How does Badfish, the Sublime tribute band, continue to capture the music of a timeless moment, while maintaining sold-out shows and growing popularity for over a quarter century? For founder Scott Begin it’s simple — have a blast while staying true to the music of Sublime. On Wednesday, Nov. 20, one of Key West’s most popular bands returns to the Key West Theater. Britt Myers catches up with Scott Begin on the Florida Keys Weekly Podcast to discuss how a new generation of fans is embracing the unique ska-reggae music of Sublime, some of his favorite memories from the road and why he loves stopping in Key West to perform for fans. Limited tickets remain at thekeywesttheater.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another Florida Keys Weekly podcast. I'm your host,
Brett Myers. Happy to have you back, uh, here on
our show, uh, for you listeners out there on WKWFAM,
our FM listeners 103.3 FM. I wanna thank you for
being early risers and checking in.
Of course, all of our podcast listeners and fans, you
know where to catch us at at Keysweekly.com. You can
(00:20):
find all our podcasts there, also Spotify, Amazon, Apple, all
podcast platforms at the Florida Keys Weekly podcast. Uh, this
show is brought to you by OMG Overseas Media Group.
I wanna thank them again for making this happen. That's
the local media marketing group for digital marketing that brings
your website, social media.
Uh, all the good stuff that you need, you don't
have time for, they have the expertise to do. So
(00:42):
once again, uh, Overseas Media Group.com is bringing you this
show today. Speaking of this show today, um, as everyone knows,
I'm a big music fan.
I get the luxury it's one of the perks of
the job of having some really cool people come on
this show over the years, and most of them I
get to see here in Key West. I will say
this sincerely one of my favorite shows over the past
(01:04):
decade that I get to go see is the person,
the band that I have on today. It's never a
dull moment. It's always awesome, it's always energy and every
local and if you're listening, you know this it's it's
one of those shows that everyone just looks forward to
each and every year.
The cool thing about this is it's a cover band,
and when I say it's a cover band, it's a
little different than just saying, oh, it's a cover band,
(01:25):
this is a cover band that I think really set
the bar, it set the trend, uh, to show what
cover bands can really do become just more than than
what you might, uh, generically think is a cover band,
selling out big arenas, selling out shows, becoming kind of
their own identity even though they are covering a band
and carrying on the legacy of a band, uh, like
no one else really can, and that is none other
(01:45):
than Badish, a tribute to Sublime.
If you've been down here a while, you've seen them,
heard them, you know how amazing they are and with
me today from that band is Scott Bejean. Scott, we
are excited and honored to have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm very happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, and we had a little trouble. You had to, uh,
you had to drive out about 10 minutes to make
make sure we had good reception today, uh, so are
you up in the Northeast today, Scott? or are you
on tour right now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, I'm uh northeast, yeah, I'm in, uh, in Rhode
Island right now as we speak, and, um, yeah, we're
getting some good weather here actually.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Good for you. That's awesome. Well, we're we're excited to
get you down here, uh, for the show at the
Key West Theater, uh, on November 20th. It's not that
far off, it's gonna be at the if you want tickets, folks,
you know that um in the past, Scott, we've seen
you guys out at the pier a lot, Ocean Key
at Sunset Pier.
This will be a little different. It's at the Key
West Theater, so there'll be limited seats, so still plenty
of seats, but it will sell out as you and
(02:40):
I both know. So folks that wanna get tickets, the
Key Westheatre.com, uh, and that's November 20th, so grab those
while you can, but Scott, uh, just to kinda kick
us off here, you guys have been coming down here,
am I right about that, almost 10 years plus, is that,
does that sound right to you?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Absolutely, yeah, 10 years plus, I think at, at the minimum, uh,
I feel like we played at the Sunset Pier, uh,
a lot of times. Um, I'm trying to really kind
of go back in my, my, my memory to, to,
to think about when the first time we did that
show was, but, um, I'm thinking, yeah, 10, maybe, maybe 10,
closer to 12 years that we've been doing that one,
(03:17):
So yeah, it's been, it's been a nice sort of
run of, you know, almost every year looking forward to
making our way all the way down to Key West
because I mean that's just, as you know, it's such
a special place and um always like a real fun
night when we get down that way.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's like the no pun intended right now, but it's
like the perfect storm. You guys come down, it's a
genre that this town, this area really loves these types
of bands, you being one of the pinnacle of those
because you're history here.
Um, I really kinda think you guys in the revivalist
are two of the local favorites who have really, you know,
gone mainstream and done your thing, but we still consider
you kind of one of ours down here, but, um,
Speaker 2 (03:55):
it feels like that when we're down there too, you know,
because I know there's a good local contingent that that
comes out to see us and it it does feel
like we're kind of like a local band in a
weird way.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well speaking of that, do you guys, I mean, it's
been 10 years, you guys, you know, you're you cover sublime,
you guys are bad fish, um, and let me ask
you that too, Scott, as we get started as a
starter question.
You know, you guys are covering a lot of the
same material, you do it amazingly, but you know, if
you did it with some other band, I'm not sure
it works, you know, no matter how talented you are,
but there's something about Sublime and of course your talent
(04:26):
mixed with it. What is so timeless about, you know, Sublime?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, it, it really is, um, it's timeless. I, I agree, and,
you know, you know, having the opportunity to, to sort
of kind of carry this music through from, from when
we started as a band in 2001 till till present day, um, is,
has been, you know, as a musician, just great fun. Uh,
it's great music, but there is something particularly about Sublime
(04:55):
that is, is timeless in the way that a lot of, uh,
I feel like a lot of the bands of the nineties.
Perhaps even more specifically the 90s, um, ska reggae revival
that kind of, kind of popped up there in the
mid 90s. It kind of came and went, it seemed.
Um and some of those bands, you know, no doubt
just had a great sort of reunion at Coachella, uh
(05:16):
which was, uh, I think, pretty, pretty well regarded and
I saw some of it. I thought it was great,
but I feel like a lot of those bands don't
have the staying power or the just sort of like the,
the longevity or a place in the culture that's sublime.
has and continues to have and I mean there's still
young people, you know, high school aged people and even
younger coming, coming to our shows, the music, I think.
(05:39):
For whatever reason, is just uh the, the, the type
of thing that kind of gets passed down through the
generations and uh which I, I just think a credit
to the quality of their music, the quality of uh
Bradley Noles's songwriting and just kind of like the, the
energy that those three guys had together.
Um, for those few albums that they put out, uh,
there's just something about it, uh, but it, it, it endures,
(06:01):
it's amazing. Well,
Speaker 1 (06:03):
not, not in and of course you go to bars
across America and beyond and people cover a sublime and
everyone knows the words, but no one does it, and
I'm not tooting your horn, you know this, that's why
you guys are famous for it. No one can hear me.
I can hear you, you OK? Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
620.
(06:24):
How about now?
Scott, can you hear me?
Scott, can you hear me?
Oh, hello. Oh, I think I got you back, you good?
Oh yeah, I'm I'm good. Alright, I got the I
got the time stamps, we're fine, we're just gonna edit,
we're good to go.
So, uh, but no, I was asking you, I mean, um,
(06:45):
you know, you guys talk about coming to Key West
and and doing this for as long as you have
almost a quarter of a century now and still gaining
popularity and still and still have people coming to your
shows and and just by the numbers and selling out.
