November 14, 2025 • 17 mins
Amber Banda interviews El Paso's Jim Ward, founding member of At The Drive-In and Sparta. He is going to be performing Dec 8th with headliners Thursday and guests Mercy Union.
.
Jim has been good friends with Geoff and the guys of the post hardcore band Thursday for over 20 years. They will be performing at the Lowbrow Palace Dec 8th, doors opening at 6:30pm.
.
Amber and Jim talk about how this concert came to fruition, what songs usually get the biggest reaction, what to expect from his set at this concert, him performing solo vs with the band, and advice he has for aspiring musicians. Amber gets personal about how his music has helped her throughout her life, her favorite Sparta song, and more. Jim also gives a HUGE announcement for all the Sparta fans so tune in and get excited!
.
Get tickets for the show now at lowbrowpalace.com
.
Jim has been good friends with Geoff and the guys of the post hardcore band Thursday for over 20 years. They will be performing at the Lowbrow Palace Dec 8th, doors opening at 6:30pm.
.
Amber and Jim talk about how this concert came to fruition, what songs usually get the biggest reaction, what to expect from his set at this concert, him performing solo vs with the band, and advice he has for aspiring musicians. Amber gets personal about how his music has helped her throughout her life, her favorite Sparta song, and more. Jim also gives a HUGE announcement for all the Sparta fans so tune in and get excited!
.
Get tickets for the show now at lowbrowpalace.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, I am here talking with El Paso Zone,
Jim Ward, founding member of at the Drive In and Sparta.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jim, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm good. Thanks thanks for having me good.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good, I'm doing good. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Now we're going to talk about this concert coming up
December eighth.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's going to be at Lowbro Palace.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's going to be Thursday, another one of my absolute
favorite bands, yourself, Jim Ward and Mercy Union.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Now Thursday that Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Their song Understanding in a Car Crash, I swear you know,
along with a lot of the Sparta songs, defined a
big part of my life. So you have twenty plus
years of friendship with be with Thursday, No jof Tom, Steve, Timtucker,
the guys. How did this concert come about?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Why?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Now?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Like what made you say let's do this?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So I just joined it. I didn't have anything to
do with put in together. I think Jeff came through
on the Anthony Green tour a couple of months ago,
and I unfortunately was I mean not unfortunately. I was
on the road at a time, so unfortunately missed them
being in town, which is always a bummer, Uh to
miss your friends when they're in your hometown. Yeah, but
but I think Jeff sort of talked to people while
(01:09):
he was here and and then you know, according to
their manager, he Jeff just went on their on their
group text chat and was like, Yo, we gotta we
got to come back. It's been a minute. And yeah,
I assume they just kind of booked it then. And
then I just yeah, I got a call from their
management and said, do you want to play solo? And
I said, yeah, of course. It's it's it's home and
(01:30):
I don't play here very often, but I liked for
it to be a thing when I do, so this
is a good reason to play and to have my friends,
you know, to have my friends in town, not with
the day off, which unfortunately our city sees so many
days off from from bands instead of shows. I'm glad
that they're doing it, and they're they're a band that's
that's full of of power and passion and and brilliance
(01:54):
and I can't wait, you know, to sort of just
I love seeing them either way, but to see him
at home is is great, and a player show with
them is better, right.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean, the last time I saw Thursday Who it
was years ago, and that was my first crowd surface
to one of their songs.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It was at the Warped tour.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah. People, I mean, I'm I'm on country radio here
in I'll passa but people don't know I grew up
like a rocker, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So yeah that was awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So what when you play your music, I want to
know what songs get the biggest reaction.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So at a Sparta show or just at a solo show,
I mean, it's kind of the same thing. So I
sort of end most things with air. It's sort of
like the you know, just the I don't know classic.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like every band has has their so yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I mean, so there's some songs that I can play,
Like I like playing solo shows because I get to
play things that I can't play in Sparta, right, So
I have I have like a Sleepercar record, a couple
of Sleepercar records. I have, you know, two or three
solo records. Yes, And I don't ever play that stuff
in at Sparta shows. I just play Sparta songs. So
(03:02):
when I get to play solo, then I get to
sort of mixed smatch everything and play a bunch of stuff.
