Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome the inside the studio on iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: My name is Jordan runt Dog, but enough about me.
Speaker 1: My guests today are a pair of guys who first
Speaker 1: started making music together in their dorm rooms at the
Speaker 1: University of Colorado back in two thousand four. They blew
Speaker 1: up with their multi platinum smash Don't Trust Me on
Speaker 1: their two thousand seven album Want, and now fourteen years later,
Speaker 1: they've graduated to Need Yes Needs, the name of the
Speaker 1: new album. It's a comeback of sorts after nearly five
Speaker 1: years of pursuing outside projects. Their new single I'm So
Speaker 1: Sad as a party song about feeling miserable, which, let's
Speaker 1: face it, is an apt theme for these exceedingly weird times.
Speaker 1: They also teamed up with the utterly Unclassifiable one Guests
Speaker 1: for the track Lonely Machines, and also recently dropped a
Speaker 1: cover of Ariana Grande's Tattooed Heart, which is as the
Speaker 1: kids say, straight fire. I'm so happy to welcome Nat
Speaker 1: and Sean, who together are known as three oh three.
Speaker 1: Hey man, thank you and and Sean, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here. Guys, three oh three are back.
Speaker 1: The only good thing to come out of twenty. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, your upcoming album is called Need. If I
Speaker 1: believe I have that right, your first album in four
Speaker 1: years since Night Sports in Why Now? What made you
Speaker 1: decide the time is right? Well, let's see what? Why
Speaker 1: Why did we do it now? Sean? Because people need music?
Speaker 1: You see what I did there? I don't know, you
Speaker 1: know what? It was interesting because I think Sean and
Speaker 1: I work so much, kind of collectively and individually on
Speaker 1: other people's music, and on writing and producing music for
Speaker 1: other artists, and and so if anything, you know, we
Speaker 1: we came together in February right before the kind of
Speaker 1: the pandemic hit and started to write new stuff for
Speaker 1: three or three and then when things got locked down.
Speaker 1: If anything, I don't know, for us, it kind of
Speaker 1: provided us with just this beautiful opportunity to to come
Speaker 1: back to our music and focus on that and um
Speaker 1: and make a full record. So, you know, I think,
Speaker 1: at least for in our own circumstance, if there's one
Speaker 1: thing that can that's positive from it, it's allowing us
Speaker 1: that space and time. And I hear the title need,
Speaker 1: and I cour think back to the title of your
Speaker 1: first album, Want. What is the relationship between those two
Speaker 1: albums to you and those titles. You know, I feel
Speaker 1: like we could sit here and make the most intelligent
Speaker 1: correlation between those two. But you know, we just thought
Speaker 1: want and then we're like, need would look really cool
Speaker 1: in the same font as well. Uh, same amount of letters,
Speaker 1: same amount of letters. It's sort of the same thing
Speaker 1: when we did want. Like I remember actually that thought process.
Speaker 1: I think your brother was just yeah, I was. I
Speaker 1: was like sending my brother kind of demos from the
Speaker 1: studio and he at one point he just said want,
Speaker 1: like you wanted, wanted the full record, and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: all right, let's just call it record. We're like, we're
Speaker 1: like surprised that you know those moments when you just
Speaker 1: the word, like you say it over and over and
Speaker 1: you're like, that is just like road road row. It
Speaker 1: Like it was one of those things where we're like want,
Speaker 1: want is such a weird word, and this makes us
Speaker 1: sound like very intelligent individuals, But we have same sort
Speaker 1: of thought process, and I think if we're I don't
Speaker 1: know if we are digging into it. It's like we
Speaker 1: did want a little bit of that full circle. Like
Speaker 1: we've learned so much over the course of what is
Speaker 1: it like eleven years since Want came out at this point,
Speaker 1: so like we've learned so much, but we also wanted
Speaker 1: to like capture some of that early spirit of us
Speaker 1: not thinking too much about charts or radio singles and
Speaker 1: just like really just getting in and having fun. And
Speaker 1: as you can tell with the title of the album,
Speaker 1: that's sort of like as much thinking as we kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to do as far as creating the songs,
Speaker 1: like we wanted to trust the muscle memory of what
Speaker 1: we've created as far as just like our gut of
Speaker 1: having fun and being inclusive and making the music. That
Speaker 1: kind of is the spirit of three or three. It's
Speaker 1: like a primal thing too, I mean want to me.
Speaker 1: It seems like very like like something of one's youth,
Speaker 1: like just whatever you want and it needs. Seems so
Speaker 1: much more like adult too. It seems like a very
Speaker 1: primal you got it, you you are in tune with
Speaker 1: our thinking you it's basically just it's dad stuff. I
Speaker 1: mean that the teaser for the album is so cool
Speaker 1: because it features all this awesome old footage of if
Speaker 1: you guys forming it Warped tour and I think like
Speaker 1: two thousand eight. It really seemed to highlight the journey
Speaker 1: that you guys have been on from from then to now.
