July 15, 2026 • 58 mins
No 2000s teenager made it through their youth without singing along to Hoobastank, so Danielle is going straight to the source to hear the stories behind the band with the most baffling name in rock. Singer Doug Robb and guitarist Dan Estrin detail their journey from local dive bars to festivals with Bob Dylan and Jessica Simpson, on the SAME stage!
Danielle doesn’t hold back on the 818 content because Hoobastank is a certified Valley band! Hope you’re hungry for Pizza Cookery and Ruby’s…and yes, some Topanga Plaza talk.
And it hasn’t always been easy for the band, from failed monitors on live TV to needing literal brain surgery while on tour, Hoobastank has seen their share of challenges
You won’t have to crawl in the dark looking for the answer, because Hoobastank is here on Teen Beat!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
That's institutes all that's okay, becaus no one here is.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello friends, I'm Daniel Fischell, and it's time again for
teen Beat, a podcast where I interview interesting people who
have done interesting things in an attempt to uncover the
realities of their youth before the spotlight, because we know
our teenage years can act as a blueprint for who
we are today.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I am a perfect example of this.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I spent my entire youth playing a type a success
obsessed overachiever, and in turn.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I grew up to be Well, maybe I'm a little
too on the nose here. I see it this way.
I gave you my childhood.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's time we hear yours, and this week I'm excited
to learn more about a band that not only helped
define every good mixtape I've ever made, they also helped
define my zip code. Born from the inspiration of punk
and ska, the band with.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
The Worst and absolute best.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Name in music has sold a staggering total of ten
million albums worldwide. Their sophomore album, two thousand and three's
The Reason, has a title track that rivals the OC
Tony Hawk's pro Skater and Von Dutch as the most
peak why two K things I can reference? And now,
over thirty years since forming, six studio albums later, they've
(01:38):
released their first new song in eight years, How Do
You Sleep, a throwback to their punk roots, and I
for one love it. This week's teen Beat guest the
Pride of Ventura County's Border. It's Doug rob and Dan
Estren of Hohobastank.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Welcome, gentlemen, you're having us the Pride of County.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I was like, that's so accurate.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
How does that border?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
The Vinor County border is like up the street from
my house? Yes, so right?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Really right there?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Nailed it?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, pinpoint it to the to the location. Thank you
so much for coming on the show. A fair warning
up top. I am legally forced to start with eight
one eight talk whenever a fellow Valley kids are on
the podcast. So you are a Gora High School alumni, correct,
and I am a Calabasis graduate.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
In some circles we might be considered.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Rivals, chargers, coyotes.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Exactly, but we can all agree that tearing down the
Agora Man eight was absolutely criminal.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
We just recently happened, right, and I drive by that
every day going to the gym. Yeah, and I still
look at it going, do you have? I had so
many memories there.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So many memories there.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah. Yeah, pretty cool parking lot though, now is it?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, the commons. They just tore down the theater in
the Commons.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Right. That being said, I'm not one of those guys
that or that that just was like things need to
stay the same. It's yeah, I don't fight the tide
like totally. At some point when all this construction is done,
I'm sure to look great and the people who grow
up with that will then see that as their core
memory and then they can complain later on when when
(03:21):
it gets sort out correct.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
I do you remember we rode bikes through through the
movie theater the Yeah, on a Friday night. We were
out with like fourteen friends on bikes in Agora and
had nothing to do. While everybody was out at parties
getting drunk and stuff. Us and fourteen of our friends
rode bikes through the side exit while people were coming
out straight down the hallway, through through through the Agora
(03:44):
Movie Theater and out there.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
The other door.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Movie were you guys straight edge?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
We we didn't like clean it not yeah, not like.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
We didn't wear it on our sleeves. You know, we
had friends that partied and drank and did drugs and
stuff like that, but we weren't the ones doing it.
You know. It was like we just a choice, like we.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
Just decided we got off on like going to these
high school parties and everybody was kind of getting wasted,
and we would be watching people dancing and doing whatever
they're doing, and we'd go over to the thermostat while
they're sweating and we'd start to.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Turning what's going on?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, we we just pranked everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That's a perfect prank because it's completely harmless, you know,
like it's a funny prank. Everyone suffers a little, but
it's no one really gets hurt.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
That's really good calories.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Nobody suffers, nobody concern of their health.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Okay, I will get this out of the way.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Did you hang out at the Tapanga mal.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
For pangam all nice? That's awesome. You know you have
to go everywhere with her every fall marriage. That's a
good job.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Doug actually grew up in Agora and I grew up
in Calabasis, but I went to Agora right so I
grew up right behind the high school. Okay, and so yes,
I was at the Panga Mall back when they had
an ice skating rink.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah, And I was like in prior to that, I
lived all over the valley. Like my parents moved to
a girl when I was in third grade, but we
lived in Canoga Park in Tarzana like it's in Sino.
It was everywhere and same with him, like I remember
going to the Topanga Plaza. Yep, you don't have a
little jingle for Topanga Plaza.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I will, We'll do it again.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
With the ice skating rink, yeah, and the Orange Julius.
And it wasn't there, I would say. One of my
older brothers worked at the Pup and Taco. Like on Topanga.
It was across the street from what was like a
skate park or some kind of big slide. I remember,
being really young.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Now there was a big golf like was like a
golf and stuff, golf and stuff type of thing slide.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Over where the village is on the corner of Victory
and Topanga. I don't remember if there was, but it
closed down when we were really really.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I saw Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones and the
Temple Doomouth to paying a theater. So going way back, No,
going way back.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I'm still devastated that the Rubies is gone.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Dude, wasn't I was talking about this in the.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Car just today. You were talking, we're talking about Rubies.
Who I was talking?
Speaker 6 (06:15):
I had I had seen something recently on Instagram that
you had done, and you were talking about places in
the valley and you brought up Rubies and Rubies and
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Your thing because you stopped eating red meat. And that
was one of the few places besides Fat Burger that
served turkey burgers. So that was like, it was like,
if we're going to go eat, it was Fatburger or Ruby.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
So I went to Rubies when we would come home
from tour or even even a little.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Bit before that. I was there like three days a week.
I had their sweatshirt, Like I.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Still have my Ruby sweatshirt. I actually have art in
my house of Rubies on the pier.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Should be do be down at Rubies or something like that.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Absolutely, And when I go to I'll go to Orange
County just to go eat at Rubi's same. And if
you drive by that promenade area and you look up
on there still there, it's still It's kind of says it.
I shed a tear every.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Time I drive by.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm telling you, how could we not keep Rubies alive
in the valley? Like, I feel like we need to
do this back, maybe this podcast. If there's one thing
I want to be known for is bringing back at Rubies.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
One place I know you both also hung out was
the Cobalt Cafe, which was a now defunct music venue
in Kenoga Park, somewhat legendary early stops for bands like Afi,
Less than Jake and Yes Hohobastank. Tell me about the
Cobalt Cafe and what it meant to you as.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Teens, I think the honest answers. Back then, there was
there wasn't a lot of places to play semi locally,
you know, like if we wanted to play shows that
weren't high school parties and stuff like that, we had
to go down to the city. Yeah. And it's difficult
to get a bunch of teenage kids to go down
(07:57):
to Hollywood all the time, you know. Yeah. And I
don't know how did we stumble across that as a
place to play, but I remember however, it was it
was like, oh, you know, this is cool. It's kind
of like a living room, like we're playing someone's living room.
Let's just do it. It's a place to play. And
the shows themselves turned out to be so much that
were like house parties, like the bodies flying, all the kicking,
(08:18):
kicking stuff off the ceiling, and it was solow budget
and like do it yourself. It kind of fit the vibe.
So it was cool. But I don't know how we stumbled.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
Well, when we were going to when we were in
high school, there was a band that was a little
bit younger than us that had a show there, and
I remember going to see them play there, and because
I lived off a valley circle, I would just shoot
up paying a sar them way and there it was.
And I went and saw them there and I and
it was at that point it was it was kind
(08:52):
of nice. It was a nice place where you go
and you walk up and you get your latte and whatever.
It was a book in a book or you know.
There was seats everywhere that were spread out and it
was it was clean and nice and h I just
remember kind of going like, oh, okay, there's a there's a
venue to a degree that's kind of close in This
(09:13):
stage is about this high really really crappy PA system,
horrible lights system, no lights, so.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
We would just stay out of the back and flick
the lights off and off.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah, there was lights witch lights.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
We would joke around with other bands, going, who's doing
our lights tonight? Yeah, so it would be the opening
ban of the band behind us, like just to push
the fader up and down like during like climactic moments
during the set.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
But we just ended up needing places to play, and
we didn't really care where we played, and it was
close enough to get a lot of our friends from
school to come out.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And it was super cheap, you know. It was like
like bucks five bucks get in or something like that.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
It was, you know, and we became friends with the owner, Dave,
who I'll talk to you still every once in a while,
and uh, yeah, it's a bummer that it's not out
there anymore. They still actually do Cobalt presents shows at
different locations throughout the valley now, but he had to
close it down I think during COVID or something like that,
and now it's like a flooring store because I go
(10:12):
to cabarett as the Sandwich at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Love cavarettas. Gosh, you're missing out.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
It's really good.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I'm not into the bread.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It's too hard. Yeah, I feel seen.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
My husband loves it.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I'm more of an Italian deli guy.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I love that place too. I will also the
one thing I will say about is they have great cannoli.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
I haven't tried, but the times that I would, well,
the guy that I think Owens.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Used to used to work at cabarettas from what I've heard, Okay, and.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
I do like their sandwiches, but they have don't They
have two different breads there.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You can get the crusty bread or the softer bread.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, but the softer bread is still hard.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
No, you're right right, And he shoots out.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The back exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
By the way, every time we talk about that, I
complained about it. I bleep out on the podcast because
I don't want to disparage the right.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So it's kind of a running joke that I have
like a terrible sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
No, I love.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
I would go to Cabarettas and they would just like, hey, Dan,
so do you want that? They knew what I wanted
all the time. Yeah, it's my spot.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I love I love that feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You two met at a Battle of the Bands, right,
has enough time passed that you guys feel comfortable admitting
whose band was better.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
We didn't meet in the battle, but that was our
first performance together. Okay.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
You know what, There's things about his band at the
time that I that I looked at and was like, Wow,
there's things about them that I really like that I
would like our band to be more.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Like advice versa. Like from my perspective, I was, I
was playing bass in the band. I'm not a bass player.
I was just a hack guitar player, okay, And I
was filling in to play bass out of Fomo basically
because my closest friend at the time was the singer
and he was an extremely charisgmatic guy. Like that's that's
(12:08):
why we won the Battle of the Bands because of him.
