April 5, 2025 • 40 mins
We chat with Chris Barron, lead singer of the Spin Doctors, about their new album "Face Full of Cake" and explore his journey through music, stagecraft, and discovering photography as a healing art form.
Check out the Spin Doctors' new album "Face Full of Cake" and let us know what you think at familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwitthewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwitthewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Familiar Wilson's Media Relationships are the
story.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You are made of meat, my friend, all the way down.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The following podcast uses words like and and also.
If you're not into any of thatshit, then now's your chance
Three, two, one run.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm super familiar with the Wilsons Get it.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome to Super Familiar with the Wilsons.
I'm Amanda.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And I'm Josh Folks.
We've got our interview withChris Barron, lead singer of the
Spin Doctors, who are releasinga new album this week.
The new album is called FaceFull of Cake.
But first, amanda, we were justin a grocery store and I
noticed something that you didnot notice.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
How do you know?
I didn't notice it.
Oh, maybe you did notice it, Idon't know.
If I noticed it, what is it?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You wear perfume, right, you like to smell good.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, like several different.
I don't have like one scent.
I like several different things.
I don't wear them all at once,I just, depending on the whim of
my day, I wear somethingdifferent.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Wow, we haven't even started and you're already wound
up.
Do you think it's better tohave a neutral smell or a
pleasant smell?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I mean, a neutral smell is better than a bad smell
, but a pleasant smell is betterthan a neutral smell.
However, that is subjective,because some people like
different types of fragrances.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I think there's a universal smell that if you
smelled like this smell,everyone would welcome you with
open arms.
And I found that guy today withthe universal good smell.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Did you welcome him with your open arms?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I didn't, but I was really close.
We were walking down an aisleand I smelled breakfast.
Oh, oh, no, it was in thebookstore.
No, that's when we were in thebookstore and I smelled
breakfast.
And now you probably saw thissame guy.
So a guy was wearing a shirt toa breakfast cafe.
That will remain unnamed.
I did not see this, so Ismelled the smell first.
(01:54):
I looked around like is someonecooking breakfast?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We're not near him In the bookstore.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In the bookstore and then I see the guy in that shirt
and I'm like, well, surely it'sthat guy, because he, like, is
a cook there or something.
So I went and I walked by himand I did what I hope was a
surreptitious no, oh, that's so,you are creepy.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
He's going home and he's telling his friends got it.
I was in the bookstore todayand some middle-aged bald man
walked past me and be gentlesniffed just right when he got
to me as hard as he could.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I know, but it's not.
I didn't sniff that hard.
It's not like I went up to himand buried my nose in his cafe
shirt, but he definitely reekedin the best possible way of
breakfast.
Now, what a strange and lovelything to be.
And that is to smell likebreakfast, like a walking stack
of pancakes, sizzling baconwrapped up in a to-go bag and
(02:46):
just scrumptious, and I can'tthink of anything better to
taste to taste like.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Did you taste this, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I can't think of anything better to smell like
it's like instantly grounding,like that smell that everyone
loves.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Did it just smell like maple, like syrup?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
No, like it was like the whole suite of smells oh it
was just delightful.
Honestly, I think smelling likebreakfast should be a
compliment okay you smell likebreakfast.
In other words, you bring joyand familiarity and the promise
of a good morning and a fulltummy to start the day.
I just thought it was was great.
(03:24):
I was so happy.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm happy for you.
I did not smell that.
It's funny because I was justthinking like, what would you
call that?
What would that scent be called?
Just breakfast?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Oh, to breakfast, Like if you got the listen, some
of the fragrances you've gotten.
You know, fireplace, autumn andall that strange, weird,
unconventional name.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
By the Fireside is the name of it, not Fireplace.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But yes, whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, I have one that I get compliments on a lot, but
when people say, what are youwearing, I don't like saying it
because the name is just milk.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh, that's, ooh God.
I just instantly had a badfeeling in my mouth.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I just don't like telling people.
So it's this perfume brandcalled Commodity, not a sponsor.
No, Commodity.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Get in touch because Amanda thinks that you smell
really good, although I got someadvice on your naming.
But go ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And they're not inexpensive.
But I buy the small like the$15, like little small sampler
size of it and I really likemilk and I get a lot of
compliments on milk.
But I got their sampler andthere's paper moss book and I
think that's it.
Paper moss book and milk arethe ones I've had.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wait a second.
Why do you need both paper andbook?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I don't know, it's just a little subtle difference.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Jesus, okay, anyway, what is?
Your favorite unconventionalscent out there.
Listeners, FamiliarWilson's atgmailcom, Get in touch with us.
We did have the second game ofWinthrop's soccer season today
and you weren't there.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
You had to go look at some cows or some weird shit
like that I went to the vetschool open house because Muffy
has decided that she isinterested in eventually being a
vet.
So we went to the vet schoolopen house because Muffy has
decided that she is interestedin eventually being a vet, so we
went to the vet school openhouse.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And to be clear, a veterinarian vet, not a veteran.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes, we went to the veterinarian school.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So we meaning me and Winthrop went to his game and I
don't want to put too fine apoint on it again, but his team
is just not good, Just not good,Poor.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Winthrop, thankfully Poor, all the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, I will say that of all the children, his name
was called the most by the coach, and then even some of the
parents are getting to know himjust because he's always around
the ball.
Always he had three shots ongoal that unfortunately went
wide, but he's still trying andhe is still not discouraged by
the losing I know and I, evenlike the most diehard player,
(05:50):
eventually gets worn down bylosing, like the detroit lions,
the la clippers, all these teams, you know they start out, you
know, and everyone's morale isgood.
and then eventually, after yearsof losing it flags, I get that
he's not to that point yet andhe's still in that innocent,
rose colored glasses, wrappedfeeling of, oh, I just get to
run around and kick things.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, and he said last night.
He said honestly, I don't careif we win or lose, which is
great.
And I don't ever say to himlike, oh, I'm so sorry, you guys
lost, but I'm just I worryabout him just feeling defeated
because no one else is trying ashard as him, or whatever.
So but you said he's not thereyet.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So he's not there yet and I hope he never gets there.
I hope he keeps that joy oflife Now.
Hopefully they'll turn it allaround and you know he's getting
all these shots on goal.
Hopefully they'll connect atsome point and the season will
be saved and we don't have toworry about any of this.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
He wasn't upset that he missed the goals.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I don't think so.
All right, let's just keep itthat way.
But on to our conversation withChris Barron.
Now, this is going to be anunusual start to the
conversation.
It'll be, and maybe a res,because we just started chatting
with him to begin with when wefirst got on the call, and then
we just kind of bled into theinterview part of it and it
(07:02):
wasn't very graceful, so I'mjust going to fade the
conversation up, as we'rerailing against end-stage
capitalism and then, go
Speaker 3 (07:10):
straight.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But we talked about a whole host of things even
beforehand.
One note here he will refer tohis brother passing away, and
that's something that happenedlate in the year, last year.
So our heart continues to goout for him as he deals with
that.
But the reason why we got on totalk with him is that they are
releasing a new album, and bythey, of course, I mean his band
(07:33):
, the Spin Doctors, and I had achance to listen to it because
he sent it to us and it ispretty daggum good.
My favorite song when the albumdoes come out, it's the last
song.
It's called when you GotTurmoil in your Mind, and I like
that one the best.
And we got him on the phone totalk to him about his new album
(07:54):
and we ended up talking to himabout that, about his new hobby,
black and white photo taking,about his propensity for high
kicks on stage.
So it was a.
It was a wide ranging and greatconversation.
So enjoy our convo with ChrisBarron, lead singer of the spin
doctors.
The systems aren't making theworld a better place, are they?
(08:22):
I did.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
She man I can't remember this comedian's name,
but he was like talking abouthow like he was, like you know,
definitely think capitalism'shurt more people than it's
helped.
I really think like it would begreat if we could keep it going
until I'm rich and I'm finally,I finally think I'm about to
(08:46):
get rich.
So, like, just give it likemaybe four or five years and
then we can have, you can havethe meetings in my palace,
whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, speaking of getting rich, let's talk about
your new album.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh my God, we're going to get so rich.
Oh, and he goes, and he goes,and by palace I mean like a nice
two bedroom.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's right.
That's right, yeah.
And then I mean have you guysheard?
I sent you guys the record,right.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You did not.
That would be lovely.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, okay, I'm going to send you guys the link to
the record, have you guys?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
heard the single.
