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[00:00:01] Anybody can play anywhere at any time really. I mean it's just if somebody asks you and I always kind of at this point in my life, that's the reason I want to do.
[00:00:28] There's a few projects and things I do that I just create on my own and you know they're my inspiration from the ground up but then like the thing with Beachwood Sparks playing shows it's promoters calling and asking and us agreeing or not.
[00:00:48] We've turned down more than we've taken. What's the reason for turning some of those down? Because we're just not in a position to be, we're just not a real band.
[00:00:57] I mean we're a band and we have been a band and this isn't a reunion it's just a continuation but at this point we're not like we were in 2001 where from 99 to 2002 where we're all living either in the same house or the same city.
[00:01:16] Eating the same burritos every day, listening to the same records and it's not the monkeys anymore. It's more everybody's got kind of responsibilities and you know to do like I have a band on the label called UniBoys who are touring in Spain and Europe right now, France and
[00:01:39] Germany and a few other places and they're playing to big crowds who know the songs and it's really cool to see that but and it kind of reminds me of what Beachwood Sparks did
[00:01:52] back in 2000 where we went to Spain three or four times but the first time we went we played honestly I think we played 16 or 17 shows in Spain so we played every city that would
[00:02:07] have a stage we played but what I was going to say was you know you have to just love to do it and want to do it because it doesn't, it's rare that it's going to get you anywhere
[00:02:19] you know it's not like REM in 1982 or three you know touring in a van and building a following which is the way I grew up you know but it's just not like that anymore
[00:02:32] and you can go and play to people but we're just not set up to do it. Did you say that it wasn't like that anymore 20 years ago? That's how old I am yes.
[00:02:45] It wasn't like that, no actually it was the end of that 20 years ago because what happened was we were lucky enough to be on a great record label sub pop records and a great
[00:03:02] record label in the UK rough trade and they supported us really well and the tours that we did when we would go back to the city or the market or the area after we had been there once or twice the shows got bigger and bigger.
[00:03:26] That was so fun to see you know I don't know if it's I think everything so one off and random these days you know. At what point did it feel like oh this just isn't really growing in the same way anymore?
[00:03:39] I think I just woke up one day and the music in just the music biz or the being in a band or whatever you want to call it just was different. I didn't really notice it changing but it changed. I think you know might space days.
[00:03:59] The first time when Beachwood Sparks what I noticed a big difference was when well I've been doing this for a long time but if we're just talking about Beachwood Sparks which was a pretty organic band that started from nothing got all we wanted to do is play
[00:04:18] one show and it turned out we got played a bunch of shows in LA and got popular and then got our record deal and put out records and got to tour.
[00:04:28] When we that first period with our first two albums and an EP it felt like you know what people think about bands doing you know what I mean like putting out records writing and touring growing audiences things like that but when we came back in 2012
[00:04:48] that's when I noticed a big difference. I just you know there was every everybody was like oh do this thing this YouTube thing and I'm like what you know what I mean that's where I go to watch old you know public
[00:05:03] image limited videos you know what I mean I didn't know it was gonna be a thing and I just noticed it was just different and I saw bands getting really popular really fast
[00:05:14] that you never even heard of that didn't have any singles out or anything like that so the technology is obviously been part of it but it was it was invariably going to be very different after coming back from along hiatus.
[00:05:27] Yeah but I just felt a difference in the I felt a difference in the way things were set up in general um in that in that in that period um I just I felt like because when when we were doing it
[00:05:45] in late 90s and early 2000s with Beechwood Sparks it still had a little bit of um like it still reminded me of what I knew from the 70s you know the late 70s and early 80s
[00:06:01] mainly the early 80s hey guys stop I because it's no official this people can't see the fact that you're you've been wrestling two tigers the entire time. Well three Chihuahua mixes and two of them one of them just started he must have got excited they
[00:06:17] never do this he was humping the other one and they never do that but hey you guys they really do get excited when I talk a lot and then I think if I start getting excited when I
[00:06:27] when I'm sitting there talking about um the uh the golden age of what I thought the early 80s when I really got into music and really like that's the only time I thought I was going to do it then
[00:06:39] and then was going to be over but it just lasted all these years and um and uh but now it now it feels different it doesn't feel that way anymore and that way I don't know how to
[00:06:53] describe that way but if you were there you knew it. I wonder if in a strange way if your career if you want to call it a career has benefited from not having like that kind of set of specific
[00:07:10] expectations? 100 percent two things you said one is if you call it a career you ain't got one that's a Tom Petty quote that I've always loved and and the other thing is I always said this and
[00:07:25] it's so generic but since I have a lot of friends and I live in LA and I've had a lot of friends who have put out one record and sold a lot more records than that one record than we've ever sold
[00:07:37] but they I'm still doing it and worse Beachwood Sparks is still doing it and those some of those artists and friends and bands they call me and say hey can you help me get some attention or a gig
[00:07:51] or or a record you know what I mean I'm like wow you should you were you were on MTV you were a buzz band one time you know um so I think you're right I think that it whatever we have has
[00:08:04] benefited from I hope it's just that the music is good and everything we do our audience follows us and when we do it and it's good enough that it gets some new people
[00:08:17] you know but hanging in there there's a lot to be said for that. I want to get back to this idea of only expecting to play one show as as Beachwood Sparks that that's interesting
[00:08:28] and I can't I don't remember I remember hearing somebody describe it that way of just having a goal of that single show. That was amazing because we had already I had already been in bands
