00:00 - Trevor (Guest)
what's up, what's happening, man? Hey, man, what's going? You know, just just hanging out. Uh, I have a kid, so you know it's great I know all about it, yeah I love that.
00:17 - Apple (Host)
It's on their instagram. How do you practice? Very carefully, he's loving it totally what's it, what's his name?
00:27 - Trevor (Guest)
monroe oh, that's the coolest name, right on yeah, monroe, cumberland, um, you know, and monroe like I love, I love bill monroe and uh, and my favorite song, uh, dead song, is probably cumberland Blues.
00:43 - Aaron (Host)
It better be Trevor man, it's good to meet you.
00:52 - Trevor (Guest)
I'm Aaron. Aaron, nice to meet you, good to meet you finally man.
00:55 - Mel (Host)
And my name is Mel Trevor. Thanks for coming on, man.
00:59 - Apple (Host)
Mel, nice to meet you. And then I'm the third one here. I'm Apple. Thanks for giving us some of your time here and joining us.
01:07 - Trevor (Guest)
Nice to meet you, apple, awesome.
01:08 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, I'm happy to be here, trevor tell everybody that's going to be listening who you are, what you do.
01:16 - Trevor (Guest)
Well, I am Trevor Clark and I'm the leader of Trevor Clark in the current situation.
01:24 - Mel (Host)
I like that.
01:25 - Trevor (Guest)
I'm the leader of Trevor Clark and the Current Situation. I like that. I'm a one-man band. I'm kind of like a ride-or-die friend out there in the music world. I've been chugging along for a minute here and, yeah, it's been a good ride so far. Uh, it's not slowing down. So I I've been listening to some of y'all's podcasts and, uh, and my friend's sacred hollow as well those guys, man, that those are the sweetest cats ever, man yeah, we just did a.
02:01
I just did a festival their first festival here in nashville called flat rock festival, and they crushed it.
02:07 - Aaron (Host)
It was a great set yeah, there's so much talent in that band, man. I found out about them actually through the algorithm, through instagram, and the first time I saw them play I was like holy shit, how have I not heard of these cats? And and then, boom, I did, you hit us up yeah, I reached out to you guys okay, I was, I was thinking about today. I was like, how did we connect with you?
02:34 - Trevor (Guest)
and now I know so cool man thanks for reaching out, brother, that's cool yeah, I like what you guys are doing, thanks.
02:41 - Apple (Host)
Thanks, brother, I love what you're doing too. You're out there a lot with people joining everybody. And then I saw on JM Cruise, one of our good friends up here is Sean McClain Sean, the vibe tender, Sean.
02:58 - Trevor (Guest)
Hey, saw you all hanging out Sean's one of those, sean's playing.
03:03 - Apple (Host)
If he's in town, he's playing every night of the week, joining somebody or doing his own thing, or he's out of town joining everybody everywhere else just he gets around.
03:14 - Aaron (Host)
Is that kind of your, your bag too? You are you like the, the guy that's sitting in with everybody? Are you doing your own thing?
03:22 - Trevor (Guest)
yeah, yeah, um know, that's a good question, for for a while I was playing in other people's bands and and kind of just doing my thing on the side and just kind of going with the flow. I I used to play with this band called under the willow back in 2015 grass band really phenomenal band and eventually I moved to nashville, made my way to nashville and that's how I met all the sickard guys. But I've always kind of just done this one man thing. You know I'm a huge keller williams fan, so I've just kind of like you know he's inspiring, he made me delve into who I am as a person, just as music alone, wow, and I have I've been sitting in with folks and playing with lots of friends.
04:20
I got into bluegrass maybe 10 years, maybe 10 years ago, okay, and and really found like community in that and like the community of just jamming, like the festival scene and and being out there and playing music with folks. It really like kind of saved me in a way. It gave me something to latch onto to, you know, and really, uh and really and really feel like I'm helping myself and helping other people and um, so yeah, music's been kind of like this journey it's and I kind of like you know, we just did dead in company last year. We've done it for a few years, so I played the parking lots too. Um, I just try to like music is just this thing that just breathes and it brings in goodness. And I mean you guys know, yeah, man, oh yeah, it's.
05:15 - Aaron (Host)
It's the thing that's kept me alive too, man, and the thing that's kept me young, you know, going, going to see live music and and being with other people and and dancing and experiencing that. I really do think that that like does something real for your soul, it? It?
05:38 - Apple (Host)
at least for me.
05:39 - Aaron (Host)
It like also keeps my mindset young. I know that. Oh yeah, sure, and like having new experiences all the time, it also gives you something to like keeps it fresh, to look forward to in life. You know, otherwise you're just on the grind dude.
05:57 - Apple (Host)
That that's it if we go, if we go like about about a week and a half to two weeks. If we go that long without having a show, it starts to get very mundane.
06:08 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah.
06:09 - Apple (Host)
And you start getting drained and pulled more into that other reality that's going on out there and it's like let's go recharge and dip in the fountain of youth and get healthy again, trevor, I wonder what it was about Keller, keller, williams that helped you kind of, you know, come to your own or find yourself.
06:29 - Mel (Host)
what was it about that? He's what he's doing that inspired you you, you know that's a good question.
06:37 - Trevor (Guest)
Um, I love like entertainment, right, like comedy, and I and I like really good movies and, like you know, like art form. I I love art. My partner is an artist. Um, and sometimes when you watch certain people you know, maybe like robin williams or like jack black, or like keller william Williams or like these people that are, I don't know you could tell there's something else clicking in their mind. For them they're kind of these, these goofball, oddball people that maybe aren't so worried about being the center of attention, but they're the center of attention, right, yeah, and maybe, and maybe that's what attracted me to keller I don't know, I don't, I'd never really thought about it too much, I just loved his goofy nature and his like he would loop stuff, you know, or he still does, yeah, uh, or like victor wooten too, like there's just this, um, it's like music is their religion, kind of.
