Interview with Franky Perez

Hello! It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards. A podcast where both the legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to hang out with Frankie Perez over zoom video. Frankie's played in numerous bands over the course of his career. He has his solo project. He's played with scars on Broadway. He's played and toured with so many different artists. He's also played with the band camp, Freddy Apocalyptica and of course continued on with his solo project, which we talk a lot about. He was born and raised in Las Vegas. He talks about moving to orange county for a while, lived in Miami for a while, New Jersey back to Los Angeles. 4 (1m 42s): But during the COVID lockdown, he wrote a little singer songwriter record and he was sending it around to different friends of his. And after he was sending this record around, he decided to hop on his motorcycle drive across the country and was playing these songs to healthcare workers, nurses, patients, venues that had been closed up. He was playing out in front of these venues and this sparked the interest of a couple people that invested in documentary film. So they decided to shoot a documentary alongside Frankie when he was doing this motorcycle run. And while he's shooting the documentary, he was also coming up with new songs and writing a bunch of new materials. So when he got home, he wrote and recorded the record crossing the great divide, which is his new album. 4 (2m 27s): And it goes hand in hand with this documentary. So he tells us all about the motorcycle ride, the people that were involved, the different musicians and people that he met along the way and all about the new record as well. You can watch the interview with Frankie on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be rad if you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and tick-tock at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, apple music, Google podcasts, it would be amazing if you follow us there as well, and hook us up with a five-star review. 5 (3m 5s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 4 (3m 11s): We're bringing it backwards with Frankie Perez. Hey, what's going on? Reiki. How are you? 6 (3m 17s): So good. Sorry, man. It made me a register. 4 (3m 21s): Oh no, it's all good. Yeah. It's yeah. It's basically that's the way of consenting to the recording essentially. 6 (3m 28s): Right? All good. All good. 4 (3m 30s): Cool. I appreciate you doing this. I'm super excited. 6 (3m 33s): Yeah. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it 4 (3m 35s): For sure. So my name is Adam and this podcast is about you and your journey in music. And we'll talk about your new record coming out. 6 (3m 44s): Very cool. Thanks Adam. Appreciate you having me 4 (3m 47s): Course. So where, tell me first where you were born and raised, 6 (3m 51s): Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. 4 (3m 53s): Okay. 6 (3m 54s): Yeah. Been here pretty much all my life left. I'm 46. I left when I was 18 to pursue music. I've lived everywhere, a lot of different places, pretty much every music city. You can imagine chasing this thing. And, but I always come back. I always come back to Vegas. 4 (4m 14s): Okay. Did I see that you lived in Miami for a minute? 6 (4m 17s): I did actually in the belief that was like the mid nineties I wanted to, my Cuban, both of my parents are Cuban I'm first-generation American. 4 (4m 27s): Okay. 6 (4m 28s): And I figured that was the closest I could get to Cuba without actually going to Cuba. So I wanted to, I wanted to learn Cuban percussion and, and, and so I moved there specifically for that. And I did, I, I linked up with this percussionist Cuban percussionist named last little by less. And he gave me lessons for a good year and that's something I've taken with me through the rest of my career. 4 (4m 52s): That's amazing. Did you start off on drums? Is that the first instrument you learned? 6 (4m 56s): I did. I did. So I was, I always gravitated toward the rhythm and drums and, and those were some of the first instruments I got were like Cuban percussion instruments. And I think even in grade school, I got a drum set and it's funny when people actually ask me, you know, you know, well, what do you recommend for my kid wants to get in the music. I literally it's darling think about it, get them a drum set. I know really get them a drum set because to me, I think it, I play everything like a drummer. It's all about rhythm. And, and even like, you know, I don't know if people let people do the piano first, but in my opinion, it's you have this? 6 (5m 41s): You know what I mean? Just makes this so much easier. 