He was a popular dude, extremely funny, very energetic, all
that kind of stuff. But I remember looking at at
his band and going, oh, these guys are like layers,
like they all like they're so good at what they
do and being it's kind of the same thing. Like, God, dude,
(12:29):
I wish I wish my BANDEW had to play as
well as they did, like we're just covering Rage against
the Machine and Alice and chain stuff, and you guys
were doing like.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
We were writing and coverings. But I just remember not
not ever feeling like it was a competition because growing
up idolizing like the Seattle bands, you know, they all
seem to have this camaraderie between them that I always
envied and and I just liked having friends that were
(12:57):
in bands. And his lead singer was also a close
friend of mine, and that's kind of how Doug and
I met. It was the bridge, And yeah, I really
liked just having other bands that and that that same
thing at Calabasas with the Audio Bank guys, you know,
with the Boyds Andnnesingers or whatever. You know, we just
kind of grew up with that around and before anybody
(13:17):
had record deals. And it was nice seeing them at
parties at their parents' houses. Yeah, coming over and listening
to our new songs and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It was right. It wasn't it wasn't a competitive thing.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
It was it help.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Around us.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Yeah, it was everybody kind of supported each other and
and I felt there was a it wasn't competitive, but
there was a healthy competition I don't. I don't want
to say like like we're trying to beat them, but rais, yes,
I was, Like I definitely think everybody kind of pushed
each other to expand a little bit, like get a
little bit better, a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You were part of a San Fernando Valley boom of
bands in the late nineties to sign record deals, which
included the Apple of the Calabasas I Incubus. What role
did they play in your careers and getting the attention
that then led to a record deal.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Honestly a huge one. I think it's like you said,
I was, factually, but also just from my perception, they
always seemed a couple. They were a couple of years
ahead of us, you know, like they started the band
a couple of years before we did. They were, they
were and are just amazing musicians. And at the time,
(14:52):
I didn't see music as a legitimate career, like I
grew up listening to early on Van Halen and and
I don't know, the people that were professional musicians that
I enjoyed were like Virtuo, so the best of the best,
(15:13):
like pro athletes, Like you don't accidentally become a pro athlete,
you know, what I mean. So it was the same
kind of mindset for music for me. So I loved it,
but I understood that I didn't have the the means
to get that good. I just wasn't that disciplined. I
didn't have it. And then in high school when Nirvana
(15:37):
and the whole Seattle thing happened, it wasn't like all
of someone said hey, I could, I could actually do this,
but it did expose me to another side of music
writing and songwriting that was like, oh, you don't have
to shred over everything too to use this as like
an avenue, And so that kind of planted the seed
(16:01):
and maybe maybe maybe there's something I could do. But
then Dan, like you said, grow, you know, knowing these
guys forever and being around them prior to their record deal,
I kind of feel like they were the biggest local
band for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah, and you know, eventually playing shows with them and
becoming friends with them and their their brothers and stuff.
When they got a record deal, which was I think
like in the little late nineties, ninety eight, ninety seven
somewhere around then, it was probably a moment when I'm like,
oh my god, like they're actually doing it. They're doing.
(16:36):
They're that's what they're gonna do. Holy, this is is
this like a thing? Like is this an option?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Like this something we do?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah? Is this? Is this a legitimate way to go
through life? So it wasn't like they all of a
sudden made me go, now we can do it, but
it definitely made me go, oh my god, dude, this
is It's not a pipe dream, you know, like they're
they're actually going to do this, and so it was
very inspiring on that level for sure. Again, I kind
(17:05):
of gave you the confidence like, oh, if they can
do it, then we can do it.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And then, like I said, along with opening for so
many shows, playing so many shows with them, I mean
Dan used to just to go and tech for Mikey
for fun, you know, just to get into shows.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
And yeah, I mean I went to right, so so
did I and so so I remember them and they
were always you.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Know, like the cool dudes, like the cool guys.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And I kind of got to know them a little
bit after that, became friends with the guitar player, and
we did We weren't really we were just kind of
starting off as a band, but I knew that I
wanted to play music and start a band. And they
were a local band, just playing local shows. And I
would take my video of my VHS video camera with
me everywhere, and so I would take I would start
(17:54):
to go to their shows with them and help them
out with their equipment, kind of like a road a
road before they were anything whatever. So I have tons
of old videos of them playing like parties and.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Just really cool places all over the place.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
And so I got to, you know, stand on the
side of the stage and watch them and hang with them,
drive the shows early, help them with their equipment, just
chat with them, go to their houses and watch them rehearse,
and and like he said, it was inspiring, and we
were we were all into the same types of bands
at that point. We were inspired by the same types
of bands, which I think ended up being the result
(18:33):
of the sounds to a degree.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I mean, it's the same same musical influences, the same
you know, skating and beach lifestyle type. The environment, you know,
it shapes shapes what you what you sound like. And
so yeah, it was, it was. It was a cool time.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And over at your high school, the origins of Lincoln
Park were also born.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Did you guys know Mike Shinoda growing up.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, yeah, okay. I was like, what is it your yearbook?
One of those yearbooks he signed, like basically, oh, you're
going to be a famous musician. I'm going to do
your artwork for you.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
So high school, he wasn't a musician. I mean he was.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
He was a musician, I guess. I'm sure he played
piano and whatever he did, and he I feel like,
I remember him being into hip hop music back then,
but he was a grade below me, and uh, we
were friends. I knew him, and same with the guitar
player Brad. I was tight with Brad. But I remember
graduating high school. You know, everybody signs the yearbooks and
(19:33):
see whatever, and he drew a picture in my yearbook
and wrote something about, you know, I'll buy your albums
when you get famous whatever, and you buy my t
shirts because he was he was doing art.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
He was more known for being an artist.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah, And it's cool. We run into those guys every
now and then over the years, and you know, over
the years, he will always he always tells the same
story about how I protected him from a bully in
high school. And I don't full remember, but I kind
of remember he Yeah, he was just he was cool.
And I think there was like these you might remember,
(20:08):
these like wanna be gangster type of kids that were
in a Gore and Calabasis, and I mean, but some
of those kids actually committed murders.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Some of those kids have about them.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yeah, And I went to high school with those kids,
and some of them I think might have used to
mess with him or something. I don't remember what it was,
but I was a year older and just thought they
thought it was lame, and I stood up for him
one time or something like that.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
But but yeah, did.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You see him in Portugal?
Speaker 6 (20:39):
We were just in Portugal doing a festival with them,
and I didn't talk to him, no, but I they
were there.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah. But the last time I saw him was last year.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
We did a festival together and we hung out a
little bit with them backstage and chatted.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
And it's cool.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean, Mike made us some beautiful art as a
wedding present that's hanging in our house. He combined all
of the things that Jensen and I love and painted.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Them on us. Rubis is on there, wu tang is
on there.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
It's a it's quite a mashup, but it's it's very
special to us. So Mike is Mike is close and
special to us. Did you guys ever think of changing
your name? Like, what other options did you have for
band names?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yes, the short answers, Yes, we ubis Tank was perfect
for a bunch of eighteen year olds like playing you know,
house parties and SKA metal punk music. You know, it
was perfect. But by two thousand, when we had a
record deal offer, we didn't actually sign as Hoopsink. We
(21:46):
just signed as the individual members because it was kind
of like, all right, we have Yeah, we're a decent
We've we've spent the last five years, you know, building
up what we have. But now potentially it's going to
go Nash or global. Now's the time too, If we're
ever going to switch it, now's the time.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Did you guys think of that yourselves or did the
label say something to me?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I want to say, no, we we did smart. We're like, okay,
this is this is we've you know, time to shed
the baby teeth, you know. And then we we played
a show with the Whiskey and our and our guy
was at the show and at some point in the
show they were they were the audience was chanting who
(22:29):
stag show's over. So we're in the dressing room and
he comes up and he just, you guys, cannot change.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Don't even think about it.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
And I'm like, I remember even poopooing it. Then we're like, dude,
forget it now. We have this conversation later because it's done.
We're not we're changing the name, and though uh, that
never happened, we were convinced to keep the name, change
the spelling of it, but keep the pronunciation the same.
(22:57):
And yeah, like you said earlier, it's the worst and
best name ever.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
It was never anything that we were super proud of.
It wasn't like we were like we got the name
the opposite and it still is the opposite. It's we
we realize how stupid it is. And I've always said
that it's Doug and I actually don't have any tattoos,
but it's kind of like your first tattoo that you
might regret, of course when you're lady.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I had a butterfly tramp stamp that was sitting pencil, Like, yeah,
I had it removed. I mean that kind you know, yes,
that that was my first tattoo.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
That was like, if you're an our guy convinced you
to keep it.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I had no saying it.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
So it's yeah, it's it's kind of like that, except
for we kept our tramp stamp and.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Exactly. But eventually, yeah, like eventually those armbands are going
to be cool again or if they're not for sure.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Some people think it's the coolest thing ever and it
makes the most sense, and others I think it's the
dumbest thing ever, and we're like, we get it, we
get how stupid it is. If you like it cool,
If you don't, we don't run.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It doesn't It's just a name. It's just a name.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Also, sometimes something salient is more important than something good,
like Topenga is the most salient name, maybe of any
TV character ever. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the
name Topanga for a person is great. But like I,
(24:30):
I will be known for the rest of my No
one will ever forget to Panga from boy me like
that show, Like that's.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
So it how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
So we don't fully know, We don't know the true story.
Lots of different people have taken credit for it. The
most commonly told story, and certainly the funniest, is that
Michael Jacobs, the executive producer and showrunner was driving from
Hidden Hills to Burbank where we were shooting, and they
called and were like, we need a name for this character.
(25:01):
And he was at the one oh one in Topanga
and he looked up and said to Panga and said,
had they called me one minute later, she would have
been to Sodo.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Right, that's.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Tampa. So that's the story told. But there there have
been like four or five different people who said, that's
not true. I created the character. I came up with
the name.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I would say, don't trust those people.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, just go with the decider.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I like the more like I saw it and that's it. Yeah,
the other ones like I created that, Yeah, create that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The one thing I'll say is that Topanga was a
flower child. She had very hippie parents, Jedediah and Chloe.
Her father was a luthier, luthier luthier. And so the
idea that Topanga was started because Topega Canyon was a
hippie hangout is is what when people say, like it
was thought out for me, this character, this flower child,
(25:55):
what would her parents have named her? And they picked
a place where maybe she would have been conceived. That
was kind of other backstory.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
So it's just coincidental that you were there in Calabasas,
going to Calabasas High School where to Panga Canyon was
right up the street.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
I always was like there there's a connection somewhere, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
No, that was just coincidental.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I was that I was cast as the person living
in Calabasas and that the Panga Mall was my mall.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yeah, very kismet. You know, like things just work out
the way they're supposed to.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Do you remember your worst early show, Like you guys
have formed a band and now you're going to go
perform somewhere and just it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Oh are you always awesome?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
No, No, We've had a lot of horrible shows, I'm sure,
but some of those ended up, in hindsight, were probably
none of it matters.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I think horrible show is all it's.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
All here, like Summerfest, which we call Yeah, like.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Is it horrible because there's nobody there? What if? What
if you performed beautifully for nobody? Does that make it
a bad show? I don't know, Like back then it
might have because it's all ego. I'm getting a little
too like uh deep about this. Yeah, Well, it's because
we've been doing it for so long. At some point
you have to you know, all all all shows are
(27:30):
not created equal. At some point you have to figure
out what it is that makes you comfortable, Like is
it how well you do or how well you feel
you've done. Did you sing well? Did you perform well?
Did you did the audience like it did they? Was
it large but unengaged? Was it small but totally locked in?
(27:50):
Like what do you prefer? And I think you just
have to take the wins from that. I was just thinking.
The first show that we did though that I felt
awkward was pretty early on. It was the show at
the Las Palmas Theater and that was only like our
second club show ever, Like we'd only done like house parties,
and we did a show at the Roxy, and I
think our second club show was at the Lost Palmas Theater.
