April 26, 2023 • 35 mins
Oscar-winner Tim Robbins proves he's liberal to the core, and why that's a very good thing. Bill Maher asks the question that shames both BLM and its media supporters. And we talk to Five Times August, the singer/songwriter who fought pandemic mania ... and gained a huge following as a result.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Welcome to the Hollywood and Total Podcast. Entertainment news and reviews without the book.
Hollywood narrative, free speech, freeexpression. Now that's entertainment, and
here's your host, award winning filmcritic Persian Total. This week on the
(00:27):
Hollywood in Total Podcast, we lifta glass to Tim Robbins for being a
true blue liberal. We share howBill Morris said the one thing you're not
supposed to sing in America, andwe talked with a voice behind five times
August as the singer songwriter who's braverthan any rock store on the scene today.
It's not an exaggeration. One ofthe oddest celebrity interviews I ever did
(00:49):
was with Tim Robbins. The BulldorumStore was promoting the very good two thousand
and six film Catch a Fire.At the time, it's a fact based
story of activist fighting back against SouthAfrica's apartheid system. We'd agree great chat
about the film and why he madeit, but that's not the odd part.
Before the conversation started, I pulledout my micro recorder. I wanted
to capture all of his quotes intheir full context. That's what I did.
(01:10):
You really want to concentrate on askingthe questions, not scribbling down word
for word, making sure you don'tmiss a single syllable. But when I
did that, Tim did the same. He pulled out his micro recorder too.
Any hit record. Now. Iwas working at the conservative Washington Times
back then, and he was allowedand proud liberal who was dead set against
(01:30):
the Iraq War and just about everythingPresident George W. Bush did. He
didn't want to get misquoted, apparently, and he knew I was from a
right leading newspaper. And I hadzero problem with that. I mean,
I would never misquote anyone, certainlynot on purpose. I mean, accidents
happened, but that was not mygoal. And if he felt more comfortable
recording the conversation to keep me honest, all the power to him. Had
(01:53):
no problem. We had a greatconversation. Like I said. Also,
I appreciate the fact that he wasshrewd enough to promote the film to right
leaning audience. I like that.I think more actors should do that.
My conversation with Robbins came back tomy mind recently. Robbins talked a few
weeks ago about the COVID nineteen pandemicand the overreach involved with lockdowns, the
(02:15):
mandates and a lot of other policiestied to the virus. He started to
question things and the answers he foundthey weren't to his liking. He was
troubled by them. If you wantto go search up on YouTube that his
conversation with Russell brand on the subject. It's a great back and forth,
very very interesting. You know,Robbins was the kind of guy who believed
(02:37):
what the government was saying right offthe bat. He trusted the media.
They've got the best information. Wehave to do as we're told, and
then reality caught up with him.Romins is on the attack again. He's
shredding the press and some of hisfellow mainstream Democrats for either ignoring or downright
cheering on government censorship. I'm goingto read his entire tweak because it's a
(02:59):
doozy. Recently, independent journalists havebeen exposing a massive censorship operation by the
US government to control content and socialmedia and eliminate any discending voices. Have
you read the reporting or are youlistening to the embarrassed compromised hacks from the
media that are covering their tracks.Could be the most important story related to
(03:20):
our personal freedoms in the US,and it's being buried. Mainstream media have
not only ignored the story but nowattacked the journalists, effectively serving as the
thuggish censorship arm of the government.Meanwhile, Stacy Plaskett, Rep. Jevers
and Rep. Jerry Nadler threatened journalistMatt Tayebe with jail time. What an
embarrassing, shameful time for the Democratsand the quote unquote free press. You
(03:45):
are losing any shred of credibility youhad, you bleeping fools. Oh and
by the way, hashtag free assange. The Tim Robbins is right, and
he's right, he's right, nottoo bad for a lefty. But where
are his fellow liberals? Why aren'tthey kicking and screaming over this too?
You know, I would say afew are Glenn Greenwald, the usual suspects.
(04:08):
He mentioned Taiebe, who's been aperson of the left for quite some
time. It's a very very smalllist. I'm surprised Bill Moore hasn't really
embraced this subject more. But youknow, he's talking a lot about other
subjects that are been indelicate to talkabout, so I'll cut him a little
bit of slack. But this isall about tribalism, pure tribalism. Today's
(04:28):
liberals, if anything, is censoringpeople on the right. They just don't
care. They are not offended,and I think sadly some of them are
like, yeah, let's cheer iton, we support this. It's either
their silence is saying that, orsome of them are saying it outright.
I know aoc is. So kudosfor Tim Robbins for being liberal in the
truest sense of the word. It'sjust a shame that he's almost alone out
(04:51):
there. Bill Moore is at itagain. Yes, Bill Maher is a
rock ribbed liberal and he hates DonaldTrump as much as anyone except Rob Reiner.
Oh, Rob Reiner hates Donald Trumpmore than anybody. Still, the
(05:15):
comedian uses his Real Time with BillMaher show to raise some really tough,
alarming questions that progressives don't want toanswer or they just can. Pretty recent
episode had him inviting on Glenn Lowryand Daniel Bester onto his show. They
were talking about urban crime and someother topics. Though Lowry is an author
and economist, well Bestner is aninternational studies professor. And the clip I'm
(05:38):
Gonna play is a little bit longbut I've cut it in half. But
hanging there, each segment matters.I'm playing them for a reason now.
In the first clip, Mara isexploring all the shoplifting that's going on in
New York City and who's responsible.Lowry briefly weighs in at first, and
then Bessner finishes out this part ofthe conversation. In New York, a
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third of all the shoplifting cases areby three hundred twenty seven people in a
city of eight million, because theykeep getting returned to the streets, which
has to be terrible for the morality. Morality the cops that they keep arresting
people on the same people it's groundtopday for them. I mean, I
(06:21):
know they we have problems with thecops. I've sure they've not been tryed
about talking about them on this show. But I don't understand how we're going
to get this situation under control unlessthey feel like what they do has some
meaning as opposed to just a turnstile. Yeah, my friend Danny, I
(06:41):
would call to his attention that that'spolicy too, whether or not the DA
brings charges, whether or not thereare enough cops on the street who feel
free to be able to do theirjobs is also policy. So but when
you're talking about that policy in thelarger frame of the prison industry complex,
it seems to be that the highincarceration rates are what you wanted to it,
(07:03):
what you would want to attack atfirst before you start talking about common
morality that I think that the wholestructure is the issue as opposed to the
individual level of the police officer.And now we shoot a morality that I
want to talk about. But yeah, but then the question is the cause.
So there's the obvious cause of theindividual pathology. But then if you're
(07:24):
looking at in the context of alarger structure, I think that the conversation
to have is first and foremost aboutthe structure as opposed to the individual criminal,
because I think that the moral valanceis clear. It's terrible to commit
a crime and is terrible to hurtpeople. But then the question is what
do you do from there? Bestthere's response here is just gibber jabber,
nonsense. It says nothing, Itmeans nothing, and pretty much shows he's
(07:48):
into living in a bubble. Wedoesn't have to worry about personal safety or
going to stores where things are beingstolen or the fact that maybe stores won't
exist anymore near him because they're afraidof crime. But here, wait for
it, here comes to Bill Mooreuppercut. Well, but why isn't anyone
ever talking to the like Chicago,Like most of the shootings are young black
(08:13):
men killing other young black men.Is that not correct? Yeah, that's
correct, Okay, much more thanthan what the cops do. Why doesn't
anybody talk about that? Well?I mean, why aren't there you know,
a hundred giant black celebrities who wouldhave the respect of those people saying
what are you doing to yourselves?Why are you killing each other? Farms?