And I do I play by myself almost always. Sometimes
I have a band, but this time I'll be by myself,
which also allows me to change the dynamics of the songs.
It allows me to change I can sort of go
a little bit more on the fly and sort of
bring things really down, yeah, and feel the energy in
the room and then bring it back up. And and
(03:23):
also it gives me a chance, you know, when I'm
on stage with the guys, with Matt and Neil, I
try to keep the talking sort of to a minimum
and just have like the rock show going on.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, I play by myself.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's a bit more time to sort of tell stories
or to explain what songs mean without feeling like I'm
just boring the pants off the rest of the band.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
More intimate, like, well, because I heard her more intimate.
I heard your solo version of one of my absolute
favorite songs, breaking the Broken, And for me, it's tough
for me to like two songs when I'm so used
to one version. But I was, like, I loved that
version just because of the lyrics, like the lyrics that
you have.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
In your music.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
You know, I'm being selfish here and relating it to me,
but it just they're so deep and they're so like
you know, with country music, there's because again I'm on
the country station, there's storytelling, which is beautiful, but there's
not a lot of room for translation. And with your music,
like it could mean a million different things to a
million different people, and I just love about your music.
So you know, I'm really excited for this show. Are
(04:22):
you working on anything new right now for yourself?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So Sparta has a new record coming out April third,
okay eight right now. So we have announced that it's coming,
we don't We haven't announced the title, we haven't announced
where it's coming out on okay, but we have said
that the record's done and I love it and I'll
definitely be playing at least one song off of that.
Oh exciting. Yeah, I'm super excited about this record. And
(04:47):
when we start that full cycle of press and everything,
I'll let you know and oh please and give you
the records so you can listen to it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh my god, I'm so excited. Okay, awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And so you know you said that when your friends
you know, you're inmates come into town you're not here,
it's kind of a bummer. But now that you both
are going to be here, and when you are able
to see them here in your hometown, what do you
like to take your friends to do? Because you have
a huge passion for your city, so what do you
like to take them to see kind of just maybe.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Not have enough time? What does that work?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's always funny because we'll probably see each other
less on a show day than well, you know what
I mean, because they're busy and they're working, and you know,
when you're on the road, I think people sort of
assume it's just like you're hanging out until you play,
but there's actually a ton of work that goes on
behind it. Plus everybody has other things that they're doing
and other projects are working on, and you know, sometimes
(05:36):
people are like, well, this day's laundry day, right, so
then that occupies like an hour or two hours, and
we have yeah, yeah, but you know, there's like obviously
the thing that the most important thing is to make
sure that they're healthy and happy and fed, and if
they want to get a drink or food or coffee,
then I can take them somewhere that I feel is
representative of our city. I mean, I'd love to do more.
(05:59):
And sometimes you know, people have a couple of days. Often, yeah,
we do more stuff. But honestly, what I can say
with one hundred percent honesty is that when my friends
are in this town, the first thing that they always
say is that the people in the city are the best,
kindest people. You know. From Thursday, when cold Play was
in town for a couple of days, they made sure
(06:20):
to let me know how great the people in the
city were. They made a point of telling me that.
So I feel like, I feel proud of the city
and I love I love when my friends are here,
and I love when they get to meet our community
because I think we shine.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, that's actually the number one response I get too.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
When I interview different people that have been in al
Passa before and they're coming back different artists or comedians
or whoever, that's the same response. They love the people.
And you know, I've I've done a bit of traveling myself.
I've never lived anywhere else for too long, but I
definitely understand where they're coming from. The people of all
Passo is what makes al Passoil a'l passo. And you're
(06:57):
no stranger to touring. You've toured all over the world
many times again. You recently opened for Coldplay here and
I'll pass. So what advice do you have for aspiring artists,
especially here from all pass?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But pretty much, I guess for anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
There's this there's this quote from this movie called Empire
of the Sun that's like one of my favorite movies.
And the kid is telling the dad they're very fortunate family, right,
it's the beginning of the movie before they're not fortunate.
