How Strawberry Alarm Clock Built A Psychedelic Legacy

Welcome And Band Introductions

SPEAKER_00 0:05

I think it's a lot of people. I'm the worst person to have a podcast.

SPEAKER_05 0:15

I feel very hello everyone and welcome back to the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

I am your host, Harley, joined by a group of incredible guests today. We have the legendary strawberry alarm clock on the show. Everyone, please meet George, Gene, Mark, and Howie. Guys, thank you so much again for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah. I am so excited to talk to you guys again. Like I said before the show, you are living legends in this industry, specifically in the psychedelic era. As someone who is a diehard Pink Floyd fan, you guys are responsible for the mixture of that sound out of that era. And I truly thank you for everything you guys have done over the years. I think music would be a dark place if you guys hadn't been around. So we're gonna dive into all of it, but first like the dark side of the moon. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

That's where the by the way, that's that's where the aliens are.

SPEAKER_07 1:36

I would like to say that we're missing Randy Seal and uh Steve Bartek.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Yes, okay, they are missed.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Are we really missing Randy?

SPEAKER_07 1:46

I mean, yeah, ouch.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Ouch.

SPEAKER_07 1:50

Just okay, cut that part out.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Yeah, cut it out.

What A Kurta Is

SPEAKER_02 1:55

No cutting.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

So the first the first thing I want to ask you guys is for my audience, can you uh explain what exactly a kirta is?

SPEAKER_04 2:07

So they a kirta is a traditional Indian uh uh dress. And it's it's traditional and it's kind of a dress outfit that when they dress up, uh and you'll see them going to events and stuff, and they're yeah, they usually have to have the buttons buttoned all the way up, and so yeah, I think my neck was bigger or something, but anyway, usually usually they're longer, like almost down to the knees. They can yeah, so but anyway, that's what a kerta is, and and the day that we first donned Kirtas was in 1967 while we were trying to do the album cover shoot of incense and peppermint. And uh we we had been taken around by our manager and a photo with a photographer uh to different men's clothing stores to try on things that we hated, you know, like shirts with big collars and whatnot. Anyway, we we were so like uh uh you know, and then Randy goes, Well, you know what? I had lunch yesterday at this place called the Loft in Westwood, and downstairs was this really cool East Indian shop called Sat Harouch, and they made these Indian outfits and they had all kinds of cool things in their pillows and sitars and everything. He goes, Maybe we should go there and check it. So everybody said, Okay, let's go there. So we went, lo and behold, we go in and they welcome us, you know, with open arms, Kathy Skarms with open arms, and and she was as sweet as could possibly be. And she goes, Oh, well, love you guys, you know, and and so you know, we had came with an introduction, and but and and at the time, you know, it was only our song that was famous.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Oh, we just lost how it's sorry, okay.

SPEAKER_07 4:16

Cut that part, cut that part out.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

No cutting. No slapstick, Howie. Come on. Anyway, did you fall off share, Howie?

SPEAKER_07 4:33

Are we okay? Steve. You're good, you're good. For a minute, for a minute, yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

There's not gonna be any slapstick. Anyway, so anyway, so Kathy opens, you know, her arms and Kathy's garms is open arms, and she brought out all these outfits that were not these, like more like what Jean's wearing, and and and outfitted us right there in the shop. And and we were like window dressing in her shop, and the photographer is clicking away, and he's going, This is fantastic, I love it. And she had all these pillows set up and all kinds of fans and everything, and a caftan chair, and all these and sitar and everything, and we were having a blast. We were there for a quite a long time, and the the photos were sent up to Russ Regan at at uni, and he said, This stuff's fantastic. That's it, that's the album cover. So what we didn't realize was we had just locked ourselves in to wearing these forever. It's like we weren't really calculating all that, you know. We had the album cover, then we then there was a couple of TV shows, and and they said, Well, you have to wear all your outfits, and and sure enough, we had to wear them on stage. We went on tour with the Beach Boys and all that stuff, and and we had to wear them. And we were the the Beach Boy tour was funny because they were kind of like making fun of us. They were they were saying, Why don't you guys get in like nice sweaters and and dress eventually you see Mike Love dressed in in the same outfits, you know.

SPEAKER_07 6:24

That's funny. Yeah, if we didn't wear these things, you wouldn't be talking about it right now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Well, it's you know, think about the Beatles and the Beetle haircut, you know, same thing, man.

SPEAKER_07 6:36

And the Beetle boots and beetle uh slacks and yeah, pinstripe.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Guys, remember when we were on American Bandstand and Dick Clark went out in the audience after we were getting ready to play one of our songs on American Bandstand. And he goes, Dick Clark goes out to he, of course, picks this cute blonde girl and goes up the aisle and puts a mic in her face and says, What do you think about their clothes? And she goes, They look like Chinese pajamas. And then she says, But they're cool. And Dick Clark says, All right, that's great. The strawberry alarm clock. And then we went ahead and did our song, but I'll never forget that when she said she looked like Chinese pajamas. That's great.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

So fast forward into like 2007, and and and we're like getting ourselves back together, but we were sort of not dressing up like that. We were dressing funny in multicolors and stuff, but not in curtis. And and my friend, who was a photographer, said, You guys, you need to get the curtis again. He said, He said, you know, you're trying to sell Pepsi in a Coke can.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah. It's our signature look.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Yeah, you need to look like yourself. He goes, I swear to you, it'll really pay off. And God, was he right? And and you know, it did, and immediately all of a sudden, it was like a lot of attention because we were looking like we were supposed to look, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Exactly. It also had a mystical effect on us as a side effect, and that is the minute we put him back on, we started being the strawberry alarm clock again. Yeah, right. Like we realized that was a license to kill on stage and be as crazy, you know, if we want to jam and do something and and lose uh the downbeat where Randy, our drummer, has to yell, one, you know, to get us all back on track or something like that. So it's just so here's the real cool thing.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

So here's the bitchiness part of this whole thing is that so uh after Dave, my Dave Gilbert, my photographer friend, after he told that told us that, I decided to Google Kathy's farms and the name of her shop, Sat Perush.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

That was the original lady of 1967. Right. And we haven't talked to her in 40 or 50 years, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:13

And so so I I I saw and I I saw Sat Perouche, and it just kept saying the Indian god and this and that, and I thought, ah, and then I I went, I had a kirta, and it it was actually a white one like jeans, and I looked in it on the label and it said designs because of Sat Perouche. So that and then I Googled designs because of Sat Perouche, and bingo, Kathy Skarms. I made the clothes for the strawberry alarm clock.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

And so George, George found her.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

Yeah, I found her, and I called her, and she goes, We hooked back, oh my god, I love you, you guys. And I said, Would you make us new Kurtas? And she goes, I'd love to, and she did. So that's how we ended up like this now.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

And we will never do another concert again without wearing them.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

No, now so we have new ones too, though.