Um, do you have some, you talk about Key West though,
real quick, do you have some favorite Key West memories, uh,
or places that you guys like to go when you
(07:06):
come down here, is a place you have something kind
of picked out in your head already, I gotta do
that when I come to Key West, or is it
a place that you just sort of take it easy
on the tour?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
We, well, you know, when we, when we played at
the at the pier, you know, they put us up
there at that hotel right near the pier, which is just,
I mean that's a really nice spot, uh, one of
the nicer places that we, we, uh, get to get
to stay at uh typically on a tour.
Take good care of us, us there. So, I mean,
just being there is great. We look forward to just
kind of being there. It does feel like a bit
(07:35):
of a, ah, we can take a breather now, um,
you know, it's a professional situation, those shows down there,
we don't feel any stress about it.
Uh, I just look forward to kind of hanging by
the hotel, but every time that I've personally been down there,
I feel like I've done something different. I, I, I
found a different restaurant or a different bar, or I
think I, I took a tour of some crazy lighthouse
(07:56):
last time. Um, you probably know what it is. Um, me, uh,
myself and one of the other guys in the band, we, we,
we toured this, this, this cool lighthouse, so it was
just one of those things on the list, um.
Yeah, so, so we kind of, it's always kind of
like picking out something new and then as far as
after the shows, you know, finding our finding our way down, uh,
the main drag there is, uh, I mean, anything can happen, uh,
(08:17):
late late at night, as you know, Key West is, uh,
is a pretty, pretty crazy spot or it can be
at times, so we find ourselves in some dive bars and, uh,
and that's good fun too.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's really cool. Now you know you guys will be
down here, but y'all started out, Scott, we have Scott
Beje here uh from Badfish, a tribute to Sublime on
the Florida Keys Weekly podcast. Scott, you guys started out.
Uh, University of Rhode Island, I know some of the
bands changed over the years, but, you know, one thing
I always wonder, seeing you so many times and seeing
how passionate and how fun you have, um, but you know,
starting out as a cover band for Sublime, and y'all
(08:48):
were doing the college thing, um, did you ever expect
it to be this big and go this far and
and when did you kind of know that it was
expanding beyond like your area and you really, uh, you know,
start the tours and and and be as big as
you guys are now?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, it took a couple of years for things to
kind of like pick up momentum. Um, we were still
students really at, at, at, at the college when, when
we started this, um, and we were, I think.
planning on, at least I was planning on like getting
into the actual job, you know, after, not that, not
that playing music isn't a job, but you know what
I mean, a more conventional job, um, after school, and, uh,
(09:23):
and I did for a bit and was sort of
doing the weekend warrior thing with the band, um.
And I guess, so if we started in 2001, you know,
into 2002, a year or so into it, uh, into 2003,
we had graduated and then, yeah, we felt like there
was enough interest in um in booking Badish that
(09:46):
If we wanted to, we could sort of set out
on the road and plan some tours and, you know,
make a sustainable living, um, at the time, just really
3 of us, I think, um, it may be like
a merchandise seller, who knows, I just packed into a van. Um,
so that was, that was a bit of a, that
was a bit of an inflection point for, for the band, um,
at least for myself, um, making the decision to kind
(10:08):
of bail on my job, uh, and, and just do
music full time and
Even then, it wasn't, um, it's not like we were
just selling out like, like theaters or anything uh from,
from the get-go, but it continued to grow and I
think by '06, 07, things were really cruising and we
just
(10:28):
Uh, yeah, we, I mean, it seemed like everywhere we went,
we were able to, you know, have respectable numbers, uh,
and then, you know, expanding our reach, you know, obviously
starting in the Northeast, we would, you know, do Boston
and New York, then eventually work our way down the
east coast and then start finding other places to go.
Let's go through the Midwest. Let's go down to Texas.
Let's go out to the West Coast.
Um, up, up into Canada, I mean, let's let's see
(10:50):
what we can do and, and, and it continued to
expand and the interest in the band just not only
sustained but they continued to grow like throughout the, the,
the sort of the mid 2000s, um, in, in to
your point earlier, it just kind of continues to sort
of
To grow, so we're we're really fortunate.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I know you get asked this a lot, Scott, and
I have to ask you, since you guys have been
coming here, even if
Speaker 2 (11:17):
you're speaking, I can't hear you.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I can hear you, can you hear me now? Alright,
I'm just gonna.
Are we good here? Hopefully you're, you're the time stamps here, hey,
you know that's the technology, how about that? Um, no,
but I know you get asked this a lot, Scott, um,
and but I have to ask you, I know I
think over the years you've been asked, and I feel
like the answer has been no, but since you've been
coming here in Key West for 10 years, we've had
(11:42):
dirty heads, we've had Sublime with Rome, um, uh, at
this 0.2024 have you is Sublime with Rome ever reached
out to you? Have y'all ever collaborated? you ever run
into those guys or is that still sort of separated?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Um, well, yes, I think Sublime, the, the, the state
of the sublime world now is, is in another sort of, uh,
cycle of kind of, I don't want to say upheaval,
but it's, uh, now you have Jacob No, Bradley's son,
basically fronting the new iteration of Sublime with Bud and
Eric as the rhythm section, which is awesome, which is great, um,
you know, Sublime with Rome was, was keeping things going too, and,
(12:16):
and that was, that was great. I know that, you know,
there's been.
You obviously, if you've ever been online in in any comments,
comment section on any platform, you've seen all of the
differing opinions about whether or not that was a good idea. Honestly,
I think any, anytime people are just playing this music
out in a live setting, it's a good idea, whether
it's us as a tribute band, whether it's Rome fronting
(12:36):
the band, or now with Jacob doing it, I mean,
to me,
It's, this is great music that deserves to be played
live and people want to hear it live, so I
think it's all good. Uh, we've not, we, we've met, um,
we've met, uh, Bud, uh, the drummer of Sublime. He's
actually played in Bad Fish for, he did a whole
show with us before. Uh, we, we've toured with, uh, his, um,
(12:57):
his other bands that he's had over the years. Uh,
I've never met Eric. The other guys have met Eric. Uh, we've,
we've done tours with Jacob, uh, in his other bands
that he's had before he linked back up with the
Sublime Guys.
Uh, there's, there's an extended sublime family, uh, you know,
obviously all kind of radiating from the Long Beach area that, um,
whether it's other musicians, horn players, people that were involved
(13:20):
in their sort of extended sublime family that we've actually
become good friends with over the years and
Um, perhaps, you know, maybe a bit of skepticism at first, uh,
meeting the guys doing like this tribute band thing, you know, uh,
but I think that we've showed ourselves to be, uh, we,
we've proved to be respectful to to the legacy of,
you know, of Bradley and his music and really just
(13:41):
wanting to do the music justice and keep it out there, uh,
in a, in a live setting.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
That's awesome, that's really cool here with Scott Beje with
uh Bad Fish tribute just blind. You talk about Bradley.
Um, you know, if he was, if you could if
you had one chance to, you know, knowing what you
know now and playing this music and and seeing the
fans and touring and and knowing the nuances that people
like me would never know that, you know, if you
had one question or something you could ask him, what
would it be?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh gosh, that's a good, that's a great question. Um, I,
I will say it would be, you know, if, if,
if I had the, ever had the opportunity to, you know, to,
to sit down with Bradley, who, I mean, is basically
genius songwriting mastermind behind so much of this stuff. I
would definitely just want to sit there and have a
beer with them and just in, in, in.
And get a sense of, of, of, uh, you know, I,
(14:29):
we've heard secondhand through people who, who've known him growing
up about what a, what a real special guy he
actually was. Um, I just, I, I would just wanna
like kind of get a taste of that myself, you know,
just sit there and have a beer with the guy and,
and kinda of, and, um, and, you know, just, just,
just chat with them, uh, you know.
