Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: You to stop Fight. You used to stop fight. Now
Speaker 1: I'm burning my own body down to stop. Today, I'll
Speaker 1: start with a prediction. This will be Here's the Thing's
Speaker 1: most downloaded episode of next to stud Anyway Stop. This
Speaker 1: show is usually my way of taking you into the
Speaker 1: lives and careers of giants. People at the top of
Speaker 1: their mountain looking down. Today our guests are at the
Speaker 1: base of the mountain looking up. Perda is at a
Speaker 1: thrilling moment for any great band. This track is called
Speaker 1: from Fire, and it's the only song they've released in
Speaker 1: the Beatles timeline. It's after the Kasba Coffee Club, but
Speaker 1: before George Martin. They're represented by William Morris, but the
Speaker 1: frontman still works at Starbucks. They had a profile and
Speaker 1: paper magazine, but the guitarist mom drove them to our interview.
Speaker 1: Perda's frontman is Matt Bazulka, and there are only a
Speaker 1: handful of people in a generation with his talent and
Speaker 1: stage presence. Within a year, maybe two, you will know
Speaker 1: his name. But joined by the band's founder, Colin Kenrick
Speaker 1: in a small l a studio for our conversation. He's
Speaker 1: still just a normal kid, well not normal exactly. Something
Speaker 1: his parents accommodated. I wanted to perform since I was
Speaker 1: very young. Um, they had me trying different sports out
Speaker 1: and then um, one day during wrestling match, I got
Speaker 1: like flipped over and lost of tooth and they were like,
Speaker 1: maybe we should dry the art. And Pennsylvania like rural Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: It's called the Lehigh Valley. Yeah, it's a small collection
Speaker 1: of towns. I remember I made like the front page
Speaker 1: of the newspaper when I was eight years old because
Speaker 1: I was the only male dancer in like the entire alley. Well,
Speaker 1: when I listened to you is when you're there, You're
Speaker 1: at the gig, at the troubadour. Where's the one where
Speaker 1: you're wearing the white and I'm sitting there watch and
Speaker 1: you stand up, you like make an entrance, even they
Speaker 1: were already there. You stand up, and I'll let you
Speaker 1: describe it. I don't want to say it's Elvis. I
Speaker 1: don't want to say it. Share that white jumpsuits split
Speaker 1: open to the navel, the fringes I'm going look at
Speaker 1: this guy originally was not actually to the navel, but
Speaker 1: they didn't have air conditioning. Yeah, and you opened your
Speaker 1: mouth and I thought I was going to pass out.
Speaker 1: Did you train? I mean I took a year of
Speaker 1: lessons when I was like eleven. Whose idea was it?
Speaker 1: My mom? You and you left there when you were
Speaker 1: how old? Right after I graduated high school to go
Speaker 1: where here? Yeah? Well that's the thing is, it's like
Speaker 1: I have this kind of ignorance, is bliss way about
Speaker 1: like finding things in life. And I just kind of
Speaker 1: followed this one teacher that I really trusted. She's like,
Speaker 1: there's a school called Calerts that I think you'll really love.
Speaker 1: I had never even been to the West Coast. I
Speaker 1: hadn't even really traveled. My first day in California was
Speaker 1: my first day of school. Did you like it right away? Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I was all weirdo in high school, so I felt
Speaker 1: like I fit right in. Yeah. And for training, I
Speaker 1: mean like they went for acting. So the voice training
Speaker 1: that they did was for speech and distinction like theater
Speaker 1: the right and for you talking to Colin ken Rick, now,
Speaker 1: for you, what was music in your life? Was a child?
Speaker 1: Like what did you listen to? Were you rapidly into music?
Speaker 1: What's what's your musical? D n A. So music was
Speaker 1: the connection to my dad. I was raised on the
Speaker 1: classic songwriters, you know, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, w local Il,
Speaker 1: A kid in the suburbs and going up my dad.
Speaker 1: I remember him showing me a Dylan song when I
Speaker 1: was thirteen. It was Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather by
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, and that was a song that it was
Speaker 1: like a sailor song. For some reason, this story really
Speaker 1: spoke to me. And then when I started playing music,
Speaker 1: you picked up a what I picked up a guitar.
Speaker 1: I picked up a guitar and fumbled through some chords.
Speaker 1: So I started with that and I eventually moved on
Speaker 1: to you know, people like Ellett Smith, just kind of
Speaker 1: the classic songwriters, really angsty. That was my bag. So
Speaker 1: shifting this project, it's very much away from what I
Speaker 1: used to write because it's not really worked in my bed.
Speaker 1: How old do you know? I six? Right? Did you
Speaker 1: have another band before the span high school band? You
Speaker 1: know nothing to you know, nothing to write home about.
Speaker 1: Someone's laughing mockingly. It's not me. No, they're wonderful videos
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We're not talking about this. I can't wait. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I went to school for this and I started
Speaker 1: doing songwriting and I wasn't really sure what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do when I When I left and we both
Speaker 1: went to cal Arts, to California's through the Arts up
Speaker 1: in Valencia, California. Great place. And did you meet there?
Speaker 1: Sort of? We knew each other. We were in one
Speaker 1: class I remember. Yeah, I don't remember that class because
Speaker 1: you were hot and it was a science quote unquote class.