Speaker 1: And I think that comes through in the title too.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's been it's been amazing. You know,
Speaker 1: It's it is kind of a full circle thing because
Speaker 1: we're we're back with the initial record label that we
Speaker 1: signed with back in two thousand and eight, which is
Speaker 1: our first deal, and photo finished records back with kind
Speaker 1: of you know, on on that more indie scale where
Speaker 1: things are or feel more grassroots, things feel more of
Speaker 1: a partnership in that sense. And you know, when we
Speaker 1: made one in two thousand and eight, we were so
Speaker 1: blissfully ignorant about so much stuff. Like I remember being
Speaker 1: in the studio in Maryland and uh, producer we were
Speaker 1: working with. You know, we we've always producer around stuff,
Speaker 1: but we we kind of collaborated on finishing and and
Speaker 1: orchestrating and producing some stuff with Matt Squire at the time.
Speaker 1: And I remember Matt saying that a song that we
Speaker 1: had called Colorado Sunrise, He's like, oh, this could be
Speaker 1: your second single, And I was like, I didn't really
Speaker 1: understand what he meant, because I DJ for forever and
Speaker 1: hip hop DJ's and kind of turntables dj and I
Speaker 1: remember you could buy the single and it was just cheaper,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, that's for DJs who don't
Speaker 1: want to buy the full record, who want the acapella
Speaker 1: and thesment. But I didn't understand what that a single was,
Speaker 1: like the flag bearer of your whole project and stuff,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I think that, and then you know,
Speaker 1: coming out of that the next three years we spent
Speaker 1: on the road and and kind of culminated everything with
Speaker 1: with a number one song at a pop radio and
Speaker 1: don't trust me, and so I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: we we I think on this record for the needs
Speaker 1: stuff and and really Sean and I coming back together
Speaker 1: without any sort of pressure was amazing because we're, you know,
Speaker 1: we're trying to overtly and subconsciously recapture that sense of
Speaker 1: just making music to have fun with it. And whether
Speaker 1: it's it's a sad song or whether it's a it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's an overtly funny song, or or an
Speaker 1: angry song or whatever, it's just that sense of of
Speaker 1: creative freedom and having fun with the music is I
Speaker 1: think it's it runs as a pervasive link through all
Speaker 1: this new music. Well, speaking of singles, your new single
Speaker 1: I'm So Sad seems to be made custom made for
Speaker 1: early one. It's basically that, you know, there's so many
Speaker 1: party songs about feeling good, but this, to me is
Speaker 1: a party song about feeling bad. Essentially. Can you tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about where that came from? I
Speaker 1: think it's like it's a really awful message for now. Also,
Speaker 1: just before we get into it, you can get that
Speaker 1: for either or a dollar twenty nine on the Apple Store,
Speaker 1: which is cheaper than the full record in case you
Speaker 1: want to buy just a single. It's gonna be our
Speaker 1: second single as well. So we and uh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you know, we actually got in. Uh. We were
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles and we reached out to our old
Speaker 1: friend Benny Blanco, uh, producer and writer and artist. We
Speaker 1: just wanted to get together and sort of again rekindle
Speaker 1: sort of like this flame that we built during want
Speaker 1: and even uh in Streets of Gold and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And we went over to his place and this was
Speaker 1: pre pandemic, Like I think it must have been marked
Speaker 1: like February and March, yeah, of last year. So like
Speaker 1: we went over to his house and a lot of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, if anyone you know has heard of Benny's process,
Speaker 1: a lot of it is just kind of like just
Speaker 1: sitting around and making fart jokes and and hanging out.
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, it was fun to be
Speaker 1: around him again because we've we've definitely hung out with him,
Speaker 1: but we haven't necessarily gotten to the creative process and
Speaker 1: we're just writing off the cuff Nat made. Uh. He
Speaker 1: had this guitar sequence sort of that he just started
Speaker 1: and then I think I just like I think I
Speaker 1: just yelled that out like I'm so sad and uh,
Speaker 1: and it was just kind of that that avert like
Speaker 1: saying of that, Like it wasn't like some clever way
Speaker 1: of saying it or something like that. And it was
Speaker 1: weird to have it over this like anthemic part because
Speaker 1: we're so used to sad song sounding sounding like Elliott
Speaker 1: Smith or like Death Cab or something, you know, so
Speaker 1: it's like this kind of like you know, you're used
Speaker 1: to these minor chords and slow, melodramatic stuff. And I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I kind of like the
Speaker 1: idea of you know, not feeling bad about like you said,
Speaker 1: like we have so many and it didn't like we've
Speaker 1: been in the songwriting thing forever and there's so many
Speaker 1: sessions where you just feel like you're kind of down
Speaker 1: that day, but you're just trying to write like this ingenuous,
Speaker 1: like disingenuous, like party fun song. You're like Today's the
Speaker 1: greatest day of ever, and you're just like that's not
Speaker 1: true too. So I think that it was nice to
Speaker 1: like sit there and and kind of announce in a
Speaker 1: very fun way, just like I'm so sad, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't feel bad about it because it's a time
Speaker 1: and place and yeah, so that's kind of the the
Speaker 1: m O of that one. And we took it back
Speaker 1: to Colorado when we were producing it up and kind
Speaker 1: of reworked everything, and I think that the mantra was
Speaker 1: to do, you know, honor to those feelings of sadness,
Speaker 1: but also approached them with a sense of fun, which
Speaker 1: might seem kind of weird and crazy, but I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of, you know, it lines up with a
Speaker 1: lot of the mantra that we've had with our music
Speaker 1: and dealing with serious topics but dealing with them in
Speaker 1: a fun way, in a collective way, in a way
Speaker 1: that hopefully people can smile about and and have fun
Speaker 1: and and represent some of that energy. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: the mantra that I keep hearing now just during lockdown
Speaker 1: is you know, it's okay to not be okay, it's
Speaker 1: okay to feel weird because everything is weird right now.