But at the beginning, the kid is saying like, oh,
you know, we're so lucky, and the dad says, it's funny.
The harder I work, the luckier we.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Get, right, I've heard that quote.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, So my advice usually is just to do the
work if you want it. I'm no stranger to not
doing the work and then feeling disappointed when something doesn't
come my way because I haven't been in the effort
for it. But I mean to me, obviously, this industry
changes rapidly. It's changed since I started. I started touring
when I was eighteen. I'm forty eight forty nine, so
(07:54):
it's like quite a few years of doing this. But
the one thing that really hasn't changed is touring is
playing live. So if you live in the city where
you can play live in multiple areas like around the
LA area or the New York area, you're a little
bit luckier in the sense that you can you can
sort of branch out for an hour, hour and a half,
two hours, come home. We don't have that necessarily here,
(08:17):
So I think for us it's a bit like if
you're going to tour, you kind of just have to
take the leap and just go for a week or
two weeks or three weeks or four weeks or whatever
it is, and just find your way. But yeah, my
number one if you want to do you know, like
Henry Wallin said it best, like get in the van.
That's it. Yeah, just do it in the van and
do it. And then it's it's easier on this end
(08:38):
of it once you've already done it to say get
get in the van. I know it was hard. Was
it was hard for us, and we overcame a lot
of stuff, and we sacrificed a lot of stuff, and
we missed a lot of things, and we lost a
lot of friendships and relationships and all that stuff is
just it's sort of it comes with the territory, right,
And that's definitely I've toured with people that went for
(08:59):
a minute and then and said like I don't ever
want to do this again. Yeah, I get it, and
no shame.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, I mean it's like that saying for anyone in
any industry, you're going to fail and to fail your
way to success.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Right, just just you know, start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
The ten thousand hour thing is not a joke. You know,
show that it takes ten thousand hours to get to
get great. It's something like that's true. Play every show,
you can play everywhere, you can do everything you can.
As long as it's fun for you and worthwhile, then
you'll get better at it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Right. As long as you have APO.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Upwards is definitely part of this.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So, speaking of touring, my daughter, she's twenty, huge fan
of the music. She has a question and I know
this is a very difficult question for you. You don't have
to say just one name, but who is your favorite
band to tour with or some of your favorite bands
to tour with?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, putting you on the spot a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean there's kind of like there's like eras, right,
So there's this like nostalgic era of like sort of
the height about the I've in like the ninety nine
two thousand around there where we were spending so much
time with the band the Murder Study Devils. They were
like our buddies and they we toured all over I
mean the US and we toured the UK with them,
and it just became this big roaming family of like
(10:15):
twenty people or fifteen people or however many. There was
tons of us. So there's kind of that era, you know,
where yeah, we're all figuring out, we're all cutting our
teeth and it's all all of this is like a
new experience and the first time you see paparazzi and
the first time you're on a bus and the first
time all these like brand new things. I think as
the years go on, it gets sort of more into
(10:36):
less into that kind of crew mentality, and then it
falls more into the sort of like really deeper personal relationships.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
A good family.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One of my favorite people in the world is Jeff Rickley.
One of my favorite people to spend time with is Jeff.
We're so similar. We can spend years away from each
other and come back and it's like nothing changed. So
that's again like just to bring it back to this show,
we did the Wiretap Tour in twenty two, I think
or twenty three to twenty two, and he was he
(11:06):
was our support, so he came and played solo every
night on that on the US tour, and just how
he wrote in our van, like, we just got to
spend tons of time together and and there's a there's
a comfort and a confidence that you have been around
somebody that you know that well, where you sort of
intrinsically feel safe. And I think when you tour, right,
(11:27):
it's a bubble. We all live in this little bubble
and we go from city to city, and we tend
to be pretty insular, right, because you know, there's you
have to be in a lot of reasons. You have
to be kind of expective of each other and yourself.
So when you have somebody that is with you that
you can just let your guard down and be safe
with and emotionally and mentally and just physically feel safe around,
(11:50):
then it's a great feeling. And he is an incredibly
decent human being. So I'm so proud to be his friend,
and I'm so excited that him and the boys are
coming and talk. You know, me and Tucker are tight,
So yeah, to see and Steve and and Stu. I
haven't spent a lot of time with Stu, and I'm
not actually sure who's playing guitar on this tour yet.