I have heard both singles.
Cool record.
Have you guys heard the single?
I have heard both singles andmy take is rock and roll.
Heaven is real like.
Totally reminds me of vintageyou guys, and then still a
gorilla feels real different tome in a good way, but it's like
it feels yeah by the way, nottrying to start any sort of beef
(09:42):
, but I'm a little annoyed onyour behalf at the article in
Rolling Stone.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
What did they say?
Oh are you breaking the news.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I don't know if I'm breaking the news.
Have you not read the article?
What about Gorilla?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, oh I was cool with that.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Okay, like I said, I was annoyed on your behalf
because it says Spin Doctorshave a new song and it kind of
rocks the surprisinglyhard-hitting single blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, like they'resurprised.
Why are you surprised?
I was like, can't you justunironically and
unapologetically like something?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
And the answer is no.
And those guys have kind of astoried history of, you know,
liking some stuff that wasreally bad and hating stuff that
was really good.
You know, like they hated leszeppelin, they were really like
mean to les zeppelin.
Yeah, I didn't have a problemwith that, I was psyched.
I was psyched to get somecoverage from rolling, I get it.
(10:42):
I get it, but actually you know,to circle back to what you said
, you know I always felt like wewere as heavy as any of these
bands out there.
If you look at tunes of ourslike refrigerator car, you know
in our case they ended up beingdeeper cuts because that's not
the way we were perceived.
The tracks that have alwaysbeen more forward have been the
little miss capybara and the twoprinces.
(11:03):
We We've got tunes likeShinbone, alley, bags of Dirt
and a lot of material that is asheavy as anything these grunge
guys ever did.
It just wasn't like you know,you had to kind of know the band
to know those tracks.
Aaron, our drummer, early on,had this idea, this approach
(11:24):
towards the material that wasreally brilliant and very
musical.
He was like we should havesongs with different tonal
landscapes, different rhythmsand different tempos and
different moods.
We've always had like the earcandy stuff.
(11:46):
We've always had, you know,stuff that was funky, stuff that
was rock and roll and stuffthat was heavy and stuff that
was in like odd time signatures,stuff that was angry, stuff
that was happy.
It's just mostly like the stuffthat we're best known for is
like the happy rock and funkystuff.
But if you listen to the wholealbums you know there's plenty
(12:08):
of like heavy shit on there.
But we've never really beenseen as a heavy band because the
songs were really famous for Imean, that used to be like kind
of a chip on my shoulder now I'mjust like happy to still be
around no, I get, I get that,but that's interesting though.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So when you look at how you were I mean packaged, I
guess looking back then youwould say like reality was a lot
different than reality, thespin doctors that that the label
pushed, or that just radiopushed, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think that's pretty accurate way of putting.
You know we were packaged andmarketed.
You know we were on like sonyin like the late 20th century,
like sony music, you know bandum.
That being said, you know Ithink there's sort of an
interesting commercialPhenomenon with spiners, because
(13:01):
we were like a grassroots jamband that had, you know, two
tremendous, tremendous hits.
We were lucky to have thesegreat, big hits and I think
that's why we're something of a,you know, if I may say, say
like household name at thispoint.
But if we hadn't had those, it'sinteresting to think of, like
(13:24):
how we might have been perceivedin the long run because you
know, we might have really endedup being sort of more like a
road dog, a fish kind of.
We are similar to fish.
If you look at the aggregate ofour material, you know there's
a.
There's a lot of variety inthere.
We're known for for the popstuff but you know, anybody who,
(13:47):
like you know, really listensto the entire albums comes out
and sees us live.
You know there's a lot of,there's a lot of other kinds of
material.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Which, by the way, having Phish's level of
notoriety, I I mean that wouldbe pretty good too.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I feel like oh yeah, I mean those guys are.
Those guys are huge and theyhave a different kind of thing.
You know what I mean?
Because we are known by manymore people for a smaller
percentage of what we do andthey, they are known like their
entirety of their Like.
What they do is known to likequite a large number of people
(14:24):
are.
You know?
I mean I really like.
It's weird because people willbe like yeah, I'm from Hungary
and your song was huge there.
I'm cool, I'm from Uruguay andyour song was huge there.
I just need people from all theround world over and they're
like yeah, they were pounding.
Your song to princess was themost played song, was huge there
.
I just need people from all theround world over and they're
like yeah, they were pounding.
Your song, for instance, wasthe most played song in the
(14:44):
world on the radio in 1994.
And it's been played on theradio 8 million times.
8 million plays on the radio.
Something like, if you, if you,if you made them like-to-end,
let's say that the song is threeminutes long, which is really
more like four minutes and eightseconds, I think is Two Princes
(15:07):
.
I mean it's decades, fortyyears or something like that
that's a crazy way to thinkabout it yeah Well as somebody
who graduated high school in1993, it's not been 40 years,
friend.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I refuse to believe that.
So now I have to look up andsee the runtime, because now I
want to know if you know.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Why would you doubt that?
He wouldn't know.
Come on now, don't, don't,don't.
Don't.
Do this to the guy.
What are you?
What's wrong with?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
you it could be a little Miss Capy wrong.
Little Miss Capy wrong might befour minutes and eight seconds,
I think.
Is now no, I want to know.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, see, this is what I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Welcome to my marriage pal.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, I fact check Josh all the time, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh no, it's fullness in 17 seconds.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh, you know, we call that around this house, we call
it a mansplaining.
Now wait a second On TwoPrinces, though.
Is that the album version orthe radio cut that takes off
part of the solo that I'm stillsalty about?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Oh, yeah, you're right, there is a radio cut.
Yeah, the radio cut might befour I don't know four minutes
and eight seconds.
That would make sense.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Sorry, I started this .
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Your listeners are like on the edge of their seats.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
now that's right, Don't worry, this didn't make
the edit All right.
So the new album.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, I mean the new album.
I'm really psyched about thenew album.
It's getting this really greatreaction and I think it's an
extremely entertaining album.
And, to go to what we weretalking about, it really falls
into that.
Aaron Comas designation ofsongs with different moods,
(16:45):
different tonalities, differentrhythms and different tempos,
straight up like ear candy, likerock and roll heaven.
We got some heavy stuff still agorilla and and everything in
between and some stuff beyond.
You know, songs like I likedyou better when your butt was
big, which is pretty freakinghilarious, and um boombox, which
(17:08):
is a single.
As someone who has not heardthis, I'm very excited about
that song yeah, I just said Ijust sent josh the link to the
record all so you guys canlisten to the record.
The way it was made is reallykind of indicative of how the
record came out.
We worked at Jack Daly's studioin Asbury Park.
(17:28):
We were going to stay at thisgreat hotel down there called
the Asbury.
We're shooting the Boomboxvideo down there on Monday and
I'm staying at that hotel.
But we went down there and Iwas doing dry january when we
were making the record and I gotthere and I was like where's
your fitness center?
And they were like we don'thave a fitness center, but our
bar is open until 2 30 and I waslike oh no, and I went out to
(17:51):
the car.
I was like, excuse me.
I went out to the car and Ifound this other hotel like a
half a mile away called asburybeach club, like twice the price
of the hotel we're staying in,and they had a gym and it looked
really nice and I was like,cool, I'll be right there the
next morning.
My room is beautiful, the gymwas gorgeous, had like an
(18:13):
avocado and wild mushroom, liketoast, you know, for breakfast
and and like got to the studioand told the guys like oh, it's
famous other hotel.
And like Aaron and Eric werelike, wait, what, I want to stay
there.
Oh, and I called her.
I called our manager and waslike hey, you know, I'm moving
to this more expensive hotel.
Whatever, I'll pay thedifference.
And then the other guys werelike no, I want to stay there
(18:35):
too.
So then I didn't end up havingto pay because it just became
part of the budget of the record, because we all stayed there
and we were just like waking upin the morning in our like hotel
robes and eating our likeavocado toast and drinking like
cappuccino.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You're so rock star.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, it was really like it was so nice and we're
basically like kind of livingtogether.
And then we'd all get in thecar, we and we're basically like
kind of living together, andthen we'd all get in the car.
We'd go to the studios like ahalf a mile away.
A lot of my favorite albumswere recorded like the band was
all living in a house togetheror it was like some kind of like
thing like that, like AirStudios in Montserrat or Led
(19:13):
Zeppelin Records, where I thinkLed Zeppelin 3 maybe was
recorded in this house in Walesand they're all just like living
there.
