00:01 - Apple (Host)
Dude.
00:06 - Mel (Host)
You're all sideways.
00:08 - Aaron (Host)
Russell got all sideways Drink a.
00:10 - Mel (Host)
V8 Keep your diet straight.
00:14 - Aaron (Host)
You're muted, my friend, but you look fabulous.
00:23 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, you look great, but your voice is.
00:26 - Aaron (Host)
We can't hear you down in the bottom there's a little microphone thingy that you click on and then hello, nope not yet.
00:44 - Apple (Host)
These musicians can work.
00:45 - Aaron (Host)
Hey there it is there. You guys can work like these incredibly intricate signal trains through power pedal boards.
00:57 - Russell (Guest)
I can barely answer an email. All of that other stuff still works most of the time.
01:04 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, what up Russell?
01:06 - Russell (Guest)
Oh man, it's so good to see you guys how y'all doing you too, man, Great Awesome.
01:10 - Aaron (Host)
Are you staying relatively cool?
01:14 - Russell (Guest)
Kind of I just turned off the AC because it's close by where I'm talking, so we'll see how relatively cool it is, by the end, you're going to be like that melty guy, I'd say at least you got a ceiling fan that's helping.
01:33 - Aaron (Host)
Oh, it's kind of creating this nice aura about me. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's kind of strobe effect on this end. Right, heavy um russell for for everybody listening, because we all know who you are.
01:40 - Mel (Host)
But we tell them we know and love russell already yeah, and I love you guys.
01:45 - Russell (Guest)
My name is and I play guitar and sing and write songs for a band called the great north special yay, hey, let's do this right here.
01:54 - Apple (Host)
Hey, russell I I would like to. I would like to add to that, rus Russell, we were talking, like last week, about you and we all agreed you were one of the best things that came out of Skull and Roses for us, yes. Meeting you and hanging.
02:15 - Russell (Guest)
That is so sweet to hear. I feel the exact same and I didn't get to make it back since then. But man, what a, what a great one for me to go out on. I think that was the last one I got to go to, was the one we all hung out at, and that was that actually was the best one.
02:29
Yeah, yeah, it really was for me to meeting you guys, hanging out with you guys, all the music and that kind of hang in the lot, that whole weekend and stuff was just that was the best.
02:36 - Aaron (Host)
It seems like since then you guys have kind of started to blow up a little bit.
02:46 - Russell (Guest)
We're just pushing harder. Finally, we, we got a little more time and energy and, uh, you know, uh, that that started to create some more music, which is good that last time we talked we were still kind of early on in the process of making a band and making songs and, you know, making a story that goes with all of these different lives, all seven of us in the band. So, uh, yeah, now the last couple years we've had some time to like really hone in on that and work on some tunes together and, you know, write and record and play some more, and so things are starting to kind of grow a little bit organically now, I think.
03:13 - Aaron (Host)
You know, one of the one of the things and this is I mean neither here nor there, but one of the things that I noticed about you guys is the brand, like your artwork, everything like you can tell it's you just from the way it looks.
03:31 - Russell (Guest)
Oh, that's awesome.
03:32 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, is that I mean? Obviously that's intentional right.
03:36 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think from the start we've tried to like be careful about, like the artists that we work with, and and you know we do like our percussionist Max. He's a he's a graphic designer. Know, we do like our percussionist max. He's a, he's a graphic designer and does some really wonderful stuff and he does some stuff for the band sometimes, um, but kind of since the beginning we we chose to just like work with artists that we thought were cool, that had like kind of a a thing or an ethos or a look or something that we related to or connected to, and so we kind of made it a point to like spend a little money on those things early on.
04:04
Even if we didn't necessarily have it, it was just something that felt important to have like real art and real artists making it, and real artists that we could actually connect with and feel like, you know, like there's a shared experience, rather than we just like we gave you some dough and you made us a thing. You know it's like, yeah, just to like keep the community thing of what we're trying to do alive from the start. I think the art is like a big part of that, at least for me, you know, like the bands that I like, that I'm super into, like I they have like a whole package usually that goes with it. I mean, like the dead is the best example of, like I was gonna say, iconography and symbology, and just like the coolest art and and people involved with the art through over the decades, like it's just, it's a, it makes the whole thing feel more community-based and I think that's why there's like a cult following of it too, you know yeah and like this in the same way.
04:49 - Aaron (Host)
You could tell that that's a grateful dead album just by looking at it. Doesn't need to see great say grateful dead and it's the same thing with great north special, the cali thump parade man. Congratulations, brother, it's.
05:02 - Russell (Guest)
Thank you so much oh man, I appreciate that we're so stoked to finally get it out. It's been like a a year-long whirlwind of trying to, like you know, have figure out how to make a record and and do it mostly on our own. And uh, yeah, after a year of hard work and like bang against the wall sometimes, it's nice that it's finally done and out. People can listen to it and, uh, we're gonna celebrate its release here in town pretty soon and then.
05:26
And then it'll be nice to just kind of start playing a lot again. We've spent so much time in the studio and making phone calls and emails and listening to mixes and masters and like doing all that stuff. That's not exactly the most fun part of of playing, you know. So, uh, it'll be nice now to just get back to like playing and hanging out with all our buds.
05:44 - Mel (Host)
Oh hey, speaking of buds, darwin's big. Darwin, he's making a guest appearance.
05:49 - Apple (Host)
He's turned blue. He's our blue dog right now.
05:51 - Mel (Host)
You know, russell, that you were saying earlier, we've just been hitting it harder. You know, like that is a true testament to where, like wherever, you put your focus and attention, that's where the energy goes, that's where it grows. You know what I mean, like if you're, if you don't have the time. I'm saying this because I'm going to implicate myself like I picked up the banjo a couple years ago on my birthday and the first year I was hitting it hard.
06:17
I was going to lessons every week and like trying to practice every day. But then life happened and like it's legitimate stuff. It's like stuff with the show and stuff with the family and like that's the stuff that was growing during that time. It was all the stuff that I was putting attention to, but the cute little banjo up there is just like sitting there it looks cool when you walk in the house.
06:38
It looks awesome when you walk in and I'm definitely gonna pick her up again, but know I'm just saying that like it's sometimes in life, it's like it's the time or it's just not the time.
06:50 - Russell (Guest)
Right, right, yeah, and that's I mean especially. Most of us in the band are middle aged or older, so it's, you know, time is such like an important factor in what we're doing and, yes, and even be able to do it at all. It's like you, as as any kind of artist or creative type, like you guys understand, like you set forth this whole plan and then you know the weather changes and you just kind of have to deal accordingly. It's like a lot of time that the hand that gets dealt is like yeah, dude, you're, you're not a young, you're not a young cat, we're not like some of the young bands who can just go crush it on the road for seven months at a time and, you know, sleep on floors and do all that all the time. It's like that's a, that's a beautiful.
07:25
We all did that throughout our youths in certain ways. But now now we kind of with where we're at and what our station is now, um, and it's a different thing. It's a lot of just like being patient with like, yeah, sometimes it just takes three times as long as you thought it would, or you know whatever, and you got to roll with it and accept that. And I think the hard part is like not giving up when that kind of shit happens, like not just like throwing in the towel because it's been like, oh man, it's been three grueling months and just like nothing's changing. And I'm trying so hard. It's like, yeah, but the the change is usually just right there around that like next push, you know, a little more focus, a little more energy or something.
