May 29, 2025 • 65 mins
Seth Rosenbloom, the fiery young blues guitarist from Massachusetts, brings his wealth of musical knowledge and performing experience to the Chewing the Gristle podcast. What begins as a gear chat about Two Rock amplifiers quickly evolves into a fascinating exploration of musical authenticity and the hard realities of making a living as a performing musician.
When Seth discovered his prized 1956 Stratocaster at Lark Street Music, it changed his entire perspective on the instrument. "It's not as bright as I associated with maple neck Strats," he explains, highlighting how vintage instruments often defy our modern expectations. The same revelation occurred when he first played genuine 1950s Les Pauls with their bell-like clarity, so different from the heavier, woofier sound of later models. These insights reveal how our perceptions of iconic instruments are often shaped by mass-produced versions rather than the originals that created their legendary status.
The conversation takes a compelling turn as Seth shares his journey from metal-loving teenager to blues guitarist. A pivotal moment came when his mother, hoping to discourage his musical aspirations, took him to see an up-and-coming blues player at a small jazz club - Joe Bonamassa. Rather than dissuading Seth, the experience ignited his passion for blues guitar. With his father's cautious blessing (himself a professional classical musician), Seth eventually dropped out of high school to pursue music full-time, a decision that shaped his career path.
What truly sets this episode apart is the candid discussion about the business realities musicians face. From the challenge of finding good booking agents to the economics of small venues, Seth and Greg pull back the curtain on aspects of performing that fans rarely consider. "Getting a record deal is almost easy in comparison to getting a decent booking agent," Greg notes, while Seth reveals why he consistently performs better in seated venues than standing rock clubs.
Ready to discover how professional musicians navigate the modern industry while staying true to their artistic vision? Subscribe now and join us for more authentic conversations with the most interesting players in music today.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for
another season of Chewing theGristle with yours truly Greg
Kauk.
Can you believe it's alreadyseason six?
We've got so many coolinterviews lined up.
Are we going to talk aboutmusic, you betcha?
But what else are we going totalk about?
Well, quite frankly, anythingthat comes to mind.
So stay tuned, doggone it.
(00:30):
Let's chew that doggone gristle.
Season six come this week.
On Chewing the Gristle, ladiesand gentlemen, we have the
mighty Seth Rosenblum, a youngblues firebrand hailing from the
Boston area.
Hell of a nice guy.
Great guitar player, delicioustone.
(00:52):
Let's Chew the Gristle withSeth right now.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys andgirls, once again we convene
around the gristle fire.
Is that a thing?
I think it is For anotherinstallment of Chewing the
(01:14):
Gristle.
Today I have young blues madmanI'm going to call you a young
blues madman, seth Rosenblum,joining us from beautiful
Massachusetts where he dwells.
I just saw him there not longago.
Always a pleasure hanging withhim, seth, how the heck are you?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
A pleasure.
So where do we find you today?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We find me in Western Massachusetts.
I'm about what?
10 minutes or so from theVermont border in my little I
don't know office.
I wouldn't call it a studio asmuch, even though you know I
have all the fun toys in here,all the guitars on the other
side, but yeah, just hanging inmy house for those who obviously
(02:03):
can't see, because this is anaudio activity.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
One of these days I'll do the video aspect of it,
but it's just the level ofcomplexity that we have not
surmounted yet Seth.
But be that as it may, I see aphalanx of delicious Tone King
amplificators next to you, andthat is actually the first time
we met was at a Turok.
(02:26):
Did I say Tone King?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You said Tone King, turok.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, freudian, slip there.
Sorry about that folks Bothgreat amps yes, exactly, but
Turok obviously great amps andyou've been playing them for a
while.
That's where we first met, whenthere was a NAMM performance
there.
So how long have you beenaffiliated with 2ROCK and how
does that all work for you?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I think that was.
So we met at the 2021 and Ithink right before COVID and all
that stuff.
But 2019 was really when I gotstarted with 2ROCK and it was
actually those nam shows for twoyears.
Um, at that that venue, slidebar it was a good friend of both
(03:11):
of ours.
Andy wood had done a show therein 2018 and he was moving his
to a bigger venue and I said, doyou mind giving me the contact?
Try to put something together.
And with the guys who said yesto me right away, it was all two
rock guys.
So then got in touch with Eliand it's like, hey, you want to
(03:33):
backline the show?
So my first time really, youknow, getting to know Eli and
the two rock guys was fromputting on those NAMM shows and
those were great with, you know,josh and Kirk was on the first
one.
They were a fun time and it was, you know, a tiny stage with
six Turoks, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, we ended up doing a couple of different
reverend events at that sameestablishment.
And it was a cool place.
Unfortunately, it is no more.
It was a victim of COVID-19.
And it was a cool place.
Unfortunately it is no more.
It was a victim of COVID-19.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
It sure was.
It was a bummer to not be ableto do more of those there, but
yeah, it was cool.
It was like an old sweaty rockclub.
You pack a couple hundredpeople into that.
Those were a blast.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
They were absolutely a blast.
So what T two rock amp do youlike to to wield these days,
because I know they make a bunchof different things and I'm
just curious as to what you'vegot behind you there lurking in
your lair yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So I have three of them.
Uh, personally, one of them,the the combo is down in my
living room because it's a greatkind of grab and go one.
But the two heads I have arethe main ones I use when I can
have everything I want.
I actually like having both ofthem because they both kind of
(04:56):
do a different thing and justdoing the dual amp setup.
But I've got the BloomfieldDrive, which is very much the
Dumble, overdrive, special midfocus kind of thing.
Great cleans on it too.
That one actually I'm about todrop off, for Matt Schofield is
(05:17):
playing Jimmy's on Sunday and wetalked to him yesterday and
loaning him that and a four 10for that because he's done the
same for me in Florida.
But the Bloomfield Drive iskind of that dumbbell, mid-heavy
, really creamy, overdriventhing.
And then the one that I've beenreally partial to over the last
(05:40):
year picked it up at NAMM lastyear is the, the vintage deluxe,
which is more I never know howto describe it, but it's more
fendery, it's more kind of like.
It has elements of it's not ablackface fender, because it's
it's raunchier than that andkind of more, um, more of the
(06:01):
Brown face thing, but then haselements of the tweed thing too,
and I mean I've used thatprobably more than any amp over
the last year.
Just used that on half of thenew record and it's killer.
It's like you don't need pedals, but it takes pedals Great.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I was going to ask you how do you, how do you like
to to run the apps?
Do you do it differently?
Do you sometimes just gas theamp and then use the volume
control on the guitar, or do youlike to run the amps?
Do you do it differently?
Do you sometimes just gas theamp and then use the volume
control on the guitar, or do youfind yourself setting it
cleanish and then using pedalsto go over the precipice?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
In between.
So I always say I like kind ofthat almost like Malcolm Young
level of breakup, where you haveenough to play the rhythm parts
.
If you dig in, you couldprobably probably, at least with
humbuckers play most of the gig.
And then any of the gain pedalsI use like no gain pedal I use
(06:54):
would be considered high gainand the gain knob on all of them
is pretty low.
It's really I'm just using themto hit the front end a little
more, just because I think thata lot of overdrive pedals sound
better into an amp that'salready at least kind of on the
edge.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yep, yeah, when the amp's crystal clean it.
Just it's almost too muchtreble and it doesn't do the
thing that I want it to do.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I agree, I agree.
So is there a wattage varianceon these amps that you like to
use that you're able to get thatjust on the brink of saturation
without either being too loudor not loud enough?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
The master is so good on these that the wattage
doesn't seem to matter as muchwith the two rocks as when I was
gigging vintage fenders andit's like, okay, super reverb, I
love it.
But I'm going to get in a fightwith every sound guy at every
club.
The Bloomfield drives 100 wattsand it's not that loud.
(08:03):
It's more that you have the bignatural low end.
You have the headroom when youwant it.
The vintage deluxe is 35 watts.
I don't know that there's aperceivable volume difference,
but I'm never running the masterwide open and they both take
pedals.
Well, I mean, I'm often runningboth those heads at the same
time and with a similar level ofbreakup.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And I know you like to bring out your glorious old
Strat.
Tell us a little bit about that, rascal.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I do.
I've had the Strat for, I guess, bought that in 2018.
So, coming up on like seven,seven years now, and bought that
from Lark Street Music down inTeaneck, new Jersey, buzzy
Levine, who's the brother ofgreat player here in the Boston
area, duke Levine Cause I wentin there to try some old brown
(09:03):
face fender ramp that ended upnot being great, and tried it
with this old strap that washanging on the wall, super beat
up and fell in love with thestrap, did the thing I think we
all do when we find a guitarthat like blows us away of it's,
like let me try another in theshop and make sure that I'm not
just wanting something new, butit's that good.
(09:26):
So he had, like you know, a 60,63 Strati at a, I think, 58 and
this blew him out of the water,but it is very, very much
players grade.
You know it has its dings andbruises and everything.
It's dings and bruises andeverything, and the guy who was
consigning it, I guess, wantedmoney like it was straight.
(09:50):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah it took hima few months to soften up, yeah
, to talk him down and to talksome sense into him.
But it was one morning I washeading out to do a little mini
rundown in North Carolina andwas driving down for it and
checked Lark Street's websitethat morning and it had just
(10:11):
gone up on the website and Icalled Buzzy.
I said I am in Connecticut, I'mgoing to drive as fast as I can
get away with, legally or not,and can you hold it for two
hours?
If I love it as much as I did,I'll take it, if I don't, I
won't.
And he said sure, so got downthere and, um, yeah, dropped off
(10:34):
a check for more money than Ihad ever spent on a guitar,
liquidating some other guitarsand, uh, as we do, yeah, and uh,
yeah, it's.
Uh, it's been a great one, it's, it's it.
It changed my mind on stratsbecause I always thought I was a
rosewood guy right until Iplayed this one, and then you
(10:57):
like that spank of the uh, is itan ashen in maple?
No, so that's the thing.
It's late 56.
So it's alder, so it's not asbright as I, kind of associated
with maple neck strats.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And a lot of them I've played since.
It's like I find the thing andI've found this with some newer
Fenders and Gibsons it's like,in a way, almost a caricature of
what people think that guitaris.
Because you play a modern likemaple neck Strat and a lot of
them do tend to be super bright,super in your face, play a lot
(11:38):
of the vintage ones and it'slike, oh, they're not that
bright, they're a little moresubdued.
And it's the same thing withlike Forever.
I thought I hated Les Paulsbecause they were 11 pounds and
just super woofy.
And you play like a 50s Gibsonand they have this bell-like
(11:58):
clarity and it's like, oh,that's different than I thought
that thing was.
And it's like, oh, that'sdifferent than I thought that
thing was.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Isn't that?
It's a little.
It's a little frustratingbecause it's almost like you're
better off not knowing.
You know what I mean.
It's like when you think aboutold Les Pauls and you actually
play one, you're like, oh, now Iget it.
And you know, to be honest, alot of those newer.
I mean you can find a newcustom shop.
(12:26):
You know Murphy aged, you knowespecially the Wildwood ones,
les Paul's that are in thatballpark, that kind of telly on
steroids thing.
I always use that as a kind ofa thing you know, to describe
what old Les Paul's are like andboy, but when you know it, you
know it Because to your point, Imean, when we were kids growing
(12:47):
up, I mean I got a few years onyou, but all the Les Pauls that
we had access to were the 70sand 80s ones which were kind of
high gain and woofy sounding andheavy, and you're like, well,
this doesn't sound like the sameguitar I'm hearing on Live at
the Fillmore or the Beano recordor you know, bloomfield or
(13:09):
Peter Green and so on and soforth.
Then you actually play one ofthe old ones.
You're like, oh, there it is.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And I think I got so twisted on Les Paul's early
because and I use the same thingof it's like telly on steroids
the clarity and a lot of theones I like are even the mid-50s
.
You know rap tale with P90s.
I think those will kill a lotof bursts and you know this was
I'm 32.
So this was what, 2003.
(13:36):
And my first guitar was a redIbanez RG 120.
I have that and a cratepractice amp.
That was the first thing.
(13:58):
But my neighbor across thestreet who was, I think, about
10 years older than me he hadnot even I, I mean, I'd take one
of the 70s or 80s over, likethe 90s les pauls where they
really got heavy and and weird,he had a 90s les paul custom in
(14:20):
like that cherry cherry wine, itwas like the burgundy red yep,
he had that thing.
