Tim DeLaughter's musical journey stands as one of the most fascinating and dynamic stories in alternative rock. The formation of Tripping Daisy in the early 1990s marked DeLaughter's emergence as a significant voice in alternative rock. The band's rise was meteoric and the commercial success of Tripping Daisy brought both opportunities and challenges.
Their hit single "I Got a Girl" received national attention, even appearing on Beavis and Butthead. However, DeLaughter discovered the often-conflicting priorities of art and commerce in the music industry. "That's when I first kind of started to pick up on it... decisions that I would have made weren't being made," he explains about the label's single-minded focus on promoting their hit. Despite these tensions, the band continued creating groundbreaking music across four albums.
The tragic loss of guitarist Wes Bergrren in 1999 brought Tripping Daisy to an end, leaving DeLaughter devastated and questioning his future in music. "I was completely debilitated. I couldn't even think about being in a band," he shares. This period of profound grief coincided with the birth of his son, creating a complex emotional landscape where loss and new life intertwined.
In what would become one of music's most remarkable second acts, DeghLauter's creative spark reignited as he began writing songs that seemed to demand a larger sonic palette than a traditional rock band could provide. This led to the formation of The Polyphonic Spree, a 20+ member choral symphonic rock group that defied conventional categorization.
DeLaughter's most recent artistic evolution came during the pandemic with "Salvage Enterprise," a deeply personal album that challenged him to learn recording techniques and rediscover his creative voice after a period of drought. His innovative approach to sharing this music - creating pop-up listening experiences under the stars and later developing an immersive planetarium award winning film called "Resolution" - demonstrates his continued determination to create meaningful connections between art and audience in an era of fragmented listening habits.
Tim is currently preparing for Tripping Daisy's upcoming national tour, the first in decades, which will be celebrating the 30th anniversary release of their record, "I Am An Elastic Firecracker," by playing the entire album, along with all your other favorites.
While this has been a source of much excitement, in comes during a difficult time, as Tim has been processing the recent loss of his very close friend and Good Records co-founder, Chris Penn, who helped to plan the entire tour. It has given him a lot to reflect and think about. When I asked him about what he thought of his musical legacy, DeLaughter replied: "I hope that my output has helped people overcome a lot of things, because it's helped me overcome a lot of things. My music has saved me personally, and I hope that for other people."
His story reminds us that true artistic innovation often emerges from our most challenging moments, and that music's greatest power lies in its ability to help both creator and listener navigate life's darkest passages to reach for new heights and find the positive things in life that propel or pull us forward.
Check out TrippingDaisy.com for tour dates and ticket information (tour begins in Dallas on 6/21/25
and visit ThePolyphonicSpree.com
*We ask that if you are willing and able, please consider donating on the GoFundMe campaign that was set up for the Penn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Tim DeLauder from the Polyphonic
Spree and Tripping Daisy, andyou're listening to the Son of a
Blitch podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey Tim, how you doing today.
Man, I'm doing good.
Thanks for having me, man, it'sa pleasure Listen.
I've been a longtime fan ofyour music, all the different
bands you played in, all thedifferent art you put out there,
and I really wanted to kind ofexplore all that.
But I figured, for thelisteners who may not be fully
familiar with your Rolodex ofart that you've put out, can we
(00:42):
maybe start at the beginning,talk about a little bit of where
you're from and maybe you knowrewind down to that day at
Blakewood Elementary that reallykind of spawned your love and
desire to play music, live andkind of take this and run with
it for your life.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sure, well, I'm born and raised in Dallas, texas.
I was born in Oak Cliff, texas,which is right it's in Dallas
but it's right on the edge, it'sin the Dallas area, but a
little small town.
Born there and, gosh, youbrought up Lakewood Elementary.
(01:15):
That is kind of like where itall started, although, you know,
my aunt was a musician.
She was in an all-girl bandwhen I was a little kid, in
toddler, kind of walking aroundand I'm finding my way, and I'd
sit in on their.
She'd be babysitting me and I'dsit in the middle of their band
practices, these girls rockingout.
And uh, the name of their bandwas hot ice, which was a, a trip
(01:40):
, but um, so I think it camefrom that and also from my
grandmother who sang in thechoir.
My grandfather was a preacherand she sang up there hymns
every day.
I'd be church with her on, youknow, Wednesdays and Sundays and
basically being there with hersinging.
(02:00):
So it's like music was kind ofalways around.
My dad was always singing.
So it's like music was kind ofalways around, my dad was always
singing.
And but yeah, I like, one day Iwas in my music class at
Lakewood, third grade, and mymusic teacher, miss Simons came
in and this was completely outof the blue and not
(02:24):
characteristic of her at all.
She was a very staunch kind ofreal, dry, conservative woman.
And she goes we're just goingto listen to a record today and
she put this record up on thechalkboard and it was I didn't
know at the time but eventually,after it played, it was Emerson
Lake and Palmer, it was thetrilogy record.
(02:45):
And she goes we're just goingto listen to this record.
And so she puts this record onand I'd never heard music like
that before and it just blew mymind.
I remember it to this day.
It was so vivid and I'm justlooking at this album cover as
I'm listening to this music andit's this profile of these three
dudes with long hair and andI'm like that's all I could see,
(03:07):
that's all I knew about him isthe picture of the cover.
And then listening to it and,um, I don't know, but he's had a
profound effect and I was likeI remember going this is what I
want to do, I'm going to, I wantto make music.
And um, a friend of mine in theclass, his dad, had a Les Paul
and he said, why don't we starta band.
So he went up, asked his dad toborrow his guitar and we went
(03:33):
over to his house and I wouldjust kind of play drums on books
, school books in the bedroom.
And then we had told our musicteacher we wrote a song called
Sing Along With my Tambourine.
We told our music teacher, hey,we'd like to come in and play
this song that we've written,and she said yeah.
(03:55):
So I went and got some icecream buckets from the Baskin
Robbins and I built myself adrum kit and I had, and they
were painted black and white andI bolted them together and had
these X's on them where I hitthem and it was like my drum kit
and we played for the class andthe class loved it and everyone
was clapping.
(04:15):
I was like this is it, man,this is what I'm going to do,
and the rest is history.
And I ended up doing that.
I moved to Duncanville history.
And I ended up doing that.
I moved to duncanville and, um,I met a dude there that was,
you know, playing um, uh,rolling stones songs all the
time, and so he and I started aband.
My dad bought me a, a drum setit was a 1968, uh, ludwig blue
(04:38):
sparkle drum kit and I played,uh uh, we played stones covers
and I was a drummer for thatband.
He sang, and then I eventuallygot into this metal band called
Saint, where I was playing drums.
And then one day I come overthere just to visit my friend
Kendall, who played guitar inthe band, and as I'm approaching
(05:01):
the garage I'm hearing the bandplay and I'm like but I'm not
in there, and I hear the drums.
I'm like what's going on, man?
And I kind of looked through alittle sliver of the glass that
was painted, but I could see alittle crack and I saw this dude
in there playing a double bass,ludwig Chrome kit, huge kit,
and he's just killing it.
(05:22):
I'm going, oh my, I just myheart dropped.
I just turned my back to thegarage and slid, slid down and
sat on my ass and I was crying,man, and the band had stopped,
unbeknownst to me.
I was just in completebewilderment and kendall comes
around.
He sees me.
They were coming out for abreak.
He's like dude, what are youdoing?
I'm like, what's going on, man?
(05:44):
Like what, what are you doing?
Like what, how could you dothis?
He's like tim.
He just, you know, he's got agreat kit.
He's really good.
I had a blue sparkle kit like akiller, you know, like today.
It's great but didn't reallyscream of like heavy metal and
it just didn't look the part.
And Joey had this double bassLudwig, but Kendall goes.
(06:07):
Man, why don't you try singingwhen you know I don't, I'm not
really good at singing and andyou've got a good voice and
maybe maybe once you try to bethe singer and I'm kind of like
dry my eyes a little bit, I'mlike all right, I guess I could
do that.
And I get in there and I knewthe songs, and so I just started
singing and it just like a duckto water man, I just like, wow,
(06:31):
this is what I guess, this iswhat I'm supposed to be doing.
And so I became the singer ofthat band.
And then it became another bandcalled Regency and then I took
a break from music.
That's how it all started.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
How did Tripping Daisy form?
I believe I heard a story.
It was your girlfriend at thetime.
Now wife introduced you to us.
Then it formed the ethers ofall the artists came together.
What year was that?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Walk me through the beginning stages of that that
and kind of walk me through thebeginning stages of that.
So, um, I'd been, I took sometime, moved to california when I
was 18 and just kind of bummedaround with a friend, um, scott
burman, who eventually becamethe guy that did all the visuals
for tripping daisy um, and then, uh, I kind of I came back from
(07:21):
california.
Then I moved to color.
I lived in Crested Butte and Iworked at a ski resort there, at
Crested Butte Ski Resort, and Ihad to ski to work every day.
And I had a friend there,stephen Burrill, who we lived up
there together.
He played guitar and Stephenand I would always kind of jam
(07:41):
together.
He would play and I would justimprovise lyrics and melody and
sing.
And so there was an open mic intown in crested butte and we
were like, dude, let's just goup there and do this thing.
And we didn't really know whatwe were going to do.
And we get up on the stage andum place is packed it's a black
box theater there in crestedbutte, in the town and I said,
(08:04):
just play whatever, man, I'lljust make it up and see what
happens.
And so he started playing and Iclosed my eyes and just started
singing about what I was seeingand hearing and just tuned
everything out.
I was in my own world and Iremember we finished the song
and I opened my eyes and it waslike quiet and then all of a
(08:30):
sudden the whole place erupted.
It was like holy shit.
It was like everyone stood up,they were applauding and it was
like crazy screaming, whistling,or like I'm looking at him,
he's smiling at me, I'm lookingat him, oh my God.
And for me it was like what amI doing?
I know what I need to be doing.
I need to get back, I want tostart a band.
(08:50):
And it was so clear like that.
It's literally on that stagelistening to everyone applaud.
I've got to start a band andget going.
So I moved back to Dallas soonafter that and Julie and I lived
together on Ross Avenue inDallas and I lived in an area
(09:12):
that was not.
It was at the time it was areally shady area.
Now it's all been gentrifiedand it's, you know, great around
here, but back then it was kindof drug houses and a lot of
musicians and artists live here.
So I'd bounce around and try tomeet as many artists as
possible.
I'd jam with Kenny Withrow, whowas in New Bohemians.
(09:36):
He went to school at Lakewood,so I knew Kenny from back in
elementary school and he wasplaying music back then and so
whenever he would have a jam heand I would always go to his
place and jam and meet differentmusicians.
And there was always thingslike that going around going on
here in Dallas and we just havethese all-night jams with
(09:57):
different people, people fromFever in the Funk House.
I would jam with them and thenother musicians within our
collective orbit would just gettogether and party and then have
these all-night jams wherepeople would just switch off on
instruments.
So I got to meet people alongthe way and julie was going to
acting school at katie's studioand she met wes um, wes bergeron
(10:19):
, and she goes.
This guy plays guitar, I think,think I think you might, you
know, like, like it.
Just try to try it out, youknow.
So Wes and I met up and I saidjust play something, because I
just kind of make things up, soyou just kind of play and I'll
(10:39):
see if I can kind of contribute,you know, and see if we can get
some chemistry going.
So he just starts to playsomething and literally we just
start writing songs, like right.
Then I just start singing, I'mputting the melody out there.
He's looking at me going, whereare you getting this from?
And I'm like, but from you, I'mthere's kind of like reflecting
off of what you're doing and wecould fought, we, he and I
(11:00):
there was.
I never had such a like achemistry of like arrangement,
because when you ride, whenyou're improvising, it's like
he's got to be able to listen toyou, to where you're going,
that he knows he's, he's he'skind of putting out there what's
going to inspire me to respond.
And then he's got to.
We both have to meet in thesame spot to ride together, like
(11:23):
okay, so now he's, he's nowgoing to a chorus here, and now
we've got it.