I, I can't say that I have uh like one
(14:50):
question I could think of. Obviously there's the, the, the,
you know, there's the obvious things like, you know, what
were you thinking when you wrote Santeria or something like that,
but honestly, it's knowing what I know or what I
think I know about um the type of writer and
just creative type he he, he was, um.
It it just seemed to be a whole vibe with him,
(15:12):
and I'd really want to just try to like take
in some of that vibe even even for like 5
minutes because I mean he's he's a singular figure I
think of our generation musically um as a as a songwriter,
so I mean just just just 5 minutes with him
would be would be good
enough for me. I love it,
Speaker 1 (15:29):
um, you know, the experience, yeah, and it's not just
you guys, I mean those guys.
Uh, and Bradley have inspired. I mean we've had the pleasure.
I got to have, you know, Jared Watson, Dirty J
on this show before the dirty Heads have come down.
They've inspired so many bands, are any of those bands,
I mean, you're in it all the time, do you
get into slightly stupid and Expendables and Pepper or or
(15:50):
when you're chilling you you are you you have other
genres and other music you're listening to?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I listen to all, all, like all genres of music and, and,
and certainly, you know, because of where we've become friends
with so many of these bands, there's a lot, you know,
a lot of these, you know, slightly stupid, we're friends
with a couple of those guys in that band. They,
they've sat in with us. They've done small tours with us, um,
a couple, a couple of those guys, um, I mean
(16:14):
that you're right though, the Sublime is.
Feels like almost like the the origin point and then
it it it sort of it it it blooms out
from there where you have the slightly stupids and and
and pepper and then, you know, now dirty heads and
this whole newer generation of what I guess some people
call American reggae or I I've heard it called different
things genre wise. I don't even know what to call it.
(16:35):
I just know that it's a lot of bands that
we've played with over the years that we've become friends with, um.
And, and yeah, they're, they're, these bands are like doing,
they're doing some great stuff, you know, they're, um, you know, these,
these sort of like self-made kind of bands that have
been kind of grinding it out on the road for
1015 years and and because they've played with us and
(16:57):
we've been doing the same thing and now that like
I really feel like they're starting to make, uh, make
something of
Uh, you know, make a mark and the, and there
it feels like right now there's a real big buzz, um,
for this like newer reggae scene, but it all does
go back to sublime, you know.
Um, and yeah, and I and I love a lot
of that music as as as I love, you know,
(17:18):
you know, other genres of music as well.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, you know I kinda I graduated high school, Scott, 1995,
you're probably a little younger than me, but I think
we're around the same age, um,
Speaker 2 (17:29):
that's right,
Speaker 1 (17:30):
and I kind of remember where I was, uh, when
I first heard Sublime, it was so different. You know,
kind of two questions here. I'm from the southeast, it
seemed like at least where I was at, the music
industry or the fans or whatever.
You had to have a rivalry, you had to have
something like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, you know, you couldn't
even though I loved both, you had to kinda it
was kinda cool to pick one. Seemed like when Sublime
(17:51):
came out there wasn't really anything like it, but 311
was right there, that was sort of the rivalry, um,
you know, so like in '95 when you got when
you first heard Sublime, do you remember the first time
you heard them and was that rivalry in your neck
of the woods up there as well in the Northeast?
Did you kinda have to pick, obviously you were a
sublime guy, but was 311 on your radar as well,
or is or is that even a thing up up
your way?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, absolutely. 311 was definitely on my, I don't remember
it being so much of a rivalry, but I do
remember being in high school and hearing, you know, the
1st 3 311 albums, which I still absolutely love. The music,
Grassroots and the Blue Album are just like amazing. I
guess I never, never really thought of them. I maybe
they both pulled from like reggae sensibilities, so that's probably
(18:33):
where that rivalry.
Came from whether or not it was real or whether
it was a manufactured or or who knows, but, um,
but I do remember, uh, the first time I heard
Sublime and it was actually probably a few miles from
where I'm sitting right now, uh, at a friend of mine's, uh, her,
her dad's beach house down here. We were going down
to the beach, um, and she had a cassette player,
(18:55):
you know, in, in her room at her dad's place
down here, and she's like, Oh, you gotta check out
the song Date Rape.
Um, and I'd never heard anything like it, you know,
this was before, um, you know, what I got in Santeria,
like the, the self-titled album probably hadn't been released yet, right?
This is probably like 1993, 1994. So she had, she
must have had a cassette of 40 ounces of freedom and,
(19:17):
you know, played me the song Gay rape. I was like,
what is, I've never heard anything like this, you know,
I wasn't really hip. I wasn't really hip to, um,
you know, the punk ska movement, uh, yet. I was
probably still probably like really.
Uh, you know, into the grunge thing, you know, coming
off like being into like hair metal as well. So
I was like, I had, I hadn't really gotten into
(19:38):
the punk guy thing. So to hear a song like
Date Rape with the horn intro in this kind of
frantic tempo that the song has and obviously the, the
lyrical content of that song being this like story, this
kind of like, you know, cautionary tale, but like also
pretty provocative in the same way. I was like, what
is this? This is amazing. um.
And yeah, so that's the first time I heard it,
(19:58):
and then it was only maybe a year or two
after that when I was like delivering pizza somewhere when I,
when I heard what I got, uh, on the, on
the radio when that, when that, when that broke and
I was like, oh, this sounds like G Love, you know, uh,
which at the time I thought it did, um, and
I guess I still think that that sounds a little
like G Love, but now I know enough about Sublime
and enough about G Love to be like, oh, they're
actually kind of different, um, kind of both great, but
(20:19):
like very different. I was like, oh, who's this kind
of G Love rip off.
You know, um, and, and then, yeah, then fast forward,
you know, another 5 years, uh, beyond that, and I'm,
you know, rehearsing all of these songs in the basement
with someone down where I lived in college and we're
starting up the up the Badfish thing. It's
crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's cool. Now you may be, as you're telling me
that story, you're making me think because you said, you know,
you were able to quit your job and kind of
do this during that time. What was, what would you
be doing? What was your job that you quit, Scott,
and when you started touring full time?
If you don't I went to
Speaker 2 (20:49):
school, no, I don't mind. No, I went to school
for computer science, so I was like, you know, this
is kind of like on the tail end of the
dot-com boom, um, so it was like, all right, you know,
computer science degree, that'll get me a job, and as
it turns out, um.
Timing wise, it probably ended up being for the better
that I was able to just pop into the band
because once that dotcom bubble burst, uh, those jobs were
(21:12):
fewer and further between, um, but yeah, I was gonna
just do programming and I, I still love that stuff.
I still like I'm a, I'm a, I'm a nerd
at heart, uh, you know, I'm into tech and all
that and all that stuff, but, uh, yeah, that probably
would have been my alternate reality, um, had the batfish
thing not taken off.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Now speaking of that, that's cool. You you had, if
I recall, you had a podcast.
At least for a while, and I'm not here I
am being a hypocrite on a podcast. I don't follow
a ton like I should, but yours was great. You
had an intermission, is that right, for a while? Are
you still doing that?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I'm not, you know, that was a really, it was
literally an intermission, um, of, of in, in like when
COVID happened and everybody, everybody stopped playing.
Um, which is why I called it intermission because it
felt like we were all taking intermission as in we,
we were, um, and I was able to interview some
just musician friends of mine just to talk about, I
(22:03):
don't know, it was almost like a real-time therapeutic working
through what is this, uh, unknown future that that lies
before us, so you know, we don't have no idea
how are we ever gonna play music again or like
how long is it you want to be. So it was,
it was a bit of working through that in real
time or, or at least on, on a podcast, uh.
