Stay Out Shares How Touring Rebuilds Family

When Home Does Not Feel Safe

SPEAKER_01 0:02

What happens when the place you're supposed to call home is everything except what you're trying to find? Tonight, we're talking with Stay Out about turning those experiences into punk rock, building a fan crew music, and their new album, Broken Homes. Let's talk about it. I fucking love that. I'm the worst person to have a podcast. I do fail.

Meet Stay Out And Set The Table

SPEAKER_01 0:50

What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the Hook and Bridge Podcast. I am your host, Harley, and like we said, joined by Grant, Mason, and Nate from Stay Out. Guys, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Doing good. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Doing good. We have had some really fun conversations prior to the show. But just to give everybody a breakdown of the day, today we are talking with Stay Out about their new album and a bunch of their other career accolades. We are also going to cover some music news. We lost a legend in music this week, and you will not believe what music festival will not be returning for 2027. But

New Album Release And Real Life

SPEAKER_01 1:32

first, let's go around the room and talk about your guys' lives. Let's start with you, Nate. What's been going on in your neck of the woods? How's everything going?

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Yeah, dude, we released this album. I mixed and produced, mastered it, engineered the album. So it's nice to finally get it out and not have to think about mixing or mastering. So it's kind of nice to just get like get the songs out and get excited about playing for people. So yeah, just holding on, playing lots of shows and doing it with my friends. So yeah, I'll around the reading right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

And Grant, what about you, sir? How's your life going?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

It's going well. Just dropped the fourth album, the band with the band, and ton of cool stuff. You know, life is hectic as usual, but um it is for everybody, as most people know, or most people anyway. So, you know, balance. That's the one word of i advice I can give to anybody is learn balance.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Now, I know prior to the show starting, we were talking about parenthood, and you are a parent. How has that experience been? Because you're you're young like I am, so I would assume you must have some relatively young children. I have a two-year-old toddler.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yeah, uh, I have two kids, six and two, Clara and Luna, and two daughters. It's definitely challenging. It's really great when you get to come home. You see their big smiles, and we get to go do lots of stuff like bowling and go to the park and teaching them how to swim when we're back on tour from the summer. So we get to do a ton of cool stuff. The biggest challenge is money for sure. Running low on savings, negative at this point. So luckily we have the band and see where it goes from there. Yeah, hell yeah. I've also never said that publicly. Nate threw that out there at the beginning, so great to talk about it. Wasn't expecting that.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So I completely understand the financial angle for sure. Navigating this economy while raising a family is damn near impossible at this point. So I'm I'm excited to see the the career of the band blossom, and I'm excited to see all of the wonderful things for you and your family coming in the future. How about you, Mason? How's everything going for you, sir?

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Man, everything's doing everything's doing good. Got no complaints. What is it? Like Grant and Nate said we released a new album, so that's super cool. Just got a lot of stuff ramping up for that. Other than that, I just work in the bear and beer industry, so I'm just you know working when I'm not doing music. And I don't know, just kind of still right in the high of Grant and I being endorsed by 1919 guitars and getting to customize Mound Guitar now that we actually have our instruments and stuff, so it was really cool to receive that recently.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Oh yeah,

Guitars With History And Heart

SPEAKER_01 4:37

that's awesome. Yeah, I was gonna bring that up next was the 1919 shirt, Grant. That's pretty incredible to be able to have that collaboration. What went into the designing of the guitars? I would love to start with you, Grant, on that and then move over to Mason on his. But were there any designs or or internals that you went with that really are personal for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, I mean, when we first saw 1919, we already kind of liked the body styles that we're they were doing. Uh we saw the Paradox was using that and Fred from Taking Back Sunday, and you know, we just the tone sounded good, they looked really cool, and other endorsements were typically not too discounted and stuff like that. So when they offered what they did and looking at the builds, it was such a good deal, and something that we really, really are grateful to be a part of. As far as the build itself, you know, I have a uh fender strat that it looks identical. So I got that when I was in freshman year from my mom, and it's the only fender I had ever owned. So I fixed it up, and later on I took that same design and I wanted my bait, because I don't really get to play guitar and stay out other than writing, but I don't get to play it live. So I wanted to have a bass that reflected that same one that my mom bought me. I actually have it right here.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Oh wow, that's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

It's very it's missing some strings and needs to be touched up, but it's it's pretty.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Now that's the the coated maple neck, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah, so this is actually a player series one. So we should play.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Hell yeah, that's incredible. I am a guitar player, clearly. Well, sorry, wrong hand, clearly. I personally have loved PRS my entire life, so I primarily play that, but right behind me here is this guitar right there that my wife bought me that for our first anniversary when we started dating, gosh, 12 years ago, and that was a really cheap out of guitar center. I think it was like $125, supposed to look like the ESPs like James Hetfield plays, but it had like a messed up body, it came in all warped and stuff, and I loved it, so I was like, no, don't send it back. You know, it gives it character, let's let's keep it. And primarily I I fell in love with that guitar. I play it far more than my PRSs. Yeah, man, I love that guitar. It it sounds beautiful, it's very, very deep, thick neck, heavy as hell. It's it's one of my favorite guitars I've ever played. But Mason, tell me a little bit about your build.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

What is it? So when I was younger, my mom helped me get a guitar. There was like an Epiphone hollow body, I think it was like the Epiphone Dodd, but I got it off eBay, and like some whoever had it, I I want to say they like modified it in every aspect. Like the like I feel like most of those guitars that were put out were like matte finishes or kind of like like a wood finish, and this person had like done it all black, all black hardware, and then they did like a white trim, right? And then it had like like what is it like like dice as like the as the uh like volume and tone knob, which was super sick. So I had that for a super long time and I really liked it, but then I left it at a friend's house in uh one of my old bandmates' house that like was like my band from high school, and I think he sold it, so I like ended up losing that guitar to a person that was a you know a shitty person. But so I kind of I guess wanted to pay like homage to that guitar because I really loved it, and so I kind of did like a reverse aspect that I was like, let's go all white on a wood finish, so like you can kind of see like the wood underneath like the paint and then do black trim and then like black hardware and stuff like that and stuff. So I don't know, I just kind of wanted to like pay homage to that old guitar that I lost, and it was like the exact same like style of guitar, just different brand, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah.