Finding The Original Kurta Maker

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah, yes, yeah, we were so so. Did did this all happen before or after the Beatles went to India? This was before, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:31

Before uh well, I think it was maybe simultaneous because probably yeah, simultaneous, yeah. This was so Kathy on her website said that after because we put her name and her store name on our on the back of our of our album cover, and and she said that after that, George Harrison walked into her shop. Wow, yeah, as a matter of fact, you know, it was it here's a really weird thing. So there's a DJ, Rodney Bingenheimer. You know who Rodney Bingenheimer is? Yeah, okay, yeah, he's like on, you know, K Rock. K Rock, yeah, K Rock, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

The mayor, the mayor of Hollywood, right? Yeah, is that the yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Anyway, Rodney was this assistant to the photographer Ed Carraf, who did our did the album code, and so Rodney was there. Rodney somehow became friends with George Harrison and brought him to the shop. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yes, yeah, that's crazy, man. What I would say is the Beatles stole your look, and yeah, I guess I'm calling Paul McCartney out on that, man. That that's not cool.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

He even there's a an article in the paper, but the timing is off. But he said something about Sgt. Pepper came about because of groups like Jefferson Airplane and Strawberry Alarm Clock.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

I I know I saw I saw that article. I just I had to find some way to make the connection, but still, you heard it here first, Paul McCartney. Yeah, you can't go stealing from Strawberry Alarm Clock. That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

He owns all our publishing.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

That's ironic, isn't it, George?

SPEAKER_04 12:13

He's our publisher, and our everything's with MPL. Except for the new songs, except for the new songs, yeah. They're with our own little publishing company.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

That's right.

Beatles Connections And Publishing Irony

SPEAKER_00 12:25

So speaking, speaking of the songs, let's talk about those early years. For for again, you guys are legends in this industry, so I want to I want to assure that we take the time and really tell your story here because it's a fascinating one. Take me back to those early days of the inception of the band and some of those those first shows and some of those first struggles.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

That's gene.

SPEAKER_07 12:53

Yeah, I can do I can do this. There we go. Yeah, the uh the in 1966 yeah. The original name of the band was Quaker Oats. And then and then we changed the name because you know we probably figured that we would probably lose the name after a while. We changed it to the sixpence, yeah. And the six pants was uh was Ed King and uh Lee Freeman and myself and Garrilla Vitro. Mike Luciano, and yeah, Mike was Mike Luciano was the lead singer, and uh and yeah, Steve Robbie at one time, yeah. And yeah, and so he so we you know we're doing a lot of the beat Beatlemania stuff, you know, songs from uh from England, Rolling Stones, British Invasion, yeah. And then we and then we started recording a couple of originals in the building, and long days care was a couple of our songs with the sixpence, yeah. And then eventually we as the sixpence, we actually recorded the basic track of Incense and Peppermints. It wasn't called Incense and Peppermint at that time, it was just an instrumental, and we did the basic track with with Mark. Yeah, Mark came into the band, and then he he wrote a couple of songs, right, Mark?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah, well, I auditioned with the band, they were in Glendale, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, and I went over there and sang the Stones version of Route 66, and I brought my Italian uh combo compact for our Fisa organ, and uh that's what I used for the audition. And uh love that we went through the song, and they said, Okay, you're in the band. So uh, you know, the next thing I knew we were on our way to Las Vegas with Teen Nightclub or something. But the the thing was, Gene, what what were we just uh saying? What was the I lost my trend of thought here?

SPEAKER_07 15:02

But the well, well what we did is we we uh did a lot of cover songs and we recorded a uh uh a few originals and then and then Mark Mark wrote Heartful of Rain. Heart Heartful of Rain and the uh basic track to instance and peppermint. Ed King and Mark and myself were basically the ones that were in the studio doing that, the basic track.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

Yeah, that part of the story never kind of comes out right. It's like so what what the sixpence did is they recorded an instrumental which it of incense and peppermint, but it wasn't called that. But they it was only Mark and Ed and Lee that played on it, and the whole that me and Jean, yeah. I meant I meant so it was it was Ed and Mark and Gene. And and that track is the track that became the hit record. It it wasn't it all that happened was they put vocals over it, and so you know, and and lyrics, but so but that the what they recorded as an instrumental is in fact the record in Sins and Peppermint.

Early Band Names And First Gigs

SPEAKER_04 16:21

The hit record. And wow, yeah, and there's there's a long story, there's a whole bunch of offshoots of this story, but the the biggest to me is that Mark and Ed were cheated out of the writer's credits, right? It was taken from them because in those days they said, no, you can't you cannot you know copyright just the chord changes, you have to have the melody and the lyrics. Really? Yeah, really a dumb thing. Bullshit. It was bullshit, but after that was after the fact that so what had transpired prior to that was that the manager Bill Holmes who said, I paid for the session, so I want my name on it. Oh god, but he had he had put his name on Mark's other song that they recorded, yeah. And and Mark saw it. He goes, Wait, where's my name? You know, he goes, Well, it's I paid for the session, so it's it's just in my name.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah, and this is the double-edged sword I was talking about. Our manager had uh a record label called All American Records, it has like you know, red, white, and blue, and that kind of thing. And and uh when when he showed me the the 45, hey, look, here's your your new record, Heartful of Rain. And I went, wow. And then I looked underneath the title and it said B period Holmes, and that was his name. Right Holmes. I said, Where's my name on it? And you know, I I I wrote the lyrics and the music, and he goes, Well, he goes, I put my name on it because I paid for the session, and that's what you have to do to break into the record business.