(28:12):
And I remember thinking the show at the Roxy was awesome,
lots of people, like the bar was set. Yeah, And
then we go play this other show at a different
club not too like long after, and there was nobody there, right,
And I don't necessarily remember thinking like, God, this sucked,
but I I just when you said that, I was
(28:33):
like I remember going, oh, okay, it's not all it's
not all good.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Like I think one of the worst shows that we
had would have been in the height of everything, and
and it was when we did the MTV Music Awards
the VMAs, and that was because we get you know,
you go to do these things and there's rehearsals. You're
gonna be on television performing and it's live. There's these
(28:59):
rehearsals day before, and you're getting all the sound dial
then and you're getting we run in your monitors so
we can hear everything that way, so there's no monitors
for us to hear ourselves on stage.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You're I don't even think there's a amps, right or I.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Don't remember, but you're relying on everything that's coming through
here in your ears. And we went through the rehearsals
the day before, dialed everything in.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
It was great.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
And then we're up on stage the day of at
the VMA's. You guys are going in two minutes whatever
it is, We're like, okay, cool, hell yeah, we're all
going about TV cool of the MTV Music Chords, and
then it starts and everything was off in ears, so
we couldn't hear what we were doing, which was hard
for all of us, but specifically probably you because you
(29:41):
had to sing. I could at least be like pop
one out and kind of hear a little bit what
I was doing, and it was challenging because you're trying.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
To it was terrifying. Yes, Live Music Award show. You know,
we're not even playing a full song. I think we're
playing like ninety seconds of something and boo. We walk
out and it's I think it was at the arena
in Miami, and so it's all just noise and live
audience and stuff like that, and I'm like, du something
doesn't feel right. I'm you know, and I immediately realized
(30:13):
that nothing's working at all, not even like, oh it's
too loud, it's just not working. So I'm i pop
my things out and I'm trying to go by what
I'm hearing, right, but there's all the slap back and whatever,
and basically it was like flying blindfolded, and you know,
I did the best I could at the time, but
but it was a wreck and it was ninety seconds
(30:36):
of pure terror, anxiety and yeah yeah to which like
I spent the next decade plus trying to work through
to be honest with you really, like, dude, any any
type of a little hiccup in a performance, especially if
(30:57):
it was like on radio or on TV, like that,
would this right? That that thing again? Yeah? And the thing. Honestly,
I didn't care that much. I just didn't care. I'm like, oh,
it's ninety seconds. It was bad, but ever like that.
But people are just ruthless, you know. Yeah, And I honestly,
if it happened now, I would be able to go like, yes,
I don't care, like I don't care, I don't know,
(31:18):
this is what happened. I don't care. But at that
point in our career, that point of me just being
a human being, it was too I didn't have enough
confidence to shield from the outside opinion. Yes, like like
I said today, I would, I could care less if
my pants fell down in the middle, I wouldn't go
whatever it would I laugh about it. But at that
(31:40):
time I was too vulnerable to that. Like I still
was leaning on what people's opinions were of the band
and oh my god, you didn't think I sounded good? Like,
oh yeah, that was a tough one to get through.
That was that was probably a moment performing in this.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Band did it ever make you like refuse to wear
in years, like, no, I can't trust that.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
I don't want to go. It didn't. It just made
me go like on to. What it really did is
it made me be less harsh on other people. It did.
It made me go like, you know what, Yeah, dude,
this is a complicated you know, industry. Performing is not
uh you know, it's it's it's an art. There's supposed
(32:22):
to be humanness and yeah, and if you mess up,
that's fine, that's fine. Whereas in the past I might
have been like, oh, that person sounded terrible. They don't
have time.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, not even that's just been.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Kind of dumb and immature about it. And uh, it
really made me go like, oh, dude, Like now I'm
on that side of the fence. Like so it's one
of the reasons why I'll never accept singing the national
anthem anywhere, because I've been offered a bunch yeah, and
I've said no every time and they're like why, Like
it's gonna be Monday night football, We're gonna fly on
to Really, like Howard Benson was just like, Oh, we're
(32:56):
gonna we'll all go to We're gonna do the whole thing,
And like Howard, if if I nail it. If I
nail it, it's forgotten by kickoff. Yeah, if I get
up right, it's immortalized. It's literally a lose lose. There's
no win in this at all. And I don't even care.
I'm not even like it's something I've to do. I
just don't want to do it. So one of the.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Things I say often that I am thankful gets better
with age is balancing risk versus reward.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I'm so good at it now, I'm like, what's the reward?
What's the reward here?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
What am I?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
What is the thing I would hope happens? And like
you said, you go out there and nail it and
guess what it means nothing to nobody except for you.
And then the risk, like you mentioned, you botch the
national anthem. It's talked about for a few days and
it lives forever on the internet, and you end up
in clip shows as top ten worst.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
You know, no, this this is.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
A certain amount of because there's so much media in general,
in all forms that even the worst might consider the
most embarrassing. Whatever mess up just doesn't have a life
span anymore. I know, doesn't like, I don't know if
that's good or bad, plus the shamelessness of society in general,
(34:11):
but yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's like you can mess
up so bad now and think, in the moment, this
is I've basically done something so harmful to myself or
career whatever like that, and realize if you just stick
your head out the window, nobody's paying attention. Nobody's and
even the ones that are tomorrow they will be paying
(34:31):
attention to something else exactly. Like, it's kind of crazy
how how short the attention span has become, even for And.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
We have a friend too who says that the only
people who will talk to you about it, like the
people who will bring it up to you are the people,
like the people closest to you, because but he says,
it's not fair they basically have Google.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Alerts for you on their phone, like you know them
so well.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
It's being fed directly to them as if they had
a Google alert. That's not what the population is like,
no one knows, no one gives it.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I wanted to list a few other bands from your
class or groups who've just played Warped Tour around the
time that you did maybe even names that have been
mentioned in the same breath as Hubastank at some point.
And I want you to tell me who has the
better name them or Whobastank Okay, alien ant.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
Farm Hm, who has a better name?
Speaker 4 (35:27):
I think that's a clever name. Well, I always thought
it was a clever name. We love those guys, but yeah,
I don't know. Yeah, I absolutely love those guys.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I'm not trying to start anybe for those but.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
I've always felt like their name was a little great.
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
So we're gonna go with Huba Stank on that one.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I don't like that. It's three words, how about that? Okay, right,
I'll take I'll take Hubasnank.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Okay, Bowling for soup another three word.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Another band that I love, like personally, but I've never
liked that. I've never liked that name. Okay.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
We had we did a show with them not too
long ago, and Jared, the lead singer, wanted to do
a TikTok with us about that, like who has the
dumber name? And we ended up not doing it, but
we will, Okay.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
So that's another thing that like, I don't spend any
time thinking about, Like I don't see those guys in
go bowling for what a silly name.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
At some point it's just Jimiroquai or Humble Wamba. It
just becomes the name. Yes, as stupid as it may sound,
when you say our band name, I kind of I'm like,
not because it's you.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
It's just hearing our name. Sometimes.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
Like if I run into somebody and like, oh, you're
playing a band, what's what's I'm just waiting. I just
I'm waiting for it, like, oh do you play I
play guitar? What's the band called? And it's either they
either know it right away, like really, or it's what what?
Speaker 5 (36:54):
And I say it again?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Oops?
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Mistake No, no, like like Scooba Tank Yeah, yeah, who
was thank you know.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
What about I wrestled a bear once?
Speaker 6 (37:07):
That's a bad that's a band. Yeah you just make
that up now. I think who was saying is yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
We're getting easier. I set my friends on fire.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
So I'm not a big fan. See, I don't know
these bands personally, and I'll just go out. I'm just
going to say that they're better than us, so that
don't hurt any feelings. Okay, all these bands that you're
saying they're better than us, But I'm not I've never
been a fan of bands with long names like long. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Like I'm just like, dude, come on, come on, we
don't give us a mouthfault, right.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Gardening not architecture.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah. See it's a really hard one. I mean, like
I said, these are great bands. They're better than us.
They're more successful, they're better looking, all of it. They're
all of that. But I'm just never been a fan
of the long names like that. But like I said,
who cares, it's my bass called Huba say anything.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I did notice a sentence that I think might be
the most y two k group of words ever uttered.
And it really only works with your name. Cuba Stank's
first single, Crawling in the Dark, was featured in the
PlayStation two rollerblading game Aggressive Inline.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
I think you just portal.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Can you tell our younger listeners how important it was
to have a song in a video game?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I didn't know at the time, to be honest with you,
I didn't. I remember our manager at the times going like, yeah,
we're gonna put it in this and this and this,
and I'm like why why ye who cares? Like and
then you know, time passes and we see kids at
shows going, oh my god, that's like my favorite song
in this game. Yeah, I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
I always thought when people would say that they heard
our song in that, I always thought to myself, like,
it's just not as cool as it being in Tony Hawk,
which it wasn't in, And I'm like, if it was,
it will never be No.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
No, inline skating will never be as cool as skateboarding.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That is my favorite video game, Tony Hawk of all time.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I played that.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Game, dude. I just had a flashback of of the
sound you play that in the back of the bus.
Just imagine, just close your eyes and just here, I
think the PlayStation coroller stopping and you don't even realize
what you're doing. All these numbers, the diets and all
these tricks and everything.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Such a great The first one is such a great game.
I still have it. I think it was on like
PlayStation two.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
It was PlayStation two.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I could I There were a couple of days when
I was not working and I was like, oh, I've.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Played this for nine hours.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
For nine hours today, it was as if I had
a full time job.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
We would have competitions to see who could get more
as commoos. We wouldn't even play the game. That's what
we were doing. Pass control over the next guy. Okay,
you do, you got to do ten in a row.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Like I also realized while you were recording your second album, Dan,
you were seriously injured in a mini bike accident. Can
we know all the details about that please?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
We had just actually finished recording and did we even
release the record yet?
Speaker 4 (40:20):
No, it was in between, like we had recorded it
and mixed it and mastered like the artwork that time
between our job being done and the record label now
taking it and setting up like marketing and something.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
Yeah, so there's a few months window. We had just
started this tour. We were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
We had to go early in the morning to a
morning radio station to go do an interview Doug and
I and we had our radio rep pick us up,
who we ended up becoming friends with, and so we're like, hey,
after the interview, can you take us somewhere cool whatever?
Speaker 5 (40:53):
And I don't know. We ended up at this meet
at a place that sold mini.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Bikes, and Doug and I and our bass player and
well we all four of us, we bought these these bikes,
these little mini yeah, sock and rocket like gas powered.
You look like clowns riding them. And we bought them
that that day.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
You're a tall guy.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
I thank you.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
I actually still have the bike. It's in my garage.
And uh so we bought these bikes. I remember being
super excited because I had seen them in like movies
when I was a kid. Went back to the House
of Blue was that we were playing, and we were
cruising around all day long on these things, like riding
around the venue, the parking lot, and then we'd head
back to the tour bus and the they had like
(41:41):
a rope tied off where the buses were so that
fans wouldn't walk back there, although you could kind of
dip underneath them and go. And we we would just
be riding and as we were going back to the bus,
we would kind of dip our heads like this and
go under the rope and then put the bikes under
the bus, go do soundcheck whatever played the show, finished
(42:01):
the show. I'm in the back playing Tony Hawk or
something like that of the bus eating pizza or something
like that, and I hear Doug yell like Dan, we're
going for a ride, like let's go, let's go ride
around the parking lot. And I'm like, no, I'm cool.
I'm playing video games. He's like, let's go, and I
was like, all right, let's go. Totally sober went out
for this ride. We weren't wearing helmets. We're riding around
(42:22):
going fast, just being idiots whatever, and then slowing down
like you're coming to the end of the ride, you're
going really slow. We went to go dip under. I
went to go dip under the rope, but I had
kind of forgot that they had that They had tied
up a second rope underneath it that was a little
bit lower, and he was right behind me, and I
remember it it hitting me right across the right here,
(42:44):
and it threw me back and I hit my head.