4 (5m 44s): I love to hear that. Cause my son is six and we bought him a drum set during COVID. He was four. He must have been four when it started. And he just has all this energy and I'm like, how are we going to get all this energy out? And a friend I'm a friend of my wife and I's is a, he's a great drum professional drummer. And we're like, Hey, like what would be like a kit? Like, should we get him a little kid kit? And he's like, no, just get them electric kit with like the real kick drum. So he sent me one and we got it for him. And he was just messing around on it for awhile. We I'm from San Diego. We eventually moved to Nashville like with like a year ago. And we haven't, we got him a drum teacher here and he loves it. So now he's just doing that. He's, he's kinda has some, we have a keyboard in our house that nobody can really play well, but he'll go over there and tinker on it. 4 (6m 30s): But like hearing that, cause I'm always like, should I put them in piano first? But hearing you say that like that makes me feel so much better. 6 (6m 36s): Yes. Some people have differences of opinion, but I just think about the way that, that it, that what it's done for me. Like literally everything I think is rhythmic. You know what I mean? And, and, and this has been very helpful to me. And so I think that's a good move in my opinion. 4 (6m 56s): I'm funny. 6 (6m 58s): I know a lot of piano players that can't play in time, you know? 4 (7m 2s): Interesting. Okay. They need the like click track or something like a Metrodome. 6 (7m 6s): Yeah. Just like there is, there's just no feel. Thrums give you feel for the baddest people, musicians. We know like that the world knows are drummers as well. You know, people like Steven Tyler and Paul McCartney, like they'll go somewhere. You know? So 4 (7m 25s): Yeah. That's interesting. I was thinking because as I never, I mean, I could play guitar and played in like little garage bands with friends of mine, but it was always, we could never find a drummer. So my thing, my thought process was if he can play drums and he's going to have like the pick of the litter here in town with anyone he could play, he wants to play 6 (7m 44s): Jumbles or the hot seat, my bad, like it's, I go through them a lot. There's a few guys that are like, I hang on to you. Cause it's just such an important part of the band. If you got good time, you don't got a good feel and you can be, you can pack it up and go home. 4 (7m 59s): Sure. I mean, being a drummer that must like, when you record your records, do you play everything on the album? Especially I would think drums cause you are drummer at heart. 6 (8m 8s): Yeah. Yeah. So on, on, on the new album, on across the great divide, I'd played probably 90% of the drums on everything. Well, when I didn't, I reached out to like my heroes and I love, so I had like, you know, Matt Chamberlain played on a couple of tracks that Ash stone played on, on the, on the single. And it's like, it's just another, it's just another level. It's another level. 4 (8m 36s): Yeah. Just, you have to, you're going to reach out to those, the legends that you would, you looked up to essentially to have on your records. 6 (8m 44s): I would I'd have like a, like a track that, for example, a song like the great divide, the album. Yeah. I could have, I could have done like a waltz thing, but I knew in my mind instantly I, that Chamberlain was the right guy for that. Right. And so I sent him and literally when he sent it back, I, there wasn't even any notes. I wasn't like, oh, you know what, maybe go back and try. He just nailed it. You know what I mean? Like maybe it was like, no, he just nailed exactly the way I knew he would. 4 (9m 13s): That's amazing. That's amazing. I want to get to the record. Cause I think it's got a fascinating story. You did like a documentary right. Alongside it, but real quick, just to kind of catch up on how you got to, I know basically where you are now in a fast-forward type motion, like, so you were first a drummer and then did you carry that? Like, were you in drum line or anything like that through high school. And then did you play in bands throughout that time? 6 (9m 39s): I did. So I'm so not in bands as soon as, as soon as I realized, you know, that I could, that I could sing like that took precedent, but okay. It play in drum line in, in, in the sixth grade and I played in band in like junior high, high school. I was like, it was all about chicks. 