07:58 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, I've, I've heard it explained. Like you know, when you plant seeds in a garden, if, if, if, you're what, if you can, could see underground, you could, yeah, the moment just before that first sprout pokes out of the ground, you don't want to quit the day before that happens totally man right, you don't know when that is, but sometimes you're frustrated and you, like, you said so, how do you what like?
08:21 - Mel (Host)
what do you do, like you know, with the band and for yourself to like not not yeah, because that's hard yeah, yeah, it changes.
08:33 - Russell (Guest)
I mean it's like I kind of do whatever like is necessary in the moment. You know so like sometimes it's a simple seeming thing, sometimes it's like something that I'm not even doing. It's like your, your family or your close friends or your community that holds you up and just when you're like ready to to be done with something or think it's time, you someone kind of taps you on the shoulder and lets you know that it's not and that you're going the right direction, or you get some like little you know, a little bit of light shines through, you get a little bit of the validation you need to put some gas in the tank and you're like right, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give this up just yet, um, but it's so true, like a good working formula for it. You know it's like a constant, like everyday battle with everything I'm doing, not even just the band, with like motivation in all aspects of life.
09:14 - Aaron (Host)
You know, have you read the rick rubin book?
09:17 - Russell (Guest)
no, I've listened to probably about half of it now. I never got a chance to finish it, but, man, I'm in love with all of these ideas that he's talking about right, and so like the idea of creating the art for yourself.
09:30 - Aaron (Host)
Right first and then if you're doing that and it's good for you, then the validation from outside doesn't matter right, totally, totally, I don't know, man, I I mean mean, I intellectually understand the words the way he put them together. I understand the thought and it's awesome. That's fucking hard to achieve that train of thought.
10:02 - Russell (Guest)
I feel lucky if I can hit that like 10% of the time, if I can react in such a way. It's like oh man, yeah, I'm making progress, but a lot of the like reacting poorly first and then having to get reminded or having to get, like I said, some little lift from something or someone else external sometimes, that it does kind of steer you back on the path and remind you the stuff that you kind of already know, but you just you tend to let go. It gets hard, man, it's hard to like, it's just it's hard to push anything in life, uh, let alone creative, where you have like so much on the line for it because it's all personal to you.
10:31 - Aaron (Host)
No, that's yeah. Yeah, when you're putting something out, that means something to you, you, you right by nature of the thing. I, at least for me, like. I want other people to dig it as much as I do, right I want you to get off on it too.
10:51
That's what makes you really happy. Yeah, but yeah. But that's not the reality. No, and and right, right, especially with playing music, like at least with podcasting, I I have like metrics, I can pull up a site and it shows me these this many people listen this week and they were here and they listen from this time to this time you guys don't have that right like there's tough.
11:17 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, I mean, do you really only start to see it kind of like pretty, pretty far in once you've been doing a lot of work, you start to hopefully see it in the rooms that you're playing. You know that you can. You can go to a few different cities and have some people actually fill the room and make it a show, you know, and not just a practice or something. But uh, but yeah, I mean, it is hard there. It is hard to like get direct feedback sometimes, especially when you're kind of at the bottom rung of working on something musical.
11:42
To like just these first stages of making your first albums and making your first songs and demos and all that kind of stuff and and trying to kind of like push yourself into the world when no one knows the name is like that's, that's the hardest kind of stage of it all. That's the easiest stage when we all give up, cause it's like there's no, there's no feedback, there's not a lot, and you're really push, push, push, pushing, hoping that eventually you kind of break the moment where people start to come on the room. And I think we're just now, at least locally in our, in our area in Southern California, we're finally starting to see like a community grow and we're fortunate that there's a lot of other rad bands that are kind of happening and doing their own thing right now too, that we can all kind of connect and create like cool nights together and you know, some continuity between like faces and community that we're all seeing and kind of hanging out together. So we're trying and that's the idea anyway.
12:29 - Apple (Host)
I think that that would be the most rewarding. Like you say, you guys have been in the studio and off the road and everything being on the road and getting that feedback from the crowd. That's what that's like the barometer for what's happening, that that fires you up every time you do a show her for what's happening, that that fires you up.
12:47 - Russell (Guest)
Every time you do a show, 100, 100, yeah, like any, even just like a small win, live is like a. It's such a big deal, you know, more so than being like, oh, we got 100 streams or we got a whatever this. It's like to get that like personal connection of like meeting a couple cool people that are stoked on what you did is like, I mean, you guys know how that is. It's like a that that's addicted to this. This whole thing in general it's like, yeah, dude, I feed on that connection so much that I'm willing to go like do it for, for free, basically a lot of the time, because, like, it feels like a good life, it feels like, you know, that feels like the payoff. A lot of the time, especially early on in a project, is like, yeah, if you get some connection and like this, like if you get to meet friends and make family and stuff out of the thing that you're working on, then that's like already it's already succeeding in certain ways, isn't?
13:31 - Mel (Host)
that the truth. It is the truth. Yeah, because money can't buy that, the only thing that complicates that part is the money that's. I mean, I think that if we were free to do the stuff that we love, then it would be a quite different story that we'd all be talking about right now like if we were just you know, like it didn't matter if we had like benefactors well, maybe even less benefactors, but just like less of like that it I guess, if money wasn't a thing, you know, if money wasn't a thing and our needs are met, we can do our house is paid for and we have
14:07 - Russell (Guest)
no bills, and then it'd be like oh, oh shit, it's so much easier, right, yeah, like, yeah, if you, if you could just get what you needed as an artist covered and know that you're good, then imagine all the art that could like be created. If everybody, you know, if all of these wonderful creative people in the world that most people are inherently anyways like got the time to to spend on that, it'd be amazing to see like what, what that's if you never got pulled out of that zone like we all have like, oh my god, okay, now it's back to work.
14:37 - Apple (Host)
Oh oh, now I got to worry about this. If it was just doing what you love.
14:40 - Aaron (Host)
Well, that was like the Medici's and all that with Da Vinci and that came out of him being able to be free and do his thing.
14:49 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, you don't have to worry about anything but your art.
14:51 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, so, russell, what's like a typical day when you're doing all day stuff for work?
15:02 - Russell (Guest)
Like what's a typical day? Um for the band? You mean, yeah, for the band. Um, I mean, it depends. Right now it changes so much because there's many things going on. But you know, a lot of times the last few months of getting the record just like vinyl and everything pressed, was literally just sitting at the coffee table in my living room answering emails, sending calls back, fixing emails, changing numbers, looking at, looking at, you know different colors and things that need to be fixed or changed, or you know textual errors, all of these like little minute things that most people probably won't even see or notice, like administrative stuff Exactly.
15:34 - Aaron (Host)
I have to stop you for a second. We owe you the biggest heartfelt thank you, dude man. Oh seriously, brother man, there's a lot of cool shit that's happened with no simple road. Over the seven years that we've been doing this, there's a lot of really cool things that have happened but far and away that is my favorite thing. I've never been in liner notes on an album before thank you so much for that, russell.
16:03 - Apple (Host)
That was the world.
16:05 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, that's a first it comes from the heart man. We were glad that, uh, we had a chance to make a record and and have full control over everything and get to like thank some people that have been pretty influential in our small journey. Thank thank you, guys for being a part of it and for supporting us and, uh, you know, letting me call in and bend your ear a couple times now yeah, it's it.
