Speaker 2: I had many jobs as a kid. I was always,
Speaker 2: you know, knocking on people's doors. I'll mow your lawn,
Speaker 2: I'll take your garbage out. I used to stand in
Speaker 2: the supermarket parking lot asking people to carry their groceries
Speaker 2: to their car, like hoping for a tip. But my
Speaker 2: first actual paying job was a liquor store delivery boy.
Speaker 1: Okay, you were allowed to delivered liquors.
Speaker 2: Sixteen in La Yeah yeah yeah, no I could drive, yeah,
Speaker 2: delivered liquor. So you were the original and drank plenty
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the original uber eats Okay yeah yeah, uh huh okay.
Speaker 1: So sort of expansion of the question before what album
Speaker 1: single handedly changed your life?
Speaker 2: It has to be one.
Speaker 1: This can also be your album whatever. But like, if
Speaker 1: there's an album that literally changed the trajectory of your life.
Speaker 2: I have to say, it's the record Gi by the Germs.
Speaker 1: What was it about it?
Speaker 2: It's a well, it's a very like wild punk rock album.
Speaker 2: Singing on it just goes wow, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like he But what it was about it is so
Speaker 2: I grew up loving Miles Davis, loving my Vish New Orchestra.
Speaker 2: When I got into rock music, it was all about
Speaker 2: Jimmy Hendrix. It was all about the great, great players.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a music that was everything to me.
Speaker 2: And I looked at music as like your ability to
Speaker 2: play masterfully and and groove too, of course, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like I understood the importance of you know,
Speaker 2: p funk and groove. But when I heard the germs,
Speaker 2: it was the first time what hit home to me,
Speaker 2: and it was huge. It was, here's this music, Like
Speaker 2: the musician ship is very few tools, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. It's relative. You know, the songs are really good,
Speaker 2: and I think the playing is great harmonically melodically, it's
Speaker 2: relatively remedial and simple and destroyed it and a mess
Speaker 2: and all this stuff. But I remember, like laying back
Speaker 2: listening to headphones, just like being taken away by it,
Speaker 2: like into this real beautiful, cosmic place, and I just
Speaker 2: remember thinking, like, it doesn't matter how good you play.
Speaker 2: It was like everything is motivation and intent, and you
Speaker 2: come from all people come from all different cultures, they
Speaker 2: have all different you know what I mean. Abilities, But
Speaker 2: if you have the right of motivation, the intent, and
Speaker 2: the passion to express your story with what you've got
Speaker 2: and what you know, it is the most valuable thing
Speaker 2: in the world. And it just awakened in me a
Speaker 2: thing beyond music as a way to approach music, you know,
Speaker 2: like storytelling and just how important it is for us
Speaker 2: to tell our stories. And I think we're thinking of
Speaker 2: that about that a lot lately now, too, Like people
Speaker 2: are angry, you know, they're angry about oppression in the
Speaker 2: world and hypocrisy and cruelty and all this stuff. And
Speaker 2: I get it, you know, I'm angry too, Like there's
Speaker 2: all this shit going on, But how important it is
Speaker 2: to just let go of our anger and invest in
Speaker 2: beautiful things of Like like I was at the Vanguard
Speaker 2: the other night seeing Marquis Hill playing with Junius Paul
Speaker 2: Mchaya mccraven, like these guys throwing down in a way
Speaker 2: and playing the Vanguard. Little place, beautiful place, you know,
Speaker 2: historical place. But like, how more than ever, as you know,
Speaker 2: whatever protests or you know, big picture things that are
Speaker 2: really important to just invest our time and energy and
Speaker 2: people making beautiful things and put our energy into that,
Speaker 2: to support that, to be a part of it, to
Speaker 2: do what we can, to tell our stories in whichever
Speaker 2: way we have to tell them and anyway. So that
Speaker 2: record really awakened in me. That And at the same time,
Speaker 2: I was reading a biography of Bob Marley and I
Speaker 2: can't remember who wrote it was, you know, this is
Speaker 2: in the early eighties, and he talked about that about
Speaker 2: like motivation, what motivates you in the purity of your
Speaker 2: intent being everything. You know, He's like, I don't care
Speaker 2: about a reggae. It's my where I'm from, it's what
Speaker 2: I do, but everything is where my heart is at.
Speaker 2: And as well as like and this is something as
Speaker 2: you know, I'm always learning from like Coltrane. Recently I
Speaker 2: read a quote by him talking about like your music
Speaker 2: can only be as good as you are as a person,
Speaker 2: you know, and that really hit home to me, like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: like yeah, yeah, period, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 2: it maybe just want to be like all the like
Speaker 2: the ways that I can fuck up, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, and be dishonest or manipulative or not a
Speaker 2: good husband or not a good father or not a
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Like the more that you
Speaker 2: can walk with your truth and your honesty and your
Speaker 2: you know, your clarity and be at ease with yourself
Speaker 2: as being the best person that you can be, the
Speaker 2: better you can be as a player, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And now like take for me, like trying
Speaker 2: to take on these you know, fill a new place musically,
Speaker 2: really working on my horn playing and you know, doing
Speaker 2: your stuff and just more than ever, like man, there's
Speaker 2: no heiden, there's no you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 2: all we got is what we got.
Speaker 1: So yeah, wow, damn I gotta question my entire life
Speaker 1: after that too.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, you know what I mean, Like that
Speaker 2: culturing thing was just like damn.
Speaker 1: You're of age and you are a result kind of
Speaker 1: a byproduct of the first wave of the punk movement.
Speaker 1: You were fifteen years old nineteen seventy seven, So I
Speaker 1: know the effect of the events that happened in New
Speaker 1: York in nineteen seventy seven, the punk movement, underground disco,
Speaker 1: even the sort of elitist studio fifty four atmosphere, the
Speaker 1: Blackout happening, thus giving birth to hip hop culture based
Speaker 1: on all the Turntaine acquired doing that those two nights.
Speaker 1: What was happening in LA in nineteen seventy seven. I
Speaker 1: know there's you know, and I often hear bands like
Speaker 1: X or whatever. But like, in nineteen seventy seven, was
Speaker 1: punk's movement immediate as it was in New York or
Speaker 1: was it sort of like hip hop where it took
Speaker 1: maybe like a year and a half to really like
Speaker 1: migrate to California for you guys to get enlightened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, LA had its own scene okay, And I confess
Speaker 2: that I'm l I was on a late fraight, like
Speaker 2: I didn't really get into punk, and like when I
Speaker 2: was got in my germs, I joined Fear, like the
Speaker 2: band like that was like eighty two eighty one, and
Speaker 2: before that, like I was, I was in the Hendrix,
Speaker 2: you know. But I got to know, you know, shortly
Speaker 2: after the birth of it, all the luminaries of the
Speaker 2: LA punk scene, and we had really great bands, like
Speaker 2: the Weirdos were incredible, the Weirdos, the screamers who are
Speaker 2: experimenting with like synse and electro sounds in punk. There
Speaker 2: was just ever and I would go out and see
Speaker 2: all kinds of weird bands like and I think probably
Speaker 2: like New York in a way where and it's something
Speaker 2: that I really miss and I'm so grateful to have
Speaker 2: had the opportunities that like from like when I met Anthony,
Speaker 2: we're like fifteen. It was like every single night we're
Speaker 2: trying to get into a club to see a band,
Speaker 2: and we didn't whatever it was, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And we see some weird heavy metal band, some like
Speaker 2: Sunset Strip hair metal band, some you know, dirty punk band,
Speaker 2: some arty band, some like African influence bands, some electro band.
