WEBVTT - Dexter Holland 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.360 My guest today is Dexter Hall. I will be at Dexter. 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.600 Good to have thank you, great to be here. So, Dexter, 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.639 you've been vaccinated against COVID nineteen. Yes, I have two shots. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.200 And when did you get the shot? A couple of 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:32.400 months ago now? And has it change your behavior? Uh? 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.720 I mean I think we were always on the cautious side, 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.360 but I think it's just such a mental relief to 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.280 not be worrying about the small chance that you might die. 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.360 Do you know anybody who died? Uh? People who know 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:49.800 people you know, our guitar players. Mother in law for example, 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.639 actually passed away from COVID. So it hits home. It's 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.040 close enough, that's and you could, you know, you could 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.360 you could kind of feel the circle tightening, you know. 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:58.880 Before it was like, I don't know anyone who's even 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:00.640 gotten it, and then all of us know that guy 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.840 got it. That guy got it, and then pretty soon 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.600 it was this person died, and it was it was 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.160 feeling kind of kind of scary around the holidays and 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.800 in your circle. How many people got it? Uh? I 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.840 mean ten, maybe half a dozen something like that. Anybody 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.039 really close to you, my my buddy's wife, I guess 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.440 it would be like that close. Okay, So why do 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.040 you think everybody, so not everybody, but of the country 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.560 is so reluctant to get vaccinated? Right right? Well, I 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.120 mean cheefs. We could go into a whole thing about that. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.200 Right here. The reason I'm asking you all this it's 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.600 not only do you we interact with the public, but 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.720 you're someone who actually knows the science. Yes, I have 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.080 a I have a doctorate in molecular biology, which is 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.800 sort of like a biotech I guess you call it. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.800 And uh, I focused on the HIV virus, So, um, 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:55.920 I know a little bit about virology. You know. What 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.600 I know is more the nuts and bolts of you know, 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.320 how virus actually work, some latches on and that stuff. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.640 You know. I'm not an epidemiologist, so I'm certainly not 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.920 an expert. But I mean I think vaccine reluctance. I 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.480 mean it's a it's a distrust of government, distrust of authority, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.359 and that goes back to you know, Watergate. I guess 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.480 I don't know exactly how far back you want to go, 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.360 but and and certainly the last administration didn't help that 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.760 at all. I think it encouraged people to to not 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.760 want to be part of these kinds of things because 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.079 they feel like they're going to be controlled or there's 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:32.040 a chip in the vaccine. Okay, Certainly as you get 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.880 into harder rock there are more right wing fans. Is 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.200 this something you experience amongst your fan base or something 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:46.119 you might worry about. Uh, that's a great question. I mean, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:47.919 of course there's you know, the Ted Nugents of the 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.440 world and all all that kind of stuff, But you 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:52.880 know that our world is more of what I would 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.040 call a punk rock world, and it really is different. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.040 Like the only guys with doctorates I know are in 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.520 punk bands, not not the rock stuff. So we're not 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.959 really exposed to the right wing stuff too much, I 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.799 don't think. So why do you think the punk rockers 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.560 have doctorates and the other people don't? That is a 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.959 great question. We were talking about that just the other day, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.200 like what is it that Maybe it's uh, you know, 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.560 it's not funk authority, it's question authority, I guess, right, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.880 you know, ask questions and and uh, there was just 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.600 something you know that was I think was intellectually stimulating 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.880 about the punk rock that we're listening to, and we 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.359 grew up and you could all say, and for those 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.760 of those who lived through the era, it was definitely 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.080 a turn away from what was existing. That's why you 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:39.880 know they did it to begin with. You know, the 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.960 ramans very basic, very short songs, so it you know, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:49.520 this creativity is inspiration more than execution. So I agree 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.800 with you. It took a lot of intelligence and risk 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.120 to make punk rock. I'm not trying to say we're 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.000 the smart guys necessarily, but I mean when I was 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.880 growing up, you know, the rock, the you know, the 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.000 the the Sunset strip scene at the time was very 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.760 much top down with the girl and all that kind 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:07.840 of stuff. And it was bands like the sex Pistols 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.440 that I was way more drawn to because it was 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.080 heavy and it was political and it felt more I 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.479 don't know, substantive, I guess. Okay, let's talk about the 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.839 new album. So there hasn't been an album for years. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.520 How do you finally decide to release a new one? 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.680 I know, Uh, well, it's not just being lazy. It 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.840 was actually being kind of busy and um just kind 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.680 of not putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.000 make the record. I think that there's kind of a 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.040 natural pressure once you start releasing records that like, oh 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:42.680 my gosh, we have to put out something every two 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.640 to three years or will be obsolete. It would be 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.000 forgotten and stuff. And that's kind of a hard thing 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.320 to to live with, feeling like you're under pressure to create. Um. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.080 Pressure is not usually good for creativity. And we do 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.360 tour quite a bit. We're on the road almost four 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.760 months of every year, so um, when we get home, 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.120 it was harder to fit in the studio time. But 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.559 I mean, really, I think I just wanted to feel 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.560 like the songs felt good and it felt like the 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.400 right record for the right time. And and that's really 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.320 what finally happened just this last year, as it felt 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.120 like these are the things I want to sing about, 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.479 and I feel good about these songs, and it feels 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.719 like the right time for this record. Now the record 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.240 is got twelve songs, but it's pretty short. Thirty three minutes. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.600 Was that conscious? Well? I mean we felt like it 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.000 was long enough we could have put out. We could have, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:34.960 you know, spent another six months or a year. I've 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.760 done a couple more songs, I guess, but it felt 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.159 like it was okay, I don't know. I asked Peter Patterneau. 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.080 He said it was all right. No, Peter was a 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.960 lawyer that we share. No. I thought it was brilliant 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.360 and it was only still because it's got twelve songs, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.400 is like, you know, an album of the past. It's digestible. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:54.440 You know. Once we used to have vinyl records, there 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.080 were two sides. There were four crucial tracks, the first 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.919 and last track on each side. Once we went to 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.240 c D s, it was essentially one side and it 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.640 was interminable. So the fact that you had only thirty 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.599 three minutes of music I thought, was, you know, really 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.200 a throwback and a step against the relative trend. But 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.640 some of your previous albums were not that short. So 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.159 that's why I was asking whether it was conscious. Well, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.960 I mean, we wanted to keep it tight, I guess, 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.279 you know, short and sweet, make sure all the songs counted, 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.640 and there wasn't filler, And you know that's the worst 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.000 to think, like, oh, we need to come up with 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.640 five more minutes so fans don't complain it's too short. 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.120 Like that's not the right standpoint. A few point to 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:40.640 come from, Okay, but the time the album was done 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.400 before covid Or, wasn't it. It was. We had finished 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.520 it pretty much right before, and I think we even 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.599 had a single release date of last May, and we 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.960 uh had the record done. We went down to South 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.839 America to do some shows, and that's when the pandemic started. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.920 They were literally canceling shows around us in Brazil and 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.720 then Argentina. We did manage to holl off one show 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.839 in Chile before they said tours over and you better 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.320 scrambled to get home because they might close the airports. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.240 So we got home just barely in time. And you know, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:11.880 within a couple of weeks, you could feel that it 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.840 didn't feel like the right time to put out an album, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.360 so we just kind of we kind of tweaked it. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:17.920 Actually we didn't just put it on the shelf. We 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.720 kind of went back and did some remixes. And I'm 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.520 in retrospect, I'm glad we spent the time because it 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.720 actually did come up a notch. That's that's a real thing, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.840 uh in in the industry, when you're doing a record 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:32.640 and you you have to have it finished by a deadline, 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.520 and there is a certain point where you do let 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.119 things go and you don't always take things that last 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.560 maybe ten percent that you wish you could. And this 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.120 is one of those times where we actually had the 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:46.280 chance to do that. Okay, Now, the paradigm amongst the 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.320 let's call it the Spotify top fifty is really change 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.360 where there's not a focus on album there's a focus 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.200 on endless singles. Is that something you thought about because 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:01.920 the old paradigm was, you know, there were years between releases. Uh. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.840 You know, our old producer Dave said, look, you guys 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.239 are partly a punk band and partly a pop band. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.040 He goes, and I feel like if you were just 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.720 one or the other, you probably wouldn't be as successful. 