There's a verse, there's achorus.
I know what he's doing.
I'm going to go back to the,the beginning, to like a verse,
and then I would fill in thepart and then then I would
change the melody a little bit,for, like a bridge, and he would
change accordingly in the samekey structure, and then now it's
(11:45):
time to go back to a chorus orwherever it felt like it should
need to go, and we just, we werejust, it was like that.
It was so connected and we bothjust looked at it and go, holy
shit, man, this is it great fuck.
Do you know anybody?
You know a bass player and hegoes.
I know this guy at North Texasthat I'm in school with.
His name's Mark Pirro.
He plays bass and I'm like cool, get him over here.
(12:09):
And we had Jeff.
Balk was the first drummer ofTripping Daisy and he's the
first person I met at a jamaround here, around here in the
neighborhood in Dallas, and soJeff and I hooked up.
Jeff was great, real, fluid,organic drummer, was a lot like
me as far as improvising, and soJeff was first drummer.
(12:31):
Wes came along, wes knew Mark,mark came over and we jammed
with Mark and it was the sameway Mark just kind of like
picked up with us because thesongwriting was such an organic
thing and you have to be able tokind of follow that.
And mark was the same way, kindof picked right up and and
jumped in and before we knew itwe had this band and happened
(12:54):
really fast.
And I told you earlier about myfriend scott burman who, um, I
live with in california he was.
I called him up, said man, Iwant to have visuals for this
band, kind of reminiscent oflike the Fillmore Light Show.
So I went out you know I'm adumpster diver and I went out
(13:15):
and found some slides that hadbeen ruined by the elements of
sun and shit that had been on it.
There was a house that floodedand these slides got ruined, but
they looked really cool, theywere real psychedelic.
So he went and got a slideprojector from Goodwill and that
(13:37):
was our first show.
We played an open mic at ClubDada here in Dallas and it was
the same thing.
We had only had eight songs andthe place went crazy, so much
so that we just ended up playingour songs over again because it
was just.
It was just went really welland one of the owners of trees
(14:01):
the biggest venue around inDallas at the time, across the
street was over there.
It just happened to be overthere and offered us a Thursday
night at Trees.
That was only our first showand all we had were those eight
songs and we're like, yeah, ok.
Well, thursday night there blewup and the band literally just
(14:21):
started to take off.
It was like nothing and I'vebeen around here I've never seen
anything like it the way thatpeople responded to Tripping
Daisy in this town was nuts man.
It was just an immediateembrace and it almost seems like
it happened overnight, becauseit kind of did and it was was
(14:43):
nuts.
We weren't even prepared for theamount of like response we were
getting.
We were so young and green asfar as our songs and like we
only had eight of them and thatbecame a regular thing where we
would repeat songs.
But then that's also where westarted to like use our gift of
improvising.
We didn't have any songs, so wejust start making things up in
(15:05):
front of the crowd just to keepit going, because we needed to
keep playing.
And that's what made usactually get better as a band
and kind of like go these places, um, in front of people where
it's like the pressure's on sowe can't.
We got really good really fast,um, but it was.
It was kind of frightening atthe beginning, but yeah, that's
(15:27):
kind of how it started.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Well, I mean it's, it's quite the history and I I
was in bands during the ninetiesand I know about that electric.
There's a lot of bands thatkind of hit and had a few, you
know, successful, you knowalbums or tours.
But man, you guys had fouralbums that you put out.
You toured all around thecountry, obviously got a lot of
airplay.
You know, I Got a Girl is asingle that many people may have
(15:49):
seen on MTV or even on Beavisand Butthead.
You know, I was curious aboutthat.
What was that like when youguys saw that?
Was that like a moment like wow, we made it in a different way
that you know what was it liketo see it?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
uh, rise to that it's so weird when you're in it you
don't really, uh, it's just kindof another thing that's
happening.
Like when things are happening,that's like, oh, that's another
thing, you know.
At first when they said zip, hegoes zip it up uh, beavis said
that or something.
Or the other one said I don'tknow if it's butthead, but they
go zip it up when they unzip thething on the thing, and I took
(16:25):
it as a diss.
I was like god, that's mean,why the fuck they do that.
You know, I wasn't like excitedabout it and it wasn't until
years later that I reallyappreciated, as part of pop, pop
culture, that tripping daisywas on.
There was a big deal, but atthe time it was just another
thing because we had so muchgoing on.
The band was.
You know, before we we signedto island records, there was a
(16:50):
massive bidding war for trippingdaisy.
We had every major label in thecountry trying to to sign this
band and that was a thing initself.
You know we had one label, mcaum.
We told them we were cowboysfans and they flew us to
Pasadena to the SuperR guy.
We're sitting in the 50 yardline, five rows up from the
(17:26):
bottom and watching the DallasCowboys and play the Buffalo and
Michael Jackson was thehalftime show, but yeah, things
like that happening with us.
And so it was a crazy, crazytime in the beginning of of
tripping daisy.
It was just kind of it was justI don't.
(17:49):
There was something about thatband that was really magical and
people picked up on it and andto be in the band and been a
part of it was just you're kindof in awe, you're kind of you
know, but I did.
I knew tripping daisy wasspecial.
I knew that.
I just knew it because I feltit with the guys in the band.
I felt it when I connected withwes.
(18:10):
I knew it was special, um, butyou just don't ever know how the
public's gonna take to it andyou know they found it special
too.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So it was kind of great well, you kind of had this
meteoric rise and I was kind ofcurious if you kind of, you
know, go back in time there whatwas that level of fame like for
you in the sense, where is itjust kind of exciting, embracing
, or was there a point?
Because I know what you go.
You deal with all these recordcompanies, things become
corporate, there's all thesedifferent things you have to do
and you're traveling, there'sall sorts of promos and it's the
(18:43):
dawn before the internet age,so it was kind of a different
animal.
What was that like for you, asthat was kind of as you guys
were progressing up those youknow charts and the ladders of
success.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It was, you know, like I said earlier, just kind
of going along with it in thebeginning because you don't know
any different.
Um, when I first started toreally understand that this is
commerce man, they're trying tosell records um is when all the
focus was going on with I got agirl.
(19:13):
That's when I first kind oflike, wait a minute, wait what?
Why are we?
There's other songs on thisrecord why are we just focusing
on that one particular record?
Well, because it was the quotehit and even though I thought
other songs were a hit andeventually were on that record,
but all the eggs in the basketwere in, I got a girl, and so
that's when I first kind of likestarted to pick up on it and it
(19:37):
was like things, decisions thatI would have made um weren't
being made.
They were being made on anotherlevel of like promoting and
pushing this song and, um, Ikind of battled with those guys
quite a bit in that because Ididn't understand it.
Um, I'd want to do things a lotdifferently, a little bit more
(19:58):
organic, and spread this out andnot just hit like this is the
only song we've got, and it'skind of like they were just
trying to cash in on one song.
That was what I was feeling andthat would kind of.
That was kind of a drag, youknow, but it's on on their.
In fairness to them, that'sexactly what they're supposed to
do.
They're trying to market thesong that's going to be able to
(20:19):
to, you know, sell records.
They've got to get their moneyback and I get all that.
Um, I just think they're at thetime I thought it could have
been done a lot way, uh, acrossthe board and get more longevity
for the band and not reallyburn people out on one song.
There's a real art to beingable to, like, make that
transition from your hit singleto the next one and kind of keep
(20:40):
it going, rather than justburning people out on that one
kind of quirky song.
It's a great song but, um, it's, it's kind of quirky and it's
it could, you know, burn somepeople out, which ultimately,
would you know, it's negative onthe band.
You know so it was.
It was tough.
I had a lot of uh, um, you know, negative times with those guys
(21:07):
.
But you know it's like then theregime changed and we Chris
Blackwell, who was the owner ofIsland Records back then he
actually came down because Roseand James, james Dowdle and Rose
Noon to try to find a band.
(21:27):
Well, they found us.
We were the first band and theystumbled on us and it was like
I loved Island Records becauseof Chris Blackwell.
I knew all about Island Recordsand Chris Blackwell had built
that label from the trunk of hiscar and it was like you know, I
love that story of people likegrinding it out and kind of
being an entrepreneur, thatstory of people like grinding it
out and kind of beingentrepreneur.
(21:48):
And he he was the biggest majorlabel in within all the major
labels that started as anindependent.
Him you know personally andhe's still running it.
The rest of them are kind of,you know, corporate corporations
and not that he wasn't, but hewas running it.
And so he even came down hereand to see the band and sign off
on it, because james and rosesaid we're not doing this unless
(22:09):
you see this band and becausethey wanted him to be invested
in it.
And he came down and he was andwe ultimately had creative
control.
We negotiated that with islandrecords but I didn't really
didn't get, I didn't reallyexercise it until the uh, the
next uh record with them, whichwas jesus, hits like the atom
bomb and um that, unfortunately,you know, we got that record
(22:35):
and two weeks after it was umreleased, we got dropped because
, chris, while we were makingthat record, chris blackwell
calls me in the studio and umtells me, tim, I've decided to
sell island um to this company.
And I'm like, what?
(22:55):
Like dude, we're making thisrecord and he goes.
I wanted to talk because I justgot the phone with bono goes,
but I wanted to call you and letyou know personally so you
wouldn't hear it from somebodyelse.
And I'm like, wow, I mean hegoes, but everything's going to
be okay, they're fully aware ofyou.
You don't have anything fromsomebody else.
And I'm like, wow, I mean hegoes, but everything's going to
be OK, they're fully aware ofyou, you don't have anything to
worry about.
I'm like, ok, so I didn't haveanybody watching over us during
(23:17):
the making of Adam.
I mean of Adam Bomb studios inWoodstock making this record,
having this amazing experiencewith Eric Drew Feldman and um,
but no one was there watchingover us, unlike Firecracker.
When we had everybody up in ourshit and we had to do,
(23:39):
everything was like you knowthis, we gotta practice, we
gotta really work this song,which was I Got a Girl, gotta
make sure this everything'sgreat.
It's like they're always onyour ass to make sure the hits
are there.
Well, since there was so muchstuff going on in Ireland, they
just even they're like let themjust make their record, no one's
watching.
So we made this beautifulrecord without any, made it
(24:01):
exactly the way we wanted it itwas.
It was such an amazingexperience of like let the kids
play, let them record, let themdo whatever they want, and, you
know, no one's watching over youand it's paid for, and it was
like you couldn't have asked fora better experience.
And then, when we released ittwo weeks later, we're dropped
(24:21):
and we're like this is like thebest thing we've ever done and
it, you know, we got dropped, soit was.
That was really debilitating.
That was my and that's when Ireally like I'm I'm not down
with these major labels, youknow.
And so it was like every time Iwent into any sort of deal with
anybody in their major label, Iwas always skeptical.
(24:43):
I knew what was what I was upfor.
It was it.
It was a trip, you know, andyou know we'll talk about Spree
in a minute.
But yeah, that band's been in oneight different labels.
It's just kind of now I've beenon a label, I'm on Good Records
label for quite some time now,but anyway.
So yeah, I kind of ran thegamut.
(25:04):
I've learned.
I came in adult, I kind oflearned about a lot about
business with Tripping Daisy andI learned the ins and outs of
labels and I had the bestexperiences with labels and the
worst experiences with labels,and the best experience was with
, you know, the higher ups andthe worst experiences with the
higher ups.
And so art and commerce, man,it's a thin, it's a thin line,
(25:28):
it's a tight rope and you got tolearn how to.
You have to walk, walk on it,you know Certainly.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Well, you know that.
That brings you to the idea ofyour.
The final album that you guyshad was self-titled and I
believe that I saw you know thatwas good records as well.
Was this an independent thing?
Was there other groups thatwere a part of that, and what
did that look like when y'allwere recording?
And if you can kind of walk usthrough, you know maybe what
happened and and you know wherethe band hit.
Pause for a little while yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So we were, um, tripping daisy.
I mean, we were a kind of aroad dog band.
We, once we started touring, westayed on the road pretty much,
you know, probably 10 monthsout of the year.