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Our community? Come on, We'rebetter than this, right. I
feel like it's never addressed. Boom. That is a million dollar question.
You know. Spike Lee came closeto asking it a couple of years ago.
His twenty fifteen movie Sharrock was aboutChicago's gun violence and what to do
(09:00):
about it. Now. BLM doesn'tmention this question at all. They don't
go near it, and they realizeon some level that week after week,
month after month, young black menin Chicago are dying at the hands of
other young black men. The pressand Hollywood look the other way really revolting.
Now there's no political upsides taking astand for those victims, those poor
(09:24):
young people in Chicago who are beingwiped out. So nothing changes. So
I guess there's another question here.Why does stick a comedian like Bill Maher,
a funny guy, to state theobvious, to ask those questions,
to make us think about the situation. I'm glad he did, but I
don't think it's going to make adifference moving forward. Same old people will
(09:46):
ignore him, like they're ignoring allthe death and destruction in Chicago. You're
listening to my dad's podcast. Hecried like a baby watching Snoopy Come Home.
Where have all the great protest songsgone? Remember the sick these?
Ah? They were so I lovethe sixties. The music is just a
sensational But the sixties were chock fullof great protest songs. Think Blown in
(10:07):
the Wind, Eve of Destruction,respect, so many classic numbers that had
something to say, great music,great messages, really confrontational. But now
Brad Schistemus, you also know himas five Times August, He's taking up
that mantle, thinking about tracks likeSad Little Man, about the Terrible,
Awful, No Good Doctor, AnthonyFauci or this just in his songs capture
(10:31):
this function that's going on, areall around us beautifully and they're good songs
too, not just clever lyrics.Here's my personal favorite. Said a little
man sitting deep he did in thesoul. But keep beaute lack, dude,
(10:56):
he says, not by the truthis for him and the lies for
you, he said, a littleman, but he's treated like a god.
Is the faithless? Fred Will backinga frog? Where ship the man
bits? Do his word? Oneshot to shot, now you get a
third the Brad has been a successfulsinger, song a writer on his own
(11:24):
terms for a while, but whenthe pandemic hit, something didn't feel right
to him. He started to askquestions himself. That might be the theme
of this episode. He didn't quitesquare with what the media was telling him,
what the government was telling him aboutthe virus, about the mandates,
about the lockdowns, and about anythingthat was coming out of the mouth of
doctor Fauci, or as he refersto him, that's sad little man.
(11:48):
Then. More recently, Brad's workhas been erased entirely by one major music
platform. But he's not stopping he'sonly begun to fight back. I told
you in front of the show he'scourageous. Right now, you can grab
some of his best songs on onealbum. It's called Silent War, and
if you visit five Times August dotcom you could pick it up. Before
(12:09):
you purchase that, check out thisinterview with the talented and legitimately brave Bradskistemis
Brad, thanks for joining the showonce again. Now, You've been a
very successful independent musician for years,but around twenty one COVID happened. It
impacted you directly in so many wayslike the rest of us, and your
(12:31):
work change because of that. Canyou share that transformation? Because I think
career pivots are interesting, and certainlywhen there's such a cultural change going on
and an artist responds to it ina very direct fashion, that matters.
So just tell us a little bitabout how that changed for you. Well,
I, you know, I'd beenrecording and releasing music as five Times
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August since two thousand and one,so by the time the COVID era hit,
I had two decades worth behind mea music career and mainly focused as
a clean cut pop songwriter. Iwas singing love ballads and things like that.
I didn't really rock the boat verymuch. It's just that throughout twenty
twenty, I was seeing a worlddevelop around me that was not the world
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I wanted to leave behind for mykids. I felt like I needed to
speak up. A lot of thelot of my industry peers weren't speaking up
about what was happening, So Ijust felt an obligation to speak up.
It was sort of a calling totake that risk and that jump into just
standing up for what I thought wasright and true. When that transition happens
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for you professionally, what changes.Do you forge new alliances, do you
find new audiences? Do you loseolder contacts people maybe you've worked with for
years. Obviously a lot can bedifferent in this new era for you,
and I think people react very dramaticallywhen people get political, get you know,
(14:07):
get on a soapbox, which iswhat you did with your art.
Can you share some of that thatprocess? Oh? Sure? Yeah.
There was a lot of dramatic responsefrom fans that had been following me for
years, and industry contacts and friends, people that I kind of expected to
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know who I was as an artist, where my heart was, where all
of a sudden, I was sortof lumped into this dangerous conspiracy theorist label,
you know, just without any careor question or conversation about it.
So I did see that pivot.But when you speak on new alliances,
that for sure happened. It wasn'tsomething that I expected or anticipated. I
(14:52):
had no idea who would agree withme on what I was saying. But
what happened was I met other artistsover the last couple of years who have
sort of gone through the same thing, who have spoken up through their own
art, whether it's music or illustrationor their actors comedians. There is an
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alliance that's forming, I think inthe new entertainment industry, and I do
think it's the new path forward.I think people are getting tired of old
Hollywood, so it's exciting to beat the cusp of that. That's interesting.
Now along the way, if someonedidn't agree with you, that's perfectly
fine. They can agree to disagree. But did anyone warn you about this?
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You better not do this, Youbetter not go there. Whether people
maybe they were acting on your bestinterest, but thought or what they thought
was your best interest along that path, you know, I kind of knew
going into it. I've been watchingfrom the outskirts the doctors that were speaking
up and what was happening. Thereweren't very many artists speaking up at all,
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so I didn't really have much togo off of as far as being
in an entertainer speaking up. ButI knew I was going to be rocking
boat. But I didn't really getany fair warning because I can't and I
because I already kind of knew anywaysgoing into it, I'm gonna be upsetting
people, But you know, itjust it was something I was willing to
risk anyway, just going into it. Looking back at that career moment,
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is there anything you would have donedifferently? It sounds like you're happy with
the way things turned out. It'syour authentic self. It felt something you
needed to do. But were thereany minor elements of that that you wish
you had done this instead of that? Not really, It's I look back
on the last couple of years andI'm just really amazed at the transition I've
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sort of found myself as a songwriter. As the songwriter I always wanted to
be taking risks with my art,saying what's actually, you know, really
important? To me, So Ihave no regrets and the friends I've made
along the way. It's kind ofironic because I lost a bunch of industry
friends who were telling me to beyou know, that I was dangerous and
(17:10):
wasn't trusting the experts, And inturn, I ended up becoming friends with
a whole bunch of doctors and scientistsin these brilliant minds. So it's funny
how that works out. And ironicallythey still wouldn't believe me today anyway.