Music News And Festival Culture

SPEAKER_01 9:04

So don't want to get too far away from these stories because I would love to get your guys' perspective on both of these. The first one, Frank Beard, the longtime drummer from ZZ Top, for more than five decades, died at the age of 77. Billy Gibbons says that the band intends to continue as Beard wished, with upcoming Austin shows now serving as a tribute to him. Clearly, grandfather of rock and roll, one of the most famous musicians of all time. How how do you guys feel about that news? Is is this the first time you're hearing it, first off?

SPEAKER_04 9:41

No, I heard about that this week, man. It's a huge tragedy to lose a fellow percussionist as well. Just, you know, I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of a little bit spiritual like about that, about just drums and and like I feel like a lot of drummers and stuff, like we all feel it when we lose someone who is a percussionist. So especially, you know, just him being in ZZ Top, which is what one of the pioneer rock and roll bands, you know. It's like I I remember being a kid and my dad like like joking, doing doing ha ha ha to me, like like when the song moved home on. And so it's like everybody has like a Z Top story. And it's also also just funny about him. Something I always thought was silly was that they all have were were known for the beards. His name is Beard and he didn't have them.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 10:27

I thought, you know, it was cool. But yeah, man, I mean that guy swings, he he he grew, so like he's definitely more of a meat potatoes guy, but he had his he had his moments, so may he rest in peace, and I'm glad he joined the great band of the sky, and we'll see him again one day.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, absolutely. Grant, were you a Z Top fan?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Not huge fan, but and I had not heard until actually until you just mentioned it. So rest in peace. It sucks when we lose any good musicians. We're losing a ton recently.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Ain't that the truth, man? It's it's been a hell of a year for music, honestly. Mason, were you aware of Frank Beard's passing? I don't think he can hear us. Mason, can you hear us? We will get back to Mason's answer on that. But the other big news story of the week is in a surprise announcement today specifically, Bonnaroo announced that it is taking a much needed year off for 2027. The organizer cited the impact of the back-to-back years of serves of severe storms and the need to give the Tennessee festival grounds time to recover. So this will be the first time, I believe, in 12 years that the Bonnaroo Festival will not exist. Is this also the first time you guys are hearing this? Because today is the first time I am hearing that.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Yeah, I it's the first time I've heard it. Yeah, it always works. You know, that kind of thing, especially to like people off the early track. Everything has its reason, obviously. So obviously we're gonna say that's not happening, but as they say, there's always texture.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Grant, how do you feel about Bonnaroo? Because specifically, I think this question is interesting for you guys because I feel that your music tastes all align pretty well with mine, where Bonnaroo has never been on my list of festivals, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

So, Grant, how how do you feel about the the Bonnaroo situation?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I didn't even know about it until I saw an email that said Bonaroo is not happening.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

So I think that what it does for music is incredible. I think that it gives pop artists and alternative artists some room to shine. It's a huge advocate of EDM styles and more of the electronically driven music, but they always throw in a couple of legacy acts in there. They have to include, you know, legacy rock artists and things like that. But personally, Bonnaroo has just never screamed that's the festival that I want to go to. I get the hype. I do think that over the last, I would say, six or so years, it has slowly transitioned into the white lady of Instagram Capital. So it became much more of the influencer look at me picture taking event than about the music. But again, that is personally how I feel about it. Mason, can you hear us, sir? Oh, lost him.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

Well, so like why you said it's in Florida, right? That that's where it is.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Uh no, I think it's in Tennessee. Yeah, in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Tennessee, yeah. So it's it's like it's like the version of Coachella, essentially, it's the same thing. Exactly. Right. Now, I will say I mean, yeah, like Blink played like a couple years ago, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Right. But like I will say the festival that has remained tried and true to always being about the music and the culture that it developed is for sure Burning Man. That festival has remained true to its roots, and there are people that go with the intent of making it about this new Instagram culture, but they uh time and time again fail. I do fear that as that generation slowly passes on, the next generations are going to be less apt to the culture of Burning Man, so to speak. I I think that California needs some sort of a major music festival.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Yeah, I mean I've Burning Man.

SPEAKER_05 15:59

I don't know. I feel like Burning Man because they have drugs, and I feel like that's kind of what it sort of has always been.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

Right. I don't know. I feel like even like young people I talk to who are who I know who are going to Burning Man, or even people that still go to Burning Man, it's they're like, yeah, we're gonna go fucking take mushrooms and and go watch bands or whatever, or or watch the the the event Burning Man, you know. So it's like it's like I feel like the whole I don't know. I mean if you say it it it seems like you think that the the old generation is gonna die out and like the new people are gonna I don't know. I feel like the same people that go to Burning Man, the same people always gone to Burning Man. You know, that could be. That could be But I agree. California needs a big music festival that isn't Coachella, that isn't like bought out by hella, you know, corporate shit.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

So we'll just have to make it if you could if you could put together like because I for me a California festival needs to not only embody music, but it needs to embody a specific kind of music, and to me, that is California rock, which is something here on the East Coast, we describe as the red hot chili peppers, yellow card, trying to think of some other big bands that I like. I don't think simple plan is necessarily California, but they give a California vibe for sure. And then like Sublime is definitely one that I would say is a huge California band. If you were booking this thing, what would be like your top five headlining bands for this California festival?

SPEAKER_04 17:42

You want to answer?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

That's uh that's a tough question. So there's a ton of bands that are popping up that are new, like our friends' bands that are really, really good, and I I would like to see them, but out of like legacy artists, you know, there's a ton of people that aren't alive anymore, too. So it's such a hard question. It you know, if I had the choice, I'd have the Ramones headline every show until the end of time. Um but yeah, it's not possible. So I don't even know. As far as like California punk or just California rock, man, I don't know, Green Day, Blink, Op Ivy. But I I don't know if you mean like pop hits bands or what, but like any anything you would say, because again, you guys are California native.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

This is this is from the Eastern guy that just kind of grew up listening, but you guys know the scene better than anybody.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

It's ever evolving. I mean, just like everywhere else. I mean, hardcore is super prevalent or was, you know. And then yeah, for me, I don't know, my music changes all the time. Like I like old school hip hop, but I like mostly like punk and alternative and pop punk and pop rock, so I don't have an answer. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

It's a difficult one. Yeah, it is it's a tough question. It really is a tough question. Mason, can you hear us now? Just want to check in with you.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Yes, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yes, I can I can hear you barely.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah, dude, I don't know what's going on. I have connection, but I my phone is like the iPhone 13, so I think I'm on a pre-historic device at this point. I've got five bands right now, ready? So we can run this playing, it's crazy. Because you guys right now, I don't know what's happened, but you guys sound like the chipbox. That's how messed up your guys' voices are right now. Did you did you close out and join again? Wow, I'll try it and do it again.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Well, you might want to try turning it off and turning it back on.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

The things we learned when it doesn't work at all.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Nate, you said you have five bands ready.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Yes. Mommy's friend, Green Day, Operation Ivy, Domino Effect, stay out. Hell yeah, dude. That's my list, and I'm not biased in any way. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

I have no idea how you got balloons the first time. That was great.

unknown 20:19

Woo! Woo!