Speaker 2: It was just relentless, Like every night there were clubs
Speaker 2: all over the city full of music. You could get
Speaker 2: down to the Parisian Room and see Freddie Hubbard, and
Speaker 2: then you could go to the Starwood and see you know,
Speaker 2: the suburban lawns, you know what I mean. Like there
Speaker 2: was just so much already weird underground music happening.
Speaker 1: You know. Was it typical to have that expanse of
Speaker 1: a vocabulary as you did, Like, Hey, I'm just as
Speaker 1: excited to see p Funk and those guys as I
Speaker 1: am to see you know whatever other things happening. Like you,
Speaker 1: you seem to have a wide open palate, which to
Speaker 1: me is very hip hop.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, for me, take everything, It's always been like
Speaker 2: that for me, Like anything I'd love was never to
Speaker 2: the exclusion of anything else. Right, And no, it was
Speaker 2: not common at all, Like people I knew from each
Speaker 2: thing always did mostly didn't like the other thing. But
Speaker 2: for me, and it's kind of like what I spoke
Speaker 2: to earlier when I was a kid, Like when I
Speaker 2: saw my stepdad playing jazz and I got into his
Speaker 2: jazz records and I was mind blown by this level
Speaker 2: of musicianship. I still love the Beatles, and it was
Speaker 2: the same to me, like when if I listened to
Speaker 2: Charlie Parker and I listened to the Beatles, it was
Speaker 2: just music. Like I didn't. I never separated it out,
Speaker 2: and I feel so lucky for that and was always
Speaker 2: grateful for all of it. But I confess that it
Speaker 2: wasn't That's why I mentioned that Germs record. It wasn't
Speaker 2: really until right around then when I opened my mind
Speaker 2: enough to really see the beauty in that, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I knew there was something about it,
Speaker 2: like I'd go out to punk shows, but it was scary.
Speaker 2: It was violent, man. It was like ambulances out front,
Speaker 2: people getting beat up, the cops waiting with night sticks
Speaker 2: out in front of the show, come out bam, slamming
Speaker 2: on people. I remember being a forty five Grave show
Speaker 2: to Anti Club on Melrose. Literally walked out boom, cops
Speaker 2: on here with night sticks like run it, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. Like it was just happened, like it
Speaker 2: became a threat. It was like there's gonna be riots,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be a problem. The cops were just outside
Speaker 2: the show waiting and uh. And also I'm within it too,
Speaker 2: like you had the wrong haircut, you ten guys stumping
Speaker 2: the shit out of somebody, like terrifying.
Speaker 1: See you only thought, okay, so for New York, that
Speaker 1: club would have been the Latin Quarter.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And during this period, like, yeah, that is such a
Speaker 1: renaissance happening with one night you're hearing Boogie Down Productions,
Speaker 1: next night's Ault Magnetic next night. It's it's like literally
Speaker 1: your life is being changed week after week with a
Speaker 1: classic records, like you're hearing Rebel without a pause for
Speaker 1: the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But it's also like you might die tonight. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I keep asking people to come on and still like
Speaker 1: so you knowing that you're risking your life just to
Speaker 1: get your mind blown by a four minute song and
Speaker 1: you might not sit. And they were like it was
Speaker 1: so worth it that dying wasn't even an option, Like
Speaker 1: you just felt so for you, it was.
Speaker 2: Just like had to go. I wanted to be where
Speaker 2: it was. You know, one of my favorite writers, Yukio Mishima,
Speaker 2: great great writer, and he you know, at this crazy
Speaker 2: ending in his life where he he was like revered
Speaker 2: as like the Shakespeare of Japan, like this great writer
Speaker 2: then it became like the severe hardcore right wing nationalist
Speaker 2: dude who like kind of gathered his own army together
Speaker 2: and they would march around, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: like doing this thing. There's a great Schrader movie about him.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever saw it, called Michie
Speaker 2: mats Great. But at the end of his life he
Speaker 2: went and like took the head of the Japanese military hostage.
Speaker 2: It made him assemble the troops where he gave this
Speaker 2: big speech like Japan has to come back to you know,
Speaker 2: it's nationalist values. And then boom, Harry carried himself. It
Speaker 2: was on the news like it happened, and I think
Speaker 2: he killed the general guy, like they took the sword
Speaker 2: to him as followers like this crazy guy. I mean
Speaker 2: he really you know. But something he said, and it
Speaker 2: kind of speaks to the way he went out, is
Speaker 2: that there are very rare times in life when art
Speaker 2: and action come together, and when those things come together,
Speaker 2: it's everything. And I didn't know that at the time,
Speaker 2: but it was that feeling you're talking about, like you're
Speaker 2: going out to the music. There's physical danger, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, for whatever the reason is, and you're
Speaker 2: alive man in that moment, you know, and it's when
Speaker 2: art and action it's like these two things for you.
Speaker 1: Is danger a necessary element?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Like in most situations, I think like
Speaker 2: that kind of danger where it's like people having fun.
Speaker 2: I was at a punk rock show a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago, like a kid I knew since he was
Speaker 2: born as a punk band. The mainliners went to see
Speaker 2: him play. You know, they're slamming, moshing like crazy troubadoor
Speaker 2: all a fight breaks out, like you got really at
Speaker 2: the Troubador at the troubadoor a punk show. Yeah, punk show,
Speaker 2: full on punk show.
Speaker 1: Goddamn, Okay, yeah they do it.
Speaker 2: They do it and fight breaks out and like it.
Speaker 2: And I'm like in the balcony above, like right right,
Speaker 2: they're like punching the fuck out of each other and
Speaker 2: like you feel like you see a few different groups
Speaker 2: kind of square off and like, oh, it could become
Speaker 2: way bigger and it didn't, but you know, security ran in.
Speaker 2: But but that feeling, I don't know. I mean usually
Speaker 2: for me, like when I was at the punk shows,
Speaker 2: like and I would to see Black Flag or Circle
Speaker 2: Jerks or different hardcore shows, and it would be really violent.
Speaker 2: Like there was this club in the star Wood in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: I live right down the corner from it, and I'd
Speaker 2: always try to get in. It was the whole thing.
Speaker 2: You either just like go to hang out in the
Speaker 2: parking lot or get in if you can, you know,
Speaker 2: and it would be so fun. But to me, honestly,
Speaker 2: like it felt ugly, like it didn't really feel like
Speaker 2: I was like because there was a lot of times
Speaker 2: there's like these jock kids, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like they don't even you don't love this music. You
Speaker 2: don't like you're wearing your anarchy button? What is anarchy?
Speaker 2: What does that mean? You know what I mean? Like
Speaker 2: it's just another pissed off kid, Like you're a bully
Speaker 2: in school and now you're trying to do this bullshit
Speaker 2: here right, like you know what I mean. Like to me,
Speaker 2: like the music was all it's like, it's beautiful, Like
Speaker 2: I get the cop thing when that happened, that was
Speaker 2: really scary because I was like, you know that was
Speaker 2: riot police on horse with sticks.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you consider the bracket like if
Speaker 1: it started in seventy seven?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, how was it.
Speaker 1: Safe to see?
Speaker 2: I feel like then in seventy seven it was it
Speaker 2: was way more safe like that was there was super
Speaker 2: arty and underground before. Yeah, this is after, like I'm
Speaker 2: saying because I'm late, right, I'm going like in nineteen eighty,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one, you know what I mean, And seventy
Speaker 2: seven it was like all these bands like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: like Weirdo, screamers, germs. There was like underground and it
Speaker 2: was people in the know, and it was really about
Speaker 2: like they're making their own clothes and they love Captain
Speaker 2: Beefheart and they love you know what I mean, Phyroh Sanders,
Speaker 2: they love all kinds of weird shit and they're just
Speaker 2: being weird, you know what I mean. Making like it
Speaker 2: was to them was like Artie and and yeah it
Speaker 2: was angry and I had that rhythm and the dancing
Speaker 2: was crazy and all that shit, But it wasn't like
Speaker 2: there wasn't that meanness to it. It was like later on,
Speaker 2: like around Black Flag time, it was like this the
Speaker 2: South Bay La this very it just got ugly and territorial.