[00:08:43] that um had record deals and like I thought that was going to be my only band so the time that Beachwood Sparks came around um one or two of the guys was in it was in a band that they were
[00:08:59] trying to kind of make it this band Strictly Ballroom and we had our band further hold on one second I'll tell you this story but I got to get rid of these guys you guys no no no
[00:09:10] no here you never do this I never sit on this couch so I think I'll just move you're on the horny couch I don't know this is their couch apparently I'm never home here but
[00:09:25] swing this over here let me grab my water sorry about that I hope you can edit this out yeah I absolutely will edit out everything oh no um what I'm just kidding
[00:09:39] um I'm gonna leave the Palestine stuff in at the beginning it well that was like it to me it's like I whenever I listen to a podcast and and like they always say have we started
[00:09:54] and they're always like yeah we're going and well where do you want to start well let's start something easy israel of Palestine where do you stand and it's like that that silence that people
[00:10:04] have let's ground this to a halt before yeah it's like whoa I mean that is like the craziest question you could ask anybody and if anybody ever tried to like answer that that would be scary I thought
[00:10:15] about it for a second but I'm like you know maybe the end of the did you think I was serious for a second no no but you know I I think it's an important question you know but I don't
[00:10:25] I was looking right on a rock and roll podcast do you think you get political music no no I don't I barely get political at all and anything I'm I'm neutral as as uh
[00:10:47] it's so funny how I this became how I became neutral I can figure it out um um I was going to tell you the story of of just gotten the band together to play one show and
[00:11:02] that was it's it's actually a good story and it just shows how non career driven we were we had our other bands and those bands were one of them was kind of rising up to something and
[00:11:16] the other one was kind of fizzling out and that was the one that I was in but beachwood sparks was a bunch of guys I had a house with a pool table on spark street and we
[00:11:30] would stay up shooting pool which we don't do anymore we only did it because we had the pool table we shoot and pool listening to music the record player was right there
[00:11:41] and um you know getting high and uh it was very much like a clubhouse thing and it wasn't just the guys in the band it was you know girls and guys were coming over to hang out because
[00:11:58] it was a cool little party house but um one one buddy some one of our friends brought over the gill of pals of sin record I'd never heard I had the grand parson solo records on a cassette
[00:12:14] but I had never heard that album and um and that was in like 1997 so that's crazy so then we uh wouldn't it be cool to have a band like that well like I think Chris Chris Guns and I one of us
[00:12:30] said that to each other and we said yeah let's let's do it let's let's see if we can get it get it done it was just kind of like a a hot a stone we weren't well we were stoned but we were also
[00:12:41] like on uppers you know we were like speed freaks you know we were very very much like the artists that we were trying to emulate they were into their uppers and their weed we weren't so much drinkers too delicate for that but we were you know we're just
[00:12:58] we're partying man and then we were partying in burbank and it was it was like let you know Chris Hellman and grand parson's were like like these just guides on a record cover you know
[00:13:09] course we love notorious bird brothers it was the record that we were sharing but that was you know there's no gram on that and Chris is Chris Hellman is he wasn't like the icon then
[00:13:24] that to me that he is now it was just like that was a cool record and everybody needs to go find it for a dollar well anyway we said less there was um there was a um a gramfest in
[00:13:36] joshua tree and the guy and somebody said if you guys are going to start start this band you should play at that gramfest thing so we got my four track out we made a demo and we sent it to him
[00:13:49] and we didn't get we didn't get offered the gig I called the guy because there was no email yet or if there was email we weren't using it I called the guy finally I said hey this is Brent we have
[00:14:05] that band beach with sparks we wanted to play the gramfest he goes oh yeah I got the tape I think the sun melted it because it didn't sound you know what I mean and it didn't the tape didn't
[00:14:14] get melted it was just too low-fi for them they wanted some americana trip and then you know so then we just instead of playing that show we said we just played this one party that I was having
[00:14:27] for my label which was um at moguls and from that one show there was enough excitement to warrant another show another we got offered a show opening this that night it was just like we were
[00:14:43] there was like a seven band bill and we were one of the bands on it one of the bands without any records on the label and I think we might have played either first or last and somebody was there
[00:14:55] and they asked us to open for eddie betters wife's band hovercraft at spacelands the next month and then we played that show and then that turned somebody offered us another show after
[00:15:09] that so every show it just turned into something finally we said fuck it I guess we're a real band where were you career-wise or music-wise at that point I mean it sounds like you were
[00:15:20] were you expecting to keep being in bands going forward no no I see I was 35 36 and they were 21 whatever age you are when you graduate college 22 23 yeah 21 yeah they were they were but they
[00:15:38] seemed young for that but they were they got farmer dave and chris I said they and ben night they were all graduated from loyal a merry mount and I met them through the radio station kxlu
[00:15:51] so no I was not I actually had a record deal with not with my band but Christmas records got noticed by Atlantic records they offered me like this indie label deal you know like this little
[00:16:08] fake indie because it was the 90s man and it was like there was every you know every indie band and any label were getting a major label deal the post-nervaniers it was and it was still going
[00:16:22] on in 95 or 6 or so when I was doing this what my plan was was to do a record label so Atlantic wanted to give me a lot of money to do it and I wanted to take that money but and I didn't want
[00:16:38] to play in bands anymore I wanted to be a record company dude kind of like I am now but two things happened one is and they're all both my fault one is I fucked a lot of the money away on partying
[00:16:55] in that in that house you know what I mean it was always on me and I put out just a couple records and I spent so much money on on partying and drugs and the other thing was I only got like