4 (10m 3s): Okay. Yeah. When did you realize you can sing? That's a great point. Cause you've fronted, so many bands are saying on so many records and it's like, but I was just sticking with the drumming for some odd reason. But, but like when did you realize like, Hey, like I'm actually an incredible singer too, 6 (10m 20s): But I don't think I'd still have to realize that I still have, I'm an incredible singer, but I didn't realize that I loved entertaining people and it was a lot easier to do from behind a microphone than it was from behind the kit. And in funny enough, my sister's the one that my, my oldest sister was the one that said to me one day that I was actually in my room. She, she, we shared a wall and, and I was singing to an old, it was like an eighties, R and B song. It was a song by a band called after seven. And it was on the radio all the time. 6 (11m 1s): And I was in my room singing. I gave you the sun, the rain, the moon, the stars and the mountains. And I was just singing it over and over again. And she knocks on my door. Usually she knocked on my door as an argument, 4 (11m 15s): Shut up, 6 (11m 18s): Got to my door. There was nothing good coming through, like, is he opens the door. She goes, is that you singing? And I'm like, yeah. And she goes, that's really good. She goes, that's really good. I go, really? She goes, yeah. And she just closes the door. Wow, man, if she, who is like, like the most vicious critic of everything, I like, I'm not moving part, the part cheesy guys through the right way. You know what I mean? Like, like she would give me hell for it. I was like mania, there's something here. And then that was it. I just started, it, started seeing it in it. And in high school I realized early on, I was like, I don't want to do anything else. 6 (12m 1s): I want to. I knew before, you know, I remember teachers saying teachers in like in, in, in counselors, like, you know, what do you do with your life? You have to decide. You have to. And it's like, there, all these people were scrambling. And I already knew, I was like, I know what I'm going to do. I know where I know where I'm going. You know? And it's like, it has nothing to do with college. It has to do with me, like working my ass off. What's your, what? Which is what I did, you know? Right. 4 (12m 31s): Yeah. I mean, so did you play, like, did you front a band in high school? 6 (12m 35s): I did. I, I started, my first band would have been the summer of my summer going into my junior year in high school. I did a band called, called homegrown. And it was like, I remember my guitar player. Who's still one of my best friends. He couldn't play standing up on a crate. And I in my PA was a little Peavey guitar app. The drummer had Z timing and like, yeah, that was the first band homegrown. 4 (13m 15s): That's funny. There's a bad, I don't even know if you knew this. There was a band that it might've been the mid nineties, late nineties, early two thousands. There was like a surf punk band called Hungary. They used to play in San Diego. Of course. Yeah. 6 (13m 34s): I mean, so like the brain binders, a band, you know, in California called homegrown. So then we, then we changed our name to sole grown. Right. And then that turned into this, this, that turned into junk hole. No idea what the reference is. And then by that time I was offered running and I had, you know, I was thinking I'd been graduated high school and I was living. 4 (13m 60s): I was just, I didn't even know if like they were even around yet or like, that's funny that you actually got wind that they were like a thing I just figured like, oh, there's no internet. You guys are in Vegas. They're in some part of California. I probably wouldn't. Even 10 years later 6 (14m 16s): I have the conversation with people or the band. Then I was also in a band like in, when I moved to orange county, abandoned actually did really well. And we were called, we were called malfunction, but with the proper spelling, and then there was, there was a band in Seattle, which was, it was the guys from some man. It was, it was, he was like the musician's musician. He ended up, he died of, of, of he died, but he was in that Pearl jam, like Alice in chains, world 4 (14m 53s): And okay. 6 (14m 54s): I'll malfunction where like, 4 (14m 58s): Okay, 6 (14m 58s): It's time. We're getting shit for that. Like, there's a malfunction in your eyes are malfunction. And we were like, it's spelled different than like, 4 (15m 9s): Oh, that's funny. Did you 6 (15m 11s): Internet? 4 (15m 12s): Like, how do you know? That's, what's hilarious is like, I remember like, I don't know. It might've been when MySpace came around and then it was like, oh, there's already fuck. There's like eight bands already called whatever it was. And it's like, yeah, you who's which one it was. And then obviously now you could just Google anything and there's probably 30 band names, but so did you go from Vegas then to orange county or? Okay. 6 (15m 35s): And I, and that's actually pretty funny too, because in my mind, your perfect lack of internet knowledge, I don't know how old you are, but 4 (15m 45s): I'm 37. 