Speaker 2: They were like there was gangs involved, you know, and
Speaker 2: like suicidal guys and stuff like suicidal tendencies. There was
Speaker 2: like you know, it was violent brass knuckles, and you know,
Speaker 2: I just like, like, not for.
Speaker 1: Me going there with the intent of stopping someone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that just I didn't like it. I think
Speaker 2: the element of what you're talking about, like that's fun
Speaker 2: and passion getting out of hand, gotcha, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? Like, and I'm that I love but when
Speaker 2: it got like it just fell small and diminishing of
Speaker 2: the beauty of it.
Speaker 1: For artistic value, which band of that entire period would
Speaker 1: you just say the ultimate like there will never be.
Speaker 2: Like a punk rock the whole time from because it shifts?
Speaker 1: All right? Give me three just bands that like just
Speaker 1: you when they're in amazement you learned something or you
Speaker 1: so many? Were you going there for artistic value?
Speaker 2: Yes, far i'saw all I cared about. I wanted to
Speaker 2: hear like weird rhythms and different ideas and be excited.
Speaker 1: You know, who's the most intricate band?
Speaker 2: Fugazi? Okay, kind of later, but Fugazi?
Speaker 1: Who was the best like leader, like the front man.
Speaker 2: It's like I'm trying to really know what's really good
Speaker 2: questions like like like Black Flag was so great. I
Speaker 2: think of Greg ginn as being the leader, you know,
Speaker 2: what I mean. I think it was always he was
Speaker 2: the hub of this thing that everyone went around, you know,
Speaker 2: the guitar player, right man, I you know I loved
Speaker 2: the weirdos, love the weirdos, excitement, so many great songs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the answer is it's very difficult for me to answer.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm not doing well.
Speaker 1: All right, one more? Okay, what band should have made it?
Speaker 1: And I trust me as an artist, I know self
Speaker 1: sabotage and all that stuff. It's not just like oh
Speaker 1: we had a hit or or the right manager or whatever.
Speaker 2: But what band out of the puncture?
Speaker 1: Yeah, if there were justice in this world, like who
Speaker 1: would have been like primed for you bragged about him
Speaker 1: and they just couldn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just stay with the weirdos. So many I just
Speaker 2: don't think they got it right on tape, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. They didn't get it right on tape.
Speaker 2: They had like everything like they were like you know,
Speaker 2: Blondie opened up for them, like it was like they
Speaker 2: were just they were so good and so entertaining and
Speaker 2: so original and so many good songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, the trumpet, yes, sir? What was the straw
Speaker 1: that broke the Camel's back? That stopped you from stalling.
Speaker 1: Because the thing was when I was watching you play
Speaker 1: last night, yeah, I was like, wait, you know, I've
Speaker 1: read the book and I was like, well he has chops,
Speaker 1: Like this could have been a thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of wanted it to be a thing when
Speaker 2: I was a kid.
Speaker 1: As long as it's hiatus, isn't the time in between records?
Speaker 1: I know it's touring for two three years or whatever.
Speaker 1: But what were the steps that finally made you complete
Speaker 1: that circle? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well I'm still working on a circle. But a big
Speaker 2: thing was I mean, it was just the dream had
Speaker 2: always been alive in me since I was a little boy,
Speaker 2: and I fell in love and to a point of
Speaker 2: not just in music, but like romanticizing my heroes. You know,
Speaker 2: Miles and Clifford Brown and Morgan's common law wife shot
Speaker 2: him on stage, like all these stories. Clifford Brown like
Speaker 2: getting in a car accident and dying when he's twenty three.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, these guys that were such heroes
Speaker 2: to me. And then you know, I start playing bass
Speaker 2: Chili Peppers ended up doing what they did and all
Speaker 2: this stuff, and occasionally I'd pick it up and play
Speaker 2: it a little bit, but I think it was just
Speaker 2: always something like once in a while, I'd kind of
Speaker 2: start with the intent of doing what I'm working on
Speaker 2: doing now, and I'd either get busy or I'd get
Speaker 2: I'd just stop whatever. I'd get frustrated, I didn't know
Speaker 2: how to go about it right. I would mess up
Speaker 2: my lip. And I think it's about a thing that
Speaker 2: really awakened it in me again was when Camasi put
Speaker 2: out his record to Epic, And for a long time
Speaker 2: I had been feeling jazz music. And I know that
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. I know I just didn't hear the right shit,
Speaker 2: but I had the stuff I had been hearing. It
Speaker 2: would be impressive, but it was kind of leaving me cold.
Speaker 2: You know. I wasn't filling the spirit of the records
Speaker 2: that I love from the fifties, sixties, even the early seventies,
Speaker 2: you know. And when I heard Kamasi's record, I was like,
Speaker 2: that's that feeling of the street, that revolutionary spirit, that spirituality,
Speaker 2: that togetherness that I want, you know, and it was
Speaker 2: really inspiring to me. And you know, Thundercat too, and
Speaker 2: I just I was like, man, I really you know,
Speaker 2: when I was a kid and my stepdad would have
Speaker 2: these guys over and they'd play standards and play bebop
Speaker 2: and throw down. It was always like, in my head,
Speaker 2: that's like the high point, and like my dream is
Speaker 2: to be able to sit in with any jazz dudes
Speaker 2: and just throw down on the horn, you know. And
Speaker 2: and when I started seeing these guys play and also
Speaker 2: in a way that wasn't elitist, like I think one
Speaker 2: of the things that I really relate to them about
Speaker 2: is they're embracing all of music. Like the jazz guys
Speaker 2: that I grew up with, they really look down on rock,
Speaker 2: they look down on pop music. You know. They were
Speaker 2: just like this, like they can't play this is about
Speaker 2: like haircuts and fashion, like they don't know the shit,
Speaker 2: they can't blow changes, you know. And then seeing this
Speaker 2: new generation that you can tell they embrace hip hop,
Speaker 2: they embrace youth culture. They it's all RELI it's all
Speaker 2: beautiful to them, yes, you know, And and there just
Speaker 2: really inspired me and it made me I was like,
Speaker 2: if I'm ever gonna do live that dream that I
Speaker 2: wanted to live, I gotta do it now. Like you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, I'm getting older and so I
Speaker 2: just you know, I'm pretty good at making commitments to
Speaker 2: myself and sticking at them. And I made a commitment
Speaker 2: like I'm going to play trumpet every day no matter
Speaker 2: what for two years. At the end of two years,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna to make a record plan trumpet.
Speaker 1: How many hours do you practice as much.
Speaker 2: As I can till my lift gives out? Like two?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah you mentioned it. So like, what is the
Speaker 1: typical atmosphere at a Walter Urban junior living room? Jam sessions?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, so this is New York and
Speaker 2: like nineteen seventy okay, sixty nine seventy.
Speaker 1: In an apartment.
Speaker 2: No, no, house in Larchmont.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was going to say, like my first question
Speaker 1: was like, what are your neighbors saying? It was a
Speaker 1: nightmare on my neighbors.
Speaker 2: Okay, So house in Larchmont, New York, and people come over,
Speaker 2: my mom's made food, barbecue, going, food happening, were over,
Speaker 2: They're drinking, smoking weed, setting up, and then they just
Speaker 2: you know, Cherokee, let's go. You know that's fast. You know.