[00:17:09] a third of the money that they were going to offer me because and this is a pretty good story and I don't tell it an awful lot because it's a really embarrassing but it's a good it's a good
[00:17:19] lesson it's one of those lessons in I don't know what what the what the word is for this but kind of like you can manifest your own bad luck or I heard somebody talking today about
[00:17:35] about if more about parenthood where or maybe marriage as you know or getting old you know how as you get older you learn more and you say oh if I would have known then what I've
[00:17:48] known now you know I would have been more sympathetic to somebody or whatever there's a faces song about that yeah what is that wish yeah well it's kind of this is kind of like that but it's not like
[00:18:02] I want to you wish it it's more like I was I had this anti-heroine stage for so long like a party and did a lot of drugs but you know heroin was just like taught to me to be bad news and I just
[00:18:20] thought that's the line that I won't cross exactly we even in our band Shadowland we had my brother had written a song called heroin eyes he was there was something to do with the
[00:18:31] Jane's addiction we were in that scene with Jane's addiction and scream and stuff like that and he had met somebody and he had written a song but and I was just we were like we smoked so much weed and
[00:18:42] then I said we did a lot of uppers and stuff but I just never I just had a heavy heroin stance and then when we were in the meeting with my attorney who was a lovely woman very cool too
[00:18:54] Rosemary Carroll she was negotiating my deal with Atlantic for my label and we were talking about getting like half a million dollars to make these records that we wanted to make in the 90s
[00:19:07] yeah and I was gonna get it it was and then at the end of the meeting she she knew that somebody that we were working with had a problem um and had been in and out of
[00:19:20] treatment and not in and out of treatment just they're just kind of like notorious of hanging around with Courtney Love and things like that so she said to me now who's going to be working at this label Rosemary did and I stupidly and just like almost
[00:19:40] prophetically I just said well we have some cool people but we're not going to have any fucking junkies working at the label those are like my exact words and her eyes she just
[00:19:52] like froze and this is at the end of the meeting where everything went well and it wasn't just the money the concept of the label was really great it was really really good and the people
[00:20:04] that I knew and part of it was going to be these official live bootlegs because I had already done one for Sevado and the melvins and you know there are labels and the artists let me put
[00:20:15] it out and we were going to do that you know it was just going to it was a great concept it wasn't about the money but I said that and she and this is rosemary carol she got her name because she's
[00:20:25] married to Jim carol uh you know he's one of the most famous basketball diaries yeah yes poet writer musician but he's also famous for being an addict if I just what you call it now and
[00:20:39] she just like the people I were with they just pulled me aside at that we were walking out and said why did you say that and I said I what I didn't know I would thought I was being cool
[00:20:50] well two things happened one the fucking I don't care about not getting the money you know or not getting all the money that's fine because I blew it anyway but years later I
[00:21:02] had my own really bad problem with heroin you know like like after when beachwood sparks took a break and before we got together for our third album the tarnish gold if you're just gauging my life
[00:21:20] by beachwood sparks records I had a really hard time ended up in rehabs ended up having to move back to florida to the only thing I could do to get my act together so there's two things
[00:21:32] about what I was saying about if you knew then you would act different I wouldn't have said that a but also all the people that I dealt with who were having problems with it I would have been
[00:21:44] a lot more either understanding I thought I was always pretty understanding but I would have treated it a lot different and so I wish I wish I I wish I knew obviously this is something
[00:21:58] you've gone over in your head a lot and with all of that hindsight do you understand better now why you said that um I do I do and I just because I'm an asshole you know I
[00:22:11] you know you I've done and said things because I just thought that's what I was supposed to say or that's the things the thing I was like feeling but you don't say it you know what I mean
[00:22:25] like you ever let an an argument turn into an argument that got like allowed when it doesn't need to you know that was a big part of my life along a while ago there's a certain amount of things
[00:22:37] that we do that are just us trying to like navigate in the human world and sometimes it just feels like completely alien to us if that makes sense it one I mean that it's basically being a phony
[00:22:53] because if I was because it's like because you were hanging with a bunch of like major label record company people in the 90s I was right in the offices right on sunset in the
[00:23:04] sunset towers you know this is rosemary carol married the danie goldberg I had already had my shot on geffen and we had this anti major label stance with our band further where we
[00:23:18] turned down a and m records and we started turning down major label offers but then when that we wanted them we couldn't get one so that was bad but no I just thought like when I said
[00:23:30] something like that it's kind of just like the way I hope I hope other people can relate to this it's like when you say stuff to try to be cool and that wasn't even like
[00:23:41] like it wasn't super out of character for me to say something like that it was just more like you know like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna look so good here by saying we're not gonna have any junkies
[00:23:55] working at this label you know when half the music industry is junkies you know what I mean it's it's like you just I just wasn't it was it was more than uneducated it was just stupid I
[00:24:07] mean I'm confessing it here um but I'll tell you that I used what I learned from that I didn't get better right away but I used that a lot as a as a mirror to make sure that you know I haven't always
[00:24:28] been perfect you know and there's still say things that I wish I wouldn't have said but I really consider other people's feelings a lot more than I used to. I generally consider myself to be like a fairly like compassionate person but but I've also I've had
[00:24:46] a lot of moments in my life where I just don't understand why that came out of my mouth and that like this this case is interesting because I because I don't get the sense that you were attacking her specifically.