07:44
You know, and that's kind of where I lie, and I really do think music I think more people need to should play an instrument and get together, because it creates this again, this community, this camaraderie that is so special, and I wish everyone could feel how it feels to play with somebody and have an intimate relationship like that, especially when you get to know somebody on their instrument, um, and then to watch that it shows. You know, watching a well-oiled machine, you know I never got to see the grateful dead, but watching like video clips growing up or listening to dick's picks or whatever we could get our hands on to listen to when we were younger um, and seeing like this it was like a well-oiled machine. You know it had these.
08:39 - Aaron (Host)
It was crazy yeah, yeah, it was crazy to even like. I remember the first few shows that I went to, like seeing a transition from one song to the next, knowing there was no set list.
08:54
I was like these guys are all telepaths there's no fucking way that you can do that and not be like speaking without words. I mean, obviously I've learned, you know, through the years that there's a musical language happening and there's prompts and cues and whatnot, but it's, it's pretty amazing and yeah, man, like playing music with somebody. You're communicating on a completely different level of humanity and, and it's universal, you don't have to even speak the same language. You can sit down with somebody that doesn't even speak English and and play music with them and it it happens, what were you? You said you started picking bluegrass 10 years ago. Were you already playing guitar?
09:41 - Trevor (Guest)
Yeah, I picked up the guitar at like 10. I was like 10 years old. My buddy played um, uh, upright bass, and he still does. He plays. He plays in an orchestra now and uh, he'd be like working on like Beethoven or Mozart, you know whatever. He'd be working on some piece 12 hours a day. I'd be like, hey, you get, let's go play some video games. And he's like he's like no.
10:05 - Aaron (Host)
I got to practice the bass and now he's in an orchestra.
10:07 - Trevor (Guest)
And now he's kicking ass. Yeah, wow.
10:10 - Aaron (Host)
So what was your entry into bluegrass?
10:16 - Trevor (Guest)
I guess again Keller and the Keels Yonder Mountain String Band. I'm from like Chicago area yonder mountain string band. I'm from like chicago area, um, and so, um, and I started playing with this band. You know, maybe I'd gotten into it more serious maybe in the last 10 years, but just a little bit before that I was playing like folk music and I played in an indie rock band for a little bit. Um, my band called borrowed bicycle.
10:45
Uh, there isn't much out there, but we did, we had some shows, we did some stuff, um, but so I started getting into that and started figuring out, man, I just I love this sound and, uh, and I love like the whole arrangement of bluegrass and something about larry keel man, that guy, I I saw him play um with the keller and the keels and it just blew me away. I was like wow, I didn't know somebody could do that on an acoustic guitar, you know, and um, but before that was jeff austin, I mean yonder mountain growing up, yonder mountain was huge in the Chicago area, um, you know, because Jeff is from that area, right, um, so going and seeing one of those shows was just electric, you know, yeah, yeah we didn't.
11:38 - Aaron (Host)
We didn't get to see Yonder with Jeff, but, like we have several friends here in Portland that, like that was, their whole trip was yonder with Jeff, and they've sent me, you know, the choice cuts from back in the day and and the, the, the YouTube videos, and and they were doing something that nobody else was doing at the time, like taking bluegrass and taking it out and making it dangerous even a little bit, and that has spawned this whole new thing. I mean, they're one of the founding fathers of the jamgrass world right now that we're all in, and it's a trip to think that like a song like cumberland blues or like jerry with olden in the way and all that can, has spawned this whole new genre of music that's out there. That's, you know it, especially and especially with like billy strings coming on the scene. So many people are now like paying attention to the bluegrass world more than ever before. Do you see? Do you feel like that?
12:56 - Trevor (Guest)
absolutely. I, I, uh. The first time I saw billings I was at Sesquihanna Breakdown, I think it was like 2016, maybe 2017. I can't remember, but I, as soon as I saw it, I instantly fell in love and I go, this is what I've been trying to list, this is what I've been trying to make for myself. I was like holy cow like this, this guy gets it, he gets the, he gets it. And it was kind of a relief. You know, cause, cause, I have my own style, but I have been hearing this thing for a while and as soon as I saw him, I just I was like I'm sold, I'm in you know and I had to tell everybody.
13:41
I had to tell everybody about him and for a while people were like who, what?
13:46 - Aaron (Host)
yeah and and now it's the opposite it's a, it's a force it's definitely out yeah it's not a secret anymore not a secret anymore
13:57
you know that's cool that you say that that was like a relief for you, man, because I think I know for myself for a really long time like seeing somebody shred the guitar would be discouraging for me as a player, like I would be like I'm never gonna be able to fucking do that. There's no way like to be able to see it and be like, oh, wow, that's what I've been trying to get to, and I know I have my own thing like that. That shows a level of, like, um, maturity.
14:34 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, it doesn't say maturity, yeah, yeah, not hating, yeah, totally and and not letting it like bum you out too. Yeah.
14:43 - Trevor (Guest)
So, what was? What was your first? Totally yeah, I mean music. I think from a really young age I didn't like playing covers and I I didn't even really like covering the dead that much Because I thought of it and it's funny now I'm I love doing covers because it teaches you something and you learn something, but I always thought of it as a cop-out. I was like, if you're gonna make music, make music, make you make. And so when I see somebody who's making music authentically themselves, I'm like that makes me so proud. I don't know. I'm happy for that person because it's like they figured it out. They didn't, you know. And I say that now I play so many dead songs and I love Tom Petty and I cover bluegrass standards. But jeez, my younger self would be kicking me in the ass right now, like why aren't you doing more originals? You know more original. Why aren't you playing your own music? Maybe that's what all this is leading to.