But since the beginning, I've neverhad to change my gut, you know,
instinct on what I was doing,which has been I'm really grateful for
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that, but certainly no regrets.People who are skeptical of some of the
lockdown measures, some of the mandates, things like that, which you've been
open about from the very beginning,well time has proven them right in many,
many ways. What's your reaction there? Is it frustration that it took
so long for people to realize it. Is it a sense of calm that
(17:56):
things have turned out this way?Is it all the above? How do
you react when you every day there'sa new story that says, oh yes,
and by the way, all theseconspiracy theories about X, Y,
and Z, Well, there's eithera kernel of truth or they're the complete
truth. How do you how doyou respond to that? Some days you
feel like you've made a lot ofprogress, and then there's other days where
(18:17):
you feel like you've made absolutely zeroprogress. It sort of depends on the
tone of what's happening on social mediaor the conversations you have, you know,
it depends on the person that you'reengaging with, really, But for
the most part, I think thata lot of progress has been made,
and the further we go, themore people will wake up. I think
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the most frustrating part of all ofthis is the accountability in holding those accountable
who made all these terrible decisions thatput us all in this place, that
took away the last three years ofour lives and have damaged so many people's
lives. Like, we can't justwalk away from that. We have to
stop and go, Okay, whatjust happened and who should be held accountable?
(19:03):
Yeah, I think when you sayaccountability you really maybe use the lack
thereof. You know. One ofthe things that I'm doing specifically with this
podcast is talking about free speech,suppression, censorship. It's it's what I
care about the most right now.It's what keeps me up at night.
And you've been hit on two differentlevels. I want to start with big
tech platforms, YouTube, things likethat. Can you share what's happened with
(19:27):
your work, because what you have, our opinions, you have our songs,
what you have is art and sometimesit doesn't get there to the public
in the ways that it should.Talk a little bit about what's happened to
you in your music over the lastcouple of years. Yeah, it's interesting
because I don't think that my musicis controversial per se. It's just goes
(19:48):
against the mainstream narrative. But ifyou listen to the lyrics of my songs,
you're not going to hear the wordsdon't get the vaccine or anything specific
like that. You know, you'regoing to get an artistic take on it.
And regardless of irregardless of that,the music has been under attack through
YouTube, has been suppressed and censored. I've had videos that have been age
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restricted and you have to be eighteenyears or older to watch, you know,
my video of Bill Gates, whichis essentially a cartoon, and so
it's it's really interesting. Let's seeWikipedia as deleted my page as well.
But it's interesting that you know they'recoming after art now and sort of pre
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screening what people know, how howart is perceived. They're they're they're interpreting
the art for the public and removingit if they don't like it. I
mean, they assume that we areso fragile that an opinion can cause harm.
We've seen that across the board.That's why you're having classic artists and
classic novelists having their words rewritten forthem after they pass. It's rather shocking.
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The band Camp story feels bigger tome because it impacts music, your
music. I know others have beenimpacted as well. Can you share just
briefly what happened there and any recentupdates on the matter. Yeah. So
band Camp, for those that don'tknow, was sort of an indie It
is an indie music platform. Soif you don't like supporting the bigger platforms
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like Amazon or Apple, this wouldbe the place that you would go.
And it was a really great toolfor indie artists to post their stuff.
You just upload your album name,your price, and you collect emails on
those that support it. Well.I've been on the platform for about ten
years. I had my entire catalogon there, and not even the political
stuff or they outspoken stuff, justto all my stuff. And I logged
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on one morning and was completely vanishedfrom the site. My account didn't even
exist, and so I chalked itup to you some sort of error on
the back end, because I've neverhad issues with them. But soon enough
I found out that Tim Pool fromTim Cat had his songs removed. I
found out Bryson Gray had his songsremoved as well. Last year some other
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sort of conservative leaning artists or libertarianartists who a lot of them didn't really
have U political music per se,just like I said before about my music,
maybe anti mainstream music. But it'sinteresting to see the pattern developed so
that, yeah, they removed mymusic, they removed other artists music I
(22:27):
wrote them, didn't hear back fromthem. They actually ended up blocking me
on Twitter instead of responding. Soit's, you know, it's sort of
an admission of guilt. They've seenwhat I'm asking them and chose to ignore
it. And I'm laughing. It'snot funny, but I'd forgive me just
you know, I guess, Iguess what you can do is laugh in
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a sense, right. It isabsolutely ridiculous, and it's sad that it's
the indie platform that did this.This was supposed to be the cool place
to go. You would expect thatfrom Amazon or Apple. But ironically my
music is still available there. It'sthe indie platform that I seem to have
upset, and that's still the statusquo. If you go today, you
still can't get your music thereror isthere an't be any change. No,
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there hasn't been any change at all. Basically, I have two stories from
fans who have purchased my music fromthere. Some of them can still access
it and some of them can't,And if they try to access their music,
they'll get an error message that saysSilent War by five times August is
no longer available. Please contact fivetimes August. So it's really messed up
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because what they've done is chosen toremove my music, chosen to remove access
from the music from the fan,and then they tell both of us to
talk to each other about it.It's it's or willing to say at the
least over this time, have anyartists now I know you've bonded with some
people you mentioned comedians, you mentionedother singers, possibly, but I want
(23:52):
it maybe if you could share aname or two. And then conversely,
have you had the chance to talkto an artists and say to him or
her, why aren't you speaking?Yeah, even if you disagree with me,
why aren't you defending my right tospeak? I guess that's two questions
you can you can start an eitherone there, but it's it's it drives
me crazy. It must for youimpacted directly, it must be a thousand
(24:17):
times worse. Well, the goodfriends that I've made over the last couple
of years. There's a songwriter,Joseph Arthur, who's been around a while,
and he's been pretty outspoken and hasreleased a lot of music on his
own. I became good friends withDicky Barrett, who is the lead singer
(24:37):
of the Mighty Mighty Bostones, whowas kicked out of his band for not
getting the shot. And it's justreally good guys. Most most musicians I've
found on this side of the aisle, there's like a camaraderie there where we
all understand what each other has gonethrough and we support one another. As
far as other musicians go, Ihave received messages from artists that have sent
(25:03):
me messages just sort of saying thankyou for speaking up, and you know,
I kind of try to nudge them. You know, it would be
great if more did speak up andtell them to, you know, get
in line with the with the movement. But I think a lot of them
are just afraid of the pushback,which to me, that doesn't even matter
(25:26):
to me. In we're in fightmode, you have to risk everything so
you have something to risk in thefuture right now. If you don't risk
it all right now, they won'thave anything to risk in the future,
especially our kids. So to me, none of that matters. It's kind
of you know, it's it's upsettingand disappointing. When somebody sends you a
message like that, you're like,well, yeah, get on board.
(25:47):
Yeah, there's an obvious solution here. And you know, I think what
the frustrating thing is if a lotof people stood up all at once and
say hey, enough is enough,then I don't think they'd be individually targeted.