[00:25:02] No god no but she but she was being protective of she was managing court Curtin Courtney then and and Danny was at least and and and the I don't want to say the person's name who I was talking about that person did so much for Beechwood Sparks and
[00:25:21] further and me as a friend that I was basically you know it's it's it you know this is so long ago that I'm glad that I'm old enough now to say oh whoa what an asshole
[00:25:35] but even then I was known as like a nice guy but that's what you have to worry about you know I say really worry about these nice people I mean that was one thing that I said
[00:25:45] she could have easily said now Brent we don't we don't use that term or it wasn't even that it was just like we don't we don't we that's not a cool thing to say but it was just more like
[00:25:59] you know put everything together like hey well maybe this record deal that I'm putting together for this man you know and his friend and his and his partners maybe I don't care about it you
[00:26:09] know what I mean if that's the way he's going to be you know it's like you what the music business has needed always needs more now has still now I don't care about how tweaks they've corrected everything politically and with language and everything
[00:26:30] there still is a lack of compassion there's still a lack of compassion and empathy because everybody when you put that thing in front of them they're just like including me you're just clouded with I want it I want it you know and and it's that's
[00:26:51] it's so funny because it's like you want it and what is it you want you know like enough money to to go in the studio and make the records you want to make even that isn't
[00:27:04] nirvana and not the band even but that's not heaven you know because that because I've gotten that before and things haven't always worked out but the people do people people just if I can screw over people then then god just think what if somebody who's really ruthless
[00:27:30] could do you know like all those evil managers and yeah and and and David Geffen who I was on his label I mean it's not malice it's more of like this this toughness but a lack of compassion
[00:27:43] a lack of compassion exactly because I could say if I was still a jerk hey well fuck them I could have I don't know why I'm talking like I'm from New York but I'm just saying I could have said
[00:27:54] hey well I don't want any junkies working at the label it's all gonna be you know that's good I could have like tried to defend myself but I knew that I was wrong and right then I knew I was
[00:28:05] wrong and and karma has a way of really slamming you down and letting you know and and I only tell this story because of the longevity of beachwood sparks like you like just the fact that I'm still that we're still doing it and I'm still doing things I'm
[00:28:22] still doing a label it's you know there's you you you learn and you grow and and that's the thing that keeps you around because if not you whether and die or you just go off and you're you're well you're not you anymore you know you're somebody else
[00:28:45] and I've been in bands with people like that and I just think rock and roll as a lifestyle and as a as a thing is you know like like like you ask why we can't play shows well you know it's not
[00:29:02] like you know the drummer is a stockbroker and now we have to pull him away from that you know what I mean everybody's still in the vibe of the world that we're in like Chris Gunst has his
[00:29:15] own recovery and treatment center in Santa Cruz California he runs it so you know but he's also got super long hair and he also still loves music and you know Jen his wife who's also in the band is
[00:29:28] a you know Chinese medicine and natural medicine healer and and farmer Dave is farmer day you know we're all still it's we're not like you don't have to pull us out of a fish out of
[00:29:40] water to go and play the shows but but I do see those people who are in that who used to be like oh my god used to be like this cool and now you're yeah I mean when you when the people change their
[00:29:53] look and and change their their lifestyle and and and I don't I don't call rock and roll a culture I might be wrong about the significance or the actual definition of the word culture but
[00:30:06] I don't think rock and roll is a culture um but it's definitely a lifestyle what does that mean for you lifestyle wise it means not becoming a stockbroker and having those obligations you know
[00:30:19] you got to do your own thing you want to groove on nature groove on each other you know it's hard to do that when you live next door to a bank no it's like you know kind of keep the like
[00:30:27] to me I keep the I'm just not interested in like investment things and I mean I'm die poor and that's fine but I'm just I just don't want to like I don't want to cut my hair and and I mean
[00:30:42] I do like I don't want to like start wearing clothes that I can get you know I still like to dress in vintage clothes or my friends you know t-shirt companies or whatever I I still like
[00:30:55] the same kind of jeans that I wore for the last 30 years I don't want to change I don't want to change the whole like looking vibe and I just I don't have any interest in it and
[00:31:04] I don't know I can't even see myself in that so I feel like I'm in like this kind of rock and roll I mean when somebody sees me they're probably good like oh that guy's in a band or something
[00:31:16] or what a loser you know I was having a discussion with somebody not too long ago about like my my own professional career and for me it was hey do you think that I'm too jokey you know
[00:31:30] and do you think that that's something that has like limited my ability to to to progress or whatever and and and I think that that's something when it's probably when somebody sees you looking the way you do that they don't that they consider you an unserious person
[00:31:47] yeah and that's fine because that other shit is not serious because it's so simple you know what a bitcoin and and and stock market and buying real estate and I mean a lot of it's
[00:32:02] money but just like the whole like like oh like yeah exactly that that that prejudice against the way I've looked now I look like the guys that used to beat me up but when I was younger
