Let's take a trip down memory lane, as Karen and Andrew reconnect with Andy Farag, the incredible percussionist from Umphrey’s McGee. Remember those legendary Thursday night parties from our college days at Indiana University? Well, they're back, along with fascinating anecdotes about Andy's musical journey, from his first drum set at 16 to his current iconic career. And let's not forget to mention Mike Miro's unforgettable influence in Andy's life and his eventual move to South Bend to join Umphrey’s McGee.
Prepare to have your musical horizons broadened as we uncover the diverse world of doo-wop, classic rock, hip-hop, and jazz that has shaped our lives. Get some fresh tunes on your playlist with the unique sounds of High Fade, a Scottish rock-funk band, and Fontaine's DC, an Irish pop-punk band. Santana's impact on Andy’s development as a percussionist, the need for self-regulation in a band, and our collective love for Chicago’s music scene will be our shared soundtrack.
Now, who doesn't love a good barbecue? Hear the story behind Andy Farag's signature barbecue rub, its evolution, and some mouthwatering uses for summer grilling. We'll then take you through the chaotic yet exhilarating world of music festivals. Andrew’s experiences at the High Sierra Music Festival and Lollapalooza, the pros and cons of music festivals, and the indelible effect of bands like Beautiful Engines are all part of this rollercoaster ride. So, kick back and let the good times roll!
Have someone you think should be a guest on this podcast? Let us know! Email your suggestions over to: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com, andrew.wendt@berealtygroup.com
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Andy Farag
Link: Umphrey's McGee.com
Link: Frontera Grill/Rick Bayless
Link: Indiana University
Link: Bluebird
Link: Andy's Ripping Rub
Link: Sydney Marovitz
Link: South Bend
Link: Potbelly
Link: Lollapalooza
===================================
Production House: Flint Stone Media
Copyright of Be Realty Group 2023.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Records in Real Estate, a podcast about
well records in real estate.
You'll be entertained andinformed as we explore the
intersection of these two worldsthrough interviews with
Chicago's most interesting andsuccessful people from both
industries.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvoss.
We are Chicago Real EstateBrokers, property Managers, avid
Music Lovers and your hosts ofRecords in Real Estate.
Hi, karen.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Andrew, how are you Good?
Well, we just had a lovelyconversation.
Yes, probably our.
You know, our biggest star,yeah, our biggest star, yeah,
andy Farrag.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're on our way to Obama.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I guess if we keep putting it out there, maybe
it'll happen.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, the universe does provide.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's right yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, Andy Farrag.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Andy Farrag.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, they're percussionists.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, which.
It was a conversation that,just you know, stirred my soul
in that musical way.
I love talking shop.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, it was definitely a great conversation,
a lot about music, as it shouldbe, and you know you guys are
kindred spirits and that youboth bang on things.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's true in different ways, yes, but yeah,
it was fun to hear about hisbeginnings and all the
connections that you guys havewith college days and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, for sure, and you've recently started to
listen to them a little bit.
What are your impressions?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I feel dumb for not knowing who they were
before.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh well, I mean honest.
I mean they are well known injam band circles, but you know,
which is a circle that I havenot.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
The Venn diagram of my life has not intersected with
that circle.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Right Until now.
Until now.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I have never had them to be astoundingly good.
Their musicianship is justamazing.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, I liken them to a certain band that I will let
the listener just kind of listento.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Sure, sure.
They are all supremely talentedmusicians, and that has been
true since the beginning.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So yeah, and every song is just a new adventure,
and so it sounds like a very funband to be in.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, they have lots of fun, lots of lots of inside
jokes.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But yet they have a discipline that I was not
expecting from a band that hasthat much longevity.
Oh, maybe that is the reasonwhy they have the longevity that
they do, because they reallyhone their craft over and over
again.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, it's pretty great, yeah, who knows?
I mean, you know a lot of thesejam bands.
They do last a long time, butyou know they're producing a lot
of new music still, which is,you know, a testament to their
creativity and their output.
And you know it's fun to growwith a band like that.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, shall we?
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
All right, here we go .
Well, we're here with AndyFarrag, the percussionist for
Humphreys McGee.
Thanks, andy, for joining us.
Thanks for having me,absolutely yeah, and we just
kind of dive into where you andI met, which was at Indiana
University.
Yeah, specifically a house onthe corner of First and
Henderson First and Henderson,and you lived there.
(03:28):
Right, I did, yeah, and youknow I was a freshman, but the,
you know, the guys you wereliving with, I think, were
mostly sophomores and they hadepic Thursday night parties.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Thursday nighters.
I remember those.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, yes, it's a random night to have a party.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, we always said like Thursday is the new Friday,
that's right.
That's what we were saying yeah, dude, thursday is new Friday.
Man, come on.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You know, it's honestly stuck with me my entire
life.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
You know, if I'm drinking during the week, it's
always on Thursday.
I'll take Friday off, you know.
Maybe have some drinks Saturdaytoo, but usually Thursday I
still go out.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's when you kick it off.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Absolutely.
I don't have class on Friday,you know.
So you can really go after iton Thursday, but back then, not
knowing what I was seeing, youwould lead these like epic drum
circles, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, I remember that .
And I also remember this dudefrom Spain.
It's this teacher, ehrman.
Uh-huh, remember Ehrman.
Yeah, he would come over and heknew, like classical guitar and
we just jam.
Yeah, and like all the girlsloved Ehrman.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Absolutely.
They loved with him.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah, those drum circles really like it got
me more creative in just hearingother people play.
And especially IU, where youknow a couple of those people
were in the music school and Iwas wanting to get in to that
(05:01):
music school.
You know, at the time before Ijoined Umphreys, you know I went
to IU to try, and you know, toget a music degree.
So that really opened my eyesbig time, you know.
Plus, it was where I lived.
Everybody just came over.
It was a great time.
Yeah, Easy for you, Super easy.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, had you.
I mean you were.
So you were playing drums orpercussion prior to getting in
IU.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Oh, let's see, I started.
I started when I was like 16and a half, okay, and then I
went to this percussion festival, berkeley College of Music in
Boston, and it was like a twoweek like just percussion crash
course, and so that's where Ilike really got dove deep into
(05:47):
percussion.
And then after I graduated highschool, well, I met Mike Miro
in high school and played, justjammed out with him in my
basement back where I grew up,crown Point, and so once I got
that I wanted to go to IU to getin music school, but then,
playing with Humphreys, I'dstart driving up to South Bend
(06:09):
every weekend and then, you know, sooner or later I just I'd
moved up to South Bend.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I mean, you kind of you wouldn't, I don't
know, you tell me, but maybe youaccomplished what did you want
to, what you wanted toaccomplish by going to the music
school.
Anyways, and yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I guess I you know.
The one thing that I remembertoo was like I really wanted to
go and go to school inBloomington.
You know that's where I wantedto be.
I'd visited there in highschool, yeah, it was just.
It was a cool place and knewthat I wanted to go to college
there.
And then I was only there for ayear.
I was there for like a springsemester and a fall semester and
(06:49):
I met all you guys and we werelike tight crew, right.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
We're all hanging out in each other's houses and
everything, and then, you know,a year goes by and then I'm just
like traveling up to South Bend, so much.
And then boom yeah, and beforeyou know we're like traveling
all over the country, you know,in Humphreys.
So it was kind of those fewyears just kind of a lot
happened.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
How did?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
you join the band?
Did you have to audition whatwas?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So Mike Miro, our original drummer, I went to high
school with, and Joel, ourkeyboardist.
They had a band called StopperBob at Notre Dame and Mike was a
year older than me so he hadalready graduated, I was still
in high school and they had itwas just like college rock.
It was like, you know, yourbasic kind of college cheese
(07:40):
rock, you know, yeah, a lot ofpeople enjoyed it and so I would
sit in with them every once ina while.
I like a drive when I was stillin high school, so I just drive
like an hour to South Bend,play these shows in like bars
and stuff, and then drive backand, you know, go to school the
next day, wow.
So Mike and Joel ended upquitting that band and joined
(08:02):
with Brendan and Brian, ourguitarist and bass player.
They had another band.
They also quit that band.
Those four joined and made ElmFries McGee.
So you know, once that happenedI was like, well, you know, that
was fun doing the Stopper Bobthing and college rock and all
(08:24):
that, and I don't like Mike Mirojust kind of still was asking
me to come and jam out withthese guys, and so that was
around the time that I went downto Bloomington and so I don't
know, if you remember, I wasdriving up every weekend to
South Bend to play gigs, yeah,yeah, and that was the only
place we were playing gigs withSouth Bend.
So I was driving up everyweekend and then eventually, I
(08:48):
think like six months after all,that a couple of the guys just
said, hey, man, you should justmove up here permanently and
join the band.
And I was like, yeah, yeah,yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
How far is that drive ?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
from.
It's like four and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
All right, so that's a chunk of time.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I remember I had my six disc CD changer and just
packed that thing full CDs andbe ready to go.
What was in it?
Oh man, I think it'sinteresting to tons of jazz like
Grant Green, jimmy Smith, wesMontgomery, charlie Hunter, what
(09:30):
else I like?
Go back and look at my CD books, go back and listen to all that
stuff too, and they're just soworn out and just listening to
them so much.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Especially when you're driving and you're
putting the CDs in a place andyou're trying not to scratch
them Right.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
They fall on the floor yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So did you have trouble like any trouble getting
into the clubs, as you were 16when you started.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Like you were 21 or under 18?
Yeah, when I started playinggigs I was probably I was like
18.
So there was one time in SouthBend where I was using one of my
friend's ID because they werereally strict even with like
musicians coming into play,Because any other bar that I
(10:14):
played in South Bend they nevergave me any problems.
And I remember my friend gaveme his ID and we looked nothing
alike, Like nothing alike.
And he just looks at this, helooks at the ID, he looks at me
and he's like the whole bar islike we got one, we got one.
I'm just like, wow, this guy isreally serious about his job.
(10:35):
And so that was the only time Iever had any problems.
Other than that it was justalways kind of like the
sun-ridden roll, Like if you'rea musician, like you can still
play in a bar.
You know, right, Totally.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'd like I have to just point out that when you
told me about you know, told usabout your origin story, and you
said I was 16 and a half.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
That seems like a very specific thing.
How did you remember that youwere 16 and a half?
What was the half about?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, because I was in.
I remember I was in 16 and ahalf, so I would have been a
sophomore in high school.
And that was like when I metMike through another friend,
dombrowski, who I had a Spanishclass with, and so it was like I
was like a sophomore when Ireally started getting into.
(11:26):
Because I met Mike I think myfreshman year in high school,
but when I was a sophomore, likekind of halfway in the year, I
remember just jamming out withhim.
I just knew I wanted to playdrums, but Mike already played
drums and I remember listeningto a lot of like Beastie Boys
and they had these instrumentaltracks that had a lot of
(11:48):
percussion in it and it reallyjust caught my ear and just
really sounded interesting.
I thought, well, you know, Ican jam out with Mike if I like
start playing these other likehand drums and stuff, and so he
would just come over and bringhis drum set over to my basement
and we'd just jam out.
And so I just remember itwasn't the beginning of my
sophomore, it was like somewherehalfway Plus you were driving
(12:11):
right so you had to be a driveand age.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
at least that's right .
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Get your license.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Any good Miro stories you want to share with the
crowd?
I mean, I know there's a lot ofMiro stories, plenty of Miro
stories.
I'll start with one.
You can think of it.
You know Mike was a I'm Freezeoriginal drummer and you know he
would come down to Bloomingtonbecause of the Scott Dombrovsky
who Andy mentioned.
(12:38):
And it was one time where wewent to play disc golf early in
the morning, not because we hadwoken up early but because we
were still up and man, he wasjust, he was just playing, like
just absolute.
You know he was playingterrible.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I couldn't figure out which way you were going.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I was going to give away the punchline but he, every
time he would throw, he wouldjust yell dog shit, dog shit,
just like.