But now it just takes someone bravelike you and a couple other souls
who say enough is enough, andthen you maybe face some punishment because of
it. It's it's it's absolutely maddening. You know, obviously a lot of
(26:10):
you work has focused on COVID.Doctor Fauci Sad Little Man is one of
my favorite songs in the last coupleof years, and in a bitter sweet
way. It's a great song,but I just the fact that what it
represents so maddening. But you know, COVID is fading. I know there
are still conversations going on right now. I know the culture we're at a
terrible point, which we've been talkingabout the last twenty minutes. Do you
(26:33):
think that the activism you've touched upon, that you've really been inspired by,
is that the new you as anartist you find yourself wanting to go back
to maybe a simpler error or isit irreversible at this point from a creative
point of view. Well, Ialways wrote music that was came from a
truce spot in my heart. Sureit was what I was going through,
(26:56):
even just the love songs and breakupsongs when I was in my early twenties
and things like that. So Inever sat down to write a song just
for the sake of you know,I've got to write the hit, or
I've got to write about what's youknow, whatever, whatever, whatever's happening,
these songs to me are who Iam now and what I care about,
(27:17):
So I think the only way forward. You know, it's funny because
I have two sides of myself rightnow, and one is this artist,
a protest sort of artist, Iguess you could call me who's speaking up
for what I believe is right andtrue. And then the other project that
I think that I would fall backon if the world became a glorious place
(27:38):
to live again, children does children'smusic. I was actually doing a children's
music project before all this with myfamily, and it was like the most
pure thing I could put out intothe world as an artist is good,
catchy, fun music with substance,teaching kids character building themes, and you
(27:59):
know, I really enjoy away thatand that's a fun thing to do.
So I have these two projects,these two sides of me are kind of
polar opposites of each other. Butyou know, as far as taking a
look at what's happening in the worldand writing about it, I feel a
sense of responsibility at this point tocontinue doing what I'm doing because people are
(28:22):
resonating with it and there aren't toomany options out there in the musical landscape
to find, you know, thoseartists, those songs that are speaking out
for what is happening. Music canbe so deeply personal in so many ways.
Have you head feedback from someone andmaybe this happened so many times or
maybe just a few recently, justsomeone reaching out to you and said,
(28:45):
listen, I listen to your music. It spoke to me, It meant
something to me, it touched me. And any little stories like that that
you can share, you know,without getting too much detail, you don't
want to give people away, butI just I imagine an artist like yourself
is speaking in a way that peopleoften don't hear, and that's very powerful.
Yeah, it's it's a constant reminderof you know, talking about whether
(29:10):
or not I have regrets. Ihave no regrets, especially when I get
these messages like that. Um.Actually, only a few minutes before our
phone call, I had received areally nice message from the mother who found
my song Fight for You, andshe said she listens to it every morning
and she's fighting for her kid who'sgone through some things at his school.
(29:30):
And those messages mean the world tome. So that that stuff is,
like I said, it's a reminderof what I'm doing. I mean,
I've gotten messages from people who saidthey've They've woken up their parents or a
friend from sharing my music with them. It's really Yeah, it's it's an
(29:51):
amazing thing. I think the thingis when you have a piece of art
that can touch somebody emotionally, Uit hits in a different way. It's
not just arguing data and statistics,but when when you have that extra layer
of melody and visual behind it,you know, that can go a long
(30:12):
way with people, and it helpsothers who haven't been able to speak up
find a way to say what theywant to say. Yeah, we've talked
a lot about fear, and evensome artists who are interested in speaking out.
You mentioned some of the messages you'vereceived, but they don't. Let's
just say, you're talking to anartist and I don't care what their views
are, but they want to saysomething that goes against the group think.
(30:34):
But they're afraid. They are theyare legitimately afraid, and there's reason for
that fear. What would you tellthem? How would you convince them to
go for a try to speak theirminds even though there will be repercussions.
Well, the hard part is over. I mean the time to speak up
(30:56):
was three years ago, and there'snow a support system in place. I
mean, there's a movement here thatif you speak up, no matter what
the backlash is, um, nomatter the friends and maybe even family that
don't support you in what you're doing, as scary as that may be,
you're going to find an incredible amountof support and place that are, um
(31:22):
are really thirsty for what you haveto say. You know, there's there's
a need and a want for truthand music and substance and holding a mirror
back up on these dark times thatwe're in or whatever it may be.
But have no fear because um,you know, I've gone through the harder
(31:45):
part. When to be in thethick of it and make it out on
the other side, should speak volumesbecause um, you know, it's it's
hard enough making a living as amusician in the first place. To have
somehouse spoken up and gone completely againstthe mainstream and to still be here for
me personally says a lot about theactual tone of the country and what people
(32:10):
are looking for. So you can't, you know, hold yourself back.
It's time to speak up now,and it already has. You know,
we've already been in that time.So the longer you wait, you know,
to me, I think there's goingto be a pivotal point in the
culture where it becomes cool to speakup against the man again, and people
are going to hop on that trainso fast and say, yeah, I'll
(32:34):
it's always against it. And theirintegrity's already lost because they waited so long,
and they put their career in frontof doing what was right. So
the sooner these artists get on board, the better I think for them.
The longer they wait, you know, I don't think that the public,
the general public, is going toforgive them if they show up, you
(32:57):
know, five years down the roadand decide, oh, yeah, here's
my anti lockdown song or whatever itwas, yeah, and just perfectly said
I want to just add a littleextra there. Think about them in five,
ten, fifteen years and they lookback at this period when they were
making art and they weren't making adifference and they were following the rules and
obeying what they were told to obey. I think they'll have trouble sleeping at
(33:22):
night. And they should have thetrouble. So I think acting standing up
now is the right thing to do. But Brad, you've been doing that
for a while and making great musicand wonderful videos. I know there's a
podcast, but I want to steerpeople to your YouTube channel as well,
because there's so many great things you'vebeen creating there. But thank you for
joining the Hollywood and Total podcast.Of course, please check out Silent War.
It's available right now on Apple Musicand Amazon. Keep making great music,
(33:45):
Brad, and keep up the fight. There are very few people who
are as tough as you, andI really appreciate it. I thank so
much. All Right, it's timefor your weekly tip hanging there, coming
right up. Netflix's new series iscalled Beef, and it's original and it's
smart and it's engaging. I amfour episodes in, four out of ten
(34:06):
and so far, so very good. Everything here starts with a road rage
incident sets everything in motion. ThoughStephen Yune from a Walking Dead fame,
he's a working class guy. He'sa contractor and he gets absolutely outraged by
a woman in a parking lot who'sbeeping and beeping and beeping, and that's
where the trouble begins. Comedian AliWong is the Beeper. She's very wealthy,
(34:28):
very attractive, seems like she's goteverything in the world that you would
want. Of course, looks canbe deceiving their lives, and that road
rage keep intersecting time and time again, and I said, after four episodes,
I am completely hooked and I heartilyendorsed the show. Now the main
characters who are Asian, which isdifferent. You don't see that a lot
in Hollywood. I think Hollywood aswoke as it is, and as much
(34:51):
as I critique the wokeness, it'sgood that there's more diversity on screen,
more stories, more characters, moreculture. But this story could apply to
anyone from any demographic. And that'smy way of saying this is not woke,
at least not yet. Hope itdoesn't go there, but overall,
I'd say give b for try.So far, so good, and we
might just get a second season.All right, Before you amscray, one
(35:15):
little favor, I would love itif you just told a friend about the
Hollywood and Total podcast. I knowit's old school to push word of mouth,
but you know what, it stillworks like a charm. See you
next time,
Welcome to the Hollywood and Total Podcast. Entertainment news and reviews without the book.