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Dude, he's teaching you shit about your own podcast right now, dude. Because it says because I said mommy's friend, dude.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

I will I will probably cut this little section out. Future Harley, this is for you to remember. I actually know the fourth member of Green Day.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Oh, really, Jason?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Jason White. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Coming in hot.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

A little bit.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

Is Billy Joe's older brother? That's his that's his band, Dave. Me and Dave are pretty close.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Oh, hell yeah, man. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

Yeah, it's they're they're cool. If you ever get a chance to check it out, mommy's friend, their album Spilt Milk, it's fucking sick. It's very cool. It's like it's like black flag kind of stuff. I'll check it out after this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Let me write that down actually.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

I did uh I did sound for Jason White at 924 Gilman uh a couple months ago. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it came and did an acoustic set, so I got to meet him. It was funny. Hell yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, I I've been friends with his cousin for like nearly a decade now.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Oh wow. Small world, dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah, man, yeah. So those are the news stories going on, but I have basically what we call this Lindsay's music

Music Memes And Laugh Break

SPEAKER_01 21:42

meme breakdown. So my wife Lindsay was a producer for the show, and what we do is she used to, oh, look at that dog, man. Look at that dog. Listen, um, we used to do this thing where she would bring on funny music, music-themed memes, and we would laugh at them, critique them, whatever. So I have a couple of them here that we're gonna just take a gander at, see what we think. Feel free to add commentary. Love it. Okay. Maybe. There we go. And I apologize. This this episode is filled. With some technical difficulties on all sorts of fronts, and hopefully we can get it fixed moving forward. I think we might be good now, though. There we go. Can you guys see that alright?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Awesome. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Perfect.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

It's Ludden. Hold on.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

You see Kurt Cobanin is paused.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

That's what I see, yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I'm just trying to think of what it's gonna be now that we have the chance. Uh drain, a drain you. It's my job to completely drain you. That's gotta be what it is.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Oh, you you're probably right. You're probably right. I the fun part about this is I have her send them to our Instagram page, and then I don't open them. So I have no idea what we're about to see.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

I've seen the creator of this, but I have not seen this one. My guess is drain you.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Sorry to root. She loves these memes. She sits and watches them all day long to the point where I'm like, I get it. It's always like the same type of joke, but they're always funny. So let's uh let's find out.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

That's that's so funny. That's so funny. And then we have one more here. I have to do them sparingly because uh she uh she sends over a bunch of them, but they get a little cumbersome. We we actually we used to do that, and it it was the one thing that I did on the show that nearly every fan complained about because they were like, This is a podcast, I can't see what you're doing. All right, so we got one more here. This one is from the same creator. I'll let you guys decide who this is. I'm sure it's pretty obvious though.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Oh, dude, I saw this one. I already know what it is. I have no idea. I don't know. I'm not gonna say it. I'm not gonna say it. I know what it is though.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Oh, I think I believe it's um it's Led Zeppelin, right?

unknown 24:47

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

I believe. I believe it's Robert Plant, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

All right.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

You need cooling I saw that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

I saw that in the middle of the night last night, and it almost made me uh dude. I was I was in the bed, like my girl, my girl was asleep, fully asleep. She had to get up early and I'm fucking shaking the bed, giggling myself.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

It's so funny. It's so funny. They they are always funny, but like she'll show me like 25 of them at night, and I'm like, send them to the show.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

We'll we'll watch them on the show. Dude, this is this is me. We have talked about it. So, my my girl, the hunter-gatherer thing is all it is, dude. I go out and I work, and then she gathers TikToks and shows them to me, and that's how that's how the name works.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I've never heard it described that way, but you're absolutely right. Her words not like I can't take credit for it. She can't as soon as I go in the other room. That's what I'm gonna tell her. You might have just changed my relationship.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

All right, so that was the music meme section of the show. Now it's time to take a deep dive in to stay out. Are you guys ready?

SPEAKER_04 26:08

Yes.

Broken Homes And Finding Your People

SPEAKER_01 26:09

This is gonna be intense, so I apologize up front because your guys' music is captivating, emotional, dark, deep. Grant, are you the primary songwriter? Lyrist?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

It was on the album, but yeah, I wrote a lot of the lyrics on this album.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

So we're gonna dive into that album. We're gonna dive into a lot of it. The album that just came out is called Broken Homes, and I gotta tell you guys, I come from a broken home for sure. I think most of America does truly, depending on how we outline what a broken home truly is. I think that there is a lot of denial amongst people from broken homes. I couldn't tell you what that stems from, but for me, it was thinking that things were normalized that just weren't, and not realizing until I was way late into adulthood that life wasn't supposed to be that way. So the first thing I want to ask you guys is emotionally, what does this album mean to you? And and open up as as deeply as you're willing to. I don't want to pry into anything, but I would I would love to hear the the story behind the album as a whole, not the individual tracks yet, but the concept as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah, a lot of the themes. I mean, the theme of the album is once again, it's broken homes, and it a lot of it was me thinking back to growing up in that environment and having divorced parents, and you know, you know, it wasn't all bad, but you know, there was some heated moments, and then as I was discussing earlier, I have kids, so like just remembering some of the stuff, trying not to repeat mistakes, but just doing the best we can. But a lot of it was thinking about you know, leaving high school, leaving that broken home, joining a band, going across the country, touring at 17 across the US, just kind of putting everything together and learning how to cope from a situation that wasn't necessarily the best to grow up in.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Absolutely. I I agree fully with all of that. I would almost say that there are sections of this song or uh of this album, rather, that outline kind of that journey. For for you specifically, I understand the concept of like finding family outside of real family, and that family being like the band dynamic and building that that brotherhood and friendship amongst you guys, but from an outside perspective, uh, it almost became for me those songs in particular, outlining uh my personal experience of finding family amongst neighbors and and uh people that you just kind of end up spending some of your days with through work, through you know, just general life, and and realizing that it doesn't always have to be the the family that you grow up with that you can have a Thanksgiving dinner with, you know what I mean, or celebrate Christmas or celebrate milestones. Would you say that uh the experience of touring at 17 gave you an insight to kind of what I was talking about earlier with the the normalization of things happening in your childhood that typically weren't supposed to happen?