Exile on Main Street Wasrecorded at like Keith Richards'
house In Elkox.
So we were kind of like justliving together and going to the
studio.
It was very insular.
It was just the band and ourengineer Did like an amazing job
(19:37):
.
And the other Huge factor was wewere basically thinking that we
were demoing these songs.
We just went in.
We're like cool, just to demothese songs and like like two
days in we're like this shitsounds great, is this the record
?
And we're like I don't know man.
And then finally, like after acouple, we're like I think we
(20:00):
might be recording the record,but let's not say anything to
our manager.
So he came down at the end, waslike guys, this sounds really
good, we're like I think.
So he's like yeah, and thenhe's like I think we didn't
(20:22):
think of that.
So you know, it was like areally low pressure kind of
situation.
We weren't expected to producethe record and we were enjoying
the time, enjoying each other,and the record just got kind of
a three wheeling, truthful, fun,engaged kind of vibe to it.
It's getting this really greatreaction, that's my spiel.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That's your story.
I can't wait to hear it,particularly the Big Butt song.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Stop looking at my bottom.
He just looked at my bottomwhen he said that it's not okay,
he's profiling.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
He is profiling.
I think you guys will littlepassive profiling stage Like
profiling you for what.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Well, I mean, if you were to see her profile, will
you please?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
stop talking about my bottom on this podcast.
Let's talk about other things.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Anyway, that's cool.
It's interesting, though, atthis time in your lives as a
band and I truly don't know howit works in the music industry
and all this, and that I justknow that I hear about, or I
used to hear about, a lot oftimes oh, we're getting a lot of
pressure from the label tofinish our record and this and
that.
Are you just beyond that, ordoes that not apply in your case
(21:35):
?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Not in our case because we made this record and
then got signed to CapitalRecords.
We made this record because itdid actually, it's interesting,
it did like help us to fulfill acontractual obligation.
So we did need to deliver arecord to get like to finish an
(21:56):
old publishing deal of ours.
But it didn't have to be like agood record or a successful
record and there was no realpressure on us.
They didn't really care if wedeliver a record or not, because
you just want to keep being ourpublisher and we wanted to like
kind of move on, yeah.
So yeah, I mean in a sensewe're beyond that, um, in a
sense that there was like sortof a contractual obligation
(22:19):
around this record, but itdidn't have to be a good record.
It was like the time was rightand we hadn't made a record in a
long time.
You know, the guys had a lot ofmusic kicking around.
I had a lot of lyrics kickingaround.
I had some good songs kickingaround.
You know I wrote the music andlyrics to, um, rock and roll
(22:39):
heaven and um, about four of theother songs on the album and
then the rest of them are likeco-written.
So you know, still, a gorillawas a piece of music that aaron
had and I wrote the lyrics tothat, and so basically I read
all the lyrics you know, and theguys, the guys compose some of
the music and then some of thesongs I write, um.
(22:59):
so there's a lot of goodmaterial kind of kicking around
and then some of the songs Iwrite.
So there's a lot of goodmaterial kind of kicking around
and, like I said, we juststumbled into this great
recording situation that wassuper low pressure and super
high fun.
That's a great recipe.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I was going to say that's the rock and roll dream
right there.
So I got this question thatI've wanted to ask you the last
two times Ever since we came andsaw you at the Vanilla Ice
thing.
So I got this question thatI've wanted to ask you the last
two times Ever since we came andsaw you at the Vanilla Ice
thing.
You remember this Vanilla Ice90s Fest.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And I had texted you right after complimenting you on
your stage kicks, on your highkicks.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's funny because this Rolling Stone article makes
a mention frontman ChrisBarron's half-spoken vocals end
up sounding an awful lot likedavid lee roth, and when I read
that it clicked in that thatyour stage presence to me
reminds me of across being mickjagger and and david lee roth,
just because you're just allover the place and you're
(23:53):
emoting, you know, along withthe song yeah because there was
there a lot of intention orthought and put into it?
or are you just like a theaterkid at heart and when you're on
stage you want to just do allthe things?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, when I was a kid, the jump video, david Lee
Roth, he did like a fan kicklike that.
Oh yeah In that video.
But I actually like I forgotabout that impressed with that
move later on, when the band wasfirst getting together, eric
(24:24):
shankman, he just showed me hewas 25, I was 20 and he played
me a lot of records and heshowed me a bunch of videos and
was just sort of like we justwere kind of getting caught up
and you know, he knew a lot ofstuff that I didn't know and he
was sort of like all right, youneed to know this, you need to
know this.
So he showed me a james brownvideo and james brown did the
(24:45):
the fan kick the leg over themic stand.
And I saw that and I was likewait, a minute, I could, I can
do that.
And if I do that move, peopleare gonna be like wait, what you
know like a big part of like aperformance is basically the
assertion like I can dosomething that you cannot do.
(25:06):
You know you have to be doingstuff in the audience absolutely
can't do.
So most people would rather,you know, face machined on fire
than like sing in public.
You know, let alone like speakin public, let alone sing in
public.
You know, let alone like speakin public, let alone sing in
public.
So you know you're already likeahead of the game because
you're singing in front ofpeople.
But if you add in somethinglike a leg over the mic stand,
(25:30):
people are going to be impressedand you're going to basically
dominate the audience.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
There's like what you're doing is you're basically
lifting your leg and peeing onthe audience to claim your
dominance over them.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, it's not too different, especially in New
York city.
You know, we were playing theseclubs in New York city and the
audience was like they weretough and they've seen
everything and really you had towin them over on a lot of
different levels.
When I was coming up, we wouldtalk about singers and we would
(26:02):
talk about their singing.
We'd talk about theirsongwriting.
We'd also talk about theirpattern Me and John Popper.
We would talk about the olderguys who were fronting bands
around town.
We would talk about theirpatter and that was a big deal.
So you have to be able to talkto the audience.
People had different styles butyou had to be able to make them
(26:23):
drop their guard and disarmthem and some people did it in
very aggressive kinds of waysand some people did it through
humor.
Some people were just kind ofbizarre.
I was always grounded as a kidso I didn't see a lot of bands.
Bands would come through townand a lot of times I didn't get
(26:43):
to see them.
So I saw the ramones, I sawjoey ramone, I saw the dead
kennedys, so I saw jello biafra,saw a lot of hardcore bands.
Um, I saw little shows but alot of times like um, the who
was on tour and the clash wereopening and I was grounded.
I didn't see that show.
I didn't see like rogeradultery, uh van halen, you know
, come to town, I'd be grounded,I didn't see.
(27:05):
You too, I didn't see any ofthe bands.
I didn't.
I never saw the stones until Iwas an adult, so I kind of had
to make that.
One of the reasons I'm so weirdon stage is because I just had
to make all this shit up becauseI really did many.
Of course it wasn't youtube.
Eric had some vhs's of likesome stuff, like he had like a
(27:25):
vhs of james brown.
He also had this really coolvhs that somebody just made with
a camcorder of like these guysin a little village in Cuba just
playing like Cuban music, likea conga band.
We used to watch that beforegigs to get psyched up, you know
.
So I mean, I just like sorry, Ilike.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm like half a beat behind, but that visual is
really good.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I know it was like that's what I'm talking about.
It beat behind, but that visualis really good.
I know it was like that's whatI'm talking about.
It was just like I knew thebands in the city.
But I just, like you know, Ireally had to make a lot of this
stuff up on the fly, so a lotof it just comes from.
You know, later, on the leg ofthe mic stand, I remembered
directly inspired by James Brown.
But later on I remember like,oh shit, there was also that
(28:15):
David Lee Roth video and thatmade a huge impression on me as
a young person, but I wasn'tthinking of that when I
initially did it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, I love this story even more though.
Yeah, that's some James Brownshit.
I love that even more, but it'sall stagecraft which, by the
way, your wife Lindsay NicoleChamicole chambers, is on
broadway.
You ever considered going onthe boards, have you ever?
Is that ever a conversationyou've had?
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I was kind of like the shit hot actor in my high
school there you go, if you dosay so yourself a lot of front
men, a lot of like lead singers.
In their high school theyplayed the stage manager and our
our town by thornton wilder andI.
I played the stage manager inour town by thornton wilder.
(29:02):
You know I was kind of that kidin my high school.
No, I yeah I would love to dosome acting but it just kind of
like never come my way.
I co-wrote a musical called uhmusical version of faust way
back the end of the 90s and Iwas in that uh, but I haven't
done too much acting.