Speaker 2: I was going to says, yeah, no, they're serious. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, as a little kid, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't like if I saw them. Now, I don't
Speaker 2: really know, but as a little kid, they were the
Speaker 2: greatest musicians I ever saw in my life, and I
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 2: was just like the house filled up with music, and
Speaker 2: you know, you have those moments when you're a kid
Speaker 2: and it's like people can do that. And I, you know,
Speaker 2: I'd yet to play anything yet, and I was seeing
Speaker 2: them play this music and it was so wild, and
Speaker 2: it just seemed magical to me, like literally like magic,
Speaker 2: like Harry Potter's style, you know what I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna make an owl appear, and you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: It was like that feeling. And I just remember everyone
Speaker 2: and it was open for me in a lot of
Speaker 2: ways too, like racially, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 2: I hadn't really hung out with black people before, right
Speaker 2: and all. Now I'm a little kid and my stepdad's
Speaker 2: friends are mostly black, and all these guys are coming
Speaker 2: over and they're playing and I didn't like, adults were
Speaker 2: just weird to me, flat out, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, there's these people and they're
Speaker 2: hanging with me, they're joking with me, they're talking to me.
Speaker 2: They're asked me, like, do you play an instrument? Do
Speaker 2: you want to play an instrument? Like they're like I existed,
Speaker 2: I was being seen and it was you know, all
Speaker 2: of it, Like it was just it was good, man.
Speaker 2: They were so healthy, so grateful for that.
Speaker 1: What non musical talent do you also possess?
Speaker 2: I had a pretty good jump shot. I have a
Speaker 2: pretty good jump. I'll a basketball, man, Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: I've always played, but I was never very good. I
Speaker 2: never really learned properly. Like I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: street ball growing up every day. But during the pandemic,
Speaker 2: I got a shooting coach, the lethal shooter. Yeah, yeah, man, yeah,
Speaker 2: and he came over and he was like, we're gonna
Speaker 2: get you right, and every day, every day shooting shooting, shooting.
Speaker 2: I learned proper form for the first time, and I'm
Speaker 2: always nurturing it, working on it and other skills. I
Speaker 2: don't know, I'm I mean, like you, I like writing
Speaker 2: a lot, you know what I mean, and sitting down
Speaker 2: and taking pen to paper and just the whole literature
Speaker 2: world for me is a huge part of my life.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I read every day, always studying writers
Speaker 2: and being transported by that, and so I don't I
Speaker 2: can't really speak of it as I guess it's a skill.
Speaker 2: But I just think of the things that I'm always
Speaker 2: working on, that I always care about, you know.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, especially with musicians and basketball
Speaker 1: and having toured with the Beastie Boys for good two
Speaker 1: years and whatnot, I see like games or whatever like
Speaker 1: then versus other at your most extreme physical state, would
Speaker 1: you often do pick up games with other artists. I'm
Speaker 1: only asking this because I finally after hearing all the
Speaker 1: folklore of Prince as a basketball player, like I've seen
Speaker 1: actual footage he can really playing. He was amazing. Wow,
Speaker 1: Like it has one of is the just the determination
Speaker 1: to he knows you're underestimating him. But literally just on
Speaker 1: some iverson like it will just come to a crowd
Speaker 1: of whatever, it'll go in.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1: How serious were you?
Speaker 2: Like, I mean, I don't know, you have like a
Speaker 2: much No oh no, never, I mean on tour it's
Speaker 2: for me, it's like just touring itself take so much energy.
Speaker 2: But now I do you know, Like now I bring
Speaker 2: a ball everywhere I go and any day off, for
Speaker 2: any time, I just go to a park and shoot around.
Speaker 2: I just kind of get my head right, got yeah.
Speaker 2: But my highlight of my basketball career is they used
Speaker 2: to have that MTV Rocking Jock Rocket. I was on
Speaker 2: Rock and Jacket and I hit the shot to win
Speaker 2: the game with an assist from Mitch Richmond, and then
Speaker 2: I won the three point shoot off. I hit like
Speaker 2: eleven in a row or some ship, and that was
Speaker 2: my moment of glory. I've watched those yeh yeah, that
Speaker 2: was my moment of glory. But I'm better now since
Speaker 2: the lethal Shooter.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, all right, yeah, got you tell me the
Speaker 1: process of bringing your band together for this specific project.
Speaker 2: Well, initially, when I was getting ready to make the record, I.
Speaker 1: And Ricky Washington Is Yeah, Ricky, yeah, Ricky.
Speaker 2: I was studying with Ricky. Ricky is Camassi's father who
Speaker 2: taught Kamasi and Thundercat Taris Martin. You know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that whole crew. Yeah yeah, yeah, that crew. Well, he
Speaker 2: and this guy Reggie Andrews.
Speaker 1: Too, Ressie Andrews from the Dazz band.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, yeah yeah, and he was at the music
Speaker 2: teacher at Locke High School. Okay, and you know it's
Speaker 2: a renowned you know teacher But anyways, I was making
Speaker 2: demos at home and I have an eight to oh
Speaker 2: eight some sinse you know, baking beats playing bass keyboys
Speaker 2: played trumpet melody over it, and it was sounding kind
Speaker 2: of cool and you know, real raw, but it had
Speaker 2: had a thing to it, and I was kind of thinking,
Speaker 2: I'll just do that. And I was kind of on
Speaker 2: the fence, like do I get musicians or not? And
Speaker 2: I was listening a lot to I met Jeff Parker
Speaker 2: because our kids were going to school together, the guitarist
Speaker 2: Jeff Parker, and uh, he put out a record called
Speaker 2: The Way Out of Easy with with that with this
Speaker 2: band with Anna Butter's and Jay Bellerose and Josh Johnson,
Speaker 2: and I really loved, like I'd love that record. And
Speaker 2: at the same time, kind of coincidentally, I was listening
Speaker 2: to Michelle and Digiocello the Omnichord Real Book. It's a
Speaker 2: great fucking album. Yeah, it's a great album.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: You know you said that's a great album, right, And
Speaker 2: so I'm listening to that album and I really like
Speaker 2: Deantony's playing on that de Antony parks yes. And then
Speaker 2: and I'd met Josh Johnson before because I'm a last
Speaker 2: Chili Pepper record. We wanted to put some horns on
Speaker 2: a tune and my friend Nate Walcott knew him Josh
Speaker 2: trump bumperal named Victim. Nate played trumpet and we all
Speaker 2: came and I played. I was just starting to kind
Speaker 2: of it was one of those times I got the
Speaker 2: trumpe together for like a few weeks before I put
Speaker 2: it down again, and we all played together on the record,
Speaker 2: and I was really blown away by Josh, like his
Speaker 2: he blew a couple of solos for us that were
Speaker 2: so musical, like you know, someone just starts playing and
Speaker 2: you just like pay attention, Like it's that he was
Speaker 2: so good the way he worked with time and melody.
Speaker 2: And and then I was listening to Omnichord Real Book
Speaker 2: for like the tenth time, and I finally I saw
Speaker 2: produced by Josh Johnson, and I was like, oh damn,
Speaker 2: and that record is like well made. It's really holistically
Speaker 2: a good record. And so then I just like got
Speaker 2: to inklaying, Oh, I'm gonna play with other musicians. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna ask Josh to produce it. He knows these other musicians.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask Like I had the people of mine.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I want de'antony, I want Jeff, I want Anna,
Speaker 2: and he came over and heard my stuff. I said,
Speaker 2: you think you know they would do it? And he
Speaker 2: asked them all they all said yes, and that was
Speaker 2: kind of it, you know, and I couldn't be more grateful,
Speaker 2: you know, Like when we showed up in the studio,
Speaker 2: I was definitely, you know, some hesitance on my part,
Speaker 2: just like, wow, they're such good jazz musicians and I
Speaker 2: don't know shit. You know, I'm working on it, but
Speaker 2: you know, they know how to try to touch hearts.