But I remember thinking to myself as it happened, I
just bought this motorcycle. It was one thousand dollars. I
don't want to scratch it. And I held the bike
up to not scratch it. And I hit my head
and it didn't look that bad, and we weren't going
super fast, and yeah, you see people fall all the time,
(43:04):
it didn't seem that that serious.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
You know, he gets up, gets in the bus, time
passes getting a headache. Are Honestly, I didn't you know,
I didn't think anything of it. And then are our
tour managers like, we should go get this checked out
before we go to the next city. And it was
getting progressively worse and worse and worse, so we ended
(43:26):
up going to the er. It was getting really it
was just me and the tour manager. Yeah, and then
at some point it was getting really bad, like he
you know, like basically writhing on the bed and going
through that. My head is hurting so bad. So they
X rayed him and there was like a little fracture
(43:48):
and a blood clot forming, and so they said, yeah,
you need you need to get it to be brain
surgery right now. You need to release the pressure on
this thing. So yeah, I uh, I feel like it
was either me or the tour manager was someone who
gave the green light to cut them open. Doc You're like, yeah,
let's let's do this, and yeah, the next day they
(44:10):
had a head shaved and recovering from head surgery. Youth Carolina.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
You know, when you have a night out of drinking
and like a day or two later, you're reflecting on
that night, and it's it's you remember bits and pieces
of it. It's blurry but whatever. And so that's kind
of how my memory is of that night. And we
were driving to the emergency room in a cab before
uber and so like, and we had told that. I
(44:37):
remember my tour manager was like, can you step on it?
Can we go fast? And we got pulled over by
the cops. They told the cops what happened, and they
didn't care. They still wrote us a ticket. Got to
the hospital, and I just remember being in this room
and as super it was very, very blurry, and wasn't
feeling well at all, and my head just started getting
worse and worse, and uh, I remember I had to
(45:01):
I had to pee really bad, and I couldn't get
my belt undone or something, and I'm like complaining about it,
and I remember You're like helped me out, whatever it was.
And I think I peed in a trash can or
something like that is what I don't remember, but I
kind of remember that. And then I remember the doctor
coming in and starting to tell me what was going on,
but I couldn't really understand what was going on. And
(45:23):
then I just remember Doug saying, they need to do
surgery on you right now, something something like that, you know, yeah,
And I was just was like, I don't care, just
get me out of this pain. Please get me out
of this pain. And then I don't know that this happened,
but I remember, I'll remember was something going over me
like this, and then I was out and my hair
was long, a little bit longer than it is now
(45:44):
at the time, and I remember waking up to them
shaving it, and they shaved only half of it off,
so I had half head of hair that was long,
and then half of it was bald. And like he said,
I woke up the next day and there was a
tube sticking out of my head. I just remember opening
my eyes and the band guys and the crew guys
all walked in and started taking photos around me. I remember,
(46:10):
I mean, I was out of it, but I was
still always kind of joking around. And I remember my
mom and my sister walking in and they lived in
Calabasas and they flew out, and I just remember they
walked in and I was like, wow, okay, did.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
You remember that you were in South Carolina?
Speaker 5 (46:26):
I knew where I was, yeah, but I wasn't.
Speaker 6 (46:28):
I was on morphine and I wasn't thinking clearly at all,
and I just I remember that kind of and I
had to stay in the hospital. I don't even know
if you remember the first.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
Thing you told me, the first thing he told you.
It was like, She's like, Doug, Dug, and he's like,
you know, I have something like that. I forget what
the context was, but I'm like, well, what I'm in closeness,
like I got it tube. Yeah, so it was all
cath He wanted to tell me.
Speaker 6 (47:01):
You know, there was always something like that, like in
the worst times ever, there's always like a little bit
of humor, you know.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
That was the cool thing. He wanted to tell me that.
Speaker 6 (47:13):
And I remember, I knew he would get a kick
out of never being like messed up and going like
I got to tell somebody nobody, but yeah, I was.
I ended up flying home and we canceled the rest
of the tour. I had to go home have photos
of me with this huge scar that goes like this
across my head. Half my head bald and the other
(47:34):
half is long. And I needed a haircut. So Doug
came over to my house and he shaved the rest
of my head and did a mohawk and we ended
up taking.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
All the hair that.
Speaker 6 (47:48):
We took the hair, and we scooped it into a
into a bowl and then and then evenly distributed all
the hair and then hair sprayed out of it, and
then we all wore it.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
I have the photos.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
I vote it's a Doug wearing and me wearing it.
It just looks so stupid.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Yeah, and uh, I ended up ended up healing and
I have no feeling on the side of my head.
Still nerve damage, yeah, nerve damage. And and if if
I was to shave my head, you'd see this scar
right here?
Speaker 4 (48:20):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Where where helmets kids?
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Because even going slow you know crazy.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Well on that.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Second album is the reason a favorite of all time
for me and many many others.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Where did the inspiration.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
For that song a bit of a ballad come from?
Speaker 4 (48:52):
When you say a bit of a ballad that makes
me go like, that makes me think that you're implying
guys should have a ballad, you know, like you know
like which, which honestly was a common question or misconception.
On our self tiled album, we had some mellow songs.
We just never released them. On the independent album we
put out on our own prior to record deal, we
(49:14):
had some songs that were more mellow. It wasn't so much,
at least from my perspective in the band. I feel
like it was just like, oh, when we put out music,
there's going to be a certain percentage that's probably up
tempo and heavy, and there's maybe one or two songs
that are mellow, just for balance, almost, you know. So
(49:34):
when we recorded it, it was on the album. That's
kind of how I saw it. I never saw it like, guys,
we just did something in fact post, you know, recording
the album and mixing, you have the pow wow with
the producer and the record label and the management stuff
like that, and you go around thinking like discussing what's
what's going to be the single, possibly a second single.
(49:58):
And I don't think anybody chose that song, not because
we didn't, okay, but it just doesn't. It was the same.
There was a really mellow song on the first album
called to Be with You in my Head. Well that's that,
that's this song for that. It's just a mellow kind
of a breather on the album. Good song, proud of it,
(50:18):
but never had any intention or foresight to see what
it would do. So, yeah, that's inspiration wise, It wasn't
something different than what we did.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
When did you know it was sticking?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Like, oh my gosh, this song is really sticking for us.
Speaker 6 (50:41):
We knew that there was something about it. Well, the
record label really liked it. We had to go to
some big meeting with all like the big wigs at
the record label and listen to the record with them
at this huge table with everybody sitting around it. And
when it got to that song, just like he said,
it was just another was proud of the song because
I felt like the album had some like diversity, you know,
(51:04):
heavy songs, hit template songs, and slow songs.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
By the time we got to the second.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Chorus or last chorus, they were singing like there was
the heads of the company were like singing the chorus
already and.
Speaker 5 (51:19):
Had just we're just really excited about it. We're like,
we got excited because they got excited, and we're like, okay, great,
they're they're talking about this.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
I don't know, I mean, I don't know when we
realized it was.
Speaker 4 (51:34):
There was a moment one of the first tours that
we did on that album was Lincoln Park's Mediora tour,
and there was a moment, I want to say, towards
the end of that tour we started where that song
had become a single, which we had fought against, smartly
(51:56):
fought against and lost. We lost the battle for the
changing the name, and so maybe they're maybe not what
we were talking about.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
Just don't trust your instincts.
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, and so we started playing it and I want
to say it was Atlanta. I could be wrong. I
remember playing the song and the reaction was like ridiculous,
Like it's nothing I'd ever seen. And we'd been a
relatively successful band up to that point, you know, like
we had some successful songs and uh so I was
(52:28):
used to the reaction of oh, that's the big single.
But I started seeing this thing like oh dude, this
is huge. And then playing with playing shows with Nikbis
and these other bands, those are the type of the
guys that were be like, would you guys show this week?
Would you guys sew this week? You know, like they
would keep track of numbers with other bands, yeah, like,
(52:50):
oh we did this this week, And at some point
we started passing them. And that's when I started going
like oh dude, this is this kind of out of
our control now, Like.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
It's you mentioned Atlanta, I wonder if it was music
Midtown two thousand.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
I definitely remember those festivals. I love those well.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
I have to tell you I looked when I came
across this in research. I have to read you the
small sampling of what concertgoers saw that weekend. Bubastank, Puddle
of Mud, Ludacrous, Journey, Foo Fighters, y Clef, Jessica Simpson, Pole,
The Strokes, Jason Maraz and Bob Dylan.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
Makes perfect sense to me. It's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (53:36):
We did that festival. I think it's like a food court.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (53:39):
I remember standing on stage looking out and not being
able to see where the audience ended. It was just
a sea of people and it was pretty surreal.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
Well, now you guys have your new song, your first
in eight years, and it is a return to your
roots of sorts. Maybe not the costumes, uh, but it
is a jump back into punk.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
How do you sleep? I love it. I made sure
I listened to it several times before I talked to you.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
What made you guys want to get back into the
studio or are you always in the studio.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
You just decided to release this one.
Speaker 4 (54:16):
We like you said, we put something out into twenty eighteen.
I don't know. I feel like, I don't want to say,
we've spent a lot of time kind of searching, like
trying to find our way back. Like you said, it's
like a return to punk, which ironically I would have
never described as punk, but we've been described as punk
early on. I can only speak for myself. And from
(54:41):
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen through like twenty twenty two, there
was just a lot going on in my life personally,
along with COVID and all this other stuff you know,
that I had to deal with. It wasn't the most
you know, it wasn't the best environment for me creatively.
(55:05):
And during that time, Dan and everybody else in the
Man they continue to write and send me, and I
kind of feel like once I got through what I
needed to get through, I felt I don't want to
say inspired, but I just felt kind of normal again.
And there's I mean even musically though, like you've gone through,
(55:29):
we all have like phases of like you want to
do a little bit less this and less this, and
and I kind of felt like me coming back to
feeling like I'm in a normal creative space linked up
with you starting to write these ideas that kind of
reminded me of earlier stuff and they were kind of
(55:49):
inspiring for me, and honestly were just like, let's let's
record these, let's demo these. So he sends me the idea,
I sing stuff over, I send it back. We go
back and forth until we have this kind of pseudo song.
And the producer who did a few of our records,
Howard Benson, who's also Calbassies. He's a friend of ours
and he's over the years, he's always checked in with
(56:10):
us and what do you guys? Do you guys have anything?
What do you got? And we've sent him stuff before
and honestly, a lot of times he's like that's cool,
but maybe yeah, maybe like this and it never would
pan out. But we sent him sometime last year, we
sent him these ideas and he was blown away. He
was really excited about him and so it just kind
(56:32):
of made sense for like, let's yea, let's let's let's
record these songs. And then it got into like, well,
are we gonna do an album or are we gonna
do a song. We kind of just settled on let's
just do one at a time or a batche at
a time and see what happens from there. So we
ended up recording four songs, and uh, I I don't know.
I'm really stoked on the way they turned out. I've
(56:54):
detached myself from the the outcome.
Speaker 6 (56:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (56:59):
Do I like the song? Want to listen to them? Yes?
Do I like the process? Do I like everything? Yes? None,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
I win, we win out. Everything else is out of
my hands. And so we have more songs that we
want to record, and maybe we'll put them all together
and put it like a proper album.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
Yes, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
I'm forcing Dan and Doug to hang out for just
a little bit longer. We dive even deeper into hoop
astank lore and play a listener's voicemail detailing their own
embarrassing teenage moment. It drops this Friday on the dedicated
teen Beat feed, and listen a lot is happening over there,
including my new recap podcast for Dancing with the Stars
The Next Pro with co host Valschmerkovsky. All you have
(57:40):
to do is search for teen Beat wherever you get
your podcasts and subscribe. That way you never miss another moment.
And send me your voice memos. I want to hear
your embarrassing moments. Record a voice memo no longer than
two minutes and email it to Teenbeatpod at gmail dot com.
You may just hear it on the next episode. You
can hear the first new song from hubistank in almost
(58:02):
a decade.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
How do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Wherever you stream music and catch them this summer on
the road if they stop in your city, like Northridgeville,
Ohio on August fifteenth, or Gillette, Wyoming on August twenty ninth.