SPEAKER_06 18:14

That's insane.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, so that was that was the first red flag, and then on Incense and Peppermint's what happened when it came time to print the label, and our producer said, Frank Slay, he said to Bill, I need four names on the record maximum. You can't have everybody in the band and your name on it, and everything. And and Bill said, he yeah, he said, No, I gotta have my name on it. And so Frank Slay and Bill Holmes got into a squirmish about you know the four names, and so Frank Slay took it upon himself to say, Oh, the hell with it, I'm just gonna go ahead and put John Carter and Tim Gilbert, which actually wrote the lyrics to the song as the writers. And so when Incense and Peppermint was published under our producer's publishing company, Claridge Music, it went out under John Carter and Tim Gilbert, and they collected every cent that that mech record made. And oh god, King and myself didn't make a penny off of uh Incense and Peppermint's A million selling record.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

So so here's here's an interesting question. It's 2026, and I'm I'm sure you guys follow John Fogarty's story as well, yeah, because it's a very similar story, and he just got the rights back to his music. Is this is this something that you could possibly rectify?

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Is this something that we could take what he did and and it I would say yes to cut to the chase, exploring all avenues of possibility of that happening? Sure, we could go and spend lots and lots of money and make some lawyers very happy with uh big payments to get the rights back to it, but it would only it that it's never retroactive, it's always from this moment forward if you win in court and saying that well, just because I played chords, there was it you can't copyright them, but there's no way you could write a metal melody line without having the chords there first. So uh any, you know, and it's been so many years trying to get a judge to hear this might be one of those long drawn-out cases. So rather than to drain and then some our bank accounts or my bank, yeah, uh just to let it go and and you know, kind of give it off to a learning experience back in our early days, which of course put a bitter taste in my mouth about the music business, uh, right off.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah. And maybe, you know what? Maybe we could find some cool people, lawyers that have the chops to go after those sons of bitches.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Yeah, everyone listening right now. Let's let's yeah together as a community and see what options are out there. And if you're a lawyer listening on a contingency basis, is it it could be done, it could be done. And and we do have our our sideshow, Dark Side of Music, and I know that we have lawyers that listen to that program as well. So if they're listening, please reach out, let's let's have the conversation. But is this something that also prevents you? Because with John Fogarty, he couldn't play those songs live. Does this present prevent you guys from being able to pay play that song?

SPEAKER_07 21:47

Well, actually, actually, John, it was John Fogarty's own personal choice not to play the song, okay, okay, exactly during that during that time. But what's happened more recently is that his Wife somehow got it to where he got his publishing back.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

And by the way, ours is actually owned by Paul McCartney, the publishing MPL Communications, which is in New York, and that's uh Paul McCartney company. He bought our whole catalog from uh Claritch Music along with a lot of other songs.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

You you hear me, Paul McCartney. I'm coming for you, dude.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

I don't think our Paul Paul, we love you. Please love us. Yeah, no clue.

The Credit Fight Behind The Hit

SPEAKER_00 22:34

The the intro story here is fascinating, but I also find it equally fascinating that you guys were psychedelic, which I feel during the 60s it it was thrown around the same way that people now are throwing around the term pop punk. But you guys were actually psychedelic, which is again that's why I referenced Pink Floyd and earlier Buffalo Springsteen, who I would view as also a bit more psychedelic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

Not Springsteen.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A minor mistake.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

A minor mistake.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

But it's interesting to have a band that was actually psychedelic during that age. Did you also during the time notice like a lot of bands coming around saying they were psychedelic? Was that like the the term of the 60s that they kind of threw around?

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Oh no, that term was not there. It you know, the the the term was was put on later. What right we there's reviews of our band from then that live shows, and they say it was a combination, they're a combination of raga, rock, classical, and jazz. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Yeah, the label wasn't yeah, the psychedelic label might have been a word in the dictionary, but it wasn't really we weren't tagged as a psychedelic band actually while it was happening because it was too new. It was a word that was developing, and you know, with Timothy Leary and psychedelics and things like that. So looking back, we could say, Yeah, we were a psychedelic band, but we actually didn't know we were.

SPEAKER_06 24:21

Yeah, we didn't call ourselves that.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Yeah, we were just yeah, uh like an experimental rock band, you know, and it just so happened that yeah, with everybody's input, it started to get in into that. Now we call it psychedelic music because it's right, it's out of the norm. We weren't afraid to take chances, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

In those long drawn-out instrumental pieces within the music, you know what I mean? That's something that well, I guess it was a little more common during that time, but very it was very common.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

In fact, that's where we got the license to do uh like Worlds on Fire, which was one of our longest songs.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Now, was there still the competition to try and put out longer and longer music? I know that was a big thing throughout like the late 60s and into the 70s. Were you guys competing in that field as well? Trying to put out your your opus, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

No, we were being controlled by the record company and the producer. They were they had their watch on and they were telling us no no no the two and a half minutes, you know, yeah, three minutes. Three minutes is a long one. Yeah, and and so like like one of our songs, Birds in My Tree, was just two minutes and 20 seconds. Yeah, it's like two minutes and twenty. And they I know and it was longer, it had a whole other verse that they cut out because the verse said, Now I am so high, I'm la da da da. And they said, No, no, no, it can't have anything relating to drugs in the songs, and so they took that in the 60s, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yeah, totally crazy.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

That's crazy. No, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_07 26:46

What the censorship is stupid back in the day, uh yeah, Acapulco Gold's uh song was taken off the off the radio because they finally found out what Acapulco Gold was.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Yeah, well, wow man, you're never gonna get LA airplay on any song over three minutes, so that was the criteria.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

And that also fascinates me because if you think about like the attention span of of the youth today, the the industry is also pushing right now for no longer than three minutes. I think 330 is like the cutoff.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it says the emperorment was three minutes and 16 seconds, yeah. And we cut a whole verse out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And and you guys do have a new album out right now that came out in August. So not only are you legends in the industry, you're also active in the industry. So, a good question that I want to ask you is is in that vein of you saw music transition from a mandatory two to three minutes to through the I would say 70s, 80s, 90s, it became four, four and a half, sometimes six minutes. I mean, hell, there were you know, your stairway to the heavens and and American Pie and stuff like that that were massive. But my question to you is do you also see seeing all of those transitions, do you also see what I'm seeing now where everything is kind of tinking backwards and and they're pushing for those shorter songs?

