Live From LA - Part 4

Jordan speaks with producer Adam Lasus and actors Charlie Saxton and Tim Jo about their evolving relationship with their work.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
From Burbank, California. This isthe Dirtbag Culture Hour. I'm your host,
George's along with Adam Lasts today,Charlie Saxton and Tim Joe, Musicians,
actors, entertainers, lovers, brothers, haters, haters too. We've

(00:23):
been hating. That's all we doduring the commercial breaks. We we just
boost and pump each other up duringthe segments. But we just just nothing
but hate during the commercial breaks.But please please patronize each and every one
of our advertisers that are so graciousenough to spend their hard earn add money

(00:44):
on a lowly Saturday afternoon radio showhere on ninety seven one the Freak Welcome
back in TC's out this week.He's getting a much earned break. In
addition to talking about Metallica, nextweek, we are going to discuss the
sojourn that has been my health journeyof what it's like to remove a kidney
stone when your pipes is just toonarrow. It's a student Next week to

(01:11):
hear more talk about Yeah, yeah, Yeah, and we'll have a li'll
feature music exclusively from the narrow Urethrason Cathitter Records. But yeah, this
is our last segment today and asif it hasn't been wheels off enough,
this is a that's what we liketo call the wild card segment. It's

(01:32):
not this is just what I justcalled it, but this is going to
be the wild card segment. Butuh, we're here with as I mentioned,
Charlie tim and Adam. Adam lazisa producer that Michael Stipes once said,
Adam invented indie rock in his basementin nineteen. Well that was my
mom, not Michael Stipe. ButI'll take it. I'll take it,

(01:55):
Adam. I've always wanted to askyou this, and I don't think we
ever have. We've had the discushing a little bit about college rock versus
indie rock. But somewhere alight,ten fifteen years ago, people in suspenders
and large hats started saying hey ho, and every member of every band had
a floor tom and for some reason, that's what indie rock became. And

(02:17):
then a year later it was TaylorSwift. That's indie rock. I guess
so, And that was a sadmoment. But it's all come back now
because Pavement's on tour and I thinkthe kids realize what the real indie rock
is and it's come back really strong. It's actually been exciting for me because
a lot of bands I did inthe nineties, with them still being available

(02:38):
and reissues coming out and whatnot,have come back. Some of toured like
Helium, all the stuff I didwith them in the early nineties came out
on reissues on Matador. Go checkout The Dirt of Luck. One of
the best rock and roll records madein the decade of the nineteen nineties.
For sure. Love that record.So fun to make. Mary Timmany a
genius songwriter and guitar player, andI learned so much working with her and

(03:00):
had such a good time making thesecrazy experimental, medieval indie rock records that
a cool description are great. Ihave a when you walk into my studio,
you see there's the artwork and aframe. It's actually the vinyl uh
stuck in a frame of Dirt ofLuck, and people kind of look at

(03:22):
it. And it's so funny becauseit's right when you walk in and people
go, wow, did you makethat record? And it's like, isn't
it pretty obvious that you know you'rewalking in, I've got the record right
there, I'm putting it up toyou know, just because I love it.
Yes, I love it. Iguess I would have it even if
I didn't make it. But yes, I did make that record, and
it's the first thing you see becauseI'm really proud of it, and we
have a discussion about it, andit's just so cool because I've had hundreds

(03:44):
of people say that's one of myfavorite records. What a cool setting record,
And it just makes me feel goodbecause it's one of those things that's
out there, it's still around,it's streaming, and it's it had its
own impact. It wasn't a hugesmash record, but it was a record
that bands and musicians UH loved right, And that's that's the kind of record
I want to make, absolutely totally. Speaking of the Lilies is another band

(04:08):
that has that same kind of trackrecord of being a band's band, Yola
Tango, which you mentioned you've workedworked with before, and the list goes
on and on. Plus you've workedwith people like PJ. Harvey, Ben
Harper. Yeah, man, it'sit's it's really cool. I forget that
once I start saying that about mybest friend, it starts feeling a little
tingly. Oh it's fun, it'syou make me tingly no matter what.