Speaker 2: And I had my structures and the shit that I
Speaker 2: had written, and we got together on the first day.
Speaker 2: I'd never played with anyone before, and from from the
Speaker 2: first downbeat, it just felt beautiful, like they're just all
Speaker 2: so sensitiven't connected, and we just you know, just improvising, playing,
Speaker 2: you know, playing like I had, like I'd played the
Speaker 2: demo and I was like, this is the vibe. If
Speaker 2: there's you know, certain chord changes or a melody, but
Speaker 2: mostly improvisation.
Speaker 1: How many takes of each song would you go through
Speaker 1: before you decided.
Speaker 2: Depended somewhere first take, somewhere like.
Speaker 1: Two or three, gotcha.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there might have been the I think where I
Speaker 2: struggled the most. Sometimes there are a couple of tunes
Speaker 2: and I don't think any of them actually on this
Speaker 2: record I made. I recorded a lot where I struggled
Speaker 2: with the trumpet a little bit, like I blow a
Speaker 2: solo and I'd be like, no, do it again. But
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like I kept, you know,
Speaker 2: being insecure about my trumpet playing and maybe overthinking it.
Speaker 1: Were you allowed to punch in or.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I played bass show, I'd overdubbed my trumpet.
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another collaborative of yours that's on this album is Tom Yorke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen you guys do shows together. Now, talk about
Speaker 1: how that relationship started, like how did you.
Speaker 2: We just became friends, going to each other's show and meeting,
Speaker 2: and he.
Speaker 1: Would come to Chili Beverer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, believe it or not, New York.
Speaker 1: He's just like us.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, he was into it. You know, he was
Speaker 2: into it, and he would come and hang out and talk,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think there was something about it that,
Speaker 2: as he going into all different kinds of music, he
Speaker 2: saw that he thought was beautiful and then he made
Speaker 2: that record, The Eraser, and I love that album. It's
Speaker 2: a great album, and I told him so. And then
Speaker 2: he was getting ready to do a tour for it,
Speaker 2: and he called me and asked me to.
Speaker 1: Play, you know, and so that's how it came to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's how it came to be. And then
Speaker 2: we ended up making you know that album after and touring,
Speaker 2: doing like two different tours through the States and Europe,
Speaker 2: and yeah, just built a friends, two of those.
Speaker 1: I want to see more of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, super fun.
Speaker 1: Which person in your life keeps you in check?
Speaker 2: My wife of course? Time?
Speaker 1: Wait exactly, I mean I totally forgot that I know her.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I mean, you know Mel before I know Mal.
Speaker 2: I know a part of Mel that I don't even
Speaker 2: know because I just know with me Mal, dude, like
Speaker 2: you know Mal from before.
Speaker 1: I couldnot be happier that more that two people have
Speaker 1: found each other, and especially with her, like you know,
Speaker 1: because a lot of us tend to reach the end
Speaker 1: of our rope and give up on you know, like
Speaker 1: she was almost at that place. And when she she
Speaker 1: kept you secret for like a year.
Speaker 2: You know, It's funny. Well I met her and I
Speaker 2: was at the end of my rope. Like I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna suffer and have pain. That's it, ruin it
Speaker 2: and I'm not worthy and I'm you know what I
Speaker 2: mean and anything. And I was just like and I
Speaker 2: make this woman and she's just, you know, this glowing thing.
Speaker 2: But when I first met her, you know, we got
Speaker 2: together and romance ensued and I was just head over
Speaker 2: heels and above and you know, and early on, like
Speaker 2: right after met her, I got her. There's a Melina
Speaker 2: Matsukus director and Lena Wait, the writer and actor. Milina's
Speaker 2: making this movie and Lena making this movie called Queen Slim.
Speaker 2: I got the script in the mail, and you know,
Speaker 2: my agent, these people are interested in you acting in
Speaker 2: this film. I readscript. I'm like, wow, this is an
Speaker 2: important movie. I would love to be a part of this.
Speaker 2: And you know, just right when I first started seeing mail,
Speaker 2: and she comes over and I'm like, talking to you,
Speaker 2: I got the script in the mail. Looks really cool
Speaker 2: and she's like, oh, oh shit, when are you meeting
Speaker 2: with them? And I was like tomorrow and she's like,
Speaker 2: do not, Like that's my best friend, Like it's her people,
Speaker 2: you know, what I mean, her best friends, and she's like,
Speaker 2: do not mention Malina. Can't you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: She's gonna tell everybody. I don't want anyone to know.
Speaker 2: Don't tell anyone, Like, we gotta keep this, We got
Speaker 2: to protect this and keep it quiet, you know. So
Speaker 2: I went like, you know, I sitting there with Molina
Speaker 2: and like you know when you go to a movie
Speaker 2: audition all if you've ever done it, it's like it's
Speaker 2: nerve wracking. It's like the only time, like music, you
Speaker 2: don't only do that, Like you walk into the room,
Speaker 2: You're like, am I good enough? Like do I look right? Am?
Speaker 2: I am? I? Do I have a witty repartee? You
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like I got tons up every time? Right?
Speaker 2: And this is how I'm thinking. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm sleeping with your best friend. Like in my head,
Speaker 2: it was so so funny. Yeah, So, just in terms
Speaker 2: of her not telling anybody, if.
Speaker 1: Mel possesses this gift, when she laughs, Mel has for
Speaker 1: and I think it's for me only. Yeah, Mel has
Speaker 1: a laugh similar to Nelson on The Simpsons.
Speaker 2: And I never together.
Speaker 1: It triggers me. Now you're doing it. Wait? Wait, so
Speaker 1: when I.
Speaker 2: Hear you picturing her.
Speaker 1: It's so true.
Speaker 2: I never clocked it.
Speaker 1: When I hear that laugh, it instantly takes me to
Speaker 1: second grade, when, like I think in second grade was
Speaker 1: the one year in which I was the only boy
Speaker 1: in a school with seventeen girls. Yeah, so if anything
Speaker 1: I would trip or something whenever like that, like it
Speaker 1: would just trigger me. And I asked the asked her once.
Speaker 1: I was like, is that your natural laugh? Or like
Speaker 1: do you have another laugh you could do? And you
Speaker 1: could do for me because and then once I let
Speaker 1: the cat out of the bag that you laughed just
Speaker 1: like the girls in second grade? Yeah, And I was like,
Speaker 1: I know that's and then she really let her on.
Speaker 1: So when she comes to game nights or whatever, it's
Speaker 1: like I was like, stop that, okay, fine. I also
Speaker 1: want to talk about plea because here's the thing. We
Speaker 1: live in a time in which I know it's expected
Speaker 1: for artists to art, you know, and whatnot, and oftentimes,
Speaker 1: like I could tell who's like, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come up with the anthem, Like everyone dreams of that
Speaker 1: whole Like I want to teach, and then an anthem
Speaker 1: gets chosen that you don't like, no one saw Kendrick
Speaker 1: Lamar's alright, as like, okay, this is our official anthem
Speaker 1: because everyone else had the stand up at fight or
Speaker 1: like they had their anthems slogan right, and the thing
Speaker 1: A plea kind of snuck on me and I love
Speaker 1: the energy that it gives. So, like cand you talk
Speaker 1: about just the process and the decision to really kind
Speaker 1: of capture the angst that some of us feel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't really say that I had a decision
Speaker 2: in that way. I was just saying how I felt, right.