And it was just, it was 18holes of just dog shit.
Yeah, but it was.
I mean he stuck with the bit hewas.
It was, he was dog shitConsistent.
He was going to let everybodyknow.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Is it one of those things that you know that it's
dog shit as soon as you releasethe?
I'm assuming it's a Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I've never been good at disc golf.
I've played a few times incollege, but but yeah, I mean
yeah, it's like bowling, you cantell right away.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, as soon as you release the ball.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I mean man.
So many good Meryl stories.
I remember I could go back tohigh school when he was coming
over to jam once and he comes,comes into my house and he's
like Farragh man.
I fell asleep sitting in thesun.
I was over my buddy's pool andI think I got a little burnt.
Man, can you check on my back?
(13:52):
I looked at his back and it waslike blistering.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
He's an Irish he's Irish, you know, he's got that
fair skin.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
He was just blistering.
I'm like, dude, you might needto go to the hospital.
And he's like no man just, andI like had this.
He like bought Alvaro.
He brought it with and he waslike, hey man, could you just
put this all over my back?
I literally took this wholebottle of Alvaro and just
slathered it all over his back.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Probably saved his life.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, he was like that day.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He was like he owes you.
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Now, mike was.
Mike was a hilarious individual.
He was always joking around,keeping situations light yeah,
maybe.
If they got too serious, he wasalways the one to just keep
things in a in a joking mood.
Yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
It was a lot of fun.
I missed that guy, yeah forsure.
I mean when he quit the band oryou know, was it tougher when
he passed away.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Man, that's tough.
I mean when he left, when hequit the band, it was a shock to
me and obviously all the restof us.
But yeah, it was just muchtougher when, when he passed.
You know it was unfortunate.
But I think of great memoriesstill when I, when I play
(15:17):
certain rhythms, still to thisday.
You know those are things thatme and him worked on back in the
day when we were livingtogether in South Bend.
So you know, and I always thinkof him when I'm, when I'm just
playing music all the time.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he still has a big influence on
you and the band and everybody,definitely.
Well, what about Andy's lastbeer?
Is that a?
Is that a Miro influenced tune?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
No, well, I'll tell you the story of that.
The lyrics themselves havenothing to do with me, or my
last beer.
At least I don't think.
At least that's what Brennantold me.
So we had, we had the song,brennan had the lyrics, and we
used to do these shows at DeadCreek Campground for the fish
(16:07):
shows.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, I was at one of those.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So it was just this campground during the fish shows
at what was used to be calledDeer Creek.
I think we still call it DeerCreek.
Yeah, we all still call it DeerCreek.
And we were just, we played theshow and we're just hanging out
at our tent or whatever oursite and I don't know.
I was just.
It was at the end of the night.
(16:32):
I was like I grab a beer.
I was like guys, this is mylast beer, brennan's like that's
it, man, andy's last beer.
I'm like what are you talkingabout?
That's the name of the song.
All right, man, whatever.
At that point I think we weretrying to figure out a name and
nobody could agree on anything.
We have tons of songs like thatthat just have just don't make
(16:55):
any sense of what the lyrics areor if it's an instrumental song
.
We have a song, Ms TinklesOverture.
It's very complex, like a lotof parts kind of song, and Ms
Tinkles is a nickname for Joel,because he tinkled on somebody's
(17:18):
pillow in our van a long timeago, because when you're in a
van traveling long distancespeople have to use the bathroom
and they have to use thebathroom in like a bottle or
something and, like you, hit abump.
So, Joel, he'd accidentallypeed on somebody's pillow.
(17:39):
This is a story we've told manytimes so we'll be surprised if
you listen to this.
He's now Ms Tinkles.
Of course we need a song afterthat, yeah absolutely you have
to.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's what a band of 25 years does.
Congratulations on making it 25years.
It's a big accomplishment.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It seems like it's been 25 years, but then at the
same time, it seems like it'sjust gone so fast.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Eventually you guys moved beyond South Bend and I
was fortunate enough and ourfriends were fortunate enough to
see you at least once a monthdown in Bloomington at Bluebird
or wherever it was.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Man, I just found a picture of us the first time we
played.
Oh man, help me remember thename of this the grassy area.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
First show in Bloomington.
It was like Dun Meadow orsomething like that.
Yeah, Dun Meadow.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I remember and it's a picture of me, stacey Camero,
and I remember I don't know sixor seven people were there.
It was for an ice cream socialor something for some frown
house or something.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I'm sure you, nick, are, crew were there.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I remember taking a promo pack to the Bluebird, like
back when we did these promopacks, like an envelope with our
CD and pictures and all this.
I remember Dave Kubiak, theowner, was just like.
I gave it to him he's like, allright, I'll take a look.
And just never got back to me.
Oh yeah, because it was likeearly on.
Of course he doesn't want tobook bands, I'm not going to
(19:21):
bring people in, so I understoodthat.
But then now the Bluebird.
I think we played there themost of any venue we've ever
played in, absolutely.
Yeah played at a lot of showsthere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Are the audiences that you have now, since you've
been together for so long?
Are they diehard fans that havebeen with you from the
beginning, or is it a mix of oldand new?
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah, I mean there's definitely a crew of people that
have been around for a longtime and then, yeah, so I'd say
there's a mix.
There's definitely a crew ofpeople that have been there a
long time, but then there's newfaces that you see as well, and
over the course of 25 yearsyou'll see the same people in
(20:02):
the front row for years andyears, and then they'll just
kind of disappear, and then somenew people that travel five,
six, seven shows in a row willcome out.
It's just an evolution of lifetoo.
It's like people are in thispart of their life where they
just want to go see shows allthe time, go on tour, and then
they settle down and have kidsand do other things.
(20:25):
So it's an ever-evolving thing.
We're always trying to getyoung fans, and I think we have
a good mix of young and old.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, it's a very accessible sound, as I was.
I'm a newbie, I will fullyadmit, but just listening to the
thing I thought about thismorning.
It's all the great things aboutSteely Dan without any of the
creepiness.
I know A lot of creepy thingsJust a fantastic musicianship,
really good songwriting, thewhole thing.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
But, Steely.
Dan is creepy to me, steely Danis creepy, it's like Shag
carpeting in a van kind ofcreepy.
I just don't like it.
Oh, just like the image ofSteely Dan, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I don't know, there's just something weird about it
that freaks me out a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
The Donald Fagan kind of looks like a vampire yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I mean, they'd look a little creepy themselves.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah it's, I don't know.
I'm not off about it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So Well, you're also a you know sort of a Prague rock
fan, which you know don't wantto speak for you.
Yeah, that seems to be one ofyour influences.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Definitely.
Yep, totally.
Yeah, that was introduced to mefrom a friend of mine because
that was not always my alwaysthe case, but he got into Rush
and really showed me.
You know that whole side oflife.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Those are big influences on us.
Rush and, yes, frank Zappa, andyou know all those, all those
bands.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Who are you listening to now, man?
Or is it the type of thingwhere you like you play music
and your day job and don'treally listen to it much?
Speaker 3 (21:59):
No, because we've gotten that, you know, from
other guests before yeah.
I listened to.
You know I listened to a lot ofSpotify and I try and they
they're good at like well,they're not good at paying
artists, Nope, Nope, but they'regood at.
It's a good avenue to find newmusic and I just enjoy listening
(22:21):
to new stuff.
I enjoy all the older stuff,Like when I was high school and
college and even after that itwas a lot of.
I went through phases of like Ilistened to a lot of hip hop in
the 90s and then went to,started listening to a lot of
classic rock and then just wentthrough that whole catalog of
(22:43):
classic rock, Although I shouldgo way, way back and say that my
dad was a concert promoter andhe has his own like doo-wop band
.
So I really I grew up on likedoo-wop and oldies music.
Oh wow, Nice, no-transcript,you know it was just around, it
wasn't like I searched it out, Ijust would hear it all the time
, Right and so.
(23:04):
So then I got into hip hop,classic rock, listened to a lot
of jazz, you know, listened to alot of different stuff and
nowadays I just I listen tostill a hip hop, older hip hop
and R&B and jazz and any newstuff, Like I just love hearing
(23:26):
new music.
There's this band and I'm fromScotland right now called High
Fade, Okay, and they're verylike rock.
It's like rock funk.
Okay.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, Very cool stuff.
They're starting to gain alittle momentum right now.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Nice, we've.
You know, since we've startedthis podcast, our musical
horizons have expanded.
I've really gotten into punk,which I never thought I would
ever get into and I just itdidn't fit my ear when I was
growing up.
And there's a Irish kind of poppunk band called Fontaine's DC.
Cool they're.
(24:03):
They're pretty good.
Where are they from?
Ireland?
Oh, cool that part of the world.
You know you have these musicalinfluences.
Your fans of you know yourparticular music and I'm sure
you know all of your bandmateshave their own particularities.
But it comes together into thisoutput that, like, how does it
(24:25):
translate?
How does, like, your musicaltaste translate into the music
that you guys produce on stageor in the studio?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, I think, just like when I'm listening to any
kind of music, really I'mlistening to everything that's
going on in the song, but youknow, if there's percussion or
something, I'm really honing inon that and and just kind of not
analyzing it too much, but justyou know, taking mental notes
(24:54):
of, you know different playersand their ideas and stuff, and
then you know cause I could take, I could go listen to some R&B
record that's got somepercussion in it and take that
and put it to some prog rocktrack that we got, you know, and
it wouldn't be the same partsthat I'm playing, it's just
coming up with certain ideasthat can still work.
(25:17):
That's the great thing aboutpercussion, I think, is that
whether it's added to jazz, r&b,country, rock and roll, it all
you know it all kind of works.
I find it a good challenge totry and incorporate a lot of my
styles into a rock band, becauseit's not always.
(25:39):
You know the way my instrumentor instruments were kind of
developed.
It was through Latin music andAfrican music and Afro-Cuban,
and you know all that salsastuff and you know, listening to
Santana a group like Santanawas extremely helpful to hear
(26:02):
these Latin rhythms incorporatedinto rock and roll.
So I took a lot of stuff fromSantana's percussionists and so
you know it's a little bit of achallenge and my setup now kind
of incorporates a lot of likenot just Afro-Cuban stuff but
more like drum set stuff as well, like drum set toms and things
(26:23):
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Do you ever do like, just like sit down kit anymore,
is it?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yeah, I play drum kit and I do a few gigs.
Brennan and Jake do a holidayshow every year.
I play drums and a few littleyou know side gig drum gigs.
Yeah, I enjoy playing kit.
I'm not like I'm not a ChrisMeyers on the drum kit he's a
beast but yeah, I enjoy it.
(26:49):
It keeps me very well rounded.
For sure I think it helps me inpercussion because it like kind
of opens me up a little bitbecause percussion there's a lot
of stops and starts and youreally know how, really need to
know when to lay out a lot withpercussion, be spacious and
tasteful.
I really like doing that, butwhen you're playing drums it's
(27:11):
the whole time.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, you're just going, so it helps me kind of.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
yeah, just kind of helps me just kind of open up a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Do you play other instruments?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
No, just if you did, what would you?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
if I did, I'd probably play bass, really like
bass like stand up bass or bass,just like bass yeah, electric
bass yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You do use your.
You're wearing your regulatorsyour hoodie there and you do use
your vocals on the on the I do.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, I do do a couple of songs, we do.
We do regulators by Warngee, wedo.
I sing dirty love by FrankZappa.
Ain't no fun, snoop dog.
And then two new ones we justadded was it was a good day,
(27:58):
nice and big papa.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's nice.
It sounds like such a fun bandto be a part of.
Because it's just, you know, itseems like anything goes.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, yeah, I was actually just talking to one of
my bandmates about that, whereyou know we're we're lucky where
we basically gave ourselvesthis freedom to really do
whatever we want.
You know we critique ourselvesand listen to our shows and be
like, you know, maybe here youcan do this or I can do this
(28:30):
better, or something like that.