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Yeah, you know, when I went on tour when I was 17, I got to go to a ton of different houses and different environments and see how different people treated each other, whether they be in a family, or if you know, if they were single, or if they were, you know, like in Arizona, just different. I'm just thinking about Arizona because we went there again on tour last year in 2025 on another US tour, different band, stay out this time. But I met some of those people that I had seen all those years ago on the road, and just seeing them playing dive bars, being drunk, doing the same thing. It's like uh a little upsetting to see. But then flip side is you see a bunch of young people like band Slackin' Idol in Montreal starting and doing a lot of the stuff that we did when we first started, and that's like the really positive side, and then everything in between, you know, people always say when you're like driving across the country, it's nothing but gas stations and you know McDonald's, but you know, you do see all these different types of people and their families and these like micro situations of like you know, dad pulling the kid. Oh, don't go towards that store. That store is inappropriate, or like, or you're gonna fuck your life up going things you see, and it oh, I think I think we lost you there, Grant.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

I think your your mic might have gone out just a second ago.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Check testing, testing. There we go, there we go. Okay, sorry about that. I think it just puts a lot of into perspective about you know, when I left at 17, I got to see all these different environments and situations, and then when I, you know, we've been on tour ever since then, going, you know, whether it be for a long time or depending on the year, sometimes we don't tour as much. But you know, you always see new things, but the thing that sticks out the most is people in the music industry seem to, like you were kind of referring to a little bit, really, you know, value each other and you know, cherish the fact that music is special and you know, we're people and we're out on the road and we're broke and we don't have any money, but then they let us into their house, they let us shower, they give us food, they take us to out to dinner, let us watch their TV, sleep in their beds. Like we could be crazy, and they just they don't care. Like, we we just they let us sleep there, and it's super you know encouraging to say the least, you know, it's definitely difficult coming from a broken home, but there's other people out there that are amazing.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

So, yeah, I I would say that in in my experience would be very similar, but also through through the show, building that that music community and and friendship and understanding that you can you can develop close friendships with people that you may only see once or twice a year, you know what I mean? And and I love the journey through this album where you kind of outline a little bit of that as well. Nate, it do you mind if I pry a little bit into your life as well?

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Do you also come from a similar background?

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Yeah, so my parents never didn't actually get separated until I was already an adult. But and from the age of like nine to ten, my dad was like brutal, you know. Like he wasn't ever physically abusive, but just very emotionally abusive. And and so that caused me to just feel like in the same way that my home was broken. Like I, you know, I'd come home and have to, you know, tell my mom that things were gonna be fine, and and that, you know, like having to be a therapist at 11 years old for my parents, you know what I mean? So it's like, but also like what what br what comes out of that is me getting on my bike with my friends and riding to San Francisco or to the birth or getting on the bar to go to Berkeley or whatever and seeing punk shows and and you know, starting bands with my friends, because I've I've been playing in bands actually I since I was seven years old playing songs. So we live my parents and I lived with my grandparents and they had, you know, pretty nice sized property, but nothing we ever called our own. They had enough room for basically us to live in this small house like on the on the top floor, and then they lived in the bottom floor. But they were cool enough when I was a kid to like let me hit my drums and bang bang around and play music in my garage. But it's like my dad was just you know, he would cut after we'd play for like an hour, he'd come down there and tell us to fucking beat it. So, so it's like with that, you know, comes self-discovery. So for me, like a lot of the album is about is about that. Like, because like Grant write Grant and Mason write the lyrics, you know, to these songs. And but you know, a lot of the words come from discussions we have where it's like this is what we agree that we should make the the album about, and a lot of the discussions ends up coming into the art as things do, you know, as lyrics and and songs do. So yeah, for me, a lot of what I relate to when listening to the songs is a lot of the self-discovery of, you know, like City Lights to me is is very special because it's like reminds me of you know being out with my my with my friends, trying to stay away from home as much as possible, and like just seeing like the you know, downtown city, like with the with the you know, the the the streetlights and all that stuff and getting into mischief and you know I was always checking with my friends would always make me do so like stuff like like breaking into school, whatever, and and security like kids yelling at us. So it's like it's like just the making up those those experiences that I think shape you into a person, which is something I guess I am grateful for for my background, is I feel like it's kind of it's giving me perspective on on certain things, you know. Like the things can be really beautiful in a shitty time, like those memories of my friends playing songs in my garage and getting into mischief and trying to find odd jobs to make money to buy fucking gummy bears or whatever, like it's like all that stuff is is like super near and dear to my heart. So a lot of the songs to me when I'm listening to it, it's like about not letting anything stand in your way. And music's always been the most important thing to me. And I'll bring up my mom again. She's uh kind of the reason I do it, because growing up she sang in church, and so we went to a gospel church, and my first time I ever played drums was when the drummer I was watching every time I was I was four years old, I was watching the drummer every single time, standing right next to the drum kit, and he puts me up on the on the kit and showed me my first beat at four. And ever since then, I was obsessed with it. And I always ask him every single time, can I play the drums? Can I play the drums? Can I play the drums? And my mom convinced my dad to give me a drum kit, like either that year or the year after for Christmas. And so, like, you know, the my mom is one of the main reasons I play music. So just yeah, having that whole like everything, like it's it's like my seeing my mom be proud of me doing music is something that that's beautiful that came out of that situation.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

So absolutely. So I I definitely want to talk about City Lights. I also want to talk a lot about No Escape, because those are two songs that resonate with me, especially. But like my dad is currently

No Escape And The Need To Run

SPEAKER_01 38:27

back in prison. Um shout out dad. He'll be out in like 30 or 40 days. But he he was a drug addict growing up and mentally and physically abusive. But same situation, my parents didn't get a divorce until I was in my 20s. So I I I understand that too, but I also saw the the destruction similar grant to having your situation where your parents were divorced early. I I saw the same type of toxicity and destruction without the divorce proceeding. You know, there was always this constant battling and separation and people leaving and screaming, which is exactly why no escape really resonated with me on such a deep emotional level. This idea of you know having a situation that's supposed to be one way, and and seeing your friends in in middle school, elementary school, and and going to their houses and seeing how their families interact, and then going home to something that is not that, and and feeling this this uh almost sense of like the need to hide what's going on in your own life uh as a child is is so fundamentally destructive. And I feel that uh that no escape really tackles that that concept in such a beautiful but but harsh way. Can you tell me a little bit about the lyrics of that song and and the inspiration and and what drove you to write from a place of I would say fear? Oh, sorry, your mic's sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