6 (15m 47s): It's a 37th year. So do you remember when we used to rock maps? 4 (15m 51s): Oh yeah. I remember when, like there was like gay, like game-changing when MapQuest happened and then you could print them like off the computer. It was like, 6 (16m 4s): But so I remember my, my, my, me and my girlfriend at the time who became my first wife, she was, she wanted to go to school in California and we, and we were obviously together. We wanted to be together. So we took a map, took a map and like when, okay, here's LA here's where I want to be. She's like, ah, you know, I can't afford UCLA. I can't, you know, but there's this little school and Costa Mesa, California called west Hills college that, you know, the it's affordable and, and we looked on the map and then we just kind of misread the legend, look a little bit. And so in my mind, I'm like, ah, it's like 30 minutes away, disability, LA little did I know that there's this big monolith of a, of a, of a freeway called the 4 0 5. 4 (16m 54s): That's always stopped 6 (16m 58s): Basically any trip LA was a two hour endeavor. And so I ended up just living in orange county and I put up a little sign on a, in a music store when you did that, as well saying, you're looking for band. These are my influences. I answered an ad. The first ad I answered was that band malfunction. We put a little record out, we got a little record deal. My first record deal within like a year on this little label called hardcore label called conversion. And through that, I met David being a bit of a dusty, who is the manager of system of a down a wow. So he managed my band and them at the same time. And that's a relationship that continued on to this day. 6 (17m 40s): John bill mines, the gentleman system as well. One of my best friends. 4 (17m 43s): That's how the scars on Broadway thing probably came together years later. 6 (17m 48s): Wow. It's 4 (17m 49s): Incredible. 6 (17m 50s): Yeah. Like I was never, I'd never, I'd known Darren's from seeing him on the scene, but we, we never really spoke, you know, and, but he knew my band and I was senior theirs and David, their manager hit me up. I was living in New Jersey, like playing on the Jersey shore and he goes, Hey, he goes, Darren's looking to start a band. Darren and John are looking to start a band and your name came up and is this something you'd be interested in? And I'd be like, yeah, two days later I'd flown to LA. And I tried out for them and I got the gig like on the spot. 6 (18m 30s): And wow, that was, that was one of, one of the, the coolest areas of my life musically, because I really, really loved that band. Like that band in that lineup was doing something really special. And Darren working with the guy like Darren was, was, was pretty amazing. 4 (18m 50s): Yeah. Great band. I mean, I remember when it was announced that that was a band. I was like, oh, wait, the guys from system are in another band. Like, this is so awesome. Like seeing like some of the shows you guys were playing like a Troubadour and settling, like, how are they, you know, they're going to obviously pack this place, but then it would be like the Coachella lineup also. And I'm like, whoa, like this is crazy. 6 (19m 10s): Yeah. It was, it was a great run and you know, their fans systems fans, and I've been very fortunate, like that opened a big door for me, even with their fans. They are so passionate about those guys so that when they came to watch scars, the record was out. Not even days, these people knew every frigging lyric. I remember like, just looking over them, like, how's this in boss? Like, I don't even know if these lyrics, like, how do they know these lyrics? Yeah. It was really special, man. Great paths continued on. 4 (19m 52s): Yeah. Yeah. Well, so you were in that malfunction is what you got signed to a label. You guys were doing stuff. And then at what point do you go, you know what, I'm going to move to Miami. I really want to learn how to do this Cuban percussion. Like there just seems like a different path. 6 (20m 8s): Yeah. So, so the, so I got to go back a little bit, so, 4 (20m 12s): Yeah. Sorry. 6 (20m 14s): So my, my, I grew up in a very musical household and in a different way, like I meet fans of music, like true audio files to me are just as important as virtuoso musicians. Right? Like they carry the torch. Right. And they, and, and I, and I even I'll even meet people that I'm like, I learned things about, they can't play a single instrument, but they can tell me who played what instrument on one album. Right. So my dad was one of those guys, my dad loved music. Right. And so even when things were volatile in our home, music was dislike common thread. 