Welcome to the Scene
Welcome to the Scene takes a candid and human look at the musicians of the indie rock/ emo scene of the early 2000s. Host Jeremy Houtsma, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, presents a free-flowing conversation that tends to go in inspiring and reflective paths that touch on a myriad of topics including mental health. The result is an intimate look at not just the music created but also the stories, history, and growth of these individuals. It's a whirlwind listen of nostalgia, inspiration, and insights into who these bands and people were and where they are now.
Welcome to the Scene
Joe Morin: Edison Glass and the art of adapting to change
When the mic goes live, it's not just about the podcast voice—it's about the echoes of old friendships and the music that's been the soundtrack to our lives. Reunited with Joe Morin of Edison Glass, we wade through the laughter, the struggles of life on the road, and the burrito joints that somehow stick in our minds more than the venues we played. This episode isn't just a trip down memory lane; it's an exploration of the personal growth that comes from the genuine connections we forge, and a testament to the therapeutic power of revisiting our history.
As we stitch together the tapestry of our past, Joe and I grapple with the concepts of redemption and grace that have framed our narratives. From the unpredictability of touring life to the bittersweet act of sifting through memories, we unpack how these experiences have shaped us into the adults we've become. Joe's continued dedication to music, post-Edison Glass, serves as a poignant reminder that our artistry captures the essence of who we are at different moments—each album a chapter in the story of our lives.
Concluding with musings on our desire for control, this episode touches on the personal anecdotes and shared experiences that have defined our evolving music careers. We laugh about sneaking into concerts and those formative years that laid the foundation for our musical identities. As we discuss the challenges of aging, parenthood, and health, there's a sense of camaraderie and understanding that resonates deeply. Join us for an intimate journey through the complexities of life, the pursuit of dreams, and the unbreakable bond of music that intertwines our stories.
If you like the Podcast Subscribe!
You can find us on all major Podcasting platforms at Welcome to the Scene Podcast.
Instagram
TikTok
Youtube
Hello everyone and welcome to the scene. I'm your host, jeremy Halsma. Today's guest is Joe Moran from the band Edison Glass. Joe and I go way back and have been friends for a long time. If you've never heard the band Edison Glass, you really have to. This episode is kind of special for me and I'm going to admit parts of it are just Joe and I catching up on life, talk about a myriad of things, including Edison Glass, but we talk about getting older and what it's like to move on into different phases in your life. I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope you guys do too. So, with that said, welcome to the scene. So where were you living before here?
Speaker 2:I was south of town, in like the Brentwood area, and I had this split level house that I was renting. The top level was all living space and the bottom level I built a studio.
Speaker 1:Oh nice.
Speaker 2:So I had studio things going on there and sessions and writing and teaching, producing basically everything I do this all happening in that one place, Make my coffee in the morning and go straight down there and start on my day. It's just pretty much the dream as life would have it. Circumstances can change. They just keep changing. Things just keep changing.
Speaker 1:There's one constant in life. It's changed, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're. I mean it's good to see you, man, it's been a really long time. I think the last time I saw you was when you guys were rolling through Seattle, which was years ago, like 10 plus years ago.
Speaker 2:And so what is? I'm curious to know that's forever ago in Seattle. I don't remember being in Seattle except a little bit.
Speaker 1:You guys were playing with Nightmare View and Paper Rival, but I think they dropped off the tour.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, wow, that's funny, I can't believe that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I remember specific things about that tour. We're really hilarious. This guy with us who was like I don't remember playing the shows at all, like whatsoever. I don't remember playing the drums but I do remember like who we had on tour and like what we were up to, what it felt like, which is just so bizarre to me, you know, because the things that, like we were doing in Seattle, like we were there to play gigs, you know play shows and stuff, but there was I have little recollection of that Right right, more nuanced, very nuanced memories of the surrounding events, which is just so strange to me.
Speaker 1:You have that.
Speaker 2:So what do you remember about that last time?
Speaker 1:Let's see. All right, we went to some, we all went to some burrito place. I think it's a pretty famous place in Seattle called Bimbos Bitchin' Burritos or something like that, and I remember the show because I somewhere on YouTube there is a recap of that show that I put out on YouTube somewhere off the Senate team, but I remember.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? Like you videoed? Yeah, you put like a vlog on YouTube.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's cool. No, I'm laughing because of your face, like your face looks expression. By the way, can we do like a two minute segment or something here on, like the self awareness, like the podcast voice? You know, like, all of a sudden, like being self aware oh, you're recording this and all that Right right and like oh, the camera's in the scene.
Speaker 2:So we got conscious of the camera now and I got to put that voice on and put that anyway. I just think that's funny. I all of a sudden became very self aware that like, okay, now I got to, you know.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'm, I'm always.
Speaker 3:Do you know this guy?
Speaker 1:No, no, to be honest with you like, I feel like things have been. A lot of the conversations that I've had Like people have been incredibly genuine just in the interaction. You know, like people have been wanting to like it just all to me. What, what? What is awesome about this? This is like a therapy session for me, to be honest with you, like, because where I live and even though I'm a therapist and like I'm, I am making connection all day long, but it's mostly I don't. It's not like a mutual connection type of thing. Right Like it's. I'm sitting there listening to people and providing feedback and you know all that other stuff. But this is like I get to talk with people that I either like, really admire, or who I like has some sort of musical connection with, and just get to hear their stories and just kind of like connect on a one, on one level. Like there's a part of me that wants to change the name of the podcast, so like I'd have a beer with him or something like that, because at the end of it I just feel like, dude, I was love to sit and talk more and have a beer with this person.
Speaker 1:I haven't had like an amazing amount of guests, I kind of patchwork where I can get them and things like that, and. But I mean, yeah, I don't. I've never seen somebody all of a sudden just like turn it on, you know, like I don't know. I'm trying to think of that. If that happened. I think that seems to go on more when they start like recollecting like the past and past shows and things like that. And, by the way, like if at the end of the episode or at the end of our time talking, if you're like please cut that and cut that and whatever, just just get in contact with me. I'm slow with getting these things out, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've like actually Jordan used to host one and actually yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I was on that and then I was on a different one. But no, I like I have a. I definitely start to get a self consciousness, like a filter sort of thing, and I'm like hyper aware of everything. I'm saying. Like wait, not that I'm like you know I want to take anything back and that there's anything that I'd want to hide, or something like that. In fact, jordan and I were just talking before this and I'm like man, I actually love that. You what you just said about this being a like therapy session for you, because I'm really curious about like your walk in that journey and what that's been like for you and all that stuff. Just on a personal note, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm. I'm an open book about most things you know. It's very little that I'm, you know. It's like you were talking about becoming self aware. It's like I'm painfully self aware all the time and like that's both a like, a gift and also a struggle in a lot of ways, you know, and I think I think my wife would tell you that.
Speaker 1:I think my wife would tell you the same thing, you know. So it's, it's great, but it also leaves itself open to being like not to get too deep, but just being hurt by people, right, because, like you're willing to give and give and people tend to be, I think, more reserved, and especially on the West Coast here. So so it's, you know, I go to my own therapist, but this for me, is more just like I get to sit here and talk and like, holy crap, I'm talking with Steve Lemos from American football, like and having like a real conversation about life and kids and yeah whatever else is going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah that realm so.
Speaker 2:And you also for therapy to right. Not to people on here, but yeah, man, this could be some kind of publicly monitored.
Speaker 1:That's just what we need, you know, joe is something that's really interesting and and I don't know if this is going to be on the podcast or not, but it's like I have really good feelings towards you. Know, are the crew at over you? I still talk with Renzi. No, I occasionally talk with Bill Tukarski. Dave lives in the same town that I grew up with it in, in like a half a mile down from the house that I grew up in, which is super freaking weird.
Speaker 2:Ranzino.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Oh they, oh wow. I last I checked up on them there, still in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1:No, he moved to Midland Park, which is where I grew up, and it's like in the same exact area their kids go to. He's like running into people. I know it's really crazy. Yeah, that is bizarre, super bizarre.
Speaker 2:So funny how that. Well, I have lots of affection still for the whole crew, you know, and I the last I saw Ranzino, I was on the road and I played a date in in Manhattan, was in Brooklyn, was in Brooklyn, and so we hung out for a little bit. I was the last I saw Chris, but cloud as well, yeah, and who else you know, liz and and Lauren. Obviously I hung out with that whole crew for a moment but yeah, I think the time before that I was, I saw it. Where did I see Dave? I saw Dave. I got together with Dave. This is a cool story. Here is Dave and Josh Polite.