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.160 He goes. It's the idea that you have both. So 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.600 we've always put songs on there that I felt weren't 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.440 just standard punk songs, and that was important. I mean 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.000 not just in an effort to be commercially successful, but 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.280 I felt like it was just something creatively I wanted 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.440 to do. I wanted to to not just feel like 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:31.720 I'm doing the same thing or rehashing or I've got 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.240 this one small niche and that's what we're gonna stick to. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:39.439 So in that sense, uh, I guess you're conscious of it. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:41.600 But you know, I was thinking about this the other day, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:43.559 not knowing where you were gonna go in terms of 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.679 musical history. But you know, when I was growing up, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.000 it was all about the forty five, you know, like, uh, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.520 you know, those little those little pieces of plastic that. 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.200 And you know, when I was old enough to start 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.200 becoming aware of music, my my, my parents at this 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.319 point had been accumulating ten years of forty five. There 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.480 were stacks and we used to go through them, and 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.120 you know, back then it was it was everything. It was, 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.160 you know, Jimmy Rodgers kisses sweeter than wine and honeycomb 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.800 and I was digging through trying to find Snoopy versus 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.400 the Red baron and all that kind of stuff. So 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.840 it was very much a singles kind of world back then. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.199 The album thing didn't really come along until much later. Okay, 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.760 So on this new album, you do a well we 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.200 can call it a cover, but it's your original song. 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.000 You do another version of going Away. What inspired you 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.040 to put that on the album? It started as just 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.920 a live thing. We thought that with all the heaviness 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:40.959 in our songs in our set, it would be nice 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.959 to just have a breather in the middle of the show, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.360 and so let's redo a song in a much quieter way, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.080 and that seemed like the natural choice. You've gone always 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.160 the song that we did uh in a heavy way 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.080 on our extental the Aumbree record, and um, we thought 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.280 doing it on piano would kind of add a personal 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:00.240 nous to it. Uh, something in you know, makes the 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.040 vocal more apparent. And the songs about you know, losing someone, 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.280 it's about grief, so it had a message that I 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.840 thought would be good to approach that way on the 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.400 on the piano. So it was kind of like, well, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.880 let's what the hell, let's see what happens. When we 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.800 played it live, the reaction was pretty instant. It was, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.120 you know, lighters up in the air and a lot 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.840 of comments on social media saying this makes the song 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.560 even more meaningful to me and where can I get 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.679 a recorded version of this? So it was almost like 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.120 fans demand that kind of inspired us to go and 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.199 try to record it. Well, if you go online, you 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.000 can see YouTube versions of you playing it with the 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.760 band on the piano, but the version on the album 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.560 is similar yet different in that it's produced. It has strings, etcetera. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.160 Whose decision was to add all that well we had. 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.120 When we play it live, I start on the piano 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.520 and it felt right to have the band kick in 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.640 at the end, and that felt really good. When we 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:02.120 got into the studio, Uh, somehow that that approach felt flat. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.760 It didn't feel like it had the emotion. And I 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.839 was thinking about how can I approach this? Uh. This 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:09.280 kind of a funny story because there's a lot of 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.240 what goes onto the studio. Talking to Bob about this, 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:12.679 like what do we do? What do we do? And 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.439 I said, you know when a great song just vocal 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.440 and piano is Joe Cocker, you are so beautiful? Like 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.520 what is it about that song? And Bob explained to 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.200 me all the things that he felt made that song work, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.320 the way the piano moves and how it gets out 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.280 of the way of the vocal in certain spots, and 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.800 how strings come in. And I thought, you know, that's great. 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.719 Let's let's use that as our inspiration, uh for the 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.440 way we want to frame this song. And we took 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.000 it from there. So how long did it take you 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:45.640 to perfect it? Uh? Yeah, a few months. I guess 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:47.640 we work in a different way, you know, Back in 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.280 the day, it was like, you're gonna book the studio 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.360 for three months and you're never gonna come out until 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.959 this record is done. And I felt kind of burned 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:56.960 out doing it that way. And I think that there's 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.000 a certain point where you're running out of ideas and 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:00.720 then you're kind of just staring at each other trying 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:02.760 to figure out how to finish the song. So what 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.600 we do now is we go in for a couple 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.439 of weeks at a time, we go through all the 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.920 ideas and hash it out, and then it's like, Okay, 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:10.680 that's all I got for right now, and then we 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.040 go home and sit on it for a month. And 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:14.600 then by the time we get back together for a 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.080 couple of weeks again, I've got lots of ideas to 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.760 carry it forward. It's just much more short spurts. Well, 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.520 I certainly know that Bob is in Hawaii, Bob Rock 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.480 the producer. Now there's always issue of studio. I see 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.280 you're in a studio. Now do you cut it in 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.880 your own studio or do your book a different studio? 