Speaker 1: So I mean it really seems to go hand in
Speaker 1: hand with that message. The timing of it is really perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. I think everyone obviously across different spectrums,
Speaker 1: is dealing with their their mental health. And I think
Speaker 1: for me, at least in my experience, it was like
Speaker 1: I felt the worst when I tried to fight off
Speaker 1: things that didn't feel okay, like if I felt sad
Speaker 1: or something like that. I was like, I feel worse
Speaker 1: when I try and like make this not a reality.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. Again, in the three or three spirit,
Speaker 1: like we took something and not being self and indulgent
Speaker 1: about being like let's get sad. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you just feel sad, and in that moment we
Speaker 1: did and it's still like fun. You can like laugh cry,
Speaker 1: you know, you can like smile cry at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, like have that smile on your face to
Speaker 1: have a tear coming down, so yeah you could. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's my it's my contact it's like my contact lenses.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like Robin Williams was the master of
Speaker 1: the smile, and that's like what I always think of thin. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a he's a yeah that guy. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: shut up, shut up more than Mindy based here in Boulder, Colorado. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's right. Yeah. Well, how much of
Speaker 1: the album was actually record? Did in in in the lockdown?
Speaker 1: Because you're both together and bolder? Right? Yeah? We were.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, now we're we're spending some time together.
Speaker 1: Sean actually just got back into town, and we're being careful,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're kind of bubbled up with our
Speaker 1: families and when we get together, we're we're getting tested
Speaker 1: and stuff. But initially in the lockdown, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we were taking it very very seriously, and obviously still are.
Speaker 1: But Shaun and I were actually working remotely, like sending
Speaker 1: stuff back and forth, and we were on a zoom
Speaker 1: call like we are right now, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: write and that's what we've been doing as songwriters and
Speaker 1: producers for the last year. Essentially is is doing that
Speaker 1: and you deal with it. You know, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I think everybody's finding new ways to work and in
Speaker 1: a profession that's so highly creative and collaborative and based
Speaker 1: on kind of vibes off off each other exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard and it's it's interesting to do it.
Speaker 1: But Shaun and I, you know, recorded some of the
Speaker 1: final vocals that are on the record by just sending
Speaker 1: stuff back and forth and and and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: making the best of what's around. And I think that's
Speaker 1: that that in itself, at least in mean producing the songs.
Speaker 1: I think that was a kind of parkening back to
Speaker 1: those old days too, when like in terms of gear,
Speaker 1: we didn't have anything, you know, we didn't have any
Speaker 1: access to anything. We didn't really know digital. But I
Speaker 1: think it was, you know, it's a little bit liberating to, like,
Speaker 1: I guess I've been schooled so much to want everything
Speaker 1: to be the cleanest, most high fidelity thing you can,
Speaker 1: and then I think it's refreshing to come back to
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, this is what's around, let's make it
Speaker 1: sound dope, and let's let's you know, less is more
Speaker 1: in terms of kind of doing things. I think it
Speaker 1: was you know, we we kind of have since realized that.
Speaker 1: I think in a lot of those early days, our
Speaker 1: first thought was our best thought. At least that's what
Speaker 1: like we maybe can rationalize it as you know, looking
Speaker 1: back on it. Like in our songwriting process, there wasn't
Speaker 1: too much second guessing. I think it's because maybe we
Speaker 1: didn't know anymore. We just dug the stuff that we
Speaker 1: were doing. But I think in that same sense we
Speaker 1: were trying, we tried to come come back to that
Speaker 1: in this process in terms of being separated and and distant,
Speaker 1: and then also in terms of the vibe of the song.
Speaker 1: I think it was just less second thing and just
Speaker 1: more going with your first kind of intention. That a
Speaker 1: gutt roll kind of energy that we had on most
Speaker 1: of the stuff. And it's tough for us like to
Speaker 1: do the zoom thing because I think so much of
Speaker 1: our collaboration is like pheromone based. Uh, We're like we
Speaker 1: really go off each other's aromatic presence. So as I
Speaker 1: had to get the nat, he actually was nice enough
Speaker 1: to make me a gnat candle that I could like,
Speaker 1: and I worked from a sent him. I sent him
Speaker 1: like a pillow that I just sprayed down with some
Speaker 1: of my my cologne and my musk. You're gonna make
Speaker 1: him a Shawn scratch and sniff now to like, yeah,
Speaker 1: keep going? Did you just make our new merch our
Speaker 1: new teacher so gross? And I was like a Chilian
Speaker 1: uh and coffee. Basically, it does seem like the sort
Speaker 1: of home recording stuff is the whole back to the
Speaker 1: basement approach probably does take you back to your roots
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, just by necessity because of
Speaker 1: everything that's going on. I think NAT's happy place, regardless
Speaker 1: if if it wasn't. He always wants to be in
Speaker 1: the basement. Man, That's where he wants to make stuff.
Speaker 1: He's he's a basement voice, basement dweller. No, you know,
Speaker 1: we started this way. We started at the University of Colorado.
Speaker 1: We're just um students working hard at our education and
Speaker 1: having fun with music and just starting in my basement.