Speaker 2:Yeah we got together and went and saw Blindside on their reunion tour of silence, I think it was. It was no, it wasn't a reunion, it was just like a show, you know, yeah, and so, and we used to tour Edison with Blindside. That was really like pinnacle or monumental just sort of tour for us. I remember really happy to do that. So we got to know those guys a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it was really cool seeing them. Like gosh, it must have been like eight years later and I forget the drummer's name, but you know I remember his face and I just walk up to him and Dave's with me and I just go what's up, man, that's good to see you. We toured with you. I toured with you like eight years ago, do you remember? It's like I don't know. Yeah, edison glass goes. Oh yeah, edison glass, oh yeah, and that was the most you know. Yeah, and you know, hugged him, said you know, glad to see you again. And they went on and played like nothing changed. You know, they were just like the same, exact like perfect Blindside, like just ball and sound.
Speaker 1:I think they played I don't. They played last year at Furnace Fest, that's. That's where Dave and I met up at Furnace Fest together and actually Seth was there.
Speaker 2:That's rainwater.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we I mean I'm mostly like Dave and I just hung out a good amount and for me, like that, the lineup that year 21 was like phenomenal. I don't think it would get any better. But honestly, the best part of it because Dave was like, oh, you should go this year. I was like I don't have anybody to go with, like so the best part of it for me was hanging out with Dave and just kind of catching up and reconnecting and, you know, having lunch together and and just you know, just just the community and the connection in that. And the reason why I like I brought up having a lot of love for that group is that it's been sort of like my experience that some people would rather move on from that time in their life and almost like forget that ever happened.
Speaker 2:And that interesting. I can recall a similar sentiment having happened not long after Edison Glasses kind of stopped playing together. And just because that era, how is so many different experiences and specific times of life and specific relationships, whether they be romantic or whatever, and choices, and just you know, you have it, you know, and lifestyle the whole thing that you know. So there was a lot to remember, right, and then there's also a lot to forget.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I I'm, I'm always yeah. So it's always this kind of like weird thing where, like, I want sometimes want to reconnect with some people and they're just kind of like, yeah, I think I just rather let that part of my life like either explicitly or implicitly, yeah, and not personally just like there's a lot of pain in that or there's a lot of, like, you know, want to remember that time of my life and it's interesting, just because that's not how I experience things. I'm like there's it's hard for me to forget things. It's more constructive to to like deconstruct and reconstruct some things through that right Like this is who I was then and this is where I'm at now. And but I also understand some people not really wanting to, you know, kind of go back right Like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I understand what you mean and the word.
Speaker 2:you know this is kind of a maybe a Christian easy sort of word, but it's like the word, the word redemption came to mind while we're talking, you know, because it's like we can look back on our pasts and we can, you know, tell whatever story we really want to tell. You know, and we're constantly doing that, you know. And there's a Christopher Nolan, you know, director of all those these amazing movies. He deals with that subject all the time. It's like constantly perceiving and narrating our own story. I think that's his and he he makes, he does that in inception and he talks about that in the section. It's like a wheel, almost right.
Speaker 2:And then there's narrows pointing to each other in a circle, you know, it's like there's the, there's the perceiving, and then there's, and then narrate. I don't know if those are the exact concepts, but but generally that's kind of what he was talking about, I think, and I, you know, I suspect that's pretty true, and because I and I know it is, you know, for, for, you know, just dealing with memories and dealing with, you know, how do I, how do I make sense of of it all, you know, and I think a redemption, and maybe even another Christian easy word which I'm very prone to using those right now, in a redemptive way, hopefully, is grace.
Speaker 2:You know the grace for, for the past, you know grace for, for what has been you know, yeah, Well, I think that's I don't want to look back on, you know, on the decisions that I used to make or the person who I used to be, in a way that's betraying. You know, I want to honor. I want to honor who I was and what I need, or who I had to become Right that way in order to kind of be able to allow myself to take inventory today, right.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean all paths lead to, to who you are now. Right, and neither a huge part of therapy is just looking, I think, like at the past and making sense of it. Right, like I like how you use that word, like who I had to become or who I had to be, because a lot of stuff is like adaptive right, a lot of it's survival, and I can imagine that like as crazy as it may sound that, like you guys going on tour and I remember you guys saying like just even watching you guys do some of the, especially you do like the business stuff or like the booking and stuff and it being so stressful, or just like what the? I mean I'm actually like how, in God's green earth, like how did that? How did that become your thing for the band?
Speaker 2:I know I've been always inclined to organization and communication and you know you're probably familiar with the Enneagram, but I later learned that I was a, or at least for a while, there. It's a little hazy to me now what my go to number is and the numbers, by the way, speaking of who you had to become, numbers are not who you are but who you had to become. So I think, right that season, who I had to become was a one. So I just saw all the loose ends all the time and I was very drawn to tie them up, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's in short. I just gravitated towards it. You know, and control, you know, I mean I wanted, right, I wanted some level of control of the situation, because I felt like if there was no control which, let's be honest, all of the just the whole thing can be so chaotic. You know, in the 20 year old college dropout, you know who's, you know who's label are telling him and his friends that their band is going to be the next whoever, you know you know you're going to be as big as switchfoot or whatever the frig and it's like.
Speaker 2:So now this is so much chaos and uncertainty and ambition and hope and, and you know, and creative, like just just creativity, just as there's an onslaught of all of it all happening at once, you know, and so loneliness, and you know all that stuff. So there's some level of control I think that we all reach for. You know, for me it was like, okay, what are the details that need taking care of? You know, right, right, probably hyperanalyzing it way too much, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I think there's, you know, like a lot of the things that you're kind of talking about are. Just see, I work primarily with teenagers and young adults.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to ask you before.
Speaker 1:We're just kind of going through those kind of chaotic times, right, and like I position myself, I don't have any answers, like my job is to kind of sift through things with the person and kind of like talk with them about I don't know who they were or like who they're becoming, and then just like making like little observations like here and there, type of thing.
Speaker 1:I mean obviously it's a lot more than that, but it could be tiring as hell and chaotic and all that stuff too. But one of the things is I talk about I think is a huge concept is we all want, but the number one thing that people want their lives is control right. And so when you work with people who are somebody who's like has something called like borderline personality disorder, their biggest fear is abandonment, and so they will try and control the situation in any means possible. That's either manipulation that's like you know, emotional manipulation and control like because they're so afraid right, like of chaos, they're afraid that they're gonna be come out of control. But all of it like the biggest human need is control right, like we all want control. We all grasp for that in different ways and like a ton of different ways. You know it comes out in personality, it comes out in everyday situations.
Speaker 2:Like or the fragmented need, you know, or the distortion of what our need is. Maybe our needs are a little bit more just as I'm thinking out loud here, you know, maybe our needs are a little bit more generous than that, but somehow, when you know our, you know, the survival thing kicks in. You know, we don't realize that we have what we need, like that. Essentially, I think the fundamental truth is that we have what we need, right, but we don't really know it. You know that we are okay, but we don't really know it. You know, because we were either conditioned or, you know, somehow grew to believe conditioned or some other way to believe that we're not okay and that somehow we need to do something. You know, from a coping or what's the other word I'm looking for Kind of way, in a coping way, yeah.
Speaker 3:That makes sense yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was, you know, like Sorry to cut you off. No, no, worries, there's. Yeah, I don't care, we're just thinking, talking out loud, right.
Speaker 2:We're vibing right now, aren't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we just need a couple of cigars, right.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:We were supposed to do that, that cigar night.
Speaker 2:You know I have this. It goes back to college. Yeah, we were. We were supposed to do a Zoom cigar night for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, during the pandemic.
Speaker 2:I was really excited to do it, but I don't know what happened. I think here's what happened. Jeremy Life, I think I was in such a weird season and talk about, like I don't know, just figuring out your stuff. I guess I was like thinking about what to text everybody and I was just in such a hyper like weird place of I don't know just figuring out my stuff. And I didn't, because everything the world caved in, right, right yeah.
Speaker 2:You know my world caved in, you know, just in every way. So I was really happy and glad to like connect with everybody and do the community thing. But at the same time I'm like I don't know how to text everybody. Like a basic text, like that's how weird, and in my head I felt, do you know what I mean? Yeah, like a basic text like hey, does everybody want? Like when's it? Like just the, just the, just the going through that, you know, I don't know For it. That season, I know, was so strange for everybody and it took its like course for everybody in different ways.
Speaker 1:And you know I had a lot, did you? Did you feel like that? That was like a super vulnerable thing to do, cause I could imagine it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, totally yeah, in some ways, you know, yeah, in some ways.
Speaker 1:Which is kind of funny because, like you're, you're you were just talking about how, when you were in Edison glass, like tying up, tying up the loose ends, you know, kind of like scheduling, creating things, was like your, you know, was something that you did really well, you know and then.