That was the first nice guitarI ever played and I loved that
guitar and he had, like amarshall, one of those valve
state combos.
I remember the rig because it'slike you're going from the
(14:41):
ibanez rg and the crate practiceamp to that and it's like this
this is awesome.
But as much as I loved thatguitar, that left an impression
on me of this is what a Les Paulis of it's, it's heavy, it's
woofy and it's kind of reallyfocused in in the bottom end.
(15:02):
Um, and once I started, you know, getting exposure to some nicer
strats and tellies, I very muchwent that direction of like.
I like the clarity and I kindof wrote off gibson in a lot, of
, a lot of sentence senses.
But you're right across theboard, fender and Gibson,
especially in recent years, likeyou can find good ones.
(15:24):
They have really, I think, bothstepped up their game in terms
of trying to get closer to thoseclassic examples.
Um, I've been really impressed.
I mean I took you in there acouple of weeks ago.
You know music Emporium, youknow they're a Fender custom
dealer and all the ones I playnow are great from them.
(15:45):
All the Les Pauls that I'veplayed, um of custom shops are
really good.
And then there are also, ofcourse, all those insanely good
builders getting super close oflike.
Have you played one of theGilly Yarns?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
No, I don't think so.
I've heard of them.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh, those are insane, those are.
I mean those will, blindfolded,almost trick you into thinking
it's a burst with a good one,and they're not.
They're custom shop money or alittle above, not burst money.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Interesting.
I'll have to check one of thoseout.
Hard to find but they're.
They're cool Now you have.
Is that a?
Is that a 345?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
you've been playing it's a 345, it's 68, so a late
60s one which I feel like a lotof people don't like because the
nut width did get narrow.
But being a fender guy itappealed to me and you know the.
The price on those is a afraction right compared to if
you want to dip into the early60s.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Now, did you disengage the Veritone or do you
utilize it?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It was already done and it was monoed out before I
bought it.
So I have actually, on top ofthat dresser behind me which has
pedals and all the stuff, ontop of it there's a bag that
says music Emporium on it.
That is the original wiringharness, all of that.
That basically they just rippedout, put in a repro three 35
(17:16):
harness.
So it's a, it's a three 45 look, but it's basically a three 35.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yes, indeed, I mean, the Veritones have a thing, but
I never found myself, uh, youknow, wanting it.
You know what I mean.
It's like I would rather havethe out of phase thing than kind
of the weird man in the boxtype of, uh, you know, guitar in
a box type sound that you canget with the Veritone.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Every once in a while , like listening to some of the
the BB King records and stuff.
I want it for that thing, Right, Right, but then all the rest
of the time I don't.
It's like.
I just like what, what thatguitar does.
And I've I mean it's funny ongigs recently and on the half of
(18:06):
the new record that's done.
I played that guitar more thanI played a Strat, which I never
thought would be me, but I'vebonded with it.
Well, the humbucker thing, it'sa different thing.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It is indeed, and it was interesting when I was a
young lad.
It is indeed and it's.
It was interesting.
When I was a young, a young lad, I always thought that you were
either a humbucker guy or asingle coil character.
And now of course I've realizedwell, you can actually do both
and so on and so forth.
But to you know, when I wasvery young I was of the mindset
that that was, that was kind ofyour school.
(18:40):
You know what I mean.
It's like you either were intothe clarity and the percussive
kind of things you could do withsingle coils, and then you
could do more of the beefy, youknow things that you would be
inclined to do on a Gibson.
But you know you can do bothand they both have their thing.
Do you find yourself playingdifferently on either instrument
?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
In a way.
Yes, I mean, there are certainlike sonic benchmarks that are
almost that thing.
And it's weird because I wentfull circle, like probably for
the first five or six years thatI played guitar, I didn't know
anything with single coils.
I think the only time I had asingle coil and I never used it
(19:21):
was after that red Ibanez RG 120got one of the what was it like
the five fifties or something,where it was hum, single, hum.
Oh yeah, I remember those Yep,and I never used the single coil
in the middle.
It was like occasionally thosein between positions you'd use
it for the kind of spanky, youknow position two and four strat
(19:45):
thing.
But everything, I add, because Iwas into more of the rock stuff
and the shreddier stuff, it wasall humbuckers across the board
, right.
And I think the first guitarthat I got where I really used
single coils was a Tom Andersontelly when I was probably I
(20:09):
don't know 17 or 18 or so, and Iwas like, oh, this is, this is
a thing and it's like there's aclarity to it.
And early on I went down therabbit hole of playing with way
too much gain and everything,and it was kind of a revelation
of oh, single coils cut betterthan humbuckers do.
(20:31):
I can still have that gain andI won't get as lost in a mix.
And then for a while I kind ofwent totally away from
humbuckers.
And now it's like, oh, they'reboth cool.
Totally away from humbuckers.
And now it's like, oh, they'reboth cool.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Right, they do different things, but neither
are really better than the other, it's just a different flavor
well, talk a little bit abouthow your journey from, as you
said, the shreddier mentality todiscovering blues and wanting
to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, so it was kind of.
There were two, I think, kindof pivotal moments with that of
when I started playing guitar.
I'd seen the movie School ofRock when it came out and I was
like, oh, I just want to playlike the kid in the movie does
and I'll be cool, and so off thebat had, I think actually, the
(21:25):
soundtrack for school of rock onCD which had sunshine of your
love by cream.
It had immigrant song byZeppelin, had some ACDC, so it
was very classic rock heavy.
The kids in school were alllistening to like early two
thousands pop, punk and emostuff and you know I I was never
(21:49):
that into that.
But the first band I loved wasMetallica and it was like you
know, enter Sandman masterpuppets and was playing with
kids in the neighborhood doingthat stuff.
And I think the first song thatI learned I know first solo was
Nothing Else Matters.
That was the solo.
(22:10):
It's like Kirk Hammett was theguy for me and then had a
teacher at the school I was atwho was one of the music
teachers Fantastic influence atthat point for me, just exposing
me to different bands.
He was a huge Rush fan and hewas a huge Dream Theater fan
(22:33):
Rush was kind of too weird forme at that point.
Now I love it, but it's likeyou go from Metallica to Tom
Sawyer and it's like what isthis?
I don't know what to do withthis, but the dream theater
entry point was like some of thethe stuff that was coming out
then which was, um, what thetrain of thought record which
(22:54):
had like, as I am in the realmetal heavy stuff and it's like
that's not that big a departurefrom inner Sandman and some of
that it's just heavier Got very,very into Dream Theater and I
know this doesn't sound likethis is how I got into blues,
but it was.
I think I was 13, saw DreamTheater was coming to Boston,
(23:17):
asked my parents if I could goand my parents said there's no
way you're going alone to, youknow, the Orpheum Theater, which
I think you've played in Boston.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, exactly, I played there.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It's like that's a great theater but kind of down
and dirty area of Boston andeverything, especially at that
time.
And my mom said, I tell youwhat.
I'll buy you tickets.
I'll take you if you go to anyshow that I pick.
I'll buy you tickets, I'll takeyou if you go to any show that
(23:50):
I pick.
And my dad was a concert masterof the Boston Ballet classical
guy, my mom big Beatles fan,motown fan, all of that.
Basically neither of them weretoo keen on the hard rock and
metal stuff.
And she read Boston Globearticle, up and coming blues
guitar player in the jazz andblues section and it was Joe
Bonamassa playing Scullers JazzClub in Boston.
(24:13):
And this was probably 2005,early 2006.
And I kind of went, not kickingand screaming, but I wasn't
excited for that show.
I was like, oh, blues, that'sboring, that's like you know
whatever it's quiet.
It's no loud amps and of coursewalk in and Joe had Marshall,
(24:36):
silver Jubilees and you know,strat and Les Paul, and of the
two shows that's the one thatresonated with me way more and
of the two shows that's the onethat resonated with me way more.
You know, you have that firstkind of experience small club,
150, 180 people, whatever thatroom fit, right, it was loud and
I still remember he closed itout with Jeff Beck Band Blues
(24:59):
Deluxe, right, and it's like, oh, that's cool, I want to do that
.
That was the first thing.
And then didn't immediately gothere and then one of the guys
that I got into that was verykind of the bridge between the
more guitar shreddy stuff andthe blues thing was landau.
(25:20):
It's like had a huge landauphase and and it's like, okay,
there's a guy that can do theinstrumental guitar thing and
rock and then can also do a slowblues with the best of them.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Right, absolutely.
So.
At what point did you realizethat that's just what you wanted
to do for a living and yourparents being especially your
dad being, you know, aprofessional musician?
How did that all play out interms of their level of
enthusiasm?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
So I always say I give a lot of credit to my
parents because looking back onsome of the ways that I got here
it's like, wow, that was boldat that age, especially so my
parents actually met in musicschool.
My mom was a violinist too andthen she ended up going into
(26:13):
early childhood education sodidn't play professionally past
probably mid, early mid twentiesor so.
But you know, grew up and mydad was the main breadwinner and
he was playing Boston Ballet,boston Esplanade Pops, subbing
with the Pops and Symphony andwas teaching a lot.
(26:34):
So I kind of saw that thing asa freelance musician, what you
have to do to cobble togethereverything.
But you know, grew up very mucha middle-class upbringing, you
know, um, and I played violingrowing up when I started
(26:55):
playing guitar, like my, my mainlove as a kid was always
baseball, not music, and I wasnever big on school, like I
liked school, but it was neverlike, oh, I really want to put
in the extra effort for this, Ireally want to do this.
So growing up I always, I guess, would say, when I'm 16, can I
(27:19):
drop out of school and just playprofessional baseball?
And uh, that was my childhoodplan at eight years old and
ended up going a differentdirection of by, I think by
about 14.
I was really really seriousabout the guitar, had stopped
playing violin and was like thisis the thing I want to do and
(27:45):
after freshman year of highschool, went to a Berkeley
summer program because it wasright down the street.
Of course, you know I grew upnow I live about two hours
outside the city, but I grew up15 minutes outside Boston, so I
was going to say two hoursoutside the city.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What is that Like five miles?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So that's more like I grew up what should be 15
minutes and sometimes it doestake an hour, but I was, I could
take the tea and you know, whenI went to the the Berkeley
summer program I was getting onthe green line from Newton Mass
down right to Heinz Conventionright at Berkeley and went to
the five-week program, which waskind of the.
(28:28):
You know they do some of theweek-long like
instrument-specific things.
The five-week program isdecently representative of a
college experience in the senseof you know you have your
private lessons, you have yourharmony classes, your ear
training classes, all of theabove and I loved it.
(28:49):
Got back to high school in thefall and sophomore year.
High school and I my parentsvery much on scholarship had
sent me to a great privateschool through elementary school
, ended up at the public highschool and was pretty bored
school-wise of that privateschool was so good that I was
(29:11):
ahead in terms a lot of theclasses without realizing it and
just wasn't getting a whole lotout of it.
Taking lessons after thatBerkeley summer program with Joe
Stump, who was a Berkeleyprofessor, was going to his
(29:33):
house, had been paired with himthere because it was still very
much at 16, more into theshreddy thing than I was, the
blues thing, even though I wasgoing to a couple of blues jams
a week to get out and play andget all that experience.
And I don't know how it started.
I know that it kind of endedwith my parents going to the
back school night at my highschool and not being very
impressed with it.
(29:54):
But I said, hey, I'm not doinganything here, can I just drop
out and go to Berkeley now?
And that's what I ended updoing.
Yeah, I left high school, kindof thanksgiving a sophomore year
, got a ged so I could apply toberkeley and went when I should
have been junior, spent a yearthere and then left.
(30:16):
But you know, that was where itwas kind of there was no backup
plan.
It was okay, going both feetall the way in of not finishing
school in the traditional way,not even finishing berkeley, and
at that point it was.
You know, you just do it.
(30:36):
But I feel like with my dad asa working musician there wasn't
that pushback.
He was only do this if you knowit's hard, like this is not the
easiest thing that you canchoose to do for a living, but
if you love it, there's nobetter thing, right.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
And that's sound advice.
It is.
It is Because I think that youknow my experience is a little
different.
You know I've talked about itmany times on this doggone
podcast, but it's you know whatI try to tell my kids who want
to get in and of course Dylan'salready in it and I tell anybody
(31:19):
who's willing to listen.
It's like listen.