15:54 - Mel (Host)
You know, like you're gathering all of those like chops and all of those skills and all those different kind of sounds that you love learning them, and you have clearly have your own idea of what you want to do. You you've always, you know you have your side project or your main project or whatever it is Like. Maybe it's just like a, you know, kind of like reconnaissance mission that you're on. You know. Trevor in the moment.
16:23 - Trevor (Guest)
This summer is greatest movie. That's right.
16:28 - Apple (Host)
I'll watch it, dude all three of us said too, since us like discovering bluegrass and getting into it, there's no better cover than covers that are done by bluegrass bands.
16:42 - Mel (Host)
You can take any song in the world and do a bluegrass bands.
16:43 - Apple (Host)
You can take any song in the world and do a bluegrass version of it, and it comes off awesome almost every time. I heard a couple that were, but almost all the time it comes off so good. And what was that? Ride the Lightning.
17:01 - Trevor (Guest)
That one a couple weeks ago doing Metallica's Ride the Lightning.
17:04 - Apple (Host)
I've never heard it sound. So couple weeks ago, doing Metallica's Ride the Lightning, I've never, heard it sound so beautiful. You know it's such dark lyrics and everything, but it was uplifting and danceable and it was like shit. No, it wasn't her, it was. I can't remember right now. It was that female vocalist when Matt no, not when Matt was over.
17:27
Anyway, it was somebody we just got turned on recently and does a song called mockingbird which is all covered and ride lightning was on there. It was just like, oh my god, you can do anything in bluegrass and it sounds so amazing. It gives it a whole different concept ken morris.
17:40 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, and it was chris from heady wax okay, yeah, okay, you know morris yeah, and it was chris from heady wax.
17:51 - Trevor (Guest)
Okay, okay, you know. Do you know kendra morris? No, but I, I go ahead, go ahead.
17:52 - Aaron (Host)
No, I just, and I take it back no, she's not necessarily bluegrass, she's more like a songstress songwriter, but marikana kind of but yeah, in that vein I just it blows me away to think that, like in the world that we're in today, with, like, ai and computers the way they are, and you know, instant communication across the globe, and you and I can talk to each other face-to-face, like this, from across the country on video, and that there's this return to wood and wire and and not amplified music. What, what do you think is the reason for that, trevor?
18:36 - Trevor (Guest)
Oh it's well. First off, you can take it anywhere it's with you, anywhere it's, you know, at least my instrument. For me it's like an extension of myself, so that thing goes with me everywhere, you know, even when I'm not playing shows. But I think people genuinely want to sink their teeth into something right, they want to feel something, they want to live something, they want to get into something right, they want to like, they want to feel something, they want to live something, they want to get into something, you know, and everyone has their things they like.
19:12
But I think with music it's this very tactile, very hands-on, very community thing and, again, like we're, we're so connected but we're also so involved with the social media world and the internet world and I think that's why we're craving acoustic music. I used to have this conversation with a guy used to play mandolin with me, and uh, and he, you know, we would always say like if you heard the this, you know this edm song or whatever, you heard all this new electronic music, and there's like but have you heard all this new bluegrass? And there's like this huge contrast of just like you know, computerized music and make anything possible, you can hear or melodyne, or tune, or, and then over here you have this organic I'm digging in my garden, you know, putting in the tomatoes, and it feels good to squish it around thing, and around thing and we need that more than ever.
20:25 - Apple (Host)
At least I need it. You know, I feel like you got, they will.
20:26 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, we all need it.
20:27 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, we can all jump on that and I don't. I think that it's like a, a humanity thing. I really do. I. There's a we're, we're all. It's one organism. We're one gigantic organism. Human beings on this planet. And the rise of technology. Like I'm not demonizing it, don't get me wrong. Like we're using it right now. I got a ton of it sitting all around me. I do it for a living. Like it's a tool, it's just like anything else?
21:01 - Mel (Host)
Yes, it is, we need it, we need it.
21:05 - Aaron (Host)
But, at the same time, when we rely on that for our connection to other human beings in a person-to-person kind of a way, we start to miss something. And I think that the rise of this kind of music, especially right now when the world is so upside down and topsy-turvy and weird, that it it really does it's, it's a a thing that's like creating connection for us, it's making us come together in a organic way do you know what I'm saying?
21:42 - Trevor (Guest)
and we just yeah, absolutely from zoom cool.
21:47 - Aaron (Host)
What is that? I have no idea.
21:49 - Mel (Host)
It pops up yeah, randomly, and yesterday we were talking to somebody and I did a thumbs down and it was so inappropriate it didn't even make any sense why it did it, but I was like I know he saw it too whatever man I feel like, um, what we're just talking about, um, that kind of you know, that wood, the wire, the back to the earth, that's our balance.
22:11
You know, we're growing so technologically quickly, um, in in short bursts of time too, like maybe nothing will happen for like six months or a year, and then, next thing, you know, we've got freaking ai that can, like you know, order everything under the sun, get a freaking housekeeper, like, do all this crazy stuff. But we need that other side too. We have to stay grounded. Like there's this thing that's pulling us up, like in our heads, in our air, in our thoughts, and then we need stuff like Stringed instruments or something to hit, you know, with our hands, to bring us down and let it. Let us be grounded. You know, and I think that that's one of the reasons why bluegrass is it's a given in its name like grass like this down.