Speaker 2:I don't know, Just maybe some insecurity or something. But I don't know I want to hyper up. No, I said too much, but yeah, I don't know, I don't do a cigar with anybody anytime. I was going to say, though, back to college. I have this image or memory burned in my head of who is the RA on our floor? Joe, the same floor, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Joe.
Speaker 2:Who's Joe? But then there was a different dude, right, I remember there was a channel. There was Joe, your first. It might have been Joe Dude. I think it was Joe. Sorry, yeah, okay, right.
Speaker 1:You're because your first year you were on Vatican right, I was on there every single semester.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all four. What was there?
Speaker 1:Our second year. They put Joe on there because they wanted. My understanding was they wanted to try and tame us down.
Speaker 2:I'm just remembering being on the. What was that called that top level? What was that top level Was? There was like one more. It was supposed to be a study lounge.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we would. Just we would have, we would kill each other. Up there, we were like, we were like they were pulling each other that was crazy.
Speaker 1:I remember some really, really funny things. But I remember one time I think it was after, I don't know if you were there we were launching water balloons off the balcony. Somehow, I think, ruckel, you could get into Ruckel's balcony and we were launching water balloons off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Ruckel and Sterling had this room right there and their sliding glass door wasn't like everyone else's sliding glass door In that it opened the way and not only limited to like two or three inches of opening. So we would sneak out onto the actual balcony and take that. Had the slingshot thing? Yeah, I'm not sure, and right across from our dorm tower were the ladies dorm tower. We were segregated at that point. We were just nailing them.
Speaker 3:Nailing it.
Speaker 2:There was one or two girls' rooms, right, we would just get it bad and like at random, like every few days or whatever, we would just walk around.
Speaker 1:I remember I don't know if you remember this, but it was either after the airport incident where they sent, I think it was like the dean of students or something sat us all down and was like, if you guys keep this up, like we're going to spread. I remember him saying this very specifically we will spread you all so far across campus that you'll never see each other again. It wanted to break up our entire door.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we better tame it down then, I guess, as to what we did at that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because the floor I can't hear you, man, I can't hear you. I think you're. Maybe is your thumb on. There we go.
Speaker 3:How's this Hands up, there we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is what we all looked like when that that's a flashlight in the pitch black. We were all like, oh shit.
Speaker 1:There was that. Do you remember sneaking into towers after we went through the? I think it was first seems forever, in Elliott. Do you remember we had to sneak into the windows and a guard almost got your foot? A guard like grabbed your foot. You don't remember this, do you?
Speaker 2:I don't remember that.
Speaker 1:Because, do you remember, we couldn't, you couldn't technically get back in on a campus until like 6 AM if you were out past curfew.
Speaker 2:Shoot. Yeah, I kind of remember this now.
Speaker 1:So we went to go see and I was talking with Ranzino about this too. We went to go see first seems forever, elliott, and I forget what the other band was, the Rise, I think it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could have been Copeland and I remember there's just a bunch around that time and the working title.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went to and I remember we were like we're not staying out.
Speaker 2:Oklahoma City maybe? Yeah, Is it Oklahoma City?
Speaker 1:I think so, and we went through the computer lab. It was like you, me, merkel, and like Poli and Ranzino, I think, and I remember we were like we got to get through that door and just run up the stairs as fast as possible and just as you were the last one and just as you were slipping in, like a security guard came around and grabbed your pant leg or something, and we slipped and we just booked it up stairs as fast as possible. Sorry to remember that.
Speaker 2:Oh, because the computer lab was like all the way at the bottom level.
Speaker 1:Right, right. And I specifically remember about that concert too, as I just remember you yelling I love you, elliot, like just in the middle of the gap, like I freaking love you.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so good. Wow, you know, I'm glad you remember that I just have.
Speaker 1:I have a really good memory. Hold on one second, you do, dude. I have a neighbor whose daughter is bipolar and she will freak out, sometimes like out of nowhere, so she was just screaming for no reason, but anyway, yeah Good luck with all that, yeah, which I don't say Sorry. No, no, no, no. Trust me, it's very, very weird. Are you OK if I ask a little bit more focused questions? Please do On some things. So I just want to know, like did you start out with drums? I can't remember. Do you do piano?
Speaker 2:I started playing piano around the age I don't know, probably five or six, and we all took lessons as brothers in the morning clan and he was trying to teach me how to read music. And that was very frustrating for me because I think I had a teacher before that who was like teaching us by ear through the Suzuki method.
Speaker 2:So I learned piano and like voice from singing and church and stuff like that. So I always, you know, and just parents who were very into music, right? So I have this picture too of us boys with like pots and pans and a guitar and just you know, like whatever, just you know, family jamming, having a good time, whatever with music you know.
Speaker 2:So that was just built into the culture at our house and so, yeah, so I continued with piano and I remember around age 10. And somewhere in there I remember becoming just enamored with the drums at church, watching either my dad play or watching some of the guys in the band play, just going, wow, that's an amazing sound and that looks so fun, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So my dad and some of those church folks and my brother Clark were all in this band, this Christian rock band called Repentance. So Repentance started a rehearse at my parents' place and that meant that my dad needed a drum set. So he bought this black pearl export drum set, some cymbals, and you know that was in the basement and so I just I was right down there, you know, every day, just playing. So there was the drum set and then there was a ping pong table and I remember the ping pong table. If you didn't have, you know, a partner, one of my brothers, something to play with, you'd fold the ping pong table and you'd play against yourself. You know Right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I would just go back and forth between those things and inevitably, you know, we moved our family in, so we moved a couple towns over and that's where I met Josh Silverberg, and that was around age 12. And he would come over with his spider, you know, spider-ampere.
Speaker 1:And the guitar oh.
Speaker 2:The guitar that was, and his long hair and just you know Silverberg-ness.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we would just you know jam or whatever.
Speaker 1:What would Josh play with?
Speaker 3:you guys, then or. What was that?
Speaker 1:Would Josh play with you guys then too, my brother, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my brother Paul too. You know, I think Joshie like a little later, you know, like he was pretty still young, you know, and so he knew some stuff, but he wasn't like you know what, I mean, he wasn't tied in yet. Does that make sense? Yeah, so, but Josh and Silverberg and I just became like good buddies, you know, and I would just go over to his basement and he had a kit down there too, and because his band was playing and so I really looked up to them and so I would always go over there and we would play, and so we were just all of us over each other's houses and somewhere in there, you know, we met James because Silverberg was going to this church and so James was there at the church, and then there's, you know, the youth group stuff and all this like just it was just a big you know mess of us kids all like learning and loving music together, and so, yeah, I guess those were like the early, the early forming of the days of the band and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But that was it, you guys. Were you guys manifest that you were, you must have been manifest that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that name came when I was in ninth grade and Silverberg was in like I don't know, senior high or something like that, or about to go to college. Yeah, such an embarrassing name but we would. Yeah, we were literally like burning CDs, you know, at like one of our neighbor's houses burning CDs, and like making photocopies at the local, you know whatever.
Speaker 1:Kinkos, or what. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:What was it? No Office Max, that was the one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway, and like printing the labels on the CDs and like really being careful to put the labels of the CDs on the CDs and just that whole thing, that whole, like just every little quirky, you know, it's very I remember those things pretty specific good memories of that. It's very DIY, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's like those when you're that young, right, and you're like no, you're not as seasoned or whatever Like it's so exciting to do those things right, Like I got this demo, like let me pass it out and you know, you're so pumped and jazzed about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was literally like a video game. You know now that.
Speaker 3:I think about it. I've been like this for a long time. You learn what music is, you learn what you love about it, and then you learn stuff about it. And then you learn to make friends, make fans get CDs. You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2:Write songs and play shows and play more shows and then play bigger shows, win the battle of the bands, you know, right, right, meet the label executives, make a record, go on tour. What leveling up, level up, you know, just pretty, pretty funny, how, yeah, you know, and I have students. I teach drums still to this day. I guess I started teaching drums. You know who's? My first student was Ryan Usher, james's younger brother. Oh, really, yeah, I remember like Teaching him was back in I think oh six or something like that.
Speaker 2:He just wanted to learn, you know some what I could teach him. He had like just a work, you know, just like how I grew up, loving and not having a lot of formal training on the instrument, but anyway, so I was just teaching. I remember one of the first lessons I taught him was listen to the guitars on Circus of Vibe was one of the things I said. I don't know how to teach you the drums, but listen the guitars on this. Right, you had to teach him music and you had to teach him like what to listen for and I remember teaching him about putting a Mote into into the music and putting your personality into it and that type of thing. So which is, you know, still like what I teach in some ways.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I teach till this day and I you know Ryan Usher is what he went on and he's had, he lives here now and he has, you know, somewhat of a career still, I think, in music and you know, been doing the thing and but I've contrast that today where I teach kids and I literally have to like Put on the most inspirational motivational speaker hat just to get them to consider to go play and jam with their friends.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's on like what are you? What?