Speaker 1: You know. Progressively we're we've we've done pieces of all
Speaker 1: of our records in basements and boulders. It's a basements
Speaker 1: and boulder. Remember when you remember one of the first
Speaker 1: days that we were working on one of our records,
Speaker 1: I remember you brought your dog in here and your
Speaker 1: dog laid down like a hot six inches of dog on,
Speaker 1: which is really weird cause your dog is the best dog.
Speaker 1: I think she was just Silver was just like she
Speaker 1: wanted us to know who is who is Bossom? Everyone's
Speaker 1: a critic? Yeah exactly, She's like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: might be your dog, but I'm not really shout all
Speaker 1: over our music. I mean, how has your songwriting process
Speaker 1: evolved since you know, making music in your dorm at
Speaker 1: the University of Colorado in two thousand three? Like, what's
Speaker 1: what's that shift been like making there? Or is it
Speaker 1: state essentially the same? I feel like it's been like
Speaker 1: such a journey to come back to the same place.
Speaker 1: Like I think you you take everything that you learn,
Speaker 1: but it is a circle because I think you you
Speaker 1: go away, Like I think there was a long time
Speaker 1: that I fought a lot of what Nat was talking about,
Speaker 1: like that instinct, like that first thought or feeling that
Speaker 1: you have um when you come into a session. You
Speaker 1: fight it because you overthink things. You start thinking of
Speaker 1: the context, You start thinking about if you're writing with
Speaker 1: another artist, you start thinking about what the label wants,
Speaker 1: what works on the charts. It's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: at some point you have to learn how to unthink
Speaker 1: and just kind of enjoy the experience and and and
Speaker 1: make a song. If you're working with an artist, but
Speaker 1: they have like a direction that the A and R
Speaker 1: tells you, like when you go in, don't you dare
Speaker 1: do a song that's under one ten bpm? Like we need?
Speaker 1: And it's like it's hard to just shed that off
Speaker 1: and go you know what, who cares? Because a lot
Speaker 1: of times, and at least in my experience, you get
Speaker 1: this direction from A and R s and then you
Speaker 1: hear the first single and they're like, well, this guy
Speaker 1: came in and totally smashed it in a different direction.
Speaker 1: You're like, Okay, well it doesn't matter anymore. Let's just
Speaker 1: enjoy the process. Hey, you can't sing more than like
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds of that, I don't think. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: this are you're gonna have to pay for the license?
Speaker 1: Did you write that? Did you write that that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I wrote all of Metallica's early middle middle Yeah. I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I've We've just come back, like
Speaker 1: or at least personally speaking for songwriting, it's like I've
Speaker 1: come back to the place where I just want to
Speaker 1: have fun with it and I don't want to overthink it.
Speaker 1: And you might leave the day with a song that
Speaker 1: might not see the light of day. But you might
Speaker 1: as well enjoy that process too, you know, because if
Speaker 1: you fight it and you don't enjoy the process either,
Speaker 1: you're also gonna have a song that doesn't see the
Speaker 1: light of day. By by the odds of it, that's
Speaker 1: how the songwriting works. So you might as well enjoy
Speaker 1: the process because that's all that matters to get you
Speaker 1: to wherever you're gonna go. So is it easier for
Speaker 1: you to write three or three stuff because that's sort
Speaker 1: of external pressure of trying to put yourself into another
Speaker 1: artist is out the window. It's an interesting man. It's
Speaker 1: it's an interesting question because you know, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: we've done so much writing for other artists, and I
Speaker 1: think it's amazing because you you work on so many
Speaker 1: different things, and especially you know, producing and writing. You
Speaker 1: work in different genres and you know, whether it's a
Speaker 1: hip hop act or a country act or I've done
Speaker 1: scoring for movies and and and video games and stuff,
Speaker 1: and I think that it's kind of it is easier
Speaker 1: in the sense that like it's your own stuff, and
Speaker 1: and the tangent between making the music and releasing the
Speaker 1: music is there. It's like whatever, it's essentially kind of
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you want to do, you do, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. But the other part is like you you
Speaker 1: kind of do have to find out what you are
Speaker 1: again and like find kind of return to the mantra
Speaker 1: of what you're doing. You know, we keep talking about
Speaker 1: this mantra of of of three or three, and I
Speaker 1: think as we've gotten older, it's kind of become more
Speaker 1: clear that it's about fun, it's about inclusiveness, it's about energy,
Speaker 1: it's about you know, sonically, it's about pushing some boundaries
Speaker 1: and having things be a little edgy but but also
Speaker 1: inclusive on the sonic side. And I think that, um,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's it's you know, on on one hand,
Speaker 1: it's liberating, and I think for me at least, it
Speaker 1: takes it takes like a session or two to get
Speaker 1: back into and be like, Okay, yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is what we're doing, and this is how fun it
Speaker 1: can be and how amazing it can be. And then
Speaker 1: once once we're in that groove, it's just it's so
Speaker 1: much fun. Yeah, because I think there's a time where
Speaker 1: we actually when you're talking about writing four artists, there's
Speaker 1: a time when we are writing for the artist three
Speaker 1: or three rather than just embodying it. Like that's the
Speaker 1: tough part is you're like, what would three or three
Speaker 1: do or what would people expect? And it's I think
Speaker 1: at the at some point you just gotta go, what
Speaker 1: do we have fun doing? In this case, we're not
Speaker 1: through three. We're actually just the mail, the models and
Speaker 1: the media trained guys. Is this like the Andrew w
Speaker 1: k Hey, it would be I know, like slip Knot
Speaker 1: has the best idea. They just have the mask you
Speaker 1: can kind of just like cycle through member we could.