But, um, but that was great fun doing that and
(22:25):
um as you bring it up, you know, I only
thought of it, um, when you told me that this
is more of a podcast recording, I was like, oh yeah,
I used to do that, and that was, that was
a lot of fun and maybe I should go back
to doing that. I mean, there's always a reason to
talk to people about music stuff. But, uh, but, you know,
as you know, like doing a podcast and it's, it's,
it's not just merely pressing record. I mean, you have
to prepare for it, you have to edit it, and
(22:46):
there's a, it was just me doing it, but I
had time on my hands, right? It was, uh, it was,
it was, uh, it was COVID, so.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Uh, it's it's a lot of fun for me it's
it's the perk of the job and getting to talk
to guys like you and I'll only have a few
more minutes with you and I'm gonna be respectful of that,
so but I wanna ask you a few more, um,
you know, you guys have done this for a long time,
you've sold out House Blues and, you know, Toronto Opera
House and Starling Ballroom and all kinds of places and
you're coming down to Key West, um, you know, cliche question,
(23:14):
but you do you do this so much, you get
to see the people, what what is some of your
best memories? What do you love about this still?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I think that for us, um, and I think I
can speak for the entire band, um, is that.
I, I mean, I guess it sounds like a cliche answer,
but I mean, the energy that, um, a crowd can
give back to you when you get on stage or
when you're really just kind of hitting the peak of
the performance, you know, there's a few of those throughout
(23:43):
the night where things are just like jelling and you
really feel this sort of synergy with the crowd, um,
for all of the, you know, checking in and out
of hotels, driving.
Around in the van, eating at truck stops, being kind
of tired, you know, sleeping weird hours, for all of
that BS that you have to kind of put up with,
cause that's just life on the road, um, when you're up,
(24:05):
you know, up on stage and the crowd's giving you
this energy back, that's like, man, that is like there's
nothing like that. It's a, it's a real, it's a
real boost. I mean, that, that's the reason like why
we do it, you know, if we didn't have that,
if we didn't have that, it just might not be
worth it.
Um, it's, uh, so yeah, and, and just knowing that
these songs resonate with, uh, the crowds the same way
(24:27):
that they resonate with us, you know, we're playing music
that we love. We're, I mean, how lucky are we
to be able to to play Sublime songs. So we're, we're,
we're fortunate or ready to be just playing these songs,
even if there's nobody out there watching us, but to
have a crowd of people watching that also is excited
about the music of Sublime.
Um, in the same way that we are giving us
some energy back, that's like, well, I mean it's you can't,
(24:48):
there's nothing really nothing like that. Well,
Speaker 1 (24:50):
there's not
really a song that everyone doesn't know the words to
with so much passion and energy behind it, whether it's
Marua or you know, all the hits, Santeria, what I got,
I mean everyone, it just hits them, right? They know
the words. If it comes even if you're on the
radio and you hear sublime, you stop and you're you're
jamming to it, right, to this day, so you guys
have to get that back, yeah, it's gotta be so cool, um.
(25:11):
Well, um, I'm coming up on my time. I do
wanna ask you this, I do not wanna get political, um,
you know, that's not what we're doing, but you know
you do bring that kind of joy, and I've been
to these shows and it's not just me promoting this, um,
it's just so awesome at your shows, there's so much energy,
everyone comes together, there's hippies, there's there's, you know, the
preppy guys and all walks of life at your shows,
(25:33):
at least here in Key West, everyone comes out for it, um,
you know, how important
You know, as I speak to you right now, there's
there's bombs going off in the Middle East, we've got
a country where people are, you know, taught to be divided,
we've got certain politicians who thrive on division. How, you know,
do you, do you take that in stride or for
granted or does that still mean something to you that consciously,
do you see it like how important it is, what
you guys do, uh, at a time when that's going
(25:56):
on to bring people together, particularly with a band like Sublime,
you know, you guys are bad fish, tribute Sublime, but
you know, singing that music of Sublime that really brings
people together, does that still kinda hit you and do
you still, can you take that for
Not taking it for granted still or are you just
kind of doing your thing and you know, I I
don't wanna get too deep here, but I just feel
like there's something really cool about what you guys bring,
especially right now and bringing people together.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Sure, yeah, no, no, and, and it's, it's something that
like we try not to take for granted because uh
there's not too many spaces in the world and depending
on where you live, uh, you know, especially in the
US where, you know, things do feel a little bit
tense and they have, you know, now going on 10
years or whatever where it feels like, you know, are
you on my side or are you on the other
(26:37):
side and there's this whole, this whole bit and like
Regardless of, of, of where I and my bandmates like
fall along that sort of continuing that doesn't even really matter, right?
It's um the fact that we um
Yeah, are able to gather in a space with people
who probably feel differently about um whether who should be
(27:00):
president or whether, you know, on you, you know, you pick,
you pick the issue, right? There's there's so many issues
where like, I mean, everything is so damn polarized, right? Um.
It doesn't really matter, you know, we're not there to
talk about that. And, and, and, and I feel like
that's sort of like kind of the way things should
be just a little bit more in everyday life, but unfortunately,
(27:20):
you know, with social media and
You know, the endless news cycle, we're just bombarded with, with, with,
with the messages of you need to pick a side.
So for us, and yeah, it, it, it, I have
taken it for granted and I'm, and I'm glad you
bring it up because I don't want to take it
for granted, we're, we're able to provide a forum in
an evening for people where you're not, hopefully you're not
(27:43):
on your phone when you're at one of our shows
and you're just enjoying the music, um, you're definitely not
watching the news.
Um, and if you're talking about anything, it might be like,
you know, you know, who you're gonna go outside and
smoke with after the show or something, this is like,
you know, lighter, more fun loving environment where you can
kind of put those divisions, you know, in the back
(28:04):
of your mind at least for a few hours, and
I think that that is super important. I think that
we all need that. I think that.
Yeah, we all need to engage in that, and that's,
I mean, that's as much as art can also be
a force for change and a force for bringing like
injustices to light, and that's obviously very important too. Um,
I guess our department is a little bit more of,
(28:27):
let's kind of, uh, exhale and loosen up a bit and,
and not get too bogged down in the minutia of
the everyday polarized.
Existence that we that we happen to be in at
this moment.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Well, you guys definitely do that and you're gonna be
at the Key West Theater. I lost you, hope you
got that. I got, let me, uh, can you hear
me now?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I I don't know how how long was I
rambling that
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I got all of it. I would have told you.
I got all of it. I think it's just my
little connection with you there, so you're good, uh, and
it's so poignant and did not mean in any way
to say, you know, you take it for granted, it
would be easy to me it seems like to take it,
you know, you're doing it all the time, but I,
I don't think it's overstated. I don't think you can
overstate the fact that, you know, music brings people together
and your shows in particular, there's so much energy, uh,
(29:17):
and it's not just, you know, sublime is amazing, it's
why you do it, but you guys are incredible and
if anybody.
Uh, is out there and just wants to let loose
and you know, most people here have seen you and
we know this is gonna be the ticket to get
if they haven't gotten it yet at the Key West Theater.