Speaker 2:are we doing? You know I I got get how fun you know screens can be and all that stuff, but I'm like you need to go Make friends and I literally told us the one of my food.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What can I do? I, yeah, you know kids the same opportunity.
Speaker 1:It's weird because the world is different and their social skills are shot Like I'm done not, I'm not joking man like they're. They're shot like the amount, the amount of man I was I was just kind of explaining this to Somebody the other day and I think a lot of it has to do with something like I like to call trauma. Parenting is, you know, we learn from like our parents mistakes right, or we look back with with a retrospective of like you know, if you're lucky enough to go to therapy and you think about all these things like well, that impacted me in this way and I don't ever want to do that to my kids, but you're doing it with like this kind of retrospective of an adult right and like I have to think constantly with my kids like they're incredibly resilient, like they're gonna have to experience heart emotions, are gonna have to experience, like you know, uncomfortableness, and I think a lot of parents Really shelter their kids emotionally from not feeling hard, feelings right, and that in and of itself, like it's. It's a, it's a, it's a good desire in some ways, but at the same time, it's like you can Kids have to know that they can experience hard things and like Move past and through and learn, right. I think there was like a mistake in previous generations that was like, instead of Helping through the emotion, there was like you just got to deal with it. Like, but there's a way to teach.
Speaker 1:When I sit down with my son, who's having like a you know, gets really frustrated really easily, like I have to sit down with him and like, yeah, dude, it's not okay to do some of the things that you're doing, and I know you're frustrated. So, like, how do we move through that emotion? Right, how do we experience it, harness it, and then like, think about a couple ways we could do something to Calm that emotion down a little bit. Like harnessing, get. You know that old adage of you know, control, control your emotions, don't let your emotions control you, type of thing. You know everything is valid, like what you feel is valid, but there's it's not paralyzing and I see that a lot with teenagers, you know, and you're just kind of like what are your there's, your social skills are like I will have other teenagers. Just like I don't know how to talk to people. I'm like what? Like, what do you mean? Like, yeah, you're gonna do some cringy stuff, but like you gotta have friends you gotta have.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean it, it's. It was hard then and it's probably harder now, you know, but it's all the same Sort of challenges that we all face, you know, which is like the belonging question yeah, what do I want to do? You know, was there, it's tough. I mean, I had that, I had that pretty built in, you know as per, you know as per that story I just told you, you know, and just what, what is unfolded in my life and Less far, which has been really Very largely music, yeah. Career-based.
Speaker 1:Joe, something I'm actually really impressed With is you how much you've stuck with music, and I'm really kind of interested in that, because there's a lot of people that I talked to on the podcast who, like after the band was done, like one of the guys from hopes fall was talking to Josh he was like I quit and I put my music equipment away for like four years and I played anything Like I just didn't play.
Speaker 2:And I talk.
Speaker 1:Guitar and it wasn't until like I think he said so that that band broke up in like 2006, 2007. He's like I didn't really pick that back up until like 2011, like I Just wanted nothing to do with it. You know, and, and so you're consistent like Pursuit. I would say, like all you guys, all, all the guys for medicine glass, like, yeah, your continued movement towards music.
Speaker 2:We were obsessed, yeah, we, and we wanted to make something new. You know, I mean I don't know how successful we were, that I mean probably had some moments, but I Still look.
Speaker 1:I like I, I don't know a couple months ago, put on time is fiction and like I still think that record is Incredible. I really do like.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's. It's an amazing. It's an amazing record. It's just didn't never got the the kind of push and the tours that you know I think you guys should have gotten.
Speaker 2:I have such a weird perspective on that whole part of it and we could talk forever about it. But I mean I, I I've like a million. I have a million thoughts like everything we're talking about. You know it's, and you know we were Very proud of that record and it was a joy to make co-produced that one with Nathan Danzler, who's a Incredible producer and mixing engineer and master mastering engineer in his own right, and it's Done a lot of stuff you know work with lots of you know, the bands that we know and love.
Speaker 2:But yeah, time is fiction was cool. There's really special Memories. I for a while there, I was going and by for a while, quote-unquote. I mean, there was a time where I would.
Speaker 3:Requit me or not, so I don't know. Like every year or so, I put on one of those records that we made and I would just Experience so many feelings in those moments no, how is this thing? That were Compressed or suppressed or something.
Speaker 2:But yeah, really proud of that, I mean it. What's really Incredible? Make this last point, I guess, I think, at the end of the day, like we're talking about how to remember things from your past well, at the end of the day, what if any of us who have Done this whole thing and then where we've all been in the creative process, being in a band touring the whole nine at the end of the day, if what we have, if anything that we have, it's the recording of the moments that we're in it's Recording, a record is is Saying this is exactly where I was at this exact moment and this is what I was doing, and this is what we did, and this is how it is for us that this is.
Speaker 2:This was exactly how it was yeah. This is the sound.
Speaker 1:No, you're my cut out again, sorry.
Speaker 2:Good. I only reflect on it in that way because I've had the vantage point of Am I good here? This sound better yeah, yeah. So I have this vantage point now of being able to go oh, these are the sounds I'm making now, you know, but that was the sound I was making then, you know, and that's a really I can't hear you again.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll take this party and hang on yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what happens. There's been a couple of times where it's just gone kind of like vaguely silent.
Speaker 2:You really, you're really silent, oh.
Speaker 1:Where's your studio at now? Do you have a studio going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a little makeshift area here in the. This room so nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, easy peasy. So I guess just a circle back and finish that point it's. You know, the vantage point I have now is I'm making all the sounds I'm making today and when I listen back to any of the records you know that Edison glass made, or any of the recordings that I have that I was, you know, glad to, unfortunate enough, to contribute to back, then you know I can, you can listen, I can listen and say now those are the sounds I was making. That cool, right? Yeah? So I Think I think we all ought to be. You know, I'm just thinking about all the guys who, like we're, have regrets, you know, spending the time that they did doing that, at the very least you have, you have recorded proof. You know that you're right.
Speaker 2:You know, glad to make that kind of music then, and that's Something you said for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I don't.
Speaker 2:Do you still meet people today that know you from Edison glass and who were just like, yeah, that was really awesome music and you know, every once in a while, like I'll be playing drums at church, for example, and I'll meet somebody and I'll be like, oh yeah, my old band used to tour that area and and I don't know who did you play with, and I'm like, no kidding, you know. So that's pretty flattering and surprising. But, yeah, the following we had was pretty special, you know, I mean that the ones who knew us really loved us. You know, there are some people who are like, yeah, that was cool, but fans in general, fans of music back then, I mean there was nothing like it.
Speaker 2:I mean, just the generation we grew up in and the generation that you know we were making music with, you know, cause it was all our music, you know, all of us were all making music with and for each other. Everyone playing shows, you know, and everybody doing the whole thing, touring, playing together and opening. You know my band's opening, blah, blah, blah. You know, opening to be opening for a blind side, to be opening for a May to be, you know, opening for whoever you know to go out on tour with a Bernard or whatever, like that, like that was just, you know, I mean that's what we did, that's what we were all doing, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it seems like such an obvious thing to say. But you just compare that with now. I mean, there's just such passion. You know, everyone's so passionate.
Speaker 1:What do you think? Do you feel like that Cause? I talk a lot about this with like, as far as, like, the quote unquote scene or just the music scene in general, we've talked about like how it's great to there's so many options now to get your music out that there's almost like a glut of music and, you know, not so much is promoted anymore, right, like, that's like you can go anywhere band camp spot like, and there's a million DIY, different bands and you know stuff like that. But I don't feel, I don't know. It feels like the live aspect. I'm sure it's different in Nashville. It's just kind of toned down a little Like you don't see that much, you don't see as much of a DIY like as you did. I feel like back then. But I could just totally. You know I was talking with Jeremy about it and it's just different. You know like things have changed and you know what do you know?
Speaker 2:of this. I think music is always being made in every corner of the planet. You know, it's just that, most of life in general. I think we all know this is done this way, done this way, done via, you know, some sort of digital interface, but so that would skew the perception, I think, of new music being made and new music being shared, you know, experientially or whatever.
Speaker 1:So what's this like in Nashville, though? Cause, like I was just I mean, nashville's a music hub, right, but I was just in New Orleans, like two days ago, and anywhere you went there was music, there was a live band, like it didn't matter if it was a weekday or a weekend, like you would just walk down the street and there'd be people playing, or you could just walk into a club and there'd be like, yeah, a jazz band or you know something going on. Like it was. It was pretty incredible, like in general, and there was a part of this like man, how are any of these people getting seen? But, at the same time, I don't. I don't. I think it's just for the love of music, right, versus like actually getting seen and getting a recording dealer, like whatever. It's like Nashville.
