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April 28, 2025 9 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Booker, Striker Somber, How are you great?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:04):
We're doing fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
We need to drop the ease from our name.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
So what would be strike sd R y k R
b O O k R.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Yeah, and that's would work because it would go with
Somber somb well period are well?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, that's just my Instagram. Oh that's the answer.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, it's just so O M b R. We got
to get with this, dude. How are you nice to
see you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Dude, I'm great, Yeah, I'm great.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
We're talking about off camera. So I'm born and raised
in LA He's lived in New York all over the country.
Where are you from?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm from Manhattan Lower East Side. Wow?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
And so growing up in that area where you fan
of like bands from the East coast, West coast, bands
from the seventies two thousand, like, well, who are bands
you love?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Radiohead?

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Oh, Jeff Buckley, those those are like probably my two
biggest influences.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
So how did a band like Radiohead end up on
your radar?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
My dad?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
You would always play okay computer around the house.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
The best album on top of it, he said, my
two favorites, the best Radiohead album and Jeff Buckley Laskabye
is the greatest song ever written.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Maybe Lever you should have come over.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's pretty good too.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I guess was there a Radiohead.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Song that you would put on repeat when your dad
was singing, like, you know what, this one sticks out
and it's stuck in my head.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
He would always have no surprises, playing a lot. But
I'd say, like today, like my personal favorite would be
like fake plastic trees or all I Need or.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Love all of those.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
When I think of your neighborhood, and I did a
lot of playing in your neighborhood. You know, seventeen years
I lived in New York and most of it was
spent in your neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Is it hard to.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Make music when there's so much chaos you can't really
get loud, you're on top of people when you live
in the Lower East Side headphones, I mean, is that
essentially how you're making everything?

Speaker 4 (01:53):
No, it's very hard, and I didn't last long, so
it was very relieving to move to and like, you know,
not be right, have someone on the other side of
the wall of my studio. So yeah, it's it's very
difficult to record in a New York City.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Apartment.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
What was happening with you mentally and in your life
that music went from maybe a hobby to something that
you thought you could do professionally.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, I mean I was. I was making music.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
I was a I started when I was like the
Somber Project when I was a sophomore in high school.
And then my junior year, I made a song called Caroline,
and I thought it was the best song I'd ever made.
And I had never posted my music on the internet
or anything. So I posted it on TikTok one day
and then I went to bed, and then the next

(02:46):
morning I woke up and you know, everything realized it
was like the overnight thing, and it kind of gave
me the platform and got me signed.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
And Yeah, did someone have to push you to do that?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Or is that more of a I'm just screwing around?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Let's that was just like I'm tired of going to school.
I don't I don't want to, you know, have a job.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
I just want to do music as my job.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, did you have any nerves or any sort of
anxiety when you first put the song up on the
internet for people to listen, judge, enjoy all that kind
of stuff?

Speaker 4 (03:21):
So much anxiety, bro, And yeah, I was just like
I was really scared of what people at school would say.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Hmmm.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
That was like my biggest fear. And then even today,
like whenever I released something, dude, it is like.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
The scariest What did they say?

Speaker 4 (03:36):
I don't know, Like some of them were like some
of them were very supportive, and then some of them would, like,
you know, make funny comments or whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
But that's just a part of it.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Like when when you're trying to do anything ever, put
yourself out there, ever, someone's gonna try to take you
down because they're insecure, and yeah, just a part of it,
and that means you're doing the right thing.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
We went to a very cool high school, like Guardia
High School, So to move out here and to ditch
school and be done with that, you got to be
happy about that.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
So lucky.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
I have a question about Caroline before we ask about
back to Friends. Is that a song that you just
made in your bedroom by yourself, nobody helping you.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I'm the only writer and producer on that in
my childhood bedroom at my parents' house.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Will you change that?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Sorry?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Will you change that?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
No?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
No?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Never?

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Back to Friends now my biggest song today just me
as well. And where did you record that? In my
LA home studio and then I took it into a
real studio to put live instruments on it. Sound City
Studios and Van Nuys Okay, sound City.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, there you go an in my neighborhood and Sounds
City of the Dave Girld documentary of course with the
nave board in there.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
That's true. That is true.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
So you're now living in Los Angeles, you're two years
in And I get this so often as someone that
you know spent like seventeen years in New York. I'm
about seventeen years in Los Angeles. Now, what do you like?