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Is yeah, they are, you know, because it's it's it's the attention span. So there's attention span is is a problem, uh, you know, when it comes to mass appeal, and so to get to the masses, you have to trim it because they have a very short attention span, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:41

And it's got to be punchy, it's got to be right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_04 28:44

It's it's their attention span's like a minute and 20 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Oh, George, though, I'm gonna jump in here. It's also the gatekeepers, they don't want us to have more than a couple minutes. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 28:56

I can understand that as well. Is is you know, when you say gatekeepers, are you thinking gatekeepers in the industry in the sense of like promotion, or are you talking more about like the the production side of like well, we're not gonna get it?

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Yeah, I mean I'm getting in production size, I'm getting conspiratorial too. It's like, yeah, you know, keep the people like you know, don't let them think too long, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

That is true.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

Our production people are in the band. Yeah, no, no, yeah, they they they love the long producer, and along with concern, but now we don't have that problem.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Now, one question, one question on that though is during the 60s was the attention span similar? Because I I would have think that that was the time of deep think or deep thought. So people would have advertisers, you know, they advertisers, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Right, right. Good point, George.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_04 29:52

Yeah, uh, you you just as a matter of fact, you couldn't they liked an intro so that they could talk over it.

SPEAKER_06 30:00

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

That's only because the DJ could talk over it. Right, right. The song started off singing. That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I never thought about that, but you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

The radio DJ, that's yeah, that's why that's why uh that that's why records actually fade now, or were fading too, so that the DJ could talk over it as the record was being gone.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

That's I mean, incense is a good example of that. That intro is very long, they could do a lot of talking over that intro, even even through the boss, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah, the fact that you brought up uh how we you brought up incense and peppermint. I used to hate when I we finally got to hear it on the radio, and the DJ comes in right at the beginning of the Shalala's, the best part of the song. We have like five-part harmony going in there.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

And and here comes the DJ talking. And then they fake it out before even the last 15 seconds of the song, you know. And this is drive me nuts because that was kind of the hook of the song. It was the Shalalas at the end.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

It was a nice little it's it's a whole bonus tune. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's I know it's attention, it's ridiculous, man.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

But I think back then I I think the attention span was much longer than it is now, and right case in point agreed a local band named Love, Arthur Lee and Love. I'm sure you're familiar with that band. They had uh like a 19-minute song on the second side of their album De Cop De Capo, 19 minutes long, and I could listen to that song back in those days and dig every second of it and wish it would go longer, you know. Uh so I know that the attention has dwindled down to nothing these days. Sound bites, everything now.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Now, the other thing that I've been talking about with some friends is saturation. I feel that another big part of the

What Psychedelic Meant Back Then

SPEAKER_00 32:08

the issue when you you combine the the attention span issue with music being so much more accessible and so easy to create from your home, you've built this saturation within the industry that you almost have to keep it short because there are hundreds of thousands of songs a day going up. So you need something that's gonna push through the fire. And the algorithms, of course, latch on to things that people listen to. So if your song's only 30 seconds and they're listening to 15 seconds of it, they're listening to half of it that's gonna push through the algorithm. And that's been a major issue with AI right now is yeah, the AI music developing these super short songs to push the algorithm towards the artist. So you'll have like these indie artists who will have their management or whoever develop a 30-second clip through AI and put that on Spotify, and then that pushes the algorithm to keep showing that artist, and then that artist is getting play on their other songs because of the algorithm. It's but I think back to the 60s and you think of like the British invasion. During that time, there was a bit of a saturation of music, you had so much new creativity across the globe transforming the United States, and I do think that that possibly may play into it as well.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Well, well, one thing what I was uh while you were I was listening to what you were saying, something just came to me that the strawberry alarm clock has a kind of a mystical aura around us. Like, how do we stay together for like 60 years? Or how what do you guys been doing? And and people are curious and they want to hear our new songs because everybody remembers Incense of Pevermans, but we don't we don't want to be known as a one-hit wonder. I mean, we have over 110 songs of probably 120 songs in our catalog or more, and we're we're trying to pick up where we left off, and I think we're starting to attract a lot of new fans, and our fan base has always been there, and we had no clue it was there until we started playing. We play at a club in less uh in West LA called The Whiskey of Go-Go. And when we when we show up at the whiskey concert twice a year, we have 18-year-olds waving their uh their 1967 album in the air, asking for our autograph and singing every single word along the lyrics while we're playing the song on stage and we look down and we're blown away that they're singing the lyrics. So we we physically have seen the that there still exists a fan base, and not to mention, you know, letters we get and fan mail still and all over the United States, which you know warms our heart, but it it it's hard to believe that people have stuck with us this whole time for whatever reason, being the fact that we were weren't weren't the OGs of the psychedelic movement, you know, back well well.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Speaking of new music, you guys do have a new album out right now. It came out on August 7th, it's called Where's One. Tell

Radio Rules, Censorship, And Song Length

SPEAKER_00 35:29

me about the experience of getting back together and getting into the studio after all this time and coming together as a group to create something massive, honestly. You know, pulling pulling that success, that feeling of success from the 60s to today, like that this new album truly is is doing fantastic right now. And like you said, you do have this audience, it's really good, man. How did you keep that magic for over 40 years?