(04:31):
Yeah, they're they're just people.But it's been fun to have a dream
when you're a kid and you havea four track. Hey, I want
to make real records. I wantto do it, do it for real.
I want to live, you know, see what it's like. And
then you end up on the otherside where it doesn't feel any different.
But you know, you walk outand there's Joan Jett playing your guitar on
a record, and You're like,oh my god, it's Joan Jett or

(04:54):
PJ. Harvey for that matter,because I'm a fan too, you know,
and I'm a fan of a lotof these people, so that that's
extra cool, Like a, yeah, it's great and it keeps me going.
And I I have a funny PJ. Harvey story where we're recording a
record where I was engineering. Shewas producing an artist, and she said
to me. She turned to meat one point after a couple of days,

(05:15):
and he's like, wow, producingis really hard. I've only ever
been on the other side where I'vebeen the artist. It's exhausting. It's
and you know, I've really gotto pay attention and I really have to
work hard. And she was doinga great job, and the record came
out great, but it was justso interesting to have someone just, you
know, that's such a rock starand made so many records just come out
and kind of say that to you. Yeah, and yes it can be.
You're you're the cheerleader, You're you'reholding it down. It's ten hours

(05:38):
of paying attention and I go homemany days I'm exhausted. I'm excited,
but I'm definitely like, wow,man, that was that was an awesome
day. But my butt is kicked. Yeah, I feel that two hours
on the radio makes me want togo do a ten hour, ten hour
album session. I'll tell you thatmuch. But maybe we're getting the swing

(05:59):
of things a little bit. We'recoming up on year two here in a
couple of months, so only tobe preempted by you and te college football
will probably be taking our place prettysoon. But we're happy go Mean Green
and Tim and Charlie. I've alwayswanted to ask this of actors who are
always also musicians. I've seen I'veplayed with some pretty high profile artists,

(06:21):
and no matter what, at somepoint you're in a fifteen passenger van,
whether it be from a nice hotelto a nice, big venue, you're
kind of in a van and orat the you know, at the best
at times you're on a tour bus, which is luxurious and beautiful and nice,
but you're kind of in a bunk, you know, And so point

(06:42):
being rock and roll bands always kindof know how to be rock and roll
bands. The Strokes are all willalways kind of be the Strokes where they're
setting in a room playing a boardgame because an engineer is, you know,
off, putting up mics. AndI know that there are very unglamorous
parts about being on movie sets invery long days that are taxing. But

(07:02):
to get a TV show made,to get a movie made, there's hundreds
of people working their butts off andpeople that the both of you as on
screen talent never really even get to, uh you guys, never even get
to meet, you know, inthe credits roll. A really long time,
I've always thought it's been really interestingthat like, and I'm not going

(07:25):
to say better or worse or anything, but interesting that at a certain point
during the day, Christina Aguilera orEddie Vetter or whoever they're in like a
smelly hockey locker room waiting to goon and a lot of times. Uh,
you know, I can't imagine that, you know, the brad Pitts

(07:46):
of the world and the people likethat in their trailers. You know,
I'm sure it's I'm sure it's toughto slim it in a trailer. But
what I'm getting at is it alwaysfeels like there's there's this there's this thing
about being in a band. It'spopulist or something. It's kind of always
with the people. And I knowthat like movie stars and the such can

(08:07):
be detached from that, but forthe people who make their bread and butter
of acting in series or in smallerbudget things and like that, does it
kind of feel like that populous thingthat you get in a band a little
bit too? If that makes senseat all. I know that took a
really, really long time to askthat question. I don't know if this
answers the question. But let's saythe first few series that I did,

(08:31):
I did feel a very strong bondwith with the other series regulars because we
were in this together for forty fourepisodes, so you form of a mini
family. I will stay with mymost recent job, the posture that I
took was that I'm just a hostI'm a host for guests to come in,

(08:52):
and I just want to make surethat anybody because I'm going to be
the one stable person here week toweek or day to day. But there's
gonna be a new actor here,there's gonna be a new somebody here.
So yeah, so my focus wasmy focus was less actually about bonding with
my castmates. And I don't knowwhy. I don't know. I don't

(09:15):
know if this was an evolution ofmyself or if it was a sidestep,
but I didn't focus so much onbonding, not to say I didn't bond,
but I made it just like I'ma host here. I'm not number
one on the call sheet. I'mnot you know, number ten, I'm
it doesn't matter what I am.I'm just a host. And that sort
of helped me survive this season withouthaving to think about too much else.

(09:37):
Yeah, very cool, And mysatisfaction wasn't actually I didn't want to get
too much out of the experience andI didn't want to get too little.
It just made it very stable forme, right. Yeah. The vibes
definitely trickled down from the top.So it's like if you have people like
Tim said that are the series regularsand are warm and welcoming to the new
people and I and similarly, I'vebeen on both sides of the point where

(10:00):
it's like you show up on ashow that's been running for years and years
and you're working for like a weekor so. You definitely feel like the
new kid in school and you're kindof hoping to have someone approach you being
like, hey, what's up.Welcome, and sometimes they do and sometimes
they don't, and it's it's it'sa matter of just having the people that
are more so at the top,you know, making you feel like you're