This band would tour in a vanfor years and it's just like
(26:15):
pounding it, pounding it andpounding it.
And I think at the end offirecracker, when we were just
completely done, we were sospent because we toured our ass
off on bill.
And then now we're doing, youknow, firecracker.
We toured really heavily on thatrecord and we needed a much.
We needed a break really badright when we were about ready
(26:37):
to take a break, like we were soburnt out, um we get a call to
go on tour with def leopard andso now we're, like you know,
we're out for three months withthose guys and we were already
so spent and which was anamazing tour in itself became
really good friends with thoseguys.
To this day I'm still friendswith those guys.
(26:58):
It was a great experience, but,man, it was.
It was rough because we were soburnt out, but we got back and
we decided, you know, we took alittle time off and we did a
small tour with with Adam Bomb,just to kind of do it, but we
really didn't tour that recordcame back and said you know,
(27:20):
it's time to make a record.
Same guys, um me, mark bencurtis, wes and phil carnatz,
and we made the self-titledrecord, um, which was
interesting.
It was kind of another deal,another experience that we had.
(27:41):
You know, we did it on our ownbecause we did it with good
records and then another labelcalled sugar fix.
That sugar fix that was out ofum california and um, but again,
after experiencing the kind offull creative control that we
had on atom bomb, we did thesame thing with with the
(28:01):
self-titled record and you cankind of hear the beginning
stages of the beginning stagesof the polyphonic spree and um,
that's kind of uh, what startedto happen.
But we were in the middle ofmaking that record and wes uh
passed away and um, that wasfirst time I really had anybody
(28:25):
that close to me, um pass and it, it just completely gutted me.
I was like I just it was.
It was a sad, sad time.
Um, he was, you know, I had areally good connection with him,
um, spiritually, musically, hewas a dear friend and it was uh,
it was rough and I just didn'tthink I could continue doing
(28:49):
Tripping Daisy without him, so Ijust decided that I was done
with that band, which was really, really difficult, but that's
kind of what happened.
But Wes's dad came in, donBergeron, and finished the, the,
um, the one of the songs whichwas soothing jubilee.
Um, he's the one playing the,uh, the electric piano on that
(29:12):
particular track and we finishedthe record and, um, that was it
.
And uh, that was in the end oftwo, uh one, uh, 1999, and uh,
yeah, that was the end oftripping Daisy.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, you kind of picked up there with some of the
same fellas and a bunch ofother people I mean I think
there's like 28 people.
At the time I saw you on stagewith polyphonic spree and I mean
, you guys just did anotheralbum last year which, uh, we'll
jump into in a minute there butI, you know, I wanted to talk
about like that transition ofthen.
(29:48):
I mean, you're an artist, youwant to go out there and play.
Was there any kind ofdifficulty and roadblocks in
getting back out there withpolyphonic spree or was that
something that was like healingfor you to go ahead and go
through that, those motions onstage with your friends and
family and kind of movingforward in that in that way?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
and you know, just kind of curious what that was
like for you well, I mean, whenit first happened, um, when west
passed, I was completely, uh,debilitated.
I could, I wouldn't even.
I couldn't even think aboutbeing in a band.
I mean, I couldn't think aboutdoing Tripping Daisy, I couldn't
think about playing music.
I went through a rough time.
(30:30):
It was weird timing because wealso had the birth of our son,
oscar, in 2000.
So it's like I'd lost Wes butthen I had this brand new baby
boy and it was such a weird time.
I think Oscar saved me in a lotof ways, me and Julie, from
that, because that wasdevastating what happened with
(30:53):
Wes.
But I, honestly, I was like Ithought I was done making music
and one day I picked up theguitar because I hadn't been
playing anything and I justpicked it up and I think I wrote
it might've been Light and Day,I'm not sure it might've been
(31:14):
the first song I wrote Um, Ican't remember, julie would know
I can't remember.
But um, and then I kind ofwrote another song and I didn't
think anything about it.
But then it's like, as I wroteanother one, I was starting to
hear other instruments otherthan just the guitar, bass and
drums.
It's like then I'd start tothink, you know, man, if I do
(31:37):
make music again, I mean I'mgoing to do like what I thought
about in Tripping Daisy.
You know, I thought aboutpolyphonic spree back in in
Tripping Daisy when we wererecording.
Like I wish I had strings here,I wish I had a horn section
instead of me just singing.
I wish I had about 10 peoplesinging.
These were arrangement ideasthat I had in Tripping Daisy,
(31:59):
but we didn't have that stuff.
And that's why a lot of thesounds on Tripping Daisy are
kind of experimental, becauseit's almost like we're trying to
create more than what ourinstruments would allow, trying
to reach different sounds andstuff.
So that's why you kind of hearthe birth of it.
In tripping days the sound waschanging.
(32:19):
You can.
You can hear it.
Um, there's just the alignmentwith the sun that's happening, a
kind of a birthing that'sgetting ready to happen,
unbeknownst to me, but it kindof rekindled itself when I
started to write for the firsttime and my song started to
change.
Songwriting started to changeand became a bit more
adventurous and more of ajourney.
(32:42):
And so I thought, when I waswriting these songs that I
didn't know even were forPolyphonic Spree, I just started
to think, wow, I wish I hadthis and why don't I try to find
this?
And so Chris Penn, my dearfriend who recently passed away,
(33:02):
he was our partner on GoodRecords, the, the record store.
We opened a record store in 2000and um, um, he knew that I was
writing these songs and you know, I, I guess about four months
earlier we had gone out on aroad trip with um, uh,
(33:25):
granddaddy, the band this was in99, no, I'm not, yeah, or maybe
teeth early 2000 and um wentout on tour with those guys on
the west coast just to followthem around.
The beachwood sparks wasopening up and um, we came
friends with those guys and thenchris had them come down and
(33:45):
play the gypsy tea Room and hegoes you've got two weeks to put
a band together.
You guys are going to open upfor Granddaddy.
And I'm like what?
So I had two weeks to puttogether a band, the Polyphonic
Spree for a show, andimmediately I just kind of
started calling friends andfamily and find out who played
(34:07):
any symphonic instruments.
I didn't know anything aboutthat world.
I mean, I literally went to themall and saw a guy playing
cello in the mall, at North ParkMall, and I said, man, I'm
starting this band.
I really need, you know, somesymphonic instruments and I love
the way you're playing rightnow.
Would you like to, you know,come jam with me and see if we
(34:28):
can do something?
And he played at the uh dallassymphony.
Was this long hair, he lookedlike freaking, like a js bach is
like a, a big composer orsomething.
Was older than me and, um, hiswife played the uh violin for
the same company and, um, hesaid yeah, and so I had him, I
(34:51):
had her, and then I started someother people I put the word out
, people kind of startedcontacting me, knew that I was,
you know, looking for folks and,um, one guy.
I had so many failed attemptswith people because, um, it was
like I write everything out ofimprovisation, like I was
telling you about tripping daisy, so I don't like write music
(35:13):
and then have people read it.
So most of these people insymphonic world, um, they're,
all you know, classicallytrained theory and so they read
music and I thought thateverybody could do what I did,
which was improvised.
And that's when I found outthat not everybody does that.
So I'd kind of like say, justplay something and I'm going to
(35:36):
sing.
And they go what do you mean,play something?
I go, I don't know, just playanything, a melody of something,
just make up, and I'll justkind of go along with it.
And they didn't know.
And I said, well, I'm going toplay something on my guitar, and
then I just want you to playalong with me.
And they go well, do you knowwhat chords?
And I go, no, we're not goingto talk about that, you just
(35:56):
play.
And um, and I'll, I'll play andI'll just hear how you respond.
And they couldn't do it unlessthey had the music telling them
what, what was happening.
Then they couldn't do it.
So it's like these had theselittle failed attempts within
those two weeks.
And then you found people thatI play with that didn't even
know they could do it, they justtried it.
(36:18):
And they discovered that outabout themselves in front of me
for the first time and they wereequally excited.
So then you know, that kind ofhappened and then it was like,
wow, okay.
So then I knew the two worldsI'm dealing with and and I've
collected enough people to beable to do that show, and um, it
was a trip.
It was uh, granddaddy, um,bright eyes, and the polyphonic
(36:43):
spree was our first show.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
The heck of a nice first show.
I mean, I remember seeing youguys.
I think it was your first um,it's the holiday extravaganza.
I think you guys played atlakefront I think it was
lakefront theater maybe, or I'mtrying to remember it was in in
that dallas port.
Well, yeah, okay, I justremembered there was an amazing
show, yeah, and, and we stilldoing that today.
(37:07):
Yeah, you'd like 24th or 25thor something.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Well, this this last year, Ikind of want to jump forward to
that um is talking about whatthe experience was for a salvage
enterprise and your as far asthe planetarium experience there
too.
And then I want to jump back tokind of what's happening with
(37:30):
the Tripping Daisy tour.
But I definitely want to talkabout that a little bit and what
that's like for fans and howyou went about approaching this.
Uh, you know, the visualizationand the album full-on concept
album, listening, the thingsthat you were trying to get into
people's heads and ears andeyes.
And, if you wouldn't mind, youknow we can chat about that for
a minute and kind of move onfrom there.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So salvage enterprise was a record that there I was,
faced at another point in mylife where I thought I was done
and couldn't write any moresongs.
I went through a major droughtwhere I just couldn't write.
I just wasn't feeling inspired.
I was kind of depressed andjust not in the headspace of
anything uh creative whatsoever.
(38:15):
It was rough.
But um tripping, or salvageenterprise was born in the
pandemic, um, where I kind offorced myself to learn a
software called um oh gosh,what's it called Logic and um, I
(38:37):
, uh, I had never recorded myown stuff.
I'd done it with I have youknow, my phone and things, but
never like seriously.
It's not my bag to be anengineer and um, but I was
forced to do it.
I've learned how to do itthrough just fumbling my way
through it and trying to try tolike record.
I would play something.
(38:58):
Well, when I was playingsomething, it kind of like, you
know, wow, I, um, it's just meand a guitar and I'm recording
and I'm learning how to recordand at the same time I'm playing
and it would provoke a feelingand then I'd start singing and
I'd write a song and it was like, and the first song was Give Me
(39:19):
Everything, and it was.
It was like a revelation.
It's like, oh my God, I'm notin my back, you know, I can ride
again.
It was freaking me out.
I was like so inspired and itkept provoking other things and
so I wrote open the shores andall these were by myself and I
(39:41):
recorded them and those are whatyou're hearing.
On the record is actually myrecording of me.
There's three songs um recorded, that I recorded here and the
rest I did with um casey atvalve studios.
But um, yeah, so I had thisvery personal record that was
different from anything we'dever put out, which you know,
(40:02):
it's not saying much becauseevery record is kind of
different but, um, this was morelike the beginning stages in a
lot of ways, but, um, something,something different, way more
personal record for me than I'veever done before and the
approach was extremely differentand also the hardest record
I've ever made, but nevertheless.
(40:23):
But when it was finished, um, Iknew I wanted people to hear
this as an album as a whole, andso I struggled with the record
was done for a year and I justcouldn't find my heart to in my
heart to like release it becauseof the times we live, live in.
People don't listen to albumsanymore.
It's all about you know, thejukebox in your pocket.
(40:43):
You go from song to song andsometimes I didn't finish songs
anymore, they just switch toanother song.
It's just a real drag as anartist, especially when you
write a body of work that youwant people to take this journey
.
So I decided, in order to forpeople to hear this, that I was
just going to go travel aroundwith the sound system and, you
(41:05):
know, basically have a captiveaudience where they just have to
sit there in the middle of thiscircle that I built with
speakers and under the stars andlisten to the album.
That was my way of of like, uh,doing it.
So I had a certain amount ofmoney to spend.
I rented a sprinter van and Ihad 12 speaker sound system on
(41:26):
tripods and two generators and Ijust head out on the road, went
up and down.
I started in Joshua Tree, I didtwo nights in Joshua Tree and
then head to Ojai and then Ijust went up and down the West
Coast and pop up listeningexperiences and I'd tell people
I'm going to be at this locationon social media at this time
(41:46):
and then, if you show up, it'sfree.