I'm totally I'd love to do someacting.
(29:23):
I think I'd be really good.
I always say like I'd like tobe the guy in the movie you know
who has like a couple of linesand you kind of like him and
then he gets killed.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I mean, at least you know your lane, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I'd love to be that guy Like I don't know guys, I
think this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And then he gets shot Brilliant.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Okay, well, one last thing for before I let you go.
What was it that you looked ata, at a non-digital camera, and
you said this will be somethingthat I'd probably be super into
because, like your, yourpictures are pretty cool and and
you mentioned well, you'vementioned to me before, and you
mentioned off air, when we'retalking that you've taken
classes yeah like what?
What is it about stillphotography that captured your
(30:05):
interest?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
well, my grandfather was a pretty accomplished
amateur photographer when I wasa kid.
So he bought me a camera and Idid photography when I was a kid
.
I wish I had some of thepictures that I took from back
then, but I don't know wherethey are.
Then in the 90s I I bought likea an old leica um that I picked
(30:27):
up in a camera shop in portlandat the beginning of the horde
tour and I was taking somepictures back then.
So I've had this what sustainedinterest.
But then when my brother died, Ijust I was at a flea market and
there was a guy who had a standwith a bunch of cameras and I
saw this camera and I was likehow much for the camera?
(30:47):
For that one it was like 140bucks.
I was like cool, does it work?
The guy's like yeah, and I justbought it and I started taking
pictures and I've always hadlike kind of want to feel really
bad.
When I was young that I feltbad, which was a lot of the time
, because you guys know I grewup in a really difficult
situation.
I turned to music, you know,but after decades of doing music
(31:11):
, you know, I kind of like whenI feel really bad.
I turn kind of to somethingelse.
So you know, I saw this cameraand creatively I've always just
followed my nose and I was apretty accomplished visual
artist.
In high school I did likeceramics and stuff like that and
I've always had a good eye witha camera.
(31:32):
Well, I did some photography,so I brought this camera, shot
two rolls, got the pictures backand they like a couple of them
came out.
A lot of them were like shitand I was like these look like
shit.
And Lindsay was like why don'tyou take a class?
And I was at the camera storein New York, eggmore Film, b&h.
(31:53):
I was like, hey, you guys knowwhere you can take some classes?
They're like, yeah, theInternational Center of
Photography.
And I looked on their coursething and black and white film
photography.
One was like for beginners.
She was like starting in like aweek and I was like just
enrolled.
I was like honey, this class islike 500 bucks.
She's like just do it.
(32:15):
I was like okay, and I justwent and immediately, like you
know, we get to the class.
And people are like, yeah, youdid it all.
It was like what, how can youdo in photography?
What made you want to do filmphotography and people were like
, well, they're digitalphotography.
I just wanted to find out, likewhat it's really all about,
where the photography reallycomes from.
And I was like I'm old.
(32:37):
When I was a young person, thisis all photography was.
I found that it wasn't adistraction from being sad about
my brother dying.
It was like I could be a sadguy with a camera in my hand.
It was like black and whitephotography is actually like
(32:59):
kind of beautiful accompanimentto grief and sorrow and sadness
and the images.
You know, black and whitephotography are just kind of
they really lend themselves tojust being kind of sad as a
great kind of expression.
And you know it's in this classthat we're like okay, now we're
going to develop negatives andyou know you have to like take
(33:21):
the film out of the role inpitch darkness and get it onto
this wheel that you're thengoing to like put into a tank
and then put the chemicals onright.
Um, and I was like, fuck, I'mgoing to take the pictures that
I took, that I really want themto come out.
And I got to like be in pitchdarkness and get them onto this
real you know what if I mess itup and what if I can't do it?
(33:44):
And we, we had like dummy film,we're like doing it with our
eyes closed in the light.
And then it was like okay,we're gonna go in the dark and
we're gonna do this.
I turn the lights out and I wasstanding there in the pitch
darkness and I just like openedup my film and like that thing.
I'm like pitch darkness and theeyes are open.
You can't see anything.
And my shoulders went down.
(34:06):
I just like took a deep breathand I was like, fuck, I love
this.
I love this.
I just love being in the dark.
I'm like not thinking aboutanything and not escaping
anything.
I'm not not thinking aboutanything you know?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
No, you were being present in your moment.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yes, thank you, that's the perfect way of
putting it the awareness of likethe moment in the darkness,
removing an entire sense.
You're suddenly just likethere's nothing to do except get
the fucking film on thedarkness, removing an entire
sense.
You're suddenly just likethere's nothing to do except get
the fucking film on the real.
You know, and you have all thetime in the world to do it.
You suddenly realize like thelights are out, nobody can see,
nobody's looking at you.
Other people are having a hardtime, other people are having an
(34:46):
easy time.
Now I'm alone in a room doingit, yeah or not, it or not.
But in that moment, you know, Iwas just like it's in the dark,
like doing this thing and it'sfine, everything's going to be
okay, I just love it.
I just love it and I, over time,I spent decades like trying to
like approach, like a kind ofmastery of music, and from time
to time I just let them dosomething.
(35:07):
I'm not good at you know, butI'm like learning.
I'm in like black away and I'mstarting black and white
photography.
Three.
Now my teacher is this guy, jimMcGarvey, who's a legendary
printer.
He printed for Andy Leibovitzand he was like the in-house guy
for Vanity Fair and it's thisanalog craft which I love.
You know, it's something that,like people are people still
(35:29):
going to be doing this in 50years?
I don't even know, but I'mstill doing it, whether it's
like a dumb, doomed art form ornot, you know.
But like just to talk to yourlisteners, you know, who are
like creative, um want to docreative things.
I've always had a lot of trustand things that I get obsessed
(35:49):
with or get interested in,always like just followed my
nose and it all started like Iused to.
You know, I do a lot of threewriting.
I would like what you know, thefirst record's called
pocketbook kryptonite.
Like at that time I was lookingat my writing.
I was like I had pocketbookkryptonite.
I was looking at other thingsI'd written and they had pockets
and I was like, oh, pockets.
I'm always like writing aboutpockets.
(36:10):
It's limited.
Is that the only kind ofmetaphor I can make?
Sometimes I've been really indisguise.
I'm just like ugh, I suck, Ionly write about skies.
It's the only thing I can writeabout.
I'm a loser.
It's super limited.
And I was at the Van Gogh Museumin Amsterdam and I got to this
one floor.
It's a really interestingmuseum because it's got a lot of
(36:33):
his primary works, but it's gota lot of secondary and tertiary
works as well, like works thathe's not that famous for.
But look at this one floor,this whole room with these, like
you know, dango, he's got thatlike kind of like those thick
brushstrokes and it's like Ilook and there's this painting
that's like green and brown, youknow kind of lines, and I'm
(36:56):
like what's this?
And then look and it saysUndergrowth.
The title is Undergrowth.
And I look at the whole roomand I'm like, wow, this whole
room has similar paintings.
And I look at the title of thenext one and it's like
Undergrowth, and the next one isUndergrowth.
I look, pretty much everypicture in the room Is like
undergrowth and I thought, holdon a minute.
Vincent van Gogh Was likelooking at the weird shit
(37:19):
Growing underneath trees andpainting it Again and again and
again.
Dude was obsessed with fuckingUndergrowth.
That's so odd and so weird, buthe's Vincent van Gogh and it
was going somewhere and that forme was like, ah, you know,
(37:39):
whatever it is, you are likekind of obsessed with just
fucking.
Go with it.
You know, dive in both feet,just see where it takes you,
because that's what creativityis all about ah no, we're gonna
leave it on that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Such good words.
Thanks, man, you're always sogenerous with your time.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Oh, you guys, you guys are the best.
I uh, I'm so glad we, we uh, wehave this little like ongoing
conversation.
All right, take it easy.
I love you guys.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
All right, Amanda, that's all there is.
There is no more.
What do you think of that mess?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I mean, I just really like Chris.
He's a fascinating guy, buthe's also just so kind and so
genuine.
So I'm grateful that he iswilling to come on the podcast
and chat, but I'm also gratefulfor, you know, all of the
chatting we do around therecording and just feeling like
he's a friend.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So check out his new album, or the new album of his
band Face Full of Cake, it'scalled and then, when you listen
to it, drop us a linefamiliarwilsons at gmailcom and
let us know what you think.
All right, folks, until nextweek laugh, love, learn other
things that start with L andeven other letters, and enjoy
(38:53):
your, your life.