Speaker 1: But what about music of your generation? Beyond the Beatles
Speaker 1: and Simon and graphical whatever. What did you listen to?
Speaker 1: What did you love? Oh? Man, I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's anything I really loved. I think it was just
Speaker 1: a matter of influence for me from you know, where
Speaker 1: I was receiving music from, you know, mostly my dad
Speaker 1: and kind of his group of friends, and you're raised
Speaker 1: on something else. Oh yeah, absolutely? What was this music
Speaker 1: of your generation? What was it missing? As far as
Speaker 1: you were concerned? I think it really was missing the storytelling,
Speaker 1: the structure of a song explaining a story, whereas it
Speaker 1: just felt like an even more so now about the
Speaker 1: hooks and the catchiness and repetitiveness. Yeah, what's the first
Speaker 1: time that you sang, this is always intriguing to me
Speaker 1: because I had this. I had this wonderful conversation with
Speaker 1: Tom York about this. Tom York sits here with me
Speaker 1: in our studio when York and says, you know that
Speaker 1: he hated his voice. He didn't think he could sing.
Speaker 1: When did you first? How old were you and where
Speaker 1: were you when people first said to you you could
Speaker 1: do this. We went in the bathroom and like a
Speaker 1: share outfit with a brush in your hand. Do you
Speaker 1: believe that Sarah wasn't my da? I mean, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, honor and respect her. But Britney spears, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's perfect, It's perfect. Again in the bathroom of distinctly,
Speaker 1: I got her CD. Oh god, I think it was
Speaker 1: the second one. I wanted it so bad for Christmas,
Speaker 1: and my grandma bought it for me, but she she
Speaker 1: the way she handed it to me. So how we
Speaker 1: did is we unwrapped gifts and then we went up
Speaker 1: and had to say thank you, So I like, unwrapped
Speaker 1: the gift anyway, just saying thank you, and she's like,
Speaker 1: oh that trash, and my mom just yelled from the
Speaker 1: other room. He likes what he likes. Leave him alone,
Speaker 1: always my whole childhood, my mom. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that was the beginning. Well yeah, I mean honestly,
Speaker 1: like my siblings and I would put on productions at
Speaker 1: my grandparents house in the summertime, and I was like
Speaker 1: the one who was into performing. So I was like
Speaker 1: the director and like stars. I was in the nicolas um,
Speaker 1: you know. I I think I pursued acting because I
Speaker 1: didn't really I remember there was a moment in high
Speaker 1: school when I was really starting to think about music seriously,
Speaker 1: and there was somebody who asked me. They're like, well,
Speaker 1: do you understand music theory? And I think that deterred
Speaker 1: me because my mind couldn't really grasp chord progressions, and
Speaker 1: so I was just like, I don't know. I I
Speaker 1: I honestly thought of music as like magic, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, Okay, well that's out of reach, but like,
Speaker 1: how can I continue to express myself? And I really
Speaker 1: love dissecting plays and like reading them. And she's still
Speaker 1: on the fence about whether you want to keep up
Speaker 1: acting and do this full time. No, you know, thanks
Speaker 1: to Colin, like I feel a lot more confident about
Speaker 1: doing this and and I get the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: So like with the songwriting process, the lyrics are very
Speaker 1: like story driven. Um, we only have the one song
Speaker 1: out now, but a lot of the songs that are
Speaker 1: from Fire and the like, trust that one's about growing
Speaker 1: up in Pennsylvania, that one's about not having much money.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to the songwriting thing after I ask
Speaker 1: you described me. How did the whole group come together.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a long road. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: we kind of knew each other in college, and you
Speaker 1: knew we could sing. No, no, I had no idea
Speaker 1: nothing of the start. So I left cal Arts. I
Speaker 1: got a great education, but I was very deterred from
Speaker 1: music making. I was very self conscious about my own process. Um,
Speaker 1: I was looking around and Cal Arts is the best
Speaker 1: of everybody, right, It's like the best of every town
Speaker 1: in the country coming together. So you get there and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're like, wow, I thought I
Speaker 1: was great, but this guy is super good at this,
Speaker 1: and this guy is really good at this, and it
Speaker 1: deterred me from my own process because I was trying
Speaker 1: to do what everyone else was doing. So by the
Speaker 1: time I graduated, I thought I was done with music.
Speaker 1: I thought music was like behind me. I went into
Speaker 1: music management, you know. I got a job at a
Speaker 1: music management company. I eventually end up working as a
Speaker 1: talent agent for a little bit where I worked at
Speaker 1: a place called First Artist Management and shout out to them.
Speaker 1: It's a small boutique UH composer agency for film and
Speaker 1: television composers. But I was managing another group out of college,
Speaker 1: Um and Matt. We put them in a warehouse show
Speaker 1: for them and Super Illegal and Matt very opened for
Speaker 1: the band that I was working with, and he came
Speaker 1: on stage with the producers a guy on a computer
Speaker 1: and like opened his mouth and I had the same
Speaker 1: reaction you did. I just like stopped. I walked up
Speaker 1: to him immediately after the show. I was just like,
Speaker 1: d how do I not know this about you? You know,
Speaker 1: how do I not know you're this kind of singer?
Speaker 1: And I just said, let me take you to dinner tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It was like the next day, I was like, let
Speaker 1: me take you to dinner. Did you have the money
Speaker 1: to take him to dinner? Did you actually have them?