Hollywood narrative, free speech, freeexpression. Now that's entertainment, and
here's your host, award winning filmcritic Persian Total. This week on the
(00:27):
Hollywood in Total Podcast, we lifta glass to Tim Robbins for being a
true blue liberal. We share howBill Morris said the one thing you're not
supposed to sing in America, andwe talked with a voice behind five times
August as the singer songwriter who's braverthan any rock store on the scene today.
It's not an exaggeration. One ofthe oddest celebrity interviews I ever did
(00:49):
was with Tim Robbins. The BulldorumStore was promoting the very good two thousand
and six film Catch a Fire.At the time, it's a fact based
story of activist fighting back against SouthAfrica's apartheid system. We'd agree great chat
about the film and why he madeit, but that's not the odd part.
Before the conversation started, I pulledout my micro recorder. I wanted
to capture all of his quotes intheir full context. That's what I did.
(01:10):
You really want to concentrate on askingthe questions, not scribbling down word
for word, making sure you don'tmiss a single syllable. But when I
did that, Tim did the same. He pulled out his micro recorder too.
Any hit record. Now. Iwas working at the conservative Washington Times
back then, and he was allowedand proud liberal who was dead set against
(01:30):
the Iraq War and just about everythingPresident George W. Bush did. He
didn't want to get misquoted, apparently, and he knew I was from a
right leading newspaper. And I hadzero problem with that. I mean,
I would never misquote anyone, certainlynot on purpose. I mean, accidents
happened, but that was not mygoal. And if he felt more comfortable
recording the conversation to keep me honest, all the power to him. Had
(01:53):
no problem. We had a greatconversation. Like I said. Also,
I appreciate the fact that he wasshrewd enough to promote the film to right
leaning audience. I like that.I think more actors should do that.
My conversation with Robbins came back tomy mind recently. Robbins talked a few
weeks ago about the COVID nineteen pandemicand the overreach involved with lockdowns, the
(02:15):
mandates and a lot of other policiestied to the virus. He started to
question things and the answers he foundthey weren't to his liking. He was
troubled by them. If you wantto go search up on YouTube that his
conversation with Russell brand on the subject. It's a great back and forth,
very very interesting. You know,Robbins was the kind of guy who believed
(02:37):
what the government was saying right offthe bat. He trusted the media.
They've got the best information. Wehave to do as we're told, and
then reality caught up with him.Romins is on the attack again. He's
shredding the press and some of hisfellow mainstream Democrats for either ignoring or downright
cheering on government censorship. I'm goingto read his entire tweak because it's a
(02:59):
doozy. Recently, independent journalists havebeen exposing a massive censorship operation by the
US government to control content and socialmedia and eliminate any discending voices. Have
you read the reporting or are youlistening to the embarrassed compromised hacks from the
media that are covering their tracks.Could be the most important story related to
(03:20):
our personal freedoms in the US,and it's being buried. Mainstream media have
not only ignored the story but nowattacked the journalists, effectively serving as the
thuggish censorship arm of the government.Meanwhile, Stacy Plaskett, Rep. Jevers
and Rep. Jerry Nadler threatened journalistMatt Tayebe with jail time. What an
embarrassing, shameful time for the Democratsand the quote unquote free press. You
(03:45):
are losing any shred of credibility youhad, you bleeping fools. Oh and
by the way, hashtag free assange. The Tim Robbins is right, and
he's right, he's right, nottoo bad for a lefty. But where
are his fellow liberals? Why aren'tthey kicking and screaming over this too?
You know, I would say afew are Glenn Greenwald, the usual suspects.
(04:08):
He mentioned Taiebe, who's been aperson of the left for quite some
time. It's a very very smalllist. I'm surprised Bill Moore hasn't really
embraced this subject more. But youknow, he's talking a lot about other
subjects that are been indelicate to talkabout, so I'll cut him a little
bit of slack. But this isall about tribalism, pure tribalism. Today's
(04:28):
liberals, if anything, is censoringpeople on the right. They just don't
care. They are not offended,and I think sadly some of them are
like, yeah, let's cheer iton, we support this. It's either
their silence is saying that, orsome of them are saying it outright.
I know aoc is. So kudosfor Tim Robbins for being liberal in the
truest sense of the word. It'sjust a shame that he's almost alone out
(04:51):
there. Bill Moore is at itagain. Yes, Bill Maher is a
rock ribbed liberal and he hates DonaldTrump as much as anyone except Rob Reiner.
Oh, Rob Reiner hates Donald Trumpmore than anybody. Still, the
(05:15):
comedian uses his Real Time with BillMaher show to raise some really tough,
alarming questions that progressives don't want toanswer or they just can. Pretty recent
episode had him inviting on Glenn Lowryand Daniel Bester onto his show. They
were talking about urban crime and someother topics. Though Lowry is an author
and economist, well Bestner is aninternational studies professor. And the clip I'm
(05:38):
Gonna play is a little bit longbut I've cut it in half. But
hanging there, each segment matters.I'm playing them for a reason now.
In the first clip, Mara isexploring all the shoplifting that's going on in
New York City and who's responsible.Lowry briefly weighs in at first, and
then Bessner finishes out this part ofthe conversation. In New York, a
(06:00):
third of all the shoplifting cases areby three hundred twenty seven people in a
city of eight million, because theykeep getting returned to the streets, which
has to be terrible for the morality. Morality the cops that they keep arresting
people on the same people it's groundtopday for them. I mean, I
(06:21):
know they we have problems with thecops. I've sure they've not been tryed
about talking about them on this show. But I don't understand how we're going
to get this situation under control unlessthey feel like what they do has some
meaning as opposed to just a turnstile. Yeah, my friend Danny, I
(06:41):
would call to his attention that that'spolicy too, whether or not the DA
brings charges, whether or not thereare enough cops on the street who feel
free to be able to do theirjobs is also policy. So but when
you're talking about that policy in thelarger frame of the prison industry complex,
it seems to be that the highincarceration rates are what you wanted to it,
(07:03):
what you would want to attack atfirst before you start talking about common
morality that I think that the wholestructure is the issue as opposed to the
individual level of the police officer.And now we shoot a morality that I
want to talk about. But yeah, but then the question is the cause.
So there's the obvious cause of theindividual pathology. But then if you're
(07:24):
looking at in the context of alarger structure, I think that the conversation
to have is first and foremost aboutthe structure as opposed to the individual criminal,
because I think that the moral valanceis clear. It's terrible to commit
a crime and is terrible to hurtpeople. But then the question is what
do you do from there? Bestthere's response here is just gibber jabber,
nonsense. It says nothing, Itmeans nothing, and pretty much shows he's
(07:48):
into living in a bubble. Wedoesn't have to worry about personal safety or
going to stores where things are beingstolen or the fact that maybe stores won't
exist anymore near him because they're afraidof crime. But here, wait for
it, here comes to Bill Mooreuppercut. Well, but why isn't anyone
ever talking to the like Chicago,Like most of the shootings are young black
(08:13):
men killing other young black men.Is that not correct? Yeah, that's
correct, Okay, much more thanthan what the cops do. Why doesn't
anybody talk about that? Well?I mean, why aren't there you know,
a hundred giant black celebrities who wouldhave the respect of those people saying
what are you doing to yourselves?Why are you killing each other? Farms?