Check dates now on houbastank dot com. Thank you guys,
eight one eight forever. Teenbeat is an iHeart podcast produced
and hosted by Danielle Fischel. Executive producers Jensen Carp and
(58:27):
Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer
and editor Tara Sudbach. The theme song is by mar Coppus.
Yes that Mark Coppus. Follow us on Instagram at Teenbeatpod.
That's institutes all that's okay, becaus no one here is.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello friends, I'm Daniel Fischell, and it's time again for
teen Beat, a podcast where I interview interesting people who
have done interesting things in an attempt to uncover the
realities of their youth before the spotlight, because we know
our teenage years can act as a blueprint for who
we are today.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I am a perfect example of this.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I spent my entire youth playing a type a success
obsessed overachiever, and in turn.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I grew up to be Well, maybe I'm a little
too on the nose here. I see it this way.
I gave you my childhood.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's time we hear yours, and this week I'm excited
to learn more about a band that not only helped
define every good mixtape I've ever made, they also helped
define my zip code. Born from the inspiration of punk
and ska, the band with.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
The Worst and absolute best.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Name in music has sold a staggering total of ten
million albums worldwide. Their sophomore album, two thousand and three's
The Reason, has a title track that rivals the OC
Tony Hawk's pro Skater and Von Dutch as the most
peak why two K things I can reference? And now,
over thirty years since forming, six studio albums later, they've
(01:38):
released their first new song in eight years, How Do
You Sleep, a throwback to their punk roots, and I
for one love it. This week's teen Beat guest the
Pride of Ventura County's Border. It's Doug rob and Dan
Estren of Hohobastank.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Welcome, gentlemen, you're having us the Pride of County.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I was like, that's so accurate.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
How does that border?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
The Vinor County border is like up the street from
my house? Yes, so right?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Really right there?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Nailed it?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, pinpoint it to the to the location. Thank you
so much for coming on the show. A fair warning
up top. I am legally forced to start with eight
one eight talk whenever a fellow Valley kids are on
the podcast. So you are a Gora High School alumni, correct,
and I am a Calabasis graduate.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
In some circles we might be considered.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Rivals, chargers, coyotes.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Exactly, but we can all agree that tearing down the
Agora Man eight was absolutely criminal.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
We just recently happened, right, and I drive by that
every day going to the gym. Yeah, and I still
look at it going, do you have? I had so
many memories there.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So many memories there.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah. Yeah, pretty cool parking lot though, now is it?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, the commons. They just tore down the theater in
the Commons.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Right. That being said, I'm not one of those guys
that or that that just was like things need to
stay the same. It's yeah, I don't fight the tide
like totally. At some point when all this construction is done,
I'm sure to look great and the people who grow
up with that will then see that as their core
memory and then they can complain later on when when
(03:21):
it gets sort out correct.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
I do you remember we rode bikes through through the
movie theater the Yeah, on a Friday night. We were
out with like fourteen friends on bikes in Agora and
had nothing to do. While everybody was out at parties
getting drunk and stuff. Us and fourteen of our friends
rode bikes through the side exit while people were coming
out straight down the hallway, through through through the Agora
(03:44):
Movie Theater and out there.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
The other door.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Movie were you guys straight edge?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
We we didn't like clean it not yeah, not like.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
We didn't wear it on our sleeves. You know, we
had friends that partied and drank and did drugs and
stuff like that, but we weren't the ones doing it.
You know. It was like we just a choice, like we.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
Just decided we got off on like going to these
high school parties and everybody was kind of getting wasted,
and we would be watching people dancing and doing whatever
they're doing, and we'd go over to the thermostat while
they're sweating and we'd start to.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Turning what's going on?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, we we just pranked everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That's a perfect prank because it's completely harmless, you know,
like it's a funny prank. Everyone suffers a little, but
it's no one really gets hurt.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
That's really good calories.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Nobody suffers, nobody concern of their health.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Okay, I will get this out of the way.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Did you hang out at the Tapanga mal.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
For pangam all nice? That's awesome. You know you have
to go everywhere with her every fall marriage. That's a
good job.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Doug actually grew up in Agora and I grew up
in Calabasis, but I went to Agora right so I
grew up right behind the high school. Okay, and so yes,
I was at the Panga Mall back when they had
an ice skating rink.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah, And I was like in prior to that, I
lived all over the valley. Like my parents moved to
a girl when I was in third grade, but we
lived in Canoga Park in Tarzana like it's in Sino.
It was everywhere and same with him, like I remember
going to the Topanga Plaza. Yep, you don't have a
little jingle for Topanga Plaza.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I will, We'll do it again.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
With the ice skating rink, yeah, and the Orange Julius.
And it wasn't there, I would say. One of my
older brothers worked at the Pup and Taco. Like on Topanga.
It was across the street from what was like a
skate park or some kind of big slide. I remember,
being really young.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Now there was a big golf like was like a
golf and stuff, golf and stuff type of thing slide.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Over where the village is on the corner of Victory
and Topanga. I don't remember if there was, but it
closed down when we were really really.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I saw Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones and the
Temple Doomouth to paying a theater. So going way back, No,
going way back.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I'm still devastated that the Rubies is gone.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Dude, wasn't I was talking about this in the.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Car just today. You were talking, we're talking about Rubies.
Who I was talking?
Speaker 6 (06:15):
I had I had seen something recently on Instagram that
you had done, and you were talking about places in
the valley and you brought up Rubies and Rubies and
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Your thing because you stopped eating red meat. And that
was one of the few places besides Fat Burger that
served turkey burgers. So that was like, it was like,
if we're going to go eat, it was Fatburger or Ruby.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
So I went to Rubies when we would come home
from tour or even even a little.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Bit before that. I was there like three days a week.
I had their sweatshirt, Like I.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Still have my Ruby sweatshirt. I actually have art in
my house of Rubies on the pier.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Should be do be down at Rubies or something like that.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Absolutely, And when I go to I'll go to Orange
County just to go eat at Rubi's same. And if
you drive by that promenade area and you look up
on there still there, it's still It's kind of says it.
I shed a tear every.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Time I drive by.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm telling you, how could we not keep Rubies alive
in the valley? Like, I feel like we need to
do this back, maybe this podcast. If there's one thing
I want to be known for is bringing back at Rubies.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
One place I know you both also hung out was
the Cobalt Cafe, which was a now defunct music venue
in Kenoga Park, somewhat legendary early stops for bands like Afi,
Less than Jake and Yes Hohobastank. Tell me about the
Cobalt Cafe and what it meant to you as.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Teens, I think the honest answers. Back then, there was
there wasn't a lot of places to play semi locally,
you know, like if we wanted to play shows that
weren't high school parties and stuff like that, we had
to go down to the city. Yeah. And it's difficult
to get a bunch of teenage kids to go down
(07:57):
to Hollywood all the time, you know. Yeah. And I
don't know how did we stumble across that as a
place to play, but I remember however, it was it
was like, oh, you know, this is cool. It's kind
of like a living room, like we're playing someone's living room.
Let's just do it. It's a place to play. And
the shows themselves turned out to be so much that
were like house parties, like the bodies flying, all the kicking,
(08:18):
kicking stuff off the ceiling, and it was solow budget
and like do it yourself. It kind of fit the vibe.
So it was cool. But I don't know how we stumbled.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
Well, when we were going to when we were in
high school, there was a band that was a little
bit younger than us that had a show there, and
I remember going to see them play there, and because
I lived off a valley circle, I would just shoot
up paying a sar them way and there it was.
And I went and saw them there and I and
it was at that point it was it was kind
(08:52):
of nice. It was a nice place where you go
and you walk up and you get your latte and whatever.
It was a book in a book or you know.
There was seats everywhere that were spread out and it
was it was clean and nice and h I just
remember kind of going like, oh, okay, there's a there's a
venue to a degree that's kind of close in This
(09:13):
stage is about this high really really crappy PA system,
horrible lights system, no lights, so.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
We would just stay out of the back and flick
the lights off and off.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah, there was lights witch lights.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
We would joke around with other bands, going, who's doing
our lights tonight? Yeah, so it would be the opening
ban of the band behind us, like just to push
the fader up and down like during like climactic moments
during the set.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
But we just ended up needing places to play, and
we didn't really care where we played, and it was
close enough to get a lot of our friends from
school to come out.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And it was super cheap, you know. It was like
like bucks five bucks get in or something like that.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
It was, you know, and we became friends with the owner, Dave,
who I'll talk to you still every once in a while,
and uh, yeah, it's a bummer that it's not out
there anymore. They still actually do Cobalt presents shows at
different locations throughout the valley now, but he had to
close it down I think during COVID or something like that,
and now it's like a flooring store because I go
(10:12):
to cabarett as the Sandwich at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Love cavarettas. Gosh, you're missing out.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
It's really good.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I'm not into the bread.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It's too hard. Yeah, I feel seen.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
My husband loves it.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I'm more of an Italian deli guy.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I love that place too. I will also the
one thing I will say about is they have great cannoli.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
I haven't tried, but the times that I would, well,
the guy that I think Owens.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Used to used to work at cabarettas from what I've heard, Okay, and.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
I do like their sandwiches, but they have don't They
have two different breads there.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You can get the crusty bread or the softer bread.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, but the softer bread is still hard.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
No, you're right right, And he shoots out.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The back exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
By the way, every time we talk about that, I
complained about it. I bleep out on the podcast because
I don't want to disparage the right.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So it's kind of a running joke that I have
like a terrible sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
No, I love.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
I would go to Cabarettas and they would just like, hey, Dan,
so do you want that? They knew what I wanted
all the time. Yeah, it's my spot.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I love I love that feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You two met at a Battle of the Bands, right,
has enough time passed that you guys feel comfortable admitting
whose band was better.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
We didn't meet in the battle, but that was our
first performance together. Okay.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
You know what, There's things about his band at the
time that I that I looked at and was like, Wow,
there's things about them that I really like that I
would like our band to be more.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Like advice versa. Like from my perspective, I was, I
was playing bass in the band. I'm not a bass player.
I was just a hack guitar player, okay, And I
was filling in to play bass out of Fomo basically
because my closest friend at the time was the singer
and he was an extremely charisgmatic guy. Like that's that's
(12:08):
why we won the Battle of the Bands because of him.