I really should write thesedown.
I really should write my outros.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
You should think anyway, go be kind.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Bye.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Bye.
Familiar Wilson's Media Relationships are the
story.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You are made of meat, my friend, all the way down.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The following podcast uses words like and and also.
If you're not into any of thatshit, then now's your chance
Three, two, one run.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm super familiar with the Wilsons Get it.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome to Super Familiar with the Wilsons.
I'm Amanda.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And I'm Josh Folks.
We've got our interview withChris Barron, lead singer of the
Spin Doctors, who are releasinga new album this week.
The new album is called FaceFull of Cake.
But first, amanda, we were justin a grocery store and I
noticed something that you didnot notice.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
How do you know?
I didn't notice it.
Oh, maybe you did notice it, Idon't know.
If I noticed it, what is it?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You wear perfume, right, you like to smell good.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, like several different.
I don't have like one scent.
I like several different things.
I don't wear them all at once,I just, depending on the whim of
my day, I wear somethingdifferent.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Wow, we haven't even started and you're already wound
up.
Do you think it's better tohave a neutral smell or a
pleasant smell?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I mean, a neutral smell is better than a bad smell
, but a pleasant smell is betterthan a neutral smell.
However, that is subjective,because some people like
different types of fragrances.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I think there's a universal smell that if you
smelled like this smell,everyone would welcome you with
open arms.
And I found that guy today withthe universal good smell.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Did you welcome him with your open arms?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I didn't, but I was really close.
We were walking down an aisleand I smelled breakfast.
Oh, oh, no, it was in thebookstore.
No, that's when we were in thebookstore and I smelled
breakfast.
And now you probably saw thissame guy.
So a guy was wearing a shirt toa breakfast cafe.
That will remain unnamed.
I did not see this, so Ismelled the smell first.
(01:54):
I looked around like is someonecooking breakfast?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We're not near him In the bookstore.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In the bookstore and then I see the guy in that shirt
and I'm like, well, surely it'sthat guy, because he, like, is
a cook there or something.
So I went and I walked by himand I did what I hope was a
surreptitious no, oh, that's so,you are creepy.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
He's going home and he's telling his friends got it.
I was in the bookstore todayand some middle-aged bald man
walked past me and be gentlesniffed just right when he got
to me as hard as he could.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I know, but it's not.
I didn't sniff that hard.
It's not like I went up to himand buried my nose in his cafe
shirt, but he definitely reekedin the best possible way of
breakfast.
Now, what a strange and lovelything to be.
And that is to smell likebreakfast, like a walking stack
of pancakes, sizzling baconwrapped up in a to-go bag and
(02:46):
just scrumptious, and I can'tthink of anything better to
taste to taste like.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Did you taste this, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I can't think of anything better to smell like
it's like instantly grounding,like that smell that everyone
loves.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Did it just smell like maple, like syrup?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
No, like it was like the whole suite of smells oh it
was just delightful.
Honestly, I think smelling likebreakfast should be a
compliment okay you smell likebreakfast.
In other words, you bring joyand familiarity and the promise
of a good morning and a fulltummy to start the day.
I just thought it was was great.
(03:24):
I was so happy.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm happy for you.
I did not smell that.
It's funny because I was justthinking like, what would you
call that?
What would that scent be called?
Just breakfast?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Oh, to breakfast, Like if you got the listen, some
of the fragrances you've gotten.
You know, fireplace, autumn andall that strange, weird,
unconventional name.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
By the Fireside is the name of it, not Fireplace.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But yes, whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, I have one that I get compliments on a lot, but
when people say, what are youwearing, I don't like saying it
because the name is just milk.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh, that's, ooh God.
I just instantly had a badfeeling in my mouth.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I just don't like telling people.
So it's this perfume brandcalled Commodity, not a sponsor.
No, Commodity.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Get in touch because Amanda thinks that you smell
really good, although I got someadvice on your naming.
But go ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And they're not inexpensive.
But I buy the small like the$15, like little small sampler
size of it and I really likemilk and I get a lot of
compliments on milk.
But I got their sampler andthere's paper moss book and I
think that's it.
Paper moss book and milk arethe ones I've had.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wait a second.
Why do you need both paper andbook?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I don't know, it's just a little subtle difference.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Jesus, okay, anyway, what is?
Your favorite unconventionalscent out there.
Listeners, FamiliarWilson's atgmailcom, Get in touch with us.
We did have the second game ofWinthrop's soccer season today
and you weren't there.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
You had to go look at some cows or some weird shit
like that I went to the vetschool open house because Muffy
has decided that she isinterested in eventually being a
vet.
So we went to the vet schoolopen house because Muffy has
decided that she is interestedin eventually being a vet, so we
went to the vet school openhouse.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And to be clear, a veterinarian vet, not a veteran.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes, we went to the veterinarian school.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So we meaning me and Winthrop went to his game and I
don't want to put too fine apoint on it again, but his team
is just not good, Just not good,Poor.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Winthrop, thankfully Poor, all the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, I will say that of all the children, his name
was called the most by the coach, and then even some of the
parents are getting to know himjust because he's always around
the ball.
Always he had three shots ongoal that unfortunately went
wide, but he's still trying andhe is still not discouraged by
the losing I know and I, evenlike the most diehard player,
(05:50):
eventually gets worn down bylosing, like the detroit lions,
the la clippers, all these teams, you know they start out, you
know, and everyone's morale isgood.
and then eventually, after yearsof losing it flags, I get that
he's not to that point yet andhe's still in that innocent,
rose colored glasses, wrappedfeeling of, oh, I just get to
run around and kick things.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, and he said last night.
He said honestly, I don't careif we win or lose, which is
great.
And I don't ever say to himlike, oh, I'm so sorry, you guys
lost, but I'm just I worryabout him just feeling defeated
because no one else is trying ashard as him, or whatever.
So but you said he's not thereyet.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So he's not there yet and I hope he never gets there.
I hope he keeps that joy oflife Now.
Hopefully they'll turn it allaround and you know he's getting
all these shots on goal.
Hopefully they'll connect atsome point and the season will
be saved and we don't have toworry about any of this.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
He wasn't upset that he missed the goals.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I don't think so.
All right, let's just keep itthat way.
But on to our conversation withChris Barron.
Now, this is going to be anunusual start to the
conversation.
It'll be, and maybe a res,because we just started chatting
with him to begin with when wefirst got on the call, and then
we just kind of bled into theinterview part of it and it
(07:02):
wasn't very graceful, so I'mjust going to fade the
conversation up, as we'rerailing against end-stage
capitalism and then, go
Speaker 3 (07:10):
straight.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But we talked about a whole host of things even
beforehand.
One note here he will refer tohis brother passing away, and
that's something that happenedlate in the year, last year.
So our heart continues to goout for him as he deals with
that.
But the reason why we got on totalk with him is that they are
releasing a new album, and bythey, of course, I mean his band
(07:33):
, the Spin Doctors, and I had achance to listen to it because
he sent it to us and it ispretty daggum good.
My favorite song when the albumdoes come out, it's the last
song.
It's called when you GotTurmoil in your Mind, and I like
that one the best.
And we got him on the phone totalk to him about his new album
(07:54):
and we ended up talking to himabout that, about his new hobby,
black and white photo taking,about his propensity for high
kicks on stage.
So it was a.
It was a wide ranging and greatconversation.
So enjoy our convo with ChrisBarron, lead singer of the spin
doctors.
The systems aren't making theworld a better place, are they?
(08:22):
I did.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
She man I can't remember this comedian's name,
but he was like talking abouthow like he was, like you know,
definitely think capitalism'shurt more people than it's
helped.
I really think like it would begreat if we could keep it going
until I'm rich and I'm finally,I finally think I'm about to
(08:46):
get rich.
So, like, just give it likemaybe four or five years and
then we can have, you can havethe meetings in my palace,
whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, speaking of getting rich, let's talk about
your new album.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh my God, we're going to get so rich.
Oh, and he goes, and he goes,and by palace I mean like a nice
two bedroom.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's right.
That's right, yeah.
And then I mean have you guysheard?
I sent you guys the record,right.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You did not.
That would be lovely.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, okay, I'm going to send you guys the link to
the record, have you guys?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
heard the single.
I have heard both singles.
Cool record.
Have you guys heard the single?
I have heard both singles andmy take is rock and roll.
Heaven is real like.