But really we're like superopen to each other's ideas and
the fact that we allow ourselvesto play all these different
styles it doesn't reallypigeonhole us too much and it's
it's, it's a freedom.
That's good, but you know youhave to harness that.
(28:52):
Sometimes too, you kind of haveto self-regulate yourself
because things could get alittle too oh, the word I'm
looking for like just loose,yeah, just too loose, like just
too.
You know, just keeping in withinyourself, I think, is always a
(29:12):
good thing we're always tryingto find ways to.
Because there's six of us,we're always trying to find ways
to play less.
I guess, you know, becausethere's between six people,
there's a lot to say and I thinkover the years we've gotten
better at listening to eachother and knowing when to lay
(29:34):
out.
Me personally, I've got a lotbetter at that, especially
playing with another drummerwho's already got tons of
symbols and is already, you know, a great drummer in his own
right.
And so for me, I have to learnlistening back to recordings, I
have to learn how to, maybe atthe end of a phrase, not hit a
(29:56):
symbol, because he's alreadyhitting a symbol, or just lay
out, and you know, at the timeI'm thinking, maybe, well, I'm
being lazy or something I'mlaying out, I'm not playing, but
when I listen back, well,sounds great.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, yeah, and is that mutual?
I mean, the two of you havethat conversation going, so does
he also leave room for you?
And yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
He's.
You know, we've got to kind ofmake eye contact and I'm all set
up with all my gears like angletowards him.
So most of the time, you know,we're able to look at each other
.
And yeah, we talk about it alot before shows and stuff.
Like you know, we have certainfills that we play together or
(30:40):
we'll like look at each otherlike you take that film or I'll
take that film.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, body language, eye contact, yeah, that's really
cool.
So you all like you record yourshows and you do.
You listen as a group back tothem and critique.
You said you kind of critiqueshows.
That's awesome, especiallyafter this many years, that you
still have the discipline anddesire to just honing.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I think a lot of it is.
We'll just go back and eitheras a group or individually, and
just listen to really we'dlisten to mostly improv, unless
there's like a new song that wejust started playing.
We need to figure out if theparts are right.
But we listen back to theimprov and try and find sections
that we can write songs from.
Ok, we'll like bookmark those,those points, and then maybe a
(31:31):
month down the road will end upputting together a song from it.
So nice.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Andrew.
Yes, karen, you know what timeit is.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's time for our record of the week.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Record of the week.
Record of the week Record.
Record Record of the week.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I like to when I'm.
When Axel is singing like Bob,bob Black sheep, I like to ask
him to like go for the bigfinish.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
For you know, we, and I bet he plays along really
well.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Oh gosh, he loves that game, he's he's got some
drama.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
It's really sweet when you knock down the wall of
your kitchen for the remodel.
He kept coming in and goingwhere's the wall?
Where's the wall go?
What happened to the?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
wall you know funny story about that while we had to
put a portion of it back upbecause, lo and behold, the wall
was load bearing and so, and sowe put on portion of it back up
temporarily and now he's likeclimb.
Like there's this section thathe can kind of climb through.
He's like I'm in the wall, I'min the wall.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
And he raises his hands and gesturing.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
He's like a little Italian man in a three year old
body Speaking of which we taughthim to say tortellini the other
day With the hand gesture Withthe hand gesture Nice, he played
along Anyway.
Record of the week.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Oh yeah, that's what we were talking about.
So mine is not a new record,mine is an old record.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I don't think we've ever like talked about a new
record.
We don't listen to anythingthere.
No, maybe we did, but anyway,go on.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Came out in 2004.
Okay, it's called our endlessnumbered days.
It was by a band called Ironand Wine.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Okay, lovely.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And is an ampersand, just in case you're looking at
that Iron and Wine, and it's agreat album.
It's so peaceful, thesongwriting is sincere and
gentle and it's one of myfavorite albums.
Or what makes a favorite albumto me is it puts me in a mood or
(33:38):
it sets a tone, and this is analbum that sets a tone.
It's.
You know, I would listen to itsort of at night, at dusk and
when you're just winding downfor the day or maybe on a Sunday
when you're just kind of wakingup.
It's just gentle and reallybeautiful.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Lovely.
Yeah, well, I'll check it out.
So I know Iron and Wine.
I just looked him up onWikipedia.
He's a singer-songwriter, so helike it's essentially just he
calls himself Iron and Wine.
But is he related to PostalService at all, or does Postal
(34:20):
Service just cover his songs?
Such great heights, you know?
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I don't know if they were related.
Okay, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I always thought they were.
They might be, but you know Icould be completely wrong about
that.
And they just they happen tocover the Iron and Wine song
such great heights.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, I don't know.
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
We'll look it up and next episode we'll talk more
about it.
I'm just kidding, we won't.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I was going to say I'm not going to remember to do
that.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, no, but maybe our listeners will be like huh,
I'll look that up.
Yeah, They'll look it upthemselves and call into
1-800-Records-In-Real-State.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Karen.
So we learned from Andy that helives in Oak Park.
He was reluctant to give hislike actual address, though I
can't believe it that he didn'twant to give his address out.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I was not trying to ask for his address.
I just meant, like you know,are you around this area or that
?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
area in your downtown , right, nope, where do you?
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I'm not also not going to give my home address.
But yeah, I grew up in Oak Parkaround the Columbian Avenue and
Division area.
It's four blocks from actuallythe city of Chicago border.
Okay, but I did date somebodythat refused to allow me to say
that I was from Chicago and I'mlike I live four blocks away and
(35:46):
he's like that's not Chicago.
So that's ridiculous.
I hate that argument.
So now I say it just despitehim, even though he's no longer
with us, so maybe that's bad.
He's going to come back andhaunt me.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Maybe he already is.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
He probably is.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
What is it about the Columbian Division, like what's
distinctive about that part ofOak Park?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So it's a really lovely area with colonial houses
, lots of sort of trees that arekind of teenagers, because the
Dutch Elm disease came throughwhen I was a kid and like they
had all these big old trees.
But my house specifically stillhas these two really ancient
maple trees that are they're alittle bit on their last legs
(36:28):
but, you know there's a lot ofhistory in those trees but you
know it's manicured lawns andpeople.
you know just nice colonialhouses.
But the thing about that's coolabout Oak Park is that there's
a lot of variety in the house,the houses there.
There's some areas that arejust they've got these huge
mansions.
There's a ton of Frank LloydWright houses.
(36:50):
So if you're a fan of FrankLloyd Wright, there's more to
see in Oak Park than I thinkanywhere else in the world maybe
His home and studio is there,not too far from my house.
I used to work there when I wasa kid and it's just a lovely
place.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
It's got a good downtown.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Like, yeah, it does.
Lots of restaurants and bars,basically, yeah, anything you
need, and it's got a newdispensary that opened up.
Medmen is down in Oak Park.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
now, that surprises me.
I mean for Oak Park.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, I know A little bit conservative, I guess.
Maybe so, but I don't know.
It's just kind of a niceeveryone's just nice good people
.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Nice and it's, I think, one of the distinctive
features about Oak Park, kind oflike Evan's, and as it's part
of the CTA system, you can takea CTA out there, right.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You can get to downtown very easily and my
brother, he takes the train upfrom Springfield a lot.
Oh, okay, yeah, and they can goin and go in from places all
the time and they can get to itpretty easily.
Yeah, yeah, it's quiet, it'spretty and there's a great high
school, oak Park River ForestHigh School.
There there's actually severalthere's Fenwick and Trinity,
(38:08):
which are private schools, butOak Park River Forest is a
public school that I was veryproud to go to.
They have up at the time andmaybe they still do.
They had a great theaterdepartment and just tons of
resources.
So anything you want to getinto as a kid is there.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, sports art anything.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Music Great.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, sounds lovely.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, go check it out and just spend a day in Oak
Park.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
We're back with Andy Farrag.
All right, good to be back.
Hello, yeah, so you, speakingof back, you're back in Chicago.
Yep, did you?
Did I hear you say you movedout to Oak Park?
Yep, living in.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Oak Park right now.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yay, my parents, I just got back from there.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Parents are still there, nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Whereabouts.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Man, I'm not really sure, I'm just kind of no part.
Getting to know it yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I just moved there a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
But yeah, I just needed.
I need more spouse living inthe city and I just needed more
space for all my drums.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, it's a really nice area.
Yeah, I like it.
It's quiet and pretty and goodwalking.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, it's funny.
I like moved to a quietneighborhood so I can make noise
.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Have your neighbors complained yet?
Not yet.
All right yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
But I'm in a corner lot and the drums are in the far
end.
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
That's perfect.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Yeah, there's no neighbors on that one side.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
So yeah, in the basement Yep Nice.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, you, I mean you've lived.
You guys all lived in Chicago,you know after for a time right
Yep, early on Yep, you know kindof midway, I don't know when
did you guys live in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Back in there and then, you know, I moved to
(40:19):
Charleston around 2011.
So I was in Chicago for 11years Good long time.
Good long time yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Did you?
You know, now that you're back,I mean, things have changed a
bit, but most of the venuesstill remain the same, I would
imagine.
Yeah, More or less.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, pretty much I mean.
Yeah, I mean we, let's see, wejust did our umbol shows in
November at the Riv.
You know they've updated theRiv a little bit.
I'm waiting for an uptowntheater to come back.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, I think we've all been waiting for a long time
.
Yeah, new venue called SaltShed Salt Shed, I have nothing
there now, but I'm hearing greatthanks.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
What about Chicago?
Did you enjoy the most when youguys were living here in 2000?
Was it the nightlife?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Yeah, I mean, I think it was just we moved here to
get an opportunity to grow ourfan base.
You know, because we knew,living in South Bend, that we
only were limited to what wecould, what we could do.
And you know, at the time wewere still in South Bend and at
the time our current manager,vince, was not our manager, he
(41:30):
was working for AT&T here in thecity, so he was already living
here and I think he helped getus our first gig at the elbow
room.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
And so you know, we, we decided, you know, we should
definitely move to Chicago andbuild our fan base and, you know
, try and get that going.
So yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, the elbow room is uh Still there.
It's not open.
Yeah, but they haven't doneanything.
Oh okay, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah.
It's classic old venues inChicago just truly, I mean it's
truly an elbow room.
Yeah, elbow to elbow.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
What made you go to South Carolina?
Oh?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Well, at the time I just wanted to live in better
weather, I guess, yeah.
And then, you know, I left.
I came back and some thingsended for me in my life and
Decided that, you know,chicago's my home, you know, and
so my family still lives inNorthwest Indiana, nice, and so,
(42:34):
just, you know, just wanted tocome back here.
And then I came back here for alittle bit and then I once
again wanted to live some morewarmer, so I moved to this
national.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Is it the golf weather that brings you to these
warmer climates?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll admit that, yeah, I'm a
little golf obsessed, but yeah,and then, like I was telling you
, like you know, covid happenedand, you know, just ended up
selling my house and moving backup to Chicago.
Yeah, it's good to be here.
I, I think I now you know again, my, my, my family lives around
(43:12):
here, all my closest friendslive around here.
So that was one thing likemoving to these other places was
, you know, you miss yourfriends, you miss your family
and you think you're gonna goback a lot and you just don't.
Yeah, you know it's kind oftough to.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I mean you're, you're traveling, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I'm already traveling for work, and so when I'm home,
I would just want to stay home,and so it's good, I'm good,
it's good to be back.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Nice and the rest of the band.
Are they here as well, or theyscattered a little bit?
Speaker 3 (43:39):
There's a Brendan still here in Chicago, jake's in
South Bend, ryan and Vince arein Charleston and Chris, our
drummer, is in Nashville andJoel's in LA.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Wow, yeah, okay, you were saying that you all kind of
you fly home and then fly outfor shows Thursday, through what
Saturday?
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, yeah, we'll like, we'll like fly out
Wednesday for shows Thursday orFriday, saturday or Sunday, and
you fly on Sunday or Mondaycouple couple days home, then
fly back out for more shows forthe weekend, you know yeah.