16:25 - Mel (Host)
This is how the family grows is, as far as I'm concerned, like the more the more that we like talk about ourselves and our community and what people are doing in it, then people know what's up. And when people go like oh shit, the great north specials come in Like they wouldn't never have heard that if they were in Connecticut and like didn't know somebody that knew you.
16:47
Right and so, like I consider what we do is like helping the family, like evolve and grow bigger and better, and like tighter and close, you know, closer, like it. Just it's like every time we like see a repeat guest, it's like our heart gets so happy like hell yeah, dude, they're coming back.
17:08
Everybody wants to come back, yeah, and they're doing more cool shit too, like that's usually the premise, like they're coming back because they're doing some more dope stuff, like so. Yeah, it's just like really cool to see and be part of of the music and the scene and to help kind of like lift it up any way we can yeah, likewise I feel grateful to be a part of what you guys are doing.
17:31 - Russell (Guest)
I mean, since last we talked, I feel like you guys have had all these huge milestones and huge guests, but it's like it's, you know, it seems even crazier that you would have someone like myself on next to some of these guests you have and you know you guys are out there performing on stages at festivals that we're we're hoping to perform someday.
17:47
So you guys are like, you know you're not only like keeping the community alive, but you're also participating and, you know, making art for everyone too. So I we feel lucky to be a part of it, but I also also, before we were even a part of it, I felt lucky just as a listener, that something like what you guys are doing exists. You know, like there's not a lot of people, especially in our scene, in this kind of like jam related scene, that are, like you know, talking to artists of all kinds, and there are so many different kinds of artists, from small to big, that have interesting stories and that have cool things to share. And, yeah, I think, with you guys like having these conversations. You know it definitely helps that family grow and it helps the music grow. It allows you know all of these artists that you guys are connected to now to get, to have a little more voice, to speak to other people that you guys know part of your family.
18:32 - Mel (Host)
So yeah, it's beautiful man, that's a cool perspective to hear back from, because you know we're in it, just like you're in it. You know what I mean.
18:40 - Russell (Guest)
Like you're in your thing.
18:42 - Mel (Host)
So it's hard to see how you look on stage or how your song sounds to someone else, and so you know, just thank you for that mutual thing and and you know like kind of like yourself. All. All of it's organic. How it happens, you know, like it's like your love for the music. It was kind of our love for the music that, you know, kept it going at least in this direction. Didn't start it but it, like you know, changed it into this and yeah yeah, it's just pretty, it's sweet.
19:09 - Apple (Host)
That's a. That's also a great, great example of what we were talking about a few minutes ago, like you can look at all the numbers and the things like this and everything. It's when you hear things like that from somebody that means so much that's like.
19:20 - Aaron (Host)
That's why we do it well, yeah, and like you said, russell there's, it's not just billy strings, that's talented right, you know what I mean. Like I feel like it's all one thing. I don't, I don't know man yeah, the big guess great, that's, that's cool and everything, but this is the shit that means the most to me is forging the relationships with real people and that making the connection can be any kind of platform to help amplify that voice that wouldn't have that otherwise than fucking okay, I, I guess I we never set out to do that and and to have that opportunity is a huge honor, and so, yeah, yeah, let's everybody come to the table, because everybody's making dope shit right now there's awesome, it's like.
20:20 - Mel (Host)
It's like flowering all over the place right right mojo family fest and russell I think you belong there.
20:27 - Russell (Guest)
I think that definitely. I look so awesome. I felt like the vibes.
20:32 - Mel (Host)
Would you all would bring the perfect vibe to mojo family fest. They're like ready for it. Like you guys are some like musicians that I thought of like right after that I was like wow if it's funny, I thought the same thing we didn't talk about. We didn't no we didn't have to get up there, yeah yeah it's, it's just like, um, I feel like that what is happening in the portland scene and also like kind of what you were mentioning. There's a lot of bands like around what you guys are doing and kind of what you were mentioning.
20:59
There's a lot of bands like around what you guys are doing and kind of supporting and lifting each other up and like right it's not the same music, but they go together you know what I mean like it's. It's so great to have like this kind of like dope jam beach, like whatever kind of music out there.
21:19 - Aaron (Host)
And yeah, so where are you, russell?
21:22 - Russell (Guest)
I'm in. I'm in the city of orange, like an orange County not too far from Laguna beach, and then a lot of the rest of the guys are mostly in Laguna and kind of surrounding area.
21:30 - Aaron (Host)
I know that, like even having three of us and we all live in the same house, right, it's hard to navigate scheduling and getting shit together and, oh, totally how. How does that work with seven of you going into the studio and creating an album like what, what does?
21:50 - Mel (Host)
that look like. Yeah, it's well wait with the caveat, especially since you said you've been hitting it harder, right, because before it, before, it was not as much, so now you have to connect.
22:01 - Russell (Guest)
Totally, totally. Yeah, I mean, that's it. It's just like making that. I feel super lucky and and I think all the other guys do too that we've all kind of been able to commit a certain amount of our time to this thing.
22:12
You know, and and especially for these other guys that are that are playing in the band, you know they've they've allowed me and our other songwriter that are playing in the band, you know they've allowed me and our other songwriter, andrew, to kind of like take the reins and steer a lot of the things that we're doing without too much talk sometimes. You know, they just kind of trust us to do that, but they've also given us so much time and energy and kind of creative force and impetus to like make this thing in the first place with this band. So that's kind of it. It's really just been like resting on we. We have like an awesome group. Somehow. We just like found this magical uh formula for the moment, at least so far um of people that are like willing to to donate their time and and try to like create something and build something and just like you know, have the adventure and like the the fun of it all, which is I think is.
22:57
I think that's why we all keep contributing our time and, and you know, hitting it harder is because it is like, yeah, the more, the more you do and the more you see a few more people at the show and you meet some more new people and new faces and there's more smiles. It's like, yeah, then then the addiction just sets in further. It's like, whatever, the disease wants it so bad and like wants to hang out and have a good time, is like you know, the more you get it, the more you want. So why not just keep kind of pushing it and pushing it and pushing it? So that's so far. You know, we've, like I said, we've, we've been lucky.
23:25
The studio was definitely difficult. We recorded in LA, so it was like two weeks of orchestrating who needs to be in LA, when and the whole band doesn't always need to be there and kind of making those plans. But fortunately those plans, but fortunately everyone's kind of been able to like make, keep their schedules a little loose and and be able to like be malleable with with when we need to play and rehearse and all that. So, knock on wood, if we can keep that going, we'll uh, we'll keep sailing, you know, and start playing more and more out of town too yeah, it is so as far as like the next thing.
23:56 - Aaron (Host)
Like so you release the album and you you're playing more shows, what? What's the next thing?
24:02 - Russell (Guest)
like that you would the next goal you would want to reach for for great north special yeah, um, I think we'd all like to like just start doing more of what we've been doing at home, which is, like you know, playing, playing with other bands that we connect with, and like creating kind of a community vibe. We'd like to start experiencing that and kind of spreading ourselves into other areas in that same way, you know, joining other people's communities and sharing the music and the art that we have to bring, and meeting new friends and fans. And, like I said just a second ago, I think the like adventure of it too is like that's that is kind of like the next thing on on the list is like, okay, now we have some art to go out and like share with the world. Like now let's just go have the adventure and see what happens.