6 (20m 57s): Right. We woke up to it. You went to sleep to it even to a point where it's freaking annoying, dude. Like you're going to be like, I'll be seven in the morning. And it's like, Celia Cruz popping. Boom. That's like freaking Saturday. But so he had this great vinyl collection of everything from like salsa music to rock, to swing, to jazz, to deep like bebop jazz to James Brown. So I cut my teeth on that. You know what I mean? From early age, I grew in appreciation for all. I never was like, this is lame because it's not cool. You know what I mean? Because the kids aren't into it. 6 (21m 38s): I'm not into that. No, I was just schooled on, on good music. Right. So, and I appreciated it at all. So basically I wasn't afraid of any genre and still, I'm not like to me, an artist is an artist. I see myself as an artist first I can perform and do whatever I want because I'm an artist. You know what I mean? I, I don't, I don't need, I don't need to, to box myself in. I choose not to, I'd rather park a car. You know what I mean? Like, and so, and it's, it's been very helpful through my career. Like I've been in very different types of bands and played a lot of different instruments and, and worked with a lot of different people. 6 (22m 22s): But it's because of that versatility in my love for so many genres. So how did I go from, from a scar or from, you know, malfunction to, to the, to Miami, to a singer songwriter record deal on lava in the early two thousands, the scars on Broadway. After that I went, it happened because of my pure love and honesty. And when it comes to music, no one questioned it, you know? 4 (22m 54s): Yeah. Cause a lot of people, I mean, myself included, growing up was like, oh, and I grew up with the time of you don't want to sell out. And if you like punk rock music and you liked rancid, you weren't allowed to like, you know, anything else, it was like, you'd have to play. And he was like, you box yourself in. I felt like myself included in that world. 6 (23m 17s): Yeah. You know what I mean? I, it's funny. I I've had this conversation with people and it's like, what, what is punk rock? Right? Like, like for example, and to me the whole, the whole energy of punk rock is going against the grain. Right. And your statement, make it your world. I'm going to give you a per like, what's more punk rock than if that is, if that is the Elvis Presley doing what he did in the Bible belt, when I had tired world was against it or a Chuck Berry. Right. And, and like doing what he did and shaking and doing the guitar and dancing and all this stuff in this very, very conservative period of time. 6 (23m 59s): And it's, that's punk rock that takes balls of steel. You know? So, so when I, when I put things into perspective like that, like, you know, I know a lot of guys I've been, I've been in some heavy bands. Right. And I've been on tour a lot in some of the heaviest bands backstage that are nothing like their music or the people they are on stage. 4 (24m 25s): Right. 6 (24m 26s): I mean like, and it's like, you gotta do it. You gotta do. You gotta be honest, man. You gotta be honest. And at the end of the day, no matter what genre you choose, because you people don't give the fans and listener enough credit, they're smarter than you think they know when you're faking the funk. 4 (24m 48s): Right. 6 (24m 49s): You don't, if they can't explain it. So a guy like me, you know, I believe it, or I don't do it. I've never done a gig that I don't believe in. You know what I mean? Like there's been some situations that, that I felt were compromising that I just didn't do. You know what I mean? Had nothing to do with Sean Shaundra. You haven't had to do with kind of like the whole thing around it. But so the bands that I've been in, the products that I've been in, they, they were on it. There, there were real and honest part of who I am and, and everyone's accepted it. I've been very fortunate. 4 (25m 22s): No, I love that. Yeah. Cause I didn't realize until years later, like the punk rock thing, like, oh my gosh, like what so-and-so is doing, they're not a PA like that John rhe doesn't explain what they are, but what they're doing is punk. It's like, it's like that idea that I, you know, took me years upon years to figure that out. But like, as a kid, it was like, oh, like, yeah, like that band for that reason. And then like years later, I'm like, wow, I was an idiot. I missed the boat on that guy. Like, those guys are this band. 6 (25m 50s): It's funny. You talk to God, talk to any guys I got I've even had like, okay, the grandfather godfather, one of the, of like Seminole, if not the punk band, the punk band, the sex pistols in Jones is a friend of mine. Right. 