Speaker 1: I pretended, absolutely pretending because all we got was appetizers.
Speaker 1: I got drinks. It's a very nice place, so we
Speaker 1: sat down and I said, you know, you're amazing. What
Speaker 1: do you wanted of music? What is it that you need?
Speaker 1: And we both kind of simultaneously came to the conclusion
Speaker 1: that he needed live musicians because being on stage by
Speaker 1: yourself with a guy on a computer didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it fulfilled his vision. I find this facet you began
Speaker 1: to conceive is going to bet you with a synthesizer.
Speaker 1: It was just we wanted to We wanted a band
Speaker 1: because he because he was so dynamic on stage, and
Speaker 1: I got the sense that he was a little bit
Speaker 1: bored because he didn't have the ability to interact with people.
Speaker 1: It felt it was it was it was lonely to
Speaker 1: be honest, like like it was. It was a very
Speaker 1: no I mean yeah, I mean I was. I'm just
Speaker 1: like used to like being an ensemble and like it
Speaker 1: was a lonely process and like, um, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of times where I wanted to change something, but
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily have the vocabulary. And now, like being
Speaker 1: in a room full of like live musicians, I can
Speaker 1: be like it should you know, if it could feel
Speaker 1: like this, that would be amazing. And like Danny our
Speaker 1: bass player can be like Okay, well, what if we
Speaker 1: try you know what I mean? Sometimes all I can
Speaker 1: use is like imagery for that kind of stuff because
Speaker 1: I don't have the vocabulary that they have. So the
Speaker 1: two of you go out and get who what happens now?
Speaker 1: So after we talk, I texted a lot of the
Speaker 1: guys who you know are now in the group, and
Speaker 1: I made a joke. I'm like, I'm starting supergroup right
Speaker 1: around this lead singer. Here's like a voice moment on
Speaker 1: an iPhone, maybe a thirty second clip of him singing. Right.
Speaker 1: So I texted, you know, Daniel Zuktar bass player, Justin
Speaker 1: Siegel are drummer, and I was like, tomorrow my bedroom,
Speaker 1: everybody meet, bring your instruments. And it was the next day.
Speaker 1: They were like, yeah, I'm in sounds great? Was that
Speaker 1: like for you? I was so embarrassed because they like
Speaker 1: actually joyed that clip enough to like come in. And
Speaker 1: I also like, growing up, I didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of guy friends, so it was like I was very
Speaker 1: very nervous. In fact, I had one guy friend, Um
Speaker 1: and Colin made everything really really comfortable and the guys
Speaker 1: were super super chill, and but I was nervous because,
Speaker 1: like I just didn't know if they were interested in
Speaker 1: the thing or if they thought something was like stupid
Speaker 1: or um and I, you know, I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was very like on edge about the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But then like as soon as we got into the
Speaker 1: room and there was this the first song UM written
Speaker 1: was a song called Skittles and UM, we just started
Speaker 1: playing it together there they're Colin was like, let's just
Speaker 1: jam on it, and I was like, that's I had
Speaker 1: like a kind of like a I was like this.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is it. This is like never
Speaker 1: jammed before, never had and so I don't know, it
Speaker 1: was cool. It was cool, It was it felt fun.
Speaker 1: It was before actually had a different guitar player at
Speaker 1: the time. Interesting, how do you tell someone but it's
Speaker 1: not he's so sweet, like a very sweet I think
Speaker 1: what happened ultimately was it's nothing to do with reflection
Speaker 1: of anybody's ability or talent. It became clear just at
Speaker 1: that point in our lives, at the four of us,
Speaker 1: you know, we were the ones who are like this
Speaker 1: is this is it for us? This was kind of
Speaker 1: are all in. There was no like backup options. It
Speaker 1: was just for a bunch of young men. Where do
Speaker 1: you rehearse? Where do you right? How do you get
Speaker 1: out of the garage and into the club and performing?
Speaker 1: We're still in the kitchen. That's were the bedroom band
Speaker 1: to a kitchen band because there was another place. But
Speaker 1: in an ideal world, is there another place you should
Speaker 1: be rehearsing? Yeah, certainly, I just think, Uh, there's an
Speaker 1: endless amount of studio space in l A. It's just
Speaker 1: to rehearse, to rehearse. It's just it's expensive and unfortunately
Speaker 1: that's the process. I mean, we're pretty young as a band,
Speaker 1: and we've been incredibly fortunate um for a lot of
Speaker 1: the opportunities we received. You know, we started out playing
Speaker 1: like the smallest bars and clubs you've never heard of,
Speaker 1: right like where Yeah, like the State Social House, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. We're like in West Hollywood, Like
Speaker 1: this is all like many seats, we're playing to a
Speaker 1: wall and the people the literally very small and like
Speaker 1: this is the stage was as big as this stage.
Speaker 1: Imagine like a drum kit, basis, a keyboard, everything was
Speaker 1: on and you were one of how many acts on
Speaker 1: the show That meant oh that was just us. It
Speaker 1: was just thirty five minutes. Yeah, we did our best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the sound guy took a phone call and yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: it was amazing. That's why it's it's interesting to the
Speaker 1: process like where we started and obviously we have a
Speaker 1: long way to go, but you know, we've been really
Speaker 1: lucky about you know, we headlined the Trooper Door at
Speaker 1: some point because we got an option. Did that happened?