24:43
Like let's go out and play, let's meet people, like let's see if we can get some cool shows, let's see if we can, you know, wind up at some cool people's houses and hear some wild stories and you know our own wild stories and all of that too. So, stories and all of that too. So, right now, I think that's a main goal. And then, uh, you know that and just like bro, the music we would love to be able to like play as much as possible. I think eventually, you know, like the the more we can be together playing and jamming and being on stage, like I think that's the thing we're all really like, uh, kind of hooked on right now, just playing and it feels like it's evolving.
25:15 - Aaron (Host)
Does it feel like it's more than it was? And it's it's doing its thing.
25:19 - Russell (Guest)
Definitely. Yeah, it feels like it's building just, uh, you know, the, the, the kind of the scene here is growing along with the band at the same time, which is nice, um, and I think musically it's definitely growing. We actually just got a new drummer, um, our drummer, who I played with for years and live next door to my best friend for a long time, uh, uh just decided that he wasn't gonna be able to keep playing right now and he's just got a lot of other stuff going on. So we happen to have another really close friend who we've known for a long time and he stepped in kind of at the perfect time and, uh, you know that's a scary moment.
25:50
It was like right as the record's about to come out. So that makes you wonder like, yeah, can we do this without this like main, main member of our, of our family? Um, but fortunately, derrick, our new drummer, uh, was already kind of family for most of us in the band already. So, um, so it was just the musical thing which were. I think we played yesterday a big show in the park and that was probably his third or fourth show and it just it felt great, it feels like home already, it feels like he's comfortable.
26:17 - Apple (Host)
So he was already familiar.
26:19 - Russell (Guest)
He was already familiar with the music and everything which yeah, the band and what you know like, had always thought the band was cool and would love to like play the stuff with us. Um, he also grew up he's like his mom and dad were like heads old tour heads that, like you know, saw a gazillion times and we're hanging out at all the shows so he grew up going to shows and he knows that music well and, uh, yeah, it was just kind of the perfect situation where, right at the right time, he was able to step in and and kind of make a a scary moment not so scary, you know and now it's been really cool. Now it feels like it's growing and there is this new, you know, it's like any new relationship that's exciting, like there's all this kind of like spark and fire in the air while we kind of potential yeah exciting, it's fun.
27:02
So you know not that there was any of that lacking with with our good friend who was playing before, but, um, just anything new is always kind of fun and exciting. So that's uh, that's been cool and right now we're just kind of working on that. We're just like loving, loving, playing and getting the chance to like jam and improv together and kind of like explore together, you know so yeah.
27:20 - Aaron (Host)
So if there's a, if there's a um, an overarching theme for cali thump parade, what would it be?
27:28 - Russell (Guest)
yeah, um, I hope like fun, maybe I don't know the like the idea of the cali thump parade is kind of. That was like some rabbit hole I went down on which is like some Americana. History of our New Year's celebration was apparently started like through these Califant parades, which are these like boisterous, wild archetype people that were, like, you know, just bringing fun and a little bit of chaos and disorder into the street just to shake up like norms and like getting locked in routines and ruts and all that like disastrous shit can happen and I like I just like that idea. It felt like. It felt like a thread that kind of runs through all of the shit that I think is cool in art and culture.
28:16
For the last hundred arcana, you know, it was just like, uh, yeah, the people that are like trying to subvert, uh, the the most normal kind of mundane and and trying to like point to a greater existence, which sometimes is just like smiling or laughter or joy or whatever you can do to attain that, you know. So that's definitely what the song calithop is about and I kind of wanted the record to feel like that. We'll have to see how everyone feels about it on their own, but to me that's kind of what we were going after. That's kind of the theme of the band right now and playing live and everything. It's just trying to have a good time, trying to spread some joy and include other people in the joy that we want to be experiencing the world is a very what's the word.
29:02 - Mel (Host)
The world is great. No, the world is a very serious place right now, you know things are.
29:08 - Aaron (Host)
it's odd. It's an odd fucking time that we're in, and I guess everybody probably says that in their life at some point.
29:16 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, yeah.
29:17 - Aaron (Host)
Right now, I don't know whatever, but this is fucking weird and I feel like anything that can shake us out of our boxes that we're in is so essential, now more than ever before, because the um onslaught of everything is so in our face all the time, and it's it's designed it's, it's designed by intent to keep you bound in this box and and to keep your attention all the time, and I'm not just talking about, like, not just social media, but the world that we live in.
30:02
Everything is designed like eat more of this, stare at this longer watch binge this show like everything is very prescriptive, yeah and so anything that can shake up a norm at this point is really essential, and the things that were counter to culture have somehow been assimilated on our culture now, which is fucking weird all by itself, yeah.
30:36
Like I don't know, yeah, stuff, yeah, like I don't know. I yeah, it used to. I understand like needing safe access to psychedelics and cannabis and not not going to jail and and or not dying when you take something because you don't know what's in it, that kind of shit. I'm yeah great, that's all right. I'm happy that that's not as much as it used to be right, but it used to mean that you were an outlaw, you were outside totally willing to take chances.
31:08 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, now it's like well, I microdose acid.
31:11 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, I go to my job.
31:12 - Russell (Guest)
It makes me really productive right, yeah, once it's become modified and turned into some like production, like device, device or something, it's like oh no, dude, they've, they've taken our tools and wielded them against us.
31:24 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, common thing that hires do to their subjects, you know and it's up to us to remind each other through like these kinds of measures, like through art and through getting together in unconventional ways and through encouraging each other's weirdness and like. Well, it's true, we do need to do that, because I know there's a lot of people that are like open with their talents and like have no problem expressing it, but then there's others that do.
31:53 - Russell (Guest)
But there are is just as important to sometimes yeah, and sometimes it might be more important, but we just don't get a chance to see it because they didn't get a shot.
32:02 - Mel (Host)
Absolutely, and you think that it's always the loud person who needs to be heard. But that's not.
32:10 - Apple (Host)
That loud person is usually the one that's always heard. What do they say? Still waters run deep, yeah Right.
32:16 - Mel (Host)
Yeah.
32:17 - Aaron (Host)
I don't know. I just I see, especially being connected through the lens of no Simple Road to social media. I see a lot Right, because I'm looking for new bands and whatever, yeah, and it's. It's a wild landscape out there, man out there man and it's something that like from my 16 year old me head that still lives in here. When I look at it, I'm like what the fuck is going on around here?
32:46 - Mel (Host)
well, and like we weren't exposed to all of it even if all of it was going on, which I doubt that that was happening all along. But even if it was, we didn't know about it. You know, you had to like find out about that London band because your friend got a certain CD or tape or whatever, or you know, you happened to catch them the one time they were in LA or you know these kinds of things.
33:13
They were like special, they were little treasures. Now there's a lot of great stuff, but like it's like I got a sweet tooth and I'm all. My tooth are sweet, teeth are sweet like you know what I mean, like everything so it's like it's it's special and one in the same, but then at the same time it's also kind of like an overkill for so much stimulation.
33:35 - Aaron (Host)
You know, I, I have a question for you, russell, and I mean this is neither here nor there about music, but like I'm thinking back to like when I first started taking acid and stuff.
33:49 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah.
33:49 - Aaron (Host)
Like you had to like know the guy that knew the guy.
33:53 - Russell (Guest)
I was just going to say the same thing, right.
33:55 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, yeah and and it was dangerous, like sometimes you had to go put yourself in a position that was not cool to get the stuff that you wanted and whatever. Yep, yep and the information about like I don't know, like set and setting or what a particular drug did to came to you from the underground.