4 (26m 8s): Wow. 6 (26m 9s): Right. And he's that guy is a frigging audio file. The types of music that guy listens to it's it's it runs the gamut of everything. And I defy anyone to tell me that that guy is in punk rock. Like, can I give you a quick story about, 4 (26m 34s): Go ahead, man. This is awesome. I just want to take your time. 6 (26m 38s): What does that tell about him? That it, maybe he's not even too proud of it, but it just, I think it helps it's it's it just adds to the lore of, of that guy and who he is. So we were in this, we were in this band together called the Ducati all stars, right? Where Steve Jones, Billy Duffy from the Colt and Billy Morrison who now plays a Billy Idol's band. 4 (27m 1s): Oh yeah. I know Billy Morrison actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 6 (27m 5s): Great dear friend. And 4 (27m 6s): He's a, he's a great guy. 6 (27m 7s): Yeah. He is a dear friend. And, and so us four got on, we made this deal with Ducati, where we jumped on their motorcycles and we wrote up the coast and he played at different, different dealerships, right. For their diehard, for their diehard customers. And, and, and then we film a little documentary. The last stop on the trip was in Seattle. Right. And by this time Jonesy was done. Like he was done being on the motorcycle. He was done being on the road. He just wanted to be home. And, and we are, we're playing in Seattle places pack at this dealership in Seattle places back. 6 (27m 50s): And there was a really diehard six pistols fan that had brought his customized Ducati to be signed by someone by Jonesy. Right. Okay. Member Jonesy is, is over this at this point and full horns, like coming out, like he's just ready. He comes down. They're like, they're like Jonesy, you have to sign this deal. Would you please sign this more? A second. He's like, Aw, fuck you give him a Sharpie. He walks by this guy's bike. Right. And these are expensive bikes. And we're headed to the stage. 6 (28m 30s): He draws the biggest penis and testicles On the side of this guy's motorcycle drops the pin and then just walks up. And I saw the whole thing. I was like, and I watched this poor guy, the blood drain out of this guy's face. And I was like, in my mind, I was like, dude, you just handed a sex pistol, a pen. And like, what'd you think was going to happen? Have a great night great meeting, you know? 4 (29m 9s): Oh man. It's to sign his name. Cause then it could have been like, he drew this, but you know, he drew it then now it's just like, oh yeah, sure. I bet he's the one that drew that out of your mic. 6 (29m 22s): I was like, if I would've been that I get, the guy was up in arms, I guess. I, I think he threw a fit and a repaint his tank. But to me, I was like, I would've, I would've taken that tank off, hung it on my wall and just got a new tank. Right, 4 (29m 35s): Exactly. I would just put a different, 6 (29m 38s): The story is amazing. 4 (29m 39s): That's incredible. And this was, this wasn't the current or the most recent tour you did, right. The documentary. This is a different documentary, 6 (29m 47s): But that's what part of that relationship with, with Ducati and what became the crossing, the great divide documentary. 4 (29m 55s): Okay. Well, let's get to that. I mean, I know you've done a ton of things and just looking at like camp Freddy. I mean, that's where I knew Billy Morrison from originally. And I worked with him a little bit in LA a few times, but just like you've done so many amazing things, but I want to hear about this, this record and on, in this documentary that you did. Cause it's really such a cool story. 6 (30m 16s): Thank you. I appreciate that. It's and really proud of it. And, and I'm, and I, I can't wait for people to see the, the, the finished products is really beautiful. So basically what it was during the height of the pandemic, I had made this little acoustic record called suddenly 44 and I made it basically for my friends. It wasn't supposed to, I wasn't putting it out. Nothing. I made it for my friends. I was just sending it to people because if you remember, it's like, we were just, that's when we were completely isolated, we weren't even allowed to go out and go to stores. And you had to be in a hazmat suit to go to the, to, to, to, to hunt for the non-existent toilet paper. Right. So I made this little record as the Senator friends. 6 (30m 56s): And one of the people I sent it to was the president of north of Ducati, north America, Jason Chinuch who, and who was the guy that put together the Ducati all-stars years prior with Jonesy. And I, I just said that to him as a friend, like, that's it, Hey man, check out this record. And when he heard it, he was like, man, this is really special. You know, we put our heads together. Maybe we should do something that we can reach people in a safe way. So we did was, I got an on, on, on one of their motorcycles and I went and visited shuttered venues to remember at the time there was, everything was shut down And I would play little, little shows outside of them. 6 (31m 39s): And then we decided maybe we can perform at healthcare facilities safely from a distance outside. 