[00:32:15] growing up in Florida when we were punk rockers rockers rockers or new wave uh post punk people whatever we were you know we stepping out the door every night to go where we wanted to go and even when we
[00:32:32] got to where we wanted to go was was dangerous and I'm not talking about just getting verbally assaulted which you can go to jail for these days I'm talking about physically assaulted
[00:32:44] and being threatened and and and I mean I'm 60 so do the math um there was no MTV when we were doing it so nobody knew what it looked like and I always thank god for John Hughes and MTV because it started
[00:33:00] educating some of these people with like you know that not everybody has to look the same not that I just for me that other like normal look isn't isn't like I used to work at IKEA
[00:33:16] and I had to wear the uniform which is just a shirt but even even when I and luckily I worked in a cool like kind of environmental department that was more into the recycling and stuff so
[00:33:29] I had like work boots on and uh and jeans but still I had to wear what everybody else was wearing and I remember always I was a team lead and my manager and I was would apply for manager positions
[00:33:43] in other departments because um I was good at it and and but I was too old they they totally aged me out of there but they they um my manager used to say it doesn't matter what you what we
[00:33:58] put you in hey you still look like you you know and I used to love that you know he basically was saying you still look weird yeah the age thing is is that's an interesting one I mean
[00:34:13] you know now obviously this point in your life 10 years is nothing but like when you're 30 that's a dude that's standing on my head when you're 30 and you know and you're in a band with you know 22 23 year olds like that's a pretty significant difference in terms of like you
[00:34:28] know generational and cultural and everything else yeah you know that's the thing about liking stuff from the um well that's the thing about liking music from like what we were we had this
[00:34:47] a cassette compilation that had a bunch of bands from like 67 to 70 and they were all bands trying to sound like the birds or the dead or or something but they were all really obscure as a as a comp
[00:35:03] that our friend Rex made called find the sun but you know I was impressed because those guys were really into the music from the past you know I guess they had probably been in high school
[00:35:20] during like the grunge era you know like um I think I've been to their houses before and saw like Nirvana Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirts that they used to have right but you know
[00:35:37] they went to university worked at the college station had radio shows there and that just that just this is sharpens your your your tastes I don't even your taste but that just sharpens your your you just get exposed to a lot of great things and we just happened
[00:35:55] they really liked the band that I had further and further was kind of a fanzine band type of thing where like is that a mary prankster's reference yeah yeah we got it right off the front of the
[00:36:09] bus that makes a lot of sense I know and it was further before bob and phil started their band further which is so funny because do you remember some of the early websites for touring bands like um
[00:36:28] can't remember what they're called not bands in town but some some it was further was on tour it was bob weir and phil lash and a bunch of other and they had our picture they had me and my
[00:36:40] brother and josh wards holding the cat you know like a total indie rock picture and people used to send it to me that's doubly funny because I mean I guess it wasn't exactly those group of guys
[00:36:51] like I think it was more like uh each ever sit an airplane but there's the whole like dinosaur junior thing that happened yeah yeah except for this time we were further first we could have told them
[00:37:02] hey we could have you needed you need to be further junior we're what's our name yeah it's so funny we never did that we never um and the bunch of bands after came out and they want to call
[00:37:13] themselves further like on band camp and Spotify I've seen I was like well there we you go back you cannot find another band called further at least that made records before we started that band so
[00:37:26] I can't go back further than further no you can't go back further at all and you know uh ben knight and um and chris guns and farmer they loved further and um chris guns was even
[00:37:39] in further for for a while and that's kind of what happened was further was breaking up we're trying to hold on to that band while we were starting beachwood and and uh we had uh
[00:37:50] we had the the remains of further and we had beachwood sparks and beachwood sparks was starting to do pretty well and one night we were all at the palace at um do you remember
[00:38:01] with the band the seahorses you know who the band that was come on let's hear it put you on the spot here yeah I I'm not gonna the English he was in an english band that was
[00:38:17] a guitar player from one of the greatest english bands that were like the one of the last big bands before oasis um oh like a um like a manchester kind of yes thing okay thing thing come on
[00:38:33] who was it but after the smiths what was the next biggest manchester band after that 10 year period uh so before not not new order later than new order no after that and spiral carpets guitar bands
[00:38:50] primal scream i don't know stone roses stone roses okay yeah it was you almost you were you were in the right ballpark john squire had a band and he was a great guitar and the band people who
[00:39:02] were gonna be listening at home and like screaming at me as i'm doing that no i first of all that's all i do when i listen to podcasts and when they get it wrong i i have to stop and rewind
[00:39:13] because i'm just screaming at myself like um i don't do a comments i do not comment things i just i don't want to be that person but i once i listened to lou barlow's podcast a lot and he got something