If you don't realize that thelove of what you do has to so
far eclipse the negativereinforcement and walls and
obstacles that are going to beput in your way just to make
rent, then don't do it.
It's the same thing when Iwould talk to various, my
(31:40):
parents always had people talkto me along the way to try to
discourage me from being amusician.
They all basically said whatyour dad said.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
So that's good advice .
I like it.
So you had more of the pushbackat that kind of entry point.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Well, they just didn't think it was a viable
livelihood.
They were supportive.
You know what I mean.
So I'm always supportive ofdoing lessons and making sure I
had a proper when.
Know, when I was looking atschools, you know, they helped
me vet, you know, the rightschool to go to that was within
what they thought was reasonable, both financially and also more
(32:18):
of a traditional education.
So I had to go to a statecollege as opposed to a
conservatory or something likethat.
A conservatory or somethinglike that, um, but all along the
way they had discussions withmy teachers at the time and
having them intercede on theirbehalf to to describe exactly
how.
You know what I was up againstin terms of being a musician, uh
(32:41):
, cause, it was terrifying forthem.
I mean, my dad was a lawyer, um, you know, I think he was the
first of you know probably acouple of generations that ever
went to college.
You know they were all workingfolk and all my siblings, you
know, went to college, gotstraight jobs and so on and so
forth.
No one was really into the arts.
(33:02):
So I think it was just a fearof the unknown.
It wasn't that they were, youknow, aghast for some kind of
moral or you know any kind ofreason like that.
They just thought you know mydad would always say I don't
want you to end up working at acar wash Not that there's
anything wrong with that forthose of you who work at car
washes, but yeah.
But you know, and now my kidskind of see that are going to
(33:23):
the arts.
You know all the different hatsyou got to wear in order to to
make it to payday.
But, as as your dad said, andI'm sure as you can read, you
know, speak to as well, it'sworth it.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things, because I
know my dad got more pushbackfrom his parents when he was
kind of going into that and healso he did graduate high school
, unlike I did uh but didn't.
But, um, he kind of did oneyear of uh, of music college and
(33:58):
then left, so like the collegething wasn't a big deal, cause
he said, hey, look, I've neverbeen asked where my degree is
for anything that I've actuallydone, totally.
But one of the questions Iremember him asking me because
at that point like I wanted toeither be in a band or do my
(34:18):
thing and like have that be thethe thing.
And he was clear-eyed enough toknow that doesn't always work
out for one reason or another.
And his question was hey, ifyou become a musician and the
performing doesn't get you whereyou want or isn't as viable,
(34:41):
would you be happy being the guywho is teaching 40 lessons a
week, 50 lessons a week?
And I said, absolutely Like Ido anything where this.
Now I've kind of done that andcome back from that a bit,
because that is, if you do wantto do the performing too,
(35:02):
there's a certainly a burnoutfactor with absolutely any
amount of volume.
But it's like I love teaching,I love doing all those different
things that go into it and Ithink his real point with that
was, as you said, it's like yougot to kind of wear those
different hats and have thosedifferent avenues to kind of
(35:25):
cobble everything together.
Have those different avenues tokind of cobble everything
together.
One focus often won't quite getyou there, exactly correct.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
But you know, I find that, if you're willing, you
know, and I think that all of uswho really love it find in all
the different opportunities bysaying yes to things that we
didn't necessarily envision aswhat would be a big part of our
income or whatever the casewould be, as long as you can
interject that love of what youdo, playing-wise, into those
(35:57):
different scenarios, it'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It sure is, and I'm sure you did the same early on.
It's like you say yes to everysingle gig, even if it's not a
style of music that you'd wantto play, and it also gives you
broader experience and exposure.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
We interrupt this regularly scheduled
gristle-infested conversation togive a special shout out to our
friends at Fishman Transducers,makers of the Greg Koch
Signature Fluence Gristle TonePickup Set Can you dig that?
And our friends at WildwoodGuitars of Louisville, colorado,
bringing the heat in the shadowof the Rocky Mountains.
(36:40):
So let's talk about yourrecording career thus far.
I know you put out a recordthat Josh produced a few years
back, and then there was arecord that you produced as the
Crow Flies, I believe in 2023.
And now you're working on thisnew record that I think it's
(37:01):
okay to say who was involved,with Mr Bonamassa and so on and
so forth, and so describe forfolks you know we've talked
about it, because you know whatwe all have to do in order to go
forth and make a living doingthis.
These recordings are somethingwe make money off of, but
(37:23):
they're more of a calling card,would not you say at this
particular juncture?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I sometimes and it's probably a little cynical, but
compare the albums, because it'sreally streams at this point.
Or the hot dog and soda combo.
It's been well publicizedCostco loses money on every
(37:51):
single rotisserie chicken saleRight, but why do they do?
It Gets people in the door,exactly, and it's first of all
artistically like I want to bemaking the records and I want to
be pushing myself to, to createsomething in terms of that.
But uh, yeah, you're right,it's also the calling card that
(38:22):
gets you know them interested ineither taking lessons or buying
any of the courses we have outand that that kind of thing.
And you know I just enjoy makingthe records too.
It's like you know you don'twant to go out and play the same
tunes over and over and overand having the stuff kind of
(38:46):
crystallized that way.
Um, I, I think it is reallygreat and, yeah, so had worked
with Josh on keep on turning in2018.
And, you know, at that pointreally felt like I needed
someone to produce it who couldhave more of the 360 view of the
(39:06):
project.
And let me just play guitar andsing, because you know how in
the last 10, 15, 20 years, it'slike sessions in the studio with
a full band are not what theywere 30, 40 years ago, and so I
(39:27):
never really got that thing ofbeing in sessions.
A lot like I'd get called forstuff and most of it would be
have the track sent to me,recorded at home, send a Mac.
So I don't think at thatjuncture I knew well enough how
to communicate what I wanted toa drummer, a bass player, a
keyboard player and also try toplay my part as well as I could.
(39:49):
And Josh, in addition to beinga monster guitar player,
performer, singer, everything issuch a great producer, has such
great ears and I learned a lotfrom doing that one, where I did
the next one myself, but, yeah,this one working with both Josh
(40:10):
and Joe, it's great.
Just got all the mixesfinalized.
So for these first five tunes,and they're coming out great.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Excellent.
So what kind of plans do youhave for this year in terms of
touring, putting songs out?
I think we were talking abouthow you might drop a few singles
before kind of doing the entirepackage as an entire release.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I think for multiple reasons, going to do a
lot of singles from this one,probably the first single
sometime around April or May,kind of, you know, in the first
half of the year, touring wise.
Uh, it's been an interestinglast couple of years because had
a booking agent who I was withfor a few years, then, of course
, covid hit and then he got sickand passed away.
(41:00):
Um, I think it was 2023, justas we were getting as the crow
flies out and you know, with alot of independent agents, it's
not like there are five otherguys at the agency or either one
other person to pick up theslack.
(41:22):
Last year was really booking,booking myself for the the most
part now working on um, tryingto let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Let's.
Let's talk about that for justa second, because I think that a
lot of people who maybe havenever tried, or who are fans of
of yours or mine or whatever thecase may be, and they're like
why does he never play aroundhere?
It's almost like they thinkthat you've got like a vendetta
against their community orsomething and they don't realize
(41:55):
that getting a record deal isalmost easy.
In comparison to getting adecent booking agent to take you
on and to do stuff, it'sextraordinarily difficult.
And then finding someone who'sgot the gumption and the
wherewithal to be able to notonly get the gigs but then to
(42:17):
route in a way that makes senseand to actually care enough
about you and your financial andphysical well-being to map out
something that makes somewhatsense, I mean, that's the hugest
thing about the industry that Idon't think people really have
(42:37):
any idea about, would you notagree?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I completely agree.
And there's that hard thingbecause often you know, booking
yourself, obviously you're goingto try very hard with where
maybe you're putting as much, orat least as much effort into it
as an agent would.
But there's also the thing ofyou know a lot of venues are
(43:01):
comfortable working with agentsand certain agents and they,
they, you know they get an emailfrom an artist or they dealing
with that often know where it'sif they can talk to an agent and
book five shows on one day andkind of fill their calendar and
have it be easy.
Um, that that can be preferable.
(43:22):
But yeah, it is hard to findthat right fit and make it all
happen of.
Uh no, I couldn't agree more.
So you know, right now we'retrying to get something set up
with a new agent I have, youknow, I'm doing the West coast a
little run in LA in Januaryright before I know you you are
(43:42):
out there as well right aroundNAMM time and then right now
trying to get stuff on the booksfor UK and Europe at the end of
summer trying to kind of do acouple probably clinics,
workshops on top of some tourdates over there.
But yeah, it's hard becauseit's also, you know there I've
(44:04):
seen it in the Boston area howmany of the smaller clubs in the
last few years have closed.
So there's also just there areless rooms.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Right?
Well, it's interesting becauseyou came out to our show at the
Burren, which is a small joint,but that's a place where you can
make money.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, that's the Burren.
It was the first place I playedwhen I moved back to Boston in
2017.
And I still play it becauseBooker Tom Bianchi, who's one of
the best guys in Boston.
Just fantastic.
You can make money there andit's a vibe Totally.
(44:43):
You pack that place out andit's fun.
It's a hundred people stuffedin, but it's like how many
venues that we love are thatthing.
You think about it in LA.
Where do you have to go?
You have to go see Landau, orScott Henderson or Josh play the
baked potato.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Right, exactly, and it's 65 people in there.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Right, you feel like you walked into a living room.
I remember the first timewalking into the baked potato to
see Landau and I'd seen all thevideos online and it actually
looks bigger on YouTube than itis when you're sitting at a
table and there are people likeright in front of you, um and
just went to, was down inNashville for a couple of days.
(45:27):
Last week went to the underdogfor the first first time, which
I feel like is the new guitarspot right in nashville.
You know guthrie trap.
I know as residency there.
I saw jack ruch play there witha great um organ player I'm
blanking on his name, but greatdrummer west little, who I.
(45:47):
We played with it at woodshedlast year okay yeah, yeah, he
was uh.
Well, you had, you had uh tobyand and you had your whole whole
thing there, but he had tobyand dylan there, but uh wes was
there and it was great and thatplace is tiny too.
Right, like that is not a bigroom, that's maybe you get a
(46:08):
hundred people in there and someof those rooms are the most fun
and when it's done right, yeah,you can, you can actually do
well in those rooms.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Well, I think another thing that, uh, you know
people's uh perceptions of howdo these guys make any money.
Well, if you're playing in aroom where you know you're
packing a room with, let's say,a hundred people in it or
whatever the case may be, andyou charge a decent ticket price
(46:38):
, that's not extortionate, it'snot ticket master.
You know what I mean.
You can make good money there.
But also you know people wantto support with.
I've got a pretty deep merchtable with all these different
things which are again evidenceto all the other hats that we
have to wear, from instructionalmaterial to, of course, all the
(47:02):
different records.
But then you know some gear,you know pedals or, of course,
t-shirts and hats and all thatother kind of stuff.
But playing a smaller venuethat's packed with enthusiasts
and then afterwards you know,selling a bunch of merch.
I mean, you keep your overheadlow, you can make some dough,
which is, you know, I'm justhaving a blast doing it and I
(47:23):
liked.
You know we were kind of talkingabout this too.
It's like we work our own merchtables.
You know we don't have someonealong working the merch.
Sometimes someone will work themerch table a friend or a
family member if they happen tobe in that town.
But I find that it's far moreprofitable to do it yourself,
because people want, you candescribe what everything is for
one and people are much morelikely to stop, of course, if
(47:46):
you're there.
And then, plus, you get to meeteverybody that came to the gig
and you find out, you make allthese people you know once you
make that personal connection.
First of all, there's nothinglike being in the room.
You know.
It's as much as we can talkabout how the internet has done
well for both of us in terms ofgetting the word out to a much
larger audience moment.
(48:13):
Even if there's a video of thatmoment, it's still not the same
as actually being there andmaking that personal connection.
And that merch table andhanging with the folks is all
part of that.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Well, and every time I come see your show, you
consistently have especially foryou know, not playing theaters
where it's someone who has awhole merch trunk and everything
and display you have one of thebest merch setups for any band
that's playing clubs.
Because you kind of hit thattarget of like, you want a hat,
(48:43):
got hats.
I know I actually have my, uh,your hat sitting.
Oh there, it is Perfect.