22:57
Kind of like grounding thing, you know totally when it speaks to your soul.
23:03 - Apple (Host)
As you go back to early because you say I'm a complete tv movie freak and everything and I equate it kind of to like I love a good action movie that's got a lot of cgi in it, but that doesn't speak to my soul, kind of the same thing like edm or a good rock song. It's like, yeah, let's party, but it's not touching my heart and pulling on those strings that are so deep and human.
23:27
So it's kind of the same comparison to me, like bluegrass really does that. It takes you home, it takes you back in time, it's like sometimes it's like a time machine, like, say, you can go back and you can feel it like you're in the Ozarks or something coming down out of the woods and it just it's home and home.
23:45 - Mel (Host)
It sounds historic.
23:47 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, it is.
23:48 - Mel (Host)
I mean, if you think you know like, think about that like something can sound a certain light or heavy or whatever. When you put bluegrass music on, it brings you to a, it feels like it can bring you to a time period.
24:03 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, I, you know just like I've talked about this before on the show. But like the mother languages like you have Hebrew and you have Chinese and you have Sanskrit, and those letters, shapes, have been written by human beings for thousands of years and so each character is infused with the energy of the thoughts of the people that have written that character over and over again. And when you make words with those mother languages, there's power in those shapes and those words and the that thing has weight. I feel like bluegrass music is the same thing as that, but in musical form. It's been played on porches and handed down. A lot of the early bluegrass stuff that came over as Irish folk music. That stuff wasn't even ever written down. That was passed from father to son and mother to daughter and those songs were passed from family to family and they've been played over and over again as tradition for people, and so those songs have power.
25:16 - Apple (Host)
They're a life.
25:17 - Aaron (Host)
And a life of their own. Would you agree with that?
25:20 - Trevor (Guest)
Yeah, totally, it's like, um, and, and anyone could do it. You know like rich, poor it was, you know, and you didn't have to have you know a lot of money. You could get like a tenor, banjo or you could. You know you could get a dulcimer or you could get these old-timey instruments, um, and and play music and sing, and uh, and it's like early, it's our, it's our early music, right, it's. It's like a culmination of like kind of this rag time and country folk that tells stories, that just explains our history, you know, and I think like the grateful dead were really good at that too. They were. They were like telling older stories than themselves, like they were kind of, yeah, you know whether they be real or not, it doesn't really matter.
26:15 - Aaron (Host)
They, they, they probably are, but who knows, you know, it's like I heard, um god, I can't remember who it was, but somebody said they were talking about the dead and they said they were reaching back to go forward and I thought that was like wow I never heard about that before, that that like that's heady, yeah, and you know where we are right now.
26:42
I think that it would almost be like it wouldn't make sense if this thing wasn't rising up and there wasn't people like you out there doing your thing. It's it like mel. We need that balance, we need um, we need organic stuff on the planet right now. So, when you're sitting down to write Trevor, what does it look like for you? Is that just like? Is there a process that you go through, or is it? Is there just whatever happens, happens?
27:26 - Trevor (Guest)
through, or is there just whatever happens, happens. Yeah. So I usually just start playing music. Um, I usually just start like rambling, babbling, um, you know, I just kind of like make noise. You know, I kind of just start, you know, not quite like that, but and I just kind of go with it and and it usually leads you down a road and an idea comes out. Um, that's like a basic way I write right, that's like, and I use my phone and I'll just record it and and delete them. Record and delete until I kind of start to hear something. That's one of the techniques I use.
28:02
And then there's what I called like stewing writing, where you're just everything, you're looking at everything and for like months you're like something is cooking in here. You're out in the world and you're like, oh, that sounds cool, oh, that's cool cool, oh, that's an experience, and so that's like a stew will stew up in your brain and kind of cook up for a while and then eventually it'll spew out. You won't have any control, that'll just start, it'll just hey, here you go I'll let you stew yeah, you're.
28:39
You're like driving down the road 70 miles an hour. You're like, oh shit, not right now. Stop pull over. This is not the time well, that's why.
28:47 - Apple (Host)
That's why I was glad he asked that I was gonna ask kind of the same thing, because your songs I like that. You said uh Keller is one of your influences, because I think to me I definitely hear it like like your sense of humor, the rhythm of of the way you write and everything but like like the. So like like, uh, what is it on the new one? Like miracle, yeah, that is a lot of lyric. I mean you say a lot in there. Go through it. You know your songs contain a lot of words and the way you deliver them and stuff that's I was wondering, did that too like the? Is that like piecework? When a song's that long of like you got a cue that doesn't just like hit you that didn't hit you all sudden.
29:29 - Trevor (Guest)
You did yeah, no no, that one's like you're, you're playing a show and you're like I got a good hook and I got like one verse, and then you like improv, what's happening that night, and and then you know that evolves into oh, somebody caught it on their phone and I listened back oh, that, oh, that was cool. You know, because I forget about ideas, I just let them go, I just they're just flashing. There's so many great songs that I've written that will never be written, but I just let them go. And then so miracle was one that one took me a while.
30:07
Um, I used to go to summer camp music festival. Uh, I did it like four or five years in a row, you know high school, out of high school era, and uh, and that song kind of started evolving. Then you know standing in line, and and then I started going to shows and I saw these hippies putting their finger in the air and I'm like, oh, wow, you know, and you know I, more and more I got into the dead, more and more I started realizing like, oh, this is like a whole thing. And and so that song, honestly, that song took me years to write, and it's funny because I wrote the last verse, um, right before I I finished it, um, because I went on dead tour and I was like, oh, it just made sense and it kind of just all came together right before we recorded it, which um, um was, was really. That session was great actually, that song miracle I got to do with um sickered hollow and uh, kyle Tuttle Right on, um, oh, shit.