[00:39:25] glaringly wrong once and i sent him a message but you there's a great thing where you can unsend messages and i unsent it if you would have had that when you were when you were getting your
[00:39:38] record label in order like that could have saved you a lot of if i hadn't unsent i would have an extra five hundred thousand dollars and i could have i probably would have been dead or i would
[00:39:47] have been i would have been alive and kicking i mean i always like modeled myself i always loved alan the gi and creation records and i really loved asylum records david geffen's label i just
[00:40:02] love the idea of it i even liked geffen when even though i was an artist on geffen and dgc i i just like the idea that there was um and there were some other labels i like to uh jeff travis rough
[00:40:13] trade i like when there's like a person associated with the starting of the label and it's not so much a band that makes the label great and that's we watched like one or two songs
[00:40:28] didn't like it at all did not like it and we were big stone roses fans so we went in the sidebar of the palace and we're all drinking and josh schwarz who's now passed away who was
[00:40:42] one of the wasn't the founding member of beachwood sparks but he joined after we played three or four shows what he said was why don't we take the best name and the best players and make one band
[00:40:54] instead of having these two different bands further and beachwood sparks and i was like okay let's do it and i thought it was great because when quiet people who who usually just spend the time listening
[00:41:06] to me talk and here's what we're gonna do josh because you know when i met him he was like 16 or 17 and um to have him like call the shots i love that yeah people who are they're quiet because
[00:41:22] they're thinking yeah or they're thinking how much of an asshole that i am for talking so much no i i have the same problem obviously i have a podcast but it's those people who are clearly like who only speak when it's like almost profound it's a beautiful thing
[00:41:44] man i would love to be that i just can't you can't go back you can't rewind but if i could have that unsent button i mean that's funny thing i love writing so much i i'm i don't read a lot of books
[00:41:55] admittedly and i listen to a lot of books um but i do watch a lot of films and tv shows and i do watch it for the writing you know i know that even a great performance isn't anything without what
[00:42:09] the thing is written whether it's the character or the or the actual dialogue and those characters who who don't say much but when they do say things are profound or or even if you're if there's a
[00:42:24] even if you've watched an old interview with with a musician or an actor who just doesn't suffer this kind of open the pattern funness that we yeah i love it i mean i happen to love it and maybe there
[00:42:36] will be a time when i don't love it but i love it but there's people who don't you know what i mean like marlon brando at a certain certain or i you know the ones who who aren't even legendary
[00:42:48] who do it are the ones that i really love if you've seen an old interview and you're just like trying to get the interviewer is trying to get the word out of like ellie and smith or
[00:42:57] something and he just like yeah you know it's hard for me because you know it like as an interviewer and like and marlon brando like you know ellie and smith quiet like obviously had his demons
[00:43:08] marlon brando just kind of seemed like a prick yeah you know it's a fine line between uh being quiet and being an asshole well that's the thing but maybe he was just waiting for that great
[00:43:19] question and even if you asked a great question okay so if robert smith is a is a great example because if you ask him a great question he'll answer but if you ask him a dumb question
[00:43:33] he'll he won't answer or he'll say that's a dumb question you know but what is a dumb question i mean you know that thing when you start a new job they tell you there's no such thing as dumb questions
[00:43:45] that's be a great name for a podcast i guarantee you there are several uh there are several yeah there's a come here's a new band called further and here's a podcast called there's no such thing
[00:43:55] as a dumb question here's my philosophy on the subject of dumb questions have a good time all the time yeah that's subsection b but um is uh for me i think dumb questions are the ones that people
[00:44:13] get asked over and over again right don't we want to hear you'll know new information it's a hundred percent and then that whole thing about well people my audience doesn't know this stuff
[00:44:29] fuck you david crossby walked out of this podcast i hope it wasn't this one i had nasha and he was very nice but not crossby oh god well don't get me started on gram i'm i'm a huge huge huge
[00:44:44] gram nash fan and i don't even really like him that much i mean i do i love him i songs for beginners is is a late life album that i found that i i was like wow how did i miss this
[00:44:56] record you know what i mean like it's just to me it's his masterpiece people would say wild tails i don't know i think it's a great one i saw him at the ace theater a couple right before
[00:45:06] cove and um here's the reason that i i that i say that sometimes i don't like him is because like he reminds me of me a lot because he's cheerleading his his other players a lot you know
[00:45:22] i know it's genuine because i do it i kind of stopped doing it because i used to do it too much you know sometimes sometimes i'll i'll i'll say like here you you do a song when i know that
[00:45:35] it's my turn to do a song or something there's little two giving gram nash is big cheerleader but what this this this is a shitty story to tell at the show at the ace theater
[00:45:50] he he's he's talking and everybody wants to hear old songs right it's no fucking denying in that the more old songs the better and the obscure old ones even better but the hits fine you know even
[00:46:05] the holly's hits are playing but he's like can i play a song for my wife and we're all like yay right for his new latest his newest wife that's and he's playing it and i was like god i got a p.m i get