There we go. A lot of a lot sorry for no escape, a lot of that song I was thinking about like I just got it on a skateboard and you know growing up I've I grew up in a bunch of different spots, like Livermore, oak uh sorry, all over the Bay Area, going to like raves and shows. Wisconsin, I lived in as well, like randomly, and then so I was bouncing around all the time, but one thing that was similar was you know what you were alluding to is like going to friends' houses, different things like that definitely like now that you say that, now I'm thinking about it completely differently. So, like when I would go to my friends' houses, like you're saying, like it's completely different, and then when I go home, it'd be the same shit, and I'd feel like I don't know, stuck. But then every same thing when I was in Livermore, when I was in Wisconsin, when I would wherever I am, it seemed like for many years I would go, I would mom be like, Where are you going? Be like, I don't fucking know, I don't want to be here. I just leave. No matter where I was, I would always happen. And I just felt like no matter what, there you know, there's no escape from that lifestyle, and always feeling like the party's happening elsewhere. Like when I first got the opportunity to join that band when I was 17, I fucking took it, I was gone, like I was out because I'm like, this is what I've been waiting for, like my chance to get the hell out of here.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

So yeah, yeah, yeah. The the best thing that I ever did was move out of Ohio and and move to Virginia. It's so funny, so just a little quick story about it. I I was a musician and I was sitting with uh Billy Greer of Kansas, and my then girlfriend, now wife, had just accepted a job in Virginia as a schoolteacher, and I had just been offered a position with Carnival Cruise Lines to be a cruise line musician, uh a guitar player. And the deal was that she went and got her college degree, and if she landed a teaching job before my music career took off, then I would I would stop the music for a little bit and I would follow her wherever her career took her, and then vice versa. If if my career took off before hers, she would put teaching on hold and then she would follow me. And they both happened in the same exact week. And I was sitting with with Billy Greer and and just trying to talk it through and and understand like my options, and his advice to me was dude, go follow the girl. He was like, You gotta get your ass out of this area, like get out of this area, experience life, the music will follow. And to an extent, he was right. I'm still very happy with the decision I made, but I moved in 2018. In 2019, I was juggling a job and and music at the same time, moved to a new area, so I had no rapport. So I'm trying to build up my music rapport in the area, and then COVID happened, and then it was like, well, well, everything shut down. So then I I call him up and I'm like, dude, what what what should I do? What do you guys do? And he was like, the music's dead, don't follow the music, get a real job, stay in, stay in school. You know, it was that type of talk. So, but I'm super thankful and and I I agree and and wholeheartedly feel the sentiment of like that escape, but also that feeling of not being able to escape is so real for so long, and so many people still live in that same shitty hometown that I used to come from. I how many people I see when we go back that are like you should come back, like they don't understand that like there's a life outside of the 500 people in that town, you know. But but the idea for me, like I said, with with no escape, was that whole concept of not just no escape from the area, but no escape from that from that household, no escape from that danger, from that toxicity, from that constant fear and worry of balancing being a therapist, balancing being the the peacekeeper, and wondering where that next meal is coming from, wondering where that next hug is gonna come from, wondering like, am I going to make it to tomorrow is such a major problem for so many people in this world. And I feel that that song captures it in such a raw emotional way. I really highly recommend that everybody listen to it because man, it sat with me hard when. I listened to it. And I've listened to it a bunch since then. And I've sent it to my sister and my mom. And like it really, really tapped into something deep. But also City Lights, like you were talking about, Nate is this concept of hope. You you you still trinkle in in this album this concept of hope. And I felt the same exact

City Lights Nostalgia And Growing Up

SPEAKER_01 45:44

way. Living in a trailer park back when I was about eight, nine years old, maybe ten, something like that. And late nights of we'd we'd go to each other's trailers, get everybody out of their windows, and then we would just go walking amongst these streetlights in the in the dead of night at 1, 2 a.m. Jusing a ruckus, you know? And like that was that sort of uh moment of of release and and acceptance and finding that friendship outside of the fear of of home. Tell me a little bit about writing Streetlight or sorry, city lights.

SPEAKER_04 46:22

I think to me that song is especially uh unique because it does this thing where I think the lyrics are overall pretty melancholy. A lot of it is is reflective and and almost sort of letting yourself feel some of those some of those bad feelings a little bit, but the the chorus is so anthemic. It's so it's like doesn't feel sad in the chorus, like the way that that that big open halftime to me. And so for me, like it even has words that aren't said in it when I listen to that song. Like I feel I feel like it's it's got these dark themes, but just something about the way that that chorus opens up, it just reminds me of riding my bike as fast as I can with my friends through the worst times of my life, and just laughing about dumb shit and talking about our our dicks or whatever, like and and making my friend shut things that was asked because we thought it was funny or whatever. It's like it's like just like like dumb shit like that. It's like the song is so personal, especially to Grant, because obviously he you know he sings it, so wrote the lyrics. Mason sings the second verse, but Grant wrote that verse, you know. So that that lyric, what's the first the first one? It's city lights, shine as bright but not like they used to. It it to me that I don't know how he intended it, but to me, it's like I like now, you know, I drive through my hometown and I see the the street lights that I used to look at with my friends and stuff, and and getting into mischief. And it's like, damn, they look so different than they used to.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yeah. You know, yeah. You know how like they there's like that quote going around that people talk about how like things look different. I don't know if you've ever heard that, but like things as you get older, they look different, like the contrast and stuff. That's kind of where that line originated from in my head.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Kind of I was actually I was literally gonna bring up that fact when we talked about the song. Was I didn't know if you guys knew that or not, was there's this extremely beautiful yet solace and sad fact that that that your eyes as you age, the something happens with the cornea, and basically it makes colors less vibrant as you age. They everything slowly becomes darker as you age, which is such a a beautiful, powerful way to describe life as a whole, you know what I mean? You start off where where everything is as vibrant and bright as it's ever going to be, and then slowly the the turmoils of of life and responsibility and the quote unquote American dream that we're all fucking living really brings your shoulders down and you physically have a reaction to life through your eyes. Your eyes literally tell the tale of sadness towards the end. And I think that's so beautiful, but so sad at the same time. But I also agree with you, like going back to your hometown. I have this fun little phrase that we say here where anytime I go back to Ohio, my my sister and I always talk so much shit about our hometown. But God forbid anybody in Virginia or Florida or anywhere talks shit about my hometown because like that's my shithole. It is a shithole, but it's my shithole, right? And I and I that line captured that for me. I was like, Yeah, that's that's exactly right. When you drive back, you're like, damn, remember that place? Remember that rundown building? Remember all the stories that we had here, there, wherever. Like, yeah, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