Speaker 2:There you go. I think you just nailed it on the head. I mean the one thing versus the other, being can my band, like you know, my video game story example before you know, can my bands rise the levels in the game you know becoming, you know more known and you know, in popularity and in all that stuff, so that you know we can have as many people and do.
Speaker 2:The natural and good ambition of you know, sharing your art with as many people as you possibly can, does that. The band subject is as further down the list of you know of what's in right now. So, yeah, so I think that's a reasonable thing to think. But then, yeah, is the music, the pure enjoyment of it and people going out there and just making it to make it, making art for the art's sake and just enjoying it. I mean, yeah, that's happening. That's what was my point before. You know, people are always making something you know and you know. No, of course it doesn't look like it did, but yeah, I like.
Speaker 2:Here's another example. So I am doing still some freelance playing with just whoever, and I've been doing a lot of that in the last like six years or seven years since moving out here to town and I'm an artist who I just worked with the other night and this is the God's honest truth, like it's this little indie venue, it's called the Underdog, it's here in town and, as with this artist, name is Ben and he's like a Nick Cave kind of you know, song singer, songwriter, dude, and you know there's like maybe two dozen people in the room. You know, just like normal, just like, yeah, ever mostly dudes. Honestly, you know, and I was just like yeah okay, this is what's up tonight.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a couple of openers and they were good, they're also pretty folky, whatever, and they were about to do like a four day. They were calling it a tour but it was like a run, you know, like four day, you know, and I'm like all right, that's cool, but we play our set and you know it's good, like people are listening, people are enjoying listening, clapping at the end, you know. And so, yeah, if that's not like a good window or a good example of because it's still happening, it's just, you know. And then on the whole other, on the other side of the coin, is the fact that all our favorite bands are doing reunion stuff.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. Like Sunday, Real Estate is about to be here and I'm definitely going to go to that, you know. So yeah, I think if you had like, if you're a Sunday Real Estate, you can do that Right. There are some bands like that just got in like at the right time, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they rose up, you know, and just had the right stuff and had the longevity and whatever. Their songs resonated with a lot, a lot of people, and that's the thing and they broke, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well enough, you know that was one thing and I like I have a hesitant to say this because I say this every single time on the podcast, but when we were at Furnace Fast, like every band because Jeremy Enoch played just solo and like every band, like flocked all the bands that were playing, like most of them flocked over to go see Enoch play, like because that was, you know, or like Casket, lottery, or you know, mineral, or those bands right, like that's my point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's my point there's we. You were either making music or you were there because you were obsessed with music, and if you were, in either case, there were gonna be an artist who are just like they just rested. And Jeremy Enoch is one of those people. He's a very I think he's a special human being and therefore a special. Maybe I'm low key obsessed with him because his music has been there for me and so many different times in my life, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I was talking to Jason Gleason and he was like I bumped into Jeremy like right before his set and I just faked it. He was fanboyed out and he was like it was so embarrassing to me. It was like I remember fanboying me out with.
Speaker 2:I have this. My sister-in-law and I went to see Jeremy Enoch. My brother was in Josh's wife, Gina, so he for some reason wasn't able to make that show, but so she and I went to see Jeremy Enoch in the city this is in like 2007 or eight and I was like just very banned out. And I remember seeing him and I was just the only thing that I could think to say, and I think I was just like out of my mind and I said like I was like I saw that you were playing on Myspace and I had to come. Yeah, yeah, it was like you know. And Gina was like Joe, you're such an idiot, you know, I'm like you just said the dumbest thing. I was like yeah, I guess. So.
Speaker 1:But that's what happened. I mean, jason was mortified at his. He was like I didn't know what he's like to me, because he says he's like I don't know what's weird. Like Jeremy Enoch was kind of like this weird father figure to me I didn't have a dad growing up and you know, but he's like and I like I mean I don't know if he knew his, I don't know the story behind that, but like it was just. You know, he was just kind of like just didn't know what to say and he was like I was fumbling over my words and like made an ass of myself and he was like I have to go play now. It was like right before he was about to step on stage. But I same thing too, man, I saw, I saw when I was living in Bellingham, like he played a really, really small club and it was just him the guitar, a bottle of wine and like it was it was just a very, to me, a very spiritual experience that I had.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, did he have a piano with him. I think it was just his guitar. He might have had the piano.
Speaker 2:But yeah, he had a. So last time I saw him was at this little record shop here close to town and I went with my friend I think two friends, two of my friends, and so anyway, it's a small little record shop probably packed with about 40 or so people and we were just all in there and as one of those experiences where you're like all in an elevator you know what I mean, right and you're all just very much like I don't know just just, you could just sense that everybody in there is just glad to be there.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he played a lot of his newer stuff at the time and some of the old goodies or whatever, and it was cool. I remember just at the end, my friend who I was with, kyle he goes, I remember just saying I might wanna go say hi, kyle goes. I'm not saying I don't know, yeah, I don't know yeah, and then I just yeah, that kinda dimmed my flame a little bit because I was yeah, I didn't end up going to say hi, we're the same feeling, but I said one thing to him, and actually it was on the plane to Furnace Fest.
Speaker 1:He was walking. I was like I think that's Jeremy Enick, but he was all masked up or whatever, and he like sat two seats behind me like diagonally, and I was like I love your music, I'm like that. And I was like just straightforward, just sat there. It's like that's all I'm gonna say, Like that was all I could muster.
Speaker 2:Well, he's really. I mean he's Jeremy Enick, but I hate that I'm doing this, but Enigmatic, like he's kind of oh yeah yeah, for sure, you just have that.
Speaker 1:I was at a show in Seattle, I think like 2007 or there was a band called the Pale or they changed it into the Pale Pacific, but they were from Bellingham but they were playing like their last show.
Speaker 2:That's their records.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he, jeremy, just showed up in the back, was just like my friend was like, oh, I think Jeremy Enick's in the back and he was just standing in the back just like chilling, but like it's that. Yeah, he is very mysterious in some ways, just kind of like a kind of seems like a shy, humble type guy, and you know.
Speaker 2:What's cool is Edison Glass. We made our first record with Brad Wood, who produced the Fire, theft and Sunny Day and all that Remember that. We heard lots of different stories from Brad about him and about Will Goldsmith, who was for a time in Poo-Pot, so it was quite kind of a cool education in that world and the mythology you know and to be part of it was such a you know it was pretty humbling or I didn't know it was humbling at the time but it's humbling to look back on that, you know.
Speaker 1:Time and perspective right Like, and your mindset, or what you value or see now versus what you saw then, like it's two different experiences, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we often see the obstacle, you know. Yeah, you know. You think of, like some of the classic, like the literature, like the hobbit. You know and you think of. You know you can see the mountain in the distance, you know. But even when you get to the mountains, your destination the whole time, guess what's inside? You know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And what do you like? What are you doing now, joe, so you teach a little bit, your like? What style of music are you playing?
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, I'm doing the freelance thing really on the side and I was doing a lot more of that for a time not too long ago pandemic kind of messed with a lot of that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the freelance thing brings me in all kinds of different directions the folk singer, songwriter direction recently, and, you know, in the pop direction I was working with Paper Route for a while back in 17 and kind of country soul, rock type of thing with an artist named Shelly Fairchild, one that I work with sometimes out here. I'll get called for that. I just got called yesterday to like be part of a project that is heading towards like a wedding high end wedding corporate thing and I'm like, oh, I'm, maybe I'll consider that, I don't know. So you know what I mean. It's like a type of freelance sort of work that I may or may not take. And then a big part of what I'm doing right now is playing with a church, believe it or not, up in Owensboro, kentucky, and that's both like a musical experience and like a life experience, if that makes sense. You know, community and all that type of thing.
Speaker 2:So that's pretty cool. I mean musically, dude, you know it's like you know, modern worship type of thing, right? So it's just what it is and it's fun to play. It's fun to go and play drums in a packed room, you know, full of people who are, you know, happy to be there, like that is. You know, yeah, you want to say about you know the whole thing. You know worship Christian music, whatever, but and I'm with you, you know, probably on most of it but perspective is where you just use. So, from my perspective, it's one of gratitude and one of, you know, gladness to just continue playing.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting. You said that, joe, just because I was thinking about like it's really difficult for me to go to shows now, like honestly, it's not because of my age, it's mostly because people don't stop talking during the entire set. Yeah, and I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't. I remember you kind of venting about that.