34:18 - Russell (Guest)
Right From the cultured people that were using it and taking it and knew how to work with it.
34:21 - Aaron (Host)
you know and I was just sitting here thinking about it and I'm like is there an underground anymore?
34:27 - Russell (Guest)
right, no, no, I mean now that now it just gets shipped to your house and some, like some doctor who's probably never even tried it, is going to tell you how to use it.
34:34 - Apple (Host)
You know it's going to cost you three times what it's supposed to cost, and you know it just it's being endorsed by the morning show and oprah and this and that and like, but I mean not even psychedelics I'm talking about like, not just that, I'm talking about the underground, like the information super highway that used to run between all of us before the internet, and, like I remember there was like these um, alternative zines, oh totally yeah remember this shit.
35:06 - Aaron (Host)
That was like they were like black and white and they were stapled and it was like information on how to pierce your labia and like you know how to grow poppies, and like all kinds of random shit before the internet like I don't think anything like that even exists anymore, apart from the internet. Like there's. No, yeah, the underground is exist in the underground.
35:31 - Russell (Guest)
It's just it's.
35:31
You know, now there's always channels you got to like weed through to get there and then, and then you got to decide when you get there if it's real or not.
35:38
You know, like, like, are these charlatans, are these grifters or is this a real deal, which I mean, that's a thing in anything in life that you're choosing.
35:45
That's true. But I think before, like you were saying, there was like this underground kind of thread where you had to go live the adventure, you had to meet the people, get the stories from them, and it kind of kept like a I don't know, it kept its own like safety checks almost, or like its own like coolness checks, right Right. It like regulated itself, kept it from getting too uncool or too tapped into, like this thing that was subverting the norms and whatever. You know. And and now I definitely think that still exists, you know there's people like yourselves and all kinds of people that are, that are doing all kinds of work to like do something different, alternative than the normal shit. You know to be something somewhat underground still, but I just think it's so much harder to find and get to and I think, like most of us are tired of like yeah, that's Google, before you finally find the one that feels true.
36:44 - Aaron (Host)
It's like, dude, you got to read 40 articles before you feel like you hit some truth. Sometimes you know, wow, yeah, and there was. And I want to sound like an old guy, but like there's a an energy to that to finding the thing or, like you know, getting plugged into the information, in a way of experientially getting plugged into something instead of just reading it on Google. Or, like you know, you went camping and you found the spot where the mushrooms grow and that earned it.
37:15
Yeah, and it it feels like a little bit and I'm not condemning everything by any means like I'm part of this digital landscape love it.
37:28 - Mel (Host)
We all are, no matter how big or small, but it feels like it's a little bit disconnected from that energy of like excitement.
37:37 - Aaron (Host)
It's harder to find that now, right?
37:39 - Russell (Guest)
right, yeah, I feel that way. Yeah it like, you know, there seems there seems like a myriad of fake versions of it too, that like may look enticing on the surface and then you just like you dig just a little bit deeper just to see that like, oh man, this is not the thing that I thought it was, it's not like this is being paraded as something that it's not actually. So that's difficult to deal with and I think it's probably making all of us tired as societies, you know, just getting tired of like how to, how to, how to like live freely and be entertained, and how to be creative and all that. So it feels like you know making, if you can make something, or if you feel compelled to make something, even if it feels silly, it seems like, well, what the hell else is there to do? Really? If it's hard to make noise in the room, anyways, you might as well just make any noise, like just just do anything, it doesn't really matter, you're going to learn how to make mouth trumpet noises really fucking good.
38:37 - Apple (Host)
That's a great talent. That's really cool.
38:44 - Aaron (Host)
It's a it's a weird place to be when, at least for me, the excitement that I have now is mostly found in gathering with other people totally that's where I'm finding that that rush, that I used to get from that stuff, like when we go to a festival or a bunch of people come stay with us or we have a party and there's people at the house like that feeling of being with community feels, like the most, like real visceral way to have fun now.
39:19 - Mel (Host)
Yeah, because we, because we're separated through like this right, Like we'd love to have Russell sitting across from us, but I'll take this you know what I mean so like we're sacrificing some of our comforts that we didn't even know we needed for the opportunity to do things like this yeah, totally, you know what I'm saying. Like he's in a completely different location, never would have known. We would have loved to keep in touch with them, but how would we have done it, do you?
39:50
like on regular pals exactly this literally brings our relationship to life, but then that sacrifices some time with people being literally here with us, which we feed on each other's energy when we're next to each other you know, like we'd be like dude russell freaking, pick up the martin, come like play, you know like, it changes the interaction when you're able to see and touch and feel and smell people, versus like, when you're enjoying it but you can't get the full effect.
40:22 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, you know.
40:24 - Mel (Host)
I think that we're fortunate to have both. I really do.
40:27 - Russell (Guest)
Totally.
40:28 - Mel (Host)
Because it has opened up the world. It really truly has, and all of us in this room and you too, russell, have done things that we never could have done without the internet.
40:39 - Russell (Guest)
Totally, totally yeah.
40:40 - Mel (Host)
I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's the coolest thing, it's just. I think that we need to like all of us in life and anybody who's listening. We're responsible now for that balance of keeping the balance of like real people, real experiences. Like you said a few times real adventures. You know like we're responsible for bringing that into our life. It doesn't come easy anymore and we can't blame it on anything other than either our lack or our you know our desire to do it Right.
41:14 - Apple (Host)
Also, what do you guys think of it? One thing that technology has done, that I think is there's nothing like a. That I think is there's nothing like a good surprise nowadays, because there's not a lot of surprises in life everything is planned out everything everything.
41:28
So that was like a surprise pulling off a surprise party or a surprise guest without people knowing. You know one of the things I was thinking about this the other day I missed the mystery of not knowing who the fuck is calling you on the phone back in like 70s and 80s I remember, like with my sit, like running to answer the flight.
41:47
I'll get it because the phone was ringing and it was exciting and you had no idea who was on the other end put tape on your phone bro, yeah, well, hey, kate could do that and that's where, like mel was just saying, it lies on us to create the things that used to be like creating the surprise and things and you know like at mojo family fest when they just they last year they had like the gag and how fish how fish creates the surprise of the gag every year. That stuff is super exciting. There used to be a lot more of it that was organic. That just happened because we didn't fucking know.
42:21 - Aaron (Host)
Russell, like working on all the stuff with the band and being one of the guys that's like steering the ship. Yeah, I'm sure, like me, you're forced to be in your phone on the computer in a on a mixer like all how do you balance that and then like visceral life to not get sucked into that all the time?
42:45 - Russell (Guest)
I mean, especially at the stage we're at because, you know, because it's such a new band and we're, you know, trying to get it to as many people as possible, it is really hard, like I haven't quite found a good balance of timing and structuring and, and you know, like feeling good about it all the time, like there's times where I'm like why did I spend this much time today, like I don't have anything to show for it, but I just felt I felt trapped by it. You know, you're just like your head's in it all day, so you want to keep checking this or that or updating this or that or whatever. You know, tweaking this little thing or that little thing yeah, the blinder thing, you know. So, like I'm definitely still in a lot of that a lot of the time, but again, just finding like little external things that can kind of like snap me out of that help. You know, sometimes it's just regular life will snap you out of it because you got to go to work or whatever. But you know my wife sometimes will help to remind me to be like, hey, put your phone down. Or like, hey, you're making that face again like you've been making. Um, so I think that helps. But I'm still just kind of figuring that out like it is.