Totally reminds me of vintageyou guys, and then still a
gorilla feels real different tome in a good way, but it's like
it feels yeah by the way, nottrying to start any sort of beef
(09:42):
, but I'm a little annoyed onyour behalf at the article in
Rolling Stone.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
What did they say?
Oh are you breaking the news.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I don't know if I'm breaking the news.
Have you not read the article?
What about Gorilla?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, oh I was cool with that.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Okay, like I said, I was annoyed on your behalf
because it says Spin Doctorshave a new song and it kind of
rocks the surprisinglyhard-hitting single blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, like they'resurprised.
Why are you surprised?
I was like, can't you justunironically and
unapologetically like something?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
And the answer is no.
And those guys have kind of astoried history of, you know,
liking some stuff that wasreally bad and hating stuff that
was really good.
You know, like they hated leszeppelin, they were really like
mean to les zeppelin.
Yeah, I didn't have a problemwith that, I was psyched.
I was psyched to get somecoverage from rolling, I get it.
(10:42):
I get it, but actually you know,to circle back to what you said
, you know I always felt like wewere as heavy as any of these
bands out there.
If you look at tunes of ourslike refrigerator car, you know
in our case they ended up beingdeeper cuts because that's not
the way we were perceived.
The tracks that have alwaysbeen more forward have been the
little miss capybara and the twoprinces.
(11:03):
We We've got tunes likeShinbone, alley, bags of Dirt
and a lot of material that is asheavy as anything these grunge
guys ever did.
It just wasn't like you know,you had to kind of know the band
to know those tracks.
Aaron, our drummer, early on,had this idea, this approach
(11:24):
towards the material that wasreally brilliant and very
musical.
He was like we should havesongs with different tonal
landscapes, different rhythmsand different tempos and
different moods.
We've always had like the earcandy stuff.
(11:46):
We've always had, you know,stuff that was funky, stuff that
was rock and roll and stuffthat was heavy and stuff that
was in like odd time signatures,stuff that was angry, stuff
that was happy.
It's just mostly like the stuffthat we're best known for is
like the happy rock and funkystuff.
But if you listen to the wholealbums you know there's plenty
(12:08):
of like heavy shit on there.
But we've never really beenseen as a heavy band because the
songs were really famous for Imean, that used to be like kind
of a chip on my shoulder now I'mjust like happy to still be
around no, I get, I get that,but that's interesting though.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So when you look at how you were I mean packaged, I
guess looking back then youwould say like reality was a lot
different than reality, thespin doctors that that the label
pushed, or that just radiopushed, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think that's pretty accurate way of putting.
You know we were packaged andmarketed.
You know we were on like sonyin like the late 20th century,
like sony music, you know bandum.
That being said, you know Ithink there's sort of an
interesting commercialPhenomenon with spiners, because
(13:01):
we were like a grassroots jamband that had, you know, two
tremendous, tremendous hits.
We were lucky to have thesegreat, big hits and I think
that's why we're something of a,you know, if I may say, say
like household name at thispoint.
But if we hadn't had those, it'sinteresting to think of, like
(13:24):
how we might have been perceivedin the long run because you
know, we might have really endedup being sort of more like a
road dog, a fish kind of.
We are similar to fish.
If you look at the aggregate ofour material, you know there's
a.
There's a lot of variety inthere.
We're known for for the popstuff but you know, anybody who,
(13:47):
like you know, really listensto the entire albums comes out
and sees us live.
You know there's a lot of,there's a lot of other kinds of
material.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Which, by the way, having Phish's level of
notoriety, I I mean that wouldbe pretty good too.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I feel like oh yeah, I mean those guys are.
Those guys are huge and theyhave a different kind of thing.
You know what I mean?
Because we are known by manymore people for a smaller
percentage of what we do andthey, they are known like their
entirety of their Like.
What they do is known to likequite a large number of people
(14:24):
are.
You know?
I mean I really like.
It's weird because people willbe like yeah, I'm from Hungary
and your song was huge there.
I'm cool, I'm from Uruguay andyour song was huge there.
I just need people from all theround world over and they're
like yeah, they were pounding.
Your song to princess was themost played song, was huge there
.
I just need people from all theround world over and they're
like yeah, they were pounding.
Your song, for instance, wasthe most played song in the
(14:44):
world on the radio in 1994.
And it's been played on theradio 8 million times.
8 million plays on the radio.
Something like, if you, if you,if you made them like-to-end,
let's say that the song is threeminutes long, which is really
more like four minutes and eightseconds, I think is Two Princes
(15:07):
.
I mean it's decades, fortyyears or something like that
that's a crazy way to thinkabout it yeah Well as somebody
who graduated high school in1993, it's not been 40 years,
friend.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I refuse to believe that.
So now I have to look up andsee the runtime, because now I
want to know if you know.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Why would you doubt that?
He wouldn't know.
Come on now, don't, don't,don't.
Don't.
Do this to the guy.
What are you?
What's wrong with?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
you it could be a little Miss Capy wrong.
Little Miss Capy wrong might befour minutes and eight seconds,
I think.
Is now no, I want to know.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, see, this is what I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Welcome to my marriage pal.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, I fact check Josh all the time, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh no, it's fullness in 17 seconds.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh, you know, we call that around this house, we call
it a mansplaining.
Now wait a second On TwoPrinces, though.
Is that the album version orthe radio cut that takes off
part of the solo that I'm stillsalty about?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Oh, yeah, you're right, there is a radio cut.
Yeah, the radio cut might befour I don't know four minutes
and eight seconds.
That would make sense.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Sorry, I started this .
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Your listeners are like on the edge of their seats.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
now that's right, Don't worry, this didn't make
the edit All right.
So the new album.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, I mean the new album.
I'm really psyched about thenew album.
It's getting this really greatreaction and I think it's an
extremely entertaining album.
And, to go to what we weretalking about, it really falls
into that.
Aaron Comas designation ofsongs with different moods,
(16:45):
different tonalities, differentrhythms and different tempos,
straight up like ear candy, likerock and roll heaven.
We got some heavy stuff still agorilla and and everything in
between and some stuff beyond.
You know, songs like I likedyou better when your butt was
big, which is pretty freakinghilarious, and um boombox, which
(17:08):
is a single.
As someone who has not heardthis, I'm very excited about
that song yeah, I just said Ijust sent josh the link to the
record all so you guys canlisten to the record.
The way it was made is reallykind of indicative of how the
record came out.
We worked at Jack Daly's studioin Asbury Park.
(17:28):
We were going to stay at thisgreat hotel down there called
the Asbury.
We're shooting the Boomboxvideo down there on Monday and
I'm staying at that hotel.
But we went down there and Iwas doing dry january when we
were making the record and I gotthere and I was like where's
your fitness center?
And they were like we don'thave a fitness center, but our
bar is open until 2 30 and I waslike oh no, and I went out to
(17:51):
the car.
I was like, excuse me.
I went out to the car and Ifound this other hotel like a
half a mile away called asburybeach club, like twice the price
of the hotel we're staying in,and they had a gym and it looked
really nice and I was like,cool, I'll be right there the
next morning.
My room is beautiful, the gymwas gorgeous, had like an
(18:13):
avocado and wild mushroom, liketoast, you know, for breakfast
and and like got to the studioand told the guys like oh, it's
famous other hotel.
And like Aaron and Eric werelike, wait, what, I want to stay
there.
Oh, and I called her.
I called our manager and waslike hey, you know, I'm moving
to this more expensive hotel.
Whatever, I'll pay thedifference.
And then the other guys werelike no, I want to stay there
(18:35):
too.
So then I didn't end up havingto pay because it just became
part of the budget of the record, because we all stayed there
and we were just like waking upin the morning in our like hotel
robes and eating our likeavocado toast and drinking like
cappuccino.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You're so rock star.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, it was really like it was so nice and we're
basically like kind of livingtogether.
And then we'd all get in thecar, we and we're basically like
kind of living together, andthen we'd all get in the car.
We'd go to the studios like ahalf a mile away.
A lot of my favorite albumswere recorded like the band was
all living in a house togetheror it was like some kind of like
thing like that, like AirStudios in Montserrat or Led
(19:13):
Zeppelin Records, where I thinkLed Zeppelin 3 maybe was
recorded in this house in Walesand they're all just like living
there.
Exile on Main Street Wasrecorded at like Keith Richards'
house In Elkox.
So we were kind of like justliving together and going to the
studio.
It was very insular.