(08:39):
Our community? Come on, We'rebetter than this, right. I
feel like it's never addressed. Boom. That is a million dollar question.
You know. Spike Lee came closeto asking it a couple of years ago.
His twenty fifteen movie Sharrock was aboutChicago's gun violence and what to do
(09:00):
about it. Now. BLM doesn'tmention this question at all. They don't
go near it, and they realizeon some level that week after week,
month after month, young black menin Chicago are dying at the hands of
other young black men. The pressand Hollywood look the other way really revolting.
Now there's no political upsides taking astand for those victims, those poor
(09:24):
young people in Chicago who are beingwiped out. So nothing changes. So
I guess there's another question here.Why does stick a comedian like Bill Maher,
a funny guy, to state theobvious, to ask those questions,
to make us think about the situation. I'm glad he did, but I
don't think it's going to make adifference moving forward. Same old people will
(09:46):
ignore him, like they're ignoring allthe death and destruction in Chicago. You're
listening to my dad's podcast. Hecried like a baby watching Snoopy Come Home.
Where have all the great protest songsgone? Remember the sick these?
Ah? They were so I lovethe sixties. The music is just a
sensational But the sixties were chock fullof great protest songs. Think Blown in
(10:07):
the Wind, Eve of Destruction,respect, so many classic numbers that had
something to say, great music,great messages, really confrontational. But now
Brad Schistemus, you also know himas five Times August, He's taking up
that mantle, thinking about tracks likeSad Little Man, about the Terrible,
Awful, No Good Doctor, AnthonyFauci or this just in his songs capture
(10:31):
this function that's going on, areall around us beautifully and they're good songs
too, not just clever lyrics.Here's my personal favorite. Said a little
man sitting deep he did in thesoul. But keep beaute lack, dude,
(10:56):
he says, not by the truthis for him and the lies for
you, he said, a littleman, but he's treated like a god.
Is the faithless? Fred Will backinga frog? Where ship the man
bits? Do his word? Oneshot to shot, now you get a
third the Brad has been a successfulsinger, song a writer on his own
(11:24):
terms for a while, but whenthe pandemic hit, something didn't feel right
to him. He started to askquestions himself. That might be the theme
of this episode. He didn't quitesquare with what the media was telling him,
what the government was telling him aboutthe virus, about the mandates,
about the lockdowns, and about anythingthat was coming out of the mouth of
doctor Fauci, or as he refersto him, that's sad little man.
(11:48):
Then. More recently, Brad's workhas been erased entirely by one major music
platform. But he's not stopping he'sonly begun to fight back. I told
you in front of the show he'scourageous. Right now, you can grab
some of his best songs on onealbum. It's called Silent War, and
if you visit five Times August dotcom you could pick it up. Before
(12:09):
you purchase that, check out thisinterview with the talented and legitimately brave Bradskistemis
Brad, thanks for joining the showonce again. Now, You've been a
very successful independent musician for years,but around twenty one COVID happened. It
impacted you directly in so many wayslike the rest of us, and your
(12:31):
work change because of that. Canyou share that transformation? Because I think
career pivots are interesting, and certainlywhen there's such a cultural change going on
and an artist responds to it ina very direct fashion, that matters.
So just tell us a little bitabout how that changed for you. Well,
I, you know, I'd beenrecording and releasing music as five Times
(12:54):
August since two thousand and one,so by the time the COVID era hit,
I had two decades worth behind mea music career and mainly focused as
a clean cut pop songwriter. Iwas singing love ballads and things like that.
I didn't really rock the boat verymuch. It's just that throughout twenty
twenty, I was seeing a worlddevelop around me that was not the world
(13:20):
I wanted to leave behind for mykids. I felt like I needed to
speak up. A lot of thelot of my industry peers weren't speaking up
about what was happening, So Ijust felt an obligation to speak up.
It was sort of a calling totake that risk and that jump into just
standing up for what I thought wasright and true. When that transition happens
(13:45):
for you professionally, what changes.Do you forge new alliances, do you
find new audiences? Do you loseolder contacts people maybe you've worked with for
years. Obviously a lot can bedifferent in this new era for you,
and I think people react very dramaticallywhen people get political, get you know,
(14:07):
get on a soapbox, which iswhat you did with your art.
Can you share some of that thatprocess? Oh? Sure? Yeah.
There was a lot of dramatic responsefrom fans that had been following me for
years, and industry contacts and friends, people that I kind of expected to
(14:28):
know who I was as an artist, where my heart was, where all
of a sudden, I was sortof lumped into this dangerous conspiracy theorist label,
you know, just without any careor question or conversation about it.
So I did see that pivot.But when you speak on new alliances,
that for sure happened. It wasn'tsomething that I expected or anticipated. I
(14:52):
had no idea who would agree withme on what I was saying. But
what happened was I met other artistsover the last couple of years who have
sort of gone through the same thing, who have spoken up through their own
art, whether it's music or illustrationor their actors comedians. There is an
(15:13):
alliance that's forming, I think inthe new entertainment industry, and I do
think it's the new path forward.I think people are getting tired of old
Hollywood, so it's exciting to beat the cusp of that. That's interesting.
Now along the way, if someonedidn't agree with you, that's perfectly
fine. They can agree to disagree. But did anyone warn you about this?
(15:37):
You better not do this, Youbetter not go there. Whether people
maybe they were acting on your bestinterest, but thought or what they thought
was your best interest along that path, you know, I kind of knew
going into it. I've been watchingfrom the outskirts the doctors that were speaking
up and what was happening. Thereweren't very many artists speaking up at all,
(15:58):
so I didn't really have much togo off of as far as being
in an entertainer speaking up. ButI knew I was going to be rocking
boat. But I didn't really getany fair warning because I can't and I
because I already kind of knew anywaysgoing into it, I'm gonna be upsetting
people, But you know, itjust it was something I was willing to
risk anyway, just going into it. Looking back at that career moment,
(16:23):
is there anything you would have donedifferently? It sounds like you're happy with
the way things turned out. It'syour authentic self. It felt something you
needed to do. But were thereany minor elements of that that you wish
you had done this instead of that? Not really, It's I look back
on the last couple of years andI'm just really amazed at the transition I've
(16:47):
sort of found myself as a songwriter. As the songwriter I always wanted to
be taking risks with my art,saying what's actually, you know, really
important? To me, So Ihave no regrets and the friends I've made
along the way. It's kind ofironic because I lost a bunch of industry
friends who were telling me to beyou know, that I was dangerous and
(17:10):
wasn't trusting the experts, And inturn, I ended up becoming friends with
a whole bunch of doctors and scientistsin these brilliant minds. So it's funny
how that works out. And ironicallythey still wouldn't believe me today anyway.