So, yeah, that's been our,that's been our strategy for a
while and I think it's been good, as long as you know, we have
(44:29):
like good chunks, like right nowwe're like on a month break to
kind of decompress and we'refrom a long tour from long tour
and we have Three weekends ofshows coming up in April.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
So cool when you plan here Playing here, if you can
say oh yeah, I could say or ifwe wanted to find out where your
next show is, maybe where wouldwe go?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Yeah but we're definitely playing summer camp,
which is impure, yeah, but thatdoesn't count Um freeze.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Um freeze McGee dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Yeah, no, we we have.
We have plans to be playinghere in Chicago.
I'm just not at liberty to Justsay at this moment fair.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, we won't have the breaking news.
You won't have heard it firsthere to be honest, is a rally
air after the show anyway, yeah,it was awesome.
That's just assume we're allglad you guys enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Thanks for coming out .
We got backstage.
It was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Oh man, so you know we're heading into golf season
in Chicago.
What are your favorite golfcourses?
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Well, my girlfriend lives right across from, uh, the
city, marivets.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
I was right there I enjoyed that one a lot.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
It's only a nine hole course but it's a great place,
man it's.
Yeah, it's right on the water.
You know it's not the nicestcourse in the world, but man,
it's golf.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I like playing at harborsidea lot.
Yeah, that's another goodpublic course.
You know, you got cobb hill,you got.
I mean, there's so many golfcourses from Chicago, it's
(46:03):
insane.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
How'd you get into it ?
Was it your Family or I got?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
a memory, dad or yeah , I got into golf.
Like I started playing golfwhen I was like 10 and, uh, my
friends, I lived in aneighborhood where there's a
golf course and uh, they, theystarted playing.
I think their parents were wereinto golf, and so they got into
golf and I was like, hey, Iwant to try this, you know so.
(46:28):
Yeah, so, really early, when Iwas like 10, I'd play every day
For like a few years.
I played one year in highschool and then I quit for a
while.
When I started playing drums,yeah, started getting into music
.
I just didn't play at all foryears and years.
Interesting, it was only till Igot started playing with
offerings that like Joel and inMiro and stay sick.
(46:50):
Yeah, now chris and they allplayed golf.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
So we're like, yeah, let's just, let's go play some
golf, and yet none of you are asgood as barry brown.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I hear that is correct, very brown is a
naturally gifted golfer.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
That's amazing.
Check out the berry brownepisode.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Yeah which is which is entitled an altruistic
keyboardist.
Yes, for those that are looking, I like that talk about andy's
rip and rub, because there's agood origin story to that, as
well, yeah, so uh, you know Isell my own barbecue.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
I'm very into barbecue, I love barbecue.
Barbecue kind of sewer and forthe listener.
We are holding up a bottle ofthe barbecue rub red cap, black
label Looks delicious red, blackand white are my uh, it's my
color theme usually foreverything.
And uh, yeah, uh, the rubstarted years ago, probably 0708
(47:49):
, and I was living in roscowvillage at the time and got a
package.
I forget what the package wasfor, but they, it got delivered.
Ups guy left, comes back withanother box, leaves it.
I'm like, well, what's this?
There's just a little stickerwith my address on it.
I think it fell off the firstbox, landed on this other box.
(48:10):
Why, he brought it to my house.
Okay, I opened it up and it'slike this Uh, it's a box of
hockey pucks, of chocolate formole sauce.
Oh, wow, for as it was.
Uh, just to front air grill.
Uh-huh, for those that youdon't know, front air grill is
like one of the top restaurantsin chicago Yep, rick bailis,
(48:30):
yeah.
So I'm like, wow, man.
So I called front air, uh, therestaurant, and I was like, hey,
uh, box got delivered.
Uh, something, how mole sawsomething?
And she, it was just reallybusy and she sounded very busy.
The woman on the phone, phone,she's like, uh, just just keep
(48:51):
it, just hangs up.
I'm like, uh, well, what am Isupposed?
Speaker 2 (48:55):
to do with this?
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Yeah, first I was like cool, I get to keep it.
I'm like, uh, no.
And so I look on the other sideand there's this sticker Uh,
terra spice company.
And I went and called them andturned out the lady I talked to
lived in south ben.
She knew of unfreeze.
Wow, you know.
And, just being like intocooking and stuff, I went and
checked out their website,checking out their spices, and I
(49:19):
saw they do retail packaging.
They'll, they'll blend yourspice, they'll package it, put
the label on everything.
It's like man, this would be asweet kind of like merch table
kind of item.
And so, you know, got thatgoing and at the time they did
everything from start to finishand, as you know, we sold it.
(49:40):
Um, I wasn't able to make alike a profit on it.
Yeah, it's kind of like abreak-even kind of thing, right.
So I don't know years later Uh,just about maybe a year and a
half ago I Are not even like ayear ago I got in contact with
them again just to see whattheir pricing was and everything
(50:00):
.
And the guy was like reallyInto my idea, turning it back.
So Now I get, I get everythingand I I package it.
I like ran out of kitchen orwhatever, and I just package it
all myself.
Wow, yeah, so it's fun, yeah,it's good.
Picked out all those bottles,every bottle, put every label on
(50:21):
that thing and you know, I got.
I measure everything out, everybottles, you know whatever 3.4
ounces.
Nice, it's a labor of love, yeahand the the spice company is
like a high end, like wholesale,wholesale spice company.
They, they supplied spices fora lot of restaurants from terra
and all those places.
Yeah, it's really good, it's avery, it's like a spicy.
(50:43):
It's like your normal Barbecuerub that you would use, except
spicier.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Okay, and he's ripping rubcom.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Yep, there's a.
It's gluten-free.
Yes, yeah, there's an onlinestore and he's ribbon rubcom and
we sell it At our merch table.
It shows, yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
What, uh, what do you ?
I mean, we were talking aboutsalmon earlier, but, uh, use it
on Basically anything, or yeah,I mean, you know it's great on
pork and chicken and and beefand vegetables.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
And one of my favorite things I tell people is
you just get like french bread,mm-hmm, you know, lay down some
butter, sprinkle that on it andthen grill it, mm-hmm, grill,
mm-hmm, like just char it up.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Oh man, so good, nice , I think we need to have a
little barbecue party here inthe backyard this summer.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yeah, we should, so we uh.
So we've had a few gatherings,we're gonna have a.
A third one was very successful, the other, uh, we only had one
person show up.
It was Mike Racky.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
But we do uh, we had a lot of fun.
I mean, if Racky shows up it'slike six people.
Yep, he brought the partyAbsolutely Um.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
So we, we, you know, everybody brings in a record, or
if they don't have records, itis put something on Spotify that
they want to share witheverybody.
So maybe we'll do a barbecuecomponent.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
That would be really fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Well, Andy, thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks for having me.
It was a lot of fun chat withyou.
It was good, you know, we'llsee.
You see on the road.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yeah, just wait.
Can't wait to catch the showthat uh has yet to be named.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
Or maybe has already happened or has maybe because it
was so good already happened orit's about to happen.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Thanks so much it's been great.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Thank you guys appreciate it.
Karen, before I ask you aquestion, the, the why questions
.
Yeah, I'm gonna ask you in amoment.
Uh, I have a follow-up story toAndy Farring and umfrees mckie
who has left the building rightnow but, let's, let's talk about
him.
So umfrees played lala pelusa afew times and, uh, you know, I
(52:56):
think it was kind of when theywere Really starting to be, you
know, well known and and it was,it was like a break for them.
I was, you know, certainly goingto see them A lot back then and
went to lala pelusa tospecifically to see them.
And I was at a pot bellies nearthe you know venue, near the,
near the grant park or the.
(53:18):
The festival takes place, thesandwich shop, the sandwich shop
, pot bellies, and I Was in lineand andy ferrick walks in right
behind me and you know we knoweach other, and so we start
chatting in line and he, youknow, gets his sandwich and he
orders a wreck and I order mywreck for those that don't know,
(53:40):
pot bellies and one of theirsignature sandwiches is called a
wreck.
And I'm walking out and I hearthese.
You know, I was like in mymaybe Late 20s and there were
these you know teenagers thereand they were clearly umpries
fans and they were probablythere to see umpries and they
saw Andy and they were just allexcited.
(54:01):
And one turns to the other andsays, well, what sandwiched he
order?
And the other guy goes Well, awreck obviously.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
So they all ordered Rex.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
I've told him that story before.
I meant to ask him when he washere, but you know anyway,
that's the story the life of arock star?
Speaker 2 (54:23):
Absolutely.
People want to know whatsandwich you're eating.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
Yeah.
So I have a question for you,wish you may not have an answer
to.
You may hate them, but whymusic festivals, karen?
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Oh wow, why music festivals?
I haven't been to one in a longtime, mostly because that's
it's.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
It's too much stimulation for me, why not
music festivals?
Festivals, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I think music festivals are a really great
thing at a certain time in yourlife and and I'm not in that
time yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
You know, there is a good music festival For people
of all ages and it's actuallyone of the first music festivals
.
It's high Sierra music festival.
Mm-hmm, and that one's prettyaccessible because it's you
don't have to walk very far toget to the.
You know the other camping isreally close to the actual
festival itself, yeah, and youcan kind of bop in and out.
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, you know I like them and I think maybe you have
a different take on thembecause you come from the the
jam band circle, which is adifferent vibe.
You know you're.
You're used to getting togetherin these crowds that follow the
bands around and All partytogether on the regular right,
as opposed to a bunch ofstrangers coming together for a
weekend To see have you everknew, uh, jazzfest.
(55:35):
I have been to jazzfest in inChicago like not New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (55:40):
Oh no, not no.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
So the the last festival I think that I ever
went to is my band used totravel up and down the coast,
the west coast, and we wouldland.
Our final destination was inBritish Columbia oh cool, at a
festival called Shambhala, andour guitarist and his wife
Basically put on the festival.
Okay and so we got to play itevery year For a while and it
(56:04):
grew.
I mean, it was a big festivalbut it was one of those things
like the last time we went itthe music just doesn't stop.
It's, you know, 24 hours a dayand you're trying to camp and I
don't know, it's.
It's just like the speakers.
You can hear them, thevibrations all night long like
(56:25):
running through your body andyou're Trying to sleep and you
know it's really, really fununtil it's just too much.
But the people at Shambhala andthat's just me because I'm old
and crotchety and whatever,because the people at the
Shambhala festival, we're sosweet, everyone is so cool.
I highly recommend goingbecause it's every kind of style
(56:45):
of music.
You know DJs and live bands andeverything in between, and you
know light shows.
It's sort of, you know, a minikind of burning man, but in the
forest it's Not in the forest,sort of on a on a farm, but
there's forest and then there'sa river running through it and
so everyone just like hangs outon the river.
During the day and there's bandsplaying on the river and it's
(57:06):
just, it's fantastic.
So that's why music festivals.
I just convinced myself Ishould go back.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, let's go back, yeah let's take a, take a trip,
go see a music.
I mean the.
I think one of the things aboutmusic festivals Is there, every
fucking city in America has amusic festival these days.
Yes, and it's gotten a littleOut of hand, but you know,
obviously there's, they'reputting them on and they're
successful and people are going.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
I also had a thing where you know, seeing a band
outside in the daytime was justlike what.
Because I was so used to justthat band nightlife inside
Concert venue thing so thattakes my brain a little time to
get used to.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
So you disagree with Jamie Lee Curtis who recently
said why can't coldplay play ametinee?
Do you hear about this?
All the sense?
In the world to me.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
So no, tell me what the context was around this.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
I really know.
I just, you know, read aheadline.
But but Jamie Lee Curtis, youknow who is lovely and you know,
by all accounts, she suggestedthat these bands, you know,
played during the day absolutely.
And I appreciate that, assomebody that you know likes to
go to bed early and wake upearly.