It was just the band and ourengineer Did like an amazing job
(19:37):
.
And the other Huge factor was wewere basically thinking that we
were demoing these songs.
We just went in.
We're like cool, just to demothese songs and like like two
days in we're like this shitsounds great, is this the record
?
And we're like I don't know man.
And then finally, like after acouple, we're like I think we
(20:00):
might be recording the record,but let's not say anything to
our manager.
So he came down at the end, waslike guys, this sounds really
good, we're like I think.
So he's like yeah, and thenhe's like I think we didn't
(20:22):
think of that.
So you know, it was like areally low pressure kind of
situation.
We weren't expected to producethe record and we were enjoying
the time, enjoying each other,and the record just got kind of
a three wheeling, truthful, fun,engaged kind of vibe to it.
It's getting this really greatreaction, that's my spiel.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That's your story.
I can't wait to hear it,particularly the Big Butt song.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Stop looking at my bottom.
He just looked at my bottomwhen he said that it's not okay,
he's profiling.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
He is profiling.
I think you guys will littlepassive profiling stage Like
profiling you for what.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Well, I mean, if you were to see her profile, will
you please?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
stop talking about my bottom on this podcast.
Let's talk about other things.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Anyway, that's cool.
It's interesting, though, atthis time in your lives as a
band and I truly don't know howit works in the music industry
and all this, and that I justknow that I hear about, or I
used to hear about, a lot oftimes oh, we're getting a lot of
pressure from the label tofinish our record and this and
that.
Are you just beyond that, ordoes that not apply in your case
(21:35):
?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Not in our case because we made this record and
then got signed to CapitalRecords.
We made this record because itdid actually, it's interesting,
it did like help us to fulfill acontractual obligation.
So we did need to deliver arecord to get like to finish an
(21:56):
old publishing deal of ours.
But it didn't have to be like agood record or a successful
record and there was no realpressure on us.
They didn't really care if wedeliver a record or not, because
you just want to keep being ourpublisher and we wanted to like
kind of move on, yeah.
So yeah, I mean in a sensewe're beyond that, um, in a
sense that there was like sortof a contractual obligation
(22:19):
around this record, but itdidn't have to be a good record.
It was like the time was rightand we hadn't made a record in a
long time.
You know, the guys had a lot ofmusic kicking around.
I had a lot of lyrics kickingaround.
I had some good songs kickingaround.
You know I wrote the music andlyrics to, um, rock and roll
(22:39):
heaven and um, about four of theother songs on the album and
then the rest of them are likeco-written.
So you know, still, a gorillawas a piece of music that aaron
had and I wrote the lyrics tothat, and so basically I read
all the lyrics you know, and theguys, the guys compose some of
the music and then some of thesongs I write, um.
(22:59):
so there's a lot of goodmaterial kind of kicking around
and then some of the songs Iwrite.
So there's a lot of goodmaterial kind of kicking around
and, like I said, we juststumbled into this great
recording situation that wassuper low pressure and super
high fun.
That's a great recipe.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I was going to say that's the rock and roll dream
right there.
So I got this question thatI've wanted to ask you the last
two times Ever since we came andsaw you at the Vanilla Ice
thing.
So I got this question thatI've wanted to ask you the last
two times Ever since we came andsaw you at the Vanilla Ice
thing.
You remember this Vanilla Ice90s Fest.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And I had texted you right after complimenting you on
your stage kicks, on your highkicks.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's funny because this Rolling Stone article makes
a mention frontman ChrisBarron's half-spoken vocals end
up sounding an awful lot likedavid lee roth, and when I read
that it clicked in that thatyour stage presence to me
reminds me of across being mickjagger and and david lee roth,
just because you're just allover the place and you're
(23:53):
emoting, you know, along withthe song yeah because there was
there a lot of intention orthought and put into it?
or are you just like a theaterkid at heart and when you're on
stage you want to just do allthe things?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, when I was a kid, the jump video, david Lee
Roth, he did like a fan kicklike that.
Oh yeah In that video.
But I actually like I forgotabout that impressed with that
move later on, when the band wasfirst getting together, eric
(24:24):
shankman, he just showed me hewas 25, I was 20 and he played
me a lot of records and heshowed me a bunch of videos and
was just sort of like we justwere kind of getting caught up
and you know, he knew a lot ofstuff that I didn't know and he
was sort of like all right, youneed to know this, you need to
know this.
So he showed me a james brownvideo and james brown did the
(24:45):
the fan kick the leg over themic stand.
And I saw that and I was likewait, a minute, I could, I can
do that.
And if I do that move, peopleare gonna be like wait, what you
know like a big part of like aperformance is basically the
assertion like I can dosomething that you cannot do.
(25:06):
You know you have to be doingstuff in the audience absolutely
can't do.
So most people would rather,you know, face machined on fire
than like sing in public.
You know, let alone like speakin public, let alone sing in
public.
You know, let alone like speakin public, let alone sing in
public.
So you know you're already likeahead of the game because
you're singing in front ofpeople.
But if you add in somethinglike a leg over the mic stand,
(25:30):
people are going to be impressedand you're going to basically
dominate the audience.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
There's like what you're doing is you're basically
lifting your leg and peeing onthe audience to claim your
dominance over them.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, it's not too different, especially in New
York city.
You know, we were playing theseclubs in New York city and the
audience was like they weretough and they've seen
everything and really you had towin them over on a lot of
different levels.
When I was coming up, we wouldtalk about singers and we would
(26:02):
talk about their singing.
We'd talk about theirsongwriting.
We'd also talk about theirpattern Me and John Popper.
We would talk about the olderguys who were fronting bands
around town.
We would talk about theirpatter and that was a big deal.
So you have to be able to talkto the audience.
People had different styles butyou had to be able to make them
(26:23):
drop their guard and disarmthem and some people did it in
very aggressive kinds of waysand some people did it through
humor.
Some people were just kind ofbizarre.
I was always grounded as a kidso I didn't see a lot of bands.
Bands would come through townand a lot of times I didn't get
(26:43):
to see them.
So I saw the ramones, I sawjoey ramone, I saw the dead
kennedys, so I saw jello biafra,saw a lot of hardcore bands.
Um, I saw little shows but alot of times like um, the who
was on tour and the clash wereopening and I was grounded.
I didn't see that show.
I didn't see like rogeradultery, uh van halen, you know
, come to town, I'd be grounded,I didn't see.
(27:05):
You too, I didn't see any ofthe bands.
I didn't.
I never saw the stones until Iwas an adult, so I kind of had
to make that.
One of the reasons I'm so weirdon stage is because I just had
to make all this shit up becauseI really did many.
Of course it wasn't youtube.
Eric had some vhs's of likesome stuff, like he had like a
(27:25):
vhs of james brown.
He also had this really coolvhs that somebody just made with
a camcorder of like these guysin a little village in Cuba just
playing like Cuban music, likea conga band.
We used to watch that beforegigs to get psyched up, you know
.
So I mean, I just like sorry, Ilike.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm like half a beat behind, but that visual is
really good.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I know it was like that's what I'm talking about.
It beat behind, but that visualis really good.
I know it was like that's whatI'm talking about.
It was just like I knew thebands in the city.
But I just, like you know, Ireally had to make a lot of this
stuff up on the fly, so a lotof it just comes from.
You know, later, on the leg ofthe mic stand, I remembered
directly inspired by James Brown.
But later on I remember like,oh shit, there was also that
(28:15):
David Lee Roth video and thatmade a huge impression on me as
a young person, but I wasn'tthinking of that when I
initially did it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, I love this story even more though.
Yeah, that's some James Brownshit.
I love that even more, but it'sall stagecraft which, by the
way, your wife Lindsay NicoleChamicole chambers, is on
broadway.
You ever considered going onthe boards, have you ever?
Is that ever a conversationyou've had?
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I was kind of like the shit hot actor in my high
school there you go, if you dosay so yourself a lot of front
men, a lot of like lead singers.
In their high school theyplayed the stage manager and our
our town by thornton wilder andI.
I played the stage manager inour town by thornton wilder.
(29:02):
You know I was kind of that kidin my high school.
No, I yeah I would love to dosome acting but it just kind of
like never come my way.
I co-wrote a musical called uhmusical version of faust way
back the end of the 90s and Iwas in that uh, but I haven't
done too much acting.
I'm totally I'd love to do someacting.
(29:23):
I think I'd be really good.