31:10 - Aaron (Host)
I didn't even you know what man I'm looking. I pulled it up and I looking at the cover. You didn't notice that?
31:16 - Apple (Host)
was? I didn't notice, that was Kyle.
31:18 - Aaron (Host)
Tuttle and Sickard Hollow. I just didn't even know it. Now, when you said it, it's like they all appeared.
31:24 - Trevor (Guest)
Incognito. You're a magician.
31:28 - Aaron (Host)
I'm very, very sneaky, yeah, well done, man.
31:30 - Mel (Host)
Good job, and you're animated Apple said it. If you had not said the Keller Williams thing, I can see the influence and what's cool about Keller is like he's very serious about how good he is, but so not serious about how he his output like it's fun and risky and so many things that you wouldn't expect and that we need that like go, you know, like when you always go to a concert and everything is serious, that's great because that's what you paid for and you want to have a good time.
32:09
But sometimes there's the times where you really just want to be free and silly and kind of have fun, have something dope playing, you know, as you frolic around and you know, I think that that can't be understated. And it leads me to a question that aaron um asks sometimes um, what do you think the role of a musician is, trevor?
32:35 - Trevor (Guest)
that's a good one. Um, I think it's different for each musician. Like each, each musician has kind of their own role to contribute to the whole scene. You know, per se, sure, um, my role is is to. You know, I can only really speak for myself here. Yeah, my role is to, is to kind of help people realize that they're their own hero. You know, they're their own friend, they're, and that's what I think music again does. It creates a friend, like a something to be a part of and be with.
33:20
You know, I know a lot of people go to shows alone and they get there and the community is there. That they know. You know, so it's. You know music is the greater friend. So I think what music is for musicians is, you know, it's always going to be, even with, like, the most self-centered musician, they're still giving such a gift. Yeah, and you have no idea I mean you, you do, but you have no idea, um, how a song's gonna hit somebody when you write it and it could just tear their world apart in so many beautiful ways. You know that it's. You know, and I'm sure everyone here has felt that, witness that, oh yeah, and what that power is you know. So it's, it's a great responsibility to be a musician.
34:25 - Aaron (Host)
You know, I I take it very seriously and it actually it plagues my mind well, you know, I just, uh, we just went and saw we did the Fish Sphere run.
34:44 - Trevor (Guest)
Lucky ducks.
34:45 - Aaron (Host)
Dude, I love that. Yeah, and I was listening back yesterday to I can't remember if it was the first or the second night, but what's the Use? And there's, no, there's not even any lyrics to that song and it's kind of a dirgy, slower jam right Totally. It's heavy, it's very Zeppelin-esque kind of thing. And that song hearing that song, I've heard that hundreds of times in my life, like you know, know, I know it. That night, for whatever reason in that place, that song broke me. I was fucking sobbing listening to that, like it hit me in a completely different way and that. And that that's not even like from the lyrics, that's simply from the emotion that was coming through the musician at the time, at the musicians. It's not simple, but that's what it is. You know what I mean.
35:49 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, you know like you're saying how much it made you emote. That's not a simple expression in my eyes. Right, like Trevor, I am not a musician. I love musicians. I think they're the best things to come into this planet. But you know from being a fan of whatever music you love and then you know from being on stage that there's special moments, right, like they just kind of happen and maybe you didn't even want a special moment that night, it wasn't even about that. But whatever that not simple expression was played or emitted out there to like pull you in, like that's the thing. I think that sometimes, because we go to concerts a lot, we don't, we forget. We forget that it's not simple. This person's laying it on the line and you just happen to catch that really deep.
36:51
You rode the wave, yeah, yeah you know, and that's what's amazing about instrument I love instrumental music. It makes me cry all the time. I love flamenco music. I love just some anybody, a pianist, anybody rocking their instrument by themselves like long-winded, because then you can kind of pick up on that vibe that they're going through.
37:16 - Apple (Host)
Well, that's what she said. That's one of my favorites is Rodrigo y Gabriela.
37:22 - Trevor (Guest)
Oh my, God, oh yeah.
37:24 - Apple (Host)
And they don't ever sing so good. They'll do little noises and stuff, but they don't sing and that has brought me to tears and gets me so happy and, man, I love them. They're coming again here in September.
37:36 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah.
37:36 - Trevor (Guest)
I saw that they're amazing.
37:40 - Aaron (Host)
They love them. They're coming again here in september, but they're amazing.
37:42 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, they're fucking amazing we took apple for his birthday a few years ago. Yeah, yeah, they pulled me up on stage. I got to dance with them on stage. Rodrigo's like he's like I like your stomping. You ready to really get it now? I was stomping on the stage so hard yeah, it was my birthday. I drank quite a few, and they were like oh no they're, they're bringing them up on stage, like I was like what yeah?
38:06 - Trevor (Guest)
getting crunchy up there yeah but you know what, man?
38:10 - Aaron (Host)
that the reason I said that was like those moments are so impactful for your life, right, and the role of the musician in that is to be the conduit for that thing to come through. Like that's it, and it's a, like you said, that's a sacred duty. That that's, if you're not in your everyday life, people aren't breaking down into tears. Do you know what I'm saying?
38:49 - Mel (Host)
like at work today people are not just like oh my god, you know, those moments are fucking that that PowerPoint presentation was so heady and if they are, we call the ambulance, yeah, man.
39:07 - Aaron (Host)
And that shit like back what we said at the beginning. That's the stuff that makes life worth living, man, and to provide that for people is a sacred duty. And I want to get back to what you, what you said a few minutes ago. You said you went on dead tour. What year did you do dead tour?