Speaker 2 (58:18):
Yeah, my last band decided after you know, our last
three years together was justplaying in people's backyards
and you know kids running aroundand no barbecue happening.
It was just a band callbeautiful engines.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
This was the band that you started shambhala.
Speaker 2 (58:32):
Uh, yes, this is part of it.
Uh, shambhala started as athree piece under a different
name and then became beautifulengines.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
You've not talked about beautiful engines.
To my recollection Um only ifyou're lucky right, well, follow
.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
I'm not going to follow andy ferrick.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
No, no, that was uh.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
that was a lot of fun and if we're trying to get to
obama, that's a step backwards.
Speaker 1 (59:00):
Having me on, Okay you know, progress is not linear
, that's true, that's true, butyeah, it was a fun time.
Nice, yep.
Well, there we have it.
Okay, this has been an episodeof records in real estate.
Thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you for watching.
Today's episode was brought toyou by be realty.
Be where you want to be.
Be realty.
Welcome to Records in Real Estate, a podcast about
well records in real estate.
You'll be entertained andinformed as we explore the
intersection of these two worldsthrough interviews with
Chicago's most interesting andsuccessful people from both
industries.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvoss.
We are Chicago Real EstateBrokers, property Managers, avid
Music Lovers and your hosts ofRecords in Real Estate.
Hi, karen.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Andrew, how are you Good?
Well, we just had a lovelyconversation.
Yes, probably our.
You know, our biggest star,yeah, our biggest star, yeah,
andy Farrag.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're on our way to Obama.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I guess if we keep putting it out there, maybe
it'll happen.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, the universe does provide.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's right yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, Andy Farrag.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Andy Farrag.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, they're percussionists.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, which.
It was a conversation that,just you know, stirred my soul
in that musical way.
I love talking shop.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, it was definitely a great conversation,
a lot about music, as it shouldbe, and you know you guys are
kindred spirits and that youboth bang on things.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's true in different ways, yes, but yeah,
it was fun to hear about hisbeginnings and all the
connections that you guys havewith college days and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, for sure, and you've recently started to
listen to them a little bit.
What are your impressions?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I feel dumb for not knowing who they were
before.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh well, I mean honest.
I mean they are well known injam band circles, but you know,
which is a circle that I havenot.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
The Venn diagram of my life has not intersected with
that circle.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Right Until now.
Until now.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I have never had them to be astoundingly good.
Their musicianship is justamazing.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, I liken them to a certain band that I will let
the listener just kind of listento.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Sure, sure.
They are all supremely talentedmusicians, and that has been
true since the beginning.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So yeah, and every song is just a new adventure,
and so it sounds like a very funband to be in.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, they have lots of fun, lots of lots of inside
jokes.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But yet they have a discipline that I was not
expecting from a band that hasthat much longevity.
Oh, maybe that is the reasonwhy they have the longevity that
they do, because they reallyhone their craft over and over
again.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, it's pretty great, yeah, who knows?
I mean, you know a lot of thesejam bands.
They do last a long time, butyou know they're producing a lot
of new music still, which is,you know, a testament to their
creativity and their output.
And you know it's fun to growwith a band like that.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, shall we?
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
All right, here we go .
Well, we're here with AndyFarrag, the percussionist for
Humphreys McGee.
Thanks, andy, for joining us.
Thanks for having me,absolutely yeah, and we just
kind of dive into where you andI met, which was at Indiana
University.
Yeah, specifically a house onthe corner of First and
Henderson First and Henderson,and you lived there.
(03:28):
Right, I did, yeah, and youknow I was a freshman, but the,
you know, the guys you wereliving with, I think, were
mostly sophomores and they hadepic Thursday night parties.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Thursday nighters.
I remember those.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, yes, it's a random night to have a party.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, we always said like Thursday is the new Friday,
that's right.
That's what we were saying yeah, dude, thursday is new Friday.
Man, come on.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You know, it's honestly stuck with me my entire
life.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
You know, if I'm drinking during the week, it's
always on Thursday.
I'll take Friday off, you know.
Maybe have some drinks Saturdaytoo, but usually Thursday I
still go out.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's when you kick it off.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Absolutely.
I don't have class on Friday,you know.
So you can really go after iton Thursday, but back then, not
knowing what I was seeing, youwould lead these like epic drum
circles, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, I remember that .
And I also remember this dudefrom Spain.
It's this teacher, ehrman.
Uh-huh, remember Ehrman.
Yeah, he would come over and heknew, like classical guitar and
we just jam.
Yeah, and like all the girlsloved Ehrman.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Absolutely.
They loved with him.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah, those drum circles really like it got
me more creative in just hearingother people play.
And especially IU, where youknow a couple of those people
were in the music school and Iwas wanting to get in to that
(05:01):
music school.
You know, at the time before Ijoined Umphreys, you know I went
to IU to try, and you know, toget a music degree.
So that really opened my eyesbig time, you know.
Plus, it was where I lived.
Everybody just came over.
It was a great time.
Yeah, Easy for you, Super easy.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, had you.
I mean you were.
So you were playing drums orpercussion prior to getting in
IU.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Oh, let's see, I started.
I started when I was like 16and a half, okay, and then I
went to this percussion festival, berkeley College of Music in
Boston, and it was like a twoweek like just percussion crash
course, and so that's where Ilike really got dove deep into
(05:47):
percussion.
And then after I graduated highschool, well, I met Mike Miro
in high school and played, justjammed out with him in my
basement back where I grew up,crown Point, and so once I got
that I wanted to go to IU to getin music school, but then,
playing with Humphreys, I'dstart driving up to South Bend
(06:09):
every weekend and then, you know, sooner or later I just I'd
moved up to South Bend.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, I mean, you kind of you wouldn't, I don't
know, you tell me, but maybe youaccomplished what did you want
to, what you wanted toaccomplish by going to the music
school.
Anyways, and yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I guess I you know.
The one thing that I remembertoo was like I really wanted to
go and go to school inBloomington.
You know that's where I wantedto be.
I'd visited there in highschool, yeah, it was just.
It was a cool place and knewthat I wanted to go to college
there.
And then I was only there for ayear.
I was there for like a springsemester and a fall semester and
(06:49):
I met all you guys and we werelike tight crew, right.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
We're all hanging out in each other's houses and
everything, and then, you know,a year goes by and then I'm just
like traveling up to South Bend, so much.
And then boom yeah, and beforeyou know we're like traveling
all over the country, you know,in Humphreys.
So it was kind of those fewyears just kind of a lot
happened.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
How did?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
you join the band?
Did you have to audition whatwas?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So Mike Miro, our original drummer, I went to high
school with, and Joel, ourkeyboardist.
They had a band called StopperBob at Notre Dame and Mike was a
year older than me so he hadalready graduated, I was still
in high school and they had itwas just like college rock.
It was like, you know, yourbasic kind of college cheese
(07:40):
rock, you know, yeah, a lot ofpeople enjoyed it and so I would
sit in with them every once ina while.
I like a drive when I was stillin high school, so I just drive
like an hour to South Bend,play these shows in like bars
and stuff, and then drive backand, you know, go to school the
next day, wow.
So Mike and Joel ended upquitting that band and joined
(08:02):
with Brendan and Brian, ourguitarist and bass player.
They had another band.
They also quit that band.
Those four joined and made ElmFries McGee.
So you know, once that happenedI was like, well, you know, that
was fun doing the Stopper Bobthing and college rock and all
(08:24):
that, and I don't like Mike Mirojust kind of still was asking
me to come and jam out withthese guys, and so that was
around the time that I went downto Bloomington and so I don't
know, if you remember, I wasdriving up every weekend to
South Bend to play gigs, yeah,yeah, and that was the only
place we were playing gigs withSouth Bend.
So I was driving up everyweekend and then eventually, I
(08:48):
think like six months after all,that a couple of the guys just
said, hey, man, you should justmove up here permanently and
join the band.
And I was like, yeah, yeah,yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
How far is that drive ?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
from.
It's like four and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
All right, so that's a chunk of time.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I remember I had my six disc CD changer and just
packed that thing full CDs andbe ready to go.
What was in it?
Oh man, I think it'sinteresting to tons of jazz like
Grant Green, jimmy Smith, wesMontgomery, charlie Hunter, what
(09:30):
else I like?
Go back and look at my CD books, go back and listen to all that
stuff too, and they're just soworn out and just listening to
them so much.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Especially when you're driving and you're
putting the CDs in a place andyou're trying not to scratch
them Right.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
They fall on the floor yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So did you have trouble like any trouble getting
into the clubs, as you were 16when you started.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Like you were 21 or under 18?
Yeah, when I started playinggigs I was probably I was like
18.
So there was one time in SouthBend where I was using one of my
friend's ID because they werereally strict even with like
musicians coming into play,Because any other bar that I
(10:14):
played in South Bend they nevergave me any problems.
And I remember my friend gaveme his ID and we looked nothing
alike, Like nothing alike.
And he just looks at this, helooks at the ID, he looks at me
and he's like the whole bar islike we got one, we got one.
I'm just like, wow, this guy isreally serious about his job.
(10:35):
And so that was the only time Iever had any problems.
Other than that it was justalways kind of like the
sun-ridden roll, Like if you'rea musician, like you can still
play in a bar.
You know, right, Totally.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'd like I have to just point out that when you
told me about you know, told usabout your origin story, and you
said I was 16 and a half.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
That seems like a very specific thing.
How did you remember that youwere 16 and a half?
What was the half about?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, because I was in.
I remember I was in 16 and ahalf, so I would have been a
sophomore in high school.
And that was like when I metMike through another friend,
dombrowski, who I had a Spanishclass with, and so it was like I
was like a sophomore when Ireally started getting into.
(11:26):
Because I met Mike I think myfreshman year in high school,
but when I was a sophomore, likekind of halfway in the year, I
remember just jamming out withhim.
I just knew I wanted to playdrums, but Mike already played
drums and I remember listeningto a lot of like Beastie Boys
and they had these instrumentaltracks that had a lot of
(11:48):
percussion in it and it reallyjust caught my ear and just
really sounded interesting.
I thought, well, you know, Ican jam out with Mike if I like
start playing these other likehand drums and stuff, and so he
would just come over and bringhis drum set over to my basement
and we'd just jam out.
And so I just remember itwasn't the beginning of my
sophomore, it was like somewherehalfway Plus you were driving
(12:11):
right so you had to be a driveand age.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
at least that's right .
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Get your license.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Any good Miro stories you want to share with the
crowd?
I mean, I know there's a lot ofMiro stories, plenty of Miro
stories.
I'll start with one.
You can think of it.
You know Mike was a I'm Freezeoriginal drummer and you know he
would come down to Bloomingtonbecause of the Scott Dombrovsky
who Andy mentioned.
(12:38):
And it was one time where wewent to play disc golf early in
the morning, not because we hadwoken up early but because we
were still up and man, he wasjust, he was just playing, like
just absolute.
You know he was playingterrible.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I couldn't figure out which way you were going.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I was going to give away the punchline but he, every
time he would throw, he wouldjust yell dog shit, dog shit,
just like.
And it was just, it was 18holes of just dog shit.
Yeah, but it was.
I mean he stuck with the bit hewas.
It was, he was dog shitConsistent.
He was going to let everybodyknow.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Is it one of those things that you know that it's
dog shit as soon as you releasethe?
I'm assuming it's a Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I've never been good at disc golf.
I've played a few times incollege, but but yeah, I mean
yeah, it's like bowling, you cantell right away.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, as soon as you release the ball.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I mean man.
So many good Meryl stories.
I remember I could go back tohigh school when he was coming
over to jam once and he comes,comes into my house and he's
like Farragh man.
I fell asleep sitting in thesun.
I was over my buddy's pool andI think I got a little burnt.
Man, can you check on my back?
(13:52):
I looked at his back and it waslike blistering.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
He's an Irish he's Irish, you know, he's got that
fair skin.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
He was just blistering.
I'm like, dude, you might needto go to the hospital.