Speaker 1: No, No, it felt very organic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just organic. I thought it was just and
Speaker 2: I think you know, it started off like kind of
Speaker 2: every song it has vocal on my record. I had
Speaker 2: never intended for there to be a vocal, okay, And
Speaker 2: it started off there's this and you know the Fool
Speaker 2: Sanders record Black Unity. Yes, so I wanted to do
Speaker 2: something like that, Okay, Like I was very inspired by
Speaker 2: that sign of Cecil McBee and Stanley Clark double bass
Speaker 2: like throwing down. And but then when we got in
Speaker 2: started playing, it just felt more kind of more organized
Speaker 2: than the Faro Sanders tune and we're playing I did it,
Speaker 2: and then I just like had this. I just had
Speaker 2: this idea of having different sections that shifted from like
Speaker 2: an anger and a resolution, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: or you know, the tension and release that we always
Speaker 2: want on the arc of a story. And I started
Speaker 2: thinking about, like, you know, the worst case in the
Speaker 2: scenario and everything that's happening is like civil war, right,
Speaker 2: Like that's like the worst case scenario of the divisiveness
Speaker 2: that's happening. And I started and I started thinking about,
Speaker 2: like what is this and what's the best outcome? You
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Is the thing like we're all
Speaker 2: all striving for is peace and harmony and togetherness, you know.
Speaker 2: So I and at the same time feeling you know,
Speaker 2: you go on online on Instagram or whatever, and it's
Speaker 2: just constant, like someone makes a political stand about something,
Speaker 2: you know, and it might be a right, something I
Speaker 2: agree with someone's I don't view whatever it is, but
Speaker 2: it's always you're preaching to the converted or you're saying
Speaker 2: fuck the converted, you know what I mean, And it's
Speaker 2: just back and forth. It goes nowhere. And even though
Speaker 2: the people I agree with, you know, on occasion, can
Speaker 2: be heartwarming, you know, But when I say, like on
Speaker 2: the songs like I don't care about your politics. I
Speaker 2: don't want to hear about your fucking politics. It's not
Speaker 2: like like I care deeply about the issues, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, It's issues that mean everything to me.
Speaker 2: But I just like the way that the forum has
Speaker 2: evolved is just into this bickering thing that feels like
Speaker 2: to me only enhances divisiveness. And I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: It was just everything about it was so you know,
Speaker 2: wanting to do it in like, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: different sections, but just like just sprawled it out and
Speaker 2: did it, you know, just wanting to be organic to
Speaker 2: how I feel to express myself. I didn't there was
Speaker 2: nothing beyond that.
Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I don't ask this question
Speaker 1: for bass heads out there. Yeah, what are your three
Speaker 1: most treasured bases? How many bases do you own? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get rid of them because they're too
Speaker 1: many stories Union time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're in the house, but it's like it's dumb,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like twenty basses or something.
Speaker 2: It's still it's a lot. And yeah, but it's I
Speaker 2: need one, you know what I mean. I don't play
Speaker 2: a five string. I play a regular four string bass.
Speaker 2: I mean my main, my real baby, my main one
Speaker 2: is a sixty one Fender Jazz based beautiful place like
Speaker 2: Butter played it yesterday, And then I have another.
Speaker 1: Is that what you've always used on?
Speaker 2: I get I'm using it since like twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: Someone gave it to me in a Tower Records parking lot,
Speaker 2: just gave it to me. Yeah, And it's a beautiful
Speaker 2: fucking base. And what's a butler the money to really? Yeah? Yeah, No,
Speaker 2: it's like early days of Twitter, and I got on
Speaker 2: there and I'll like high question love you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But I had kind of finally figured out that I
Speaker 2: liked old Fender bases, like I always just kind of
Speaker 2: played whatever like new bases, and always had this attitude
Speaker 2: about instruments that the instrument means nothing. It's all in
Speaker 2: the fingers in your mind, like that you know your motivation,
Speaker 2: your intent, that thing I was talking about. And then
Speaker 2: but it kind of dawned on me like the longer
Speaker 2: a thing hasn't been a tree and it's been a base,
Speaker 2: it really takes on a feeling of its own. And
Speaker 2: I started playing some old Fender bases that were beautiful,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to get one, didn't have one,
Speaker 2: and I wrote on Twitter, I want to get one.
Speaker 2: Some guy wrote me, you know, meet me at the
Speaker 2: Tower Records parking lot on Wednesday at two o'clock.
Speaker 1: I could have sworn you were a Fender guy.
Speaker 2: No, it was because you're twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, I know you know if you're a
Speaker 1: slab method but also like you you you're Jamison game.
Speaker 2: Is one point one into it.
Speaker 1: Man, I always thought you were a Fender guy on.
Speaker 2: An occasion, but I was kind of like whatever, whatever
Speaker 2: I had, you know, got but that one. And then
Speaker 2: one time Damien Hurst said to me, what's the best
Speaker 2: bass ever made? You know whatever? Just in conversation. I
Speaker 2: was like, sixty one jazz like this, that's not a question.
Speaker 2: It's the greatest electric bass ever made. And he was like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, that's cost interesting. And like a year later
Speaker 2: I'm playing in London, He's like, flee, I got something
Speaker 2: for you. Come over. I don't know if that and
Speaker 2: you know he makes those butterfly paintings. Yeah, he made
Speaker 2: me a butterfly bass, a Fender sixty one covered in
Speaker 2: the most beautiful butterflies, Like it's this gorgeous thing man
Speaker 2: a mirror. It's so beautiful and he gave that to me,
Speaker 2: a gifted debt to me, and yeah, super nice. So
Speaker 2: both of my.
Speaker 1: Are there artifacts based that you collected like blah blah
Speaker 1: blah played this bass on?
Speaker 2: No, No, I don't really have like historically important basis,
Speaker 2: but those two which are both the same kind of bass.
Speaker 2: And then you know my son in law, Wileie Gelber,
Speaker 2: he makes instruments and has gifted me two basses that
Speaker 2: he made by hand, and it's just I have a
Speaker 2: lot of love in him and I really love those
Speaker 2: basis too.
Speaker 1: You sid sun in law, And instantly I was like
Speaker 1: going into my head and I was like, in my mind,
Speaker 1: your daughter is still the three year old that you
Speaker 1: think the MTV Awards.
Speaker 2: She's thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was also like it was like thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she if she saw the video for a
Speaker 2: place she directed that did that whole thing.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a great kick. Thirty seven.
Speaker 1: What regular chores household domestic chores? What one chore do
Speaker 1: you loathe doing?
Speaker 2: Cleaning up dog shit? You have dogs when they.
Speaker 1: Just recently became a dog dead and uh yeah, it's territorial,
Speaker 1: literally territorial.
Speaker 2: Finding really good. Actually switched to food and it stopped happening.
Speaker 2: But it's just like when you wake up in the
Speaker 2: morning and like you somewhere and it's like pissing ship
Speaker 2: on the floor and a nice rug and you're just like, dude,
Speaker 2: the fucking you down on hands and knees. I've been
Speaker 2: trying to get.
Speaker 1: The smell ouloon.
Speaker 2: The rug is fucked, you know. And also it's like
Speaker 2: with mel like she was never a dog person before me,
Speaker 2: you know, she never ever and I'm like, before she
Speaker 2: got the ee of dogs in the bed, you know,
Speaker 2: dogs in the room, and she is just like uh.
Speaker 1: Uh, like no way, I'm meiling this situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she's like, yeah, I wake up, I get
Speaker 2: up in the morn and she just be sitting there
Speaker 2: like the dog's pooked enough rug and like and just
Speaker 2: looking at me like deal with it.