39:26 - Trevor (Guest)
so, uh, we did the last. We've done like the last three years for deading company. Um, my, my partner, jerica renee shout out to her Jerika Renee Art. She's a badass painter and she's a rock star in her own regard. We just travel and we follow them around. When I first met her she was pretty heavy in the festival circuit scene. She did like Peach Fest and Summer Camp and now we've expanded out west more and um just getting into different scenes and stuff like that and uh, but last year we went really hard, we did, we did almost all the shows.
40:12
I think there was only like a few shows we didn't do with the baby. Say again, with the baby, yeah, with our little guy, all right, yeah, and you know there's there's kids on lot, um, so he was, he was fine, I mean, they played, hung out, we took, we'd stop on the road, go play at a park. You know, we, we did it all. We stopped and saw attractions. We went um, we went to that meow wolf in colorado. Um, the gorge was like one of my highlights, that the gorge is beautiful.
40:50 - Aaron (Host)
It's my first time being there, oh yeah, yeah, that place is, that place is magic yeah, we did.
40:57 - Trevor (Guest)
Uh, I think we did. We actually went up up into Canada to go to New York, so we stopped in Niagara Falls. That was cool. I'm going backwards now, but the whole California coastline was beautiful. Stopped at the Redwoods um, the shows were magic. Man, I mean we, we can't. We couldn't go into all of them, nor could I afford to do that. But we I played every single parking lot that we were at um met a ton of friends.
41:29
There's like such a cool jam scene young kids, you know, pranksters and, yeah, hippies and all the above. You know, when you're following dead and company around, it's like a uh, it really is like a traveling circus and you know those, those, those folks. They actually are pretty well organized and pretty sophisticated. And it's really funny when you go into a situation and it's like you know, live Nation is like running an event and all these hippies show up and they're like no, no, no, no, this is how it's going to be. And the whole time, live Nation's like no, it's going to be like this, it's going to be like this, it's going to be like this, it's going to be like this. Then, like all of a sudden, hippies organize everything and it just becomes law of the land. It's just this bizarre phenomenon, like you know, and hopefully I'm not exposing too much here, but uh no, you know what.
42:26 - Aaron (Host)
it's funny, man like I left to go on tour at the end of 89 and, um, I didn't know shit. I, I didn't know a lot, I didn't know nothing. All I knew is I'm never leaving the Grateful Dead and I bought a school bus and I'm going to find out what happens, and I thought the same thing. Live Nation wasn't a thing then, but I was blown away when it was all said and done at like, how it kept itself together.
43:04
It was this weird like amoeba thing where people would break off and others would come in and there was this natural flow to it and there was like self organizing chaos that happened and folks that kind of like ring masters, that kind of kept order of the cats that were needing to be wrangled, and it was it's. It's trippy to me that you have you know it's what 32 years later or whatever, and you have the exact same kind of experience hitting the road.
43:39 - Trevor (Guest)
That's a trip that is super trippy.
43:43
Yeah, that's well and it's like the. It's I always, whenever I'm on the road, like that, or in the on the road in general, I really feel like that's the american dream, like um, and I know I saw, maybe sounds weird, but it it's like you're out there. I mean the history of America, if you. You know, just to go in for a second. It's like we're just traveling and migrating here and people from all over and sharing ideas and and music, and and then they keep moving farther West and West and West and and then, um, you know, we get horses and people start building trains and they want to travel places, and then the car and it's like the American dream is is like a moving circus, you know, it's really wow, that's.
44:35 - Apple (Host)
That's quite a perspective, what you were like everything was just being said to that, like it's so nice to see that, like the scene is alive and well. You're saying meeting a lot of younger people. We say it all the time. Now, like we have, we have hope for the future because we see, like what dead and company has brought back to life and stuff. And we've met, like like andrew and sean and tune and all these, you know, all these cats that are like in their, in their 20s, into their early 30s. It's given them. It's given them a life.
45:08 - Aaron (Host)
And they're heady cats.
45:09 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, and they wouldn't have had that life if it weren't kind of for the resurgence of all this, for them to have a lot to go to.
45:16 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, they have businesses because of it.
45:17 - Trevor (Guest)
Yeah, they all have businesses because of it, or artists.
45:20 - Apple (Host)
because of it, I got a thumbs up for that.
45:23 - Aaron (Host)
Right on. I don't know how that happened.
45:24 - Mel (Host)
Random thumb up. There it is, I love it.
45:28 - Apple (Host)
But it's just so. I mean, we met so many, Like you were saying the park, you can go to a show. It could be a festival or the dead or whatever. If you don't make it into the show because you can't get a ticket, you're still going to have the time of your life and you're going to hear the music and you're going to get the feeling of the community it is.
45:46 - Aaron (Host)
It's one big, crazy traveling circus it's dope, yeah, and it really does never stop. The music never stops no and it, uh, you know, even when jerry passed like, here comes the dead and the other ones, and you know, and and then fill in friends and j-rad and dark star orchestra and on and on and on. Like that stuff doesn't end, man, and just like um, you know we're talking about bluegrass and and jam grass being a branch on that tree, grateful Dead spawned the entire scene that's happening right now Fish and the whole, I really feel like in some small way even the EDM scene is partially affected by the roots of the grave Spent
46:45 - Mel (Host)
off yeah.
46:48 - Aaron (Host)
It's the festival culture too. Have you ever, have you ever, been to Oregon Country Fair?
46:53 - Trevor (Guest)
I have not.
46:57 - Aaron (Host)
Oh, we got to get you out here for Oregon Country Fair man it is. It's in July, at the beginning of July every year. It's been going on for 52?.