[00:46:20] up now i'm gonna listen because i really want to listen to what he says i want to hear how i love you so i want to hear his take on it and he sings a verse gets halfway through the second
[00:46:27] verse and then he's strumming the same chord this d or f sharp minor or something on a 12 string and he's just like and then it goes the lyrics go quiet and he's still strumming and he's like oh
[00:46:39] fuck and i go whoa this is like what a spoken word piece in the middle of the song he was like and he's like i forgot the words and the craziest thing was he said my he dedicated to
[00:46:54] his wife who was just right in the wings right there and i was just like oh my god that is like that truly is like i've been in that position on a smaller way like you know think i'm talking
[00:47:10] about something but just lose my train of thought or whatever but or a nightmare where you get your dream gig like opening for aral smith and and you you get on or you know the birds are back together
[00:47:24] and and they and then you get and you get up on stage and nothing works you know you can't play but yeah it's the the homework dream basically or being naked in front of the class right right
[00:47:39] well you know i mean that's a cool thing about podcasts is you mentioned gram nas and then i have a gram nas story and it's kind of like it's not i'm a huge huge fan and i read his book
[00:47:52] twice um but also like as you go and as you get older i mean i don't older people like me like i tell that story about something i said when i was 32 years old you know it wasn't even that offensive
[00:48:11] but it was but you know like those guys man that era of rock star that's why david cross we walked out of that podcast the guys just going over these things that we all know and he's like
[00:48:30] i'm here to promote this documentary which is telling the story of what you're talking about now and did you ever hear it i know i know i i i i don't know if i can because yeah you can it's
[00:48:42] hard for me to listen to interviews getting shit on because it like i feel it deeply in my bones ah okay okay okay yeah i see that i mean this is like i hear that and i accept that but it's like
[00:49:07] i think you should listen to it you'll really fucking laugh at it do you think that david cross becomes off as an asshole in it yes 100% he called the guy he's like he'd be rated a guy and
[00:49:22] he's like you're kind of dumb aren't you call him dumb he's a total fucking asshole but what the guy was saying was basically was was was david was saying was that you're asking me stuff
[00:49:36] that everybody knows kindergarten stuff the lore of that people know and the guy said my listeners don't david cross they should have said well what the fuck am i doing on this podcast then
[00:49:49] you know what i mean and or and he should have just said i'll indulge you because maybe we'll find something new i mean to be honest i mean i'm not david crossby and he's not me i mean i i have
[00:50:01] a another great david crossby story we further covered one of his songs uh traction in the rain on um our second album called sometimes chimes which is a double sprawling album of just the most incredible everything from pop to the most lowest five gnarliest music again i just
[00:50:23] think it's an amazing record um it was amazing at the time even we even got steve mouthmas to admit that it was a great record and um that was a hard thing easy feet no um but uh
[00:50:40] uh we covered traction in the rain and we basically played the his version from his solo album if i can only remember my name through a four track and then we sang over his version with a bunch of
[00:50:53] different you know fuzz pedals and and just and um we thought we were very cool when we did that and nobody that was back when that album was a dollar it's it's 40 dollars now you know what
[00:51:06] i mean you you saw that record everywhere and i'm going to buy that record what this one i'm like just buy it you'll love it it's a masterpiece but it wasn't in its day it was a flop of big failure
[00:51:18] for the label and for david crossby no matter that it had neil young and the dead and the airplane it's got everybody on it and everybody knows it's a masterpiece now and that's why it's 40 bucks
[00:51:30] maybe it's even more good copies but when it was a dollar we did it so then years later the internet comes out and people could talk to david crossby on twitter and somebody sent him our version
[00:51:43] and they said hey what do you think of this david and he's like total garbage sounds like they're trying to be too cool and i just was like yes i mean and i'm not saying that in a like
[00:51:54] weird like trying to like hide my feelings way i really did not expect him to like it and and that's exactly what it was with some people trying to be cool and it was cool we weren't
[00:52:07] trying we were cool but it was it sucks you know what i mean it's not a it's not a great cover version but but uh i just love that that he said that i mean i'm that's a cool thing about
[00:52:18] the internet is like we used to have this knack um further our band um all the bands that i've ever been in beachwood sparks especially had this knack for like if we liked a band or an artist
[00:52:35] they would end up at a show or we'd end up meeting them somehow like you know dinosaur junior was it was a life changing band for me and we recorded a record at his house you know what i mean like
[00:52:46] beachwood like i never thought i would even meet him let alone jam with him and record in his house and be friends with him or whatever and go on tour with him we'd always have a way to meet people
[00:53:01] and to me that was just for the other guys in the band i don't know if they were that is into it as as much but for me i always love that to be playing in Glasgow and and people from somebody from
[00:53:15] orange juice being in the crowd and teenage fan club and and uh this band anyway but when the internet came around and you could start to like like talk to people like that that i didn't work
[00:53:28] for me i never made any good connections you know never DM'd anybody and became friends with them you know what i mean it's like it just it is something about like the natural real world