And I had these moving blanketsand people would lay down the
circle and I'd play the record,um, from start to finish.
And um, that's how I did it,that's that was how I was going
to get people to hear it.
So I did that until I ran outof money.
And then I came back and I said, all right, I guess it's time
(42:07):
to go ahead and put this outthere.
And so, um, I, at the same timeI was talking to my friend,
scott Berman, who did thevisuals for Tripping Daisy back
in the day, and I said, you know, he and I had been talking, he
was a big fan of this record,I'd shared it with him, um,
early on through voice memos andand he's like Tim, this is some
of the best stuff you've doneand he was just majorly behind
(42:30):
it.
And he and I had talked aboutdoing a planetarium experience
back in the day with TrippingDaisy.
It just never happened.
And then we started talkingabout making an immersive film
with this particular record, andso that's where the, the birth
of resolution, came about, andwe got some funding from a
(42:54):
friend and started to go downthat road, something we didn't
know anything about.
It's kind of like a polyphonicspree, not knowing anything
about the symphonic world andjumping in.
We did the same thing aboutmaking a film for a dome, which
is completely different thanmaking a film for flat screens.
Um, it's, you have to use adifferent camera.
(43:15):
The technology is not eventhere at the at the time.
So it's uh, there was a lot oflike trial and error that we had
to go through, but we foundsome people and scott um pretty
much took that whole thing onand took off and met some
animators and went to his firstchoice, anthony Shepard, of an
animator that he always lovedand even used his, his work.
(43:38):
You know, in past shows that wehad done for for Spree and kind
of jumped in and we we did itthrough, you know, almost two
years of making that film.
But we've made this film.
It's an immersive experiencethat recently just won South by
Southwest the audience awardthere and we are now kind of
(43:59):
being requested to go to Londonand do the film there.
It's going to Venice FilmFestival.
It's kind of taken off in aworld of its own, but it's
basically a film that takes youon a journey of that album.
It reimagines the way to listento an album and you're fully
(44:21):
immersed in these visuals fromnine different animators from
all over the world that havecontributed their work per track
.
So you're listening to everysong and every song has a
different animator and it's from2D animation to 3D animation
and it's pretty incredible.
And so right now we're at theOmni Theater, which is the best
(44:45):
theater in the country.
It's the largest hemisphere LED8K theater in the country.
The only thing bigger than thatis the Sphere in Las Vegas.
So we got picked up there andit's there for the next year and
it's playing in Denton at thePlanetarium there and it's going
to start playing in differentplanetariums kind of all over
the country and eventuallyabroad.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I cannot wait to check it out.
We're actually going to beheading up there and hopefully
finding the time to check it outthe Omni there in Dallas and
I've heard wonderful things.
Congratulations on the awardthere and the continued success
with that.
Jumping into now the idea ofwhat's in front of us here it's
about to embark upon the firstnationwide tour of Tripping
(45:30):
Daisy in quite a while I mean in2017,.
I know you played a handful ofgigs, kind of did some regional
stuff and there's been someshows that have happened New
Year's gigs and some things butwhen did you guys decide to go
ahead and take this by storm?
I mean, obviously we'recelebrating the 30th anniversary
of I Am an Elastic Firecracker.
I know you guys are going to beplaying this in its entirety,
as well as a bunch of other hits, and I was kind of curious when
(45:51):
this start and how did thatdecision come about, with the
guys to, hey, let's go ahead anddo this and let's hit the big
tour this time?
Speaker 1 (45:57):
So, um, chris was, chris had, um, Chris Penn had,
um, people get together to playsome Alice Cooper songs for a
film that he made when he gotthe original Alice Cooper band
to come play good records livefrom the AstroTurf.
(46:20):
He was doing a night of AliceCooper songs and had different
bands and he had tripping daisyplay because we happened to be
in town and um, so we, we didthat and then the next day,
since we were all there, wedecided to play a surprise show
at the kessler.
Well, it was, it was great, hada really fun time, and we
(46:44):
actually did, for the first timeever since we've reconnected,
did kind of some improvising,like what I used to do back in
the day, and it just felt sogood to me.
It was like, wow, this band, wecan do this.
I had this.
Like it was reinvigorated forme to like get back to it,
because I so much love thatfeeling of that spontaneity and
(47:07):
being able to like just being onthe spot and go there.
And we did it that night, andso I left her that night.
I told Chris I go, man, I, I,I'm like charged, I'm like I
could go do this again.
I want to, I want to play.
I love that feeling.
It was awesome.
I want to get back at it.
So I knew that we were going toeventually do it and um, chris
(47:29):
and I talked about it and we, uh, the time came, we found a
booking agent and um put it outthere and chris actually kind of
put the dates out there and webooked the tour.
It was like two and a halfmonths and chris had a had his
fall, um, where, uh, it put himin the hospital.
It was debilitating, but thetour was booked.
(47:54):
It was for two and a halfmonths and I told Chris, I was
like, dude, I can't do this tourwith you like this.
I don't know what's going onyet.
And he's like, you got to dothe tour and I said, well, I'll
do half of it.
So I committed to a month of it.
So we had to cancel the theback half a month and a half of
it and so I committed this firstmonth and so, um, we're doing
(48:16):
it.
You know, um, and unfortunately,you know Chris passes and you
know now I'm all alone and I'vegot this tour that he kind of
like spearheaded with me, and soI'm trying to find the way of
making this thing work, and soI'm.
It's weird, I did all thisstuff when I was in my 20s, but
now I'm like back at it again.
(48:37):
This seems like the world'schanged and I'm trying to put
this tour on and you know I'mdropping the ball left and right
.
But you know it's booked, it'shappening, it's out there and
people are buying tickets andthat's all I know.
And the band's rehearsing andwe'll be ready for it.
But it's going to be.
It's a challenge for me.
I miss my friend terribly andso rough dealing with that.
(49:03):
But he insisted that we go andbut, um, he insisted that we go
and, um, I'm gonna do it andhe'll be out there and it'll be
cool and it'll um, it's gonna bebittersweet because he was
going on tour with us and but,um, I'm just so, I don't know.
(49:24):
I'm thankful that we're doingit and I'm also thankful for
Chris, but it's been reallyrough on me.
So it's kind of, it's been akind of a nice distraction
working on this tripping Daisy,because it kind of keeps my mind
, you know, geared on that.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Sure, oh, I understand and I'm I'm sorry for
the loss and, you know, for hisfamily.
They've been in my prayers andyou know, I know that there's a
lot of people who have kind ofrallied around to support his
family and do whatever they can.
And I know that there's aGoFundMe out there and I'll
throw the QR code here for allyou know, viewers and listeners
I'll have in the show notesbelow so you guys can go and
(50:05):
kind of contribute and help outthere, uh, you know, and give
whatever you can for for hisfamily yeah, please, do they're.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
They're amazing.
Um, his boys are special to me.
And um, yeah, please, if y'all,if you feel so inclined to,
yeah, donate a little something.
If the qr code's there, Ireally appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Well, and I know with Good Records that you guys
co-founded, you got the recordstore there and I know you guys
have a lot of different releasescoming up, If you want to kind
of talk about them.
I know there's some pre-orders,some Tripping Daisy LPs as well
as there's, you know, the Billand I know the Polyphonic Spree
has one that just kind of cameout, some limited edition stuff.
What are some of the thingsthat are coming as far as those
(50:51):
to the table soon, and whenshould people be ready for those
to be released?
Speaker 1 (50:55):
So we're doing another order of atom bomb for
anybody that didn't get to get,and it comes with all the same
(51:16):
things that the first one camewith.
Um, all of our good recordsreleases have always been pretty
amazing.
If you've never, if you've ever, bought a vinyl release from
Good Records, we go all out.
You get things that no one elseis going to get because we have
all this personal artifact thatwe've had through the years
that we've accompanied with andChris, as being a music fan,
(51:39):
would make records and releasesin a way that he would like to
get If he could get a recordfrom one of his favorite bands
how he would like to have it.
So that's kind of how we'vegone with it.
Our good records releases arepretty amazing.
It's really in depth, usuallyget a poster or slip disc cover
in there, you get stickers, youget photos that never been seen
(52:01):
before.
You get a lot of artwork and alot of things that that make it
unique and all on its own thatyou won't get anywhere else, and
it's kind of a standard that hestarted because he's such a fan
of music that all of ourrecords kind of have that.
So, really looking forward toit If you get a chance to get
one, get it, because there's notthat many that come out.
But so yeah, you haveFirecracker.
(52:23):
That's available right now andit's a pre-sale.
It's being manufactured rightnow and it's a pre-sale, it's
being manufactured right now.
And then atom on jesus.
It's like the atom mom as well,but we it's our first time
we've put out um elasticfirecracker under good records
oh, right on.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
well, I'll have the links for everything there below
.
Um, you know I thank you somuch for joining me today and
for you know, you know, kind ofwalking us back through some of
the history and some of thetough spots.
I appreciate being, you know,open and honest and vulnerable
about that, and you know it kindof lead me to my final question
.
I ask a lot of the people whocome on and that's one about
legacy and I was kind of curiousof what your, you know,
(53:01):
thoughts are.
Is that something that youthink about often?
And the idea of how you hope tobe remembered in your body of
work personally and you knowwhat it is that you'd like to
leave?
You know, your stamp on thisworld and just some of your
thoughts about that.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Well, you know, I hadn't really thought about that
until recently.
You know, when you lose someoneclose to you you think about.
You know, mortality can't helpit like leak in there and and I,
you know, I've never.
I, you know, I got an award,probably six months ago, kind of
a lifetime achievement awardthat I've.
I couldn't even believe I got,but it was bizarre but and I
(53:40):
thought, you know, I've reallythought about what I've done, um
, I'm always thinking it forward.
I never, never, go backwards,it's always forward.
And so I just always, you know,I'm always like onto the next
thing and on the next thing,that I don't ever think about
what's in my wake and what'shappened until it's brought up
(54:00):
to me and then I think, wow,I've kind of done a lot, you
know.
So I don't't know, I look at thebody of work and I look at the
core.
I look at overall theintentions of what have that
I've been a part of, of tryingto put out there, and it's
always been um, it's always beenthis hopeful kind of um
(54:23):
overcoming mission that hastended to resonate with me,
because I've found the thingsthat I sing about are basically
to convince me.
Those times I was telling youI'm improvising and whatever
comes in my mind, and usuallyit's all about overcoming and
reaching, and you can get thereand this, this thing of seeing
(54:46):
my way through, and and that'susually what's on my mind.
So I think a lot of my music um, I know it does, I've been told
it helps a lot of people and Inever even thought about that
because it was always for me andso I kind of hope that I'm, you
know, the.
The legacy is that you know myoutput has helped people
(55:07):
overcome a lot of things,because it's helped me overcome
a lot of things.
My music has saved me personallyand I hope that for other
people.
I hope that they get that andalso the intention of taking
people on a journey and findingan escape and musically, like
going to these places that theywouldn't normally go to and
(55:28):
having space in their life totake something like that on,
know that the intention is forthem and and to take these
people on a journey.
And hopefully we've done that.
We've given them a good showand I've given them some things
they can lean on from time totime when we need it, like music
and the message and knowingthat we can get over it.
(55:50):
Like I'm going to make itthrough this with Chris.
It's, it's the hardest thingI've ever gone through in my
life.
I can't lie, this has been.
This is the topper it's.
But I know I'm going to getthrough it, I will get through
it and, um, but I don't know, Iguess.
I guess that, yeah, my legacyis that, as humans, we want to
(56:14):
be happy and we want to getthrough it.
We want to be good, we want tomake it and we can and we will.
You know, you just have toremember it.
So I guess that's my legacy.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Well said, tim.
Thank you again for sharingthat and for sharing all of your
music and your art.
I will have all the notes belowwhere people can go ahead and,
you know, get a ticket for theupcoming Tripping Daisy Tour.