43:46
It is really difficult to not kind of just get lost in in the digital stuff. You know when, when we all know the thing that really matters is what we're talking about, which difficult to not kind of just get lost in in the digital stuff. You know when, when we all know the thing that really matters is what we're talking about, which is the human connection. It's like it's the people that show up to the show and want to be there and they smile and dance and have a good time. Like that's, that's what we're trying to do. And you know the like the digital numbers or the look of the album, art on Spotify or all these different things, like they're cool and it's nice to tweak out on, as long as you don't get carried away with it. But it's really not to like end all, all of it. So I'm still trying to just figure it out. You know like still tell me.
44:22 - Mel (Host)
We. We asked a lot of people that, russell, for that you know, cause we're all are living real life. I don't think any one of us has figured out the exit, you know, to the simulation yet, and so anytime like we talk to people, we that's I mean it's, it's a valid question, right, it's like, how do you do it?
44:41 - Aaron (Host)
I asked it because I got that screen report which fucking stop sending that to me apple, I don't care, don't yeah, I didn't do it and it's like, oh, you spent four hours and 15 minutes a day on your phone. I was like, yeah, what the fuck?
44:58
yeah, yeah I've hit that number possible and and you brought up the spotify album art thing. I think that's hilarious because part of it, at least this past week, our episodes have have like a unique album art on spotify each one and it was doubling the album art and I'm like no, why why is it? Doing so. I'm like going and trying to re-upload and making it a smaller size and doing the yeah, and four hours is gone now totally totally for something that nobody noticed.
45:34 - Russell (Guest)
Only me, right, right, nobody cared. Only I'm driven crazy by it. Yeah, totally, yep, yeah, I don't know If you figure out the answer to that, other than just like extreme doses of like patience, you know, reminding yourself to be patient, whatever it takes to hit that mark of patience. It's an ongoing thing, though. I think it's just going to be like.
45:53 - Mel (Host)
It's like brushing your teeth dude, you can never stop.
45:58 - Apple (Host)
That's technology too. Once you figure something out, then it changes.
46:02 - Russell (Guest)
Oh yeah.
46:03 - Apple (Host)
It's like oh, I totally nailed it. I got this. Now I know how to do it.
46:06 - Russell (Guest)
What do you?
46:06 - Apple (Host)
mean you're updating the software.
46:10 - Aaron (Host)
Mel will come up behind me and push down my shoulders yeah, he'll be like this all day and I'm like what is happening?
46:22 - Mel (Host)
and then he'll, I'll be like babe, you need to like come on, you need to like just get off this computer, whatever and then he'll go outside and smoke and freaking, be on his phone again and I'm like what are you doing? Your eyes need a break, not a different scene like you know, look, I get it, I live with him. I I see what he does, it's it.
46:44
This is what he was saying earlier. It is a different world that we live in and I think, um, our age ish, you know, 60s, 50s, anybody who remembers not having the internet right yeah, we're transitioning. Like that's hard for us. And I'm not saying, oh, we need excuses or tender treatment. I'm saying that's a hard shift to, I think, your whole life one.
47:08 - Aaron (Host)
Yeah, you're, you're doing this thing, and then the fucking internet like is born oh, you want to know the answer to anything, all the time, at any point.
47:18 - Apple (Host)
Oh my god, just reach in your pocket, bro, it's me. It's me, the younger generation such smart asses and such doubters.
47:24 - Mel (Host)
Come on, apple, don't be that guy even a writer.
47:27 - Apple (Host)
Do it to you, to you all the time, that's not true, you mentioned where'd you get that hold on? Let me look that up bullshit I found an article here that says the opposite of what you're saying. Well, here's the article I read russell, do you notice?
47:41 - Aaron (Host)
um, because I there. Here's something I've been noticing lately more than ever is, if I spend an extended period of time in digital land, when I do finally come out, I can feel my uh, my consciousness is different. It's not right for a little while, like I'm out of balance. Do you, do you experience that?
48:06 - Russell (Guest)
totally, yeah, totally. I mean I'm sure, just like you're just energetically, with all of the you know emf radio waves that I don't know anything about, I'm sure that alone is creating all kinds of energy issues and stuff. But then, beyond that, there's like the mental aspect and the consciousness aspect of all of that thought and intention and and the like, the mind stuff that goes along with, like, while you're looking at 20 different things, your mind is now cycling on 100 different things based off all those like 20 triggers. Like it's just it like sets the whole mind system into such like hyper overdrive that I think humans are like there's going to be some evolving that we do now for the next few generations where, like that, the human system is going to have to like keep getting updated a little bit to be able to deal with technology being in our hands four or five hours a day so we can, just so we can do our jobs. You know, like and that's not even, that's not even a rare thing, like you say four hours, you know your phone tells you you've been there four hours Like there's people that spend eight to 12 hours a day just for their job and that's literally what they get paid, just being on a just going to go through this like weird, probably long, multiple hundred year period of of like nasty, growing pains, of just being like that feeling like where you get off and you feel out of sorts and kind of messed up from it Cause you are like I haven't adapted to that yet.
49:27
You know it's all still so new that I'm I'm sure it's like it's probably going to be painful for a little while longer. But I imagine, like everything else we have, will like adapt to it. Some, like gene mutation or something will happen and we'll all you know, we'll, we'll be some new human race that, like the cell phones, don't make us feel like that anymore, or we have some new version of it all that you know is more integrative or something you know. But in the meantime for all of us, us it's like weird in between eras, they're like it's definitely an interesting part of history, for sure does it make you want to like have more fun?
49:59 - Mel (Host)
like, does that when you think in that kind of realm because you know, after I was just gonna say after like the pandemic, and when things start to like slowly open back up and then right you know, a year passes people more comfortable. Now, you know, a few years have passed.
50:16
It was like ever since then there was like this at least between Aaron and I is like this big uptake to be like well, let's fucking do it because we don't know what's gonna happen and like right the government likes to pull that card like kind of waving it over us, like it could happen again, like you don't know, and I think maybe life is always like that, even if there isn't a big thing dangling over it, right? But it almost like puts it back into perspective.
50:42
Like you know, once upon a time we didn't live in cushy homes once upon a time we woke with the sun and slept by the moon and like all of these rhythms have been kind of dis like, interrupted and disorganized and disheveled and all of that. And I just think that you know, like everything that we're talking about and doing is like trying to get back to as much of a homeostasis internally as we can so that we can put our art and our hearts out there as we can.
51:13 - Russell (Guest)
So that we can put our art and our hearts out there.
51:15
Totally A little bit easier, you know a little bit. Yep, I totally agree that's. I mean, that's what we're trying to do. That's what makes us record and book shows and like do the whole thing against the grain. No-transcript, like there is just just the right now thing and we all talk about that. That's become a social norm, societal norm. Now to to be here. Now it's like everybody knows that that's, that's on every little, every coffee table, everywhere. Now it's but but yet like it's rarely actually being enacted. You know, people are still bogged down by like all future, future, future, tense stuff. You know what's gonna happen? Will we make it? Is everything okay? Is the world gonna explode? All that shit that's like so far out of our hands and always has been. But now our technology makes it seem like it's it's more pressing or less pressing or whatever. When it's like it's the same as it probably always has been and the best thing you can magnify yeah, it's totally exactly yeah.