Speaker 1: We had for I forget what record it was for
Speaker 1: for Omens or Night Sports or someone's, but we had
Speaker 1: an idea to just higher like kind of just better
Speaker 1: looking versions of ourselves, which is not that hard, but
Speaker 1: find these dudes who who would just be so charming
Speaker 1: and like so nice, and they would do all of
Speaker 1: our interviews and all of our public appearances and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, and we would just do the music. And
Speaker 1: then we actually did a photo shoot where we found
Speaker 1: we found and it was so weird that we were
Speaker 1: just like, all that's a horrible idea. We can't do that,
Speaker 1: But in theory it could have been awesome. It turns
Speaker 1: out it's more work to micromanage like models of yourself
Speaker 1: than to just do the stuff you can't You can't
Speaker 1: feed them either, you know, it's harder to micromanage the
Speaker 1: models that you find to play yourself down to see yourself.
Speaker 1: So take that. If there's one thing you've learned from
Speaker 1: me to by well, when you're not making music or
Speaker 1: micromanaging models that you've cast to play you, what do
Speaker 1: you What have you been doing the last year to
Speaker 1: just like relax, unplug, keep your feet on the ground.
Speaker 1: It's been so difficult for everybody. Well, now I can
Speaker 1: speak for Nat because he's Uh, I've never had as
Speaker 1: good as sour dough bread as this man has. Just
Speaker 1: like every other idiot in confinement turned a sour dough bro,
Speaker 1: it's not like every other it is because your sour
Speaker 1: dough is is I have to say it's my mom
Speaker 1: hates sour dough and she's like not, so I gotta
Speaker 1: bake another loaf for these guys soon. Uh. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been that. It's been hanging out with family, um, which
Speaker 1: I'm super tight with anyways, and then this experience has
Speaker 1: just been just amazing to lean on, you know, the
Speaker 1: people around you, the people you love. Physical activity. Boulders
Speaker 1: like an amazing place and we've always known that and
Speaker 1: kind of rediscovering some of that out of here, just
Speaker 1: mountain biking, hiking and doing all that outdoor stuff. Let's see,
Speaker 1: I can speak for Sean. You're getting you're getting jacked
Speaker 1: super jack gains or what tons of steroids as well.
Speaker 1: Just um. Sean has been starting a health and wellness
Speaker 1: fitness center at his house. Oh, I guess yeah. I
Speaker 1: was like, where are you going with that? I guess
Speaker 1: I have become a bit of like at my place
Speaker 1: in California, I have like I've kind of just became
Speaker 1: like I've I've kind of made my own little yeah,
Speaker 1: health and wellness. It's like a spawn a Jim. I'm
Speaker 1: actually getting certified as a Ploti's instructor, so I have
Speaker 1: my own reformer there. I've been into this sort of
Speaker 1: like ice immersion therapy, so I have an ice bath
Speaker 1: that I have there. I have a Peloton bike. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you don't you know, I want to be safe.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to go anywhere to do
Speaker 1: any of these things. So it's it's nice to have
Speaker 1: it all in one stop shop. You know, all of
Speaker 1: our hobbies are very boring, as you can tell. I
Speaker 1: can tell you when you're just like, what are you
Speaker 1: sleeping over there? No, I was gonna ask that's that
Speaker 1: sounds really cool. I wanted to ask you. My girlfriend
Speaker 1: for my birthday got me an hour in a sensory
Speaker 1: deprivation cher. Yeah, it's like altered state. Yeah, there was.
Speaker 1: I don't have that in in the Sean relaxationan is
Speaker 1: what I call it relaxationan uh Spas and Resorts Occupancy one.