Speaker 1:On Instagram or something like that. Yeah, but it was. You know, like I, if I'm going to see a band, right, like I don't, I think I I went to go see American football in Portland and just everywhere around me people were talking and like just having conversations and like I remember going upstairs to the bar, I was like well, maybe that'll be just like a little bit different up there, maybe people are just there just kind of like chilling or whatever. And I went up there and a guy was just another guy who was kind of went by himself, was like coming down the stairs, and he was like it's no better up there and like we both looked at each other like are you experiencing the same thing that I'm experiencing? Because like yeah, or like I really like Mike Cancela's solo project called Owen and it's really intimate and he played with that.
Speaker 2:For some reason that's only bringing a little bit of a belt.
Speaker 1:So it's just a solo thing.
Speaker 2:Where does he come from? What's his? Oh, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 1:American football cap and jazz. Yeah, I dig his stuff a lot, like he's very singer, songwriter, very. I should have to, yeah, send you some of this stuff, cause it's really good To me. He encapsulates a lot of the mundane side of life and just like he's a dad and just kind of like I don't know, just taking these like really mundane things and turning it into something like beautiful and it encapsulates like your 30s and 40s.
Speaker 2:I think that's yeah, I think that's the purpose of, I think that's one of the purposes of life right now, right, right now for me yeah. And in general, you know, is to turn. You know you use the word perspective before and then you know all that stuff. And we were talking about the obstacles and often only seeing the obstacles, and here we go with philosophy again. But it's like what, what about this experience? Can I you know?
Speaker 2:just how can I take this experience that might pose as a negative one and make it into a positive? You know?
Speaker 1:I would. I would say, if you turn it into a spiritual thing, it's, it's where, where, where can I find God? Yeah Right, like where can I find, find the goodness and the source of goodness? I took a class in grad school that was just called. It was called the. It was called that like God and the artistic impulse, and it just kind of like went through some of the, even just the mundane things.
Speaker 1:Like we read a book called like it Launch, doing laundry, cleaning and other types of women's work is basically what it was, was called, but it was from like a long time ago but it was like where do we find God and the mundane things of life? You know it's like where do we find God and the monotony and you know those different types of things. So I find it just even kind of going back to, you know, talking about trying to control and chaos, and I find something deeply spiritual about the concept, I think even like in Genesis, of God taking this, because I did a little more theology background when I was doing my, my master's degree, and so we kind of went more into kind of the mythology in creation and the type of story it was telling in and just the whole concept of God taking this like chaotic event and making order and like that's, that's what God does Right, like he creates in the middle of chaos, you know speaking it into existence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. And in ordering ordering that which is destroyed and creating something beautiful from it. Yeah, you know. Using words, yeah, but I don't know. So it sounds like you're still pretty involved in building and growing and then communing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I've got two, like very different Two naming is a big thing too. Yeah yeah. Why do we teach our kids what? What is yellow and red, and and? And a circle and and a triangle and a square or a rectangle, naming you know what? Why? Why is this a sixteenth? Why is this an eighth inch adapter and not a sixteenth inch adapter? Yeah, like, yeah, and being that naming someone, calling someone by their name, is the highest act of love, right?
Speaker 3:You know yeah.
Speaker 2:Why nicknames are terms of endearment, you know right.
Speaker 1:So, Do you still like what brought you to Nashville, though, like I remember, you did this stuff with Heavy Duty Super Ego?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I just remember you were like in Nashville, like that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there's a lot of my story that I suppose we haven't gotten caught up on, but I think maybe the clip notes from where that left off was after that bend and I Basically parted ways so and that was a tough time and we can talk about that some other time, I suppose. But you know, as a band that I made with James and Josh, my brother and some other friends at some point, and then make some recordings and had some fun with it and At some point in there I realized like OK, what, what do I want? You know yeah.
Speaker 2:And what, what do I need? And part of that he answered that question was to be, like you, now, in a position of service. And so I took this job with a organization called free and I was teaching people with special needs and teaching them music. And I formed a bell choir and we made a little CD to yeah cool, there's all compositions of stuff that that I wrote. You know, I remember, like in Edison I was always playing bells or some kind of block and spiel yeah, all the precautions you know, and so that's what I was doing with these guys. And there was another side project there that I was helping out with that free special needs place. It was a theater arts everything program. They also had a drum line and helped out in the drum line.
Speaker 2:So during that time it was like an incubation period I would say for me and I was doing a lot of everything you know musically. And I continued to hear this call back to this city in Nashville. Really, because probably out of this, as I look back in it now, man, I think it it's just a part of the eternal call for to make the best music I can possibly make. You know, to, to, to be the very best musician I could possibly be, because somewhere in that incubation period and all throughout it, I was studying with different drum teachers and mentors. And, bro, I like I've Everything I could possibly learn on the drums, every single thing that I could possibly figure out how to do on the drums. I was busting my ass to do it.
Speaker 2:Like all the time I was practicing all of the time. I would work all day at free and then I would. I would get off work, I would teach lessons for two, three hours on the road. Get home, in my left hand I would be eating a sandwich, on my right hand I'd be playing on the practice pad. You know, whatever the heck was on TV at the time. And that was just me. That was my life. And the whole time I was dreaming like, ok, I want to go back on the road, I want to go be a session drummer, I want to like play with the best musicians in the world, you know. So I was doing all of that and finally I pulled the trigger in 2016 is when I moved out here. So, yeah, that's the long and short of it, you know did you?
Speaker 1:did you get hooked up? I mean because Silverbird was out there. Were you guys still in contact at all, or yeah.
Speaker 2:So there were a few like little projects that I would come and fly out to do and with him sometimes I would just come out here and stay with him and, you know, make some recordings and stuff like that, so write some songs, things like that. So yeah, he was a big part of that. And then when I got out here, one of the first things I did was meet with him for dinner. I told the story. I think last night even met with him at dinner at this place called Bar Taco. I went to dinner at Bar Taco. I remember commenting this place feels like LA now, which is kind of like people. Still, people are moving here in droves in general, but especially from him and that's cool, my girlfriend's from LA.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so that's cool, that's a gift, but yeah, so you guys, you hooked up on that, you went to dinner and then would you just just make connection?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, did I tell you about the project he and I started and this continued last year? And it's kind of like Soarberg is so busy with a billion things that it's hard to like. You know, keep him, you know with.
Speaker 1:Keep him on a one thing yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but so he hires me for different sessions and stuff like that and that's cool. But we had this project we started and we're really trying to do some cool things with called music for breathing, and we did some cool things. We produced together three tracks and there's only an instrumental version of one of the songs we co-wrote, co-produced, and it's out there. It's called Beneath the.
Speaker 2:Honeycomb. So yeah, so we. One of them is a solo piano thing that I wrote and he kind of co-wrote a little bit, called Surrender. Another is, by the way, all these titles are mine, so what's the other?
Speaker 1:one. Are they meant to be like meditative practices, or just? When I think of music music for breathing the thing that like automatically comes to mind is like yeah, is this for like an app or something?
Speaker 2:No, no, these are songs, you know. One of them is a solo piano thing, that's like. So the project it's how it came together was his. You know he's trying to basically create a lot of different tracks for that licensing and sync thing and the library thing, like some music sync, library bed, all that and that was the impetus really for the want, the desire to collaborate. But what we got were, you know, some really cool tunes. You know I'll send you them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't enjoy that.
Speaker 2:You know, two of them are like. You know they're just. You know it's music. I can't yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean.
Speaker 2:I started. All of them are ideas that I started, you know, and then he and I developed together.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That makes sense, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so do you play every week at?
Speaker 2:the church or I do.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a big part of my life right now. You know, called? They're called the Owensboro Christian Church and I didn't know this place existed on the map two years ago. You know which is when I go hang out up there. Some friends of mine were playing up there.
Speaker 1:My brother is heavily, heavily involved in worship music. He runs a website called worshipartistrycom and they just do full scale lessons. And it's oddly enough, in what's that?
Speaker 2:I know about that yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so. My brother's the main guitar teacher on there and that's it's actually. He got invested with Doug Brown's dad and but it's pretty amazing Like my brother is really passionate about it, Like he's spent seven or eight years just curating all this stuff and expanding the business. And yeah it's. I'm really really proud of him. He's done. He's done an amazing job on it, but it's got everything it's got. They started out with just guitar and now it's everything like vocal, vocal lessons, like all that stuff. My brother is really really interested in the community aspect of it.