52:24
So I think the more we can let go of that by doing, you know, like whatever displays of art and music and creative things and adventure that make you feel alive and like like what I mean? Yeah, well, I just I don't want to do anything else, you know, and I have, like I've done, plenty of jobs or paths or just like kind of ruts in my life where I felt like, man, I've been doing this for like a couple of years now or whatever, and this is just, it doesn't feel right. Why am I living like this, like there's nobody forced me to make these decisions or to live in this rut? I can just go a different direction and try something else.
52:54 - Apple (Host)
You know, yeah, at any moment it could change, change your mind that shit to my boss today exactly that I said you know what I'm really I there's no reason I should complain.
53:05 - Aaron (Host)
Nobody held a gun to my head this morning, made me come here. I came here because I wanted to come here and I'm gonna come here tomorrow because I want to come here.
53:10 - Apple (Host)
If I want to leave, I'll keep coming here until I don't wanted to come here, and I'm going to come here tomorrow because I want to come here. If I want to leave, I'll keep coming here until I don't want to come here and then you're not going to see me.
53:16 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, it's. Yeah, I think, if everyone can get a little bit of that spirit and not everyone has, you know I feel pretty pretty lucky and grateful that I'm in a good position to be able to make that choice many times in my life, to to make a safe turn, a different direction, without it costing me totally everything or whatever. But, that being said, if everyone can just at least experience some of that spirit or that feeling of like dude, if there's something you really don't want to be doing or something you really do want to be doing like, then that should just be the thing, regardless of what the outcome of is it, of it is, or, you know, the expectation of what it should turn into you. For if you just want it so bad, then just just do that thing or just don't do that thing you know, you have a way to live your life.
53:55 - Apple (Host)
My phone, my phone, doesn't have that button. Yeah, it does that.
53:59 - Mel (Host)
Oh, totally so, russell, when you get discouraged, you have to, like, put the episode on, maybe, like, yeah, 50 minutes in, and just listen to yourself, give yourself the spiel, you know, because, honestly, you're right, we all need to do that, it's. It's true, all of us, we need it, we need ourselves to literally live, and I think we need it for more than just ourselves.
54:23
We need it for, like everybody like the more people see that you're like living a dope life. It's way more inspiring than you know. Like hurtful for it, cause sometimes when people see other people doing good then they're like damn, it depresses them or it gets it's called hater, but sometimes you can't help it, you know sometimes you can't help it. You're like dude. I want a fucking beard like Russell. Like why does he?
54:53 - Russell (Guest)
why does?
54:53 - Mel (Host)
he get that great hair, like sometimes people can't help hating. So what I'm saying is is that, like, whatever we can do to you know, build ourselves up, but then you gotta remind yourself that russell is me and I'm russell and I do have that beard my language now guys, I loved it.
55:10 - Aaron (Host)
Yes, you know, I think that all this stuff that we're talking about, at least for me, and when I met you yeah, one of the first I remember the conversation standing there at, at inventura, I had just started playing guitar again, yeah, yeah and and I think that that's one of the only things in my life right now that, like when I do that, there's nothing else awesome going on in here. That's all that's happening and and for whatever reason, is that like that for you?
55:52 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, I mean when it's when it's going well, it's like. I mean I think there's like there's, there's like man, there's like. My favorite parts of playing guitar were probably like the first five to 10 years of learning guitar, when everything's brand new and it's just like. Then it's that thing, it's like it's so much easier to just go into that space quick. But then, like any, any technique or any tool you have in your life, the longer you do it, you know, the more you're not amused by it quite as much. So you do have to like I.
56:18
I do have to try a little harder now to get to that place, but the band helps. You know, that's why the music and like having having these songs as like a launch pad to where we can just kind of jam like that, that is what we're looking for. All seven of us us is like that and I I think all jam band musicians share that thing and a lot of musicians in general share that thing of like, yeah, when you can get to that place, then it feels like it's really happening. You know that's what we're all chasing, and I don't necessarily think I always get that when I'm playing, but that's what I'm chasing after Every time I pick up the guitar, every time I sing or, you know, do anything creative, is like I'm trying to get to that place where I'm just not present in it that much. You know, I'm kind of out of the way for it are you?
56:57 - Aaron (Host)
are you able to still like? I mean, I know you're busy with with the band and everything, but you're able to still go out and see music?
57:04 - Russell (Guest)
yeah, oh, a ton, yeah, yeah, I'm still, still lucky to to uh see as much as I can, although in southern california our, our show choices are not quite as great as the Pacific Northwest or the Bay or any of that but we're the last like. I'd say. Like the last seven to 10 years we started getting a lot better like touring schedules coming through here now. So it's it's better, but we travel for shows too. We try to see as much as we can, you know have you seen anything that really you loved lately?
57:35 - Mel (Host)
yeah, let's hear your top three shows. You've been to nice recently, not ever, yeah, recently let's think recently, not ever.
57:41 - Russell (Guest)
I went to the sphere recently for dead and co didn't get to see fish, had to live. The fish run vicariously through you guys, um, which was nice for that, um, but dead and co, I mean I've seen them a gazillion times at this point, but in the sphere it was very cool. We were there for the first weekend and the first night and it was just because I hadn't seen any videos or anything of it yet to the first night we were on the floor, everything was brand new and my jaw was dropped the whole time just because of the you know the whole nostalgia of the experience and what they're showing and the whole thing, all the symbology and icon, iconography. And you know a bunch of our friends that we haven't seen because we thought tour was over. You know, with this band and uh, yeah, that that thing was really cool. It's cool to see it in that way. It felt like a different experience than some of the other shows I've seen them in um, locally, um, there's a lot of cool stuff going on that I love. There's a lot of like great local jam bands happening and and kind of super groups happening between friends. I love that, our friends.
58:37
I think you know Ashton and soul soiree, oh yeah, but we we play with them whenever we can and and they're awesome. They're like such a such a powerhouse live actions, just an incredible guitar player. Their singer, emerson's got a wonderful voice that everybody just loves. He's got a wonderful voice that everybody just loves and the whole band is super tight and they're they're putting out new music and they're playing a lot and so anytime we get to see them or or play with them, they're always like one of my favorite to watch. They blew me away Trying to think of anything else.
59:03
Last year I think it was last year, whatever the last time we saw Billy strings was out here was also like probably. I mean, I know a lot of everyone's kind of seen him by now and knows how special he is, but it was. I don't know if that was the first or second time he'd come through la and maybe I missed the first time or something, but yeah, that his last show in la like blew me away and I've been a huge fan ever since. That like there's just I've seen some amazing bluegrass in my life, but that was like a different level. You know, that show experience with that band is like really special.
59:31 - Aaron (Host)
Totally. We saw, we saw him here, we saw him at Peach do a festival set and I was like that was really cool, billy Strings is rad. And then we saw him here for two nights at Edgefield, just himself, and the first night was like 100% traditional bluegrass and the second night was I'm taking you the fucking moon and and I left there going.
59:56
Okay, I get it, billy strings is rad, that was dope yeah and then he played the moda center and before we went, like that's where the trailblazers play and all that, and and before we went I'm like how the fuck are you gonna do a bluegrass show in an arena like?
01:00:12 - Russell (Guest)
how do you? How does that translate?
01:00:14 - Aaron (Host)
yeah and holy shit, like ever since then. I'm like billy motherfucking strings like yeah I don't know. It felt like that grateful dead energy of like it's. It's so thick in there you could cut it with a knife oh, yeah, so good he yeah, there's something special with that boy.