Speaker 1: I do not have the sensory deprivation, but I have
Speaker 1: done it a few times, so it's like kind of
Speaker 1: this weird. At least the one I went to is
Speaker 1: like this big egg seems like you're like in this
Speaker 1: alien sleep pod and you get in. It's super sailing,
Speaker 1: like super salt water, so you float like you're very
Speaker 1: buoyant and the water is warm, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: like it's like you're back to h did you did
Speaker 1: you pee your pants? Yeah? I wore my pants into
Speaker 1: that you would know you don't wear pants in there,
Speaker 1: I'd be scared my ears ring ring and kind of
Speaker 1: I've gotten used to it, but i'd be a little
Speaker 1: Yeah you you put in the ear plugs in it,
Speaker 1: but you definitely yeah, I honestly it's yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 1: I don't have the deprivation tank at my house, but
Speaker 1: I'm a psycho that has an container with just ice
Speaker 1: in it, and I get in that almost everywhere and
Speaker 1: where and when Jordan, when you're doing it, I think
Speaker 1: clearly this weekend, Yeah, I enjoy it for you excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see sounds and uh and here to
Speaker 1: use the bathroom before you go see Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it can get a little weird. I also want you
Speaker 1: joined cameo with all your your pros proceeds going to
Speaker 1: environmental causes and that just it seems like the coolest
Speaker 1: thing because everybody, you just make people so happy. Like
Speaker 1: we got my girlfriend's MoMA a cameo from Kenny G
Speaker 1: for Christmas and it just it made her Christmas. What's
Speaker 1: been the craziest or most memorable cameo interaction that you
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of it's wild to us because
Speaker 1: I think we've always just considered ourselves just regular people
Speaker 1: and so that idea of that interaction bringing someone joy
Speaker 1: or something like that, it has always been a little
Speaker 1: bit crazy. I mean, it's awesome and it's great, but um,
Speaker 1: it's a little in congress to us, which is why
Speaker 1: at least for for our meet and greets at our
Speaker 1: shows and and initially we we kind of held off
Speaker 1: doing Cameo because we thought it's a little weird to
Speaker 1: like pay to meet someone, like I think for us,
Speaker 1: pay to come to our show, pay us us do
Speaker 1: what we do is you know, as our for a living,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, writing music or or playing music
Speaker 1: live or something like that. But I think when the
Speaker 1: opportunity came to donate those proceeds to Cameo from Cameo
Speaker 1: to the Sierra Club, it made sense to us and
Speaker 1: just try to raise money for a causing Since then
Speaker 1: it's been it's actually been amazing because it's I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's fun for us, and it um we've gotten some
Speaker 1: feedback from the cameras that we've recorded people being so
Speaker 1: happy and like so nice and hitting hitting us up
Speaker 1: on Instagram being like you know that that made their day,
Speaker 1: whether we're all having a tough year, and I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, if anything like that we can do improve
Speaker 1: someone's day, it's it's amazing because it's a small thing
Speaker 1: for us. I think, you know, we gotta drink about
Speaker 1: sixteen coffees to get the requisite energy up. We haven't
Speaker 1: done like the I don't know why everyone drives while
Speaker 1: they're recording their cameras, because that seems like pretty irresponsible.
Speaker 1: But I want to do one. I want to fake one.
Speaker 1: And I shouldn't say this, but I want to fake
Speaker 1: one when we're driving and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's just like an explosion, like a Michael Bay movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta say we've gotten, like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think everyone who reviewed we've gotten, like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: forty five star reviews, and then there's one one star
Speaker 1: review and I'm like, I wonder what, Like I want
Speaker 1: to read this because I wonder why they're so bummed,
Speaker 1: and they're like, my friends wanted you to roast me
Speaker 1: and you didn't dig into me at all. Why would
Speaker 1: you even put that you have a road stoption in
Speaker 1: here when you can't writ me to stress? I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is like, oh man, were too nice? We got
Speaker 1: we got this from being too like I wanted you
Speaker 1: to destroy me. I didn't want to feel a thing
Speaker 1: ever again, yeah, I guess we didn't really answer it.
Speaker 1: But the weirdest one was our manager's fiance got him
Speaker 1: a cameo from his own band. That happened. Yeah, oh nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean whatever, they just they donated how much.
Speaker 1: That's funny. We've set the price point and uh, you
Speaker 1: know I I like you said, there's it's fun to
Speaker 1: go on there and get one from Kenny G. But
Speaker 1: I don't think we necessarily realized the market because there
Speaker 1: there's like people who are like I was an extra
Speaker 1: in the background of Transformers, the Made for Lifetime movie version,
Speaker 1: like and we're just like, I mean, because like that said,
Speaker 1: like for us, it's about donating this money and uh
Speaker 1: doing the cause and it's you know, excess a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. It's still fun. It's it's it's been fun.
Speaker 1: And I think it makes it fun when you realize that,
Speaker 1: like the pressure is a bit off because you can
Speaker 1: have fun with it and know that the money is
Speaker 1: going to do a good place. So well, speaking of
Speaker 1: Christmas miracles as I did. A moment ago. You put
Speaker 1: out a Christmas song called Kisseltoe, and the video blew
Speaker 1: my mind. It's like old school Nickelodeon claimation. And then
Speaker 1: I was further blown away to learn that you made
Speaker 1: that yourselves, right, my man, went full beautiful mind on
Speaker 1: that thing. Speaking of things that you do during quarantine
Speaker 1: like that, if you even saw my house during that time,
Speaker 1: my whole living room, because I was learning, I mean,
Speaker 1: I jumped. I told Nat when we had that, we
Speaker 1: were like talking about videos and how we could do
Speaker 1: anything safely as far as visuals, and I go, I
Speaker 1: would love to try acclaimation. And I think was just
Speaker 1: like you sure, dude, Like I was all for it. Man, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I think I think people realize though, like necessarily how
Speaker 1: long that that might take. And for me, I was
Speaker 1: just like I got nothing but time. It took me
Speaker 1: a lot. I mean honestly though, it took me about
Speaker 1: two weeks all in, but I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: hours every day, and it was just about consistency, like
Speaker 1: about doing just a little every day and get it.
Speaker 1: Like I would send ant and I'd be like this
Speaker 1: took me five hours to do, and it's like five
Speaker 1: seconds of movement, you know. And I have so much
Speaker 1: respect for like these movies that are fully I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously they probably have a crew of thousands of people,
Speaker 1: but there is such an artistry to Claimation. And I
Speaker 1: used to love a lot of that stuff too, like
Speaker 1: MTV or early Nickelodeon sort of videos. It's nostalgic for me,
Speaker 1: but it was really fun to do, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of I didn't have a script like or a
Speaker 1: story board that I was going for, Like I would
Speaker 1: just be doing it and then I'd be like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: this would be really fun to do, or like my
Speaker 1: hand would hit the camera in my frame would get
Speaker 1: all messed up and I'd be like, Okay, are we
Speaker 1: just going to roll with this, sir? Start over? And yeah.