He was a popular dude, extremely funny, very energetic, all
that kind of stuff. But I remember looking at at
his band and going, oh, these guys are like layers,
like they all like they're so good at what they
do and being it's kind of the same thing. Like, God, dude,
(12:29):
I wish I wish my BANDEW had to play as
well as they did, like we're just covering Rage against
the Machine and Alice and chain stuff, and you guys
were doing like.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
We were writing and coverings. But I just remember not
not ever feeling like it was a competition because growing
up idolizing like the Seattle bands, you know, they all
seem to have this camaraderie between them that I always
envied and and I just liked having friends that were
(12:57):
in bands. And his lead singer was also a close
friend of mine, and that's kind of how Doug and
I met. It was the bridge, And yeah, I really
liked just having other bands that and that that same
thing at Calabasas with the Audio Bank guys, you know,
with the Boyds Andnnesingers or whatever. You know, we just
kind of grew up with that around and before anybody
(13:17):
had record deals. And it was nice seeing them at
parties at their parents' houses. Yeah, coming over and listening
to our new songs and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It was right. It wasn't it wasn't a competitive thing.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
It was it help.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Around us.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Yeah, it was everybody kind of supported each other and
and I felt there was a it wasn't competitive, but
there was a healthy competition I don't. I don't want
to say like like we're trying to beat them, but rais, yes,
I was, Like I definitely think everybody kind of pushed
each other to expand a little bit, like get a
little bit better, a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You were part of a San Fernando Valley boom of
bands in the late nineties to sign record deals, which
included the Apple of the Calabasas I Incubus. What role
did they play in your careers and getting the attention
that then led to a record deal.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Honestly a huge one. I think it's like you said,
I was, factually, but also just from my perception, they
always seemed a couple. They were a couple of years
ahead of us, you know, like they started the band
a couple of years before we did. They were, they
were and are just amazing musicians. And at the time,
(14:52):
I didn't see music as a legitimate career, like I
grew up listening to early on Van Halen and and
I don't know, the people that were professional musicians that
I enjoyed were like Virtuo, so the best of the best,
(15:13):
like pro athletes, Like you don't accidentally become a pro athlete,
you know, what I mean. So it was the same
kind of mindset for music for me. So I loved it,
but I understood that I didn't have the the means
to get that good. I just wasn't that disciplined. I
didn't have it. And then in high school when Nirvana
(15:37):
and the whole Seattle thing happened, it wasn't like all
of someone said hey, I could, I could actually do this,
but it did expose me to another side of music
writing and songwriting that was like, oh, you don't have
to shred over everything too to use this as like
an avenue, And so that kind of planted the seed
(16:01):
and maybe maybe maybe there's something I could do. But
then Dan, like you said, grow, you know, knowing these
guys forever and being around them prior to their record deal,
I kind of feel like they were the biggest local
band for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah, and you know, eventually playing shows with them and
becoming friends with them and their their brothers and stuff.
When they got a record deal, which was I think
like in the little late nineties, ninety eight, ninety seven
somewhere around then, it was probably a moment when I'm like,
oh my god, like they're actually doing it. They're doing.
(16:36):
They're that's what they're gonna do. Holy, this is is
this like a thing? Like is this an option?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Like this something we do?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah? Is this? Is this a legitimate way to go
through life? So it wasn't like they all of a
sudden made me go, now we can do it, but
it definitely made me go, oh my god, dude, this
is It's not a pipe dream, you know, like they're
they're actually going to do this, and so it was
very inspiring on that level for sure. Again, I kind
(17:05):
of gave you the confidence like, oh, if they can
do it, then we can do it.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And then, like I said, along with opening for so
many shows, playing so many shows with them, I mean
Dan used to just to go and tech for Mikey
for fun, you know, just to get into shows.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
And yeah, I mean I went to right, so so
did I and so so I remember them and they
were always you.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Know, like the cool dudes, like the cool guys.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And I kind of got to know them a little
bit after that, became friends with the guitar player, and
we did We weren't really we were just kind of
starting off as a band, but I knew that I
wanted to play music and start a band. And they
were a local band, just playing local shows. And I
would take my video of my VHS video camera with
me everywhere, and so I would take I would start
(17:54):
to go to their shows with them and help them
out with their equipment, kind of like a road a
road before they were anything whatever. So I have tons
of old videos of them playing like parties and.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Just really cool places all over the place.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
And so I got to, you know, stand on the
side of the stage and watch them and hang with them,
drive the shows early, help them with their equipment, just
chat with them, go to their houses and watch them rehearse,
and and like he said, it was inspiring, and we
were we were all into the same types of bands
at that point. We were inspired by the same types
of bands, which I think ended up being the result
(18:33):
of the sounds to a degree.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I mean, it's the same same musical influences, the same
you know, skating and beach lifestyle type. The environment, you know,
it shapes shapes what you what you sound like. And
so yeah, it was, it was. It was a cool time.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And over at your high school, the origins of Lincoln
Park were also born.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Did you guys know Mike Shinoda growing up.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, yeah, okay. I was like, what is it your yearbook?
One of those yearbooks he signed, like basically, oh, you're
going to be a famous musician. I'm going to do
your artwork for you.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
So high school, he wasn't a musician. I mean he was.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
He was a musician, I guess. I'm sure he played
piano and whatever he did, and he I feel like,
I remember him being into hip hop music back then,
but he was a grade below me, and uh, we
were friends. I knew him, and same with the guitar
player Brad. I was tight with Brad. But I remember
graduating high school. You know, everybody signs the yearbooks and
(19:33):
see whatever, and he drew a picture in my yearbook
and wrote something about, you know, I'll buy your albums
when you get famous whatever, and you buy my t
shirts because he was he was doing art.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
He was more known for being an artist.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah, And it's cool. We run into those guys every
now and then over the years, and you know, over
the years, he will always he always tells the same
story about how I protected him from a bully in
high school. And I don't full remember, but I kind
of remember he Yeah, he was just he was cool.
And I think there was like these you might remember,
(20:08):
these like wanna be gangster type of kids that were
in a Gore and Calabasis, and I mean, but some
of those kids actually committed murders.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Some of those kids have about them.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yeah, And I went to high school with those kids,
and some of them I think might have used to
mess with him or something. I don't remember what it was,
but I was a year older and just thought they
thought it was lame, and I stood up for him
one time or something like that.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
But but yeah, did.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You see him in Portugal?
Speaker 6 (20:39):
We were just in Portugal doing a festival with them,
and I didn't talk to him, no, but I they
were there.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah. But the last time I saw him was last year.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
We did a festival together and we hung out a
little bit with them backstage and chatted.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
And it's cool.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean, Mike made us some beautiful art as a
wedding present that's hanging in our house. He combined all
of the things that Jensen and I love and painted.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Them on us. Rubis is on there, wu tang is
on there.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
It's a it's quite a mashup, but it's it's very
special to us. So Mike is Mike is close and
special to us. Did you guys ever think of changing
your name? Like, what other options did you have for
band names?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yes, the short answers, Yes, we ubis Tank was perfect
for a bunch of eighteen year olds like playing you know,
house parties and SKA metal punk music. You know, it
was perfect. But by two thousand, when we had a
record deal offer, we didn't actually sign as Hoopsink. We
(21:46):
just signed as the individual members because it was kind
of like, all right, we have Yeah, we're a decent
We've we've spent the last five years, you know, building
up what we have. But now potentially it's going to
go Nash or global. Now's the time too, If we're
ever going to switch it, now's the time.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Did you guys think of that yourselves or did the
label say something to me?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I want to say, no, we we did smart. We're like, okay,
this is this is we've you know, time to shed
the baby teeth, you know. And then we we played
a show with the Whiskey and our and our guy
was at the show and at some point in the
show they were they were the audience was chanting who
(22:29):
stag show's over. So we're in the dressing room and
he comes up and he just, you guys, cannot change.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Don't even think about it.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
And I'm like, I remember even poopooing it. Then we're like, dude,
forget it now. We have this conversation later because it's done.
We're not we're changing the name, and though uh, that
never happened, we were convinced to keep the name, change
the spelling of it, but keep the pronunciation the same.
(22:57):
And yeah, like you said earlier, it's the worst and
best name ever.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
It was never anything that we were super proud of.
It wasn't like we were like we got the name
the opposite and it still is the opposite. It's we
we realize how stupid it is. And I've always said
that it's Doug and I actually don't have any tattoos,
but it's kind of like your first tattoo that you
might regret, of course when you're lady.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I had a butterfly tramp stamp that was sitting pencil, Like, yeah,
I had it removed. I mean that kind you know, yes,
that that was my first tattoo.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
That was like, if you're an our guy convinced you
to keep it.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I had no saying it.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
So it's yeah, it's it's kind of like that, except
for we kept our tramp stamp and.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Exactly. But eventually, yeah, like eventually those armbands are going
to be cool again or if they're not for sure.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Some people think it's the coolest thing ever and it
makes the most sense, and others I think it's the
dumbest thing ever, and we're like, we get it, we
get how stupid it is. If you like it cool,
If you don't, we don't run.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It doesn't It's just a name. It's just a name.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Also, sometimes something salient is more important than something good,
like Topenga is the most salient name, maybe of any
TV character ever. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the
name Topanga for a person is great. But like I,
(24:30):
I will be known for the rest of my No
one will ever forget to Panga from boy me like
that show, Like that's.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
So it how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
So we don't fully know, We don't know the true story.
Lots of different people have taken credit for it. The
most commonly told story, and certainly the funniest, is that
Michael Jacobs, the executive producer and showrunner was driving from
Hidden Hills to Burbank where we were shooting, and they
called and were like, we need a name for this character.
(25:01):
And he was at the one oh one in Topanga
and he looked up and said to Panga and said,
had they called me one minute later, she would have
been to Sodo.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Right, that's.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Tampa. So that's the story told. But there there have
been like four or five different people who said, that's
not true. I created the character. I came up with
the name.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I would say, don't trust those people.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, just go with the decider.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I like the more like I saw it and that's it. Yeah,
the other ones like I created that, Yeah, create that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The one thing I'll say is that Topanga was a
flower child. She had very hippie parents, Jedediah and Chloe.
Her father was a luthier, luthier luthier. And so the
idea that Topanga was started because Topega Canyon was a
hippie hangout is is what when people say, like it
was thought out for me, this character, this flower child,
(25:55):
what would her parents have named her? And they picked
a place where maybe she would have been conceived. That
was kind of other backstory.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
So it's just coincidental that you were there in Calabasas,
going to Calabasas High School where to Panga Canyon was
right up the street.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
I always was like there there's a connection somewhere, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
No, that was just coincidental.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I was that I was cast as the person living
in Calabasas and that the Panga Mall was my mall.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yeah, very kismet. You know, like things just work out
the way they're supposed to.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Do you remember your worst early show, Like you guys
have formed a band and now you're going to go
perform somewhere and just it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Oh are you always awesome?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
No, No, We've had a lot of horrible shows, I'm sure,
but some of those ended up, in hindsight, were probably
none of it matters.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I think horrible show is all it's.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
All here, like Summerfest, which we call Yeah, like.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Is it horrible because there's nobody there? What if? What
if you performed beautifully for nobody? Does that make it
a bad show? I don't know, Like back then it
might have because it's all ego. I'm getting a little
too like uh deep about this. Yeah, Well, it's because
we've been doing it for so long. At some point
you have to you know, all all all shows are
(27:30):
not created equal. At some point you have to figure
out what it is that makes you comfortable, Like is
it how well you do or how well you feel
you've done. Did you sing well? Did you perform well?
Did you did the audience like it did they? Was
it large but unengaged? Was it small but totally locked in?
(27:50):
Like what do you prefer? And I think you just
have to take the wins from that. I was just thinking.
The first show that we did though that I felt
awkward was pretty early on. It was the show at
the Las Palmas Theater and that was only like our
second club show ever, Like we'd only done like house parties,
and we did a show at the Roxy, and I
think our second club show was at the Lost Palmas Theater.