Speaker 2:You know, Bro, I mean, I think that's, I think that's what it's about at the end of the day. I mean, we all have our own experience and we went both went to over you, you know, put a pin in the paragraph, but you know it's like you. You consider all the nonsense, all the BS and all the you know things that have come out about the Catholic Church and you can talk about. You know what your, you know what your views are in the debate of science, first religion, blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. Eight years versus Christian, all that and it's like, well, ok, at the end of the day, what does the human engine need? You know, yeah, it's community relationship.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I mean that's. I mean that's again coming back like that's. What I love about Doing this is because not only do I get to connect with with people You're probably the first person from like my past that I knew like, which is just awesome for me to be able to get to do but it's, it's about connection, right, and this kind of like shared experience and just talking about music and just talking about like this, this thing, and whether you believe it's God given or not or like whatever but this thing that that just binds us as people together and creates community. You know which is music. You know for some people that's invested into whatever scene or church or whatever, but like it's a shared common experience, that that there's a ton of A ton of meaning, and I mean it's just from my personal perspective is, like you know, it's a very, to me, spiritual, god given Type thing. It's a gift.
Speaker 2:I know, I think we're starting to see, you know, a cultural reawakening toward that.
Speaker 1:I hope so, man, I really do, because it's needed. I mean, when we were at so furnace fest happened after the urge kind of sort of towards the tail end of the pandemic, and the feeling, the vibe was just so community oriented and it was like less of like. It was like a reawakening of like oh, what does it mean to be a part of like this, these people who love these bands and are just all here to have a good time and just like. But they were all people like you know, our age, you know, and still this kind of like weird thing for me of like, this kind of like shame I had of of what I like to listen to and is that still relevant? And you know, like all these like weird hangups with it.
Speaker 1:And then going there and seeing all these people were like tatted up and still had like band t-shirts and I was like, oh, it's like, oh, it's okay for me to still do that, yeah, you know, type of thing. And it's a different experience though, when you're older man, like we're in, we were going up to see Piebald and we were going up these steps and, no joke, like Dave's knees gave out and he was like, oh my gosh dude. I can't. He's like. I almost just fell down the stairs Like we were all. We were sore just from standing the entire entire day.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm feeling like I feel two things right now, and that's sad and glad. Sad is what? Because of what you just said and because I have my own Stories, you know yeah about this aging process, and then glad because I'm not alone, you know so. Yeah, there's a, there's kind of what I was talking about before. With change sort of cut you off.
Speaker 2:No, no, no yeah about change being part of life. You know, change being the constant change being the, the way forward and and Mercy or grace through acceptance man there's, there's a, you know, just talking.
Speaker 1:I Personally I have to make some pretty drastic Lifestyle changes, like in the near Future, just because I'm having certain health things come up and I'm like I Don't want to feel like this or or I don't you know like I need to, yeah, and we all grew up with a refresh button you know, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's the bodies, you know who, who of us is found. The fountain of youth, you know, and I think the fountain of youth is being in, it is like this, you know, is the heart being alive, you know, and the mind being renewed, you know, and and the spirit being revived, you know, in, as we, you know, are in those people, as we, you know, experience being in a belonging, you know, community and and doing the simple things. You know, it's not that, it's not that, it's not that complicated, you know. We, just we choose to feed. Like what wolf do you feed, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I have to remind myself of that. You know the simplicity of it, but not to cut you off, I mean, I'm my own health things. You know that. You know I mean not I. You know, after a certain point the body, the body does start to break down a little bit and so it's just. You know, let me, how do I roll with it? You know, I remember being at church Before I moved out to Nashville and I started to get to night us in both of my ears and I was Really anxious about it because you know, I know it's probably something a lot of the guys you have on here talk about. You know A lot of the guys that you meet now and I'll fucking all of the guys. You know, like more than half the dudes. You know that we love band one. They probably have this too, you know.
Speaker 2:And I have it yeah constant ringing both the ears very loud. It's gotten worse over the years because of other incidents that have taken place. So, whatever, talk about that later. But I Remember church. I can't remember the guy's name. I remember kind of what he looked like older fella and I was just telling him. You know, we were just having this honest conversation, didn't get too specific, but and he started telling me about something that he was encountering. I can't remember what the heck it was, but it was just like this physical challenge and you know he's just like well, what do I do? I can, I guess I just roll with it, you know. And that that was like the theme. He just kept saying I guess I just roll with it, you know. He's like make it part, you know. So, like you said, you know, make it, it's now a part. You know this is part of the deal now, you know, okay, it's part of the deal.
Speaker 1:It's, except it's acceptance. Yeah, like I've run into some some health things with one of my kids. Yeah, and it's it's. He's got low frequency hearing loss and his one ear which is pretty rare for kids so kind of bass sounds he can't really hear and he'll have like vertigo Spells and it might be something to the effect of like he might have this.
Speaker 1:I Don't know for a fact, but because kids are weird, their bodies do weird things, man, where he might lose hearing in that year and like To kind of come to, yeah, I don't know how to walk through that process as like my own body is aging and like my kids are young man.
Speaker 1:So you know, just last night my, my son, without warning, just like pounced on me while I was laying down and just like hit my stomach and like I've been struggling with a lot of like acid reflux and like Just hit something and just just bunch of acid went up and like aspirated in my lungs and I just started like coughing and I was like we have to, I have to slow down, you know what I mean. And then this is like kind of painful experience of of like I don't have the energy that he requires, even just because I am older. You know, my brother is three and a half years older than me, maybe four years, can't exactly remember but his kids are 16 and 13. My kids are four and a half and one half and Did you?
Speaker 1:yeah, sorry, yeah, no, no, no, it's like yeah and so like he's on another cusp of life where he's like my kids are gonna be out of the house soon and I'm like I'm gonna be an older dad, you know, and just like I don't know, struggling with some internal feelings of just like I was like, yeah, I want them to be, I want to be there energetically for the ways that they need me to be there too right, and you know it's, it's this weird parenthood, is this weird, weird experience, very weird experience.
Speaker 2:Did you anticipate your life being anything like it was like when you, when we knew each other in college and you know around the time that that's a good question, joe, you know yeah, a lot of things, a lot of things fell apart for me.
Speaker 1:Just, I mean, it's sort of is I don't, I don't know, there's things that I'm really grateful for and there's like Growing and painful processes that happen right and like I've always just been kind of happy with relationship. That's just kind of like. But no, I did. I mean I think I'm not joking you, dude I might have thought that my life would be Dave Ranzeno's life as it stands, like what do you mean? Well, he's I originally my my bachelor's degree is in TV and film, right, and so like that's what Dave does, he works there, right, and like he lives in the same hometown.
Speaker 1:I don't think I ever wanted to specifically end up back in New Jersey, but my entire family no longer lives there. So I always wanted to be up on my brother. But I always thought maybe I do television or film. I had no intention of being like a therapist or or any of this, that that was just a process, that I was like I got to freakin do something with my life. I'm working three jobs, like I got to figure something out. So I don't think I thought I'd be doing this and I don't think I thought I'd be like a business owner. You know, yeah, so like I'm literally starting a new job next week, but I had a therapy business myself. It was just, you know, you just kind of run it as your own, all right, gotcha, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I did a sick that for six or seven years. I definitely don't didn't think I would be living outside of Portland. That was not kind of. We actually kind of got stuck here due to, like, housing prices where my parents live. But so some yes and some no. I mean I don't know what about you, I don't that, but what about you?
Speaker 2:I'm at a crossroads. I'm about to turn 40. Yeah, my body is not what it used to be, so Drumbing for a living is not Taking shape the way I had thought it would, and so I have some figuring out to do myself, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm. You know, two or so years ago, and a little bit through the pandemic, I was working towards a bachelor's degree in psychology. So I earn an associates in psychology. So that means if I want to complete the bachelors I can do that. But it's another couple years, right. And then there's I'm getting real specific. But you know the whole aim and the hope there, jeremy, is it's towards offering some kind of marriage and family therapy. Perhaps, maybe, maybe not. I'm not really excited at the idea of marriage therapy, but like one-on-one therapy, like that, you know there's something about that is helping individuals. That appeals to me and as always has, you know, as my own journey through mental health and my own, you know, journey as a person. So yeah, I Am highly considering that right now, as things are just seem to be rapidly changing for me, you know. So it's really funny because Eric is in the process of getting his master's degree right now.
Speaker 1:Eric, your brother, eric van Veelen Okay, yeah, you know he was working he was doing stuff in Hollywood Right and he just him, he just is about I think to finish his. Marriage and Family degree through our well, his master's, through a fuller seminary and he had called me a couple years ago just to kind of talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 1:Joe, one thing I say and I like I mean this for myself and and and for everybody is and I especially preach this to like my teenage clients is Very bluntly like. Nobody has it figured out. We're all just trying to. You know, excuse my language, but we're all just trying to like fucking deal, I know.
Speaker 2:And like.