And he's like no man just, andI like had this.
He like bought Alvaro.
He brought it with and he waslike, hey man, could you just
put this all over my back?
I literally took this wholebottle of Alvaro and just
slathered it all over his back.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Probably saved his life.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, he was like that day.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
He was like he owes you.
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Now, mike was.
Mike was a hilarious individual.
He was always joking around,keeping situations light yeah,
maybe.
If they got too serious, he wasalways the one to just keep
things in a in a joking mood.
Yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
It was a lot of fun.
I missed that guy, yeah forsure.
I mean when he quit the band oryou know, was it tougher when
he passed away.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Man, that's tough.
I mean when he left, when hequit the band, it was a shock to
me and obviously all the restof us.
But yeah, it was just muchtougher when, when he passed.
You know it was unfortunate.
But I think of great memoriesstill when I, when I play
(15:17):
certain rhythms, still to thisday.
You know those are things thatme and him worked on back in the
day when we were livingtogether in South Bend.
So you know, and I always thinkof him when I'm, when I'm just
playing music all the time.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he still has a big influence on
you and the band and everybody,definitely.
Well, what about Andy's lastbeer?
Is that a?
Is that a Miro influenced tune?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
No, well, I'll tell you the story of that.
The lyrics themselves havenothing to do with me, or my
last beer.
At least I don't think.
At least that's what Brennantold me.
So we had, we had the song,brennan had the lyrics, and we
used to do these shows at DeadCreek Campground for the fish
(16:07):
shows.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, I was at one of those.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So it was just this campground during the fish shows
at what was used to be calledDeer Creek.
I think we still call it DeerCreek.
Yeah, we all still call it DeerCreek.
And we were just, we played theshow and we're just hanging out
at our tent or whatever oursite and I don't know.
I was just.
It was at the end of the night.
(16:32):
I was like I grab a beer.
I was like guys, this is mylast beer, brennan's like that's
it, man, andy's last beer.
I'm like what are you talkingabout?
That's the name of the song.
All right, man, whatever.
At that point I think we weretrying to figure out a name and
nobody could agree on anything.
We have tons of songs like thatthat just have just don't make
(16:55):
any sense of what the lyrics areor if it's an instrumental song
.
We have a song, Ms TinklesOverture.
It's very complex, like a lotof parts kind of song, and Ms
Tinkles is a nickname for Joel,because he tinkled on somebody's
(17:18):
pillow in our van a long timeago, because when you're in a
van traveling long distancespeople have to use the bathroom
and they have to use thebathroom in like a bottle or
something and, like you, hit abump.
So, Joel, he'd accidentallypeed on somebody's pillow.
(17:39):
This is a story we've told manytimes so we'll be surprised if
you listen to this.
He's now Ms Tinkles.
Of course we need a song afterthat, yeah absolutely you have
to.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's what a band of 25 years does.
Congratulations on making it 25years.
It's a big accomplishment.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It seems like it's been 25 years, but then at the
same time, it seems like it'sjust gone so fast.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Eventually you guys moved beyond South Bend and I
was fortunate enough and ourfriends were fortunate enough to
see you at least once a monthdown in Bloomington at Bluebird
or wherever it was.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Man, I just found a picture of us the first time we
played.
Oh man, help me remember thename of this the grassy area.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
First show in Bloomington.
It was like Dun Meadow orsomething like that.
Yeah, Dun Meadow.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I remember and it's a picture of me, stacey Camero,
and I remember I don't know sixor seven people were there.
It was for an ice cream socialor something for some frown
house or something.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I'm sure you, nick, are, crew were there.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I remember taking a promo pack to the Bluebird, like
back when we did these promopacks, like an envelope with our
CD and pictures and all this.
I remember Dave Kubiak, theowner, was just like.
I gave it to him he's like, allright, I'll take a look.
And just never got back to me.
Oh yeah, because it was likeearly on.
Of course he doesn't want tobook bands, I'm not going to
(19:21):
bring people in, so I understoodthat.
But then now the Bluebird.
I think we played there themost of any venue we've ever
played in, absolutely.
Yeah played at a lot of showsthere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Are the audiences that you have now, since you've
been together for so long?
Are they diehard fans that havebeen with you from the
beginning, or is it a mix of oldand new?
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah, I mean there's definitely a crew of people that
have been around for a longtime and then, yeah, so I'd say
there's a mix.
There's definitely a crew ofpeople that have been there a
long time, but then there's newfaces that you see as well, and
over the course of 25 yearsyou'll see the same people in
(20:02):
the front row for years andyears, and then they'll just
kind of disappear, and then somenew people that travel five,
six, seven shows in a row willcome out.
It's just an evolution of lifetoo.
It's like people are in thispart of their life where they
just want to go see shows allthe time, go on tour, and then
they settle down and have kidsand do other things.
(20:25):
So it's an ever-evolving thing.
We're always trying to getyoung fans, and I think we have
a good mix of young and old.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, it's a very accessible sound, as I was.
I'm a newbie, I will fullyadmit, but just listening to the
thing I thought about thismorning.
It's all the great things aboutSteely Dan without any of the
creepiness.
I know A lot of creepy thingsJust a fantastic musicianship,
really good songwriting, thewhole thing.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
But, Steely.
Dan is creepy to me, steely Danis creepy, it's like Shag
carpeting in a van kind ofcreepy.
I just don't like it.
Oh, just like the image ofSteely Dan, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I don't know, there's just something weird about it
that freaks me out a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
The Donald Fagan kind of looks like a vampire yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I mean, they'd look a little creepy themselves.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah it's, I don't know.
I'm not off about it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So Well, you're also a you know sort of a Prague rock
fan, which you know don't wantto speak for you.
Yeah, that seems to be one ofyour influences.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Definitely.
Yep, totally.
Yeah, that was introduced to mefrom a friend of mine because
that was not always my alwaysthe case, but he got into Rush
and really showed me.
You know that whole side oflife.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Those are big influences on us.
Rush and, yes, frank Zappa, andyou know all those, all those
bands.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Who are you listening to now, man?
Or is it the type of thingwhere you like you play music
and your day job and don'treally listen to it much?
Speaker 3 (21:59):
No, because we've gotten that, you know, from
other guests before yeah.
I listened to.
You know I listened to a lot ofSpotify and I try and they
they're good at like well,they're not good at paying
artists, Nope, Nope, but they'regood at.
It's a good avenue to find newmusic and I just enjoy listening
(22:21):
to new stuff.
I enjoy all the older stuff,Like when I was high school and
college and even after that itwas a lot of.
I went through phases of like Ilistened to a lot of hip hop in
the 90s and then went to,started listening to a lot of
classic rock and then just wentthrough that whole catalog of
(22:43):
classic rock, Although I shouldgo way, way back and say that my
dad was a concert promoter andhe has his own like doo-wop band
.
So I really I grew up on likedoo-wop and oldies music.
Oh wow, Nice, no-transcript,you know it was just around, it
wasn't like I searched it out, Ijust would hear it all the time
, Right and so.
(23:04):
So then I got into hip hop,classic rock, listened to a lot
of jazz, you know, listened to alot of different stuff and
nowadays I just I listen tostill a hip hop, older hip hop
and R&B and jazz and any newstuff, Like I just love hearing
(23:26):
new music.
There's this band and I'm fromScotland right now called High
Fade, Okay, and they're verylike rock.
It's like rock funk.
Okay.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, Very cool stuff.
They're starting to gain alittle momentum right now.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Nice, we've.
You know, since we've startedthis podcast, our musical
horizons have expanded.
I've really gotten into punk,which I never thought I would
ever get into and I just itdidn't fit my ear when I was
growing up.
And there's a Irish kind of poppunk band called Fontaine's DC.
Cool they're.
(24:03):
They're pretty good.
Where are they from?
Ireland?
Oh, cool that part of the world.
You know you have these musicalinfluences.
Your fans of you know yourparticular music and I'm sure
you know all of your bandmateshave their own particularities.
But it comes together into thisoutput that, like, how does it
(24:25):
translate?
How does, like, your musicaltaste translate into the music
that you guys produce on stageor in the studio?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, I think, just like when I'm listening to any
kind of music, really I'mlistening to everything that's
going on in the song, but youknow, if there's percussion or
something, I'm really honing inon that and and just kind of not
analyzing it too much, but justyou know, taking mental notes
(24:54):
of, you know different playersand their ideas and stuff, and
then you know cause I could take, I could go listen to some R&B
record that's got somepercussion in it and take that
and put it to some prog rocktrack that we got, you know, and
it wouldn't be the same partsthat I'm playing, it's just
coming up with certain ideasthat can still work.
(25:17):
That's the great thing aboutpercussion, I think, is that
whether it's added to jazz, r&b,country, rock and roll, it all
you know it all kind of works.
I find it a good challenge totry and incorporate a lot of my
styles into a rock band, becauseit's not always.
(25:39):
You know the way my instrumentor instruments were kind of
developed.
It was through Latin music andAfrican music and Afro-Cuban,
and you know all that salsastuff and you know, listening to
Santana a group like Santanawas extremely helpful to hear
(26:02):
these Latin rhythms incorporatedinto rock and roll.
So I took a lot of stuff fromSantana's percussionists and so
you know it's a little bit of achallenge and my setup now kind
of incorporates a lot of likenot just Afro-Cuban stuff but
more like drum set stuff as well, like drum set toms and things
(26:23):
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Do you ever do like, just like sit down kit anymore,
is it?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yeah, I play drum kit and I do a few gigs.
Brennan and Jake do a holidayshow every year.
I play drums and a few littleyou know side gig drum gigs.
Yeah, I enjoy playing kit.
I'm not like I'm not a ChrisMeyers on the drum kit he's a
beast but yeah, I enjoy it.
(26:49):
It keeps me very well rounded.
For sure I think it helps me inpercussion because it like kind
of opens me up a little bitbecause percussion there's a lot
of stops and starts and youreally know how, really need to
know when to lay out a lot withpercussion, be spacious and
tasteful.
I really like doing that, butwhen you're playing drums it's
(27:11):
the whole time.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, you're just going, so it helps me kind of.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
yeah, just kind of helps me just kind of open up a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Do you play other instruments?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
No, just if you did, what would you?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
if I did, I'd probably play bass, really like
bass like stand up bass or bass,just like bass yeah, electric
bass yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You do use your.
You're wearing your regulatorsyour hoodie there and you do use
your vocals on the on the I do.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, I do do a couple of songs, we do.
We do regulators by Warngee, wedo.
I sing dirty love by FrankZappa.
Ain't no fun, snoop dog.
And then two new ones we justadded was it was a good day,
(27:58):
nice and big papa.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's nice.
It sounds like such a fun bandto be a part of.
Because it's just, you know, itseems like anything goes.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, yeah, I was actually just talking to one of
my bandmates about that, whereyou know we're we're lucky where
we basically gave ourselvesthis freedom to really do
whatever we want.
You know we critique ourselvesand listen to our shows and be
like, you know, maybe here youcan do this or I can do this
(28:30):
better, or something like that.
But really we're like superopen to each other's ideas and
the fact that we allow ourselvesto play all these different
styles it doesn't reallypigeonhole us too much and it's
it's, it's a freedom.
That's good, but you know youhave to harness that.
(28:52):
Sometimes too, you kind of haveto self-regulate yourself
because things could get alittle too oh, the word I'm
looking for like just loose,yeah, just too loose, like just
too.
You know, just keeping in withinyourself, I think, is always a
(29:12):
good thing we're always tryingto find ways to.
Because there's six of us,we're always trying to find ways
to play less.
I guess, you know, becausethere's between six people,
there's a lot to say and I thinkover the years we've gotten
better at listening to eachother and knowing when to lay
(29:34):
out.
Me personally, I've got a lotbetter at that, especially
playing with another drummerwho's already got tons of
symbols and is already, you know, a great drummer in his own
right.