Speaker 1: So we got an opportunity to open for We played
Speaker 1: there twice beforehand. You would play there a couple of
Speaker 1: times before. How do you first get into the Trooper Door? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you send up a tape. Usually came to the
Speaker 1: little club that you were in. The first opportunity was
Speaker 1: our bass player played in another band, kind of local.
Speaker 1: They've since disbanded um and they were playing and they
Speaker 1: wanted an opening act, right, They had a couple of
Speaker 1: bands playing, three or four bands playing, so we played.
Speaker 1: Then the next time one of the acts was there
Speaker 1: and saw us. Him and his manager approached us because
Speaker 1: they thought we fit their style and they really liked
Speaker 1: our show and like, will you guys be our opener?
Speaker 1: And after that show, I got in pretty close with
Speaker 1: the booker at the Troubador. His name is Amy. She
Speaker 1: like emailed me the next day like hey, great show,
Speaker 1: Like when we booked Purda for a headlining show, and
Speaker 1: then that was it. And then from there we did
Speaker 1: our headlining show and someone from w OM came because
Speaker 1: he knew Amy really well, and she's like, you gotta
Speaker 1: come check out the show, and you know, we we
Speaker 1: did a couple of creative things. My roommate actually works
Speaker 1: at WOM, so he went to the A and R
Speaker 1: people secretly without mentioning our relationship, was like, listen, you
Speaker 1: gotta cover this show. I promise you'd be great. So
Speaker 1: they sent a couple of agents who had no expectations
Speaker 1: like all right, some local band whatever. And after the show,
Speaker 1: like they all came up to me, and you know,
Speaker 1: our agent, Ben Schiffer was just kind of like this
Speaker 1: is amazing, um, like can how do we talk? The
Speaker 1: reason I love this because this is something I'm kind
Speaker 1: of obsessed with is I'm always saying to people like
Speaker 1: when they'rever I've taught acting, they get right to the
Speaker 1: career question. If we do a Q and A. They
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about lighting in films and they
Speaker 1: don't want to have anything technical. They're like, how do
Speaker 1: I get an agent, how do I make it? You know?
Speaker 1: For their version of that, And I'll say to them,
Speaker 1: you know, be in anything like, you got to just
Speaker 1: put it out there. You gotta play in the shitty
Speaker 1: little club that's got like we're just playing to a wall.
Speaker 1: You've got to put it out there and it's going
Speaker 1: to come back to you. And if you don't, it
Speaker 1: might take some time. And if it doesn't come back
Speaker 1: to you and you put it out there, then you
Speaker 1: know you tried. This is not what our My guests
Speaker 1: are lead singer Matt Basolka and keyboardist slash manager Colin
Speaker 1: Kenrick of the band Perta. This is their song still Unrelieved,
Speaker 1: East the Woods on the Brier. Nobody had an eye
Speaker 1: for the big act like Ron Delsoner New York's foremost
Speaker 1: concert promoter for more than forty years. It's a huge
Speaker 1: and poorly understood job. I had this show at p
Speaker 1: eighty four, which has appeared that the long showman control that.
Speaker 1: I didn't really know that until they said, hey, we've
Speaker 1: got to help you here. A lot of the guys
Speaker 1: day will connect the who cares. I'll tell you about
Speaker 1: that later when the guy dies he's still alive. The
Speaker 1: rest of that conversation in our archive that here's the
Speaker 1: thing dot org after the break. What it's like having
Speaker 1: major label A and R court you at night, then
Speaker 1: serving Latte's in the morning and come do this let
Speaker 1: that game. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I'm gonna take flight off the chi
Speaker 1: because I can feel in my bones. I've got that
Speaker 1: East Coast thunderfol cats in the valley on my pelvis,
Speaker 1: and I got in my family's faith and I gave
Speaker 1: it to me. I gotta trust funds like it doesn't
Speaker 1: love trust fund from the band Perta, which includes my
Speaker 1: two guests today, Colin Kenrick and Matt Basalka, who are
Speaker 1: still figuring out how to overcome stage fright. This is Matt.
Speaker 1: I do very very nervous, but I have this thing
Speaker 1: I haven't told anybody yet, but I like pretend like
Speaker 1: I'm walking into warm water and that really helps me.
Speaker 1: And I always try to make an entrance um one
Speaker 1: for the theatricality of it, but like also because fans
Speaker 1: demanded right exactly all three of them. Um. It just
Speaker 1: helps me like kind of like click into place I
Speaker 1: can fall back on the technical if I need to,
Speaker 1: But I end up always kind of after at least
Speaker 1: the first song. I I always kind of get lost
Speaker 1: and like I don't know, like I said, when I
Speaker 1: was growing up and I was performing those shows for
Speaker 1: my grandparents, it was always just such bliss and freedom
Speaker 1: and like um and we were running amuck around the
Speaker 1: house and like all of the crafts were available to
Speaker 1: us from the basement, so we were able to make
Speaker 1: these costumes. And because the lights are in my eyes
Speaker 1: are like it really feels like I'm going back to
Speaker 1: like those times. If I would do a movie, it
Speaker 1: was always like what can I do to stay in
Speaker 1: a certain state that is symbiotic with the work I'm doing.