Um, and you have the shirts,you have the, the, I think, some
of the instructional stuffsometimes, yeah, and then also
like the pedals and it's like,wow, I gotta.
I always look at your setup andit's like, oh, I gotta step up
my game on what I have.
(49:05):
But you're right, it's like ina room where you make that
connection, you're running yourown merch.
You can really sell some stuffand make good inroads there.
And yeah, I think also the thingabout a club and the Burns
great example is it's like someof those independent local clubs
(49:26):
where someone is taking it onand really doing it right,
they're also doing it with theartists in mind, because usually
, like Tom from the burn, he's agreat bass player and singer
and performs all in the area.
Um, his wife is fantastic blues, blues guitar player and singer
as well.
So he gets it from the artistside, where I remember and I'll
(49:49):
leave the venue very muchunnamed, but kind of a bigger
venue that has some smallerrooms, and got presented with a
deal from one of them and it wasso unbelievably terrible I
couldn't believe it, because theticket price they were like
(50:12):
were like no, we just don't doanything over this number, and
it was like 10 or 15 bucks andI'm like, well, your room seats
100 people, just the raw math.
They're like okay, so, so themost it's going to gross for a
trio is 900 or a thousand bucks.
Right, already doesn't work.
(50:33):
And then they had something likea 400 marketing budget of
course, and it's like I'm I'msorry, but right, right, at that
point it's like oh, and thesound I?
I was looking at the deal.
I'm like, if I'm reading thiscorrectly, I can walk away with
400, right?
Um, no, thank you, exactly,exactly.
(50:53):
But it's yeah, it's so greatwhen you find those smaller
rooms that are doing it right,not trying to extort artists.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And there are.
You know, as I'm sure you'vedone the same thing, you know
you're, you travel around, youtry these different clubs and
you realize the ones that areyour rooms and the ones that
aren't, obviously, and theycould be rooms that are great
for other people but not for you.
I mean, like, sometimes we'lltry like kind of a random rock
(51:24):
club, sure, and we'll do okay,but you're like, well, we should
really be doing better in thistown and you realize that, well,
the people that are kind ofinto what similar music that we
are, none of those other peopleare playing at this place.
So it's not a place that's onthe radar for folks that are
(51:45):
like, oh, I wonder who's playingat the such and such tonight?
Um, so it's entirely on you andyour social media reach, or
whatever the case may be, to tryto get people out, as opposed
to having that you know venue.
Like you know, the Saxon pub isa great one for us.
Or you know various, um,obviously, the Iridium is good
(52:05):
one, the Burns great for us.
Jimmy's is great.
Jimmy's is fantastic.
It's fantastic.
Um, you know, the Funky Biscuitis a great one.
You know, these are the kind ofrooms where it's like oh,
people that go to that club likea similar type of music, and so
the people that would be mostlikely wanting to come and see
us are going to be checking outthat calendar.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
I also find one of the things that I'm curious for
you when you say rock clubs or alot of those rock clubs that
you'll do standing.
Yes, because I find that one ofthe big tipping points for me
is the standing venues and theseated venues.
Oh, interesting, okay,consistently, do better at the
(52:50):
seated venues, because you thinkabout, like burn jimmy's funky
biscuit, or one of the ones I'vedone really well within south
florida is, uh, have you donearts garage no, I don't think so
it's right north of I thinknorth of the biscuit.
It's um delray beach there andlike a listening room and I
(53:10):
remember playing that for thefirst time.
My old agent had booked methere and it was like a weekend
Florida run out.
It was a festival over by TampaBlues Festival there and then
Arts Garage was using local guysand they were great Matt
Schofield actually, his bassplayer down there and it was a
(53:32):
great band and everything.
And I drove over to the eastcoast of Florida and saw the ad
and it was a guarantee for thatgig and saw the ticket price and
I went, oh cool, no one's goingto be there, because at the
time I think Arts Garage it waslike a $35, $40 ticket, which at
(53:55):
the time I was not a $35, $40ticket.
But you know, I looked at thepast thing and a lot of names of
kind of in our world had playedthere and seemingly done well
and that place holds I don'tknow't know 190, 125 people
showed up.
I was expecting about four andit's like, oh okay, they get the
(54:18):
market and they get whatthey're trying to do and what
they're selling.
They know their area, they knowthe the ticket price it can
support because it's undoubted.
It's like you play New York oryou play Boston or you play
South Florida.
That's a different ticket pricethan if you're playing some
(54:41):
places in, say, the mid Atlanticor middle of the country.
It's just like New York.
People are like oh it's $50ticket, that's cheap, right.
Where other towns it's like 50bucks, that's no way, Exactly,
Exactly, Correct.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Well, I remember in the day, you know, playing
locally all the time with myband and, you know, just trying
to keep busy, trying to get outof town and do stuff In the
meantime, you know we were ahigh cover charge at $5, and
we'd be.
You know those clubs are.
You're set up like right by thedoor and so people are coming
in and you're literally, asyou're playing, hearing people
(55:15):
argue with the doorman aboutpaying $5 to get in and you're
like you just came from a Bucksgame where you probably paid God
knows how much for your ticket,let alone the beers and
subsequent food and parking, andyou had $5 to come into to
support this band.
It's just beyond the pale ohit's, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
And, being you know down down in nashville last week
, have you ever kind of done thein nashville, the whole lower
broadway stretch?
and I've just, I've just seen itfrom afar, but yes, it's I so
there's one reason in my opinionto do the lower broadway
stretch and it's the one clubthere, robert's western world
(55:57):
right, which is kind of theremaining, and you know that was
the don kelly band and everyonewho played in that and the kid
he's not a kid, but he's wellyounger than me luke mcquarrie
have you seen him, I've seen himso every time I go to Nashville
it's like I will fight with allthe masses on lower Broadway to
go into Robertson here, luke,cause he's just mind blowingly
(56:22):
fantastic, right, um, and it wasnice, it's the winter, so it
was a lot quieter than the lasttime I was down there.
But those bars the few that havetried to do cover charges, like
people, just won't.
You know, it's no cover chargeand it's like then those bands
are playing four hour sets fortips.
(56:42):
Right, it's insane.
And it's the thing where it'slike well, the the venues, half
the time where there is a covercharge, they want to split on
the door.
Right, there's never split onthe bar, somehow right, exactly
correct.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
you know, I've come, you know I used to always think
that the tip thing was like aninsult, you know, and it was
always I'd see it down in innashville and I would see it in
austin and I was like, you know,this is just especially as
you're you.
You know you're saying theseworld-class musicians who just
got off the road with so-and-soand they want to go out and gig
while they're in town and you'relike seeing all these people
(57:20):
that have been playing in arenasand stadiums and now they're
playing in this hole in the walland people are passing around
tips.
But I've, I've changed myperspective on that.
There's, there was a, a clublocally that I don't do many
clubs locally anymore Causethere's not that many places
left that are kind of more ofthe showcase club.
But you know, I, I I turned mymind around pretty cause like if
(57:42):
, if you bring in people thatwant to come and see you and you
get a base pay plus all thetips, it could be a surprisingly
lucrative.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
It sure can.
There've been a few places I'vedone, even on the road, where
that's kind of the thing, likethere's a club in Florida that I
did and everyone does.
Have you done little bar?
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I'm trying to think of the place on the.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
I don't know if you could get the organ and the
Leslie through the door there.
Actually it's on the west coastof Florida.
Okay, so it's Goodland, likeMarco Island, which is like all
the way south of Naples, all theway down Like you're in the
Everglades, basically Got it,all the way down, like you're in
(58:31):
the Everglades, basically Gotit.
And I was terrified leavingthat gig because someone had
just totaled their car, I guess,running over like a python or
something.
Oh, good lord, like 18-footpython and my biggest fear is
snakes, like I am.
But it's this place and likeit's the only entertainment on
this island and like all theblues guys will do it, like
(58:56):
albert castillo, you'll do allthese and you walk in and it's
like there's a mounted pa, sortof not a big pa or anything and
it's like this tiny bar, it.
What 60 people can fit in thisplace?
Oh, they go crazy and base payand they have a band house and
(59:20):
then the tips are just insanethere Because people, it's like
you either stay at home or yougo out for the entertainment
there and that's it.
Wow, yeah, some of those placescan be great.
Speaker 1 (59:31):
It's crazy all the different things we do doggone
it to play that sweet music.
It sure is.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
Well, and you have the thing of obviously, you know
, with Toby and everything, youhave a lot of gear you're
hauling around to be able to doit.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, it's.
You know, when we first startedto hit the road, he used like
the digital B thing.
You know that X, k, x orwhatever it is, uh, through a
real Leslie and and that's okay,uh, but for him it's like man,
I need that.
It's just, if you're going tohave an organ, you gotta have an
(01:00:10):
organ.
I couldn't agree more.
So that's so.
We just decided that that's.
That's what we're going to doand that's what we want to.
You know we want to have bigdrums, big guitar amps and B3s.
So that's what we're doing andluckily we've got the logistics
worked out.
I mean it really.
It makes for, like when we'redoing those gigs out in LA, we
(01:00:32):
need to route there and routeback, because I remember the
first couple times that wewanted to I think the first time
we did rent a B3 and you mightas well just drive out there and
pay the gas.
It was that much, oh my God, itwas insane.
It was like $750 a night.
Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Oh my God, yeah much.
Oh my god, it was insane.
It was like 750 a night.
Oh my god, because I've youknow plenty of times I I think
you've done it too, like youbackline a guitar amp, and it's
right, no problem not expensiveand it's like oh, it's a deluxe
reverb, great, I can make thatwork absolutely I've never.
I did not think organs would bethat expensive, and it's also
like with backlining stuff.
The one downside is I'm sureyou get the organ and did toby
(01:01:19):
like that organ or was it?
Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
well, see, that was the thing.
Is that ideal?
We had to find the, the goodones, and so you know.
And then he, you know, one ofthe first things I did, um, or I
was concerned about when, whentoby ended the band, is it's
like well, we better, we betterhook up with Hammond so maybe we
can get some, some help whenwe're traveling, maybe we can do
some fly and stuff.
And I got to say that Hammond'snot a company that really is at
(01:01:43):
the forefront of supportingtheir artists in that way, and
um, so therefore we had tofigure it out all on our own.
And, needless to say, we go toEurope.
It's a concern.
So we've now we've got placeswhere we can get stuff, but it's
not cheap.
I mean, it's absolutely themost expensive thing that we
spend money on when we tour.
Uh, if we have to get backlineis because we need.
(01:02:04):
We need the real thing, or elseit's.
It's it's just kind of of.
Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Uh, it makes it cheesy.
You know what I mean so welland seeing you guys, it's like
it's legit, it's loud, it's,it's good and it all comes
together.
And there there is that thing.
I think, especially with organand especially in a trio, where
I've found, even when I do fourpiece, which I do more and more
and always, I always want thereal organ, because there's
(01:02:34):
something with the stage volumeand with our perception playing
we're getting fake organ comingthrough a monitor Right Is not
the same as having the Leslie atthe other side of the stage.
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Let's put it this way I have never.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
I've never had toby in my monitors.
I believe you.
I have never had any organplayer in my monitors.
It's like you have a leslie andit does something to like the
wetness and the fullness of the,the whole sound exactly because
I know we were.
We were talking this last time.
It's like you're not even usingreverb right now are you
Exactly?
And it's like I feel in a trio Ineed reverb or I just don't
(01:03:20):
have that space.
But it is a luxury where, likein January when I do the West
Coast, I'm going out there forthree dates, have guys on the
West Coast Right, fly home easyas anything's like.
You know zach, I think, haswhat that super reverb.
That's pretty, pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
It's like has the super reverb, take a guitar
pedal board and done right andwe were, we were contemplating
doing a fly-in, but then, um,and zach's like yeah, you can
use my stuff, I, I got a drumkit, I got this, that, and he's
got a Nord.
And then you mentioned the wordNord to Toby and his peaceful,
(01:04:00):
humorous disposition turns intochanges.
Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I'm sure it's not it.
It's not it.
There's that magic of realorgan.
That's a fact.
Well, listen, my friends's thatmagic of real organ.
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Well, listen, my friends, it's been an absolute
pleasure rapping with you today.
Thanks for doing it.
Folks, Please check out Sethonline.
It's just SethRosenblumcom, amI correct it?
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
sure is, and Instagram all the fun things.
Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yes, check them out and I look forward to seeing you
soon.
I'll definitely see you out inCalifornia, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I will see you there.