47:08 - Mel (Host)
No, it's more than that.
47:09 - Apple (Host)
It's as old as it started in 69. Yeah, going on 55.
47:15 - Aaron (Host)
It's in Veneta and it's on that land.
47:20 - Trevor (Guest)
Nice.
47:20 - Aaron (Host)
It is the fourth largest city in Oregon for three days and it's all volunteer, no paid. There's six paid positions in the fair. Everything else is volunteers. 20,000 volunteers that come and build this psychedelic. It's like Ewok.
47:43 - Mel (Host)
Renaissance circus.
47:44 - Aaron (Host)
It's like Ewoks.
47:45 - Apple (Host)
Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, alice in Wonderland it's like every kind of fantasy thing you can ever think of, and very folky like. Aaron's saying you as a performer or just a spectator, you'd fit in there so well because it's very Americana and folk.
48:05 - Aaron (Host)
It's everything, yeah, and very family-friendly too, your son would have a blast.
48:11 - Mel (Host)
Is that your son?
48:12 - Trevor (Guest)
Yeah, hey, what's up, buddy? We're having a beautiful discussion about music.
48:21 - Mel (Host)
We're almost done, buddy.
48:22 - Trevor (Guest)
We're almost done. Go back on the couch. I'll be out in a second, thank you that was the cute, that was sweet that was so sweet he's the best he's he's like. So understanding, I'm just blown away, and by him well know this as a dad brother.
48:43 - Aaron (Host)
He is a direct reflection of you. Get that, yeah, yeah man Hold on.
48:50 - Mel (Host)
I want to ask this has been Okay? Oh, he's cute, cute Get him on here.
48:58 - Aaron (Host)
Monroe, hi buddy, hi Monroe, what's up?
49:02 - Trevor (Guest)
Say hi to everybody.
49:04 - Mel (Host)
Hi, you want your dad back.
49:05 - Aaron (Host)
You want your dad back.
49:07 - Mel (Host)
You want to hang out with dad?
49:09 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, Are you hungry?
49:11 - Mel (Host)
Yeah.
49:12 - Trevor (Guest)
Better not be. You ate so much food, dude.
49:16 - Mel (Host)
Oh. Well, we're just going to say bye to your dad because we're done with our conversation. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing your dad.
49:23 - Apple (Host)
I have one last. This is a with our conversation. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing. I have one last is very important question because it's driving me nuts on. Yeah, on the new album, the, the loving comes easily at the beginning of that going in. Is it a kazoo or a trumpet that's muted like what is the instrument?
49:42 - Trevor (Guest)
oh man, that's my uh. Hold on, that's dude.
49:44 - Apple (Host)
I I mouth trumpet, I uh okay after I saw a few of your instagram things of you and on youtube a few of you doing, doing some beatboxing and other things.
49:55 - Trevor (Guest)
Okay, that yeah, I, I do like beat boxing mouth, trumpeting um weird reverse sounds with my mouth and I'm really I've been trying to do the other song on there, Lightning starts with like beatboxing. It's me beatboxing and playing the guitar at the same time, trying to get more into that realm where I do that. You know I can do that for five, six, seven minutes.
50:23
You know I can play a whole song, beatboxing and playing guitar, um, which I don't see happening that much, and like I want to inspire more people to do it, and Keller being one of those guys that um inspired me to do more of that. Um, and my partner, you know, I I had I kind of gave up on it for a while and she's like, why aren't you mouth trumpeting anymore at your shows? And I was like, oh, you know, nobody wants to hear that. And you know, now it's kind of becoming it's also very Oregon Country Fair.
50:55 - Mel (Host)
We were just talking about that. That is a very Oregon Country Fair thing, just like the performative aspect of your talent.
51:04 - Trevor (Guest)
Like yeah, you don't just lay down your painting.
51:07 - Mel (Host)
You like kind of express your painting, you know, and um, thank you for what you do, man, you're a really fun artist. You're super talented and I love your sense of humor. I love that you're like you've been a musician but you're still dawning on what you're still to come. And I think that that's exciting and fun.
51:29 - Trevor (Guest)
Yeah, thank you. It's been a, you know it's been a lot. It's like a slow journey for me and I'm okay with that, like I'm just trying to just slowly go up, up, up, up, up, up up and have as much fun as possible.
51:43 - Aaron (Host)
That's the trick.
51:45 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, and if you want to be a musician your whole life, who cares how long it takes?
51:53 - Apple (Host)
That's it. That's what I've been trying to tell folks and thank you.
51:59 - Trevor (Guest)
It's a journey and keep enjoying it, and anyone out there that wants to do anything that's worthwhile is going to take a while.
52:04 - Mel (Host)
you know that's no's worthwhile is gonna take a while. You know no shit. That's right, do you?
52:07 - Trevor (Guest)
have any, any music coming out or anything that anybody should be on the lookout for I got, um, I haven't released any dates yet, but I'm gonna be, uh, doing some stuff with the sweet lilies coming up, um. And then I have, I have a couple songs, songs that are already recorded, but I just haven't figured out quite what to do with them yet and maybe need a little bit of tweaking. So no dates, kind of as of right now, but yeah, If folks want to follow you, where do they go?
52:43
They can go to my Facebook, Trevor Clark Music, or Instagram, which is Trevor Clark and it's TR3VOR. Okay, there's a three on the E of my name. Three is my favorite number. I was born on the 30th. I just love them. A big three person yeah Well, it is the magic number. Three is the 30th. I just love them. A big three person yeah Well it is the magic number.