(28:12):
And I remember thinking the show at the Roxy was awesome,
lots of people, like the bar was set. Yeah, And
then we go play this other show at a different
club not too like long after, and there was nobody there, right,
And I don't necessarily remember thinking like, God, this sucked,
but I I just when you said that, I was
(28:33):
like I remember going, oh, okay, it's not all it's
not all good.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Like I think one of the worst shows that we
had would have been in the height of everything, and
and it was when we did the MTV Music Awards
the VMAs, and that was because we get you know,
you go to do these things and there's rehearsals. You're
gonna be on television performing and it's live. There's these
(28:59):
rehearsals day before, and you're getting all the sound dial
then and you're getting we run in your monitors so
we can hear everything that way, so there's no monitors
for us to hear ourselves on stage.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You're I don't even think there's a amps, right or I.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Don't remember, but you're relying on everything that's coming through
here in your ears. And we went through the rehearsals
the day before, dialed everything in.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
It was great.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
And then we're up on stage the day of at
the VMA's. You guys are going in two minutes whatever
it is, We're like, okay, cool, hell yeah, we're all
going about TV cool of the MTV Music Chords, and
then it starts and everything was off in ears, so
we couldn't hear what we were doing, which was hard
for all of us, but specifically probably you because you
(29:41):
had to sing. I could at least be like pop
one out and kind of hear a little bit what
I was doing, and it was challenging because you're trying.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
To it was terrifying. Yes, Live Music Award show. You know,
we're not even playing a full song. I think we're
playing like ninety seconds of something and boo. We walk
out and it's I think it was at the arena
in Miami, and so it's all just noise and live
audience and stuff like that, and I'm like, du something
doesn't feel right. I'm you know, and I immediately realized
(30:13):
that nothing's working at all, not even like, oh it's
too loud, it's just not working. So I'm i pop
my things out and I'm trying to go by what
I'm hearing, right, but there's all the slap back and whatever,
and basically it was like flying blindfolded, and you know,
I did the best I could at the time, but
but it was a wreck and it was ninety seconds
(30:36):
of pure terror, anxiety and yeah yeah to which like
I spent the next decade plus trying to work through
to be honest with you really, like, dude, any any
type of a little hiccup in a performance, especially if
(30:57):
it was like on radio or on TV, like that,
would this right? That that thing again? Yeah? And the thing. Honestly,
I didn't care that much. I just didn't care. I'm like, oh,
it's ninety seconds. It was bad, but ever like that.
But people are just ruthless, you know. Yeah, And I honestly,
if it happened now, I would be able to go like, yes,
I don't care, like I don't care, I don't know,
(31:18):
this is what happened. I don't care. But at that
point in our career, that point of me just being
a human being, it was too I didn't have enough
confidence to shield from the outside opinion. Yes, like like
I said today, I would, I could care less if
my pants fell down in the middle, I wouldn't go
whatever it would I laugh about it. But at that
(31:40):
time I was too vulnerable to that. Like I still
was leaning on what people's opinions were of the band
and oh my god, you didn't think I sounded good? Like,
oh yeah, that was a tough one to get through.
That was that was probably a moment performing in this.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Band did it ever make you like refuse to wear
in years, like, no, I can't trust that.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
I don't want to go. It didn't. It just made
me go like on to. What it really did is
it made me be less harsh on other people. It did.
It made me go like, you know what, Yeah, dude,
this is a complicated you know, industry. Performing is not
uh you know, it's it's it's an art. There's supposed
(32:22):
to be humanness and yeah, and if you mess up,
that's fine, that's fine. Whereas in the past I might
have been like, oh, that person sounded terrible. They don't
have time.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, not even that's just been.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Kind of dumb and immature about it. And uh, it
really made me go like, oh, dude, Like now I'm
on that side of the fence. Like so it's one
of the reasons why I'll never accept singing the national
anthem anywhere, because I've been offered a bunch yeah, and
I've said no every time and they're like why, Like
it's gonna be Monday night football, We're gonna fly on
to Really, like Howard Benson was just like, Oh, we're
(32:56):
gonna we'll all go to We're gonna do the whole thing,
And like Howard, if if I nail it. If I
nail it, it's forgotten by kickoff. Yeah, if I get
up right, it's immortalized. It's literally a lose lose. There's
no win in this at all. And I don't even care.
I'm not even like it's something I've to do. I
just don't want to do it. So one of the.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Things I say often that I am thankful gets better
with age is balancing risk versus reward.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I'm so good at it now, I'm like, what's the reward?
What's the reward here?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
What am I?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
What is the thing I would hope happens? And like
you said, you go out there and nail it and
guess what it means nothing to nobody except for you.
And then the risk, like you mentioned, you botch the
national anthem. It's talked about for a few days and
it lives forever on the internet, and you end up
in clip shows as top ten worst.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
You know, no, this this is.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
A certain amount of because there's so much media in general,
in all forms that even the worst might consider the
most embarrassing. Whatever mess up just doesn't have a life
span anymore. I know, doesn't like, I don't know if
that's good or bad, plus the shamelessness of society in general,
(34:11):
but yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's like you can mess
up so bad now and think, in the moment, this
is I've basically done something so harmful to myself or
career whatever like that, and realize if you just stick
your head out the window, nobody's paying attention. Nobody's and
even the ones that are tomorrow they will be paying
(34:31):
attention to something else exactly. Like, it's kind of crazy
how how short the attention span has become, even for And.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
We have a friend too who says that the only
people who will talk to you about it, like the
people who will bring it up to you are the people,
like the people closest to you, because but he says,
it's not fair they basically have Google.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Alerts for you on their phone, like you know them
so well.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
It's being fed directly to them as if they had
a Google alert. That's not what the population is like,
no one knows, no one gives it.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I wanted to list a few other bands from your
class or groups who've just played Warped Tour around the
time that you did maybe even names that have been
mentioned in the same breath as Hubastank at some point.
And I want you to tell me who has the
better name them or Whobastank Okay, alien ant.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
Farm Hm, who has a better name?
Speaker 4 (35:27):
I think that's a clever name. Well, I always thought
it was a clever name. We love those guys, but yeah,
I don't know. Yeah, I absolutely love those guys.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I'm not trying to start anybe for those but.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
I've always felt like their name was a little great.
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
So we're gonna go with Huba Stank on that one.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I don't like that. It's three words, how about that? Okay, right,
I'll take I'll take Hubasnank.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Okay, Bowling for soup another three word.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Another band that I love, like personally, but I've never
liked that. I've never liked that name. Okay.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
We had we did a show with them not too
long ago, and Jared, the lead singer, wanted to do
a TikTok with us about that, like who has the
dumber name? And we ended up not doing it, but
we will, Okay.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
So that's another thing that like, I don't spend any
time thinking about, Like I don't see those guys in
go bowling for what a silly name.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
At some point it's just Jimiroquai or Humble Wamba. It
just becomes the name. Yes, as stupid as it may sound,
when you say our band name, I kind of I'm like,
not because it's you.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
It's just hearing our name. Sometimes.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
Like if I run into somebody and like, oh, you're
playing a band, what's what's I'm just waiting. I just
I'm waiting for it, like, oh do you play I
play guitar? What's the band called? And it's either they
either know it right away, like really, or it's what what?
Speaker 5 (36:54):
And I say it again?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Oops?
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Mistake No, no, like like Scooba Tank Yeah, yeah, who
was thank you know.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
What about I wrestled a bear once?
Speaker 6 (37:07):
That's a bad that's a band. Yeah you just make
that up now. I think who was saying is yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
We're getting easier. I set my friends on fire.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
So I'm not a big fan. See, I don't know
these bands personally, and I'll just go out. I'm just
going to say that they're better than us, so that
don't hurt any feelings. Okay, all these bands that you're
saying they're better than us, But I'm not I've never
been a fan of bands with long names like long. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Like I'm just like, dude, come on, come on, we
don't give us a mouthfault, right.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Gardening not architecture.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah. See it's a really hard one. I mean, like
I said, these are great bands. They're better than us.
They're more successful, they're better looking, all of it. They're
all of that. But I'm just never been a fan
of the long names like that. But like I said,
who cares, it's my bass called Huba say anything.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I did notice a sentence that I think might be
the most y two k group of words ever uttered.
And it really only works with your name. Cuba Stank's
first single, Crawling in the Dark, was featured in the
PlayStation two rollerblading game Aggressive Inline.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
I think you just portal.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Can you tell our younger listeners how important it was
to have a song in a video game?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I didn't know at the time, to be honest with you,
I didn't. I remember our manager at the times going like, yeah,
we're gonna put it in this and this and this,
and I'm like why why ye who cares? Like and
then you know, time passes and we see kids at
shows going, oh my god, that's like my favorite song
in this game. Yeah, I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
I always thought when people would say that they heard
our song in that, I always thought to myself, like,
it's just not as cool as it being in Tony Hawk,
which it wasn't in, And I'm like, if it was,
it will never be No.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
No, inline skating will never be as cool as skateboarding.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That is my favorite video game, Tony Hawk of all time.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I played that.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Game, dude. I just had a flashback of of the
sound you play that in the back of the bus.
Just imagine, just close your eyes and just here, I
think the PlayStation coroller stopping and you don't even realize
what you're doing. All these numbers, the diets and all
these tricks and everything.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Such a great The first one is such a great game.
I still have it. I think it was on like
PlayStation two.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
It was PlayStation two.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I could I There were a couple of days when
I was not working and I was like, oh, I've.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Played this for nine hours.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
For nine hours today, it was as if I had
a full time job.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
We would have competitions to see who could get more
as commoos. We wouldn't even play the game. That's what
we were doing. Pass control over the next guy. Okay,
you do, you got to do ten in a row.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Like I also realized while you were recording your second album, Dan,
you were seriously injured in a mini bike accident. Can
we know all the details about that please?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
We had just actually finished recording and did we even
release the record yet?
Speaker 4 (40:20):
No, it was in between, like we had recorded it
and mixed it and mastered like the artwork that time
between our job being done and the record label now
taking it and setting up like marketing and something.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
Yeah, so there's a few months window. We had just
started this tour. We were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
We had to go early in the morning to a
morning radio station to go do an interview Doug and
I and we had our radio rep pick us up,
who we ended up becoming friends with, and so we're like, hey,
after the interview, can you take us somewhere cool whatever?
Speaker 5 (40:53):
And I don't know. We ended up at this meet
at a place that sold mini.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Bikes, and Doug and I and our bass player and
well we all four of us, we bought these these bikes,
these little mini yeah, sock and rocket like gas powered.
You look like clowns riding them. And we bought them
that that day.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
You're a tall guy.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
I thank you.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
I actually still have the bike. It's in my garage.
And uh so we bought these bikes. I remember being
super excited because I had seen them in like movies
when I was a kid. Went back to the House
of Blue was that we were playing, and we were
cruising around all day long on these things, like riding
around the venue, the parking lot, and then we'd head
back to the tour bus and the they had like
(41:41):
a rope tied off where the buses were so that
fans wouldn't walk back there, although you could kind of
dip underneath them and go. And we we would just
be riding and as we were going back to the bus,
we would kind of dip our heads like this and
go under the rope and then put the bikes under
the bus, go do soundcheck whatever played the show, finished
(42:01):
the show. I'm in the back playing Tony Hawk or
something like that of the bus eating pizza or something
like that, and I hear Doug yell like Dan, we're
going for a ride, like let's go, let's go ride
around the parking lot. And I'm like, no, I'm cool.
I'm playing video games. He's like, let's go, and I
was like, all right, let's go. Totally sober went out
for this ride. We weren't wearing helmets. We're riding around
(42:22):
going fast, just being idiots whatever, and then slowing down
like you're coming to the end of the ride, you're
going really slow. We went to go dip under. I
went to go dip under the rope, but I had
kind of forgot that they had that They had tied
up a second rope underneath it that was a little
bit lower, and he was right behind me, and I
remember it it hitting me right across the right here,
(42:44):
and it threw me back and I hit my head.
But I remember thinking to myself as it happened, I
just bought this motorcycle. It was one thousand dollars. I
don't want to scratch it. And I held the bike
up to not scratch it. And I hit my head
and it didn't look that bad, and we weren't going
super fast, and yeah, you see people fall all the time,
(43:04):
it didn't seem that that serious.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
You know, he gets up, gets in the bus, time
passes getting a headache. Are Honestly, I didn't you know,
I didn't think anything of it. And then are our
tour managers like, we should go get this checked out
before we go to the next city. And it was
getting progressively worse and worse and worse, so we ended
(43:26):
up going to the er. It was getting really it
was just me and the tour manager. Yeah, and then
at some point it was getting really bad, like he
you know, like basically writhing on the bed and going
through that. My head is hurting so bad. So they
X rayed him and there was like a little fracture
(43:48):
and a blood clot forming, and so they said, yeah,
you need you need to get it to be brain
surgery right now. You need to release the pressure on
this thing. So yeah, I uh, I feel like it
was either me or the tour manager was someone who
gave the green light to cut them open. Doc You're like, yeah,
let's let's do this, and yeah, the next day they
(44:10):
had a head shaved and recovering from head surgery. Youth Carolina.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
You know, when you have a night out of drinking
and like a day or two later, you're reflecting on
that night, and it's it's you remember bits and pieces
of it. It's blurry but whatever. And so that's kind
of how my memory is of that night. And we
were driving to the emergency room in a cab before
uber and so like, and we had told that. I
(44:37):
remember my tour manager was like, can you step on it?