Speaker 1: Nat was very supportive, our our label was very supportive.
Speaker 1: It was fun to do, and I'm glad that I
Speaker 1: could put it into the world. And now he's got
Speaker 1: a very healthy clay fetish. Clay fetish. Hey, my name
Speaker 1: is claim Sean, your name is Oh my god, you're
Speaker 1: killing him with this. It's just easy. It's anything with
Speaker 1: T I O And what was the other one relax, relaxation.
Speaker 1: Every artist I talked to has been obviously extremely upset
Speaker 1: about not being able to tour, and I try to
Speaker 1: help in what little way I can by bringing up
Speaker 1: sort of the downsides of touring. Hopefully that reminder softens
Speaker 1: the blow a little bit. Have you ever had any
Speaker 1: spinal tap style moments on the road, Like what's been
Speaker 1: like your biggest preconcert like post Constant against Club. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we've both gotten injured, thankfully, nothing like life
Speaker 1: threatening or anything that's full enough the stage, a few
Speaker 1: falling off the stage of Bunch. I think it's just weak.
Speaker 1: Our shows are based on energy, and that energy comes
Speaker 1: through a sonic energy and then a lot of physical
Speaker 1: energy too, and sometimes you just your party a little
Speaker 1: too hard and you kind of you kind of lose
Speaker 1: your footing. Um, But I think, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, touring is. It's interesting, man. It's it's definitely
Speaker 1: different when you're four than when you're in your thirties.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, but that that's not
Speaker 1: I don't know. We can only assume. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: we're still on our teams. So I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: from other bios that I've read, let's see craziest kind
Speaker 1: of lead up tour. I remember having to wake our
Speaker 1: drummer up because he was sleeping as we were our
Speaker 1: intro songs. I think for us, though, it's like spinal
Speaker 1: tap sort of. I mean, yeah, you think of like
Speaker 1: the getting lost this stage. Like we've definitely had those
Speaker 1: moments where we're like, oh, this isn't an arrow that
Speaker 1: points the stage or stuff like that. We've had equipment fail,
Speaker 1: We've had a disco ball that nearly killed me, fall
Speaker 1: from the from the sky, we almost got kicked off
Speaker 1: of the It's I guess it's not really concert but
Speaker 1: sort of of the MTV v M a red carpet
Speaker 1: because they didn't think that we were telling Oh my god,
Speaker 1: They're like, hey guys, telling only here. We're like, all right.
Speaker 1: The thing is is like, if you're this artist or
Speaker 1: band that think you're like really cool and you have
Speaker 1: this facade that falls away from you when something goes wrong,
Speaker 1: then that's like one of those moments. But for us,
Speaker 1: it's part of our narrative, like we embrace the weirdness
Speaker 1: or I mean, things inevitably go wrong on stage. Things
Speaker 1: are fun like but that's the magic of live music
Speaker 1: and performances. Like when Nat falls off the stage, it's
Speaker 1: not funny if he's hurt, but it's also kind of
Speaker 1: part of the show. It's also kind of funny. Now,
Speaker 1: it's true, It's very true. I think we've never put
Speaker 1: up a facade of being anything else than we are,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of two regular dudes who you know,
Speaker 1: just like to to rock a party. In our our
Speaker 1: perform especially our shows are much more about rocking a
Speaker 1: party and kind of curating a vibe and curating a
Speaker 1: fun time for people than a strict performance, and so
Speaker 1: if something goes wrong, it's kind of funny and it's
Speaker 1: kind of you know, I think we usually kind of
Speaker 1: embraced that and um bring the crowd into it, and
Speaker 1: you know, more than anything, those experiences in those shows
Speaker 1: kind of I think a lot of people to break
Speaker 1: that facade and break that that kind of wall between
Speaker 1: artists and fan, performer and spectator. I think those are
Speaker 1: all kind of blended in with our with our operation. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: we got a month or so in NAT's basement here
Speaker 1: and just fully we call it locked in. You can
Speaker 1: see we got a green screen back here, shut out
Speaker 1: to Amazon. Um, Sean's gonna try to get his relaxed,
Speaker 1: say Sean spa enterprise, going yeah, I gotta make it
Speaker 1: at LLC and uh and pay myself somehow to just
Speaker 1: you're gonna register and dater. I know it's so hard
Speaker 1: to plan in times like these, but but what do
Speaker 1: you have coming down the pike next? You know, it
Speaker 1: is interesting. I mean we we've have we've been like
Speaker 1: booked out, like we've kept pushing back dates that we
Speaker 1: had in the UK and and stuff like that. And thankfully, everyone,
Speaker 1: i mean everyone is understanding because this is pretty universal
Speaker 1: other than like, you know, I saw like some random
Speaker 1: Instagram post of like Nashville, like some country singers having
Speaker 1: like a show, and I'm just like, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is going on? Like, you know, we have so many
Speaker 1: friends and everyone who like survives on this business, whether
Speaker 1: it's you know, merch people or tour managers. It's like,
Speaker 1: please just chill, like and so we can get back
Speaker 1: to this sooner. But you know, we're being patient, especially
Speaker 1: overly patient, like if we were given bad opportunity even
Speaker 1: to like play to a small capacity, Like we want
Speaker 1: everything and everyone to be safe as possible so we're
Speaker 1: willing to be patient and figure it out. We are
Speaker 1: continuing to roll out songs. We're gonna have videos. I
Speaker 1: think we're we're figuring out something to do that's fun
Speaker 1: for our kind of local music holiday here called three
Speaker 1: oh three Day, hence the tie in. It's March three.