And so for me, I have to learnlistening back to recordings, I
have to learn how to, maybe atthe end of a phrase, not hit a
(29:56):
symbol, because he's alreadyhitting a symbol, or just lay
out, and you know, at the timeI'm thinking, maybe, well, I'm
being lazy or something I'mlaying out, I'm not playing, but
when I listen back, well,sounds great.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, yeah, and is that mutual?
I mean, the two of you havethat conversation going, so does
he also leave room for you?
And yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
He's.
You know, we've got to kind ofmake eye contact and I'm all set
up with all my gears like angletowards him.
So most of the time, you know,we're able to look at each other
.
And yeah, we talk about it alot before shows and stuff.
Like you know, we have certainfills that we play together or
(30:40):
we'll like look at each otherlike you take that film or I'll
take that film.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, body language, eye contact, yeah, that's really
cool.
So you all like you record yourshows and you do.
You listen as a group back tothem and critique.
You said you kind of critiqueshows.
That's awesome, especiallyafter this many years, that you
still have the discipline anddesire to just honing.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I think a lot of it is.
We'll just go back and eitheras a group or individually, and
just listen to really we'dlisten to mostly improv, unless
there's like a new song that wejust started playing.
We need to figure out if theparts are right.
But we listen back to theimprov and try and find sections
that we can write songs from.
Ok, we'll like bookmark those,those points, and then maybe a
(31:31):
month down the road will end upputting together a song from it.
So nice.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Andrew.
Yes, karen, you know what timeit is.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's time for our record of the week.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Record of the week.
Record of the week Record.
Record Record of the week.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I like to when I'm.
When Axel is singing like Bob,bob Black sheep, I like to ask
him to like go for the bigfinish.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
For you know, we, and I bet he plays along really
well.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Oh gosh, he loves that game, he's he's got some
drama.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
It's really sweet when you knock down the wall of
your kitchen for the remodel.
He kept coming in and goingwhere's the wall?
Where's the wall go?
What happened to the?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
wall you know funny story about that while we had to
put a portion of it back upbecause, lo and behold, the wall
was load bearing and so, and sowe put on portion of it back up
temporarily and now he's likeclimb.
Like there's this section thathe can kind of climb through.
He's like I'm in the wall, I'min the wall.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
And he raises his hands and gesturing.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
He's like a little Italian man in a three year old
body Speaking of which we taughthim to say tortellini the other
day With the hand gesture Withthe hand gesture Nice, he played
along Anyway.
Record of the week.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Oh yeah, that's what we were talking about.
So mine is not a new record,mine is an old record.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I don't think we've ever like talked about a new
record.
We don't listen to anythingthere.
No, maybe we did, but anyway,go on.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Came out in 2004.
Okay, it's called our endlessnumbered days.
It was by a band called Ironand Wine.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Okay, lovely.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And is an ampersand, just in case you're looking at
that Iron and Wine, and it's agreat album.
It's so peaceful, thesongwriting is sincere and
gentle and it's one of myfavorite albums.
Or what makes a favorite albumto me is it puts me in a mood or
(33:38):
it sets a tone, and this is analbum that sets a tone.
It's.
You know, I would listen to itsort of at night, at dusk and
when you're just winding downfor the day or maybe on a Sunday
when you're just kind of wakingup.
It's just gentle and reallybeautiful.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Lovely.
Yeah, well, I'll check it out.
So I know Iron and Wine.
I just looked him up onWikipedia.
He's a singer-songwriter, so helike it's essentially just he
calls himself Iron and Wine.
But is he related to PostalService at all, or does Postal
(34:20):
Service just cover his songs?
Such great heights, you know?
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I don't know if they were related.
Okay, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I always thought they were.
They might be, but you know Icould be completely wrong about
that.
And they just they happen tocover the Iron and Wine song
such great heights.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, I don't know.
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
We'll look it up and next episode we'll talk more
about it.
I'm just kidding, we won't.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I was going to say I'm not going to remember to do
that.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, no, but maybe our listeners will be like huh,
I'll look that up.
Yeah, They'll look it upthemselves and call into
1-800-Records-In-Real-State.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Karen.
So we learned from Andy that helives in Oak Park.
He was reluctant to give hislike actual address, though I
can't believe it that he didn'twant to give his address out.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I was not trying to ask for his address.
I just meant, like you know,are you around this area or that
?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
area in your downtown , right, nope, where do you?
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I'm not also not going to give my home address.
But yeah, I grew up in Oak Parkaround the Columbian Avenue and
Division area.
It's four blocks from actuallythe city of Chicago border.
Okay, but I did date somebodythat refused to allow me to say
that I was from Chicago and I'mlike I live four blocks away and
(35:46):
he's like that's not Chicago.
So that's ridiculous.
I hate that argument.
So now I say it just despitehim, even though he's no longer
with us, so maybe that's bad.
He's going to come back andhaunt me.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Maybe he already is.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
He probably is.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
What is it about the Columbian Division, like what's
distinctive about that part ofOak Park?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So it's a really lovely area with colonial houses
, lots of sort of trees that arekind of teenagers, because the
Dutch Elm disease came throughwhen I was a kid and like they
had all these big old trees.
But my house specifically stillhas these two really ancient
maple trees that are they're alittle bit on their last legs
(36:28):
but, you know there's a lot ofhistory in those trees but you
know it's manicured lawns andpeople.
you know just nice colonialhouses.
But the thing about that's coolabout Oak Park is that there's
a lot of variety in the house,the houses there.
There's some areas that arejust they've got these huge
mansions.
There's a ton of Frank LloydWright houses.
(36:50):
So if you're a fan of FrankLloyd Wright, there's more to
see in Oak Park than I thinkanywhere else in the world maybe
His home and studio is there,not too far from my house.
I used to work there when I wasa kid and it's just a lovely
place.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
It's got a good downtown.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Like, yeah, it does.
Lots of restaurants and bars,basically, yeah, anything you
need, and it's got a newdispensary that opened up.
Medmen is down in Oak Park.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
now, that surprises me.
I mean for Oak Park.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, I know A little bit conservative, I guess.
Maybe so, but I don't know.
It's just kind of a niceeveryone's just nice good people
.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Nice and it's, I think, one of the distinctive
features about Oak Park, kind oflike Evan's, and as it's part
of the CTA system, you can takea CTA out there, right.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You can get to downtown very easily and my
brother, he takes the train upfrom Springfield a lot.
Oh, okay, yeah, and they can goin and go in from places all
the time and they can get to itpretty easily.
Yeah, yeah, it's quiet, it'spretty and there's a great high
school, oak Park River ForestHigh School.
There there's actually severalthere's Fenwick and Trinity,
(38:08):
which are private schools, butOak Park River Forest is a
public school that I was veryproud to go to.
They have up at the time andmaybe they still do.
They had a great theaterdepartment and just tons of
resources.
So anything you want to getinto as a kid is there.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, sports art anything.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Music Great.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, sounds lovely.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, go check it out and just spend a day in Oak
Park.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
We're back with Andy Farrag.
All right, good to be back.
Hello, yeah, so you, speakingof back, you're back in Chicago.
Yep, did you?
Did I hear you say you movedout to Oak Park?
Yep, living in.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Oak Park right now.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yay, my parents, I just got back from there.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Parents are still there, nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Whereabouts.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Man, I'm not really sure, I'm just kind of no part.
Getting to know it yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I just moved there a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
But yeah, I just needed.
I need more spouse living inthe city and I just needed more
space for all my drums.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, it's a really nice area.
Yeah, I like it.
It's quiet and pretty and goodwalking.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, it's funny.
I like moved to a quietneighborhood so I can make noise
.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Have your neighbors complained yet?
Not yet.
All right yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
But I'm in a corner lot and the drums are in the far
end.
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
That's perfect.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Yeah, there's no neighbors on that one side.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
So yeah, in the basement Yep Nice.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, you, I mean you've lived.
You guys all lived in Chicago,you know after for a time right
Yep, early on Yep, you know kindof midway, I don't know when
did you guys live in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Back in there and then, you know, I moved to
(40:19):
Charleston around 2011.
So I was in Chicago for 11years Good long time.
Good long time yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Did you?
You know, now that you're back,I mean, things have changed a
bit, but most of the venuesstill remain the same, I would
imagine.
Yeah, More or less.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, pretty much I mean.
Yeah, I mean we, let's see, wejust did our umbol shows in
November at the Riv.
You know they've updated theRiv a little bit.
I'm waiting for an uptowntheater to come back.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, I think we've all been waiting for a long time
.
Yeah, new venue called SaltShed Salt Shed, I have nothing
there now, but I'm hearing greatthanks.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
What about Chicago?
Did you enjoy the most when youguys were living here in 2000?
Was it the nightlife?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Yeah, I mean, I think it was just we moved here to
get an opportunity to grow ourfan base.
You know, because we knew,living in South Bend, that we
only were limited to what wecould, what we could do.
And you know, at the time wewere still in South Bend and at
the time our current manager,vince, was not our manager, he
(41:30):
was working for AT&T here in thecity, so he was already living
here and I think he helped getus our first gig at the elbow
room.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
And so you know, we, we decided, you know, we should
definitely move to Chicago andbuild our fan base and, you know
, try and get that going.
So yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, the elbow room is uh Still there.
It's not open.
Yeah, but they haven't doneanything.
Oh okay, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah.
It's classic old venues inChicago just truly, I mean it's
truly an elbow room.
Yeah, elbow to elbow.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
What made you go to South Carolina?
Oh?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Well, at the time I just wanted to live in better
weather, I guess, yeah.
And then, you know, I left.
I came back and some thingsended for me in my life and
Decided that, you know,chicago's my home, you know, and
so my family still lives inNorthwest Indiana, nice, and so,
(42:34):
just, you know, just wanted tocome back here.
And then I came back here for alittle bit and then I once
again wanted to live some morewarmer, so I moved to this
national.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Is it the golf weather that brings you to these
warmer climates?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll admit that, yeah, I'm a
little golf obsessed, but yeah,and then, like I was telling you
, like you know, covid happenedand, you know, just ended up
selling my house and moving backup to Chicago.
Yeah, it's good to be here.
I, I think I now you know again, my, my, my family lives around
(43:12):
here, all my closest friendslive around here.
So that was one thing likemoving to these other places was
, you know, you miss yourfriends, you miss your family
and you think you're gonna goback a lot and you just don't.
Yeah, you know it's kind oftough to.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I mean you're, you're traveling, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I'm already traveling for work, and so when I'm home,
I would just want to stay home,and so it's good, I'm good,
it's good to be back.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Nice and the rest of the band.
Are they here as well, or theyscattered a little bit?
Speaker 3 (43:39):
There's a Brendan still here in Chicago, jake's in
South Bend, ryan and Vince arein Charleston and Chris, our
drummer, is in Nashville andJoel's in LA.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Wow, yeah, okay, you were saying that you all kind of
you fly home and then fly outfor shows Thursday, through what
Saturday?
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, yeah, we'll like, we'll like fly out
Wednesday for shows Thursday orFriday, saturday or Sunday, and
you fly on Sunday or Mondaycouple couple days home, then
fly back out for more shows forthe weekend, you know yeah.
So, yeah, that's been our,that's been our strategy for a
while and I think it's been good, as long as you know, we have
(44:29):
like good chunks, like right nowwe're like on a month break to
kind of decompress and we'refrom a long tour from long tour
and we have Three weekends ofshows coming up in April.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
So cool when you plan here Playing here, if you can
say oh yeah, I could say or ifwe wanted to find out where your
next show is, maybe where wouldwe go?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Yeah but we're definitely playing summer camp,
which is impure, yeah, but thatdoesn't count Um freeze.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Um freeze McGee dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Yeah, no, we we have.
We have plans to be playinghere in Chicago.
I'm just not at liberty to Justsay at this moment fair.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, we won't have the breaking news.
You won't have heard it firsthere to be honest, is a rally
air after the show anyway, yeah,it was awesome.
That's just assume we're allglad you guys enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Thanks for coming out .