But since the beginning, I've neverhad to change my gut, you know,
instinct on what I was doing,which has been I'm really grateful for
(17:33):
that, but certainly no regrets.People who are skeptical of some of the
lockdown measures, some of the mandates, things like that, which you've been
open about from the very beginning,well time has proven them right in many,
many ways. What's your reaction there? Is it frustration that it took
so long for people to realize it. Is it a sense of calm that
(17:56):
things have turned out this way?Is it all the above? How do
you react when you every day there'sa new story that says, oh yes,
and by the way, all theseconspiracy theories about X, Y,
and Z, Well, there's eithera kernel of truth or they're the complete
truth. How do you how doyou respond to that? Some days you
feel like you've made a lot ofprogress, and then there's other days where
(18:17):
you feel like you've made absolutely zeroprogress. It sort of depends on the
tone of what's happening on social mediaor the conversations you have, you know,
it depends on the person that you'reengaging with, really, But for
the most part, I think thata lot of progress has been made,
and the further we go, themore people will wake up. I think
(18:40):
the most frustrating part of all ofthis is the accountability in holding those accountable
who made all these terrible decisions thatput us all in this place, that
took away the last three years ofour lives and have damaged so many people's
lives. Like, we can't justwalk away from that. We have to
stop and go, Okay, whatjust happened and who should be held accountable?
(19:03):
Yeah, I think when you sayaccountability you really maybe use the lack
thereof. You know. One ofthe things that I'm doing specifically with this
podcast is talking about free speech,suppression, censorship. It's it's what I
care about the most right now.It's what keeps me up at night.
And you've been hit on two differentlevels. I want to start with big
tech platforms, YouTube, things likethat. Can you share what's happened with
(19:27):
your work, because what you have, our opinions, you have our songs,
what you have is art and sometimesit doesn't get there to the public
in the ways that it should.Talk a little bit about what's happened to
you in your music over the lastcouple of years. Yeah, it's interesting
because I don't think that my musicis controversial per se. It's just goes
(19:48):
against the mainstream narrative. But ifyou listen to the lyrics of my songs,
you're not going to hear the wordsdon't get the vaccine or anything specific
like that. You know, you'regoing to get an artistic take on it.
And regardless of irregardless of that,the music has been under attack through
YouTube, has been suppressed and censored. I've had videos that have been age
(20:11):
restricted and you have to be eighteenyears or older to watch, you know,
my video of Bill Gates, whichis essentially a cartoon, and so
it's it's really interesting. Let's seeWikipedia as deleted my page as well.
But it's interesting that you know they'recoming after art now and sort of pre
(20:32):
screening what people know, how howart is perceived. They're they're they're interpreting
the art for the public and removingit if they don't like it. I
mean, they assume that we areso fragile that an opinion can cause harm.
We've seen that across the board.That's why you're having classic artists and
classic novelists having their words rewritten forthem after they pass. It's rather shocking.
(20:56):
The band Camp story feels bigger tome because it impacts music, your
music. I know others have beenimpacted as well. Can you share just
briefly what happened there and any recentupdates on the matter. Yeah. So
band Camp, for those that don'tknow, was sort of an indie It
is an indie music platform. Soif you don't like supporting the bigger platforms
(21:19):
like Amazon or Apple, this wouldbe the place that you would go.
And it was a really great toolfor indie artists to post their stuff.
You just upload your album name,your price, and you collect emails on
those that support it. Well.I've been on the platform for about ten
years. I had my entire catalogon there, and not even the political
stuff or they outspoken stuff, justto all my stuff. And I logged
(21:42):
on one morning and was completely vanishedfrom the site. My account didn't even
exist, and so I chalked itup to you some sort of error on
the back end, because I've neverhad issues with them. But soon enough
I found out that Tim Pool fromTim Cat had his songs removed. I
found out Bryson Gray had his songsremoved as well. Last year some other
(22:04):
sort of conservative leaning artists or libertarianartists who a lot of them didn't really
have U political music per se,just like I said before about my music,
maybe anti mainstream music. But it'sinteresting to see the pattern developed so
that, yeah, they removed mymusic, they removed other artists music I
(22:27):
wrote them, didn't hear back fromthem. They actually ended up blocking me
on Twitter instead of responding. Soit's, you know, it's sort of
an admission of guilt. They've seenwhat I'm asking them and chose to ignore
it. And I'm laughing. It'snot funny, but I'd forgive me just
you know, I guess, Iguess what you can do is laugh in
(22:47):
a sense, right. It isabsolutely ridiculous, and it's sad that it's
the indie platform that did this.This was supposed to be the cool place
to go. You would expect thatfrom Amazon or Apple. But ironically my
music is still available there. It'sthe indie platform that I seem to have
upset, and that's still the statusquo. If you go today, you
still can't get your music thereror isthere an't be any change. No,
(23:11):
there hasn't been any change at all. Basically, I have two stories from
fans who have purchased my music fromthere. Some of them can still access
it and some of them can't,And if they try to access their music,
they'll get an error message that saysSilent War by five times August is
no longer available. Please contact fivetimes August. So it's really messed up
(23:32):
because what they've done is chosen toremove my music, chosen to remove access
from the music from the fan,and then they tell both of us to
talk to each other about it.It's it's or willing to say at the
least over this time, have anyartists now I know you've bonded with some
people you mentioned comedians, you mentionedother singers, possibly, but I want
(23:52):
it maybe if you could share aname or two. And then conversely,
have you had the chance to talkto an artists and say to him or
her, why aren't you speaking?Yeah, even if you disagree with me,
why aren't you defending my right tospeak? I guess that's two questions
you can you can start an eitherone there, but it's it's it drives
me crazy. It must for youimpacted directly, it must be a thousand
(24:17):
times worse. Well, the goodfriends that I've made over the last couple
of years. There's a songwriter,Joseph Arthur, who's been around a while,
and he's been pretty outspoken and hasreleased a lot of music on his
own. I became good friends withDicky Barrett, who is the lead singer
(24:37):
of the Mighty Mighty Bostones, whowas kicked out of his band for not
getting the shot. And it's justreally good guys. Most most musicians I've
found on this side of the aisle, there's like a camaraderie there where we
all understand what each other has gonethrough and we support one another. As
far as other musicians go, Ihave received messages from artists that have sent
(25:03):
me messages just sort of saying thankyou for speaking up, and you know,
I kind of try to nudge them. You know, it would be
great if more did speak up andtell them to, you know, get
in line with the with the movement. But I think a lot of them
are just afraid of the pushback,which to me, that doesn't even matter
(25:26):
to me. In we're in fightmode, you have to risk everything so
you have something to risk in thefuture right now. If you don't risk
it all right now, they won'thave anything to risk in the future,
especially our kids. So to me, none of that matters. It's kind
of you know, it's it's upsettingand disappointing. When somebody sends you a
message like that, you're like,well, yeah, get on board.
(25:47):
Yeah, there's an obvious solution here. And you know, I think what
the frustrating thing is if a lotof people stood up all at once and
say hey, enough is enough,then I don't think they'd be individually targeted.