[00:53:41] that that makes it happen and like i didn't even have any dreams that David Cross was you like oh yeah this is great i love these guys let's you know like like i didn't want to say hey David okay so
[00:53:53] you think this sucks why don't you listen to this beachwood spark song that sounds a lot like the birds you know what i mean and see what you have to say about that you weren't the person who sent
[00:54:03] him that song in the first place no i wasn't probably was my brother or something but it definitely wasn't me i wouldn't have the guts to do that i mean i wouldn't have the guts to
[00:54:15] like i met chris home and a bunch one time i had a great story where the first beachwood sparks album came out and he went into a record store in ventura and somebody put it on for him
[00:54:29] and he's like oh cool he heard the notorious he heard the birds in it and that's all they said that they said they told me that he was acted favorably but i've i ended up meeting him um writing
[00:54:44] an internet post for his book um through his publicist and then i met him at the troubadour and got him to sign my sign my uh i didn't bring my burrito brothers and birds records he signed his
[00:54:56] album biden my time his last solo album that he made the one that tom petty produced and i didn't say hey i'm in a band that was you know that sounds like the birds you heard him one
[00:55:07] time on it yeah i didn't even want to tell him because any oh i heard you know i didn't i honestly didn't and he actually even though i wrote a four page no it was a six page article about him
[00:55:20] in for shindig magazine i didn't tell him that and he wasn't even that i actually the i wrote the article after that but he actually didn't spend that much time with me in the alley
[00:55:33] behind the troubadour there was some other guy who had a flying breed of brother shirt on and had all the old records for him to sign that he was like seemed to spend more time with and i was
[00:55:46] like huh i go i wonder if like i've been on tour before with my band gospel beach and i've had people bring beachwood sparks and further records to the show for me to sign and i've i've never been
[00:56:03] particularly uh offended that they weren't bringing the new record or whatever or i wasn't that stoked but i felt i felt like chris helman wasn't somebody that was living in that past too much
[00:56:15] especially if it's 1968 he never talks about it you know like just doesn't yeah i had him on the show too and i noticed that he's he's a great conversationalist as long as like i think i
[00:56:30] i think i think i asked him i think like it was supposed to be 15 minutes and he ended up 25 and then i'm like i'm gonna shoot my shot and i'm like oh yeah he shut me down he just doesn't
[00:56:40] want which i which i respect when did you guys decide gram had to be gone from the breed of not quite that but yeah but yeah i yeah it might have been about crossby i can't remember
[00:56:51] oh i know i know coming yeah when you when you tell me about kicking out crossby it's it's funny those guys i still think that is like that's a golden era for me and um
[00:57:04] beachwood sparks it doesn't live in that in that anymore in that there was a time when that was everything to us like if we could like we thought that our lifestyle did was similar to their
[00:57:17] lifestyle you know wake up in the morning go get a burrito go practice go out go record you know what i mean hang out with other bands going you know like we're we're particularly popular
[00:57:30] we didn't have a number one record but you know either did the later period birds or the burrito brothers you know they they i think we could draw more people to the troubadour than they could
[00:57:39] you know um at some point but it's just kind of like nowadays like that's not what like the new album for beachwood sparks it's not that's there's no like that influence isn't there it's
[00:58:02] only that what we've done together is there but that that like we still have respect for it but that that whole i don't know what the right word for is like when you're just like gaga over
[00:58:13] something you know what i mean we're not as gaga over and you turned into your own band and that's that's the goal you know the there's something about that turning that that i've
[00:58:28] always thought if now that i'm the record company and the bass player who writes one or two songs for the record when i i i love the fact that i get to write a couple songs like you know we like
[00:58:42] notorious bird brothers but we always like we also like younger than yesterday you know once the birds once it was like oh that's a gene song that's a chris song that's a crossby song that's a
[00:58:53] that's a mcguin sang that's a dylan song but um we have three songwriters you know and but chris guns to is kind of like he's kind of the voice of beachwood sparks um he's he's
[00:59:10] like i was noticing on this new album when we got the mixes back we're listening to it that the more time i spent with it i was just like i actually like was listening to like his songs
[00:59:23] and since there's more of it and like you know yes they're they're like you know to me i would be happy doing a whole almost a whole album of his songs because he doesn't you know i
[00:59:37] have had projects and made some records with gospel beach and and farmer david has made a bunch of farmer david records and stuff um but chris hasn't really made a lot of records so he has a lot more
[00:59:49] to say and plus you know i think one of the things that one of me make it made me want to start a band with him in the first place was i saw his band strictly ballroom and i liked his melodies and
[01:00:00] i liked his i liked his songwriting and i liked his lyrics a lot and um i think his his his his his efforts and his not input but his output of the band is more like our own thing you know
[01:00:23] i i just think that i mean there's some songs on there where i would say what band what do you think this sounds like this one definitely sounds like the birds but what does
[01:00:32] this sound like that's a you know what i mean that doesn't that sounds like beachwood sparks and i think it's his me his songs that that take that shape