53:08 - Aaron (Host)
Three is the magic number we know, trevor, in the emails that you and I shared with each other, my phone number is at the bottom in my signature. Shoot me a text so that I have your number, because we got some stuff that we're doing out here in my signature. Shoot me a text so that I have your number, Because we got some stuff that we're doing out here planning next summer, and I'd love to have you come out for it.
53:36 - Trevor (Guest)
Rock and roll man, I would love to come out there.
53:44 - Aaron (Host)
And dude, if there was ever a human being that I've met that is made for Oregon Country Fair, it's you. We need to get you to fair somehow. Yeah, you definitely, and it sounds like Jerrica too.
53:55 - Mel (Host)
It sounds like she would just be part of the landscape.
54:00 - Trevor (Guest)
Oh, we're a package deal, baby, yeah, man.
54:02 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah man, let's figure it out, man.
54:04 - Trevor (Guest)
Let's stay in touch. Thank you guys so much. It was really nice meeting everyone.
54:09 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, trevor, you too have a great night. Go have fun with. Monroe.
54:12 - Mel (Host)
I will yes.
54:18 - Aaron (Host)
That's a dope human being.
54:19 - Mel (Host)
I love when little babies interrupt the podcast. That's my favorite thing.
54:24 - Apple (Host)
It is. He got right up there. Do you want to check it out? Like what?
54:28 - Trevor (Guest)
is that what is dad?
54:29 - Mel (Host)
doing I want to see these.
54:31 - Apple (Host)
He had to. I think we got the okay too. He was cool with us he checked us out was like all right, I ain't got nothing to say really, but you're being cool to my dad he did hide and seek peekaboo yeah, or peekaboo hide and seek eyes.
54:43 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, he was like wow those are, those are hide and seek guys, when you guess it is, you're right.
54:48 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, I'd never heard it called that before.
54:50 - Apple (Host)
Well, that's a good way to explain it to somebody that doesn't understand, like english, because they're, and also people can't see me when I'm doing that, putting my hands over my eyes.
54:59 - Mel (Host)
So if I say hide and seek guys, you know, oh, where'd you go mel where'd she go, oh, where is she oh no, I thought she was gone.
55:10 - Aaron (Host)
Everybody I got scared. She did hide and seek guys hell yeah, so you just made.
55:18 - Apple (Host)
It got us a little silly, um. So yeah, everybody should go check out what uh trevor's doing, because he is very entertaining and I love all of his songs. Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of stuff out there, but to make up for that you can go over to YouTube also.
55:33 - Mel (Host)
And he's got a lot of stuff going on there. Well, he kind of explained that he was doing stuff for a lot of other people, but he's got his own thing. That's so funny I think it's rad rad he's doing. Right before we started this, I was looking at his stuff on um instagram and he's pretty busy on that too.
55:48 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, like I saw like with sean and he was playing with sweet lilies on jam cruise and then doing stuff with kyle tuttle and he's just out there there lindsey loo, he's got that performance with her. He's, you know, he's out there just having fun making music his life and that's.
56:05 - Mel (Host)
that's what I mean Like think about like a career musician.
56:10 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah.
56:10 - Mel (Host)
Right, who cares if you are like where you want to be in year one or year 20?, because it's going to be the same place. You're going to be working towards something more.
56:25 - Trevor (Guest)
Totally Always do you know what I mean by what I mean?
56:27 - Mel (Host)
I don't mean like fame or anything like that. I mean like you're writing your first album or you're finding your band or you're doing the grind of touring you're now a musician you're a musician, you're doing it, so at any stage, any stage is welcome because you're doing it right, I? I totally understand what you're saying, but there's the reality of day to day but even if you're perfectly where you want to be, there's still stuff in everything you don't want to do. That's true.
57:00 - Aaron (Host)
So it's never perfect ever I remember we we were talking to Scotty Stoughton yesterday from Winter Wondergrass and Renewal and he was talking about working with Billy Strings and he was saying that he's honored that Billy's team would take them on because Billy has this grueling schedule and career. And you wouldn't think that I wouldn't think that I wouldn't think that normally, like it seems to me, like billy strings is doing exactly what billy strings wanted to do, you know what I mean.
57:36 - Mel (Host)
but to think that that's a grueling and and I'm sure it is, oh yeah he's touring so heavy the cooler you are, the more people want a piece, and so yeah if it's more people that want to see you, that means you have more places to be and there's no more time than anybody else's you. You get as many hours as somebody else does and maybe you don't have to do like pick up your kid from soccer or like drive to the office, but you are driving to the office in some way. Do you know?
58:09 - Aaron (Host)
what I mean. I thought when you have more money, they add more hours in the day for you.
58:12 - Mel (Host)
Oh yeah, no, that doesn't happen. No, it's like 26, 27.
58:15 - Apple (Host)
No matter how rich you are. You can't buy time.
58:18 - Aaron (Host)
That's true man. All everybody go follow Trevor and keep an eye out for when he's playing near you and all of our Pacific Northwest family. I'm going to do my best to get him out here for something.
58:31 - Mel (Host)
Oh my gosh, he's going to be so fun. Yeah, so fun when he comes out here.
58:37 - Aaron (Host)
Yep. So yeah, we'll be back on Monday with another edition of the no simple road weekly rewind. And no, no, don't do that, that's Apple being a turkey.
58:49 - Apple (Host)
Until then take care of each other. That did sound like a turkey, I guess.
58:52 - Aaron (Host)
Smile at a stranger Safety, third Hydrate and hey everybody, rewind your turkey. Well, that too. But guess what, what? It's almost time for Oregon Country Fair.
59:02 - Mel (Host)
And you want to know what else, what we got our own SOs.
59:06 - Aaron (Host)
Oh, oh, we did. We love you all Peace.