You can get that at Ketheater.com November 20th. Um, it's
just gonna be a great night you guys bring it
and I appreciate you doing it and I appreciate you
(29:38):
coming on this show. We've got Scott Bejean here on
the Key West, the Florida Keys Weekly podcast and, uh, Scott,
it's been a pleasure to have you on here.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
It's been been great chatting with you. Thanks so much
for having me on, and uh we really look forward
to seeing everyone on the 20th.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Absolutely, can't wait to see you here. Uh, you guys
have a great one. Thanks buddy.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Thank you. Yes sir.
Welcome back to another Florida Keys Weekly podcast. I'm your host,
Brett Myers. Happy to have you back, uh, here on
our show, uh, for you listeners out there on WKWFAM,
our FM listeners 103.3 FM. I wanna thank you for
being early risers and checking in.
Of course, all of our podcast listeners and fans, you
know where to catch us at at Keysweekly.com. You can
(00:20):
find all our podcasts there, also Spotify, Amazon, Apple, all
podcast platforms at the Florida Keys Weekly podcast. Uh, this
show is brought to you by OMG Overseas Media Group.
I wanna thank them again for making this happen. That's
the local media marketing group for digital marketing that brings
your website, social media.
Uh, all the good stuff that you need, you don't
have time for, they have the expertise to do. So
(00:42):
once again, uh, Overseas Media Group.com is bringing you this
show today. Speaking of this show today, um, as everyone knows,
I'm a big music fan.
I get the luxury it's one of the perks of
the job of having some really cool people come on
this show over the years, and most of them I
get to see here in Key West. I will say
this sincerely one of my favorite shows over the past
(01:04):
decade that I get to go see is the person,
the band that I have on today. It's never a
dull moment. It's always awesome, it's always energy and every
local and if you're listening, you know this it's it's
one of those shows that everyone just looks forward to
each and every year.
The cool thing about this is it's a cover band,
and when I say it's a cover band, it's a
little different than just saying, oh, it's a cover band,
(01:25):
this is a cover band that I think really set
the bar, it set the trend, uh, to show what
cover bands can really do become just more than than
what you might, uh, generically think is a cover band,
selling out big arenas, selling out shows, becoming kind of
their own identity even though they are covering a band
and carrying on the legacy of a band, uh, like
no one else really can, and that is none other
(01:45):
than Badish, a tribute to Sublime.
If you've been down here a while, you've seen them,
heard them, you know how amazing they are and with
me today from that band is Scott Bejean. Scott, we
are excited and honored to have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm very happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, and we had a little trouble. You had to, uh,
you had to drive out about 10 minutes to make
make sure we had good reception today, uh, so are
you up in the Northeast today, Scott? or are you
on tour right now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, I'm uh northeast, yeah, I'm in, uh, in Rhode
Island right now as we speak, and, um, yeah, we're
getting some good weather here actually.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Good for you. That's awesome. Well, we're we're excited to
get you down here, uh, for the show at the
Key West Theater, uh, on November 20th. It's not that
far off, it's gonna be at the if you want tickets, folks,
you know that um in the past, Scott, we've seen
you guys out at the pier a lot, Ocean Key
at Sunset Pier.
This will be a little different. It's at the Key
West Theater, so there'll be limited seats, so still plenty
of seats, but it will sell out as you and
(02:40):
I both know. So folks that wanna get tickets, the
Key Westheatre.com, uh, and that's November 20th, so grab those
while you can, but Scott, uh, just to kinda kick
us off here, you guys have been coming down here,
am I right about that, almost 10 years plus, is that,
does that sound right to you?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Absolutely, yeah, 10 years plus, I think at, at the minimum, uh,
I feel like we played at the Sunset Pier, uh,
a lot of times. Um, I'm trying to really kind
of go back in my, my, my memory to, to,
to think about when the first time we did that
show was, but, um, I'm thinking, yeah, 10, maybe, maybe 10,
closer to 12 years that we've been doing that one,
(03:17):
So yeah, it's been, it's been a nice sort of
run of, you know, almost every year looking forward to
making our way all the way down to Key West
because I mean that's just, as you know, it's such
a special place and um always like a real fun
night when we get down that way.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's like the no pun intended right now, but it's
like the perfect storm. You guys come down, it's a
genre that this town, this area really loves these types
of bands, you being one of the pinnacle of those
because you're history here.
Um, I really kinda think you guys in the revivalist
are two of the local favorites who have really, you know,
gone mainstream and done your thing, but we still consider
you kind of one of ours down here, but, um,
Speaker 2 (03:55):
it feels like that when we're down there too, you know,
because I know there's a good local contingent that that
comes out to see us and it it does feel
like we're kind of like a local band in a
weird way.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well speaking of that, do you guys, I mean, it's
been 10 years, you guys, you know, you're you cover sublime,
you guys are bad fish, um, and let me ask
you that too, Scott, as we get started as a
starter question.
You know, you guys are covering a lot of the
same material, you do it amazingly, but you know, if
you did it with some other band, I'm not sure
it works, you know, no matter how talented you are,
but there's something about Sublime and of course your talent
(04:26):
mixed with it. What is so timeless about, you know, Sublime?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, it, it really is, um, it's timeless. I, I agree, and,
you know, you know, having the opportunity to, to sort
of kind of carry this music through from, from when
we started as a band in 2001 till till present day, um, is,
has been, you know, as a musician, just great fun. Uh,
it's great music, but there is something particularly about Sublime
(04:55):
that is, is timeless in the way that a lot of, uh,
I feel like a lot of the bands of the nineties.
Perhaps even more specifically the 90s, um, ska reggae revival
that kind of, kind of popped up there in the
mid 90s. It kind of came and went, it seemed.
Um and some of those bands, you know, no doubt
just had a great sort of reunion at Coachella, uh
(05:16):
which was, uh, I think, pretty, pretty well regarded and
I saw some of it. I thought it was great,
but I feel like a lot of those bands don't
have the staying power or the just sort of like the,
the longevity or a place in the culture that's sublime.
has and continues to have and I mean there's still
young people, you know, high school aged people and even
younger coming, coming to our shows, the music, I think.
(05:39):
For whatever reason, is just uh the, the, the type
of thing that kind of gets passed down through the
generations and uh which I, I just think a credit
to the quality of their music, the quality of uh
Bradley Noles's songwriting and just kind of like the, the
energy that those three guys had together.
Um, for those few albums that they put out, uh,
there's just something about it, uh, but it, it, it endures,
(06:01):
it's amazing. Well,
Speaker 1 (06:03):
not, not in and of course you go to bars
across America and beyond and people cover a sublime and
everyone knows the words, but no one does it, and
I'm not tooting your horn, you know this, that's why
you guys are famous for it. No one can hear me.
I can hear you, you OK? Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
620.
(06:24):
How about now?
Scott, can you hear me?
Scott, can you hear me?
Oh, hello. Oh, I think I got you back, you good?
Oh yeah, I'm I'm good. Alright, I got the I
got the time stamps, we're fine, we're just gonna edit,
we're good to go.
So, uh, but no, I was asking you, I mean, um,
(06:45):
you know, you guys talk about coming to Key West
and and doing this for as long as you have
almost a quarter of a century now and still gaining
popularity and still and still have people coming to your
shows and and just by the numbers and selling out.
Um, do you have some, you talk about Key West though,
real quick, do you have some favorite Key West memories, uh,
or places that you guys like to go when you
(07:06):
come down here, is a place you have something kind
of picked out in your head already, I gotta do
that when I come to Key West, or is it
a place that you just sort of take it easy
on the tour?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
We, well, you know, when we, when we played at
the at the pier, you know, they put us up
there at that hotel right near the pier, which is just,
I mean that's a really nice spot, uh, one of
the nicer places that we, we, uh, get to get
to stay at uh typically on a tour.