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.240 We do now this is our studio in Huntington's Beach. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.199 We used to go to l A. Of course, to 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.840 do it, and this kind of started as a demo studio. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.960 As a technology improved and Bob k On coming down, 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.200 we added to the equipment and the whole thing until 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.880 now we're pretty self sufficient here. We can do everything, 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.000 including mix, so if you decide you want to go in, 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.320 it's not like you have to worry about booking the time. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.080 It's always available. It's always available. It's just kind of 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.200 getting schedules together with Bob. He has other other things 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.520 that he works on as a well, of course. And 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.680 so what's the reaction been since the album has come 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.360 out of the new version of Going Away? It feels 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.160 really good. And I was not sure about that because 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.520 it's it will sound like a departure compared to our 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.840 other material, and you're never sure how your your audience 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.080 is going to react to something that's so different. But 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.679 maybe just because we've been around long enough people we 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.440 can get away with it more. It's been been very 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.000 very good so far. Well, it's an astounding listen. It 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.199 reminds me of when Green Day and I hate to 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.480 compare acts, but there I did when they went into 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:40.640 that mode. Okay, this is a song not solely for alternative. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.040 This is a song that could be for everyone. Is 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 the label thinking about that? Are you thinking about that? 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.480 You know we have this in our pocketed sometime we're 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.000 gonna try to expose it to a larger audience. I 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.760 would love to. I think I've brought up to the label. Hey, 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.800 can you make sure you listen to the last song 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.199 on the record too. I think it's pretty good. We'll 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.840 see see what I have. You only listen once, and 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.480 it is the same song, is the one you recorded 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.920 earlier on Nicks Nay, But it's really a different record, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.960 and it affects you. I mean, this is really a 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.560 one listen all of a sudden. You know, some things 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.040 are just so in the pocket, you know. I think 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.920 a couple of those foreigners songs, you know, waiting for 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.240 a girl like you, I want to know what love is? 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.680 You want it to go waiter say? And this is 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:31.040 something everybody yeah, well thank you? Yeah. I mean I 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.520 remember a guy five years ago saying, hey, you know, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.800 my my buddy down the street passed away, and boy, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.560 sure would love to play that piano version at his memorial? 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.960 Do you have that? And we hadn't recorded it yet, 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.320 so but I thought, how interesting that in his mind, 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.680 a song like this would would would feel right in 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.080 that kind of heavy experience. So I know she mean 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.800 about a different audience. I guess, right, Okay, but the 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:03.600 song was based on a real situation, correct, I mean, yes, yeah, yes, 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.000 and no, don't don't really talk about that too much. 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.720 Yes and no. I mean documentation would say that you 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.280 had a girlfriend who passed away in a car accident? 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:18.320 Is that factually Drew? No, it's not, it's not. Uh well, 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.160 what the hell tell the story? I guess. I was 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.080 with my wife on a Sunday and we had gone 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.760 to dinner and we were going to um Baskin Robbins 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.360 for our after dinner or whatever ice cream and drive home. 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:32.640 And this is, you know, just on Honeyton Beach where 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.520 we live. And so we're waiting in line and there's 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.360 ten people in the store. A couple runs in. They 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.640 go call the police. Someone's chasing us with a gun, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.960 and we're like, what the hell, what's going on? And 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:47.080 all of a sudden shots rang out. So these these 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.160 people in this in this car, they had been chased 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.360 by gangan bank gang members in another car who were 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.800 mad at him for some reason. They ran into the store. 