Speaker 1:The amount of pressure that I see. Hmm, people put on themselves that like some of it's out of necessity and change right, but it's like man, we're all, we're all just, we're all doing our best, we're all just trying to figure it out. And I feel like the same thing. And I feel like the same thing With faith too. Like I think the thing that saved my faith actually was Donald Milchman. I'm just kidding. Oh who, like jazz, you got to read this book.
Speaker 2:I literally remember you saying the words and I quote this will change my life.
Speaker 1:It definitely. It definitely put me on a different path. But I ended up joining a faith community that my brother was a part of in Bellingham and I Know like the thing was just like we don't, we're just trying to figure out what it's like to live like Jesus, like that's yeah, you know, like that's the thing, and there was no.
Speaker 1:It's like, how do we do this and how do we do this together, you know, and like I think that's just all we can ask. And You're not alone, man Like I. Literally yesterday or two days ago, I met with a friend of mine in Louisiana because they moved there. He's 41 or something like that and he's like I don't know what, I got to do something and I'm just not really sure what I'm gonna do, like whether that's going back to school or Doing welding or something different.
Speaker 2:It's yeah, well, I'm, I'm at this crossroads. That's pretty immediate because I have carpal tunnel in now and risks, you know so and tendonitis and like so I do too. I have I I got a carpal tunnel release.
Speaker 1:Two, three years ago. Yeah, and I mean it fixed the cost of the tunnel and it's like, yeah, and I mean it fixed the tingling issues and I had trigger finger as well.
Speaker 2:It fixed those. Yeah, pain.
Speaker 1:I don't, I mean so. I think that so after the release was done, which was a 10 minute surgery, they just go in there because carpal tunnel is like your tendon is like inflamed or whatever right, and they just go and just release the sheath in there so that it is no longer pressing on your nerves. And it was like a I don't know, it was a month recovery. Just couldn't really like pick up really heavy things, but I have to get this hand done. But it stopped the tingling in it for sure, like I would lose feeling and like get tingling this and I don't know, do you know it? Did you have trick trigger finger?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is it doesn't get stuck. But this you know, just, yeah, just some different things that Are happening, lots of what what you might describe as inflammation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean some things that I I mean, we were lucky to have insurance to cover it, you know, but like I'm gonna have to get it done again on this hand, and that literally just came from being a waiter years ago and carrying a bus tub like this Full all the time, yeah, and I just waited too long to get. I waited so long to get stuff done so that you know, like that's an option. I have another friend who you know this is a whole other thing, but he what did he get? What is a? What is it where your joints are arthritis? He has arthritis and he tends to use like a, like a CBD, one-to-one THC to help like reduce some of that inflammation. And he's a musician too, and so I think you have options, dude. Like, of course, yeah, my playing experience.
Speaker 2:This is why I talk about recording from the you know vantage point. That I do is because recordings tell you, you know, what you sounded like with, yeah, hitting a certain way. You know, playing a certain way, all as a result of you know what you had. You know, and now I notice, you know, and a lot of because of my, my development, of my technique, which my hands are way better than they used to be, you know, at which it's allowed me to express, at you know, different dynamic levels and so on and so forth, and do different things and be maybe more accurate and All that may be more creative, but it's different. However, yeah, it's hard, it's hard to, it's hard to play and then Experience the pain or discomfort or whatever that comes with it. You know that that's tough, it's not easy, or teach or whatever. Pick, pick up something and go, ooh, you know, yeah, yeah, it's not fun, you know, it's not what you want, you know, but my brother, you know he- does.
Speaker 1:You used to teach a lot too, and then he started getting so much more and then he started getting some really bad back issues where his back would seize up and Would just kind of like mess with him. Here's. Here's a quick question. Yeah are you? Do you struggle with any sort of like back issues?
Speaker 2:I have to watch my posture when I play it in general, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Josh Brigham from hopes for the guitarist. He has a business called adaptive in Charlotte and he does like. But basically when he was on tour, somehow His back and someone about it, one of his vertebrae was just like so compressed that they thought he was gonna need to get back surgery.
Speaker 3:And he found this kind of muscles right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and he ended up Finding this and my brother did some of it too and it really helped his back. But, doing a special type of like, he helps other musicians who have issues Just how to be functionally Like loose and I don't know, just kind of like work with their bodies and stuff. So I could huge, I could totally hook you up with that if you want his information.
Speaker 2:I texted my chiropractor yesterday to see if he was available. He said I'm not gonna be around back from wherever he's going to the end of the month and that's that's fun. But so I'm thinking I'm actually call up. You know, it's fun to have your, you know. Oh yeah, I guess it's just part of the change, right, it's like we used to be so elastic, you know. You look right now and Anyway, so it's just funny. I think there's someone here. I appreciate I would love to speak with whoever, but I think I might actually call up somebody here.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'm gonna send you over, I'm gonna send you over his his information. Anyway, you can just look at his website because I know this. This stuff really helped my brother to. My brother had shoulder issues and and all sorts of different stuff that comes with aging, right like.
Speaker 2:Here's. Here's a question I have like. So we're talking about like emotional, spiritual, physical health, but like here's maybe more of From. I guess this is more mental in a certain way, mental as a, or maybe even so, mental slash, social, which is like you find yourself just being like more decisive and more like Like what's, what's the word? Just maybe, frank, even you know, with what's up for you, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean like I I'm all, it is what it is, you know, and not really giving like, not being so, like careful or tiptoe. You know and like, of course, you know there's, there's, there's them, you know there's when it's needed, you know you need to be gracious with your speech and all that, but but when it comes to just like I don't know, just just everyday things, yeah, I mean well, I here's what I do know.
Speaker 1:I do know that where we come from and where we grew up is a very different situation than all of the West Coast. Where I live, I have a client who's from New York and like we hit it off immediately just because there was some. You know, a lot of people can my brother can be very blunt with people you know and like it's gotten them into trouble at times and like I, straight up, said to him like dude, like sometimes you come off like an asshole, like, but it's this whole like yeah, you're just, you don't have time for the BS anymore, right.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:I talked to him. When I'm talking to my teenage clients and stuff like that, I'm like, literally I said this to them. I was like this is a product of being older, I think, but like I do not give a shit when anybody thinks anymore, right, like I'm just like I don't care as much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, time is like the greatest asset and necessity is the mother of invention, right? And you must also be the mother of like what I don't know. Help me here, like some kind of just directness or right. Just, I don't have time to like be thinking about the billions of variables, because there's just, it's just this. This is the relevant thing as I see it, you know so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for me, too, it's been more of being more comfortable in my own skin and not also just worrying what people like. I have my, I have my people. I have my family, I have those I know who are going to support around me. Yeah, like I care less. Yeah, what somebody else is is going to think, because I'm just like that doesn't define who I am anymore right, like I've grown into myself.
Speaker 2:Well that is the one of the cooler part of ages. I mean, there's a bunch of pain in the ass things, but one of the cool things is just is the knowing. You know who you are a bit better. Yeah, I'm still learning. You know that's the great joy, you know it's like you're still learning, still, still creating or co-creating. You know, like you said, like with with God, with with everyone else and into something more like like Christ, hopefully. You know. Cs Lewis says that in every moment, in every decision, it's less the big ones that God is or where we need to be concerned about, and more the little ones. You know, at every point, in every decision, we're either becoming more hell, like a more heavenly creature.
Speaker 3:Hmm, Anyway.
Speaker 1:I actually got to get going my man, so resource.
Speaker 1:Yeah yes, that's another thing I aging. Thank, joe, I'm sorry this all kind of like fell apart. Yeah, I did not expect half of this, so, but I Cool stuff from before. Yeah, yeah, oh, no worries, yeah, but like I, obviously, regardless I would I would have wanted to do this and just hang out and chat with you, even if it wasn't like a podcast. But one thing I do, one, what, what thing I do want to say, man, is you can always, you can always give me a call, you can always chat with me about anything anytime. You know, like that whole to you guys, I've always been, and I mean like you, james, like all that time in my life was very special for me and I've always have like a good thing in my heart for it and, yeah, I love you and I hope, yeah, you'll think, yeah, if you need anything, you just let me know.
Speaker 2:Just a talk, or?
Speaker 1:whatever.
Speaker 2:You know you're doing a really cool thing here. You know, as I say, this is both both your friend and, as you know, a podcast guest is. You know just what you're doing here and just Connecting around. You know the meaningful, what was meaningful and and how to look at it in looking at the past and looking at your, you know, past, present relationships and kind of keeping them alive in a special way is something to be said for that. So I appreciate.
Speaker 1:Well, that about does it for this episode. If you like the podcast, please consider subscribing. You can find us on all major podcasting platforms and on Instagram, at the scene. Again, thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.