I always say like I'd like tobe the guy in the movie you know
who has like a couple of linesand you kind of like him and
then he gets killed.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I mean, at least you know your lane, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I'd love to be that guy Like I don't know guys, I
think this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And then he gets shot Brilliant.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Okay, well, one last thing for before I let you go.
What was it that you looked ata, at a non-digital camera, and
you said this will be somethingthat I'd probably be super into
because, like your, yourpictures are pretty cool and and
you mentioned well, you'vementioned to me before, and you
mentioned off air, when we'retalking that you've taken
classes yeah like what?
What is it about stillphotography that captured your
(30:05):
interest?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
well, my grandfather was a pretty accomplished
amateur photographer when I wasa kid.
So he bought me a camera and Idid photography when I was a kid
.
I wish I had some of thepictures that I took from back
then, but I don't know wherethey are.
Then in the 90s I I bought likea an old leica um that I picked
(30:27):
up in a camera shop in portlandat the beginning of the horde
tour and I was taking somepictures back then.
So I've had this what sustainedinterest.
But then when my brother died, Ijust I was at a flea market and
there was a guy who had a standwith a bunch of cameras and I
saw this camera and I was likehow much for the camera?
(30:47):
For that one it was like 140bucks.
I was like cool, does it work?
The guy's like yeah, and I justbought it and I started taking
pictures and I've always hadlike kind of want to feel really
bad.
When I was young that I feltbad, which was a lot of the time
, because you guys know I grewup in a really difficult
situation.
I turned to music, you know,but after decades of doing music
(31:11):
, you know, I kind of like whenI feel really bad.
I turn kind of to somethingelse.
So you know, I saw this cameraand creatively I've always just
followed my nose and I was apretty accomplished visual
artist.
In high school I did likeceramics and stuff like that and
I've always had a good eye witha camera.
(31:32):
Well, I did some photography,so I brought this camera, shot
two rolls, got the pictures backand they like a couple of them
came out.
A lot of them were like shitand I was like these look like
shit.
And Lindsay was like why don'tyou take a class?
And I was at the camera storein New York, eggmore Film, b&h.
(31:53):
I was like, hey, you guys knowwhere you can take some classes?
They're like, yeah, theInternational Center of
Photography.
And I looked on their coursething and black and white film
photography.
One was like for beginners.
She was like starting in like aweek and I was like just
enrolled.
I was like honey, this class islike 500 bucks.
She's like just do it.
(32:15):
I was like okay, and I justwent and immediately, like you
know, we get to the class.
And people are like, yeah, youdid it all.
It was like what, how can youdo in photography?
What made you want to do filmphotography and people were like
, well, they're digitalphotography.
I just wanted to find out, likewhat it's really all about,
where the photography reallycomes from.
And I was like I'm old.
(32:37):
When I was a young person, thisis all photography was.
I found that it wasn't adistraction from being sad about
my brother dying.
It was like I could be a sadguy with a camera in my hand.
It was like black and whitephotography is actually like
(32:59):
kind of beautiful accompanimentto grief and sorrow and sadness
and the images.
You know, black and whitephotography are just kind of
they really lend themselves tojust being kind of sad as a
great kind of expression.
And you know it's in this classthat we're like okay, now we're
going to develop negatives andyou know you have to like take
(33:21):
the film out of the role inpitch darkness and get it onto
this wheel that you're thengoing to like put into a tank
and then put the chemicals onright.
Um, and I was like, fuck, I'mgoing to take the pictures that
I took, that I really want themto come out.
And I got to like be in pitchdarkness and get them onto this
real you know what if I mess itup and what if I can't do it?
(33:44):
And we, we had like dummy film,we're like doing it with our
eyes closed in the light.
And then it was like okay,we're gonna go in the dark and
we're gonna do this.
I turn the lights out and I wasstanding there in the pitch
darkness and I just like openedup my film and like that thing.
I'm like pitch darkness and theeyes are open.
You can't see anything.
And my shoulders went down.
(34:06):
I just like took a deep breathand I was like, fuck, I love
this.
I love this.
I just love being in the dark.
I'm like not thinking aboutanything and not escaping
anything.
I'm not not thinking aboutanything you know?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
No, you were being present in your moment.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yes, thank you, that's the perfect way of
putting it the awareness of likethe moment in the darkness,
removing an entire sense.
You're suddenly just likethere's nothing to do except get
the fucking film on thedarkness, removing an entire
sense.
You're suddenly just likethere's nothing to do except get
the fucking film on the real.
You know, and you have all thetime in the world to do it.
You suddenly realize like thelights are out, nobody can see,
nobody's looking at you.
Other people are having a hardtime, other people are having an
(34:46):
easy time.
Now I'm alone in a room doingit, yeah or not, it or not.
But in that moment, you know, Iwas just like it's in the dark,
like doing this thing and it'sfine, everything's going to be
okay, I just love it.
I just love it and I, over time,I spent decades like trying to
like approach, like a kind ofmastery of music, and from time
to time I just let them dosomething.
(35:07):
I'm not good at you know, butI'm like learning.
I'm in like black away and I'mstarting black and white
photography.
Three.
Now my teacher is this guy, jimMcGarvey, who's a legendary
printer.
He printed for Andy Leibovitzand he was like the in-house guy
for Vanity Fair and it's thisanalog craft which I love.
You know, it's something that,like people are people still
(35:29):
going to be doing this in 50years?
I don't even know, but I'mstill doing it, whether it's
like a dumb, doomed art form ornot, you know.
But like just to talk to yourlisteners, you know, who are
like creative, um want to docreative things.
I've always had a lot of trustand things that I get obsessed
(35:49):
with or get interested in,always like just followed my
nose and it all started like Iused to.
You know, I do a lot of threewriting.
I would like what you know, thefirst record's called
pocketbook kryptonite.
Like at that time I was lookingat my writing.
I was like I had pocketbookkryptonite.
I was looking at other thingsI'd written and they had pockets
and I was like, oh, pockets.
I'm always like writing aboutpockets.
(36:10):
It's limited.
Is that the only kind ofmetaphor I can make?
Sometimes I've been really indisguise.
I'm just like ugh, I suck, Ionly write about skies.
It's the only thing I can writeabout.
I'm a loser.
It's super limited.
And I was at the Van Gogh Museumin Amsterdam and I got to this
one floor.
It's a really interestingmuseum because it's got a lot of
(36:33):
his primary works, but it's gota lot of secondary and tertiary
works as well, like works thathe's not that famous for.
But look at this one floor,this whole room with these, like
you know, dango, he's got thatlike kind of like those thick
brushstrokes and it's like Ilook and there's this painting
that's like green and brown, youknow kind of lines, and I'm
(36:56):
like what's this?
And then look and it saysUndergrowth.
The title is Undergrowth.
And I look at the whole roomand I'm like, wow, this whole
room has similar paintings.
And I look at the title of thenext one and it's like
Undergrowth, and the next one isUndergrowth.
I look, pretty much everypicture in the room Is like
undergrowth and I thought, holdon a minute.
Vincent van Gogh Was likelooking at the weird shit
(37:19):
Growing underneath trees andpainting it Again and again and
again.
Dude was obsessed with fuckingUndergrowth.
That's so odd and so weird, buthe's Vincent van Gogh and it
was going somewhere and that forme was like, ah, you know,
(37:39):
whatever it is, you are likekind of obsessed with just
fucking.
Go with it.
You know, dive in both feet,just see where it takes you,
because that's what creativityis all about ah no, we're gonna
leave it on that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Such good words.
Thanks, man, you're always sogenerous with your time.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Oh, you guys, you guys are the best.
I uh, I'm so glad we, we uh, wehave this little like ongoing
conversation.
All right, take it easy.
I love you guys.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
All right, Amanda, that's all there is.
There is no more.
What do you think of that mess?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I mean, I just really like Chris.
He's a fascinating guy, buthe's also just so kind and so
genuine.
So I'm grateful that he iswilling to come on the podcast
and chat, but I'm also gratefulfor, you know, all of the
chatting we do around therecording and just feeling like
he's a friend.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So check out his new album, or the new album of his
band Face Full of Cake, it'scalled and then, when you listen
to it, drop us a linefamiliarwilsons at gmailcom and
let us know what you think.
All right, folks, until nextweek laugh, love, learn other
things that start with L andeven other letters, and enjoy
(38:53):
your, your life.
I really should write thesedown.
I really should write my outros.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
You should think anyway, go be kind.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Bye.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Bye.
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