It's starting very soon, nextmonth, and it's going to be
going around the country.
I know you got like 22 dates orso and can't wait to check that
(56:48):
out.
And thanks again for joining.
And as far as folks want tofollow your journey along the
way, socials, what's the bestway for them to go ahead and
kind of follow along with thisand, you know, maybe your shows
that are coming up.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
You can go to trippingdaisycom.
That'll show you where we'replaying.
You can even buy tickets toparticular shows of different
cities.
I'll send you something you canpost, maybe put up shows, the
dates.
But we'll do more legs of it.
Just this leg just goes up theMidwest to makes its way up to
(57:20):
Montreal, toronto, then backdown the east side, but we'll be
coming back out there andhitting places that we didn't
hit this time in the future.
But trippingdaisycom will kindof give you everything you want
to know and then the polyphonicspreecom will get you where you
want to go, if you're interestedin that as well.
And then also resolution films.
(57:43):
You can check that as well onInstagram to find out where
resolution is playing.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
Wonderful.
Well, I can't wait.
Thank you again so much forjoining me today and appreciate
all that you're doing, man.
Speaker 1 (57:56):
Thanks a lot.
I really appreciate you havingme.
Sorry, I get long winded man, Ikind of get to talking about it
and just kind of rolls.
So appreciate you hanging inthere.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
I think everyone's going to thoroughly enjoy it,
man.
Thank you All right, cool Take.
Hey, this is Tim DeLauder from the Polyphonic
Spree and Tripping Daisy, andyou're listening to the Son of a
Blitch podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey Tim, how you doing today.
Man, I'm doing good.
Thanks for having me, man, it'sa pleasure Listen.
I've been a longtime fan ofyour music, all the different
bands you played in, all thedifferent art you put out there,
and I really wanted to kind ofexplore all that.
But I figured, for thelisteners who may not be fully
familiar with your Rolodex ofart that you've put out, can we
(00:42):
maybe start at the beginning,talk about a little bit of where
you're from and maybe you knowrewind down to that day at
Blakewood Elementary that reallykind of spawned your love and
desire to play music, live andkind of take this and run with
it for your life.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sure, well, I'm born and raised in Dallas, texas.
I was born in Oak Cliff, texas,which is right it's in Dallas
but it's right on the edge, it'sin the Dallas area, but a
little small town.
Born there and, gosh, youbrought up Lakewood Elementary.
(01:15):
That is kind of like where itall started, although, you know,
my aunt was a musician.
She was in an all-girl bandwhen I was a little kid, in
toddler, kind of walking aroundand I'm finding my way, and I'd
sit in on their.
She'd be babysitting me and I'dsit in the middle of their band
practices, these girls rockingout.
And uh, the name of their bandwas hot ice, which was a, a trip
(01:40):
, but um, so I think it camefrom that and also from my
grandmother who sang in thechoir.
My grandfather was a preacherand she sang up there hymns
every day.
I'd be church with her on, youknow, Wednesdays and Sundays and
basically being there with hersinging.
(02:00):
So it's like music was kind ofalways around.
My dad was always singing.
So it's like music was kind ofalways around, my dad was always
singing.
And but yeah, I like, one day Iwas in my music class at
Lakewood, third grade, and mymusic teacher, miss Simons came
in and this was completely outof the blue and not
(02:24):
characteristic of her at all.
She was a very staunch kind ofreal, dry, conservative woman.
And she goes we're just goingto listen to a record today and
she put this record up on thechalkboard and it was I didn't
know at the time but eventually,after it played, it was Emerson
Lake and Palmer, it was thetrilogy record.
(02:45):
And she goes we're just goingto listen to this record.
And so she puts this record onand I'd never heard music like
that before and it just blew mymind.
I remember it to this day.
It was so vivid and I'm justlooking at this album cover as
I'm listening to this music andit's this profile of these three
dudes with long hair and andI'm like that's all I could see,
(03:07):
that's all I knew about him isthe picture of the cover.
And then listening to it and,um, I don't know, but he's had a
profound effect and I was likeI remember going this is what I
want to do, I'm going to, I wantto make music.
And um, a friend of mine in theclass, his dad, had a Les Paul
and he said, why don't we starta band.
So he went up, asked his dad toborrow his guitar and we went
(03:33):
over to his house and I wouldjust kind of play drums on books
, school books in the bedroom.
And then we had told our musicteacher we wrote a song called
Sing Along With my Tambourine.
We told our music teacher, hey,we'd like to come in and play
this song that we've written,and she said yeah.
(03:55):
So I went and got some icecream buckets from the Baskin
Robbins and I built myself adrum kit and I had, and they
were painted black and white andI bolted them together and had
these X's on them where I hitthem and it was like my drum kit
and we played for the class andthe class loved it and everyone
was clapping.
(04:15):
I was like this is it, man,this is what I'm going to do,
and the rest is history.
And I ended up doing that.
I moved to Duncanville history.
And I ended up doing that.
I moved to duncanville and, um,I met a dude there that was,
you know, playing um, uh,rolling stones songs all the
time, and so he and I started aband.
My dad bought me a, a drum setit was a 1968, uh, ludwig blue
(04:38):
sparkle drum kit and I played,uh uh, we played stones covers
and I was a drummer for thatband.
He sang, and then I eventuallygot into this metal band called
Saint, where I was playing drums.
And then one day I come overthere just to visit my friend
Kendall, who played guitar inthe band, and as I'm approaching
(05:01):
the garage I'm hearing the bandplay and I'm like but I'm not
in there, and I hear the drums.
I'm like what's going on, man?
And I kind of looked through alittle sliver of the glass that
was painted, but I could see alittle crack and I saw this dude
in there playing a double bass,ludwig Chrome kit, huge kit,
and he's just killing it.
(05:22):
I'm going, oh my, I just myheart dropped.
I just turned my back to thegarage and slid, slid down and
sat on my ass and I was crying,man, and the band had stopped,
unbeknownst to me.
I was just in completebewilderment and kendall comes
around.
He sees me.
They were coming out for abreak.
He's like dude, what are youdoing?
I'm like, what's going on, man?
(05:44):
Like what, what are you doing?
Like what, how could you dothis?
He's like tim.
He just, you know, he's got agreat kit.
He's really good.
I had a blue sparkle kit like akiller, you know, like today.
It's great but didn't reallyscream of like heavy metal and
it just didn't look the part.
And Joey had this double bassLudwig, but Kendall goes.
(06:07):
Man, why don't you try singingwhen you know I don't, I'm not
really good at singing and andyou've got a good voice and
maybe maybe once you try to bethe singer and I'm kind of like
dry my eyes a little bit, I'mlike all right, I guess I could
do that.
And I get in there and I knewthe songs, and so I just started
singing and it just like a duckto water man, I just like, wow,
(06:31):
this is what I guess, this iswhat I'm supposed to be doing.
And so I became the singer ofthat band.
And then it became another bandcalled Regency and then I took
a break from music.
That's how it all started.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
How did Tripping Daisy form?
I believe I heard a story.
It was your girlfriend at thetime.
Now wife introduced you to us.
Then it formed the ethers ofall the artists came together.
What year was that?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Walk me through the beginning stages of that that
and kind of walk me through thebeginning stages of that.
So, um, I'd been, I took sometime, moved to california when I
was 18 and just kind of bummedaround with a friend, um, scott
burman, who eventually becamethe guy that did all the visuals
for tripping daisy um, and then, uh, I kind of I came back from
(07:21):
california.
Then I moved to color.
I lived in Crested Butte and Iworked at a ski resort there, at
Crested Butte Ski Resort, and Ihad to ski to work every day.
And I had a friend there,stephen Burrill, who we lived up
there together.
He played guitar and Stephenand I would always kind of jam
(07:41):
together.
He would play and I would justimprovise lyrics and melody and
sing.
And so there was an open mic intown in crested butte and we
were like, dude, let's just goup there and do this thing.
And we didn't really know whatwe were going to do.
And we get up on the stage andum place is packed it's a black
box theater there in crestedbutte, in the town and I said,
(08:04):
just play whatever, man, I'lljust make it up and see what
happens.
And so he started playing and Iclosed my eyes and just started
singing about what I was seeingand hearing and just tuned
everything out.
I was in my own world and Iremember we finished the song
and I opened my eyes and it waslike quiet and then all of a
(08:30):
sudden the whole place erupted.
It was like holy shit.
It was like everyone stood up,they were applauding and it was
like crazy screaming, whistling,or like I'm looking at him,
he's smiling at me, I'm lookingat him, oh my God.
And for me it was like what amI doing?
I know what I need to be doing.
I need to get back, I want tostart a band.
(08:50):
And it was so clear like that.
It's literally on that stagelistening to everyone applaud.
I've got to start a band andget going.
So I moved back to Dallas soonafter that and Julie and I lived
together on Ross Avenue inDallas and I lived in an area
(09:12):
that was not.
It was at the time it was areally shady area.
Now it's all been gentrifiedand it's, you know, great around
here, but back then it was kindof drug houses and a lot of
musicians and artists live here.
So I'd bounce around and try tomeet as many artists as
possible.
I'd jam with Kenny Withrow, whowas in New Bohemians.
(09:36):
He went to school at Lakewood,so I knew Kenny from back in
elementary school and he wasplaying music back then and so
whenever he would have a jam heand I would always go to his
place and jam and meet differentmusicians.
And there was always thingslike that going around going on
here in Dallas and we just havethese all-night jams with
(09:57):
different people, people fromFever in the Funk House.
I would jam with them and thenother musicians within our
collective orbit would just gettogether and party and then have
these all-night jams wherepeople would just switch off on
instruments.
So I got to meet people alongthe way and julie was going to
acting school at katie's studioand she met wes um, wes bergeron
(10:19):
, and she goes.
This guy plays guitar, I think,think I think you might, you
know, like, like it.
Just try to try it out, youknow.
So Wes and I met up and I saidjust play something, because I
just kind of make things up, soyou just kind of play and I'll
(10:39):
see if I can kind of contribute,you know, and see if we can get
some chemistry going.
So he just starts to playsomething and literally we just
start writing songs, like right.
Then I just start singing, I'mputting the melody out there.
He's looking at me going, whereare you getting this from?
And I'm like, but from you, I'mthere's kind of like reflecting
off of what you're doing and wecould fought, we, he and I
(11:00):
there was.
I never had such a like achemistry of like arrangement,
because when you ride, whenyou're improvising, it's like
he's got to be able to listen toyou, to where you're going,
that he knows he's, he's he'skind of putting out there what's
going to inspire me to respond.
And then he's got to.
We both have to meet in thesame spot to ride together, like
(11:23):
okay, so now he's, he's nowgoing to a chorus here, and now
we've got it.
There's a verse, there's achorus.
I know what he's doing.
I'm going to go back to the,the beginning, to like a verse,
and then I would fill in thepart and then then I would
change the melody a little bit,for, like a bridge, and he would
change accordingly in the samekey structure, and then now it's
(11:45):
time to go back to a chorus orwherever it felt like it should
need to go, and we just, we werejust, it was like that.
It was so connected and we bothjust looked at it and go, holy
shit, man, this is it great fuck.
Do you know anybody?
You know a bass player and hegoes.
I know this guy at North Texasthat I'm in school with.
His name's Mark Pirro.
He plays bass and I'm like cool, get him over here.
(12:09):
And we had Jeff.
Balk was the first drummer ofTripping Daisy and he's the
first person I met at a jamaround here, around here in the
neighborhood in Dallas, and soJeff and I hooked up.
Jeff was great, real, fluid,organic drummer, was a lot like
me as far as improvising, and soJeff was first drummer.
(12:31):
Wes came along, wes knew Mark,mark came over and we jammed
with Mark and it was the sameway Mark just kind of like
picked up with us because thesongwriting was such an organic
thing and you have to be able tokind of follow that.
And mark was the same way, kindof picked right up and and
jumped in and before we knew itwe had this band and happened
(12:54):
really fast.
And I told you earlier about myfriend scott burman who, um, I
live with in california he was.