Speaker 1: So if I'm doing something very light, the hardest thing
Speaker 1: is to be as light and free and funny and
Speaker 1: warm and generous of spirit. So I was doing like
Speaker 1: a comedy. I go in my room and I'd watch
Speaker 1: like Dopeye comedies on the TV. I'd watch something like
Speaker 1: it Hot, and I'd watch Nothing to Take to blow
Speaker 1: the wind, you know. My sales in any direction that
Speaker 1: was like heavy, so that when they say, okay, we're
Speaker 1: ready for you, they knock up the trail and they
Speaker 1: go We're ready for you, and I go out and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, I'm ready and whatever my thing is.
Speaker 1: And then if it was the opposite, if I was
Speaker 1: doing something really heavy and really dark, We're watching Scarface
Speaker 1: on a loop like for nine hours old and wanted
Speaker 1: to stay in that zone of like you want to
Speaker 1: funk with me, you want to funk with me, okay,
Speaker 1: but then I want to paddle back into that current
Speaker 1: in front of the camera. So for you, you try
Speaker 1: to relax and get yourself in some zones. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: usually spend the day like being alone. I have to.
Speaker 1: I have to like interesting. Yeah, even in New York,
Speaker 1: like the boys stayed in one house and I got
Speaker 1: to see you when you were barbed, like don't come in.
Speaker 1: You never's quiet, and then the day of the show
Speaker 1: comes and it's just like silent. It's you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. He doesn't want to talk to anybody. It's
Speaker 1: like very like you whisper to him. He's the maestro.
Speaker 1: He's drinking teen Like all right, so talk to me
Speaker 1: about songwriting. Do you have an album's worth the songs together?
Speaker 1: At this point, we probably have an album's worth if
Speaker 1: not a little bit more. How many songs is an
Speaker 1: album now? I mean, yeah, we have more than that.
Speaker 1: I mean we probably, but like finished from this yeah, finished,
Speaker 1: unfinished the twentiesomething songs fire. You wrote that song? Yeah,
Speaker 1: lyric and melody, not chord progression, Like that's all these boys? Now?
Speaker 1: Why is that the song that's out there that you
Speaker 1: released in social media? It was our like groovyoust most
Speaker 1: upbeat thing um, which I mean, and also like what
Speaker 1: I love about it now, which is not something that
Speaker 1: we're thinking about at the time, but I think it
Speaker 1: is like the truth testament of like how we function
Speaker 1: as a band. So like I originally had written that
Speaker 1: on my shitty guitar and brought it and it was
Speaker 1: a ballad. It was like a very Jeff Buckley like ballad.
Speaker 1: And for for maybe the first year we were trying
Speaker 1: to like figure out where that song should land. We
Speaker 1: performed a different ways and we did the rock ballad version,
Speaker 1: and you know, at the end of it, everybody was like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel right. And then I think it was
Speaker 1: Justin Justin he was like, um, our drummer, he said,
Speaker 1: he was like, uh, Danny, why don't you try to
Speaker 1: like funking it up, because Danny was like, we're he
Speaker 1: They were just jamming before rehearsal to warm up, and
Speaker 1: he was like doing some funk stuff. He's like, what
Speaker 1: if we funked up from fire? That's the beauty of
Speaker 1: this kind of collaboration is, you know, if you listen
Speaker 1: to the lyrics, the lyrics aren't necessarily as upbeat um
Speaker 1: as the feeling of it is. But I think that
Speaker 1: it represents how these boys and I interact and how
Speaker 1: I can trust them with like feelings and stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think at the time it was the
Speaker 1: song that where it felt like everything clicked for us.
Speaker 1: You know, when you started as a band, we all
Speaker 1: have very different backgrounds musically, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: it was the one where we all kind of came
Speaker 1: together and like, oh, this is our sound. This is
Speaker 1: what we've been kind of searching for that satisfies everybody's
Speaker 1: musical background and feels right. So when that song came
Speaker 1: together in its current rendition, it was just one that
Speaker 1: made sense. You mentioned that Justin was the one that said,
Speaker 1: funk this somebody, So it's collaborative in that sense, but
Speaker 1: is somebody the decider No, it's a group. Weally have
Speaker 1: this conversation last night because I mean that's the beauty
Speaker 1: of being with a bunch of emotionally intelligent people, is
Speaker 1: like our our fights aren't really fights, their their conversations.
Speaker 1: I told Justin I was to smack the ship out
Speaker 1: of him, and then they had a huge fight and
Speaker 1: now here don't do that. No, we just i mean
Speaker 1: had like a little moment of disagreement. We're like, okay,
Speaker 1: so like, how have we been deciding about things? But
Speaker 1: you're you're you're function as a road manager for the band. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah for now. I mean since we've been doing this,
Speaker 1: I've been you know, I'm the guy in the emails basically,
Speaker 1: but there was somebody who is the goal to get
Speaker 1: somebody external from the band to take Yeah, that's advisable.
Speaker 1: Yeah initially, I mean when we started this band, I
Speaker 1: was only the manager. I wasn't even the keyboard player,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I started playing what year ago.
Speaker 1: That's an incredible thing is he's as good as he
Speaker 1: is now and has only been playing for a year.