SPEAKER_04 36:03

Well, the the last we've done the whiskey uh go-go 15 consecutive years, and and so that's like and we're our 16th show is on February 20th, 2027. And but our audience we've played, Howie and I had had had like what we called interim sacks, and they were strawberry alarm clock interim members, you know, and since 1982 or something, we've been doing it. And Mark and Gene did the first one of those with us, and and then and then and then and then I kept going, and and then in in the eight Howie joined in 86, and we were doing all kinds of stuff. We had an agent stuff, and but our audience was always 18. It's a perpetual thing.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

I know it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

They're all exactly the same, and you know, but and what's really cool is they're trying to re they're living, you know, into the 60s. They want to be part because it's it was a it's a major pop culture thing, and they want to experience it and they show up at the like I know howie and I the one we did in Canada at the Molson Brewery, and it with Steppenwolf.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Oh, that was cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

Yeah, it was like so cool, and and and the audience, they were like 18 and they were wearing you know, do you know what a boda bag is?

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they had boda bags, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

And they had the things in their hair, the little feathers hanging, yeah. And yeah, it was and they're all wearing leather, you know, and like just like woodstock, and it and that's when I first really, really noticed it, and and I think that was 87, probably.

SPEAKER_06 38:54

Yeah, about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

And and so by at that point, that's our what year reunion or 30.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

Oh, yeah, that was uh yeah, 30.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

And no, 20. So that's the 20 years. Yeah, and so anyway, that's when we first noticed that the audience was the same age as when we were in 67, you know. I know it's crazy. We were 18 then, yeah. So it was really, really heartwarming. Yeah, and it's gone on like that, it's the same now.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Yeah, yeah. Uh George called me and said, Hey, Steve Bartek's gone from Oingo Boingo. He's gonna he's gonna be in the band. Steve and and George grew up uh next door to each other and wrote songs on our first album. Steve was 15. And George called me, he said, We're reassembling the alarm clock. Hey, Mark, Steve Bartek's aboard. How would you like to you know join the band? This was late 2006, and I go, Steve's in, and he goes, I says, Count me, count, put me on the roster, man. I'm I'm up for it. So I rejoined back in uh late 2006, 2007, and here we are in 2026, and we're still we're still at it, and Steve is kind of the guru and propelling us to finish this new album. If it wasn't for Steve Bartak, we would have never got this album finished or you know, got got it assembled, and and his his he has a home studio, and it it really helped us a lot as kind of our our mentor to keep this thing going and finish the project. Where's one is is quite an accomplishment. In in 2012, we got back together and did an album. Uh Steve Bartek asked us, hey guys, so why don't we get back in the studio and see if we can record again as a band and try to maybe record some of the old stuff and maybe a few new songs and get in there and try to record without killing each other. So uh so we did that, and we have a cool album called Wake Up Where You Are. Is that what it is, Howie?

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Yes, yes, yes, Wake Up Where You Are, yeah, and I'm still trying to do that, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

My mind's getting foggy, but we have a couple of wake ups. Uh Howie has a song called Wake Up on that song, yeah. But uh a good song. Yeah, it's a fun song.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Fun song.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

We we made it through that CD, and that CD is available. Wake up where you are. We even did a version of Mr. Farmer by the Seeds, and but anyway, so that leads us up to getting this Where's One album done? It was an accumulation of uh several songs that we started probably recording back in 2010. So this did not happen in a month or two or a year. No, these songs are over 10 years. Some of them were just demos, some of them were written uh written recently. Howie has a few songs on there, were all recent songs. So I have I have a new song on the album, George, and everybody that contributed, and Randy and Steve, everybody went into high gear to get this get these tracks done. There's some really good, clean takes on these, and I'm really proud of the band for everybody pulling together. It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears getting this far.

SPEAKER_07 42:47

You know, the first time we recorded. So so, George, George, why don't you give the short version of how the band got back together in this configuration? Why there's two drummers and blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

I was just gonna say, I was gonna say the very first song that we recorded for the new album was a song that Randy wrote the lyrics to, and Steve and I wrote the music for. And we went into Steve's studio and recorded it. And it's the name, the title of the song escapes me. What's it called? White Light. Oh, white light. Anyway, so that one there was just an experiment of Steve and Randy and I. And it was just the three of us to start with, and then I sent it to Mark, and Mark goes, Why? Where's this been? And I said, Well, we kind of like just we it was just like a test thing, you know. And he goes, No, this thing's crazy. This is nuts. He goes, We gotta do, we gotta finish this song out. So we did, but so that was actually the first song that was recorded for the new album, and that was 2006.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Yeah, it was borderline prog rock, but yeah, it didn't matter because it was us.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

And then the other thing that happened when I first called Mark to join us, that concert that I called Mark for didn't happen because we had an agent that had lost his mind. It was Howie and I's agent for years, but then all of a sudden, this guy just like lost it with freebasing and everything else. And he he was great, and then he was the opposite of great. But then so the show that we were gonna do that I called Mark for was in Philadelphia, and it was called the Psychedelic Summit, and it was vanilla fudge and strawberry alarm clock and iron butterfly.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

I know can you imagine?

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Oh my gosh, that would be a good concert today.

SPEAKER_04 44:53

Yeah, I know. He goes, Mark goes, Yes, yes, I want to do it. It was in Philadelphia, it was a big deal in a big theater. Anyway, it fell through. So then it fell through because the the the promoters of the show they contacted me and they said, Your agent is a complete idiot. We can't uh we cannot follow through with this. He's demanding all kinds of and I said, Oh no. Anyway, we got rid of the the agent, but then I get a call from Petsy Kendrick, who was representing Roger Ebert, and she said we're doing a concert uh in conjunction with Roger Ebert's ninth annual overlook. Film festival and Roger Ebert wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the screenplay. Screenplay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

And Strawberry Alarm Clock was in that movie. Yeah, I was gonna say you guys were in that movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Yeah, and and he wrote Strawberry Alarm Clock into the screenplay. He really, yeah. He really he we meant a lot to him, and so at his wish, because he was he had cancer, terminal, as it turns out, and he uh he had a wish to have us be on stage at the end of his film festival, and at the end, his movie would be the last movie being played. It was in Champaign, Illinois at the university, and his movie was the final movie, and the curtain would open at the end, and the entire he wanted the entire original strawberry alarm clock, meaning so this was 2007. So he wanted Ed King, he wanted Mark White, he wanted Gene Gunnels, he wanted me and Steve Bartek and everybody else. Randy Seal. Randy Seal and Lee Freeman. We were all Paul Marshall, Paul Marshall, who happened.