I called him up, said man, Iwant to have visuals for this
band, kind of reminiscent oflike the Fillmore Light Show.
So I went out you know I'm adumpster diver and I went out
(13:15):
and found some slides that hadbeen ruined by the elements of
sun and shit that had been on it.
There was a house that floodedand these slides got ruined, but
they looked really cool, theywere real psychedelic.
So he went and got a slideprojector from Goodwill and that
(13:37):
was our first show.
We played an open mic at ClubDada here in Dallas and it was
the same thing.
We had only had eight songs andthe place went crazy, so much
so that we just ended up playingour songs over again because it
was just.
It was just went really welland one of the owners of trees
(14:01):
the biggest venue around inDallas at the time, across the
street was over there.
It just happened to be overthere and offered us a Thursday
night at Trees.
That was only our first showand all we had were those eight
songs and we're like, yeah, ok.
Well, thursday night there blewup and the band literally just
(14:21):
started to take off.
It was like nothing and I'vebeen around here I've never seen
anything like it the way thatpeople responded to Tripping
Daisy in this town was nuts man.
It was just an immediateembrace and it almost seems like
it happened overnight, becauseit kind of did and it was was
(14:43):
nuts.
We weren't even prepared for theamount of like response we were
getting.
We were so young and green asfar as our songs and like we
only had eight of them and thatbecame a regular thing where we
would repeat songs.
But then that's also where westarted to like use our gift of
improvising.
We didn't have any songs, so wejust start making things up in
(15:05):
front of the crowd just to keepit going, because we needed to
keep playing.
And that's what made usactually get better as a band
and kind of like go these places, um, in front of people where
it's like the pressure's on sowe can't.
We got really good really fast,um, but it was.
It was kind of frightening atthe beginning, but yeah, that's
(15:27):
kind of how it started.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Well, I mean it's, it's quite the history and I I
was in bands during the ninetiesand I know about that electric.
There's a lot of bands thatkind of hit and had a few, you
know, successful, you knowalbums or tours.
But man, you guys had fouralbums that you put out.
You toured all around thecountry, obviously got a lot of
airplay.
You know, I Got a Girl is asingle that many people may have
(15:49):
seen on MTV or even on Beavisand Butthead.
You know, I was curious aboutthat.
What was that like when youguys saw that?
Was that like a moment like wow, we made it in a different way
that you know what was it liketo see it?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
uh, rise to that it's so weird when you're in it you
don't really, uh, it's just kindof another thing that's
happening.
Like when things are happening,that's like, oh, that's another
thing, you know.
At first when they said zip, hegoes zip it up uh, beavis said
that or something.
Or the other one said I don'tknow if it's butthead, but they
go zip it up when they unzip thething on the thing, and I took
(16:25):
it as a diss.
I was like god, that's mean,why the fuck they do that.
You know, I wasn't like excitedabout it and it wasn't until
years later that I reallyappreciated, as part of pop, pop
culture, that tripping daisywas on.
There was a big deal, but atthe time it was just another
thing because we had so muchgoing on.
The band was.
You know, before we we signedto island records, there was a
(16:50):
massive bidding war for trippingdaisy.
We had every major label in thecountry trying to to sign this
band and that was a thing initself.
You know we had one label, mcaum.
We told them we were cowboysfans and they flew us to
Pasadena to the SuperR guy.
We're sitting in the 50 yardline, five rows up from the
(17:26):
bottom and watching the DallasCowboys and play the Buffalo and
Michael Jackson was thehalftime show, but yeah, things
like that happening with us.
And so it was a crazy, crazytime in the beginning of of
tripping daisy.
It was just kind of it was justI don't.
(17:49):
There was something about thatband that was really magical and
people picked up on it and andto be in the band and been a
part of it was just you're kindof in awe, you're kind of you
know, but I did.
I knew tripping daisy wasspecial.
I knew that.
I just knew it because I feltit with the guys in the band.
I felt it when I connected withwes.
(18:10):
I knew it was special, um, butyou just don't ever know how the
public's gonna take to it andyou know they found it special
too.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So it was kind of great well, you kind of had this
meteoric rise and I was kind ofcurious if you kind of, you
know, go back in time there whatwas that level of fame like for
you in the sense, where is itjust kind of exciting, embracing
, or was there a point?
Because I know what you go.
You deal with all these recordcompanies, things become
corporate, there's all thesedifferent things you have to do
and you're traveling, there'sall sorts of promos and it's the
(18:43):
dawn before the internet age,so it was kind of a different
animal.
What was that like for you, asthat was kind of as you guys
were progressing up those youknow charts and the ladders of
success.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It was, you know, like I said earlier, just kind
of going along with it in thebeginning because you don't know
any different.
Um, when I first started toreally understand that this is
commerce man, they're trying tosell records um is when all the
focus was going on with I got agirl.
(19:13):
That's when I first kind oflike, wait a minute, wait what?
Why are we?
There's other songs on thisrecord why are we just focusing
on that one particular record?
Well, because it was the quotehit and even though I thought
other songs were a hit andeventually were on that record,
but all the eggs in the basketwere in, I got a girl, and so
that's when I first kind of likestarted to pick up on it and it
(19:37):
was like things, decisions thatI would have made um weren't
being made.
They were being made on anotherlevel of like promoting and
pushing this song and, um, Ikind of battled with those guys
quite a bit in that because Ididn't understand it.
Um, I'd want to do things a lotdifferently, a little bit more
(19:58):
organic, and spread this out andnot just hit like this is the
only song we've got, and it'skind of like they were just
trying to cash in on one song.
That was what I was feeling andthat would kind of.
That was kind of a drag, youknow, but it's on on their.
In fairness to them, that'sexactly what they're supposed to
do.
They're trying to market thesong that's going to be able to
(20:19):
to, you know, sell records.
They've got to get their moneyback and I get all that.
Um, I just think they're at thetime I thought it could have
been done a lot way, uh, acrossthe board and get more longevity
for the band and not reallyburn people out on one song.
There's a real art to beingable to, like, make that
transition from your hit singleto the next one and kind of keep
(20:40):
it going, rather than justburning people out on that one
kind of quirky song.
It's a great song but, um, it's, it's kind of quirky and it's
it could, you know, burn somepeople out, which ultimately,
would you know, it's negative onthe band.
You know so it was.
It was tough.
I had a lot of uh, um, you know, negative times with those guys
(21:07):
.
But you know it's like then theregime changed and we Chris
Blackwell, who was the owner ofIsland Records back then he
actually came down because Roseand James, james Dowdle and Rose
Noon to try to find a band.
(21:27):
Well, they found us.
We were the first band and theystumbled on us and it was like
I loved Island Records becauseof Chris Blackwell.
I knew all about Island Recordsand Chris Blackwell had built
that label from the trunk of hiscar and it was like you know, I
love that story of people likegrinding it out and kind of
being an entrepreneur, thatstory of people like grinding it
out and kind of beingentrepreneur.
(21:48):
And he he was the biggest majorlabel in within all the major
labels that started as anindependent.
Him you know personally andhe's still running it.
The rest of them are kind of,you know, corporate corporations
and not that he wasn't, but hewas running it.
And so he even came down hereand to see the band and sign off
on it, because james and rosesaid we're not doing this unless
(22:09):
you see this band and becausethey wanted him to be invested
in it.
And he came down and he was andwe ultimately had creative
control.
We negotiated that with islandrecords but I didn't really
didn't get, I didn't reallyexercise it until the uh, the
next uh record with them, whichwas jesus, hits like the atom
bomb and um that, unfortunately,you know, we got that record
(22:35):
and two weeks after it was umreleased, we got dropped because
, chris, while we were makingthat record, chris blackwell
calls me in the studio and umtells me, tim, I've decided to
sell island um to this company.
And I'm like, what?
(22:55):
Like dude, we're making thisrecord and he goes.
I wanted to talk because I justgot the phone with bono goes,
but I wanted to call you and letyou know personally so you
wouldn't hear it from somebodyelse.
And I'm like, wow, I mean hegoes, but everything's going to
be okay, they're fully aware ofyou.
You don't have anything fromsomebody else.
And I'm like, wow, I mean hegoes, but everything's going to
be OK, they're fully aware ofyou, you don't have anything to
worry about.
I'm like, ok, so I didn't haveanybody watching over us during
(23:17):
the making of Adam.
I mean of Adam Bomb studios inWoodstock making this record,
having this amazing experiencewith Eric Drew Feldman and um,
but no one was there watchingover us, unlike Firecracker.
When we had everybody up in ourshit and we had to do,
(23:39):
everything was like you knowthis, we gotta practice, we
gotta really work this song,which was I Got a Girl, gotta
make sure this everything'sgreat.
It's like they're always onyour ass to make sure the hits
are there.
Well, since there was so muchstuff going on in Ireland, they
just even they're like let themjust make their record, no one's
watching.
So we made this beautifulrecord without any, made it
(24:01):
exactly the way we wanted it itwas.
It was such an amazingexperience of like let the kids
play, let them record, let themdo whatever they want, and, you
know, no one's watching over youand it's paid for, and it was
like you couldn't have asked fora better experience.
And then, when we released ittwo weeks later, we're dropped
(24:21):
and we're like this is like thebest thing we've ever done and
it, you know, we got dropped, soit was.
That was really debilitating.
That was my and that's when Ireally like I'm I'm not down
with these major labels, youknow.
And so it was like every time Iwent into any sort of deal with
anybody in their major label, Iwas always skeptical.
(24:43):
I knew what was what I was upfor.
It was it.
It was a trip, you know, andyou know we'll talk about Spree
in a minute.
But yeah, that band's been in oneight different labels.
It's just kind of now I've beenon a label, I'm on Good Records
label for quite some time now,but anyway.
So yeah, I kind of ran thegamut.
(25:04):
I've learned.
I came in adult, I kind oflearned about a lot about
business with Tripping Daisy andI learned the ins and outs of
labels and I had the bestexperiences with labels and the
worst experiences with labels,and the best experience was with
, you know, the higher ups andthe worst experiences with the
higher ups.
And so art and commerce, man,it's a thin, it's a thin line,
(25:28):
it's a tight rope and you got tolearn how to.
You have to walk, walk on it,you know Certainly.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Well, you know that.
That brings you to the idea ofyour.
The final album that you guyshad was self-titled and I
believe that I saw you know thatwas good records as well.
Was this an independent thing?
Was there other groups thatwere a part of that, and what
did that look like when y'allwere recording?
And if you can kind of walk usthrough, you know maybe what
happened and and you know wherethe band hit.
Pause for a little while yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So we were, um, tripping daisy.
I mean, we were a kind of aroad dog band.
We, once we started touring, westayed on the road pretty much,
you know, probably 10 monthsout of the year.
This band would tour in a vanfor years and it's just like
(26:15):
pounding it, pounding it andpounding it.
And I think at the end offirecracker, when we were just
completely done, we were sospent because we toured our ass
off on bill.
And then now we're doing, youknow, firecracker.
We toured really heavily on thatrecord and we needed a much.
We needed a break really badright when we were about ready
(26:37):
to take a break, like we were soburnt out, um we get a call to
go on tour with def leopard andso now we're, like you know,
we're out for three months withthose guys and we were already
so spent and which was anamazing tour in itself became
really good friends with thoseguys.
To this day I'm still friendswith those guys.
(26:58):
It was a great experience, but,man, it was.
It was rough because we were soburnt out, but we got back and
we decided, you know, we took alittle time off and we did a
small tour with with Adam Bomb,just to kind of do it, but we
really didn't tour that recordcame back and said you know,
(27:20):
it's time to make a record.
Same guys, um me, mark bencurtis, wes and phil carnatz,
and we made the self-titledrecord, um, which was
interesting.
It was kind of another deal,another experience that we had.
(27:41):
You know, we did it on our ownbecause we did it with good
records and then another labelcalled sugar fix.
That sugar fix that was out ofum california and um, but again,
after experiencing the kind offull creative control that we
had on atom bomb, we did thesame thing with with the
(28:01):
self-titled record and you cankind of hear the beginning
stages of the beginning stagesof the polyphonic spree and um,
that's kind of uh, what startedto happen.