(10:24):
part of the team. But yeah, similar to Tim's point, it's you
are a host and you want tomake these people feel welcome in a new
environment. It's very cool. I'vealways thought it's so interesting that like the
biggest bands in the world, theydo have teams of people around them,
but you know, with you two, it's the four guys on the stage,
and in a movie it's hundreds ofpeople. And so in my pea

(10:46):
brain, I've always thought there's there'sa detachment, but I know that everybody
has their crew and everybody has theirfamily, and it's just it's a fascinating
thing to know that the two biggestfacets, well maybe two of the biggest
facets facets of entertainment, not videogames notwithstanding, are kind of similar vibes,
and one of them has humble belongingsor humble roots that kind of start

(11:09):
in a van or in a dingyclub, and the other one it can
be a small stage or a theateror something like that, but can it
can also be as something as magnificentand as big as like a red carpet,
you know. But I know bothindustries have people that who say,
please, don't look me in theeye. So yeah, I don't know.

(11:30):
I have to preface it every timebecause I don't know how comfortable or
uncomfortable you are talking about it.But can I ask what it was like
having a scene one on one withRami Malick? It was awesome. He
was a very good scene partner.I still remember we did a rehearsal once

(11:58):
and he kind of like just likeput his hands on my shoulders he and
just said excellent, excellent, AndI was like, okay, cool,
yeah, very cool. Yeah.I've been doing it a while too,
I've been around. I don't know, but you know, to have someone
of that caliber, you know,it's it just you know, it felt
great. I will say however,in that particular film that we were working

(12:22):
on, there was a moment thatI was not prepared for where Rammy leaps
across the table and grabs me bythe shirt collar and kind of like shakes
me. And it had happened likea few hours into the scene that we
had been working on, so likewe had kind of like built up a
bit of a relationship, and soI thought he was messing with me,

(12:46):
and so he does the thing wherelike he leaps across and like he grabs
me by the neck and he's justlike staring at me, like super intensely.
And there was a split second inmy mind where I was gonna like
blow him a kiss, just becauseI thought that that was like a bit
that he was doing. Yeah,and I was, I swear I was
like point two seconds from doing it. But I was like, oh,

(13:07):
I think I think I should notblow him a kiss right now. I
think this is supposed to be partof like a scene. And like,
you know, my genuine the initialshock and fear which actually ended up in
the take, it is totally realbecause I was not expecting for it to
happen. But then you know,once you know, you hold like you're

(13:28):
doing with the radio show, youhold for a few seconds for the cut.
He was just staring at me,and I didn't know what to do,
so I was, you know,I was kind of just like,
maybe i'll, like, you know, lighten the mood a little bit.
Yeah, I'm very glad I didn't. Yeah, no kidding, no kidding,
because I assume that's the one thatmakes the made the exactly yeah.

(13:48):
Right. And so then what whathappened was then like they're like, oh,
that's great, that's great, let'sdo that. Let's do that.
And I was like, okay,I guess. But then what ended up
happening was I was like anticipating itbecause I was like, it's you know,
it's still like you're getting jacked upby the shirt collar. Yeah.
And so then it went from himbeing like excellent, excellent, to him
going, well, don't anticipated bro, yeah, And I was like,

(14:11):
dude, I'm sorry, but isit dependent on the director and their specific
styles, on how much rehearsing eachscene you do. Are there sometimes where
like it's they really wanted off thecuff and they just assume you're going to
know your lines and you're blocking oris it sometimes is it just beaten,
you know, beaten into you thatwe're gonna do it pretty much this same

(14:35):
this same way every time. There'sa lot of factors depending on that,
like one of them being like howmuch time do we have to get the
scene? Okay, like what's theschedule like for the rest of the day.
But I would say for the mostpart, yeah, it's all about
the spontaneity that comes with the performance. Like that's where the good stuff is.
Okay, So you know, youobviously you want to have some sort
of idea of the blocking and therussal mostly for the camera crew and for

(14:58):
the for everyone else trying to dotheir job, so that like you know,
the boom operator knows where to holdit above the frame line, and
you know, the focus puller knowshow to make the shot look exactly.
Everyone's working exactly, and so youknow, but you know, as as
actors, it is nice to beable to have have the scene kind of

(15:20):
fresh and you know, be ableto do the real spontaneous kind of work.
But it's also you know, youwant to make sure that everybody gets
to be able to do their jobcorrectly. Yeah, did you meet Smashington?
I did not get to meet Schmanshington. I did ride by his awesome
trailer in a golf cart. Thatwas pretty cool. I think I did

(15:43):
see him at the end of theday, now that I think about it,
I think I saw him walking tohis awesome trailer. But very cool
I get to say hello, yeah, Tim. In your experience working on
series for television, is there isis there a big depart or in that
from a feature length and maybe eventhe schedule or knowing that like there's there's