SPEAKER_07 46:55

Yeah, he was he was actually in the in the movie. He had that Paul, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

Yeah, and yeah, so I said, Whoa, I said, that's an undertaking. And that's he said Roger said, Whatever it takes, he wants this to happen. She goes, So do you think you can make it happen? And I went, I think so. I said, With a whatever it takes, you know, and so she said, Okay, get back to me, ASAP. And I so I went and contacted everybody, and Ed King said yes, and you know, he he goes, I'm I'm not gonna make big demands, but I want my own suite, and and I the band can come up there and rehearse, and we'll have dinner up there and everything. And I said, Okay, okay, so that's one of the things, and we needed to have a car that would transport us around there a week or something, and so there was a couple of other little things that we had to do there, and anyway, I got everybody to say yes, and and it was the that was the first reunion of the band of the real band, and so and how he was part of it then too, even for me, is how he's been in the band 40 years, but um so anyway, it it all came together so well, and then so after the show, it was successful, and and after the show, Ed said, Well, I can't do this anymore. He goes, I can't this is too much for me, I can't handle it. Yeah, and so I said, Oh god, okay, well, because he didn't want to come to California, he didn't want to travel, didn't want to do he and he had heart condition as well. Yeah, you know, he had a heart condition, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

And George, he he George, he could not even do stairs.

SPEAKER_04 48:51

He could, yeah. There was a yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:54

I found that out the hard way I went.

SPEAKER_04 48:56

Yeah, we were playing uh we did what was the other thing we did at the theater. Anyway, we did two different things because the one was the Virginia Theater and the other was the university, but there was a dressing room that was down old time stairs, like that was Virginia Theater, and he said he looked at it and he goes, If I go down there, never make it back up. Yeah, so that was it, but anyway, and Lee was much the same. They both passed away, yeah. Uh, you know, a few years later, and but anyway, it the rest of us carried on. Gene and except for Paul Marshall, Paul Marshall was in his own band, and they were touring all over the place, Europe and stuff, right? And so Mark and Howie and Gene and I, and Randy and Steve Bartek all said, let's carry on. And that's when the next thing, you know, we kept playing shows. We that year, 2007, we were playing all the time. We we played at the Malibu Inn twice. They had us come back because we sold out the first one and they had us come back and do it again, right? The Fuzzfest Northwest uh with the seeds and Portland, Oregon. Portland. Oh, Portland, Oregon, yeah. It was called Fuzzfest Northwest. And then and then we did the knitting factory in Hollywood with the with the what are they electric prunes, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 50:30

Something else in New York as well.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Yeah, yeah, we did um Stevie uh Van Zance uh uh what's yes, cave stomp.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

Yeah, that was in New York.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

We did all kinds of Brooklyn specifically, yeah. Yeah, we had a blast. That was that was so fun.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

That was really fun, and that and then you know, in 97 the Austin Powers movie came out with incense and peppermints prominently featured at the beginning of it, right? And it that launched us, you know, our name and everything to a young audience, I'm pretty sure that's where it kind of got got really got known.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

Kind of a good a good reminder to people because the name used to be almost a household name, strawberry alarm clock, and it kind of disappeared. And after Austin Powers, that was a shot in the arm for us.

SPEAKER_03 51:23

Yeah, big time. It's the second song in the movie.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

Yeah, no, it's the first song.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

I thought the no, the first song is the uh oh the Sergio Mendez thing, the Brazil 66.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

Are you sure? Because it yeah, I'm pretty sure because Incense is playing while the credits are going.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Oh, well, they might have used it more than once because man, it was definitely prominent for sure.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

At the end of Incense, it says at the end, it goes produced by Demi Moore. Wow, yeah, and it's during the Shalal Laws, it's where he hits the lady on the dance floor.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

George, they must have used it twice then.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

Yeah, because I remember it was a crane shot looking down at everybody in their flower power uniforms with Mike Myers leading a couple of chicks on each side of them, and and they were walking in the ballroom, and and all the people were choreographed behind them in this this really like insane psychedelic kind of choreography, and and incense was blasting on the theater speakers, and we were just like, Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Well, and and you guys were a household name. You were a household name in the 60s, you were a household name in the 90s, and again, your your legacy carries on even today. Like, like I said, this new album is doing fantastic. So it it it fascinates me to have a band that has stood the test of time in this industry and is still putting out music because there are very few artists from the 60s that are putting anything out. I the only artist that I can think of right now is the Rolling Stones and I guess Deep Purple recently put something out, but I think they were 70s really. I don't I don't think they were really a 60s band, but still, I it's it's fascinating and it's incredible, and the legacy lives on, but the 2012 album, even though it is a great album, this new album feels completely different, like it yeah, it recaptures that magic from the 60s. So what is different? What what is the missing piece? What what genie did you capture again?

SPEAKER_04 53:48

You know what, you know, for me, it it everybody brought their own

Building New Fans Across Generations

SPEAKER_04 53:53

songs to the table, and the band sat around and jammed on them, and just like we used to do in the old days, and that's how we used to do it. We used to we used to go start jamming on it, and and that's exactly what we did this time, and they and we were playing, like I said, we were doing those the whiskey shows every year and a couple of other things every year, so the band was getting to be a band, you know, right, cohesive as a band, and there was a time able to rehearse more than we are now. Now we have a logistics problem, but uh earlier we didn't. We we had Randy and Gene both live out of town, the rest of us are are LA based, and but Gene is in Vegas and Randy's in in Baja, Mexico, and anyway, it we used to be able to all be here and rehearse all the time. So the kind of the the beginnings of this new album was us jamming and rehearsing and and writing songs and everybody bringing songs to the table.

SPEAKER_03 55:11

Exactly, right?