Speaker 1: He plays drums, drums, and who's the other one, Daniel
Speaker 1: is the bass player bass. She's still the keyboard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're the one that cut the throat of the other
Speaker 1: keyboard player and came to me. Looks at me and
Speaker 1: they're like, how are you gonna do this? Man? But
Speaker 1: you want to get no pun intended, but you want
Speaker 1: the Brian Epstein who's on the outside. We're also looking
Speaker 1: for George Martin. How do you at this stage? I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys haven't taken off yet so to speak, but
Speaker 1: how do you integrate everybody's musicianship? Meaning do you sit
Speaker 1: there and go we need to get him a solo.
Speaker 1: We need to talk about each person. I think the
Speaker 1: good thing about this band is everybody has strengths and weaknesses,
Speaker 1: but they compliment each other really nicely. So there's not
Speaker 1: like we am we leaning each other for those things,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? There are certain things where
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not as technically proficient as a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys in this band, but but I'm a songwriter,
Speaker 1: Like that's where I grew up doing, so I have
Speaker 1: a sense of how to craft songs and you know what,
Speaker 1: we're knowledge of music theory and I think I work
Speaker 1: as Matt's editor. He'll write something and I'm kind of
Speaker 1: like Okay, that's great, or like that's too many words.
Speaker 1: Can we consolidate them a little bit? That is not
Speaker 1: enough with him. Sometimes I will be like I have
Speaker 1: to go with my gut on this, and he respects that.
Speaker 1: It's tedious sometimes because you get so like solidified on something.
Speaker 1: But you know when you spend time away from it
Speaker 1: and you listen back to a rehearsal recording and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of syllables. What would you do now?
Speaker 1: Like what would you do? Like like if you could
Speaker 1: afford it financially. More rehearsal time is like getting in
Speaker 1: the room and just playing and playing and exploring together.
Speaker 1: I think the more recording time, honestly, I mean we've
Speaker 1: been we've been in a nicer facility. Well, well right
Speaker 1: now we're kind of making do with what we can.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Were you recording now? We
Speaker 1: work at the producer named Dan wideland shout out Dan.
Speaker 1: So from Fire was recorded in his studio in the
Speaker 1: studio in about fifteen hours. We did that and you
Speaker 1: have to pay for that. Yeah, that's why we did
Speaker 1: in one day. For a week we would have met it.
Speaker 1: You know, you have an even better song. So here's
Speaker 1: what's interesting to me. If someone dropped a chunk of
Speaker 1: money on you, you're gonna go and have a nice
Speaker 1: place to record. Is that like a dream for you
Speaker 1: to have? But have the freedom or you all have
Speaker 1: to work? You're working? How many jobs you're working down,
Speaker 1: I'd say two and a half. And what are they?
Speaker 1: If you want to say, um, I do work for Starbucks,
Speaker 1: that one is probably the one I'm ready to get
Speaker 1: rid of the most. I love them, They're a great company,
Speaker 1: But four thirty in the morning, five days a week,
Speaker 1: it's no fucking hard. Yeah, usual days like four thirty
Speaker 1: to one, and then um, I work in an after
Speaker 1: school program. Was actually is one of my favorite jobs
Speaker 1: because I've worked with kids um in different aspects UM.
Speaker 1: At the LGBT Center, I worked for two years in
Speaker 1: a program there with why honestly, I graduated uh cal
Speaker 1: arts and UM, I like there was a lot about
Speaker 1: queer culture that I was not familiar with. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of like stuff um internally that I wasn't
Speaker 1: dealing with healthily, and so I honestly joined that program
Speaker 1: because as much for yourself, Yeah, yeah, honestly, just because
Speaker 1: I wanted to want. It's so it's an educational program
Speaker 1: called Community Actually Network, and they go to high schools
Speaker 1: and middle schools and they educate the kids on their
Speaker 1: gender sexuality alliances. They organized them especially in the lower
Speaker 1: budget schools that like no teachers, and you felt you
Speaker 1: weren't taking care of yourself in that regard because I
Speaker 1: was learning. I was learning so so much. I was
Speaker 1: learning about transgender people and and and and activists that
Speaker 1: I had no idea existed before. When you grew up
Speaker 1: in the Lehigh Valley was an easier I commuted to
Speaker 1: a performing arts high school. Before then it was I
Speaker 1: had a very difficult time making friends. Um, yeah, the
Speaker 1: art school. Yeah, And you know, and I remember I
Speaker 1: got to high school and my main focus was trust,
Speaker 1: trying to make friends, and so I kind of I
Speaker 1: was talking to my mom about this the other day.
Speaker 1: It was a little bit of like an identity crisis
Speaker 1: just because I was I was saying yes to everything,
Speaker 1: and like, um, I remember my dad when we were
Speaker 1: growing up, was always playing kind of similar to Collin's.
Speaker 1: Dad was playing like the classics, like Bob Dylan, Tom
Speaker 1: Petty and the Heartbreakers and like and I loved that music.
Speaker 1: I loved hearing it um but I I also loved
Speaker 1: singing Indian and Britney spears, and those were my things.
Speaker 1: And then I got high school and it was like me,
Speaker 1: my all of my friends were listening to pop music.