I'll probably.
I might try to make it over toeither the Friday or Saturday of
your shows, because I fly out.
I know NAMM is shorter thisyear, so I fly out Sunday
morning.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Oh, nice Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
In and out, because I'm there for 10 days, oh good.
Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Lord.
Well, it's nice to be inSouthern California at that time
of year.
Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
I never, coming from you, have the same thing coming
from cold weather climate.
It's like give me Florida, giveme LA, give me anywhere that's
not here.
From now until March Exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
All right, my friend, you have a good one.
Great, great to see you Talk toyou soon.
Bye, Bye-bye.
Well, thanks for tuning in.
Ladies and gentlemen, toanother episode of Chewing the
Gristle.
We certainly do appreciate youstopping by.
Make sure you tell your friendsall about us.
I think they might enjoythemselves.
(01:05:28):
So thanks again for tuning inand we'll see you next time.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for
another season of Chewing theGristle with yours truly Greg
Kauk.
Can you believe it's alreadyseason six?
We've got so many coolinterviews lined up.
Are we going to talk aboutmusic, you betcha?
But what else are we going totalk about?
Well, quite frankly, anythingthat comes to mind.
So stay tuned, doggone it.
(00:30):
Let's chew that doggone gristle.
Season six come this week.
On Chewing the Gristle, ladiesand gentlemen, we have the
mighty Seth Rosenblum, a youngblues firebrand hailing from the
Boston area.
Hell of a nice guy.
Great guitar player, delicioustone.
(00:52):
Let's Chew the Gristle withSeth right now.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys andgirls, once again we convene
around the gristle fire.
Is that a thing?
I think it is For anotherinstallment of Chewing the
(01:14):
Gristle.
Today I have young blues madmanI'm going to call you a young
blues madman, seth Rosenblum,joining us from beautiful
Massachusetts where he dwells.
I just saw him there not longago.
Always a pleasure hanging withhim, seth, how the heck are you?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
A pleasure.
So where do we find you today?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We find me in Western Massachusetts.
I'm about what?
10 minutes or so from theVermont border in my little I
don't know office.
I wouldn't call it a studio asmuch, even though you know I
have all the fun toys in here,all the guitars on the other
side, but yeah, just hanging inmy house for those who obviously
(02:03):
can't see, because this is anaudio activity.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
One of these days I'll do the video aspect of it,
but it's just the level ofcomplexity that we have not
surmounted yet Seth.
But be that as it may, I see aphalanx of delicious Tone King
amplificators next to you, andthat is actually the first time
we met was at a Turok.
(02:26):
Did I say Tone King?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You said Tone King, turok.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, freudian, slip there.
Sorry about that folks Bothgreat amps yes, exactly, but
Turok obviously great amps andyou've been playing them for a
while.
That's where we first met, whenthere was a NAMM performance
there.
So how long have you beenaffiliated with 2ROCK and how
does that all work for you?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I think that was.
So we met at the 2021 and Ithink right before COVID and all
that stuff.
But 2019 was really when I gotstarted with 2ROCK and it was
actually those nam shows for twoyears.
Um, at that that venue, slidebar it was a good friend of both
(03:11):
of ours.
Andy wood had done a show therein 2018 and he was moving his
to a bigger venue and I said, doyou mind giving me the contact?
Try to put something together.
And with the guys who said yesto me right away, it was all two
rock guys.
So then got in touch with Eliand it's like, hey, you want to
(03:33):
backline the show?
So my first time really, youknow, getting to know Eli and
the two rock guys was fromputting on those NAMM shows and
those were great with, you know,josh and Kirk was on the first
one.
They were a fun time and it was, you know, a tiny stage with
six Turoks, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, we ended up doing a couple of different
reverend events at that sameestablishment.
And it was a cool place.
Unfortunately, it is no more.
It was a victim of COVID-19.
And it was a cool place.
Unfortunately it is no more.
It was a victim of COVID-19.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
It sure was.
It was a bummer to not be ableto do more of those there, but
yeah, it was cool.
It was like an old sweaty rockclub.
You pack a couple hundredpeople into that.
Those were a blast.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
They were absolutely a blast.
So what T two rock amp do youlike to to wield these days,
because I know they make a bunchof different things and I'm
just curious as to what you'vegot behind you there lurking in
your lair yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So I have three of them.
Uh, personally, one of them,the the combo is down in my
living room because it's a greatkind of grab and go one.
But the two heads I have arethe main ones I use when I can
have everything I want.
I actually like having both ofthem because they both kind of
(04:56):
do a different thing and justdoing the dual amp setup.
But I've got the BloomfieldDrive, which is very much the
Dumble, overdrive, special midfocus kind of thing.
Great cleans on it too.
That one actually I'm about todrop off, for Matt Schofield is
(05:17):
playing Jimmy's on Sunday and wetalked to him yesterday and
loaning him that and a four 10for that because he's done the
same for me in Florida.
But the Bloomfield Drive iskind of that dumbbell, mid-heavy
, really creamy, overdriventhing.
And then the one that I've beenreally partial to over the last
(05:40):
year picked it up at NAMM lastyear is the, the vintage deluxe,
which is more I never know howto describe it, but it's more
fendery, it's more kind of like.
It has elements of it's not ablackface fender, because it's
it's raunchier than that andkind of more, um, more of the
(06:01):
Brown face thing, but then haselements of the tweed thing too,
and I mean I've used thatprobably more than any amp over
the last year.
Just used that on half of thenew record and it's killer.
It's like you don't need pedals, but it takes pedals Great.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I was going to ask you how do you, how do you like
to to run the apps?
Do you do it differently?
Do you sometimes just gas theamp and then use the volume
control on the guitar, or do youlike to run the amps?
Do you do it differently?
Do you sometimes just gas theamp and then use the volume
control on the guitar, or do youfind yourself setting it
cleanish and then using pedalsto go over the precipice?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
In between.
So I always say I like kind ofthat almost like Malcolm Young
level of breakup, where you haveenough to play the rhythm parts
.
If you dig in, you couldprobably probably, at least with
humbuckers play most of the gig.
And then any of the gain pedalsI use like no gain pedal I use
(06:54):
would be considered high gainand the gain knob on all of them
is pretty low.
It's really I'm just using themto hit the front end a little
more, just because I think thata lot of overdrive pedals sound
better into an amp that'salready at least kind of on the
edge.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yep, yeah, when the amp's crystal clean it.
Just it's almost too muchtreble and it doesn't do the
thing that I want it to do.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I agree, I agree.
So is there a wattage varianceon these amps that you like to
use that you're able to get thatjust on the brink of saturation
without either being too loudor not loud enough?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
The master is so good on these that the wattage
doesn't seem to matter as muchwith the two rocks as when I was
gigging vintage fenders andit's like, okay, super reverb, I
love it.
But I'm going to get in a fightwith every sound guy at every
club.
The Bloomfield drives 100 wattsand it's not that loud.
(08:03):
It's more that you have the bignatural low end.
You have the headroom when youwant it.
The vintage deluxe is 35 watts.
I don't know that there's aperceivable volume difference,
but I'm never running the masterwide open and they both take
pedals.
Well, I mean, I'm often runningboth those heads at the same
time and with a similar level ofbreakup.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And I know you like to bring out your glorious old
Strat.
Tell us a little bit about that, rascal.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I do.
I've had the Strat for, I guess, bought that in 2018.
So, coming up on like seven,seven years now, and bought that
from Lark Street Music down inTeaneck, new Jersey, buzzy
Levine, who's the brother ofgreat player here in the Boston
area, duke Levine Cause I wentin there to try some old brown
(09:03):
face fender ramp that ended upnot being great, and tried it
with this old strap that washanging on the wall, super beat
up and fell in love with thestrap, did the thing I think we
all do when we find a guitarthat like blows us away of it's,
like let me try another in theshop and make sure that I'm not
just wanting something new, butit's that good.
(09:26):
So he had, like you know, a 60,63 Strati at a, I think, 58 and
this blew him out of the water,but it is very, very much
players grade.
You know it has its dings andbruises and everything.
It's dings and bruises andeverything, and the guy who was
consigning it, I guess, wantedmoney like it was straight.
(09:50):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah it took hima few months to soften up, yeah
, to talk him down and to talksome sense into him.
But it was one morning I washeading out to do a little mini
rundown in North Carolina andwas driving down for it and
checked Lark Street's websitethat morning and it had just
(10:11):
gone up on the website and Icalled Buzzy.
I said I am in Connecticut, I'mgoing to drive as fast as I can
get away with, legally or not,and can you hold it for two
hours?
If I love it as much as I did,I'll take it, if I don't, I
won't.
And he said sure, so got downthere and, um, yeah, dropped off
(10:34):
a check for more money than Ihad ever spent on a guitar,
liquidating some other guitarsand, uh, as we do, yeah, and uh,
yeah, it's.
Uh, it's been a great one, it's, it's it.
It changed my mind on stratsbecause I always thought I was a
rosewood guy right until Iplayed this one, and then you
(10:57):
like that spank of the uh, is itan ashen in maple?
No, so that's the thing.
It's late 56.
So it's alder, so it's not asbright as I, kind of associated
with maple neck strats.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And a lot of them I've played since.
It's like I find the thing andI've found this with some newer
Fenders and Gibsons it's like,in a way, almost a caricature of
what people think that guitaris.
Because you play a modern likemaple neck Strat and a lot of
them do tend to be super bright,super in your face, play a lot
(11:38):
of the vintage ones and it'slike, oh, they're not that
bright, they're a little moresubdued.
And it's the same thing withlike Forever.
I thought I hated Les Paulsbecause they were 11 pounds and
just super woofy.
And you play like a 50s Gibsonand they have this bell-like
(11:58):
clarity and it's like, oh,that's different than I thought
that thing was.
And it's like, oh, that'sdifferent than I thought that
thing was.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Isn't that?
It's a little.
It's a little frustratingbecause it's almost like you're
better off not knowing.
You know what I mean.
It's like when you think aboutold Les Pauls and you actually
play one, you're like, oh, now Iget it.
And you know, to be honest, alot of those newer.
I mean you can find a newcustom shop.
(12:26):
You know Murphy aged, you knowespecially the Wildwood ones,
les Paul's that are in thatballpark, that kind of telly on
steroids thing.
I always use that as a kind ofa thing you know, to describe
what old Les Paul's are like andboy, but when you know it, you
know it Because to your point, Imean, when we were kids growing
(12:47):
up, I mean I got a few years onyou, but all the Les Pauls that
we had access to were the 70sand 80s ones which were kind of
high gain and woofy sounding andheavy, and you're like, well,
this doesn't sound like the sameguitar I'm hearing on Live at
the Fillmore or the Beano recordor you know, bloomfield or
(13:09):
Peter Green and so on and soforth.
Then you actually play one ofthe old ones.
You're like, oh, there it is.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And I think I got so twisted on Les Paul's early
because and I use the same thingof it's like telly on steroids
the clarity and a lot of theones I like are even the mid-50s
.
You know rap tale with P90s.
I think those will kill a lotof bursts and you know this was
I'm 32.
So this was what, 2003.
(13:36):
And my first guitar was a redIbanez RG 120.
I have that and a cratepractice amp.
That was the first thing.
(13:58):
But my neighbor across thestreet who was, I think, about
10 years older than me he hadnot even I, I mean, I'd take one
of the 70s or 80s over, likethe 90s les pauls where they
really got heavy and and weird,he had a 90s les paul custom in
(14:20):
like that cherry cherry wine, itwas like the burgundy red yep,
he had that thing.
That was the first nice guitarI ever played and I loved that
guitar and he had, like amarshall, one of those valve
state combos.
I remember the rig because it'slike you're going from the
(14:41):
ibanez rg and the crate practiceamp to that and it's like this
this is awesome.
But as much as I loved thatguitar, that left an impression
on me of this is what a Les Paulis of it's, it's heavy, it's
woofy and it's kind of reallyfocused in in the bottom end.
(15:02):
Um, and once I started, you know, getting exposure to some nicer
strats and tellies, I very muchwent that direction of like.
I like the clarity and I kindof wrote off gibson in a lot, of
, a lot of sentence senses.
But you're right across theboard, fender and Gibson,
especially in recent years, likeyou can find good ones.
(15:24):
They have really, I think, bothstepped up their game in terms
of trying to get closer to thoseclassic examples.
Um, I've been really impressed.