(12:13):
That's going to be great. They have sort of revolving
guitar players.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And are you familiar with Mercy Union because there I'm
assuming Thursday brought them because they're both Jersey bands.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah, I know, I'm not actually familiar with them, so okay,
that'll be fun too. But also also in this business,
sometimes you show up and you're like, oh, I know you.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah right, yeah, I believe that happens.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And when you're talking about having that person or if
you're lucky enough people to have that safeness with where
you can be yourself, I'm sure it helps on stage.
And it helps a lot too to know someone you
know that's going through what you're going through, because you're
in a very unique and great and sometimes kind of
bad position where you're doing touring and you have these
people around you that want you for this or want
(12:50):
you for that, and you have like, are you talking
to me because you want something because of who I am?
Are you talking to me because you genuinely like who
I am? As a person, not for what you can
get from me, and I think that's probably why you
have that bond with other people that know what you're
going through. So that's amazing, and I, you know, I
just wanted to, on a more personal level, tell.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
You that you know your your music.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
There was a time where you know, I listened to
your music to not take my life, and then there
was a time where eventually it helped me get through life.
And then there was a time where now I'm at
the point where I use it to enjoy my life,
especially that song Breaking and Broken.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Absolutely love it. I would regret it immensely if I
didn't tell you that.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And with that being said, you know, I like to say,
because again I'm on the country music station. Rock music
saved me, country music pays me, right, I have immense
respect for both. So with that being said, are you
a fan or do you enjoy any country songs or
any country artists?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So, first off, I love country and okay, okay from
my grandfather, who unfortunately passed before I met him, used
to pick on Friday nights with with my grand other
would play piano and they'd sing just old standard country songs.
Oh wow, it comes It's in my blood for sure.
And I have a band. I have a band called
Sleeper Car, which is kind of country asks right, so
(14:11):
we sort of say all country or or whatever you
want to call it. Yeah, I'm sort of like the
outlaw country stuff. But somebody like Jason Isabelle, he gets
me every time, like in that in that range of country,
sort of the the emotional like you know, I'm a
sucker for like a hard drinking, hard love and broken
(14:33):
hearted country song for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, Yeah, for sure, I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm not a huge commercial country fan, but I also
respect the hell out of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I think that people that can get up and do
we I mean, Christina and I went to go see
Jelly Roll when he was in town and I loved it.
I thought it, Yeah, I mean the whole thing, the
the energy and the message and the performance and the
theatrics and the production, all of that was was great.
I think as a young man, I probably turned my
nose up to a lot of stuff because I was
trying to fit into her role. And that's what a
(15:05):
lot of young people go through. And I don't think
there's anything wrong with that. You're trying to find yourself
and sometimes you have to like really put on the
blinders in order to see where you're trying to go.
I think as you get older, those blinders sort of
open up a bit and you can appreciate things on
a different level.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think Taylor Swift is single handedly saved a section
of music that is amazing young kids by Vinyl Records
because of her.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, they're watching football now, right.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They're watching football. But also remember these kids have blinders
on right now, and they're Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift.
But as they get older, those are going to open
up and they're going to start saying like, oh, this
is beautiful, Oh this is cool, Oh Iggy pop is amazing.
Oh Patty Smith or you know what, Like you're gonna
start going backwards and see all of the things that
made Taylor Swift and all of that production and all
(15:52):
that stuff possible. And I just have a lot of
respect for that, especially her as a human being. The
way she treats her crew. It's well reported how good
she is to them, and that is not normal, So
hopefully it comes more normal.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, I think you know, they could have I think
she's a pretty good role model, you know, considering a
lot of them that are out there, you know, to
be a swifty. I don't think it's a bad thing.