Speaker 1: And I did enjoy it. But I kind of like
Speaker 1: turned my shoulder on my dad because I was just like, well,
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what it's cool, you know. And actually,
Speaker 1: and I really regretted. I really regretted because I but
Speaker 1: but there's a part of me that feels like I'm
Speaker 1: becoming conscious again and like re hearing all this music
Speaker 1: and like, you know, Colin will tell me somebody like
Speaker 1: that I should have known years ago, and he'll be like,
Speaker 1: you should listen to this song or this song. And
Speaker 1: so the past two years have been a little bit
Speaker 1: of like a what did you call this bridge over
Speaker 1: troubled water? But I can like feel it. I like, no,
Speaker 1: I've heard it before. And it's because my dad. I'm
Speaker 1: actually glad that Matt had, you know, was raised on that.
Speaker 1: You can hear it, you can hear it. And and
Speaker 1: so that's the weirdest part is like when we first
Speaker 1: started singing together, I literally was making vocal choices that
Speaker 1: I was like, where is this like guns and roses,
Speaker 1: like vibrato coming from? I got that from you when
Speaker 1: you sang the rock lead, the feminine and the masculine.
Speaker 1: And what's amazing is when you sing there's a power
Speaker 1: to you singing. Where does that come from? It's literally
Speaker 1: my brothers and sisters growing up in a family of
Speaker 1: like three sisters and I'm the youngest, um and a
Speaker 1: brother who all ended up joining the military. They joined
Speaker 1: for a reason. Very aggressive people. There's a part of
Speaker 1: your growth too, I think, because when we started, your
Speaker 1: predisposition was to do kind of a falsetto like a
Speaker 1: hot higher that's kind of what you grew up on.
Speaker 1: It was pretty as love like Jeff exactly, and I
Speaker 1: think it was like just like all of us in
Speaker 1: our process. And he eventually, like when he would get
Speaker 1: lower and kind of stuck that range, we kind of
Speaker 1: like do that more man, and then some sounds great.
Speaker 1: He did something he like growled, and I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: like that is to do that every song, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, just like sing from that area. And
Speaker 1: it's just like it's been a growth for all of us,
Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, just like our musical journey,
Speaker 1: his journey with discovering his voice. He's always been a
Speaker 1: great singer, but now he's really discovering his voice. Was
Speaker 1: there were a fear that if like a producer came
Speaker 1: along and was like, hey, man, you're you're you're, you're
Speaker 1: at that next show and the next person wokes up,
Speaker 1: that's going to care you over the next river, and
Speaker 1: and fill so and so walks and said, man, you
Speaker 1: guys great, I'm gonna do my camp be versions. You
Speaker 1: guys have finished. I want you to call me yet
Speaker 1: you know x y Z records in the morning seeing
Speaker 1: and then you call him. It's like he's just gonna
Speaker 1: funk with your show. And are you worried about that? That
Speaker 1: That people gonna go you just change this, do this,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think to make it the nice things
Speaker 1: when we sign with with William Morris, who when we
Speaker 1: love our agents over there is that they were kind
Speaker 1: of like, do whatever you're doing, just keep doing it,
Speaker 1: Like we want to help with the business aspect of things,
Speaker 1: but like your show is why we signed you, Like
Speaker 1: we do not want any part of the creative process.
Speaker 1: And I think, I mean, I think like anything, there's
Speaker 1: a given take. You know, I don't want us to
Speaker 1: assume that we know best because we are so young.
Speaker 1: You're doing this. You'll take the good ideas wherever they come.
Speaker 1: Have the text certain aspects that we don't want to lose.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not I mean, like I work, those
Speaker 1: don't have jobs. But I'd rather keep doing that than
Speaker 1: you know, be singing songs that don't mean it interesting. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: we got so we could ask all the time that like,
Speaker 1: would you work with you know, if if we had
Speaker 1: a you know, not from anybody up top, but just saying,
Speaker 1: you know, would you have a songwriter come in? Do
Speaker 1: you want to have someone write your songs for you
Speaker 1: and then to kind of sing them? And unanimously we're
Speaker 1: all like no, Like that's just not the fun. Part
Speaker 1: of this is that we get to write around music,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like if we're a cover band,
Speaker 1: we could just do covers. You know, what's the point
Speaker 1: if you're not really writing your own music. So even
Speaker 1: though if you eventually do sell out completely to make
Speaker 1: it today as of today your vowing not to, you're
Speaker 1: taking that vow today as of today. You're gonna throw
Speaker 1: that in the garbage maybe, but for today, today, today,
Speaker 1: recording this show, you are purely my heart. What's the
Speaker 1: next step to go to the next You have an
Speaker 1: agent at William Marks. What are they doing for you?
Speaker 1: Booking you in shows? So yeah, they booked us these
Speaker 1: two showcases for managers and labels, and as far as
Speaker 1: we know, people have reached out and there's a general
Speaker 1: in the street interest about us, and you know, at
Speaker 1: their advice, they're like, you know, we're not going to
Speaker 1: take anything right now because it's gonna be a bad deal,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's who knows what they're people are
Speaker 1: gonna try and screw you over. I mean, luckily we
Speaker 1: have a fantastic lawyer. Shout out Ken hurts very good
Speaker 1: like Congress, and I'm gonna get in texts seeing like
Speaker 1: you didn't shout me out, you know. So um So
Speaker 1: I think the next step for us, I think it's
Speaker 1: just more about back to songwriting, back to songwriting, really
Speaker 1: getting to the heart of what we do and playing
Speaker 1: as many time for that. Yeah, we need more to
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, you can take a break. What's your data? Dad,
Speaker 1: job up until the end of January was a talent
Speaker 1: agent and now I'm doing this band full time answering emails.