I mean I took you in there acouple of weeks ago.
You know music Emporium, youknow they're a Fender custom
dealer and all the ones I playnow are great from them.
(15:45):
All the Les Pauls that I'veplayed, um of custom shops are
really good.
And then there are also, ofcourse, all those insanely good
builders getting super close oflike.
Have you played one of theGilly Yarns?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
No, I don't think so.
I've heard of them.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh, those are insane, those are.
I mean those will, blindfolded,almost trick you into thinking
it's a burst with a good one,and they're not.
They're custom shop money or alittle above, not burst money.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Interesting.
I'll have to check one of thoseout.
Hard to find but they're.
They're cool Now you have.
Is that a?
Is that a 345?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
you've been playing it's a 345, it's 68, so a late
60s one which I feel like a lotof people don't like because the
nut width did get narrow.
But being a fender guy itappealed to me and you know the.
The price on those is a afraction right compared to if
you want to dip into the early60s.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Now, did you disengage the Veritone or do you
utilize it?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It was already done and it was monoed out before I
bought it.
So I have actually, on top ofthat dresser behind me which has
pedals and all the stuff, ontop of it there's a bag that
says music Emporium on it.
That is the original wiringharness, all of that.
That basically they just rippedout, put in a repro three 35
(17:16):
harness.
So it's a, it's a three 45 look, but it's basically a three 35.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yes, indeed, I mean, the Veritones have a thing, but
I never found myself, uh, youknow, wanting it.
You know what I mean.
It's like I would rather havethe out of phase thing than kind
of the weird man in the boxtype of, uh, you know, guitar in
a box type sound that you canget with the Veritone.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Every once in a while , like listening to some of the
the BB King records and stuff.
I want it for that thing, Right, Right, but then all the rest
of the time I don't.
It's like.
I just like what, what thatguitar does.
And I've I mean it's funny ongigs recently and on the half of
(18:06):
the new record that's done.
I played that guitar more thanI played a Strat, which I never
thought would be me, but I'vebonded with it.
Well, the humbucker thing, it'sa different thing.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It is indeed, and it was interesting when I was a
young lad.
It is indeed and it's.
It was interesting.
When I was a young, a young lad, I always thought that you were
either a humbucker guy or asingle coil character.
And now of course I've realizedwell, you can actually do both
and so on and so forth.
But to you know, when I wasvery young I was of the mindset
that that was, that was kind ofyour school.
(18:40):
You know what I mean.
It's like you either were intothe clarity and the percussive
kind of things you could do withsingle coils, and then you
could do more of the beefy, youknow things that you would be
inclined to do on a Gibson.
But you know you can do bothand they both have their thing.
Do you find yourself playingdifferently on either instrument
?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
In a way.
Yes, I mean, there are certainlike sonic benchmarks that are
almost that thing.
And it's weird because I wentfull circle, like probably for
the first five or six years thatI played guitar, I didn't know
anything with single coils.
I think the only time I had asingle coil and I never used it
(19:21):
was after that red Ibanez RG 120got one of the what was it like
the five fifties or something,where it was hum, single, hum.
Oh yeah, I remember those Yep,and I never used the single coil
in the middle.
It was like occasionally thosein between positions you'd use
it for the kind of spanky, youknow position two and four strat
(19:45):
thing.
But everything, I add, because Iwas into more of the rock stuff
and the shreddier stuff, it wasall humbuckers across the board
, right.
And I think the first guitarthat I got where I really used
single coils was a Tom Andersontelly when I was probably I
(20:09):
don't know 17 or 18 or so, and Iwas like, oh, this is, this is
a thing and it's like there's aclarity to it.
And early on I went down therabbit hole of playing with way
too much gain and everything,and it was kind of a revelation
of oh, single coils cut betterthan humbuckers do.
(20:31):
I can still have that gain andI won't get as lost in a mix.
And then for a while I kind ofwent totally away from
humbuckers.
And now it's like, oh, they'reboth cool.
Totally away from humbuckers.
And now it's like, oh, they'reboth cool.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Right, they do different things, but neither
are really better than the other, it's just a different flavor
well, talk a little bit abouthow your journey from, as you
said, the shreddier mentality todiscovering blues and wanting
to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, so it was kind of.
There were two, I think, kindof pivotal moments with that of
when I started playing guitar.
I'd seen the movie School ofRock when it came out and I was
like, oh, I just want to playlike the kid in the movie does
and I'll be cool, and so off thebat had, I think actually, the
(21:25):
soundtrack for school of rock onCD which had sunshine of your
love by cream.
It had immigrant song byZeppelin, had some ACDC, so it
was very classic rock heavy.
The kids in school were alllistening to like early two
thousands pop, punk and emostuff and you know I I was never
(21:49):
that into that.
But the first band I loved wasMetallica and it was like you
know, enter Sandman masterpuppets and was playing with
kids in the neighborhood doingthat stuff.
And I think the first song thatI learned I know first solo was
Nothing Else Matters.
That was the solo.
(22:10):
It's like Kirk Hammett was theguy for me and then had a
teacher at the school I was atwho was one of the music
teachers Fantastic influence atthat point for me, just exposing
me to different bands.
He was a huge Rush fan and hewas a huge Dream Theater fan
(22:33):
Rush was kind of too weird forme at that point.
Now I love it, but it's likeyou go from Metallica to Tom
Sawyer and it's like what isthis?
I don't know what to do withthis, but the dream theater
entry point was like some of thethe stuff that was coming out
then which was, um, what thetrain of thought record which
(22:54):
had like, as I am in the realmetal heavy stuff and it's like
that's not that big a departurefrom inner Sandman and some of
that it's just heavier Got very,very into Dream Theater and I
know this doesn't sound likethis is how I got into blues,
but it was.
I think I was 13, saw DreamTheater was coming to Boston,
(23:17):
asked my parents if I could goand my parents said there's no
way you're going alone to, youknow, the Orpheum Theater, which
I think you've played in Boston.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, exactly, I played there.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It's like that's a great theater but kind of down
and dirty area of Boston andeverything, especially at that
time.
And my mom said, I tell youwhat.
I'll buy you tickets.
I'll take you if you go to anyshow that I pick.
I'll buy you tickets, I'll takeyou if you go to any show that
(23:50):
I pick.
And my dad was a concert masterof the Boston Ballet classical
guy, my mom big Beatles fan,motown fan, all of that.
Basically neither of them weretoo keen on the hard rock and
metal stuff.
And she read Boston Globearticle, up and coming blues
guitar player in the jazz andblues section and it was Joe
Bonamassa playing Scullers JazzClub in Boston.
(24:13):
And this was probably 2005,early 2006.
And I kind of went, not kickingand screaming, but I wasn't
excited for that show.
I was like, oh, blues, that'sboring, that's like you know
whatever it's quiet.
It's no loud amps and of coursewalk in and Joe had Marshall,
(24:36):
silver Jubilees and you know,strat and Les Paul, and of the
two shows that's the one thatresonated with me way more and
of the two shows that's the onethat resonated with me way more.
You know, you have that firstkind of experience small club,
150, 180 people, whatever thatroom fit, right, it was loud and
I still remember he closed itout with Jeff Beck Band Blues
(24:59):
Deluxe, right, and it's like, oh, that's cool, I want to do that
.
That was the first thing.
And then didn't immediately gothere and then one of the guys
that I got into that was verykind of the bridge between the
more guitar shreddy stuff andthe blues thing was landau.
(25:20):
It's like had a huge landauphase and and it's like, okay,
there's a guy that can do theinstrumental guitar thing and
rock and then can also do a slowblues with the best of them.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Right, absolutely.
So.
At what point did you realizethat that's just what you wanted
to do for a living and yourparents being especially your
dad being, you know, aprofessional musician?
How did that all play out interms of their level of
enthusiasm?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
So I always say I give a lot of credit to my
parents because looking back onsome of the ways that I got here
it's like, wow, that was boldat that age, especially so my
parents actually met in musicschool.
My mom was a violinist too andthen she ended up going into
(26:13):
early childhood education sodidn't play professionally past
probably mid, early mid twentiesor so.
But you know, grew up and mydad was the main breadwinner and
he was playing Boston Ballet,boston Esplanade Pops, subbing
with the Pops and Symphony andwas teaching a lot.
(26:34):
So I kind of saw that thing asa freelance musician, what you
have to do to cobble togethereverything.
But you know, grew up very mucha middle-class upbringing, you
know, um, and I played violingrowing up when I started
(26:55):
playing guitar, like my, my mainlove as a kid was always
baseball, not music, and I wasnever big on school, like I
liked school, but it was neverlike, oh, I really want to put
in the extra effort for this, Ireally want to do this.
So growing up I always, I guess, would say, when I'm 16, can I
(27:19):
drop out of school and just playprofessional baseball?
And uh, that was my childhoodplan at eight years old and
ended up going a differentdirection of by, I think by
about 14.
I was really really seriousabout the guitar, had stopped
playing violin and was like thisis the thing I want to do and
(27:45):
after freshman year of highschool, went to a Berkeley
summer program because it wasright down the street.
Of course, you know I grew upnow I live about two hours
outside the city, but I grew up15 minutes outside Boston, so I
was going to say two hoursoutside the city.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What is that Like five miles?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So that's more like I grew up what should be 15
minutes and sometimes it doestake an hour, but I was, I could
take the tea and you know, whenI went to the the Berkeley
summer program I was getting onthe green line from Newton Mass
down right to Heinz Conventionright at Berkeley and went to
the five-week program, which waskind of the.
(28:28):
You know they do some of theweek-long like
instrument-specific things.
The five-week program isdecently representative of a
college experience in the senseof you know you have your
private lessons, you have yourharmony classes, your ear
training classes, all of theabove and I loved it.
(28:49):
Got back to high school in thefall and sophomore year.
High school and I my parentsvery much on scholarship had
sent me to a great privateschool through elementary school
, ended up at the public highschool and was pretty bored
school-wise of that privateschool was so good that I was
(29:11):
ahead in terms a lot of theclasses without realizing it and
just wasn't getting a whole lotout of it.
Taking lessons after thatBerkeley summer program with Joe
Stump, who was a Berkeleyprofessor, was going to his
(29:33):
house, had been paired with himthere because it was still very
much at 16, more into theshreddy thing than I was, the
blues thing, even though I wasgoing to a couple of blues jams
a week to get out and play andget all that experience.
And I don't know how it started.
I know that it kind of endedwith my parents going to the
back school night at my highschool and not being very
impressed with it.
(29:54):
But I said, hey, I'm not doinganything here, can I just drop
out and go to Berkeley now?
And that's what I ended updoing.
Yeah, I left high school, kindof thanksgiving a sophomore year
, got a ged so I could apply toberkeley and went when I should
have been junior, spent a yearthere and then left.
(30:16):
But you know, that was where itwas kind of there was no backup
plan.
It was okay, going both feetall the way in of not finishing
school in the traditional way,not even finishing berkeley, and
at that point it was.
You know, you just do it.
(30:36):
But I feel like with my dad asa working musician there wasn't
that pushback.
He was only do this if you knowit's hard, like this is not the
easiest thing that you canchoose to do for a living, but
if you love it, there's nobetter thing, right.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
And that's sound advice.
It is.
It is Because I think that youknow my experience is a little
different.
You know I've talked about itmany times on this doggone
podcast, but it's you know whatI try to tell my kids who want
to get in and of course Dylan'salready in it and I tell anybody
(31:19):
who's willing to listen.
It's like listen.
If you don't realize that thelove of what you do has to so
far eclipse the negativereinforcement and walls and
obstacles that are going to beput in your way just to make
rent, then don't do it.
It's the same thing when Iwould talk to various, my
(31:40):
parents always had people talkto me along the way to try to
discourage me from being amusician.
They all basically said whatyour dad said.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
So that's good advice .
I like it.
So you had more of the pushbackat that kind of entry point.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Well, they just didn't think it was a viable
livelihood.
They were supportive.
You know what I mean.
So I'm always supportive ofdoing lessons and making sure I
had a proper when.
Know, when I was looking atschools, you know, they helped
me vet, you know, the rightschool to go to that was within
what they thought was reasonable, both financially and also more
(32:18):
of a traditional education.
So I had to go to a statecollege as opposed to a
conservatory or something likethat.
A conservatory or somethinglike that, um, but all along the
way they had discussions withmy teachers at the time and
having them intercede on theirbehalf to to describe exactly
how.