(16:07):
a you know, there's X amountof time to do this, and we're
on a schedule because there's this manyepisodes per season. Is it a big
different type of process and how youhave to go into your brain as an
actor to work that stuff out.I suppose just like maybe this is like
a simple way to put it,But I feel like doing a series almost
feels like you're punching in for anine to five, okay, and then

(16:30):
doing a film feels like I'm goingoff the summer camp. Oh so you
also but film, but in thesame way with the film, you make
these summer camp friends, you mightnot ever see them again, but you
become the best of friends. Butyou also realize, I might even if
we live in the same city,I might never see you again. Yea,
I might not even want to seeyou again. Yeah, like this,
this summer romance was enough. Yeah. But yeah, having a if

(16:56):
you're lucky enough to have a series, I do feel like it's one of
the most stable kind of schedule.You know your schedule, you know what
you're doing for the next couple ofmonths. So that is a dream to
have that scenario happened for your career, right Is there a particular preference or
is there something that you enjoy enjoymore? I mean I think, well,

(17:21):
I think it's just going to summercamp is always fun. Yeah,
so for me, even doing shortsfeels like a little bit of a summer
camp. So, uh, it'staken me twenty years to divorce myself from
the economics the finances of my art. But if I had to choose,
I would choose anything that really singsto me and fires up my creativity and

(17:45):
right now, uh that kind ofstuff. Is this next thing that I'm
doing with Charlie that has got meso fired up and financially is it does
it scale like does it equal tolike a series? Not at all,
But you know we're not in itfor that at all. So the joy

(18:07):
of the excitement that is coming tothat that we get to do this is
super exciting. Awesome. Yeah,we all hit a point somewhere along the
way where we realize that the happinessfactor and the bank account level, like,
they don't always work congruently with eachother. And I know that the
least happy I've been in times orthe times where the gig was paying the

(18:29):
most and vice versa. Yeah,yeah, so I know that it can
swing both ways, and uh,I know that it must work that way
as well, Adam with a budgeton a record, if there, if
there is such a thing anymore.Yeah, I mean, strangely enough,
it's been a lot of artist drivenrecords for I'm going to say the past
twenty years, and that's been greatbecause then you're working for the artist and

(18:52):
you're they're coming to you because theytrust you and like you and want you
to do your thing, and theylike they know what you've what I've done.
So that's been great because then itcan be tricky because the artist is
still your your boss sometimes and sometimesyou have a boss that's real stable,
and sometimes you have a boss that'snot so stable. But uh, I

(19:12):
just have fun and and and anddo it, and you're on this journey.
And then you know, like allof us in this room, we've
all done these different things together.We've been on this cool journey of doing
different things, and then they mergetogether. You have a little bit of
a blend of like, oh yeah, like that session became that session,
and this thing became that and it'sit's great. It's it's fun to have
that comfortable thing and get to kindof be your own boss, but also

(19:34):
get to have the challenges of makingthese very different records because everybody wants to
make a different kind of record.So it's fun to see like, hey,
I want to make a record that'sthis meets this and and and you're
like, huh, I've never thoughtabout that. You can even do that,
but you have to do it.And conversely, I have a thing
sometimes where people have all these preconceivednotions of how the record is going to

(19:57):
be, and I'll say to myself, well, I think it's to come
out very different than that, andthey're gonna like it, and I'm gonna
let it go astray awesome and watchit and watch it they'll enjoy it.
Because you can't control art. Youhave to make it right. No,
that's the absolute best, man,That's it sounds a little bit I wouldn't

(20:17):
know a thing about this, butit sounds a little bit like having a
kid, Yeah, in a sense. And then we treat I actually had
after having a kid. I realizedI need to treat my art, my
acting as I would a child,and which also means I would never ask
my children to ever provide me withanything other than I just wouldn't ask them
provide me for anything. So Ihad found out that with acting, I

(20:41):
had been asking acting to give memoney, resources, clout, more opportunities.
And I realized, if I canrelease my acting from any of my
own personal desires, then treat itlike a child and let it do what
it does and support that, thenI can possibly continue doing this for a
little bit longer. Dang, thisis like the best therapy session. Highly

(21:06):
suggest everyone getting themselves a radio showand also making a record and doing both
of those things in the same day. But listen, guys, it's been
really really incredible to have you guys. This went really great, and a
shout out to TC. He's usuallymy my anchor and gets me through these

(21:26):
things, but I love trying todrive the bus a little bit on my
own, so did great. It'sthanks thanks well, you guys have great
stories, and let's I don't knowwhen, but let's make this happen once
a year or something. We'd loveto have you guys on and as always,
thanks for tuning in to the DirtBack Culture Hour. I'm a Jorge
and we'll see you next week