SPEAKER_04 55:12

It was kind of it being more collaborative, you know. And if we would all put the songs together, and and then when we went to the studio, we were kind of excited about right laying them down, you know, and and we were playing live in the studio too, because that's what we do, so we're all playing off of each other, and it's so great, you know.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Yeah, we we like to record that way, you know. George said live mean that's exactly what it means. We're all set up in there almost all playing at the same time, in a yeah, playing at the same time almost in a circle, and that's that's the way we like to record, and then you know, of course, you know, vocal over overdubs, harmonies, and you know, percussion percussion, and and you know, maybe lead guitar, you know, sometimes, but for the most part, the process of recording was very similar to what we did on our first album and second album and third album. But anyway, the there was something I was just thinking about that when you asked what was the difference, I think some of it had to do with the fact that we used to either video or record our rehearsals sometimes when we'd be jamming and we'd listen back to find out if what we were playing, somebody would bring something to the table. We'd listen to it, and when we're trying to uh submit a song to the band for you know everybody's approval, that that was a process we would go through. Hey, I got this song, and it might be a real basic track. Maybe you know, George would would bring in, hey, I got this. What is that, George?

SPEAKER_00 57:03

That's your dog squeak toy, right?

SPEAKER_04 57:05

Yeah, yes, my dog just brought it.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

I have 30 of those in the other room.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

So yeah, the process, the process of bringing talk to the band was. There you go, Howie. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

And the fact that we are so spread out and we don't see each other that often, there was a lot of time lagging in between that from time to time we see each other. So the years were just piling up. Sometimes we wouldn't see each other more than you know, four or five times for a whole year, and there went another year. So the fact we've been together all this time, we haven't been, you know, playing on you know touring or anything like that, but we we made a concerted effort this time because you know, we're getting there up in the years. We don't know how much longer we can do this, you know. So we want to try that starts when you're born. Yeah. I mean, it's really lit the fuse, you know, the last few years. I'm I'm already I I already turned 80 last year. Congratulations. Other guys, other guys are like three years behind me, so you know, we're gonna milk it as long as we can.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

Well, so as somebody who is also a musician, and and we have so many musicians to listen to this show as well. With with you guys being such legends in the industry and having so much insight. Actually, I I have one other question first before I ask that. You spoke about the recording process and how it's very similar for you guys compared to when you did your

Making Where’s One After Decades

SPEAKER_00 58:45

first albums, with the changes in technology and and everything is digital now versus in the 60s, definitely analog, and I'm sure your second album was probably analog for the most part. But now with everything having the the digital trend, that process has to be different, right? And then and then also, like you said, you record live. Is everyone running mics to their equipment or are they running straight lines?

SPEAKER_04 59:15

Oh, we're so we're using both. We have we mic the amps and then we use direct really, yeah, yeah, and so and you know, mix the sounds, and then the board that we record through is analog, right?

SPEAKER_00 59:31

Interesting, okay.

SPEAKER_04 59:33

The but although everything goes on, yeah, it ends up going through Pro Tools, right? Right, but the board is analog, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:45

That's fascinating. So so so you're you're hardlined into the analog board and you adjust individual levels and then take that final demo and put that through to Pro Tools? Yes, that's basically what we do. Really?

SPEAKER_04 59:59

Okay, interesting. Don't tell anybody, and then we have to find all the little we do wrong, but we try as Steve said, we're not looking for perfection here. No, no, good. We don't want to lose our sense of humor and we want it to sound really good, but but and we're not we weren't striving for perfection, but but we'd all be listening, we'll go, well, wait a minute, what about that little thing, you know? And because you can with Pro Tools, you can manipulate everything, uh right. But you know, but we were trying not to do too much, but there's you know, auto-tune, and you end up having to do things here and there, and no AI, but just a standard recording progress or process, yeah. But I hate the sound of auto-tune, and so we try to limit it the use of it, you know. We only if only if we don't want to have to go back in and try to sing it in tune or something, but now it's very sparingly, very sparingly used, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

So so with that process, then specifically on guitar, because you guys do have such a uh significant effect-driven sound, and the the keys as well. I mean, you you run some synth in there as well. So is is that all added, or are you doing those effects live in the recording?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

Uh both how do you keep the sound so clean? Yeah, it depends on which song, and yeah, uh, it you would have to be a little bit more specific because if you have a song in mind that is in your mind that you heard on the new album, we can give you more of a precise answer, but right now we just are being ourselves, and I know that Bartek and Howie Anderson definitely have a pedal rig that'll choke a horse. So I don't know. I I don't know, you know, uh their final sounds are all in their own style, you know, they have their own techniques and and love of of pedals, you know, their and um so I you know I I do what I can uh keys-wise, I try to keep a little far piece in there to keep us authentic, running through some uh you know, mild effects. Not not you know, sometimes I'll play straight piano, a little bit of synth, not too much synth here and there, but so the song I just pulled it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

The song was Since You've Been Away. Umway,

Recording Live With Analog And Pro Tools

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

yes, yeah. Right. That song in particular was on my mind when when I was thinking about that. If if that was recorded live, I I think that's fascinating to a degree because there's a certain amount of okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:02

So here's the deal with that song. Yeah, sitting in the booth playing bass, and gene was out. Oh no, yeah, Gene, yeah, drums on it. And Gene was on drums, he was on drums, but out in the studio. I'm I'm in there uh sitting on the couch playing, and Steve, I think, was next to me, but and that's when we did the basic track, and how he was I think how he was out. Oh no, you were in the booth. No, no, I was I was in the booth too. Yeah, you were in the booth. So Howie was doing a scratch vocal and playing a scratch rhythm guitar, right? And so that and then Mark did his part after, and then but Steve went in and he he wrote the the string quartet stuff and orchestrated. Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:56

He had the actual musicians there, and yeah, he had you know yeah, you brought you brought actual players in for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:05

Yes, a string quartet, the top people in LA because Steve is Danny Elfman's orchestrator for all the movie soundtracks that Danny has written, and Steve conducts and and orchestrates the big huge orchestras, so he knows the top drawer players, so that's who he brought in.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

Yeah, like a four-piece like cello, viola, and a couple of violins, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:36

Wow, violin, viola, and cello. Yeah, that was uh two violins.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:43

I think I think that is the recipe for the success, then not not just that. Oh, yeah, the liveness, the liveness.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

It's they were in the studio live, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

And you guys aren't phoning in a lot, like I get it's going through Pro Tools, but this is you guys are that was for real there doing traditional recording style exactly, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:04