You know what I was up againstin terms of being a musician, uh
(32:41):
, cause, it was terrifying forthem.
I mean, my dad was a lawyer, um, you know, I think he was the
first of you know probably acouple of generations that ever
went to college.
You know they were all workingfolk and all my siblings, you
know, went to college, gotstraight jobs and so on and so
forth.
No one was really into the arts.
(33:02):
So I think it was just a fearof the unknown.
It wasn't that they were, youknow, aghast for some kind of
moral or you know any kind ofreason like that.
They just thought you know mydad would always say I don't
want you to end up working at acar wash Not that there's
anything wrong with that forthose of you who work at car
washes, but yeah.
But you know, and now my kidskind of see that are going to
(33:23):
the arts.
You know all the different hatsyou got to wear in order to to
make it to payday.
But, as as your dad said, andI'm sure as you can read, you
know, speak to as well, it'sworth it.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things, because I
know my dad got more pushbackfrom his parents when he was
kind of going into that and healso he did graduate high school
, unlike I did uh but didn't.
But, um, he kind of did oneyear of uh, of music college and
(33:58):
then left, so like the collegething wasn't a big deal, cause
he said, hey, look, I've neverbeen asked where my degree is
for anything that I've actuallydone, totally.
But one of the questions Iremember him asking me because
at that point like I wanted toeither be in a band or do my
(34:18):
thing and like have that be thethe thing.
And he was clear-eyed enough toknow that doesn't always work
out for one reason or another.
And his question was hey, ifyou become a musician and the
performing doesn't get you whereyou want or isn't as viable,
(34:41):
would you be happy being the guywho is teaching 40 lessons a
week, 50 lessons a week?
And I said, absolutely Like Ido anything where this.
Now I've kind of done that andcome back from that a bit,
because that is, if you do wantto do the performing too,
(35:02):
there's a certainly a burnoutfactor with absolutely any
amount of volume.
But it's like I love teaching,I love doing all those different
things that go into it and Ithink his real point with that
was, as you said, it's like yougot to kind of wear those
different hats and have thosedifferent avenues to kind of
(35:25):
cobble everything together.
Have those different avenues tokind of cobble everything
together.
One focus often won't quite getyou there, exactly correct.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
But you know, I find that, if you're willing, you
know, and I think that all of uswho really love it find in all
the different opportunities bysaying yes to things that we
didn't necessarily envision aswhat would be a big part of our
income or whatever the casewould be, as long as you can
interject that love of what youdo, playing-wise, into those
(35:57):
different scenarios, it'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It sure is, and I'm sure you did the same early on.
It's like you say yes to everysingle gig, even if it's not a
style of music that you'd wantto play, and it also gives you
broader experience and exposure.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
We interrupt this regularly scheduled
gristle-infested conversation togive a special shout out to our
friends at Fishman Transducers,makers of the Greg Koch
Signature Fluence Gristle TonePickup Set Can you dig that?
And our friends at WildwoodGuitars of Louisville, colorado,
bringing the heat in the shadowof the Rocky Mountains.
(36:40):
So let's talk about yourrecording career thus far.
I know you put out a recordthat Josh produced a few years
back, and then there was arecord that you produced as the
Crow Flies, I believe in 2023.
And now you're working on thisnew record that I think it's
(37:01):
okay to say who was involved,with Mr Bonamassa and so on and
so forth, and so describe forfolks you know we've talked
about it, because you know whatwe all have to do in order to go
forth and make a living doingthis.
These recordings are somethingwe make money off of, but
(37:23):
they're more of a calling card,would not you say at this
particular juncture?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I sometimes and it's probably a little cynical, but
compare the albums, because it'sreally streams at this point.
Or the hot dog and soda combo.
It's been well publicizedCostco loses money on every
(37:51):
single rotisserie chicken saleRight, but why do they do?
It Gets people in the door,exactly, and it's first of all
artistically like I want to bemaking the records and I want to
be pushing myself to, to createsomething in terms of that.
But uh, yeah, you're right,it's also the calling card that
(38:22):
gets you know them interested ineither taking lessons or buying
any of the courses we have outand that that kind of thing.
And you know I just enjoy makingthe records too.
It's like you know you don'twant to go out and play the same
tunes over and over and overand having the stuff kind of
(38:46):
crystallized that way.
Um, I, I think it is reallygreat and, yeah, so had worked
with Josh on keep on turning in2018.
And, you know, at that pointreally felt like I needed
someone to produce it who couldhave more of the 360 view of the
(39:06):
project.
And let me just play guitar andsing, because you know how in
the last 10, 15, 20 years, it'slike sessions in the studio with
a full band are not what theywere 30, 40 years ago, and so I
(39:27):
never really got that thing ofbeing in sessions.
A lot like I'd get called forstuff and most of it would be
have the track sent to me,recorded at home, send a Mac.
So I don't think at thatjuncture I knew well enough how
to communicate what I wanted toa drummer, a bass player, a
keyboard player and also try toplay my part as well as I could.
(39:49):
And Josh, in addition to beinga monster guitar player,
performer, singer, everything issuch a great producer, has such
great ears and I learned a lotfrom doing that one, where I did
the next one myself, but, yeah,this one working with both Josh
(40:10):
and Joe, it's great.
Just got all the mixesfinalized.
So for these first five tunes,and they're coming out great.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Excellent.
So what kind of plans do youhave for this year in terms of
touring, putting songs out?
I think we were talking abouthow you might drop a few singles
before kind of doing the entirepackage as an entire release.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I think for multiple reasons, going to do a
lot of singles from this one,probably the first single
sometime around April or May,kind of, you know, in the first
half of the year, touring wise.
Uh, it's been an interestinglast couple of years because had
a booking agent who I was withfor a few years, then, of course
, covid hit and then he got sickand passed away.
(41:00):
Um, I think it was 2023, justas we were getting as the crow
flies out and you know, with alot of independent agents, it's
not like there are five otherguys at the agency or either one
other person to pick up theslack.
(41:22):
Last year was really booking,booking myself for the the most
part now working on um, tryingto let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Let's.
Let's talk about that for justa second, because I think that a
lot of people who maybe havenever tried, or who are fans of
of yours or mine or whatever thecase may be, and they're like
why does he never play aroundhere?
It's almost like they thinkthat you've got like a vendetta
against their community orsomething and they don't realize
(41:55):
that getting a record deal isalmost easy.
In comparison to getting adecent booking agent to take you
on and to do stuff, it'sextraordinarily difficult.
And then finding someone who'sgot the gumption and the
wherewithal to be able to notonly get the gigs but then to
(42:17):
route in a way that makes senseand to actually care enough
about you and your financial andphysical well-being to map out
something that makes somewhatsense, I mean, that's the hugest
thing about the industry that Idon't think people really have
(42:37):
any idea about, would you notagree?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I completely agree.
And there's that hard thingbecause often you know, booking
yourself, obviously you're goingto try very hard with where
maybe you're putting as much, orat least as much effort into it
as an agent would.
But there's also the thing ofyou know a lot of venues are
(43:01):
comfortable working with agentsand certain agents and they,
they, you know they get an emailfrom an artist or they dealing
with that often know where it'sif they can talk to an agent and
book five shows on one day andkind of fill their calendar and
have it be easy.
Um, that that can be preferable.
(43:22):
But yeah, it is hard to findthat right fit and make it all
happen of.
Uh no, I couldn't agree more.
So you know, right now we'retrying to get something set up
with a new agent I have, youknow, I'm doing the West coast a
little run in LA in Januaryright before I know you you are
(43:42):
out there as well right aroundNAMM time and then right now
trying to get stuff on the booksfor UK and Europe at the end of
summer trying to kind of do acouple probably clinics,
workshops on top of some tourdates over there.
But yeah, it's hard becauseit's also, you know there I've
(44:04):
seen it in the Boston area howmany of the smaller clubs in the
last few years have closed.
So there's also just there areless rooms.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Right?
Well, it's interesting becauseyou came out to our show at the
Burren, which is a small joint,but that's a place where you can
make money.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, that's the Burren.
It was the first place I playedwhen I moved back to Boston in
2017.
And I still play it becauseBooker Tom Bianchi, who's one of
the best guys in Boston.
Just fantastic.
You can make money there andit's a vibe Totally.
(44:43):
You pack that place out andit's fun.
It's a hundred people stuffedin, but it's like how many
venues that we love are thatthing.
You think about it in LA.
Where do you have to go?
You have to go see Landau, orScott Henderson or Josh play the
baked potato.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Right, exactly, and it's 65 people in there.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Right, you feel like you walked into a living room.
I remember the first timewalking into the baked potato to
see Landau and I'd seen all thevideos online and it actually
looks bigger on YouTube than itis when you're sitting at a
table and there are people likeright in front of you, um and
just went to, was down inNashville for a couple of days.
(45:27):
Last week went to the underdogfor the first first time, which
I feel like is the new guitarspot right in nashville.
You know guthrie trap.
I know as residency there.
I saw jack ruch play there witha great um organ player I'm
blanking on his name, but greatdrummer west little, who I.
(45:47):
We played with it at woodshedlast year okay yeah, yeah, he
was uh.
Well, you had, you had uh tobyand and you had your whole whole
thing there, but he had tobyand dylan there, but uh wes was
there and it was great and thatplace is tiny too.
Right, like that is not a bigroom, that's maybe you get a
(46:08):
hundred people in there and someof those rooms are the most fun
and when it's done right, yeah,you can, you can actually do
well in those rooms.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Well, I think another thing that, uh, you know
people's uh perceptions of howdo these guys make any money.
Well, if you're playing in aroom where you know you're
packing a room with, let's say,a hundred people in it or
whatever the case may be, andyou charge a decent ticket price
(46:38):
, that's not extortionate, it'snot ticket master.
You know what I mean.
You can make good money there.
But also you know people wantto support with.
I've got a pretty deep merchtable with all these different
things which are again evidenceto all the other hats that we
have to wear, from instructionalmaterial to, of course, all the
(47:02):
different records.
But then you know some gear,you know pedals or, of course,
t-shirts and hats and all thatother kind of stuff.
But playing a smaller venuethat's packed with enthusiasts
and then afterwards you know,selling a bunch of merch.
I mean, you keep your overheadlow, you can make some dough,
which is, you know, I'm justhaving a blast doing it and I
(47:23):
liked.
You know we were kind of talkingabout this too.
It's like we work our own merchtables.
You know we don't have someonealong working the merch.
Sometimes someone will work themerch table a friend or a
family member if they happen tobe in that town.
But I find that it's far moreprofitable to do it yourself,
because people want, you candescribe what everything is for
one and people are much morelikely to stop, of course, if
(47:46):
you're there.
And then, plus, you get to meeteverybody that came to the gig
and you find out, you make allthese people you know once you
make that personal connection.
First of all, there's nothinglike being in the room.
You know.
It's as much as we can talkabout how the internet has done
well for both of us in terms ofgetting the word out to a much
larger audience moment.
(48:13):
Even if there's a video of thatmoment, it's still not the same
as actually being there andmaking that personal connection.
And that merch table andhanging with the folks is all
part of that.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Well, and every time I come see your show, you
consistently have especially foryou know, not playing theaters
where it's someone who has awhole merch trunk and everything
and display you have one of thebest merch setups for any band
that's playing clubs.
Because you kind of hit thattarget of like, you want a hat,
(48:43):
got hats.
I know I actually have my, uh,your hat sitting.
Oh there, it is Perfect.
Um, and you have the shirts,you have the, the, I think, some
of the instructional stuffsometimes, yeah, and then also
like the pedals and it's like,wow, I gotta.
I always look at your setup andit's like, oh, I gotta step up
my game on what I have.
(49:05):
But you're right, it's like ina room where you make that
connection, you're running yourown merch.
You can really sell some stuffand make good inroads there.
And yeah, I think also the thingabout a club and the Burns
great example is it's like someof those independent local clubs
(49:26):
where someone is taking it onand really doing it right,
they're also doing it with theartists in mind, because usually
, like Tom from the burn, he's agreat bass player and singer
and performs all in the area.
Um, his wife is fantastic blues, blues guitar player and singer
as well.
So he gets it from the artistside, where I remember and I'll
(49:49):
leave the venue very muchunnamed, but kind of a bigger
venue that has some smallerrooms, and got presented with a
deal from one of them and it wasso unbelievably terrible I
couldn't believe it, because theticket price they were like
(50:12):
were like no, we just don't doanything over this number, and
it was like 10 or 15 bucks andI'm like, well, your room seats
100 people, just the raw math.