Speaker 1: Colorado is just such an amazing place for music in general.
Speaker 1: For touring music has been such an important market for us.
Speaker 1: The NERF who operates a Nheart channel out here KTCL,
Speaker 1: has been amazing and you know, with our music, and
Speaker 1: so we're gonna figure out something fun to do there,
Speaker 1: may or may not involve the Red Rocks um Amphitheater
Speaker 1: that is legendary out here in Colorado. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're doing some remote performances. We do a lot of
Speaker 1: UM shows for the for the military and for universities
Speaker 1: and colleges and UM in the last gosh ten years,
Speaker 1: and so we're figuring out ways to do those remotely
Speaker 1: UM for the time being. And you know, our hearts
Speaker 1: are just with with people and it's so tough for
Speaker 1: especially you know, for college kids and for younger kids
Speaker 1: who are going through this. So you know, we're we're
Speaker 1: really trying to find the best way to put a
Speaker 1: smile on people's faces, whether it's you know, sending a
Speaker 1: cameo or or you know, doing some some stupid TikTok
Speaker 1: stuff that we're doing just to try to try to
Speaker 1: put a smile on people's faces and try to connect
Speaker 1: with people and keep all those strings connected. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we're just we just launched something called High
Speaker 1: Note where we're we'll be able to do um some
Speaker 1: performances for people and kind of custom made we'll we'll
Speaker 1: we'll slide in people's names. Yeah, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: like cameo, but it's a bit more focused on the
Speaker 1: actual performance of the music. And so we're we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep all those avenues open. And I think, like Sean
Speaker 1: said that the second that things are you know, responsible
Speaker 1: in terms of in terms of doing live shows, we're
Speaker 1: we're back out there. Man. It's it's something that's so
Speaker 1: important and integral to what we do that we're you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're hurting without it too both. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of spiritually it's tough because it's it's
Speaker 1: what you do. It's kind of a lot of what
Speaker 1: we define ourselves as artists and as people, so it's
Speaker 1: it's definitely hard, but I think we're we're finding ways
Speaker 1: to be creative. My my last question, it's been one
Speaker 1: I've been asking everybody and it's really been fascinating to
Speaker 1: see everybody's different responses. If you could snap your fingers
Speaker 1: and have it go back to twenty nineteen or whatever
Speaker 1: your definition of normal is, I guess I should say, no,
Speaker 1: more lockdown, the more pandemic. What would be the first
Speaker 1: thing that you do? Places you go, people you hug.
Speaker 1: It's a very heavy question. I mean, where would you go?
Speaker 1: What would you do? It's funny. I I do love
Speaker 1: the idea. Like some of my fondest memories of just
Speaker 1: being around is like it is like not in our
Speaker 1: crew before a show, having some drinks at a at
Speaker 1: a bar, and then going and playing a show and
Speaker 1: maybe getting drinks after, Like those are I think that's
Speaker 1: something I really miss, Like there's this communal quality and
Speaker 1: just like being around the people that you like to
Speaker 1: be around. I guess the other part of it is
Speaker 1: like I'm kind of, you know, an extroverted introvert in
Speaker 1: some ways to like I would still probably I would
Speaker 1: be like, as soon as things open, I'm going I'm
Speaker 1: going crazy, and I'd still probably be like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hang out. It's go find the bat, patient patient zero. Bat. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for that at that time. To change history.
Speaker 1: If you had a one chance to find the bat,
Speaker 1: I did not. Yeah, I haven't even thought about that that.
Speaker 1: But then I would be patient zero. I would be
Speaker 1: the one that gets like, but then you's you know,
Speaker 1: do you take one for the team? My answer, I
Speaker 1: would find the bat, take one for the team. Butterfly
Speaker 1: effect too, would you What do you mean by taking
Speaker 1: I can't elaborate because that's not what you're that's exactly.
Speaker 1: Can't elaborate on the details at this time. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna leave that there. You go in a sensory deprivation
Speaker 1: chamber and you get for two weeks, three weeks, come
Speaker 1: out real, real pickled. I changed my answer. I'm going
Speaker 1: to send your frogs and I'm just gonna tie one on. Baby.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do something that I've never done, which is
Speaker 1: getting the phone pit and just man. I would just
Speaker 1: go down to the floor to keys and just start
Speaker 1: rotting down there and the next thirty years, just listening
Speaker 1: to you know, be a pair it ahead, Yeah, rotten
Speaker 1: away in the corner booth as senior frogs Baby the
Speaker 1: corner booth. That's that's the song right there, corner booth
Speaker 1: of Applebee's Fins to the left, Fins to the left,
Speaker 1: fins to the right. Now, Sean, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time today. It's been
Speaker 1: such a pleasure talking to you guys. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your time. Thank you for your beautiful sweater, thank you
Speaker 1: for your snake plant. Thank you for the window where
Speaker 1: we can see to the outside world. Yeah, thanks so much.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows, check out the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite podcast.