01:00:38 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, they deserve all the success they're getting. It's uh, it's the whole show, not just the tunes he's writing and his playing is obviously incredible, but the whole show that they put on as a band and the, the improv jams and the lights and the you know the way they can go to dark to light and trippy to happy and the whole gambit of stuff. All jam fans like is to do all that and without a drummer, keeping time is just like, seems like it's another and I don't know how those guys do it, but it's. It's incredibly impressive and and inspiring to see. You know, you go to see a show like that and just like, suddenly everything feels possible again. It's like, feels like and like you see something truly tapped in where someone's really living their like true dharma, like that at that level, and it makes, it makes things feel powerful and possible again.
01:01:20 - Apple (Host)
You're like oh yeah, dude like everything feels brand new now.
01:01:22 - Russell (Guest)
You know like anything can happen, if a guy like that exists, or if a show like that or experience like that can exist. So that's.
01:01:29 - Aaron (Host)
That's exactly how I felt when and this is a perfect like callback now you know we're talking about technology and whatever. I'm grateful for it too, because of the experience I had at the sphere for fish like yeah that is a brand new way to do show you know what I mean. Like it's a whole new orb of possibility that's there, like on some other quantum level that I can. I still am unpacking seeing fish in that place like right and I caught.
01:02:08
I caught one night of dead and company too and it was, it was dope Like. But having you know a week before that of seeing all the visuals, it I there wasn't that like surprise for me so but the fish thing, like it made me like really appreciate the technology and that we have minds that can conceive of something so incredibly intricate, and and and then a group of musicians that have been playing together for 40 years that are weird enough and nerdy enough to get into that thing and like dig in right and figure out what it does, like that's yeah, okay, I'm here for that, yeah yeah, yeah, and that's that's exciting to see.
01:02:52 - Russell (Guest)
Like that is that is where these like two worlds that we've been talking about this whole time kind of cross is like yeah, dude, when did that? When do the pranksters get a hold of the new ones and find new, new ways to implement those and use them in ways that we find to be more, you know, enlightening or more enriching, uh, creatively or artistically? For for all of those that care about that kind of life, you know.
01:03:27 - Aaron (Host)
hopefully, maybe one day we'll all be able to share experience through neuralink. We'll just all have telepathy, we won't even need to talk. Who knows, I don't know, man, anything's possible. Russell, tell folks where they can find more info on the Great North Special.
01:03:44 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, we're just at the Great North Special on Instagram and you can check out our website as well. We just got a new website and we'll have some new merch up on there and vinyl and CDs available for purchase as well. That's just the great north specialcom.
01:03:59 - Aaron (Host)
Okay, and if they come through your spot, go see them. Buy merch, get your ticket early, all that stuff I just got to say to you I can't.
01:04:08 - Apple (Host)
You're a set yourself up with the new album for a great reception in oregon. As you know, very first line, very first song on the album, riding high through oregon.
01:04:20 - Russell (Guest)
Like you come up here and sing that to the crowd, or but it's gonna be like fuck yeah about that when I wrote it, because it's kind of a story song that actually happened in oregon, but the now that you mentioned that, that is going to be a really good time to come up there and sing that where it's meant to be sung, so we got to make that happen hopefully next summer we're going to be putting together a no Simple Road thing with our friends at Rhythms Ground and I would love to have you guys there with us, man.
01:04:56 - Aaron (Host)
I want to be able to party with you again, because we only got to do it once.
01:04:59 - Russell (Guest)
I know it's been too long. I know I miss the hell out of you guys. Thank you so much for having me on the chat with you.
01:05:07 - Aaron (Host)
That was fucking fun.
01:05:07 - Mel (Host)
Give the guys our love.
01:05:10 - Russell (Guest)
We're super proud of you. The whole gang will come sit in the studio with you.
01:05:14 - Aaron (Host)
Yes, yeah, let's do it Right on. We'll talk soon, Russell.
01:05:18 - Russell (Guest)
All right, guys, love you all. Take it easy, brother.
01:05:21 - Mel (Host)
Aw, we love you Russell.
01:05:24 - Aaron (Host)
Salt of the earth. That's the real, real way I'd say Gary.
01:05:28 - Apple (Host)
Gary, a huge thanks to Big Steve for blowing out the power.
01:05:33 - Russell (Guest)
Yeah, it wouldn't have been for that we probably wouldn't have ever met.
01:05:36 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, we would have been grooving and Dan, we were all just kind of hanging out, so it allowed those connections to happen.
01:05:42 - Mel (Host)
That night we were talking to somebody and then he came up and he was like all shy and he talked to me, he goes.
01:05:48 - Apple (Host)
I'm sorry, I don't want to bug you guys.
01:05:54 - Aaron (Host)
I just wanted to say hi and I love what you do and we're like come be our friend. I was just coming on to the stuff that I took that night and I was like really, really anxious for whatever reason in the space that I was in in my head I was like there was a lot and everything was buzzing and like and I was anxious and I was coming on and the music wasn't, and the music wasn't starting and it was weird and the lights were off and and then russell came over and it was like I could feel the ocean breeze all of a sudden.
01:06:25
He does kind of travel with the breeze, yeah, and like I sat and rapped with him for like an hour and a half just talking about everything.
01:06:34 - Apple (Host)
Yeah, and he almost wasn't going to meet you. He was talking to me and Mel and we're like Aaron went over, you were doing something. He was talking to somebody else, oh yeah, you were talking to the other people and then it was like no, you need to be, aaron needs to meet you.
01:06:50 - Aaron (Host)
You need to meet.
01:06:51 - Mel (Host)
Aaron, not to mention when we went with sydney and adam to their first show at the hollywood bowl. He is literally the first person that I bumped into going out of the bathroom really yeah, so you guys, you and apple had come together and we all met at the hollywood bowl, because I was with sy Sidney and Adam, and so Adam's waiting outside for us. Sidney and I went to the bathroom. I come out and we're. We literally just get out and stand right outside the bathroom and I look and you can't mistake Russell's beard and face and hair.
01:07:25 - Aaron (Host)
He has the best beard you can't.
01:07:27 - Mel (Host)
And I was like, oh my god, like and and I had the Great North Special shirt on that night. No way, yes, it's in pictures. Yes, wow, sydney like outfitted me, but I had like my own shirt. I had like a jacket on and like these pants, and I had my Great North Special shirt on which I that's my favorite bedtime shirt. I love that bedtime shirt. So thank you.
01:07:50 - Aaron (Host)
Russell, that is another thing with Great North Special, is they?
01:07:54 - Apple (Host)
have fucking dope merch, amazing merch, dope merch. Yeah, buy merch from them. You won't be disappointed.
01:07:59 - Mel (Host)
You will not Alright everybody and you'll be helping the band.
01:08:02 - Aaron (Host)
This is true, just, you're welcome. For if you didn't know about them and Kelly Thumb, parade is one hell of an accomplishment and out now streaming on all the streaming platforms. Go listen to it and, until next time, take care of each other. Smile at a stranger safety. Third, hydrate, and this week I challenge you to do one thing that you're afraid to do alright, we'll see you on Monday. We love y'all peace. To do one thing that you're afraid to do Alright.
01:08:39 - Mel (Host)
We'll see you on Monday. We love y'all Peace.
01:08:42 - Aaron (Host)
Peace. This is how we do it.