I mean, the first line in the second verse is that kind of reminiscent of that too. It's he sings cold and dark at the park that we used to go to. Things were fine until you moved. It's like I that to me was like especially like that lyric is cool because I I have a friend that moved away when I was like in middle school, and I felt like everything changed. Like my whole life. I remember that. And to me, like when I first heard Grant's because he demoed it first, it was just him. So first time I heard the lyric, I was like, Oh, that's cool. Like it it resonated with me. And it's kind of the same thing, right? It's like seeing the streetlights. You like go back and you see like the old parks and stuff you used to skateboard at, or or do whatever you were doing at, and and those memories come back, and you're like, fuck, like that's crazy how something like that can change everything. Something small.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 50:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Now, Grant, to sorry to to put this back on the the spotlight to you, but as you said earlier, the the concept of doing better by your children compared to the life that that you grew up with, I find myself as new parent with a two-year-old having some major, major introspection to to my childhood, to my parents, to where they were when when I was born, and and our our paths of life and where we both were at those crucial moments because my parents were relatively young. They had me at 21, and I had my son at 30. And the idea to look back now and think that they were 21 years old raising me, like who I was at 21 to now is so vastly different. And even the the decisions that my dad has made over his life, and and honestly, my mom as well. I I do love her, but like she wasn't really there, she wasn't really a parent in a lot of situations because she was the breadwinner winner, she was you know protecting the family, making sure that we had a roof over our head and working two or three jobs to make sure that we had the things that we needed to survive, which in turn did make it to where she was relatively not present through a lot of the turmoil and trauma that I endured. Do you find yourself having kind of that retrospection and then looking back at your family and your your parents and understanding oh whoa.

SPEAKER_04 52:49

It got too heavy, dude.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same question to you though, Nate. Do you find yourself kind of listening to these words and thinking back to those childhood years and and understanding from a different point of view now as an adult on where your parents were on their journey then?

SPEAKER_04 53:11

Yeah, man. I mean, I'm 26. My mom had me at 26. So I think about that a lot this year, especially. Like that's crazy. I don't have any kids, you know. So my mom had my two older brothers. Hello? There we go. Oh, it's just that's a crazy it's crazy, yeah. I think about I think about that that comparison a lot. Grant, can you hear us?

SPEAKER_00 53:33

Yeah, was that just me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, it said it crashed. I'm not sure what that was about. If you want to re-ask that, also, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

No, you're good. So do you also find yourself going through that retrospection of understanding your parents' journey now compared to when you were younger and understanding like what they might have been going through during that time?

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah, totally. I mean, when I had my first kid, I was working 40 to 50 hours at Walmart. I was pulling pallets and miserable. It's definitely different though. The sense of urgency about certain things and different things are a little bit different as far as like my parents were completely flat broke. Their parents were passing away around the time that we were coming of age and all that stuff. So it was really difficult on them to even get out of bed sometimes. But you know, they they tried hard. But and then, you know, for us too, like every day is a battle, you know, nobody's perfect. But yeah, I find myself often when we were right, when I was writing this album, often I would, you know, be introspective thinking about what it was like growing up and what it's like, you know, what am I doing that I could do better? That I really, you know, when I was 10 years old, 11, 12, thinking, I really wish dad would do this, or I wish mom was here for this, or whatever, you know, I'm thinking about that and I'm like, what can I do on a day-to-day basis? And sometimes, you know, sometimes all of that goes right out of your head, and they're everybody's just happy and we're smiling, we're playing, and then there's other other days you see the dishes piling up, and you're like, oh shit, like you know, I better do that right now, or it, you know, one little thing, it could cause like a whole a whole lot of drama because it's just a higher, you know, stressful environment. And I guess what I'm saying is just balance is really key.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

So I I mean absolutely balance is huge, and and just the the idea of like thinking back to like like you were saying too, Nate, of of uh where I was at 21, I was in no way, shape, or form ready to have a child. At 30, I wasn't sure, you know, and and now that he's here and I love him so much, I think a lot more about the things that that my parents didn't do that I'm doing, you know, a lot of a lot of the love, honestly, a lot of a lot of just like being there, being present and playing with him and and truly spending time with him that I just didn't get growing up. And uh recently I I actually had this talk with my mother, and her response to me was, Well, you liked being alone, which really just like completely crushed and broke my heart. Like, I I she's gonna end up listening to this, and and I'm sure I'm gonna get a phone call, and you know, we'll deal with that later. But like but like truly, like that did crush me on the inside because it's like, oh wow, you didn't even like think that there was an issue. There was you thought that that I enjoyed it. Like at no point in time did you think that I just I needed that connection, which which sucks, man. You know, anyways, just to remind the audience here the album is called Broken Homes. It is out now. The band stay out. Please check them out. I just like to do that in the middle of the interview to let people know. But I do want to talk to you guys a little bit about some things outside of music, just to lighten up the mood a little bit. Is there something that you guys are possibly like weirdly obsessed with outside of music? Is there like a coffee coffee?

SPEAKER_02 57:33

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee,

Coffee Weed And Life Outside Music

SPEAKER_02 57:36

coffee, coffee, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_04 57:38

I fucking love coffee. Me and Grad drink way too much fucking coffee. Like, dude, at work, like it we're so funny. We're like, we're like married. We fight like we're married too, but we're like married, dude. I'll call I call him. Wait, what are you doing? And but it's just him and I like hyped up on fucking caffeine and nicotine, and we're just talking, dude. You know what I think? I think like we should play this show, like and do this, and we should write this song. And it's just us bullshitting, and then sometimes we're like, dude, we just need to stop talking about shit and just do it. Like he says it to me all the time. I'm like, I know, I know, I know. But the thing is like every day, it's like we're talking about stuff, it's just it's just us so hyped up on caffeine and and nicotine. But yeah, him and I both like really love coffee.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

You guys, you guys ever see the movie Boogie Nights? Uh, yeah, dude. It reminds me of the scene in Boogie Nights when they're all coked out, yeah. They're making the album.