But we were in the middle ofmaking that record and wes uh
passed away and um, that wasfirst time I really had anybody
(28:25):
that close to me, um pass and it, it just completely gutted me.
I was like I just it was.
It was a sad, sad time.
Um, he was, you know, I had areally good connection with him,
um, spiritually, musically, hewas a dear friend and it was uh,
it was rough and I just didn'tthink I could continue doing
(28:49):
Tripping Daisy without him, so Ijust decided that I was done
with that band, which was really, really difficult, but that's
kind of what happened.
But Wes's dad came in, donBergeron, and finished the, the,
um, the one of the songs whichwas soothing jubilee.
Um, he's the one playing the,uh, the electric piano on that
(29:12):
particular track and we finishedthe record and, um, that was it
.
And uh, that was in the end oftwo, uh one, uh, 1999, and uh,
yeah, that was the end oftripping Daisy.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, you kind of picked up there with some of the
same fellas and a bunch ofother people I mean I think
there's like 28 people.
At the time I saw you on stagewith polyphonic spree and I mean
, you guys just did anotheralbum last year which, uh, we'll
jump into in a minute there butI, you know, I wanted to talk
about like that transition ofthen.
(29:48):
I mean, you're an artist, youwant to go out there and play.
Was there any kind ofdifficulty and roadblocks in
getting back out there withpolyphonic spree or was that
something that was like healingfor you to go ahead and go
through that, those motions onstage with your friends and
family and kind of movingforward in that in that way?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
and you know, just kind of curious what that was
like for you well, I mean, whenit first happened, um, when west
passed, I was completely, uh,debilitated.
I could, I wouldn't even.
I couldn't even think aboutbeing in a band.
I mean, I couldn't think aboutdoing Tripping Daisy, I couldn't
think about playing music.
I went through a rough time.
(30:30):
It was weird timing because wealso had the birth of our son,
oscar, in 2000.
So it's like I'd lost Wes butthen I had this brand new baby
boy and it was such a weird time.
I think Oscar saved me in a lotof ways, me and Julie, from
that, because that wasdevastating what happened with
(30:53):
Wes.
But I, honestly, I was like Ithought I was done making music
and one day I picked up theguitar because I hadn't been
playing anything and I justpicked it up and I think I wrote
it might've been Light and Day,I'm not sure it might've been
(31:14):
the first song I wrote Um, Ican't remember, julie would know
I can't remember.
But um, and then I kind ofwrote another song and I didn't
think anything about it.
But then it's like, as I wroteanother one, I was starting to
hear other instruments otherthan just the guitar, bass and
drums.
It's like then I'd start tothink, you know, man, if I do
(31:37):
make music again, I mean I'mgoing to do like what I thought
about in Tripping Daisy.
You know, I thought aboutpolyphonic spree back in in
Tripping Daisy when we wererecording.
Like I wish I had strings here,I wish I had a horn section
instead of me just singing.
I wish I had about 10 peoplesinging.
These were arrangement ideasthat I had in Tripping Daisy,
(31:59):
but we didn't have that stuff.
And that's why a lot of thesounds on Tripping Daisy are
kind of experimental, becauseit's almost like we're trying to
create more than what ourinstruments would allow, trying
to reach different sounds andstuff.
So that's why you kind of hearthe birth of it.
In tripping days the sound waschanging.
(32:19):
You can.
You can hear it.
Um, there's just the alignmentwith the sun that's happening, a
kind of a birthing that'sgetting ready to happen,
unbeknownst to me, but it kindof rekindled itself when I
started to write for the firsttime and my song started to
change.
Songwriting started to changeand became a bit more
adventurous and more of ajourney.
(32:42):
And so I thought, when I waswriting these songs that I
didn't know even were forPolyphonic Spree, I just started
to think, wow, I wish I hadthis and why don't I try to find
this?
And so Chris Penn, my dearfriend who recently passed away,
(33:02):
he was our partner on GoodRecords, the, the record store.
We opened a record store in 2000and um, um, he knew that I was
writing these songs and you know, I, I guess about four months
earlier we had gone out on aroad trip with um, uh,
(33:25):
granddaddy, the band this was in99, no, I'm not, yeah, or maybe
teeth early 2000 and um wentout on tour with those guys on
the west coast just to followthem around.
The beachwood sparks wasopening up and um, we came
friends with those guys and thenchris had them come down and
(33:45):
play the gypsy tea Room and hegoes you've got two weeks to put
a band together.
You guys are going to open upfor Granddaddy.
And I'm like what?
So I had two weeks to puttogether a band, the Polyphonic
Spree for a show, andimmediately I just kind of
started calling friends andfamily and find out who played
(34:07):
any symphonic instruments.
I didn't know anything aboutthat world.
I mean, I literally went to themall and saw a guy playing
cello in the mall, at North ParkMall, and I said, man, I'm
starting this band.
I really need, you know, somesymphonic instruments and I love
the way you're playing rightnow.
Would you like to, you know,come jam with me and see if we
(34:28):
can do something?
And he played at the uh dallassymphony.
Was this long hair, he lookedlike freaking, like a js bach is
like a, a big composer orsomething.
Was older than me and, um, hiswife played the uh violin for
the same company and, um, hesaid yeah, and so I had him, I
(34:51):
had her, and then I started someother people I put the word out
, people kind of startedcontacting me, knew that I was,
you know, looking for folks and,um, one guy.
I had so many failed attemptswith people because, um, it was
like I write everything out ofimprovisation, like I was
telling you about tripping daisy, so I don't like write music
(35:13):
and then have people read it.
So most of these people insymphonic world, um, they're,
all you know, classicallytrained theory and so they read
music and I thought thateverybody could do what I did,
which was improvised.
And that's when I found outthat not everybody does that.
So I'd kind of like say, justplay something and I'm going to
(35:36):
sing.
And they go what do you mean,play something?
I go, I don't know, just playanything, a melody of something,
just make up, and I'll justkind of go along with it.
And they didn't know.
And I said, well, I'm going toplay something on my guitar, and
then I just want you to playalong with me.
And they go well, do you knowwhat chords?
And I go, no, we're not goingto talk about that, you just
(35:56):
play.
And um, and I'll, I'll play andI'll just hear how you respond.
And they couldn't do it unlessthey had the music telling them
what, what was happening.
Then they couldn't do it.
So it's like these had theselittle failed attempts within
those two weeks.
And then you found people thatI play with that didn't even
know they could do it, they justtried it.
(36:18):
And they discovered that outabout themselves in front of me
for the first time and they wereequally excited.
So then you know, that kind ofhappened and then it was like,
wow, okay.
So then I knew the two worldsI'm dealing with and and I've
collected enough people to beable to do that show, and um, it
was a trip.
It was uh, granddaddy, um,bright eyes, and the polyphonic
(36:43):
spree was our first show.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
The heck of a nice first show.
I mean, I remember seeing youguys.
I think it was your first um,it's the holiday extravaganza.
I think you guys played atlakefront I think it was
lakefront theater maybe, or I'mtrying to remember it was in in
that dallas port.
Well, yeah, okay, I justremembered there was an amazing
show, yeah, and, and we stilldoing that today.
(37:07):
Yeah, you'd like 24th or 25thor something.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Well, this this last year, Ikind of want to jump forward to
that um is talking about whatthe experience was for a salvage
enterprise and your as far asthe planetarium experience there
too.
And then I want to jump back tokind of what's happening with
(37:30):
the Tripping Daisy tour.
But I definitely want to talkabout that a little bit and what
that's like for fans and howyou went about approaching this.
Uh, you know, the visualizationand the album full-on concept
album, listening, the thingsthat you were trying to get into
people's heads and ears andeyes.
And, if you wouldn't mind, youknow we can chat about that for
a minute and kind of move onfrom there.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So salvage enterprise was a record that there I was,
faced at another point in mylife where I thought I was done
and couldn't write any moresongs.
I went through a major droughtwhere I just couldn't write.
I just wasn't feeling inspired.
I was kind of depressed andjust not in the headspace of
anything uh creative whatsoever.
(38:15):
It was rough.
But um tripping, or salvageenterprise was born in the
pandemic, um, where I kind offorced myself to learn a
software called um oh gosh,what's it called Logic and um, I
(38:37):
, uh, I had never recorded myown stuff.
I'd done it with I have youknow, my phone and things, but
never like seriously.
It's not my bag to be anengineer and um, but I was
forced to do it.
I've learned how to do itthrough just fumbling my way
through it and trying to try tolike record.
I would play something.
(38:58):
Well, when I was playingsomething, it kind of like, you
know, wow, I, um, it's just meand a guitar and I'm recording
and I'm learning how to recordand at the same time I'm playing
and it would provoke a feelingand then I'd start singing and
I'd write a song and it was like, and the first song was Give Me
(39:19):
Everything, and it was.
It was like a revelation.
It's like, oh my God, I'm notin my back, you know, I can ride
again.
It was freaking me out.
I was like so inspired and itkept provoking other things and
so I wrote open the shores andall these were by myself and I
(39:41):
recorded them and those are whatyou're hearing.
On the record is actually myrecording of me.
There's three songs um recorded, that I recorded here and the
rest I did with um casey atvalve studios.
But um, yeah, so I had thisvery personal record that was
different from anything we'dever put out, which you know,
(40:02):
it's not saying much becauseevery record is kind of
different but, um, this was morelike the beginning stages in a
lot of ways, but, um, something,something different, way more
personal record for me than I'veever done before and the
approach was extremely differentand also the hardest record
I've ever made, but nevertheless.
(40:23):
But when it was finished, um, Iknew I wanted people to hear
this as an album as a whole, andso I struggled with the record
was done for a year and I justcouldn't find my heart to in my
heart to like release it becauseof the times we live, live in.
People don't listen to albumsanymore.
It's all about you know, thejukebox in your pocket.
(40:43):
You go from song to song andsometimes I didn't finish songs
anymore, they just switch toanother song.
It's just a real drag as anartist, especially when you
write a body of work that youwant people to take this journey
.
So I decided, in order to forpeople to hear this, that I was
just going to go travel aroundwith the sound system and, you
(41:05):
know, basically have a captiveaudience where they just have to
sit there in the middle of thiscircle that I built with
speakers and under the stars andlisten to the album.
That was my way of of like, uh,doing it.
So I had a certain amount ofmoney to spend.
I rented a sprinter van and Ihad 12 speaker sound system on
(41:26):
tripods and two generators and Ijust head out on the road, went
up and down.
I started in Joshua Tree, I didtwo nights in Joshua Tree and
then head to Ojai and then Ijust went up and down the West
Coast and pop up listeningexperiences and I'd tell people
I'm going to be at this locationon social media at this time
(41:46):
and then, if you show up, it'sfree.
And I had these moving blanketsand people would lay down the
circle and I'd play the record,um, from start to finish.
And um, that's how I did it,that's that was how I was going
to get people to hear it.
So I did that until I ran outof money.
And then I came back and I said, all right, I guess it's time
(42:07):
to go ahead and put this outthere.
And so, um, I, at the same timeI was talking to my friend,
scott Berman, who did thevisuals for Tripping Daisy back
in the day, and I said, you know, he and I had been talking, he
was a big fan of this record,I'd shared it with him, um,
early on through voice memos andand he's like Tim, this is some
of the best stuff you've doneand he was just majorly behind
(42:30):
it.
And he and I had talked aboutdoing a planetarium experience
back in the day with TrippingDaisy.
It just never happened.
And then we started talkingabout making an immersive film
with this particular record, andso that's where the, the birth
of resolution, came about, andwe got some funding from a
(42:54):
friend and started to go downthat road, something we didn't
know anything about.
It's kind of like a polyphonicspree, not knowing anything
about the symphonic world andjumping in.
We did the same thing aboutmaking a film for a dome, which
is completely different thanmaking a film for flat screens.
Um, it's, you have to use adifferent camera.
(43:15):
The technology is not eventhere at the at the time.