4 (31m 44s): That's cool. 6 (31m 46s): So this little idea, what I did was I started Vegas, went up to Los Angeles and then from Los Angeles, I went to San Francisco and I made my way across the country to Manhattan and visited shuttered facilities, healthcare facilities, and, and, and played for them. When we got to DC, there was a, these investors that had invested in, in films before, and they were like, Hey, have you ever considered? They were at, they were at this little show. We did it at a place, a club. And ah, man, I want my spacing on the, on the name of the club in DC. They were at this little private show that I did. And they were like, if you were considered making this a documentary it's really special and I'd never considered that. 6 (32m 33s): But a little, I put together this team, we ended up shooting this documentary. This time I started in Florida, made my way back across the country to Los Angeles. But this time I visit, not only did I visit healthcare facilities, but I visited, you know, different celebrities and, and peers of mine, music people, and basically asked how they were fairing through the, through the COVID, where they saw our lives, you know, after, and it became the great divide. Oh wow. Yeah. Which in turn I had so much time, it was six to eight hours a day on a motorcycle for 30 days. Straight had a lot of time on my own. And I basically wrote this entire album on the way back into companion to the, to the documentary. 6 (33m 18s): So when I got home, I had all this material and I just locked myself in this little studio and I made that album. 4 (33m 25s): Well, so you were touring on the, the songs that you're kind of sending out to people originally and then the documentary came about, and then you wrote the songs kind of based off of what the documentary was, what you was happening when you guys were filming. 6 (33m 38s): Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Now when you hear it, it's, it's, there's a, there's a, there's a piece in a hope to this album that I think it's going to translate. I think people are gonna are going to be able to put the two together. It's, it's a, it's a road trip record, you know, and, and I learned so much about myself and about humanity on that trip. And it's like, there's nothing like being on the road on a motorcycle to like really find yourself. I really believe that it's a, you know, and, and it's apparent on the new album. 4 (34m 14s): And when you re when you get home to record the record, do you do it, but at your house, I mean, you're sitting in us some drums, like, I don't know if you did this, like in your house and like how locked down was the world's still, 6 (34m 24s): You were still locked down, but it, and, but also I, I wanted it to be, you know, some of it, I recorded the killer speed here in Las Vegas, and then some of the stuff I sent out, but the majority of it was here on my time at my pace, what I wanted. Right. There was no label involved at the time when I started making it, no one breathing over my shoulder, no one asking me for singles. Right. And basically what I did, sorry. So basically what I would do is, is I would sit down and, and record and write if I wasn't feeling it, I would get up and just go for a walk and go do something else. 6 (35m 10s): And I wanted this to be completely organic. Right. And that's tough to do when you're paying hourly at some state of the art studio. 4 (35m 19s): Right. Right. You kind of have to go in there with objective more so than like, oh, I'm going to just tinker around and see what I can come up with today. 6 (35m 25s): Yeah. You know, like those, those, those old school budgets are gone. So, and I've been in studios long enough and been made enough out that I knew what to do here on my own. And I got some really good sounds, really good stuff. And so, yeah, the majority was recorded because you're on my own in my, in my little studio. 