But now it just takes someone bravelike you and a couple other souls
who say enough is enough, andthen you maybe face some punishment because of
it. It's it's it's absolutely maddening. You know, obviously a lot of
(26:10):
you work has focused on COVID.Doctor Fauci Sad Little Man is one of
my favorite songs in the last coupleof years, and in a bitter sweet
way. It's a great song,but I just the fact that what it
represents so maddening. But you know, COVID is fading. I know there
are still conversations going on right now. I know the culture we're at a
terrible point, which we've been talkingabout the last twenty minutes. Do you
(26:33):
think that the activism you've touched upon, that you've really been inspired by,
is that the new you as anartist you find yourself wanting to go back
to maybe a simpler error or isit irreversible at this point from a creative
point of view. Well, Ialways wrote music that was came from a
truce spot in my heart. Sureit was what I was going through,
(26:56):
even just the love songs and breakupsongs when I was in my early twenties
and things like that. So Inever sat down to write a song just
for the sake of you know,I've got to write the hit, or
I've got to write about what's youknow, whatever, whatever, whatever's happening,
these songs to me are who Iam now and what I care about,
(27:17):
So I think the only way forward. You know, it's funny because
I have two sides of myself rightnow, and one is this artist,
a protest sort of artist, Iguess you could call me who's speaking up
for what I believe is right andtrue. And then the other project that
I think that I would fall backon if the world became a glorious place
(27:38):
to live again, children does children'smusic. I was actually doing a children's
music project before all this with myfamily, and it was like the most
pure thing I could put out intothe world as an artist is good,
catchy, fun music with substance,teaching kids character building themes, and you
(27:59):
know, I really enjoy away thatand that's a fun thing to do.
So I have these two projects,these two sides of me are kind of
polar opposites of each other. Butyou know, as far as taking a
look at what's happening in the worldand writing about it, I feel a
sense of responsibility at this point tocontinue doing what I'm doing because people are
(28:22):
resonating with it and there aren't toomany options out there in the musical landscape
to find, you know, thoseartists, those songs that are speaking out
for what is happening. Music canbe so deeply personal in so many ways.
Have you head feedback from someone andmaybe this happened so many times or
maybe just a few recently, justsomeone reaching out to you and said,
(28:45):
listen, I listen to your music. It spoke to me, It meant
something to me, it touched me. And any little stories like that that
you can share, you know,without getting too much detail, you don't
want to give people away, butI just I imagine an artist like yourself
is speaking in a way that peopleoften don't hear, and that's very powerful.
Yeah, it's it's a constant reminderof you know, talking about whether
(29:10):
or not I have regrets. Ihave no regrets, especially when I get
these messages like that. Um.Actually, only a few minutes before our
phone call, I had received areally nice message from the mother who found
my song Fight for You, andshe said she listens to it every morning
and she's fighting for her kid who'sgone through some things at his school.
(29:30):
And those messages mean the world tome. So that that stuff is,
like I said, it's a reminderof what I'm doing. I mean,
I've gotten messages from people who saidthey've They've woken up their parents or a
friend from sharing my music with them. It's really Yeah, it's it's an
(29:51):
amazing thing. I think the thingis when you have a piece of art
that can touch somebody emotionally, Uit hits in a different way. It's
not just arguing data and statistics,but when when you have that extra layer
of melody and visual behind it,you know, that can go a long
(30:12):
way with people, and it helpsothers who haven't been able to speak up
find a way to say what theywant to say. Yeah, we've talked
a lot about fear, and evensome artists who are interested in speaking out.
You mentioned some of the messages you'vereceived, but they don't. Let's
just say, you're talking to anartist and I don't care what their views
are, but they want to saysomething that goes against the group think.
(30:34):
But they're afraid. They are theyare legitimately afraid, and there's reason for
that fear. What would you tellthem? How would you convince them to
go for a try to speak theirminds even though there will be repercussions.
Well, the hard part is over. I mean the time to speak up
(30:56):
was three years ago, and there'snow a support system in place. I
mean, there's a movement here thatif you speak up, no matter what
the backlash is, um, nomatter the friends and maybe even family that
don't support you in what you're doing, as scary as that may be,
you're going to find an incredible amountof support and place that are, um
(31:22):
are really thirsty for what you haveto say. You know, there's there's
a need and a want for truthand music and substance and holding a mirror
back up on these dark times thatwe're in or whatever it may be.
But have no fear because um,you know, I've gone through the harder
(31:45):
part. When to be in thethick of it and make it out on
the other side, should speak volumesbecause um, you know, it's it's
hard enough making a living as amusician in the first place. To have
somehouse spoken up and gone completely againstthe mainstream and to still be here for
me personally says a lot about theactual tone of the country and what people
(32:10):
are looking for. So you can't, you know, hold yourself back.
It's time to speak up now,and it already has. You know,
we've already been in that time.So the longer you wait, you know,
to me, I think there's goingto be a pivotal point in the
culture where it becomes cool to speakup against the man again, and people
are going to hop on that trainso fast and say, yeah, I'll
(32:34):
it's always against it. And theirintegrity's already lost because they waited so long,
and they put their career in frontof doing what was right. So
the sooner these artists get on board, the better I think for them.
The longer they wait, you know, I don't think that the public,
the general public, is going toforgive them if they show up, you
(32:57):
know, five years down the roadand decide, oh, yeah, here's
my anti lockdown song or whatever itwas, yeah, and just perfectly said
I want to just add a littleextra there. Think about them in five,
ten, fifteen years and they lookback at this period when they were
making art and they weren't making adifference and they were following the rules and
obeying what they were told to obey. I think they'll have trouble sleeping at
(33:22):
night. And they should have thetrouble. So I think acting standing up
now is the right thing to do. But Brad, you've been doing that
for a while and making great musicand wonderful videos. I know there's a
podcast, but I want to steerpeople to your YouTube channel as well,
because there's so many great things you'vebeen creating there. But thank you for
joining the Hollywood and Total podcast.Of course, please check out Silent War.
It's available right now on Apple Musicand Amazon. Keep making great music,
(33:45):
Brad, and keep up the fight. There are very few people who
are as tough as you, andI really appreciate it. I thank so
much. All Right, it's timefor your weekly tip hanging there, coming
right up. Netflix's new series iscalled Beef, and it's original and it's
smart and it's engaging. I amfour episodes in, four out of ten
(34:06):
and so far, so very good. Everything here starts with a road rage
incident sets everything in motion. ThoughStephen Yune from a Walking Dead fame,
he's a working class guy. He'sa contractor and he gets absolutely outraged by
a woman in a parking lot who'sbeeping and beeping and beeping, and that's
where the trouble begins. Comedian AliWong is the Beeper. She's very wealthy,
(34:28):
very attractive, seems like she's goteverything in the world that you would
want. Of course, looks canbe deceiving their lives, and that road
rage keep intersecting time and time again, and I said, after four episodes,
I am completely hooked and I heartilyendorsed the show. Now the main
characters who are Asian, which isdifferent. You don't see that a lot
in Hollywood. I think Hollywood aswoke as it is, and as much
(34:51):
as I critique the wokeness, it'sgood that there's more diversity on screen,
more stories, more characters, moreculture. But this story could apply to
anyone from any demographic. And that'smy way of saying this is not woke,
at least not yet. Hope itdoesn't go there, but overall,
I'd say give b for try.So far, so good, and we
might just get a second season.All right, Before you amscray, one
(35:15):
little favor, I would love itif you just told a friend about the
Hollywood and Total podcast. I knowit's old school to push word of mouth,
but you know what, it stillworks like a charm. See you
next time,
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