We got backstage.
It was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Oh man, so you know we're heading into golf season
in Chicago.
What are your favorite golfcourses?
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Well, my girlfriend lives right across from, uh, the
city, marivets.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
I was right there I enjoyed that one a lot.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
It's only a nine hole course but it's a great place,
man it's.
Yeah, it's right on the water.
You know it's not the nicestcourse in the world, but man,
it's golf.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I like playing at harborsidea lot.
Yeah, that's another goodpublic course.
You know, you got cobb hill,you got.
I mean, there's so many golfcourses from Chicago, it's
(46:03):
insane.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
How'd you get into it ?
Was it your Family or I got?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
a memory, dad or yeah , I got into golf.
Like I started playing golfwhen I was like 10 and, uh, my
friends, I lived in aneighborhood where there's a
golf course and uh, they, theystarted playing.
I think their parents were wereinto golf, and so they got into
golf and I was like, hey, Iwant to try this, you know so.
(46:28):
Yeah, so, really early, when Iwas like 10, I'd play every day
For like a few years.
I played one year in highschool and then I quit for a
while.
When I started playing drums,yeah, started getting into music
.
I just didn't play at all foryears and years.
Interesting, it was only till Igot started playing with
offerings that like Joel and inMiro and stay sick.
(46:50):
Yeah, now chris and they allplayed golf.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
So we're like, yeah, let's just, let's go play some
golf, and yet none of you are asgood as barry brown.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I hear that is correct, very brown is a
naturally gifted golfer.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
That's amazing.
Check out the berry brownepisode.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Yeah which is which is entitled an altruistic
keyboardist.
Yes, for those that are looking, I like that talk about andy's
rip and rub, because there's agood origin story to that, as
well, yeah, so uh, you know Isell my own barbecue.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
I'm very into barbecue, I love barbecue.
Barbecue kind of sewer and forthe listener.
We are holding up a bottle ofthe barbecue rub red cap, black
label Looks delicious red, blackand white are my uh, it's my
color theme usually foreverything.
And uh, yeah, uh, the rubstarted years ago, probably 0708
(47:49):
, and I was living in roscowvillage at the time and got a
package.
I forget what the package wasfor, but they, it got delivered.
Ups guy left, comes back withanother box, leaves it.
I'm like, well, what's this?
There's just a little stickerwith my address on it.
I think it fell off the firstbox, landed on this other box.
(48:10):
Why, he brought it to my house.
Okay, I opened it up and it'slike this Uh, it's a box of
hockey pucks, of chocolate formole sauce.
Oh, wow, for as it was.
Uh, just to front air grill.
Uh-huh, for those that youdon't know, front air grill is
like one of the top restaurantsin chicago Yep, rick bailis,
(48:30):
yeah.
So I'm like, wow, man.
So I called front air, uh, therestaurant, and I was like, hey,
uh, box got delivered.
Uh, something, how mole sawsomething?
And she, it was just reallybusy and she sounded very busy.
The woman on the phone, phone,she's like, uh, just just keep
(48:51):
it, just hangs up.
I'm like, uh, well, what am Isupposed?
Speaker 2 (48:55):
to do with this?
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Yeah, first I was like cool, I get to keep it.
I'm like, uh, no.
And so I look on the other sideand there's this sticker Uh,
terra spice company.
And I went and called them andturned out the lady I talked to
lived in south ben.
She knew of unfreeze.
Wow, you know.
And, just being like intocooking and stuff, I went and
checked out their website,checking out their spices, and I
(49:19):
saw they do retail packaging.
They'll, they'll blend yourspice, they'll package it, put
the label on everything.
It's like man, this would be asweet kind of like merch table
kind of item.
And so, you know, got thatgoing and at the time they did
everything from start to finishand, as you know, we sold it.
(49:40):
Um, I wasn't able to make alike a profit on it.
Yeah, it's kind of like abreak-even kind of thing, right.
So I don't know years later Uh,just about maybe a year and a
half ago I Are not even like ayear ago I got in contact with
them again just to see whattheir pricing was and everything
(50:00):
.
And the guy was like reallyInto my idea, turning it back.
So Now I get, I get everythingand I I package it.
I like ran out of kitchen orwhatever, and I just package it
all myself.
Wow, yeah, so it's fun, yeah,it's good.
Picked out all those bottles,every bottle, put every label on
(50:21):
that thing and you know, I got.
I measure everything out, everybottles, you know whatever 3.4
ounces.
Nice, it's a labor of love, yeahand the the spice company is
like a high end, like wholesale,wholesale spice company.
They, they supplied spices fora lot of restaurants from terra
and all those places.
Yeah, it's really good, it's avery, it's like a spicy.
(50:43):
It's like your normal Barbecuerub that you would use, except
spicier.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Okay, and he's ripping rubcom.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Yep, there's a.
It's gluten-free.
Yes, yeah, there's an onlinestore and he's ribbon rubcom and
we sell it At our merch table.
It shows, yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
What, uh, what do you ?
I mean, we were talking aboutsalmon earlier, but, uh, use it
on Basically anything, or yeah,I mean, you know it's great on
pork and chicken and and beefand vegetables.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
And one of my favorite things I tell people is
you just get like french bread,mm-hmm, you know, lay down some
butter, sprinkle that on it andthen grill it, mm-hmm, grill,
mm-hmm, like just char it up.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Oh man, so good, nice , I think we need to have a
little barbecue party here inthe backyard this summer.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yeah, we should, so we uh.
So we've had a few gatherings,we're gonna have a.
A third one was very successful, the other, uh, we only had one
person show up.
It was Mike Racky.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
But we do uh, we had a lot of fun.
I mean, if Racky shows up it'slike six people.
Yep, he brought the partyAbsolutely Um.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
So we, we, you know, everybody brings in a record, or
if they don't have records, itis put something on Spotify that
they want to share witheverybody.
So maybe we'll do a barbecuecomponent.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
That would be really fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Well, Andy, thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks for having me.
It was a lot of fun chat withyou.
It was good, you know, we'llsee.
You see on the road.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yeah, just wait.
Can't wait to catch the showthat uh has yet to be named.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
Or maybe has already happened or has maybe because it
was so good already happened orit's about to happen.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Thanks so much it's been great.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Thank you guys appreciate it.
Karen, before I ask you aquestion, the, the why questions
.
Yeah, I'm gonna ask you in amoment.
Uh, I have a follow-up story toAndy Farring and umfrees mckie
who has left the building rightnow but, let's, let's talk about
him.
So umfrees played lala pelusa afew times and, uh, you know, I
(52:56):
think it was kind of when theywere Really starting to be, you
know, well known and and it was,it was like a break for them.
I was, you know, certainly goingto see them A lot back then and
went to lala pelusa tospecifically to see them.
And I was at a pot bellies nearthe you know venue, near the,
near the grant park or the.
(53:18):
The festival takes place, thesandwich shop, the sandwich shop
, pot bellies, and I Was in lineand andy ferrick walks in right
behind me and you know we knoweach other, and so we start
chatting in line and he, youknow, gets his sandwich and he
orders a wreck and I order mywreck for those that don't know,
(53:40):
pot bellies and one of theirsignature sandwiches is called a
wreck.
And I'm walking out and I hearthese.
You know, I was like in mymaybe Late 20s and there were
these you know teenagers thereand they were clearly umpries
fans and they were probablythere to see umpries and they
saw Andy and they were just allexcited.
(54:01):
And one turns to the other andsays, well, what sandwiched he
order?
And the other guy goes Well, awreck obviously.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
So they all ordered Rex.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
I've told him that story before.
I meant to ask him when he washere, but you know anyway,
that's the story the life of arock star?
Speaker 2 (54:23):
Absolutely.
People want to know whatsandwich you're eating.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
Yeah.
So I have a question for you,wish you may not have an answer
to.
You may hate them, but whymusic festivals, karen?
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Oh wow, why music festivals?
I haven't been to one in a longtime, mostly because that's
it's.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
It's too much stimulation for me, why not
music festivals?
Festivals, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I think music festivals are a really great
thing at a certain time in yourlife and and I'm not in that
time yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
You know, there is a good music festival For people
of all ages and it's actuallyone of the first music festivals
.
It's high Sierra music festival.
Mm-hmm, and that one's prettyaccessible because it's you
don't have to walk very far toget to the.
You know the other camping isreally close to the actual
festival itself, yeah, and youcan kind of bop in and out.
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, you know I like them and I think maybe you have
a different take on thembecause you come from the the
jam band circle, which is adifferent vibe.
You know you're.
You're used to getting togetherin these crowds that follow the
bands around and All partytogether on the regular right,
as opposed to a bunch ofstrangers coming together for a
weekend To see have you everknew, uh, jazzfest.
(55:35):
I have been to jazzfest in inChicago like not New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (55:40):
Oh no, not no.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
So the the last festival I think that I ever
went to is my band used totravel up and down the coast,
the west coast, and we wouldland.
Our final destination was inBritish Columbia oh cool, at a
festival called Shambhala, andour guitarist and his wife
Basically put on the festival.
Okay and so we got to play itevery year For a while and it
(56:04):
grew.
I mean, it was a big festivalbut it was one of those things
like the last time we went itthe music just doesn't stop.
It's, you know, 24 hours a dayand you're trying to camp and I
don't know, it's.
It's just like the speakers.
You can hear them, thevibrations all night long like
(56:25):
running through your body andyou're Trying to sleep and you
know it's really, really fununtil it's just too much.
But the people at Shambhala andthat's just me because I'm old
and crotchety and whatever,because the people at the
Shambhala festival, we're sosweet, everyone is so cool.
I highly recommend goingbecause it's every kind of style
(56:45):
of music.
You know DJs and live bands andeverything in between, and you
know light shows.
It's sort of, you know, a minikind of burning man, but in the
forest it's Not in the forest,sort of on a on a farm, but
there's forest and then there'sa river running through it and
so everyone just like hangs outon the river.
During the day and there's bandsplaying on the river and it's
(57:06):
just, it's fantastic.
So that's why music festivals.
I just convinced myself Ishould go back.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, let's go back, yeah let's take a, take a trip,
go see a music.
I mean the.
I think one of the things aboutmusic festivals Is there, every
fucking city in America has amusic festival these days.
Yes, and it's gotten a littleOut of hand, but you know,
obviously there's, they'reputting them on and they're
successful and people are going.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
I also had a thing where you know, seeing a band
outside in the daytime was justlike what.
Because I was so used to justthat band nightlife inside
Concert venue thing so thattakes my brain a little time to
get used to.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
So you disagree with Jamie Lee Curtis who recently
said why can't coldplay play ametinee?
Do you hear about this?
All the sense?
In the world to me.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
So no, tell me what the context was around this.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
I really know.
I just, you know, read aheadline.
But but Jamie Lee Curtis, youknow who is lovely and you know,
by all accounts, she suggestedthat these bands, you know,
played during the day absolutely.
And I appreciate that, assomebody that you know likes to
go to bed early and wake upearly.
Speaker 2 (58:18):
Yeah, my last band decided after you know, our last
three years together was justplaying in people's backyards
and you know kids running aroundand no barbecue happening.
It was just a band callbeautiful engines.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
This was the band that you started shambhala.
Speaker 2 (58:32):
Uh, yes, this is part of it.
Uh, shambhala started as athree piece under a different
name and then became beautifulengines.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
You've not talked about beautiful engines.
To my recollection Um only ifyou're lucky right, well, follow
.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
I'm not going to follow andy ferrick.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
No, no, that was uh.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
that was a lot of fun and if we're trying to get to
obama, that's a step backwards.
Speaker 1 (59:00):
Having me on, Okay you know, progress is not linear
, that's true, that's true, butyeah, it was a fun time.
Nice, yep.
Well, there we have it.
Okay, this has been an episodeof records in real estate.
Thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you for watching.
Today's episode was brought toyou by be realty.
Be where you want to be.
Be realty.
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