Take good care of us, us there. So, I mean,
just being there is great. We look forward to just
kind of being there. It does feel like a bit
(07:35):
of a, ah, we can take a breather now, um,
you know, it's a professional situation, those shows down there,
we don't feel any stress about it.
Uh, I just look forward to kind of hanging by
the hotel, but every time that I've personally been down there,
I feel like I've done something different. I, I, I
found a different restaurant or a different bar, or I
think I, I took a tour of some crazy lighthouse
(07:56):
last time. Um, you probably know what it is. Um, me, uh,
myself and one of the other guys in the band, we, we,
we toured this, this, this cool lighthouse, so it was
just one of those things on the list, um.
Yeah, so, so we kind of, it's always kind of
like picking out something new and then as far as
after the shows, you know, finding our finding our way down, uh,
the main drag there is, uh, I mean, anything can happen, uh,
(08:17):
late late at night, as you know, Key West is, uh,
is a pretty, pretty crazy spot or it can be
at times, so we find ourselves in some dive bars and, uh,
and that's good fun too.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's really cool. Now you know you guys will be
down here, but y'all started out, Scott, we have Scott
Beje here uh from Badfish, a tribute to Sublime on
the Florida Keys Weekly podcast. Scott, you guys started out.
Uh, University of Rhode Island, I know some of the
bands changed over the years, but, you know, one thing
I always wonder, seeing you so many times and seeing
how passionate and how fun you have, um, but you know,
starting out as a cover band for Sublime, and y'all
(08:48):
were doing the college thing, um, did you ever expect
it to be this big and go this far and
and when did you kind of know that it was
expanding beyond like your area and you really, uh, you know,
start the tours and and and be as big as
you guys are now?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, it took a couple of years for things to
kind of like pick up momentum. Um, we were still
students really at, at, at, at the college when, when
we started this, um, and we were, I think.
planning on, at least I was planning on like getting
into the actual job, you know, after, not that, not
that playing music isn't a job, but you know what
I mean, a more conventional job, um, after school, and, uh,
(09:23):
and I did for a bit and was sort of
doing the weekend warrior thing with the band, um.
And I guess, so if we started in 2001, you know,
into 2002, a year or so into it, uh, into 2003,
we had graduated and then, yeah, we felt like there
was enough interest in um in booking Badish that
(09:46):
If we wanted to, we could sort of set out
on the road and plan some tours and, you know,
make a sustainable living, um, at the time, just really
3 of us, I think, um, it may be like
a merchandise seller, who knows, I just packed into a van. Um,
so that was, that was a bit of a, that
was a bit of an inflection point for, for the band, um,
at least for myself, um, making the decision to kind
(10:08):
of bail on my job, uh, and, and just do
music full time and
Even then, it wasn't, um, it's not like we were
just selling out like, like theaters or anything uh from,
from the get-go, but it continued to grow and I
think by '06, 07, things were really cruising and we
just
(10:28):
Uh, yeah, we, I mean, it seemed like everywhere we went,
we were able to, you know, have respectable numbers, uh,
and then, you know, expanding our reach, you know, obviously
starting in the Northeast, we would, you know, do Boston
and New York, then eventually work our way down the
east coast and then start finding other places to go.
Let's go through the Midwest. Let's go down to Texas.
Let's go out to the West Coast.
Um, up, up into Canada, I mean, let's let's see
(10:50):
what we can do and, and, and it continued to
expand and the interest in the band just not only
sustained but they continued to grow like throughout the, the,
the sort of the mid 2000s, um, in, in to
your point earlier, it just kind of continues to sort
of
To grow, so we're we're really fortunate.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I know you get asked this a lot, Scott, and
I have to ask you, since you guys have been
coming here, even if
Speaker 2 (11:17):
you're speaking, I can't hear you.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I can hear you, can you hear me now? Alright,
I'm just gonna.
Are we good here? Hopefully you're, you're the time stamps here, hey,
you know that's the technology, how about that? Um, no,
but I know you get asked this a lot, Scott, um,
and but I have to ask you, I know I
think over the years you've been asked, and I feel
like the answer has been no, but since you've been
coming here in Key West for 10 years, we've had
(11:42):
dirty heads, we've had Sublime with Rome, um, uh, at
this 0.2024 have you is Sublime with Rome ever reached
out to you? Have y'all ever collaborated? you ever run
into those guys or is that still sort of separated?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Um, well, yes, I think Sublime, the, the, the state
of the sublime world now is, is in another sort of, uh,
cycle of kind of, I don't want to say upheaval,
but it's, uh, now you have Jacob No, Bradley's son,
basically fronting the new iteration of Sublime with Bud and
Eric as the rhythm section, which is awesome, which is great, um,
you know, Sublime with Rome was, was keeping things going too, and,
(12:16):
and that was, that was great. I know that, you know,
there's been.
You obviously, if you've ever been online in in any comments,
comment section on any platform, you've seen all of the
differing opinions about whether or not that was a good idea. Honestly,
I think any, anytime people are just playing this music
out in a live setting, it's a good idea, whether
it's us as a tribute band, whether it's Rome fronting
(12:36):
the band, or now with Jacob doing it, I mean,
to me,
It's, this is great music that deserves to be played
live and people want to hear it live, so I
think it's all good. Uh, we've not, we, we've met, um,
we've met, uh, Bud, uh, the drummer of Sublime. He's
actually played in Bad Fish for, he did a whole
show with us before. Uh, we, we've toured with, uh, his, um,
(12:57):
his other bands that he's had over the years. Uh,
I've never met Eric. The other guys have met Eric. Uh, we've,
we've done tours with Jacob, uh, in his other bands
that he's had before he linked back up with the
Sublime Guys.
Uh, there's, there's an extended sublime family, uh, you know,
obviously all kind of radiating from the Long Beach area that, um,
whether it's other musicians, horn players, people that were involved
(13:20):
in their sort of extended sublime family that we've actually
become good friends with over the years and
Um, perhaps, you know, maybe a bit of skepticism at first, uh,
meeting the guys doing like this tribute band thing, you know, uh,
but I think that we've showed ourselves to be, uh, we,
we've proved to be respectful to to the legacy of,
you know, of Bradley and his music and really just
(13:41):
wanting to do the music justice and keep it out there, uh,
in a, in a live setting.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
That's awesome, that's really cool here with Scott Beje with
uh Bad Fish tribute just blind. You talk about Bradley.
Um, you know, if he was, if you could if
you had one chance to, you know, knowing what you
know now and playing this music and and seeing the
fans and touring and and knowing the nuances that people
like me would never know that, you know, if you
had one question or something you could ask him, what
would it be?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh gosh, that's a good, that's a great question. Um, I,
I will say it would be, you know, if, if,
if I had the, ever had the opportunity to, you know, to,
to sit down with Bradley, who, I mean, is basically
genius songwriting mastermind behind so much of this stuff. I
would definitely just want to sit there and have a
beer with them and just in, in, in.
And get a sense of, of, of, uh, you know, I,
(14:29):
we've heard secondhand through people who, who've known him growing
up about what a, what a real special guy he
actually was. Um, I just, I, I would just wanna
like kind of get a taste of that myself, you know,
just sit there and have a beer with the guy and,
and kinda of, and, um, and, you know, just, just,
just chat with them, uh, you know.
I, I can't say that I have uh like one
(14:50):
question I could think of. Obviously there's the, the, the,
you know, there's the obvious things like, you know, what
were you thinking when you wrote Santeria or something like that,
but honestly, it's knowing what I know or what I
think I know about um the type of writer and
just creative type he he, he was, um.