So it's uh, there was a lot oflike trial and error that we had
to go through, but we foundsome people and scott um pretty
much took that whole thing onand took off and met some
animators and went to his firstchoice, anthony Shepard, of an
animator that he always lovedand even used his, his work.
(43:38):
You know, in past shows that wehad done for for Spree and kind
of jumped in and we we did itthrough, you know, almost two
years of making that film.
But we've made this film.
It's an immersive experiencethat recently just won South by
Southwest the audience awardthere and we are now kind of
(43:59):
being requested to go to Londonand do the film there.
It's going to Venice FilmFestival.
It's kind of taken off in aworld of its own, but it's
basically a film that takes youon a journey of that album.
It reimagines the way to listento an album and you're fully
(44:21):
immersed in these visuals fromnine different animators from
all over the world that havecontributed their work per track
.
So you're listening to everysong and every song has a
different animator and it's from2D animation to 3D animation
and it's pretty incredible.
And so right now we're at theOmni Theater, which is the best
(44:45):
theater in the country.
It's the largest hemisphere LED8K theater in the country.
The only thing bigger than thatis the Sphere in Las Vegas.
So we got picked up there andit's there for the next year and
it's playing in Denton at thePlanetarium there and it's going
to start playing in differentplanetariums kind of all over
the country and eventuallyabroad.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I cannot wait to check it out.
We're actually going to beheading up there and hopefully
finding the time to check it outthe Omni there in Dallas and
I've heard wonderful things.
Congratulations on the awardthere and the continued success
with that.
Jumping into now the idea ofwhat's in front of us here it's
about to embark upon the firstnationwide tour of Tripping
(45:30):
Daisy in quite a while I mean in2017,.
I know you played a handful ofgigs, kind of did some regional
stuff and there's been someshows that have happened New
Year's gigs and some things butwhen did you guys decide to go
ahead and take this by storm?
I mean, obviously we'recelebrating the 30th anniversary
of I Am an Elastic Firecracker.
I know you guys are going to beplaying this in its entirety,
as well as a bunch of other hits, and I was kind of curious when
(45:51):
this start and how did thatdecision come about, with the
guys to, hey, let's go ahead anddo this and let's hit the big
tour this time?
Speaker 1 (45:57):
So, um, chris was, chris had, um, Chris Penn had,
um, people get together to playsome Alice Cooper songs for a
film that he made when he gotthe original Alice Cooper band
to come play good records livefrom the AstroTurf.
(46:20):
He was doing a night of AliceCooper songs and had different
bands and he had tripping daisyplay because we happened to be
in town and um, so we, we didthat and then the next day,
since we were all there, wedecided to play a surprise show
at the kessler.
Well, it was, it was great, hada really fun time, and we
(46:44):
actually did, for the first timeever since we've reconnected,
did kind of some improvising,like what I used to do back in
the day, and it just felt sogood to me.
It was like, wow, this band, wecan do this.
I had this.
Like it was reinvigorated forme to like get back to it,
because I so much love thatfeeling of that spontaneity and
(47:07):
being able to like just being onthe spot and go there.
And we did it that night, andso I left her that night.
I told Chris I go, man, I, I,I'm like charged, I'm like I
could go do this again.
I want to, I want to play.
I love that feeling.
It was awesome.
I want to get back at it.
So I knew that we were going toeventually do it and um, chris
(47:29):
and I talked about it and we, uh, the time came, we found a
booking agent and um put it outthere and chris actually kind of
put the dates out there and webooked the tour.
It was like two and a halfmonths and chris had a had his
fall, um, where, uh, it put himin the hospital.
It was debilitating, but thetour was booked.
(47:54):
It was for two and a halfmonths and I told Chris, I was
like, dude, I can't do this tourwith you like this.
I don't know what's going onyet.
And he's like, you got to dothe tour and I said, well, I'll
do half of it.
So I committed to a month of it.
So we had to cancel the theback half a month and a half of
it and so I committed this firstmonth and so, um, we're doing
(48:16):
it.
You know, um, and unfortunately,you know Chris passes and you
know now I'm all alone and I'vegot this tour that he kind of
like spearheaded with me, and soI'm trying to find the way of
making this thing work, and soI'm.
It's weird, I did all thisstuff when I was in my 20s, but
now I'm like back at it again.
(48:37):
This seems like the world'schanged and I'm trying to put
this tour on and you know I'mdropping the ball left and right
.
But you know it's booked, it'shappening, it's out there and
people are buying tickets andthat's all I know.
And the band's rehearsing andwe'll be ready for it.
But it's going to be.
It's a challenge for me.
I miss my friend terribly andso rough dealing with that.
(49:03):
But he insisted that we go andbut, um, he insisted that we go
and, um, I'm gonna do it andhe'll be out there and it'll be
cool and it'll um, it's gonna bebittersweet because he was
going on tour with us and but,um, I'm just so, I don't know.
(49:24):
I'm thankful that we're doingit and I'm also thankful for
Chris, but it's been reallyrough on me.
So it's kind of, it's been akind of a nice distraction
working on this tripping Daisy,because it kind of keeps my mind
, you know, geared on that.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Sure, oh, I understand and I'm I'm sorry for
the loss and, you know, for hisfamily.
They've been in my prayers andyou know, I know that there's a
lot of people who have kind ofrallied around to support his
family and do whatever they can.
And I know that there's aGoFundMe out there and I'll
throw the QR code here for allyou know, viewers and listeners
I'll have in the show notesbelow so you guys can go and
(50:05):
kind of contribute and help outthere, uh, you know, and give
whatever you can for for hisfamily yeah, please, do they're.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
They're amazing.
Um, his boys are special to me.
And um, yeah, please, if y'all,if you feel so inclined to,
yeah, donate a little something.
If the qr code's there, Ireally appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Well, and I know with Good Records that you guys
co-founded, you got the recordstore there and I know you guys
have a lot of different releasescoming up, If you want to kind
of talk about them.
I know there's some pre-orders,some Tripping Daisy LPs as well
as there's, you know, the Billand I know the Polyphonic Spree
has one that just kind of cameout, some limited edition stuff.
What are some of the thingsthat are coming as far as those
(50:51):
to the table soon, and whenshould people be ready for those
to be released?
Speaker 1 (50:55):
So we're doing another order of atom bomb for
anybody that didn't get to get,and it comes with all the same
(51:16):
things that the first one camewith.
Um, all of our good recordsreleases have always been pretty
amazing.
If you've never, if you've ever, bought a vinyl release from
Good Records, we go all out.
You get things that no one elseis going to get because we have
all this personal artifact thatwe've had through the years
that we've accompanied with andChris, as being a music fan,
(51:39):
would make records and releasesin a way that he would like to
get If he could get a recordfrom one of his favorite bands
how he would like to have it.
So that's kind of how we'vegone with it.
Our good records releases arepretty amazing.
It's really in depth, usuallyget a poster or slip disc cover
in there, you get stickers, youget photos that never been seen
(52:01):
before.
You get a lot of artwork and alot of things that that make it
unique and all on its own thatyou won't get anywhere else, and
it's kind of a standard that hestarted because he's such a fan
of music that all of ourrecords kind of have that.
So, really looking forward toit If you get a chance to get
one, get it, because there's notthat many that come out.
But so yeah, you haveFirecracker.
(52:23):
That's available right now andit's a pre-sale.
It's being manufactured rightnow and it's a pre-sale, it's
being manufactured right now.
And then atom on jesus.
It's like the atom mom as well,but we it's our first time
we've put out um elasticfirecracker under good records
oh, right on.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
well, I'll have the links for everything there below
.
Um, you know I thank you somuch for joining me today and
for you know, you know, kind ofwalking us back through some of
the history and some of thetough spots.
I appreciate being, you know,open and honest and vulnerable
about that, and you know it kindof lead me to my final question
.
I ask a lot of the people whocome on and that's one about
legacy and I was kind of curiousof what your, you know,
(53:01):
thoughts are.
Is that something that youthink about often?
And the idea of how you hope tobe remembered in your body of
work personally and you knowwhat it is that you'd like to
leave?
You know, your stamp on thisworld and just some of your
thoughts about that.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Well, you know, I hadn't really thought about that
until recently.
You know, when you lose someoneclose to you you think about.
You know, mortality can't helpit like leak in there and and I,
you know, I've never.
I, you know, I got an award,probably six months ago, kind of
a lifetime achievement awardthat I've.
I couldn't even believe I got,but it was bizarre but and I
(53:40):
thought, you know, I've reallythought about what I've done, um
, I'm always thinking it forward.
I never, never, go backwards,it's always forward.
And so I just always, you know,I'm always like onto the next
thing and on the next thing,that I don't ever think about
what's in my wake and what'shappened until it's brought up
(54:00):
to me and then I think, wow,I've kind of done a lot, you
know.
So I don't't know, I look at thebody of work and I look at the
core.
I look at overall theintentions of what have that
I've been a part of, of tryingto put out there, and it's
always been um, it's always beenthis hopeful kind of um
(54:23):
overcoming mission that hastended to resonate with me,
because I've found the thingsthat I sing about are basically
to convince me.
Those times I was telling youI'm improvising and whatever
comes in my mind, and usuallyit's all about overcoming and
reaching, and you can get thereand this, this thing of seeing
(54:46):
my way through, and and that'susually what's on my mind.
So I think a lot of my music um, I know it does, I've been told
it helps a lot of people and Inever even thought about that
because it was always for me andso I kind of hope that I'm, you
know, the.
The legacy is that you know myoutput has helped people
(55:07):
overcome a lot of things,because it's helped me overcome
a lot of things.
My music has saved me personallyand I hope that for other
people.
I hope that they get that andalso the intention of taking
people on a journey and findingan escape and musically, like
going to these places that theywouldn't normally go to and
(55:28):
having space in their life totake something like that on,
know that the intention is forthem and and to take these
people on a journey.
And hopefully we've done that.
We've given them a good showand I've given them some things
they can lean on from time totime when we need it, like music
and the message and knowingthat we can get over it.
(55:50):
Like I'm going to make itthrough this with Chris.
It's, it's the hardest thingI've ever gone through in my
life.
I can't lie, this has been.
This is the topper it's.
But I know I'm going to getthrough it, I will get through
it and, um, but I don't know, Iguess.
I guess that, yeah, my legacyis that, as humans, we want to
(56:14):
be happy and we want to getthrough it.
We want to be good, we want tomake it and we can and we will.
You know, you just have toremember it.
So I guess that's my legacy.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Well said, tim.
Thank you again for sharingthat and for sharing all of your
music and your art.
I will have all the notes belowwhere people can go ahead and,
you know, get a ticket for theupcoming Tripping Daisy Tour.
It's starting very soon, nextmonth, and it's going to be
going around the country.
I know you got like 22 dates orso and can't wait to check that
(56:48):
out.
And thanks again for joining.
And as far as folks want tofollow your journey along the
way, socials, what's the bestway for them to go ahead and
kind of follow along with thisand, you know, maybe your shows
that are coming up.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
You can go to trippingdaisycom.
That'll show you where we'replaying.
You can even buy tickets toparticular shows of different
cities.
I'll send you something you canpost, maybe put up shows, the
dates.
But we'll do more legs of it.
Just this leg just goes up theMidwest to makes its way up to
(57:20):
Montreal, toronto, then backdown the east side, but we'll be
coming back out there andhitting places that we didn't
hit this time in the future.
But trippingdaisycom will kindof give you everything you want
to know and then the polyphonicspreecom will get you where you
want to go, if you're interestedin that as well.
And then also resolution films.
(57:43):
You can check that as well onInstagram to find out where
resolution is playing.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
Wonderful.
Well, I can't wait.
Thank you again so much forjoining me today and appreciate
all that you're doing, man.
Speaker 1 (57:56):
Thanks a lot.
I really appreciate you havingme.
Sorry, I get long winded man, Ikind of get to talking about it
and just kind of rolls.
So appreciate you hanging inthere.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
I think everyone's going to thoroughly enjoy it,
man.
Thank you All right, cool Take.
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