I'm not a swifty. I respect her, I like a
lot of her music. I'm not you know, we have
a swifty in the in.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The in the group.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But no, I agree with what you said, and you know,
Jim Ward, it's been an absolute pleasure. Is there anything
else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
No, just you know, thanks for the thank you for
supporting us during Girls Rock Camp this summer. It's good
to see you again. And thanks to everybody who's who's
you know, just makes this community what it is. I'm
a product of this community. I'm no better, no worse
than anybody, but I'm definitely grateful.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well, you're doing a lot of good things in l
Passo to all passo for all passo.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So thank you and again, Jim Ward.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He's going to be performing with Thursday featuring also guests
Mercy Union, December eighth at low Bra Palette. That's a
confusing name, Thursday, right. I always thought about the band like, oh,
the show's Thursday. No. The bands December eighth, at Lowbrow
Palace dot com is where you can get your tickets. Jim,
thank you so much for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate you very much.
All right, I am here talking with El Paso Zone,
Jim Ward, founding member of at the Drive In and Sparta.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jim, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm good. Thanks thanks for having me good.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good, I'm doing good. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Now we're going to talk about this concert coming up
December eighth.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's going to be at Lowbro Palace.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's going to be Thursday, another one of my absolute
favorite bands, yourself, Jim Ward and Mercy Union.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Now Thursday that Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Their song Understanding in a Car Crash, I swear you know,
along with a lot of the Sparta songs, defined a
big part of my life. So you have twenty plus
years of friendship with be with Thursday, No jof Tom, Steve, Timtucker,
the guys. How did this concert come about?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Why?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Now?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Like what made you say let's do this?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So I just joined it. I didn't have anything to
do with put in together. I think Jeff came through
on the Anthony Green tour a couple of months ago,
and I unfortunately was I mean not unfortunately. I was
on the road at a time, so unfortunately missed them
being in town, which is always a bummer, Uh to
miss your friends when they're in your hometown. Yeah, but
but I think Jeff sort of talked to people while
(01:09):
he was here and and then you know, according to
their manager, he Jeff just went on their on their
group text chat and was like, Yo, we gotta we
got to come back. It's been a minute. And yeah,
I assume they just kind of booked it then. And
then I just yeah, I got a call from their
management and said, do you want to play solo? And
I said, yeah, of course. It's it's it's home and
(01:30):
I don't play here very often, but I liked for
it to be a thing when I do, so this
is a good reason to play and to have my friends,
you know, to have my friends in town, not with
the day off, which unfortunately our city sees so many
days off from from bands instead of shows. I'm glad
that they're doing it, and they're they're a band that's
that's full of of power and passion and and brilliance
(01:54):
and I can't wait, you know, to sort of just
I love seeing them either way, but to see him
at home is is great, and a player show with
them is better, right.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean, the last time I saw Thursday Who it
was years ago, and that was my first crowd surface
to one of their songs.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It was at the Warped tour.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah. People, I mean, I'm I'm on country radio here
in I'll passa but people don't know I grew up
like a rocker, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So yeah that was awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So what when you play your music, I want to
know what songs get the biggest reaction.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So at a Sparta show or just at a solo show,
I mean, it's kind of the same thing. So I
sort of end most things with air. It's sort of
like the you know, just the I don't know classic.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like every band has has their so yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I mean, so there's some songs that I can play,
Like I like playing solo shows because I get to
play things that I can't play in Sparta, right, So
I have I have like a Sleepercar record, a couple
of Sleepercar records. I have, you know, two or three
solo records. Yes, And I don't ever play that stuff
in at Sparta shows. I just play Sparta songs. So
(03:02):
when I get to play solo, then I get to
sort of mixed smatch everything and play a bunch of stuff.
And I do I play by myself almost always. Sometimes
I have a band, but this time I'll be by myself,
which also allows me to change the dynamics of the songs.
It allows me to change I can sort of go
a little bit more on the fly and sort of
bring things really down, yeah, and feel the energy in
the room and then bring it back up. And and
(03:23):
also it gives me a chance, you know, when I'm
on stage with the guys, with Matt and Neil, I
try to keep the talking sort of to a minimum
and just have like the rock show going on.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, I play by myself.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's a bit more time to sort of tell stories
or to explain what songs mean without feeling like I'm
just boring the pants off the rest of the band.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
More intimate, like, well, because I heard her more intimate.