4 (35m 43s): Wow. I know you have a feature from on the, the great divide, the single, but do you have any other people playing? Like, from what I read about the documentary is like, you know, you have Billy Gibbons in it and in different, you know, big named people, are any of them on the record? Are they just in the film? And can you, like, how are they involved in the, in the documentary as well? 6 (36m 5s): So yeah. So no one, none of those people, none of them may be Noma or on the album, but there were definitely, there were things that I learned from the, from, from those people that, that definitely inspired music, as far as guests on the actual album. What I think we discussed, if, if, if I heard, if I had a song that I had a particular feel for, right. Or a piano part that I knew was outside of my range, I reached out to 4 (36m 41s): The people. Got it. 6 (36m 44s): Well, like, you know, Jamie Mahabharata played keys on a couple of songs. The guys put on every frigging, like, like hit, you can imagine like record, you can imagine that's another guy that just frigging mind blowing. It's like I sent him the track, gave him some parameters of what I heard. Oh, I kind of hear, you know, like this Mellotron sound from like, from, from a Donovan Donovan record, blah, blah, blah. And he would know exactly he's sent it back and he'd just nail it. And so he was a guest. I had Ash sown played drums on the single night, pat Chamberlain played drums on a couple songs, acres, open them from Apocalyptica one of my great friends and, and bandmates played on, on the great divide that 90% of the, if was I performed the August. 4 (37m 37s): Yeah. That's amazing. And with, with the documentary, is this going to go and like coincide with it as far as like, is it part of the score or anything like that? Or is it just two separate things? 6 (37m 49s): Yeah. What's really cool about the documentary was that they be being that I was performing some of these songs throughout the entire filming of it. 4 (38m 1s): Oh. So some of these were being, you were playing on this tour too. So I was thinking you were only doing those, the songs from that, that, that a singer-songwriter thing that you were sending out to people. 6 (38m 12s): Nah, it was like, oh, okay. Performing them and kind of going and going back to my older catalog. So what happened is there organically became the, the, the soundtrack and also like the S the score. There's a lot of the way that they edited. It is really beautiful because there's a lot of, there's a lot of space. Right. And, and silence. But then when there is a winner is music. It's, it's me. It's not some guy scoring the, the, some guidance in some studio in LA, you know, that doesn't have a connection to it, scoring it. 6 (38m 52s): So it's all very honest and organic and it reads really well. 4 (38m 56s): That's amazing. And how many cities do you, do you hit, do you remember? 6 (39m 1s): I imagine it's, I haven't somewhere. It was, it was ridiculous. 4 (39m 5s): Okay. It's all good. You were basically traveling the whole, us doing this. That's so cool. 6 (39m 12s): 5,000 miles, three to four shows a day. Oh, wow. Yeah. Three to four shows like acoustic shows a day and one to two interviews a day. And we had, and we did, it took about close to 30 days to do it. Wow. Yeah, it was gnarly. So we weren't going like this you're going like this. Sure. 4 (39m 35s): However, you could get it to work out. It sounds like that's so cool. And is the record coming out the same day as the documentary? Are they 6 (39m 42s): Documented, comes out a little bit, like a little bit later, the album comes out June 24th. 4 (39m 47s): Yeah. I saw that. And, but, you know, the documentary is going to, it's not the same thing. It's not just like, oh, here's the documentary. And here's the record together. It's 6 (39m 55s): Separately. But they both compliment each other. 4 (39m 59s): Amazing. Well, I can't wait to see it in, in, in check out the record as well. And I love what, what it sounds like so far. 6 (40m 6s): Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm very proud of 4 (40m 9s): That's so cool. And thank you so much for hanging out with me today, frankly. I really appreciate it. 6 (40m 14s): Yeah, man, I probably Paul, I probably talked off of here, but 4 (40m 17s): No, that's what I, this is what I, that's. What I love about this is I, I love finding out all this things and I really appreciate that the time you spent. Thank you so much. 6 (40m 26s): Thank you. I appreciate you as well. 4 (40m 28s): I have one more quick question though. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists. 6 (40m 36s): Okay. I do. If a, you measure success, people measure success differently, right? Like what I used to think success in this business was, is very different from what it is now, right? Like basically I used to think I was that, that fame and videos and all these things was, was success. Longevity is success, right? Longevity in this business to me, like I've been able to, to basically stay working for long time, learn your job, learn your job, learn it. Well, right. Do your job go home the drama at home, no drama. 6 (41m 22s): That's why I keep getting work. And that's why I keep performing because I just show up. I do what I do and I go home. I don't want to involve anything else.