And how he how he loved this moment, he how he got into this. I don't know what he was a little late getting to that session, and when he walked in, Steve introduced him to the string quartet and said, This is the the guy who wrote what you're playing.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

Yeah, here's the com this is the composer, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:23

The composer, and how he was like, Yes, that's me, you know, that's me.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:30

But yeah, it was like one of his favorite moments, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:34

And it yeah, it really was, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:37

And here's the other picture. So how he wrote this song about his mom coming to him in a dream, and how he's mom was a cellist, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:47

That's that's a cellist.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:49

Yeah, she's like the real deal, and and so that's kind of why we wanted to have the string quartet, and and then Howie went in and did his lead vocal, the one that mattered, he getting rid of the scratch one, and he got his guitar thing, and right we were all in the sound booth, and then he and I swear to god, I couldn't. I my throat got a lump in it.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:17

And I had tears just flowing, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:21

Yeah, yeah, and we were all and I looked around at everybody, the engineer, Steve, the producer, Mark, everybody was in the same condition I was. And then Howie walked back in the room. Yeah, and Howie walks back in the room and goes, How was that?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:38

And we're like, we're we're crying.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:42

I was totally proclamed. I couldn't, I couldn't even function.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:47

Yeah, you gotta hear the you gotta hear the song. Yeah, yeah, I'm funny, George.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:51

George, it's funny you should say that because I I didn't really have to ask that question because I I saw it. I mean, when I finished the tune, I watched all you guys through the glass. I'm going, wow, I think we got I think we got a winner.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Yeah, well, and and truth be told, that is my favorite song off of the album besides your besides your uh new cover of Day Tripper. I think it's an incredible job at that as well. That's a bit it rocks. I I I only have time for one more question that that I sure really think is important for me, but I I would love to have you guys back on if you'd be willing. I would love to do a

String Quartet Session And Real Emotion

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

part two and dive into more of this.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

Yeah, I I truly I think the story is fascinating, and I think there's so many other things that I want to ask you guys. So the the one question I really want to make sure that we get out for the audience is a piece of advice as as legends in this industry, a piece of advice for its aspiring musicians everywhere. That if you guys could each give a piece of advice, that would be fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:59

My piece of advice is if if you're in a band, I remember telling this to Steve Bartek a long time ago, and uh and about only go back because it just kind of started. And he and I were living together at the time in 1976 or something. And and he said, What do you think? And I said, I said, Well, I said the secret to success is don't break up. If you're a band, good one, stay together. Good one, George. You're gonna get past whatever is now, and you want to see the way after. You want to you want to stay together to s to see you have to see it through. And that's that's my advice to him. And then later he told me that it meant a lot to him that I said that, yeah, and it really paid off big time.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:55

But they stayed together till 1995 and had you know gold albums and everything. So it worked out. It is it took a long time too. Yeah, but he he heeded that advice of uh just keep the thing together, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:13

Good one, good one, George. And mine is mine is basically goes along with the where's one. Uh, my first love of uh of an occupation was drumming, music, and and so during life we do a lot of other things besides playing music and the things that we either like or don't like, but but our first love is where's one and coming back to that again is it's just full circle for me. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:46

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:48

Uh I I love I love that, man. I love that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

That that's awesome, Gene. I never even wow, that that's a really good way to put it. I commend you for saying that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:03

Well, and and as uh as a percussionist too, and and where's one being you know something I'm sure you've said a lot over the years.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Where's the downbeat for some of you fans out there that don't know you know what where's one?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:22

Right. Yeah, listen to J Tripper.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:25

Yeah, listen. This is Mark. I think I'm gonna go with uh John Lennon once said to young aspiring artists writing songs. He goes, Um, he goes, Hey John, what do you what kind of advice do you can you give a young songwriter? And he looks at him and he goes, Finish the song. You know, I got this song idea, but

Advice For Musicians And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 1:10:51

it's not done. And and maybe it's half done, maybe it's three quarters done, maybe, maybe you never even recorded it, but you you like it. But of course, nothing's gonna ever come out of it until you absolutely finish the song. So that really I I was trying to apply that to my personal life because writing songs, I come up with these 30-second, 60-second ideas, and I never complete them, you know, and and so when I heard that, I I would, you know, now when I attempt to write a song, I I if I think it has any has any legs, the song, I you know, I'll either trash it or complete it. If you think it's good enough, just complete the song that you that you believe in, and and the rest will take over on its own, you know. Yeah, uh don't worry about what other people say or think about it. If you believe in the song, just it and just be your be yourself and and finish the damn song.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Yeah, yeah. I love I love that too as a as a songwriter. I have a lot of unfinished work, so that definitely inspires me.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

Yeah, I I remember hearing that. Yeah, John, you know, what what's your you know advice to young songwriters? And he said, finish them. And I and uh as a young person, I went, Oh, thanks, John. Wow, oh yeah, really, and then and then you know, two decades go by and they go, Oh yeah, you know, it hit me. The other thing I was gonna add to the whole thing is like, you know, kind of like dialing in on on who you are, and uh knowing knowing you know what your voice is as far as singing, playing guitar, you know, not not chasing other players, and the the sooner you discover that, the better off you are, and that doesn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:58

Find finding your own your own lane, your own sound, your own vase, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh yeah, I love that too. I I am guilty of doing replica playing for sure. Same. Yeah, my entire rig right there is set up to specifically a pro jams guitar player.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

So um double marshal stack. Yes, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

So I'm sorry. Oh, you're fine, you're fine. I I just I really appreciate it, and again, guys, thank you so much for being on the show. I I definitely want to have you back on for a part two, and and again, everybody out there, the album is out right now. Where's one along with their entire catalog? Please check out Strawberry Alarm Clock, they are living legends and support. Yeah, yes. All right, guys. Well, thank you again so much for being on the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:56

You're welcome. Great show, man. Thanks for having me. Yes, great show.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:00

Okay, part two.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:02

That's right, part two.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:05

Don't follow Howie.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:07

How is making an exit?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:11

All right, guys. Thank you. You guys have a wonderful night. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, talk to you later. Yes, sir, yes, sir.