I heard your solo version of one of my absolute
favorite songs, breaking the Broken, And for me, it's tough
for me to like two songs when I'm so used
to one version. But I was, like, I loved that
version just because of the lyrics, like the lyrics that
you have.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
In your music.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
You know, I'm being selfish here and relating it to me,
but it just they're so deep and they're so like
you know, with country music, there's because again I'm on
the country station, there's storytelling, which is beautiful, but there's
not a lot of room for translation. And with your music,
like it could mean a million different things to a
million different people, and I just love about your music.
So you know, I'm really excited for this show. Are
(04:22):
you working on anything new right now for yourself?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So Sparta has a new record coming out April third,
okay eight right now. So we have announced that it's coming,
we don't We haven't announced the title, we haven't announced
where it's coming out on okay, but we have said
that the record's done and I love it and I'll
definitely be playing at least one song off of that.
Oh exciting. Yeah, I'm super excited about this record. And
(04:47):
when we start that full cycle of press and everything,
I'll let you know and oh please and give you
the records so you can listen to it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh my god, I'm so excited. Okay, awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And so you know you said that when your friends
you know, you're inmates come into town you're not here,
it's kind of a bummer. But now that you both
are going to be here, and when you are able
to see them here in your hometown, what do you
like to take your friends to do? Because you have
a huge passion for your city, so what do you
like to take them to see kind of just maybe.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Not have enough time? What does that work?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's always funny because we'll probably see each other
less on a show day than well, you know what
I mean, because they're busy and they're working, and you know,
when you're on the road, I think people sort of
assume it's just like you're hanging out until you play,
but there's actually a ton of work that goes on
behind it. Plus everybody has other things that they're doing
and other projects are working on, and you know, sometimes
(05:36):
people are like, well, this day's laundry day, right, so
then that occupies like an hour or two hours, and
we have yeah, yeah, but you know, there's like obviously
the thing that the most important thing is to make
sure that they're healthy and happy and fed, and if
they want to get a drink or food or coffee,
then I can take them somewhere that I feel is
representative of our city. I mean, I'd love to do more.
(05:59):
And sometimes you know, people have a couple of days. Often, yeah,
we do more stuff. But honestly, what I can say
with one hundred percent honesty is that when my friends
are in this town, the first thing that they always
say is that the people in the city are the best,
kindest people. You know. From Thursday, when cold Play was
in town for a couple of days, they made sure
(06:20):
to let me know how great the people in the
city were. They made a point of telling me that.
So I feel like, I feel proud of the city
and I love I love when my friends are here,
and I love when they get to meet our community
because I think we shine.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, that's actually the number one response I get too.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
When I interview different people that have been in al
Passa before and they're coming back different artists or comedians
or whoever, that's the same response. They love the people.
And you know, I've I've done a bit of traveling myself.
I've never lived anywhere else for too long, but I
definitely understand where they're coming from. The people of all
Passo is what makes al Passoil a'l passo. And you're
(06:57):
no stranger to touring. You've toured all over the world
many times again. You recently opened for Coldplay here and
I'll pass. So what advice do you have for aspiring artists,
especially here from all pass?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But pretty much, I guess for anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
There's this there's this quote from this movie called Empire
of the Sun that's like one of my favorite movies.
And the kid is telling the dad they're very fortunate family, right,
it's the beginning of the movie before they're not fortunate.
But at the beginning, the kid is saying like, oh,
you know, we're so lucky, and the dad says, it's funny.
The harder I work, the luckier we.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Get, right, I've heard that quote.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, So my advice usually is just to do the
work if you want it. I'm no stranger to not
doing the work and then feeling disappointed when something doesn't
come my way because I haven't been in the effort
for it. But I mean to me, obviously, this industry
changes rapidly. It's changed since I started. I started touring
when I was eighteen. I'm forty eight forty nine, so
(07:54):
it's like quite a few years of doing this. But
the one thing that really hasn't changed is touring is
playing live. So if you live in the city where
you can play live in multiple areas like around the
LA area or the New York area, you're a little
bit luckier in the sense that you can you can
sort of branch out for an hour, hour and a half,
two hours, come home. We don't have that necessarily here,
(08:17):
So I think for us it's a bit like if
you're going to tour, you kind of just have to
take the leap and just go for a week or
two weeks or three weeks or four weeks or whatever
it is, and just find your way. But yeah, my
number one if you want to do you know, like
Henry Wallin said it best, like get in the van.