They're like okay, so, so themost it's going to gross for a
trio is 900 or a thousand bucks.
Right, already doesn't work.
(50:33):
And then they had something likea 400 marketing budget of
course, and it's like I'm I'msorry, but right, right, at that
point it's like oh, and thesound I?
I was looking at the deal.
I'm like, if I'm reading thiscorrectly, I can walk away with
400, right?
Um, no, thank you, exactly,exactly.
(50:53):
But it's yeah, it's so greatwhen you find those smaller
rooms that are doing it right,not trying to extort artists.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And there are.
You know, as I'm sure you'vedone the same thing, you know
you're, you travel around, youtry these different clubs and
you realize the ones that areyour rooms and the ones that
aren't, obviously, and theycould be rooms that are great
for other people but not for you.
I mean, like, sometimes we'lltry like kind of a random rock
(51:24):
club, sure, and we'll do okay,but you're like, well, we should
really be doing better in thistown and you realize that, well,
the people that are kind ofinto what similar music that we
are, none of those other peopleare playing at this place.
So it's not a place that's onthe radar for folks that are
(51:45):
like, oh, I wonder who's playingat the such and such tonight?
Um, so it's entirely on you andyour social media reach, or
whatever the case may be, to tryto get people out, as opposed
to having that you know venue.
Like you know, the Saxon pub isa great one for us.
Or you know various, um,obviously, the Iridium is good
(52:05):
one, the Burns great for us.
Jimmy's is great.
Jimmy's is fantastic.
It's fantastic.
Um, you know, the Funky Biscuitis a great one.
You know, these are the kind ofrooms where it's like oh,
people that go to that club likea similar type of music, and so
the people that would be mostlikely wanting to come and see
us are going to be checking outthat calendar.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
I also find one of the things that I'm curious for
you when you say rock clubs or alot of those rock clubs that
you'll do standing.
Yes, because I find that one ofthe big tipping points for me
is the standing venues and theseated venues.
Oh, interesting, okay,consistently, do better at the
(52:50):
seated venues, because you thinkabout, like burn jimmy's funky
biscuit, or one of the ones I'vedone really well within south
florida is, uh, have you donearts garage no, I don't think so
it's right north of I thinknorth of the biscuit.
It's um delray beach there andlike a listening room and I
(53:10):
remember playing that for thefirst time.
My old agent had booked methere and it was like a weekend
Florida run out.
It was a festival over by TampaBlues Festival there and then
Arts Garage was using local guysand they were great Matt
Schofield actually, his bassplayer down there and it was a
(53:32):
great band and everything.
And I drove over to the eastcoast of Florida and saw the ad
and it was a guarantee for thatgig and saw the ticket price and
I went, oh cool, no one's goingto be there, because at the
time I think Arts Garage it waslike a $35, $40 ticket, which at
(53:55):
the time I was not a $35, $40ticket.
But you know, I looked at thepast thing and a lot of names of
kind of in our world had playedthere and seemingly done well
and that place holds I don'tknow't know 190, 125 people
showed up.
I was expecting about four andit's like, oh okay, they get the
(54:18):
market and they get whatthey're trying to do and what
they're selling.
They know their area, they knowthe the ticket price it can
support because it's undoubted.
It's like you play New York oryou play Boston or you play
South Florida.
That's a different ticket pricethan if you're playing some
(54:41):
places in, say, the mid Atlanticor middle of the country.
It's just like New York.
People are like oh it's $50ticket, that's cheap, right.
Where other towns it's like 50bucks, that's no way, Exactly,
Exactly, Correct.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Well, I remember in the day, you know, playing
locally all the time with myband and, you know, just trying
to keep busy, trying to get outof town and do stuff In the
meantime, you know we were ahigh cover charge at $5, and
we'd be.
You know those clubs are.
You're set up like right by thedoor and so people are coming
in and you're literally, asyou're playing, hearing people
(55:15):
argue with the doorman aboutpaying $5 to get in and you're
like you just came from a Bucksgame where you probably paid God
knows how much for your ticket,let alone the beers and
subsequent food and parking, andyou had $5 to come into to
support this band.
It's just beyond the pale ohit's, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
And, being you know down down in nashville last week
, have you ever kind of done thein nashville, the whole lower
broadway stretch?
and I've just, I've just seen itfrom afar, but yes, it's I so
there's one reason in my opinionto do the lower broadway
stretch and it's the one clubthere, robert's western world
(55:57):
right, which is kind of theremaining, and you know that was
the don kelly band and everyonewho played in that and the kid
he's not a kid, but he's wellyounger than me luke mcquarrie
have you seen him, I've seen himso every time I go to Nashville
it's like I will fight with allthe masses on lower Broadway to
go into Robertson here, luke,cause he's just mind blowingly
(56:22):
fantastic, right, um, and it wasnice, it's the winter, so it
was a lot quieter than the lasttime I was down there.
But those bars the few that havetried to do cover charges, like
people, just won't.
You know, it's no cover chargeand it's like then those bands
are playing four hour sets fortips.
(56:42):
Right, it's insane.
And it's the thing where it'slike well, the the venues, half
the time where there is a covercharge, they want to split on
the door.
Right, there's never split onthe bar, somehow right, exactly
correct.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
you know, I've come, you know I used to always think
that the tip thing was like aninsult, you know, and it was
always I'd see it down in innashville and I would see it in
austin and I was like, you know,this is just especially as
you're you.
You know you're saying theseworld-class musicians who just
got off the road with so-and-soand they want to go out and gig
while they're in town and you'relike seeing all these people
(57:20):
that have been playing in arenasand stadiums and now they're
playing in this hole in the walland people are passing around
tips.
But I've, I've changed myperspective on that.
There's, there was a, a clublocally that I don't do many
clubs locally anymore Causethere's not that many places
left that are kind of more ofthe showcase club.
But you know, I, I I turned mymind around pretty cause like if
(57:42):
, if you bring in people thatwant to come and see you and you
get a base pay plus all thetips, it could be a surprisingly
lucrative.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
It sure can.
There've been a few places I'vedone, even on the road, where
that's kind of the thing, likethere's a club in Florida that I
did and everyone does.
Have you done little bar?
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I'm trying to think of the place on the.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
I don't know if you could get the organ and the
Leslie through the door there.
Actually it's on the west coastof Florida.
Okay, so it's Goodland, likeMarco Island, which is like all
the way south of Naples, all theway down Like you're in the
Everglades, basically Got it,all the way down, like you're in
(58:31):
the Everglades, basically Gotit.
And I was terrified leavingthat gig because someone had
just totaled their car, I guess,running over like a python or
something.
Oh, good lord, like 18-footpython and my biggest fear is
snakes, like I am.
But it's this place and likeit's the only entertainment on
this island and like all theblues guys will do it, like
(58:56):
albert castillo, you'll do allthese and you walk in and it's
like there's a mounted pa, sortof not a big pa or anything and
it's like this tiny bar, it.
What 60 people can fit in thisplace?
Oh, they go crazy and base payand they have a band house and
(59:20):
then the tips are just insanethere Because people, it's like
you either stay at home or yougo out for the entertainment
there and that's it.
Wow, yeah, some of those placescan be great.
Speaker 1 (59:31):
It's crazy all the different things we do doggone
it to play that sweet music.
It sure is.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
Well, and you have the thing of obviously, you know
, with Toby and everything, youhave a lot of gear you're
hauling around to be able to doit.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, it's.
You know, when we first startedto hit the road, he used like
the digital B thing.
You know that X, k, x orwhatever it is, uh, through a
real Leslie and and that's okay,uh, but for him it's like man,
I need that.
It's just, if you're going tohave an organ, you gotta have an
(01:00:10):
organ.
I couldn't agree more.
So that's so.
We just decided that that's.
That's what we're going to doand that's what we want to.
You know we want to have bigdrums, big guitar amps and B3s.
So that's what we're doing andluckily we've got the logistics
worked out.
I mean it really.
It makes for, like when we'redoing those gigs out in LA, we
(01:00:32):
need to route there and routeback, because I remember the
first couple times that wewanted to I think the first time
we did rent a B3 and you mightas well just drive out there and
pay the gas.
It was that much, oh my God, itwas insane.
It was like $750 a night.
Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Oh my God, yeah much.
Oh my god, it was insane.
It was like 750 a night.
Oh my god, because I've youknow plenty of times I I think
you've done it too, like youbackline a guitar amp, and it's
right, no problem not expensiveand it's like oh, it's a deluxe
reverb, great, I can make thatwork absolutely I've never.
I did not think organs would bethat expensive, and it's also
like with backlining stuff.
The one downside is I'm sureyou get the organ and did toby
(01:01:19):
like that organ or was it?
Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
well, see, that was the thing.
Is that ideal?
We had to find the, the goodones, and so you know.
And then he, you know, one ofthe first things I did, um, or I
was concerned about when, whentoby ended the band, is it's
like well, we better, we betterhook up with Hammond so maybe we
can get some, some help whenwe're traveling, maybe we can do
some fly and stuff.
And I got to say that Hammond'snot a company that really is at
(01:01:43):
the forefront of supportingtheir artists in that way, and
um, so therefore we had tofigure it out all on our own.
And, needless to say, we go toEurope.
It's a concern.
So we've now we've got placeswhere we can get stuff, but it's
not cheap.
I mean, it's absolutely themost expensive thing that we
spend money on when we tour.
Uh, if we have to get backlineis because we need.
(01:02:04):
We need the real thing, or elseit's.
It's it's just kind of of.
Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Uh, it makes it cheesy.
You know what I mean so welland seeing you guys, it's like
it's legit, it's loud, it's,it's good and it all comes
together.
And there there is that thing.
I think, especially with organand especially in a trio, where
I've found, even when I do fourpiece, which I do more and more
and always, I always want thereal organ, because there's
(01:02:34):
something with the stage volumeand with our perception playing
we're getting fake organ comingthrough a monitor Right Is not
the same as having the Leslie atthe other side of the stage.
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Let's put it this way I have never.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
I've never had toby in my monitors.
I believe you.
I have never had any organplayer in my monitors.
It's like you have a leslie andit does something to like the
wetness and the fullness of the,the whole sound exactly because
I know we were.
We were talking this last time.
It's like you're not even usingreverb right now are you
Exactly?
And it's like I feel in a trio Ineed reverb or I just don't
(01:03:20):
have that space.
But it is a luxury where, likein January when I do the West
Coast, I'm going out there forthree dates, have guys on the
West Coast Right, fly home easyas anything's like.
You know zach, I think, haswhat that super reverb.
That's pretty, pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
It's like has the super reverb, take a guitar
pedal board and done right andwe were, we were contemplating
doing a fly-in, but then, um,and zach's like yeah, you can
use my stuff, I, I got a drumkit, I got this, that, and he's
got a Nord.
And then you mentioned the wordNord to Toby and his peaceful,
(01:04:00):
humorous disposition turns intochanges.
Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I'm sure it's not it.
It's not it.
There's that magic of realorgan.
That's a fact.
Well, listen, my friends's thatmagic of real organ.
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Well, listen, my friends, it's been an absolute
pleasure rapping with you today.
Thanks for doing it.
Folks, Please check out Sethonline.
It's just SethRosenblumcom, amI correct it?
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
sure is, and Instagram all the fun things.
Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yes, check them out and I look forward to seeing you
soon.
I'll definitely see you out inCalifornia, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I will see you there.
I'll probably.
I might try to make it over toeither the Friday or Saturday of
your shows, because I fly out.
I know NAMM is shorter thisyear, so I fly out Sunday
morning.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Oh, nice Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
In and out, because I'm there for 10 days, oh good.
Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Lord.
Well, it's nice to be inSouthern California at that time
of year.
Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
I never, coming from you, have the same thing coming
from cold weather climate.
It's like give me Florida, giveme LA, give me anywhere that's
not here.
From now until March Exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
All right, my friend, you have a good one.
Great, great to see you Talk toyou soon.
Bye, Bye-bye.
Well, thanks for tuning in.
Ladies and gentlemen, toanother episode of Chewing the
Gristle.
We certainly do appreciate youstopping by.
Make sure you tell your friendsall about us.
I think they might enjoythemselves.
(01:05:28):
So thanks again for tuning inand we'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.