It it just seemed to be a whole vibe with him,
(15:12):
and I'd really want to just try to like take
in some of that vibe even even for like 5
minutes because I mean he's he's a singular figure I
think of our generation musically um as a as a songwriter,
so I mean just just just 5 minutes with him
would be would be good
enough for me. I love it,
Speaker 1 (15:29):
um, you know, the experience, yeah, and it's not just
you guys, I mean those guys.
Uh, and Bradley have inspired. I mean we've had the pleasure.
I got to have, you know, Jared Watson, Dirty J
on this show before the dirty Heads have come down.
They've inspired so many bands, are any of those bands,
I mean, you're in it all the time, do you
get into slightly stupid and Expendables and Pepper or or
(15:50):
when you're chilling you you are you you have other
genres and other music you're listening to?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I listen to all, all, like all genres of music and, and,
and certainly, you know, because of where we've become friends
with so many of these bands, there's a lot, you know,
a lot of these, you know, slightly stupid, we're friends
with a couple of those guys in that band. They,
they've sat in with us. They've done small tours with us, um,
a couple, a couple of those guys, um, I mean
(16:14):
that you're right though, the Sublime is.
Feels like almost like the the origin point and then
it it it sort of it it it blooms out
from there where you have the slightly stupids and and
and pepper and then, you know, now dirty heads and
this whole newer generation of what I guess some people
call American reggae or I I've heard it called different
things genre wise. I don't even know what to call it.
(16:35):
I just know that it's a lot of bands that
we've played with over the years that we've become friends with, um.
And, and yeah, they're, they're, these bands are like doing,
they're doing some great stuff, you know, they're, um, you know, these,
these sort of like self-made kind of bands that have
been kind of grinding it out on the road for
1015 years and and because they've played with us and
(16:57):
we've been doing the same thing and now that like
I really feel like they're starting to make, uh, make
something of
Uh, you know, make a mark and the, and there
it feels like right now there's a real big buzz, um,
for this like newer reggae scene, but it all does
go back to sublime, you know.
Um, and yeah, and I and I love a lot
of that music as as as I love, you know,
(17:18):
you know, other genres of music as well.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, you know I kinda I graduated high school, Scott, 1995,
you're probably a little younger than me, but I think
we're around the same age, um,
Speaker 2 (17:29):
that's right,
Speaker 1 (17:30):
and I kind of remember where I was, uh, when
I first heard Sublime, it was so different. You know,
kind of two questions here. I'm from the southeast, it
seemed like at least where I was at, the music
industry or the fans or whatever.
You had to have a rivalry, you had to have
something like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, you know, you couldn't
even though I loved both, you had to kinda it
was kinda cool to pick one. Seemed like when Sublime
(17:51):
came out there wasn't really anything like it, but 311
was right there, that was sort of the rivalry, um,
you know, so like in '95 when you got when
you first heard Sublime, do you remember the first time
you heard them and was that rivalry in your neck
of the woods up there as well in the Northeast?
Did you kinda have to pick, obviously you were a
sublime guy, but was 311 on your radar as well,
or is or is that even a thing up up
your way?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, absolutely. 311 was definitely on my, I don't remember
it being so much of a rivalry, but I do
remember being in high school and hearing, you know, the
1st 3 311 albums, which I still absolutely love. The music,
Grassroots and the Blue Album are just like amazing. I
guess I never, never really thought of them. I maybe
they both pulled from like reggae sensibilities, so that's probably
(18:33):
where that rivalry.
Came from whether or not it was real or whether
it was a manufactured or or who knows, but, um,
but I do remember, uh, the first time I heard
Sublime and it was actually probably a few miles from
where I'm sitting right now, uh, at a friend of mine's, uh, her,
her dad's beach house down here. We were going down
to the beach, um, and she had a cassette player,
(18:55):
you know, in, in her room at her dad's place
down here, and she's like, Oh, you gotta check out
the song Date Rape.
Um, and I'd never heard anything like it, you know,
this was before, um, you know, what I got in Santeria,
like the, the self-titled album probably hadn't been released yet, right?
This is probably like 1993, 1994. So she had, she
must have had a cassette of 40 ounces of freedom and,
(19:17):
you know, played me the song Gay rape. I was like,
what is, I've never heard anything like this, you know,
I wasn't really hip. I wasn't really hip to, um,
you know, the punk ska movement, uh, yet. I was
probably still probably like really.
Uh, you know, into the grunge thing, you know, coming
off like being into like hair metal as well. So
I was like, I had, I hadn't really gotten into
(19:38):
the punk guy thing. So to hear a song like
Date Rape with the horn intro in this kind of
frantic tempo that the song has and obviously the, the
lyrical content of that song being this like story, this
kind of like, you know, cautionary tale, but like also
pretty provocative in the same way. I was like, what
is this? This is amazing. um.
And yeah, so that's the first time I heard it,
(19:58):
and then it was only maybe a year or two
after that when I was like delivering pizza somewhere when I,
when I heard what I got, uh, on the, on
the radio when that, when that, when that broke and
I was like, oh, this sounds like G Love, you know, uh,
which at the time I thought it did, um, and
I guess I still think that that sounds a little
like G Love, but now I know enough about Sublime
and enough about G Love to be like, oh, they're
actually kind of different, um, kind of both great, but
(20:19):
like very different. I was like, oh, who's this kind
of G Love rip off.
You know, um, and, and then, yeah, then fast forward,
you know, another 5 years, uh, beyond that, and I'm,
you know, rehearsing all of these songs in the basement
with someone down where I lived in college and we're
starting up the up the Badfish thing. It's
crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's cool. Now you may be, as you're telling me
that story, you're making me think because you said, you know,
you were able to quit your job and kind of
do this during that time. What was, what would you
be doing? What was your job that you quit, Scott,
and when you started touring full time?
If you don't I went to
Speaker 2 (20:49):
school, no, I don't mind. No, I went to school
for computer science, so I was like, you know, this
is kind of like on the tail end of the
dot-com boom, um, so it was like, all right, you know,
computer science degree, that'll get me a job, and as
it turns out, um.
Timing wise, it probably ended up being for the better
that I was able to just pop into the band
because once that dotcom bubble burst, uh, those jobs were
(21:12):
fewer and further between, um, but yeah, I was gonna
just do programming and I, I still love that stuff.
I still like I'm a, I'm a, I'm a nerd
at heart, uh, you know, I'm into tech and all
that and all that stuff, but, uh, yeah, that probably
would have been my alternate reality, um, had the batfish
thing not taken off.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Now speaking of that, that's cool. You you had, if
I recall, you had a podcast.
At least for a while, and I'm not here I
am being a hypocrite on a podcast. I don't follow
a ton like I should, but yours was great. You
had an intermission, is that right, for a while? Are
you still doing that?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I'm not, you know, that was a really, it was
literally an intermission, um, of, of in, in like when
COVID happened and everybody, everybody stopped playing.
Um, which is why I called it intermission because it
felt like we were all taking intermission as in we,
we were, um, and I was able to interview some
just musician friends of mine just to talk about, I
(22:03):
don't know, it was almost like a real-time therapeutic working
through what is this, uh, unknown future that that lies
before us, so you know, we don't have no idea
how are we ever gonna play music again or like
how long is it you want to be. So it was,
it was a bit of working through that in real
time or, or at least on, on a podcast, uh.