That's it. Yeah, just do it in the van and
do it. And then it's it's easier on this end
(08:38):
of it once you've already done it to say get
get in the van. I know it was hard. Was
it was hard for us, and we overcame a lot
of stuff, and we sacrificed a lot of stuff, and
we missed a lot of things, and we lost a
lot of friendships and relationships and all that stuff is
just it's sort of it comes with the territory, right,
And that's definitely I've toured with people that went for
(08:59):
a minute and then and said like I don't ever
want to do this again. Yeah, I get it, and
no shame.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, I mean it's like that saying for anyone in
any industry, you're going to fail and to fail your
way to success.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Right, just just you know, start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
The ten thousand hour thing is not a joke. You know,
show that it takes ten thousand hours to get to
get great. It's something like that's true. Play every show,
you can play everywhere, you can do everything you can.
As long as it's fun for you and worthwhile, then
you'll get better at it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Right. As long as you have APO.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Upwards is definitely part of this.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So, speaking of touring, my daughter, she's twenty, huge fan
of the music. She has a question and I know
this is a very difficult question for you. You don't have
to say just one name, but who is your favorite
band to tour with or some of your favorite bands
to tour with?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, putting you on the spot a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean there's kind of like there's like eras, right,
So there's this like nostalgic era of like sort of
the height about the I've in like the ninety nine
two thousand around there where we were spending so much
time with the band the Murder Study Devils. They were
like our buddies and they we toured all over I
mean the US and we toured the UK with them,
and it just became this big roaming family of like
(10:15):
twenty people or fifteen people or however many. There was
tons of us. So there's kind of that era, you know,
where yeah, we're all figuring out, we're all cutting our
teeth and it's all all of this is like a
new experience and the first time you see paparazzi and
the first time you're on a bus and the first
time all these like brand new things. I think as
the years go on, it gets sort of more into
(10:36):
less into that kind of crew mentality, and then it
falls more into the sort of like really deeper personal relationships.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
A good family.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One of my favorite people in the world is Jeff Rickley.
One of my favorite people to spend time with is Jeff.
We're so similar. We can spend years away from each
other and come back and it's like nothing changed. So
that's again like just to bring it back to this show,
we did the Wiretap Tour in twenty two, I think
or twenty three to twenty two, and he was he
(11:06):
was our support, so he came and played solo every
night on that on the US tour, and just how
he wrote in our van, like, we just got to
spend tons of time together and and there's a there's
a comfort and a confidence that you have been around
somebody that you know that well, where you sort of
intrinsically feel safe. And I think when you tour, right,
(11:27):
it's a bubble. We all live in this little bubble
and we go from city to city, and we tend
to be pretty insular, right, because you know, there's you
have to be in a lot of reasons. You have
to be kind of expective of each other and yourself.
So when you have somebody that is with you that
you can just let your guard down and be safe
with and emotionally and mentally and just physically feel safe around,
(11:50):
then it's a great feeling. And he is an incredibly
decent human being. So I'm so proud to be his friend,
and I'm so excited that him and the boys are
coming and talk. You know, me and Tucker are tight,
So yeah, to see and Steve and and Stu. I
haven't spent a lot of time with Stu, and I'm
not actually sure who's playing guitar on this tour yet.
(12:13):
That's going to be great. They have sort of revolving
guitar players.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And are you familiar with Mercy Union because there I'm
assuming Thursday brought them because they're both Jersey bands.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah, I know, I'm not actually familiar with them, so okay,
that'll be fun too. But also also in this business,
sometimes you show up and you're like, oh, I know you.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah right, yeah, I believe that happens.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And when you're talking about having that person or if
you're lucky enough people to have that safeness with where
you can be yourself, I'm sure it helps on stage.