Speaker 1: And you come from a rich family, Oh I wish,
Speaker 1: but I come from very resilient family. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that. Well. I just want to say that
Speaker 1: that you know, the chance to divert towards the commercial
Speaker 1: and make a lot of money, But there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. See I disagree with you where you say
Speaker 1: I'd rather not sing songs, I don't want to sing
Speaker 1: and stay at Starbucks for the next several years, where
Speaker 1: I think I'd rather you sing things that are commercial
Speaker 1: to make money, so they can do it. So long
Speaker 1: as you stick to you, you pivot back to the other,
Speaker 1: as long as you're always one for them, one for me,
Speaker 1: one for them, one from it. It's less about saying like,
Speaker 1: we don't mind writing something that is a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, for chord progression, like something a little more
Speaker 1: catchy and something, but we want to make sure that
Speaker 1: it always has like a little bit of I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of bit of like us in it, so
Speaker 1: that it is still kind of stands apart. So simplifying
Speaker 1: is not something I'm afraid of as much as like
Speaker 1: singing a pop hit written by somebody and maybe it flops,
Speaker 1: and then that's out there in the world for us.
Speaker 1: When the show, and let's assume the show goes well,
Speaker 1: you guys have a good show and you're in a
Speaker 1: nice room, you walk off stage, how do you feel whatsover?
Speaker 1: How do you feel? Are you ever happy? It's weird.
Speaker 1: Being on stages for me is like the most electrifying
Speaker 1: feeling that you can have, you know, especially you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't done that many shows, and we're walking out
Speaker 1: on shows these days, and like there's actually people who
Speaker 1: come to see us. It's not just like when you
Speaker 1: start out it's like friends and family and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And now we go there and there are people we've
Speaker 1: never met before saying, like, you know, screaming and wanting
Speaker 1: to be there. So that's an amazing feeling. As a musician,
Speaker 1: I always get off stage and I think, you know what,
Speaker 1: I could have done this better again, and yeah, like
Speaker 1: can't just go do that one right again? So and
Speaker 1: I don't think that will ever change. And I think
Speaker 1: that's just the nature of trying to be creative and
Speaker 1: being artists. For you, Matthew, I mean, I'm watching you
Speaker 1: in this song. I mean to me, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with all the celebration of Freddie Mercury and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Speaker 1: But what I was excited about when I saw you
Speaker 1: as I was like, okay, well where's the next Freddie
Speaker 1: Mercury rather than us sitting here and to me, you
Speaker 1: are the next Freddie Mercury. You were like Bowie and
Speaker 1: I want to know, are you ever satisfied? It's the
Speaker 1: same as Colin, and we kind of bound about that
Speaker 1: fact that we walked off the stage in New York
Speaker 1: Babies all right, and um this one and from like
Speaker 1: sound or something drunkenly cornered me and I was like
Speaker 1: already in a state of like I sucked this up.
Speaker 1: I sucked this up. And I also strained and pushed
Speaker 1: during the sound check, and so I was a little
Speaker 1: raspier and so um my mom always says like you're
Speaker 1: your toughest critic. But I mean, honestly, I think that's
Speaker 1: what keeps making us like better and better. Why would
Speaker 1: we not, why would you you know? But I mean
Speaker 1: then we do enjoy. It's not like we sit there
Speaker 1: and like that was sitty. It's like you get off
Speaker 1: and you're like this this and this I'm gonna like
Speaker 1: focus on for the next show. Now, let's enjoy, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's yeah. Oh, by the way, where did
Speaker 1: the name come from? Purchas is actually one of my
Speaker 1: favorite place. It's called Bertie by Naomi Wallace. It's an
Speaker 1: adaptation of a novel um and it's it's this bird
Speaker 1: that this boy from Pennsylvania who is battling his identity
Speaker 1: crisis of being a gay young man in you know
Speaker 1: this from the book novel adapted into a play by
Speaker 1: Naomi Wallace and and and that's cold m Bertie Bertie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And is the bird the boy. It's really a psychological
Speaker 1: thing where he like puts the his like his confidence
Speaker 1: into a bird and the bird really like tells him
Speaker 1: like she was like Equis, but rather than a horse
Speaker 1: the bird. Yes, And I'm Daniel Rudcla. Okay, that's the
Speaker 1: moment I was mad about I love you naked with
Speaker 1: a bird? They news me game and you forgot to
Speaker 1: Benny bit you want the truth, you need a big
Speaker 1: cut and never felt but I get a dress. Colin
Speaker 1: Kenrick and Matt Bazonka of Perta. This is their track
Speaker 1: Bad Newsman Perta as you'll know by heart in a
Speaker 1: few months is vocals by Matt Basolka, Daniel Zuker on bass,
Speaker 1: Colin Kenrick on keyboard, Justin Siegel on drums, and guitarist
Speaker 1: Chance Taylor. Check them out at perda music dot com
Speaker 1: that's p E r t A or at PERA Music
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Everything that I Wanted This is Alec Baldwin
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Here's the Thing that a ho
Speaker 1: Let the left floor, Come on, give me when the
Speaker 1: you're bad. Newstan