Speaker 4 (04:59):
I've really like the weather here, it's great, like year round,
it's amazing New York. I like just like the culture
better and like the being able to walk everywhere. And
I think, you know people, it's the people are a
bit different. Yes, it's it's like refreshing to be in
New York because you never know who you're gonna run into.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
And yeah, do you have a driver's license and do
you drive in La?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:23):
I have a driver's I failed my test before I
got it, but I finally got my license.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
That just proves that he's a New Yorker because all
New Yorkers failed their first test.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
But a writing test or the driving test that you failed,
Like I was going to say, you should, you should
really really flag both of them to be a true
New Yorker.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
So congratulations, I like that.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
So what so you just announced, actually I think it
was today an unbelievably cool looking big tour including a
show in la at the l Ray Theater in October.
How are you feeling, is you're sitting here with us
right now about that?

Speaker 4 (05:59):
Dude, I'm so excited. All I've ever wanted to do
is tour and being able to do it. I'm just
I'm happy. That's all I can say. What's dodulations by that?

Speaker 5 (06:07):
What's the dawn thing about that tour schedule? Because I
look at it, it's like cities like Pittsburgh that you
probably never have been to, and then you look at
places in different countries and such. Have you been to
some of these cities already or are most of them
foreign to you?

Speaker 4 (06:21):
So I've already like done like a full North America
tour twice. So I've been to most of the cities,
some new cities, but it's just so exciting, Like every
new city, like I'll find the new thrift store, like
vinyl store, and it's like my favorite thing to do
when I'm on the road. Do you write when you're
on the road.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
I try.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's very do really, and it's difficult because of the
schedule or just trying to get some clear thoughts to
put down.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, the schedule.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
First of all, there's no time and basically like the
only time I have time is after my show, but I'm.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Just exhausted, right.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
But on off days, I'll usually go into a local
studio in the work till till like four am.

Speaker 5 (06:56):
When you write and keep notes, are they actual notes?
Are they vocal notes? Are they voice messages?

Speaker 4 (07:02):
Like?

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Is there a hodgepodge of kind of everything?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, it's all the above.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
We were with Jerry Cantrell from Alison Chains and he
showed us his phone. Was it four thousand, two hundred
notes he made for himself for song ideas? How many
do you think you have saved up out there?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Should I check?

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Now you say that, I'm actually very curious. Okay, let's go, so.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
You keep them under notes?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Then I'm guessing seven. I'm saying seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
How do I see the total?

Speaker 5 (07:29):
I'm gonna take the under under that, how do you
see the total? I think when you click on the.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Action seven hundred thirteen?

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Ohoh pretty good.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
No way, it's not seven thirteen. Come on, that's kind
of a weak. I thought it would be like in
the thousand.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Jerry Cantrell sixty years old. Yeah, just fine, trust me.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Wow, okay, So what is your plan? I'm just cured,
like in LA the rest of the day today? Do
you go like go to in and out? I don't
know if you're vegetarian, Like what what kind of stuff
do you do you.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
I'm gonna get it in and out that. I'm gonna
to Disney World. Then I'm gonna go to Universal.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
He's gonna operate the tram ride.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I'm gonna bey the Rainbow. He's got to get some
pizza the Rainbow.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
The Rainbow is the best. Do you have a lot
of friends out here?

Speaker 5 (08:18):
You've only been out here for a couple of years,
and it is it is a little different when you
moved to LA because it is so spread out, You're
forced to have friends. In New York everyone around you.
You're like, we got to be friends because we're on
top of one another.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
So did you find it hard to make friends out here.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Well, it wasn't very hard because they moved out here
with with like music, friends from New York that had
similar stuff going on, and then like, yeah, my community
is like a lot of my good friends are not
from LA and people I met before LA. But yeah,
I have a great artist community around me, super nice people,
and I love it.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I'm very happy.

Speaker 5 (08:50):
It's it's wild before this, and we're not going to
give addresses or neighborhoods or anything, but all of our story,
our LA stories, we all lived within a couple almost
like New York, a couple of hundred yards from one another,
which is weird.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
When you sit down and talk about these stories, it
is much like a New York story connected. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Wow, just hanging out with you right now, I feel
so enthused a young talented human.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Yeah, making songs in their bedroom that are doing incredibly
well that we're playing on our station, playing songs you're
streaming around the world to huge numbers. Thank you Somber
for hanging out with us. For you, Thank you guys,
you got it.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Cheers to you. Cheers
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