And it helps a lot too to know someone you
know that's going through what you're going through, because you're
in a very unique and great and sometimes kind of
bad position where you're doing touring and you have these
people around you that want you for this or want
(12:50):
you for that, and you have like, are you talking
to me because you want something because of who I am?
Are you talking to me because you genuinely like who
I am? As a person, not for what you can
get from me, and I think that's probably why you
have that bond with other people that know what you're
going through. So that's amazing, and I, you know, I
just wanted to, on a more personal level, tell.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
You that you know your your music.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
There was a time where you know, I listened to
your music to not take my life, and then there
was a time where eventually it helped me get through life.
And then there was a time where now I'm at
the point where I use it to enjoy my life,
especially that song Breaking and Broken.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Absolutely love it. I would regret it immensely if I
didn't tell you that.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And with that being said, you know, I like to say,
because again I'm on the country music station. Rock music
saved me, country music pays me, right, I have immense
respect for both. So with that being said, are you
a fan or do you enjoy any country songs or
any country artists?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So, first off, I love country and okay, okay from
my grandfather, who unfortunately passed before I met him, used
to pick on Friday nights with with my grand other
would play piano and they'd sing just old standard country songs.
Oh wow, it comes It's in my blood for sure.
And I have a band. I have a band called
Sleeper Car, which is kind of country asks right, so
(14:11):
we sort of say all country or or whatever you
want to call it. Yeah, I'm sort of like the
outlaw country stuff. But somebody like Jason Isabelle, he gets
me every time, like in that in that range of country,
sort of the the emotional like you know, I'm a
sucker for like a hard drinking, hard love and broken
(14:33):
hearted country song for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, Yeah, for sure, I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm not a huge commercial country fan, but I also
respect the hell out of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I think that people that can get up and do
we I mean, Christina and I went to go see
Jelly Roll when he was in town and I loved it.
I thought it, Yeah, I mean the whole thing, the
the energy and the message and the performance and the
theatrics and the production, all of that was was great.
I think as a young man, I probably turned my
nose up to a lot of stuff because I was
trying to fit into her role. And that's what a
(15:05):
lot of young people go through. And I don't think
there's anything wrong with that. You're trying to find yourself
and sometimes you have to like really put on the
blinders in order to see where you're trying to go.
I think as you get older, those blinders sort of
open up a bit and you can appreciate things on
a different level.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think Taylor Swift is single handedly saved a section
of music that is amazing young kids by Vinyl Records
because of her.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, they're watching football now, right.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They're watching football. But also remember these kids have blinders
on right now, and they're Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift.
But as they get older, those are going to open
up and they're going to start saying like, oh, this
is beautiful, Oh this is cool, Oh Iggy pop is amazing.
Oh Patty Smith or you know what, Like you're gonna
start going backwards and see all of the things that
made Taylor Swift and all of that production and all
(15:52):
that stuff possible. And I just have a lot of
respect for that, especially her as a human being. The
way she treats her crew. It's well reported how good
she is to them, and that is not normal, So
hopefully it comes more normal.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, I think you know, they could have I think
she's a pretty good role model, you know, considering a
lot of them that are out there, you know, to
be a swifty. I don't think it's a bad thing.
I'm not a swifty. I respect her, I like a
lot of her music. I'm not you know, we have
a swifty in the in.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The in the group.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But no, I agree with what you said, and you know,
Jim Ward, it's been an absolute pleasure. Is there anything
else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
No, just you know, thanks for the thank you for
supporting us during Girls Rock Camp this summer. It's good
to see you again. And thanks to everybody who's who's
you know, just makes this community what it is. I'm
a product of this community. I'm no better, no worse
than anybody, but I'm definitely grateful.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well, you're doing a lot of good things in l
Passo to all passo for all passo.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So thank you and again, Jim Ward.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He's going to be performing with Thursday featuring also guests
Mercy Union, December eighth at low Bra Palette. That's a
confusing name, Thursday, right. I always thought about the band like, oh,
the show's Thursday. No. The bands December eighth, at Lowbrow
Palace dot com is where you can get your tickets. Jim,
thank you so much for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate you very much.
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