But, um, but that was great fun doing that and
(22:25):
um as you bring it up, you know, I only
thought of it, um, when you told me that this
is more of a podcast recording, I was like, oh yeah,
I used to do that, and that was, that was
a lot of fun and maybe I should go back
to doing that. I mean, there's always a reason to
talk to people about music stuff. But, uh, but, you know,
as you know, like doing a podcast and it's, it's,
it's not just merely pressing record. I mean, you have
to prepare for it, you have to edit it, and
(22:46):
there's a, it was just me doing it, but I
had time on my hands, right? It was, uh, it was,
it was, uh, it was COVID, so.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Uh, it's it's a lot of fun for me it's
it's the perk of the job and getting to talk
to guys like you and I'll only have a few
more minutes with you and I'm gonna be respectful of that,
so but I wanna ask you a few more, um,
you know, you guys have done this for a long time,
you've sold out House Blues and, you know, Toronto Opera
House and Starling Ballroom and all kinds of places and
you're coming down to Key West, um, you know, cliche question,
(23:14):
but you do you do this so much, you get
to see the people, what what is some of your
best memories? What do you love about this still?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I think that for us, um, and I think I
can speak for the entire band, um, is that.
I, I mean, I guess it sounds like a cliche answer,
but I mean, the energy that, um, a crowd can
give back to you when you get on stage or
when you're really just kind of hitting the peak of
the performance, you know, there's a few of those throughout
(23:43):
the night where things are just like jelling and you
really feel this sort of synergy with the crowd, um,
for all of the, you know, checking in and out
of hotels, driving.
Around in the van, eating at truck stops, being kind
of tired, you know, sleeping weird hours, for all of
that BS that you have to kind of put up with,
cause that's just life on the road, um, when you're up,
(24:05):
you know, up on stage and the crowd's giving you
this energy back, that's like, man, that is like there's
nothing like that. It's a, it's a real, it's a
real boost. I mean, that, that's the reason like why
we do it, you know, if we didn't have that,
if we didn't have that, it just might not be
worth it.
Um, it's, uh, so yeah, and, and just knowing that
these songs resonate with, uh, the crowds the same way
(24:27):
that they resonate with us, you know, we're playing music
that we love. We're, I mean, how lucky are we
to be able to to play Sublime songs. So we're, we're,
we're fortunate or ready to be just playing these songs,
even if there's nobody out there watching us, but to
have a crowd of people watching that also is excited
about the music of Sublime.
Um, in the same way that we are giving us
some energy back, that's like, well, I mean it's you can't,
(24:48):
there's nothing really nothing like that. Well,
Speaker 1 (24:50):
there's not
really a song that everyone doesn't know the words to
with so much passion and energy behind it, whether it's
Marua or you know, all the hits, Santeria, what I got,
I mean everyone, it just hits them, right? They know
the words. If it comes even if you're on the
radio and you hear sublime, you stop and you're you're
jamming to it, right, to this day, so you guys
have to get that back, yeah, it's gotta be so cool, um.
(25:11):
Well, um, I'm coming up on my time. I do
wanna ask you this, I do not wanna get political, um,
you know, that's not what we're doing, but you know
you do bring that kind of joy, and I've been
to these shows and it's not just me promoting this, um,
it's just so awesome at your shows, there's so much energy,
everyone comes together, there's hippies, there's there's, you know, the
preppy guys and all walks of life at your shows,
(25:33):
at least here in Key West, everyone comes out for it, um,
you know, how important
You know, as I speak to you right now, there's
there's bombs going off in the Middle East, we've got
a country where people are, you know, taught to be divided,
we've got certain politicians who thrive on division. How, you know,
do you, do you take that in stride or for
granted or does that still mean something to you that consciously,
do you see it like how important it is, what
you guys do, uh, at a time when that's going
(25:56):
on to bring people together, particularly with a band like Sublime,
you know, you guys are bad fish, tribute Sublime, but
you know, singing that music of Sublime that really brings
people together, does that still kinda hit you and do
you still, can you take that for
Not taking it for granted still or are you just
kind of doing your thing and you know, I I
don't wanna get too deep here, but I just feel
like there's something really cool about what you guys bring,
especially right now and bringing people together.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Sure, yeah, no, no, and, and it's, it's something that
like we try not to take for granted because uh
there's not too many spaces in the world and depending
on where you live, uh, you know, especially in the
US where, you know, things do feel a little bit
tense and they have, you know, now going on 10
years or whatever where it feels like, you know, are
you on my side or are you on the other
(26:37):
side and there's this whole, this whole bit and like
Regardless of, of, of where I and my bandmates like
fall along that sort of continuing that doesn't even really matter, right?
It's um the fact that we um
Yeah, are able to gather in a space with people
who probably feel differently about um whether who should be
(27:00):
president or whether, you know, on you, you know, you pick,
you pick the issue, right? There's there's so many issues
where like, I mean, everything is so damn polarized, right? Um.
It doesn't really matter, you know, we're not there to
talk about that. And, and, and, and I feel like
that's sort of like kind of the way things should
be just a little bit more in everyday life, but unfortunately,
(27:20):
you know, with social media and
You know, the endless news cycle, we're just bombarded with, with, with,
with the messages of you need to pick a side.
So for us, and yeah, it, it, it, I have
taken it for granted and I'm, and I'm glad you
bring it up because I don't want to take it
for granted, we're, we're able to provide a forum in
an evening for people where you're not, hopefully you're not
(27:43):
on your phone when you're at one of our shows
and you're just enjoying the music, um, you're definitely not
watching the news.
Um, and if you're talking about anything, it might be like,
you know, you know, who you're gonna go outside and
smoke with after the show or something, this is like,
you know, lighter, more fun loving environment where you can
kind of put those divisions, you know, in the back
(28:04):
of your mind at least for a few hours, and
I think that that is super important. I think that
we all need that. I think that.
Yeah, we all need to engage in that, and that's,
I mean, that's as much as art can also be
a force for change and a force for bringing like
injustices to light, and that's obviously very important too. Um,
I guess our department is a little bit more of,
(28:27):
let's kind of, uh, exhale and loosen up a bit and,
and not get too bogged down in the minutia of
the everyday polarized.
Existence that we that we happen to be in at
this moment.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Well, you guys definitely do that and you're gonna be
at the Key West Theater. I lost you, hope you
got that. I got, let me, uh, can you hear
me now?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I I don't know how how long was I
rambling that
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I got all of it. I would have told you.
I got all of it. I think it's just my
little connection with you there, so you're good, uh, and
it's so poignant and did not mean in any way
to say, you know, you take it for granted, it
would be easy to me it seems like to take it,
you know, you're doing it all the time, but I,
I don't think it's overstated. I don't think you can
overstate the fact that, you know, music brings people together
and your shows in particular, there's so much energy, uh,
(29:17):
and it's not just, you know, sublime is amazing, it's
why you do it, but you guys are incredible and
if anybody.
Uh, is out there and just wants to let loose
and you know, most people here have seen you and
we know this is gonna be the ticket to get
if they haven't gotten it yet at the Key West Theater.
You can get that at Ketheater.com November 20th. Um, it's
just gonna be a great night you guys bring it
and I appreciate you doing it and I appreciate you
(29:38):
coming on this show. We've got Scott Bejean here on
the Key West, the Florida Keys Weekly podcast and, uh, Scott,
it's been a pleasure to have you on here.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
It's been been great chatting with you. Thanks so much
for having me on, and uh we really look forward
to seeing everyone on the 20th.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Absolutely, can't wait to see you here. Uh, you guys
have a great one. Thanks buddy.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Thank you. Yes sir.
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