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.440 These guys decided to shoot up the store, so, I mean, 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.760 they it looks like they shot high. I don't think 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.520 they actually intended to kill anybody, but anyway, all of 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.040 a sudden, here we are and it's one of those 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.040 like strip malls where it's it's a complete glass you know, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.720 front to the store, shooting it, and uh, all of 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.040 a sudden, it's like, well, funk, I'm we're gonna die, right, 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.800 And you know, in hiding, trying to you know, get 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.320 behind a trash can or something, not even knowing where 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.120 the bullets are coming from. And it turns out I 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:27.960 was right in front of the gunman or whatever, but 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.960 you know, and then crawling over to my wife and 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.000 you know, putting my body on top of hers and 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.240 just knowing like I'm gonna get shot, any secondary gonna 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.400 get shot, and you know, there were several shots that 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.120 rang out. The whole front was was was what you know, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.520 was shot out, and uh, luckily no one was hurt. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:45.920 So I think they just wanted to have fun and 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.240 scare everybody, right. I don't think they're really trying to 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.960 kill anybody, but I think just the the the idea 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.640 that we came so close to death was a real 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.200 life changing moment. And it was right when we were 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.040 recording X Nay and uh I I was coming up 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:02.880 with the the idea. I knew I wanted the song 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:04.320 to be heavy, but I didn't know what was gonna 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.719 be about yet. But it was kind of like the 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.760 feeling of in a in a weird way. I know, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:11.600 it's not a direct connection, if you know what I mean, 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.000 but it made you think about, you know, about dying 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:15.760 and about grief and about what that would feel like 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.800 and what if what if my wife had been the one? Okay, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.680 so the incident happens. How long after that do you 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.040 write the song? And has it come to you in 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.760 a flash or something takes a long time to work out? Oh? 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:32.800 I wrote it in the next week. It was quick, 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:34.960 Yeah it was. It was done in a few days. 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.160 And the lyrics. How long to take you to write 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.639 the lyrics? A few days? Yeah? Quick? Quick for me, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.879 Quick for you? Okay? So you were you grew up 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.639 where I grew up in Garden Grove, which is in 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.119 Orange County, Okay. Garden Grove is how far from the beach, 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.960 about five miles Okay, So what was it like growing 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.000 up in Garden Grove. I mean it was very suburban. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.560 It was I would say we grew up middle class 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.040 and not like upper middle class or lower middle class, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:05.399 just kind of kind of right in the middle. And 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:07.879 it was suburban in that way, with the green lawns 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.560 and the picket fences and everyone kind of kind of 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.760 being the same, right and and uh, I think there 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.040 was something about that, because people say, well, why does 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:18.879 so many punk rock bands come out of Orange County? 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.919 It seems like this republican place where everything's nice and mellow, 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.119 And I think that there was something in the homogeneity, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.360 something in the sameness, the boredom of that that inspired 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.600 the rebellion that you see in in these bands. I 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.399 don't know how else to explain it. Okay, would your 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.520 parents do for a living? My mother was a school 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:43.440 teacher and my father was a hospital administrator. Okay, did 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:47.040 you go to the school where your mother was the administrator? No? 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:51.439 Never did, never did? Okay did you go to public school? 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:56.000 Private school? Yet? Regular, regular old public school in Garden Grove? 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:00.240 How many how many kids in the family? Four total, 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.359 an older brother and sister and a younger brother. Okay, 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.760 so you're in the middle, in the middle, so you 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.480 traditionally in the middle, the attention is on the oldest 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.399 and the youngest, and you're kind of lost in the 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:15.080 shuffle doing your own thing. What was your experience? Uh? 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.479 I think so, you know, on the third So by 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.399 the time that comes around, they've given up on the 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.080 communion and all that stuff, and they're like, you do 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.160 have maybe a little more freedom, I think, which which 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.600 I liked. So you start going to school, what's your 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:36.320 experience there? Uh uh? You know, I did well at school. 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.119 I I liked it. I don't mean to hesitate, but 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.400 it always sounds weird because I remember always being as 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.960 you grew up, doing well in school was not cool, right, 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.760 You're you're right, you're hesitating to frame your answers so 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.840 you don't say something right, like dumbing down your words 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.480 or whatever. That was definitely a part of it. But 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:59.760 um but I liked I like learning. Okay, So you 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:04.280 go to school and you do well. Are you aware 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.639 of the fact that you're on the upper end of 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.960