SPEAKER_04 58:27

That's why I always tell it's just kind of an unfunny joke, I guess. But I'm always like, dude, I can't try cocaine because I like coffee so much. Like, I love that. I love drinking so much coffee where you kind of feel a little bit uneasy. I love that feeling. Like, like where you're like, oh, I'm just gonna like break right now.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Like, I can't. Are you guys coffee snobs? Are we are we talking like you you know your beans and your blends?

SPEAKER_00 58:50

I'm not, you know, I I actually prefer that bold, bitter, like chocolatey taste that a lot of the big corporate places have, but and in comparison to like the acidic, so no, I'm not really it depends who you ask. To some people, I guess so. I love espresso, I love an Americano, but you know, to like the whole trader guys, I'm not look baby special.

SPEAKER_04 59:13

I'll drink some cafe boostella ran out, dude. That shit I mean I I like you know, I've had people bring me like because everybody knows about coffee, so they'll bring me like a nice bag, and I'm like, that's good, but like also, so is like Pete's. Like, you know, I can get like a bag of Pete's coffee for like half the price, and it tastes delicious, you know.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

It's like coming coming from the guy that was bragging about Bud Light earlier.

SPEAKER_04 59:36

Dude, I'm not picky, dude. I like Bud Light. I like I like black just regular like Folgers is good too. Like everyone's good about Folgers.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

No, I've had good Folgers. If you make it right, it's good, dude. I am currently drinking a Starbucks that I got a little while ago before the show.

SPEAKER_04 59:53

Actually, some of my favorite espresso I've had is from the Starbucks in Seattle, the original. We went when we were in Seattle, every time I go to Seattle, I always make these guys, dude. I don't care if we have to find parking for 45 minutes. We're going to the Starbucks. And so, and so we go to the original, we we park like this, because you know, the whole city's like this. Yeah, it's like a big RV like this, it's like the the tail sitting on the floor. And then we walk over to the Starbucks, you know, like it's all tired and stinky. And then I order every time I always get a white chocolate mocha because that's my favorite drink, and I get a shot of their like their espresso that they have there. Yeah, the blonde, you know, it's it's so good. Like it's yeah, it's bold and and chocolatey. And I feel like a lot of people say Starbucks burns their beans, which I've heard that, and I've I've I've I felt like because I was psyched out about it, maybe I felt that way, but I don't know. I feel like it's just because it's bold and and very like Grant said, like chocolatey coffee, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

So speaking of one of my weeks of I'm gonna save a shit ton of money for Christmas one year, I was like, I want to start getting into making my own cold brew. I oh man, I want to start making my shit at home. It's a great hobby, it's gonna save me a bunch of money. I get to experiment with different beans and whatnot. So my wife got me all of the stuff to do it right. So then I start researching Starbucks and like where they get their beans from, what kind of beans they use, that whole fucking thing. And then like I go, I buy all these different beans, I'm making all these different coffees. By the time you finish a single batch of cold brew, like the amount of work and effort that goes into making a single glass pitcher of cold brew that your entire family drinks in 24 hours. You're like, I'm gonna kill everybody in this house.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:41

The problem with cold brew is it's so good, dude. You just keep drinking it, and it's like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

So I stopped doing that and I went back to just buying coffee, yeah, dude, for sure. So it's like the concentrate's not bad too.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:56

Like, like the the cold brew concentrate if you're buying that stuff. Like, I know trade the trader shows, like, like I basically that's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

I was more or less making concentrate, but like again, we're all addicted to caffeine, so like you're supposed to mix it with water, but ain't no way in hell any of us are mixing that with water. You're just pouring it in a cup with some cream.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:14

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

I stopped doing, I still have everything to do it, I still have all of my different beans and stuff, but I still stopped making them because it's just so much work. You have to let it sit in the fridge for like three days, and that's just too long to stare at a thing of coffee.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:30

Dude, anytime I'm because I I I don't really go into the I work for a brewery. I don't know if I've said that on the podcast. Yeah, but I work for Ultimate Beerworks in Livermore, shout out. But uh, I don't really go into the brewery that often because most of my uh work is just me in my truck driving to different stores. But every so often I'll go in there and just like do a warehouse day. And every time they're always they're always like talking about when I make the coffee that the brand the warehouse manager is like, dude, every time you make the coffee, I feel my my feelings zinging, dude. You gotta put less less browns in there. I'm like, dude, it's that's how you're supposed to drink it. I like it where it's put milk in it, it's still black.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

So I I I know you said baseball cards as well, but baseball cards. Oh, baseball, baseball, gotcha. Grant anything, grant anything outside of the music that you're like a hobbyist of. Oh, you're muted again.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

Yep, yep, Nate's right. I Mason's not here, but Mason and I are big cannabis connoisseurs. We smoke a lot of weed. It's legal here in California. Many other things. I I like video games, but I haven't really been into that. I did coding for a while, not super passionate about that, but I will say that skateboarding, you know, getting on a board at 12, 1 a.m. Nice. At 12, 12 o'clock or whatever. You know, 12 or 1 a.m. getting on a skateboard and it's hot. It's been summertime and it's like finally cooled down, and you get on the board and just always love that feeling. So just when I had hair, I just cut off all my hair recently. Yeah, just getting on the bike or like a skateboard and just feeling that shit through your hair and all the sweat dry off you is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

So I I know speaking of cannabis, like that's also one of those, like, you can you can really dive deep into different strains. I have a handful of friends into cannabis, and and understanding like the grow technique and the different strains, and dude, they'll they'll be like, tell me what's bothering you, I'll tell you exactly which strain you should use.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:42

It's crazy, it's crazy. Every time I go to the dispensary with these guys, I'm like, I don't want anything. And they're like, I'll have something for that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:48

Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:51

Like, all right, man, hell yeah. That's really cool. Shout out nug and San Leandro, they have an outlet now, and you can just walk in.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:58

Hey, shout out to San Leandro, dude. Anywhere that isn't San Leandro is in the Bay Area, dude. Fuck Oakland, fuck San Francisco, nevermore, fuck Hayward San Leandro.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

But yeah, they have an outlet now, so you could just walk in, so it's Nug outlet. You just walk in and they have joints and eights and jars and spots every on a shelf, and you just grab it and bring it to the like person.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:23