Speaker 1: I mean like I'm meiling this situation. Yeah yeah, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm asking for my own benefit. How did you
Speaker 1: guys And it's not like I will say that he
Speaker 1: had the keys of the kingdom because you guys were
Speaker 1: headed there even during the mother's milk period. How did
Speaker 1: you guys manage to let Rick Rubin get you out
Speaker 1: of your own way to get to the place where
Speaker 1: you needed to get Because again, there's so many powerful
Speaker 1: bands that when that moment happens, they'll sabotage it and
Speaker 1: won't go there.
Speaker 2: How did you and I know musicians I don't want
Speaker 2: to say names, but we'll sabotage that every time out
Speaker 2: of some kind of insecurity.
Speaker 1: This is probably the first record, our seventeenth record I
Speaker 1: will consider our first real album because I'm the amount
Speaker 1: of times where I've X needed something because it might work,
Speaker 1: or they'll think we're sellout or are you thinking about
Speaker 1: someone judging you or something like, you'll sabotage it. How
Speaker 1: did you guys manage.
Speaker 2: To You know, we had been humbled many times by
Speaker 2: things not coming out the way we wanted them, and
Speaker 2: we had actually met with Rick before we made not
Speaker 2: Freaky Styd. But I think our third record, Uplift Mophole
Speaker 2: Party Plan right, we met with Rick and we were
Speaker 2: in a rehearsal studio. He showed up with the Beastie
Speaker 2: Boys came in and they were all like picking up
Speaker 2: our shit and playing it and We're like and everyone
Speaker 2: just thought, oh no, these guys like they're arrogant, they
Speaker 2: think they know everything, you know, Rick, and no one
Speaker 2: wanted to work with them. But he also like there
Speaker 2: was a lot of heroin going on in our band
Speaker 2: at the time, in fighting all this shit. We were
Speaker 2: not in a good energetic place. It wasn't long you
Speaker 2: know before HELLEL died got but anyway, so he came
Speaker 2: in and it didn't work out, like he was just
Speaker 2: like he said it was like later on he told me, man,
Speaker 2: the vibe was so bad, Like I didn't even realize
Speaker 2: how bad it was, but he was like, it felt
Speaker 2: like death.
Speaker 1: In that room.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, you know, damn you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like didn't even really clock it myself.
Speaker 2: I was just trying to make it through and do something.
Speaker 2: But by the time he came around again, you know,
Speaker 2: we had done our first tour with John. We made
Speaker 2: Mother's Milk and things were very optimistic. We were playing
Speaker 2: our asses off like things had gotten difficult before that.
Speaker 2: You know. Helll was kind of in and out of
Speaker 2: drug problems, and he left, came back. We hired Blackbird
Speaker 2: McKnight for a while. Didn't work out Hellell came back,
Speaker 2: he died, and then we get John. We get this kid,
Speaker 2: this hot shot kid, and who's just like, we'll do
Speaker 2: anything to be a good musician, like a most driven
Speaker 2: musician I've ever met in my little life.
Speaker 1: And how is word getting out that you like? Was
Speaker 1: this the days of you read I met backstage or
Speaker 1: you put an add out or something.
Speaker 2: No. I met John through Dh Poligro, who was the
Speaker 2: drummer in the Dead Kennedy's, who was a very close
Speaker 2: friend of mine. We passed away Rip a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago, and Dh said, I know this kid, he's
Speaker 2: just awesomelest jam got together and jammed, and I remember
Speaker 2: in that jam, it was the first time I ever went.
Speaker 2: I started going doing good, God doing Good, the higher
Speaker 2: ground thing I just as part of a jam, and
Speaker 2: oh wow, that'd be a good cover. But met John
Speaker 2: and then I can't but I think, you know, we
Speaker 2: hired BlackBerry and it just wasn't the chemistry wasn't working out.
Speaker 2: And then I had this thing I'd recorded at home
Speaker 2: on my FoST text four track. I was like, let
Speaker 2: me just see what this kid would do. And he
Speaker 2: came over and you know, sat with me started and
Speaker 2: it was like damn, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 2: right in the pocket, like good everything I could have wanted.
Speaker 2: I remember calling Anthony, who was in Michigan drying out,
Speaker 2: you know he was before he got sober. He was
Speaker 2: like on a dry out, you know, to get it together.
Speaker 2: I was like, I just played with this kid. The
Speaker 2: kid is you know, it's serious. I think he's our guy.
Speaker 2: And he came back some John was playing in his
Speaker 2: Bancelonia spons to our friends. Anyways, we get John, We're
Speaker 2: doing really good. We did Made Mother's Milk. We go
Speaker 2: on tour and we really reached a peak like playing
Speaker 2: we did, Like right at the end of the tour,
Speaker 2: we played in La the Greek Theater. Rick came saw
Speaker 2: the show and it was just chemistry was just right,
Speaker 2: like we were at our peak. He was blown away.
Speaker 2: Our energy was real good and he was like, let's
Speaker 2: make a record together, and we got together. There was
Speaker 2: never anything that he said it was like changing us
Speaker 2: in a way that felt uncomfortable. He was like, every
Speaker 2: time you guys make a record, you get in a
Speaker 2: studio and you change what you do. It's not like
Speaker 2: what I hear in this room, you know, what I mean.
Speaker 2: It always becomes like this sounds triggering others sounds and
Speaker 2: too much compression, overthinking, like over and he was like,
Speaker 2: I just want to like the way you guys sound
Speaker 2: when you jam free in the room, the warmth of it,
Speaker 2: and the invention and all the stuff, like the funkiness.
Speaker 2: He's like, all we got to do is like get
Speaker 2: in a room, get sounds, put up mics, and do it.
Speaker 2: And then he started having really good ideas about arrangements
Speaker 2: and stuff, like we'd play songs and he would be like,
Speaker 2: you know, cut the outro. Can you do it in
Speaker 2: a key lower? You know, it'd be better for Anthony's
Speaker 2: voice or whatever it was. And he was like, all
Speaker 2: I ask of you is that you at least try
Speaker 2: every idea I have. We don't have to do it,
Speaker 2: but try it with an open mind. And we just
Speaker 2: took to it and did it and it was working,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It just felt like magic.
Speaker 2: Every day we rehearsed for that record. We played for
Speaker 2: like a year before we went in the studio, right,
Speaker 2: played like five days a week. Every day. I remember
Speaker 2: going home thinking like, got something good new happened today.
Speaker 2: It was like be like a bridge, like the bridge
Speaker 2: for the song Blood Sugar or something like always someone
Speaker 2: was coming with some little idea. And also we spent
Speaker 2: more than half the time just jamming. Like there's one
Speaker 2: point like we were just we'd come in, just set
Speaker 2: up and just jam free for at least an hour
Speaker 2: before we even worked on a song. And it was
Speaker 2: just like and great all the time, ideas off the
Speaker 2: time just disappearing into me that well we did that,
Speaker 2: we did that, And so we were so in a
Speaker 2: place of playing together. And also I think like when
Speaker 2: John first joined us on Mother's Milk, he was trying
Speaker 2: to fit in, you know what I mean. And he
Speaker 2: was clearly like a you know, stunning talent, but he
Speaker 2: hadn't really, i think, trusted himself yet to just go
Speaker 2: be himself and be free, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He was still wanting to fit into what we had
Speaker 2: gone and then when he started, like by Blood Sugar,
Speaker 2: trying to be himself, he was bringing us shit that
Speaker 2: we never had before.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, as the director of the S and L
Speaker 1: Music Dot, yeah, I couldn't get you for the interview,
Speaker 1: and you know that I wanted to talk to you
Speaker 1: about fear and all that other stuff, but the one
Speaker 1: thing that people like wanted meet it. I was just
Speaker 1: asking the most simple way possible. Yeah. Yeah, ten minutes
Speaker 1: after one minute after your performance of under the Bridge,
Speaker 1: which is legendarily talked about, so fucked up? What happened backstage?