Can we go fast? And we got pulled over by
the cops. They told the cops what happened, and they
didn't care. They still wrote us a ticket. Got to
the hospital, and I just remember being in this room
and as super it was very, very blurry, and wasn't
feeling well at all, and my head just started getting
worse and worse, and uh, I remember I had to
(45:01):
I had to pee really bad, and I couldn't get
my belt undone or something, and I'm like complaining about it,
and I remember You're like helped me out, whatever it was.
And I think I peed in a trash can or
something like that is what I don't remember, but I
kind of remember that. And then I remember the doctor
coming in and starting to tell me what was going on,
but I couldn't really understand what was going on. And
(45:23):
then I just remember Doug saying, they need to do
surgery on you right now, something something like that, you know, yeah,
And I was just was like, I don't care, just
get me out of this pain. Please get me out
of this pain. And then I don't know that this happened,
but I remember, I'll remember was something going over me
like this, and then I was out and my hair
was long, a little bit longer than it is now
(45:44):
at the time, and I remember waking up to them
shaving it, and they shaved only half of it off,
so I had half head of hair that was long,
and then half of it was bald. And like he said,
I woke up the next day and there was a
tube sticking out of my head. I just remember opening
my eyes and the band guys and the crew guys
all walked in and started taking photos around me. I remember,
(46:10):
I mean, I was out of it, but I was
still always kind of joking around. And I remember my
mom and my sister walking in and they lived in
Calabasas and they flew out, and I just remember they
walked in and I was like, wow, okay, did.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
You remember that you were in South Carolina?
Speaker 5 (46:26):
I knew where I was, yeah, but I wasn't.
Speaker 6 (46:28):
I was on morphine and I wasn't thinking clearly at all,
and I just I remember that kind of and I
had to stay in the hospital. I don't even know
if you remember the first.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
Thing you told me, the first thing he told you.
It was like, She's like, Doug, Dug, and he's like,
you know, I have something like that. I forget what
the context was, but I'm like, well, what I'm in closeness,
like I got it tube. Yeah, so it was all
cath He wanted to tell me.
Speaker 6 (47:01):
You know, there was always something like that, like in
the worst times ever, there's always like a little bit
of humor, you know.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
That was the cool thing. He wanted to tell me that.
Speaker 6 (47:13):
And I remember, I knew he would get a kick
out of never being like messed up and going like
I got to tell somebody nobody, but yeah, I was.
I ended up flying home and we canceled the rest
of the tour. I had to go home have photos
of me with this huge scar that goes like this
across my head. Half my head bald and the other
(47:34):
half is long. And I needed a haircut. So Doug
came over to my house and he shaved the rest
of my head and did a mohawk and we ended
up taking.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
All the hair that.
Speaker 6 (47:48):
We took the hair, and we scooped it into a
into a bowl and then and then evenly distributed all
the hair and then hair sprayed out of it, and
then we all wore it.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
I have the photos.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
I vote it's a Doug wearing and me wearing it.
It just looks so stupid.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Yeah, and uh, I ended up ended up healing and
I have no feeling on the side of my head.
Still nerve damage, yeah, nerve damage. And and if if
I was to shave my head, you'd see this scar
right here?
Speaker 4 (48:20):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Where where helmets kids?
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Because even going slow you know crazy.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Well on that.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Second album is the reason a favorite of all time
for me and many many others.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Where did the inspiration.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
For that song a bit of a ballad come from?
Speaker 4 (48:52):
When you say a bit of a ballad that makes
me go like, that makes me think that you're implying
guys should have a ballad, you know, like you know
like which, which honestly was a common question or misconception.
On our self tiled album, we had some mellow songs.
We just never released them. On the independent album we
put out on our own prior to record deal, we
(49:14):
had some songs that were more mellow. It wasn't so much,
at least from my perspective in the band. I feel
like it was just like, oh, when we put out music,
there's going to be a certain percentage that's probably up
tempo and heavy, and there's maybe one or two songs
that are mellow, just for balance, almost, you know. So
(49:34):
when we recorded it, it was on the album. That's
kind of how I saw it. I never saw it like, guys,
we just did something in fact post, you know, recording
the album and mixing, you have the pow wow with
the producer and the record label and the management stuff
like that, and you go around thinking like discussing what's
what's going to be the single, possibly a second single.
(49:58):
And I don't think anybody chose that song, not because
we didn't, okay, but it just doesn't. It was the same.
There was a really mellow song on the first album
called to Be with You in my Head. Well that's that,
that's this song for that. It's just a mellow kind
of a breather on the album. Good song, proud of it,
(50:18):
but never had any intention or foresight to see what
it would do. So, yeah, that's inspiration wise, It wasn't
something different than what we did.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
When did you know it was sticking?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Like, oh my gosh, this song is really sticking for us.
Speaker 6 (50:41):
We knew that there was something about it. Well, the
record label really liked it. We had to go to
some big meeting with all like the big wigs at
the record label and listen to the record with them
at this huge table with everybody sitting around it. And
when it got to that song, just like he said,
it was just another was proud of the song because
I felt like the album had some like diversity, you know,
(51:04):
heavy songs, hit template songs, and slow songs.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
By the time we got to the second.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Chorus or last chorus, they were singing like there was
the heads of the company were like singing the chorus
already and.
Speaker 5 (51:19):
Had just we're just really excited about it. We're like,
we got excited because they got excited, and we're like, okay, great,
they're they're talking about this.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
I don't know, I mean, I don't know when we
realized it was.
Speaker 4 (51:34):
There was a moment one of the first tours that
we did on that album was Lincoln Park's Mediora tour,
and there was a moment, I want to say, towards
the end of that tour we started where that song
had become a single, which we had fought against, smartly
(51:56):
fought against and lost. We lost the battle for the
changing the name, and so maybe they're maybe not what
we were talking about.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
Just don't trust your instincts.
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, and so we started playing it and I want
to say it was Atlanta. I could be wrong. I
remember playing the song and the reaction was like ridiculous,
Like it's nothing I'd ever seen. And we'd been a
relatively successful band up to that point, you know, like
we had some successful songs and uh so I was
(52:28):
used to the reaction of oh, that's the big single.
But I started seeing this thing like oh dude, this
is huge. And then playing with playing shows with Nikbis
and these other bands, those are the type of the
guys that were be like, would you guys show this week?
Would you guys sew this week? You know, like they
would keep track of numbers with other bands, yeah, like,
(52:50):
oh we did this this week, And at some point
we started passing them. And that's when I started going
like oh dude, this is this kind of out of
our control now, Like.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
It's you mentioned Atlanta, I wonder if it was music
Midtown two thousand.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
I definitely remember those festivals. I love those well.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
I have to tell you I looked when I came
across this in research. I have to read you the
small sampling of what concertgoers saw that weekend. Bubastank, Puddle
of Mud, Ludacrous, Journey, Foo Fighters, y Clef, Jessica Simpson, Pole,
The Strokes, Jason Maraz and Bob Dylan.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
Makes perfect sense to me. It's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (53:36):
We did that festival. I think it's like a food court.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (53:39):
I remember standing on stage looking out and not being
able to see where the audience ended. It was just
a sea of people and it was pretty surreal.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
Well, now you guys have your new song, your first
in eight years, and it is a return to your
roots of sorts. Maybe not the costumes, uh, but it
is a jump back into punk.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
How do you sleep? I love it. I made sure
I listened to it several times before I talked to you.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
What made you guys want to get back into the
studio or are you always in the studio.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
You just decided to release this one.
Speaker 4 (54:16):
We like you said, we put something out into twenty eighteen.
I don't know. I feel like, I don't want to say,
we've spent a lot of time kind of searching, like
trying to find our way back. Like you said, it's
like a return to punk, which ironically I would have
never described as punk, but we've been described as punk
early on. I can only speak for myself. And from
(54:41):
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen through like twenty twenty two, there
was just a lot going on in my life personally,
along with COVID and all this other stuff you know,
that I had to deal with. It wasn't the most
you know, it wasn't the best environment for me creatively.
(55:05):
And during that time, Dan and everybody else in the
Man they continue to write and send me, and I
kind of feel like once I got through what I
needed to get through, I felt I don't want to
say inspired, but I just felt kind of normal again.
And there's I mean even musically though, like you've gone through,
(55:29):
we all have like phases of like you want to
do a little bit less this and less this, and
and I kind of felt like me coming back to
feeling like I'm in a normal creative space linked up
with you starting to write these ideas that kind of
reminded me of earlier stuff and they were kind of
(55:49):
inspiring for me, and honestly were just like, let's let's
record these, let's demo these. So he sends me the idea,
I sing stuff over, I send it back. We go
back and forth until we have this kind of pseudo song.
And the producer who did a few of our records,
Howard Benson, who's also Calbassies. He's a friend of ours
and he's over the years, he's always checked in with
(56:10):
us and what do you guys? Do you guys have anything?
What do you got? And we've sent him stuff before
and honestly, a lot of times he's like that's cool,
but maybe yeah, maybe like this and it never would
pan out. But we sent him sometime last year, we
sent him these ideas and he was blown away. He
was really excited about him and so it just kind
(56:32):
of made sense for like, let's yea, let's let's let's
record these songs. And then it got into like, well,
are we gonna do an album or are we gonna
do a song. We kind of just settled on let's
just do one at a time or a batche at
a time and see what happens from there. So we
ended up recording four songs, and uh, I I don't know.
I'm really stoked on the way they turned out. I've
(56:54):
detached myself from the the outcome.
Speaker 6 (56:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (56:59):
Do I like the song? Want to listen to them? Yes?
Do I like the process? Do I like everything? Yes? None,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
I win, we win out. Everything else is out of
my hands. And so we have more songs that we
want to record, and maybe we'll put them all together
and put it like a proper album.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
Yes, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
I'm forcing Dan and Doug to hang out for just
a little bit longer. We dive even deeper into hoop
astank lore and play a listener's voicemail detailing their own
embarrassing teenage moment. It drops this Friday on the dedicated
teen Beat feed, and listen a lot is happening over there,
including my new recap podcast for Dancing with the Stars
The Next Pro with co host Valschmerkovsky. All you have
(57:40):
to do is search for teen Beat wherever you get
your podcasts and subscribe. That way you never miss another moment.
And send me your voice memos. I want to hear
your embarrassing moments. Record a voice memo no longer than
two minutes and email it to Teenbeatpod at gmail dot com.
You may just hear it on the next episode. You
can hear the first new song from hubistank in almost
(58:02):
a decade.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
How do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Wherever you stream music and catch them this summer on
the road if they stop in your city, like Northridgeville,
Ohio on August fifteenth, or Gillette, Wyoming on August twenty ninth.
Check dates now on houbastank dot com. Thank you guys,
eight one eight forever. Teenbeat is an iHeart podcast produced
and hosted by Danielle Fischel. Executive producers Jensen Carp and
(58:27):
Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer
and editor Tara Sudbach. The theme song is by mar Coppus.
Yes that Mark Coppus. Follow us on Instagram at Teenbeatpod.
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