About that spot, too, is actually that's like that's like 10 minutes from my old house. That outlet. It used to be like the first. I remember in town when it when it showed up because my brother was a big pothead. It was the first medical marijuana shop we got in San Leandro. And so I remember like everybody was like trying to figure out how to come up on like a medical card that they were going to the doctor and say, Oh, yeah, oh yeah. And so and insomnia or chronic diarrhea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the spot, and then after everything became legal, they were still a medical spot. So everyone was always like, Yeah, dude, I don't go over there, it's hell expensive for one. You have to have a medical card to buy anything. And I was like, Oh, this was so weird that like even though it's legal and you could go down the street to Nug to buy weed, like they still, because it was a medical facility, you still needed your medical card to buy weed there, and it was like crazy, really expensive. But then I think it's funny that Nug was like, after they get they cut out, they're like, Yeah, we're gonna go put our outlet over there. So, yeah, but I I I still live like like probably uh 15 minutes from there now, but it's like right down the street from my old house that I grew up in.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:22

Now, what I find wild about this entire situation is that my dad did two and a half years in a federal penitentiary for marijuana charges? That's so fucking stupid, dude. Yeah, and then like yeah, for weed, and then fast forward to 2023, he he was a motorcycle guy, got into an accident, couldn't be a motor motorcycle guy anymore. So then what does any average white American who loves motorcycles do gets into guns? Obviously, but he's an ex felon and you can't do that. And then the ATF like scanned him on offer up, got him to sell the ATF guns. He thought they was like talking to a regular person. They got him, and then he the whole time he could have just had his. Shit expunged. It was a weed charge. And weed is basically legal. Because he didn't fill out the paperwork. They threw him back in prison. That's how they went.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

They knew we weren't gonna do paperwork, man. It's crazy. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

So this man has spent four five years in prison for weed, essentially. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:45

I'm sorry to laugh for your dad's misfortune, but that is fucking hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

And then and then to top it off, so he he gets out, he does his time, he gets out 40-ish days ago. Dude calls me up and he's like, hey bud, just so you know, I gotta go back. And I was like, what did you do now? And he was like, Well, turns out my medical marijuana card expired while I was in jail, and because I still had marijuana after I got out of jail, they're sending me back because it's not technically legal in Ohio because his card expired. And I was like, Can't you just show them your card and then be like, hey, it expired. I I planned on getting it, you know, back. And he was like, apparently not. So now he's currently sitting in prison.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:34

And it's the first dude. Yeah, you know what? That sounds like to me, that sounds like a huge payday. That's crazy. That's crazy. I mean, I guess, well, you didn't, you know, you knew it was gonna expire, and you knew you were gonna go to jail, so you should have uh he's got three more weeks. Your dad's a fucking man, that's hella funny. He's like, I think going to jail for weed charges for some reason to me is just funny because it's like, especially now, it's like oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so crazy. I think going to jail for mushrooms is also crazy. Anything that fucking doesn't hurt you is like fucking stupid, it's like going to jail for coffee, which by the way, we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

So technically, he went the second time for gun charges, but it was only because he was an ex-felon.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:21

It's it all links back to the weed, but like his weed charges were severe back then.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:28

Are both your parents from Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:30

Okay, my mom's my mom's from Marion, Ohio. Oh, I know where Marion is, yeah. Hell yeah, dude. Well, it's small, small place. My mom's from Marion, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

Yeah. But yes, uh, back in the 90s, he was the fall guy for a motorcycle gang, and he got a phone call that said, Hey, we just dropped off all of our product at your house, and the cops are on their way.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:52

Tough, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

That's so that's he got busted with like I think it was like 60 pounds. Fuck. It was uh they had it hidden in our garage. Yeah, yeah. He just opened up the garage door and it was just boom, there. What's your dad's first name if you don't mind me asking? Uh Franklin.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:11

Franklin Eugene Cornell. Free Franklin, dude. Exponge Franklin.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

The fucking turtle, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

Oh man. I have one more question for you guys. What would be your dream collaboration if you could collaborate with any artist today? What would be your dream collaboration? Now, I always give a little bit of a caveat. I don't want you to think of who you idolize,

Dream Collabs And Final Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 1:10:41

who you love. I want you to think of the band that or artist that makes sense with your sound, or that you could do something like really off the wall and cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:51

Rid Al Yankovic.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

That's a wild answer. Grand.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

I think it'd really be cool to do a collaboration with the transplants because they haven't done anything in a while. All their songs are not available on Instagram, and it would be really cool to just party with them for like a week. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:14

Dude, skin and rob seems like a good yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

Now, the weird the weird owl situation, what would that look like? Would it be a parody or would it be him playing like polka on a song?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:29

First, first things first, we're all gonna do mushrooms. Um we're all gonna be in our underwear and we're just gonna see what comes out of it. It might be it might be sex, consensual sex, by the way. Might be consensual sex, or it could be a beautiful piece of music. Either way, it's art, I think. I think we film no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:48

Lots of squeaking, lots of squeaking, lots of squeaking. It's the hair for me, you know what I mean? Dude, he's the man, dude. I fucking love weird owl.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:59

Uh uh. Dude, yeah, that'd be awesome. That'd be fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

That would be absolutely incredible. I I would love to meet Weird Al someday.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:11

Now, is his name Albert Alfred or Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:17

I like to think that it's Algonquin.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:19

Algonquin, damn, that's a good one. Yeah, it's Alfred, by the way. It's Alfred. Alfred. Okay, big Alfred. Alfred, like Batman?

unknown 1:12:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

Weird Alfred, dude. Incredible. That's so cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I did not know his name was Alfred. That makes me so happy, guys. Thank you so much for being on the show, man. I I know that we ran into a ton of technical issues, and I would love to have you guys back on for a round two. Yeah, absolutely. And if you are ever on the east coast, please hit me up. I would love to come and see you guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:02

Hell yeah. Well, dude, you said Virginia, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Yes, sir. All right, we'll be there. Yeah, hell yeah, man. Again, everybody, stay out as the band. The album Broken Homes is out right now. Check out all of their stuff, truly. Uh, they're the whole album's incredible, but your entire catalog is fucking fantastic. Keeping punk rock alive. I I I don't like to make comparisons to other artists, but I I think that it's really, really fucking cool how much you guys sound like old school Green Day prior to Dookie. Like, I I love that sound, and there aren't a ton of bands, especially in this area, doing that stuff. So keeping Punk alive. I really appreciate it. And thanks again for being on the show.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:49

Right on. By the way, that's a huge compliment, and thank you very much. And we're not upset by that at all. We love you.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

All right, guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Time to go. Thank you again. I'll see you later. It's the Hook and Bridge podcast, everybody. Thanks for listening.