Speaker 2: I can't remember what happened backstage. I remember the state
Speaker 2: of the band. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant. The state
Speaker 2: of the band going into it was not good. It
Speaker 2: was right, you know, before John quit, right he you know,
Speaker 2: we had had this huge success, like our first really huge, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is the moment up on the
Speaker 1: top pop charts. Yes, you've blown thegyes is this is
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: And I think we were just a mess. You know,
Speaker 2: we were all going in different directions. John was like
Speaker 2: anti rock star. He's like, I do not like being famous.
Speaker 2: I do not like being in a famous rock band,
Speaker 2: and I do not like you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He was not happy with me, He was not happy
Speaker 2: with Anthony. And the song itself was a song, you know,
Speaker 2: it was very new for Anthony to be singing a
Speaker 2: ballad like that, and he was like, I think he
Speaker 2: asked John before we did the song to you know,
Speaker 2: give me the tone, you know what I mean before
Speaker 2: so I could just have it in my head and
Speaker 2: I think John didn't do it. And then when it
Speaker 2: came time to sing the background vocals, he just you know, yeah.
Speaker 1: He went rogue. Yeah, he went for people that don't
Speaker 1: basically you know, the the end of the song where
Speaker 1: you're supposed to sing the background, he just rages and screams.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He wasn't gonna. He just was like anti.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the history behind it. Yeah, so watch
Speaker 1: him for the first time. I was like, oh, he's
Speaker 1: this intense version of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So no, Well he quit right after that, and
Speaker 2: he was just we had made this record, and when
Speaker 2: we got on a tour he for a variety of reasons,
Speaker 2: which I don't you know what I mean. I can't
Speaker 2: speak for him, but he was, without doubt, very disillusioned
Speaker 2: with everything about it and had really kind of separated himself.
Speaker 2: And I was also like, I was going through a
Speaker 2: period I don't know what of extreme anxiety and unhappiness
Speaker 2: and sleeplessness, gotten divorced. I just wasn't doing good, man.
Speaker 2: I remember like I felt so bad in sleep. I
Speaker 2: was like, I look like shit. I remember, like I
Speaker 2: had like this, like you know, you put a face
Speaker 2: mask on and I was like hiding. I covered my
Speaker 2: face in a face mask, I think, and like you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like it was just this we
Speaker 2: were just a mess everyone. I think Anthony was like,
Speaker 2: you know, so excited that we were doing so well.
Speaker 2: We got Sad Night Live, we having a record, and
Speaker 2: he was like, what the fuck is the matter with
Speaker 2: you guys? Like we got everything we ever wanted, and
Speaker 2: he sees me like crawling into my shell. He sees
Speaker 2: John being completely anti and he was just you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And I can't remember afterwards, but there
Speaker 2: was probably some screaming and yelling and unhappiness and yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like, you know, man as our band, like
Speaker 2: as times if we've had like complete light and riding
Speaker 2: this wave of like love and togetherness, we've gone the
Speaker 2: other way too, you know what I mean. And it's
Speaker 2: like you were talking earlier about us huddling together, like
Speaker 2: it's not always you know, it's always close, but it's
Speaker 2: not always like we're not always expressing or your human fondness. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I'm not. I think, like the one when you
Speaker 2: asked me whatever I said, I probably in that moment
Speaker 2: we were actually being like, whoa, this is beautiful, Like.
Speaker 1: Oh, you have enough to convince me, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I wouldn't lie. I wouldn't lie about it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. But there's many times where
Speaker 2: it's just like someone expressing, you know, displeasure.
Speaker 1: All right, my last three questions. Jeez, if you could
Speaker 1: go back to the age of ten in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: two for one hour with a brain and monology you have, now,
Speaker 1: what would you do?
Speaker 2: Go back and I can speak to myself or go
Speaker 2: back and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll allow you to speak to yourself.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I just like one, believe in yourself, trust
Speaker 2: your instinct, trust your love, focus on that music, do
Speaker 2: the work, don't you know? Stay off the pipe?
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, okay.
Speaker 2: I was with Chris Rock. We were at a Laker
Speaker 2: game and Chris go is like, your kids run up
Speaker 2: to him photographs and stuff. It's like in the nineties,
Speaker 2: and he was like, give a kid. It's like sweet, look,
Speaker 2: give audio. Stay off the pipe. That's very very funny.
Speaker 1: All right, what song do you absolutely love that everyone
Speaker 1: is indifferent about our hates or what's the embarrassing I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I'm not embarrassed about.
Speaker 1: Any of it still away or like.
Speaker 2: I can't only think of anything because there's always someone
Speaker 2: that loves it. But there's one thing that, like, my
Speaker 2: friends used to really give me ship for loving hit me,
Speaker 2: which was and I wish I remember the name of
Speaker 2: a song. It was Hoody and the Blowfish and it
Speaker 2: might have been their first big hit. And I can't even.
Speaker 1: Think I want to be with you or hold my hand.
Speaker 2: I think it was I only want to be with you, okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I loved it. I was just like it made
Speaker 2: me feel good, and everyone was just like, what the
Speaker 2: fuck does the matter with you?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And Culture Club? I used to like Culture Club, but
Speaker 2: I remember people are making fun of me for that too.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah in my world, man, it wasn't cool.
Speaker 2: I was like, it's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are great songs. We gotta get boy Georgia
Speaker 1: on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, boy George get him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. My last question, what is the most
Speaker 1: difficult part of your job that no one ever gets
Speaker 1: to see?
Speaker 2: Managing time and work, being relentlessly diligent about doing the
Speaker 2: work to the sacrifice of other parts of my life.
Speaker 2: Being on tour, like people have this ridiculous fantasy that
Speaker 2: it's just like this glamour, it's like rockstar glamour, and
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, sitting alone in a hotel room,
Speaker 2: my ears ringing, thinking, Okay, nurture myself, be ready for
Speaker 2: the next show. Like that's the hard part, you know, Yeah, all.
Speaker 1: Right, it's actually one point five because the thing is
Speaker 1: you're also an athlete on stage, and there's this expectation.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're going to be flexible. That's all part of.
Speaker 2: It, you know what I mean, Like nearly, like do.
Speaker 1: You rue the day? Like right now, Bootsy Collins is
Speaker 1: not picking up a base because it's beck just can't
Speaker 1: take it anymore.
Speaker 2: Well, I do everything I can to take care of
Speaker 2: myself physically, and I you know, pretty much every Chili
Speaker 2: Pepper show, I push myself to abject exhaustion to like
Speaker 2: I'm just done. I got nothing left at the end.
Speaker 2: But you know, I want to give it to the people,
Speaker 2: Like I just feel like this is my job, Like
Speaker 2: if I'm going to do it, it's always been all
Speaker 2: or nothing for me. It's like give it everything you got,
Speaker 2: or you know, be in miss the middle of the
Speaker 2: road player fucked.
Speaker 1: Up as a new artist. Yeah, I think you're going
Speaker 1: to make it.
Speaker 2: I got a piece so bad and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: This is it, I get it.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'll you read that all right.
Speaker 1: It's Quest Love Show evers Flee Thank You. Quest Love
Speaker 1: Show is hosted by me a Mere Quest Love Thompson.
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