November 8, 2025 • 57 mins
Chicago’s Derek Ferguson of the prog-rock group Refestramus (the genre-bending group known for their quirky storytelling and vintage flair) talk about their releases “Hell or NYC?” and “Lakeview Samurai” plus “Zombie Love” , “Deathless”, “Asuncion” along with producer Ian Beabout and their albums “Intourist”, “Decoupage” , “From the Sublime to the Ridiculous” and the upcoming “Morri’s Rock Boutique” ! Derek founded the group during Covid19 in May of ’20 serving as drummer and songwriter from a home-studio project into an international progressive rock act and how he began his career plus his collaboration with Ian and their beginnings plus share their stories behind the music plus upcoming tours and more! Check out the amazing Refestramus on all major platforms and www.refestramus.com today! #refestramus #derekferguson #ianbeabout #progressiverock #hellofnyc #lakeviewsamurai #chicago #zombielove #deathless #asuncion #intourist #decoupage #morrisrockboutique #homestudioproject #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerrefestramus #themikewagnershowrefestramus
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Bits You roamban YouTube, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter
and TikTok. Today we're here are Two Wonderful Gentleman, a
Chicago prog rock band found during COVID nineteen and twenty
(01:35):
twenty by drummer songwriter Derek Ferguson and evolved from a
home steer project into and internationally recognized prog outlet. We'll
talk more about that, and they'll be in the UK
from November thirteenth through seventeenth playing UK's h r HM
Progfast featuring Asia's John Payne, Focused Life Signs and more.
(01:56):
And they have a loyal following on YouTube, Spotify and
all all the channels. And we'll be featuring a couple
of singles in just a Minute live Lace and Gentlemen
plus studios in beautiful downtown Chicago and Steubenville, Ohio. The
multi talented Chicago prog rock band with producer, engineer Ian
Baabout and Derek Ferguson, the founder and first drummer and
(02:20):
also the songwriter. The band is called Reefer Straamus. Guys,
good morning, good afternue and geting me. Thanks for joining
us today, Thanks having us, Thanks for having us, Mike,
which great to have you on. Barbara. First of all,
how'd you come up with the name of reefer Stramas.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's a word that my mom has used for years
to mean to rearrange oneself after some sort of like
you know, classic example. I like to use this. You know,
you go through tsa security and you know you have
to put all your stuff in the basket and goes
through and then you see all the folks that actually
(02:56):
put benches out for folks to reef amazed himself. So
that's that's the meaning.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
How do you like that? And I think that's great
as well too, So Derek, you're you founded the band
during COVID nineteen in twenty twenty or the drummer and
songwriter the grewup and and tell us how you first
got started.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So I was in a bunch of different local progressive
rock bands in the nineteen nineties and then, you know,
like a lot of folks, life sort of, you know,
intervened and you know, moved moved away from that and
had a career and all that sort of stuff. Still do,
but you know, COVID sort of provided an opportunity to
(03:42):
set back and do a little bit of stuff that
I never had time to do before, just because of
you know, everybody got to be home for a little
bit longer, whether we liked it or not, right, right,
And I had started listening to Ian's internet radio show.
I guess it was probably back in about twenty fourteen,
(04:04):
twenty sixteen around there, And I mean, Ian can tell
you more about that, but just super fascinated to see
that between when I was last in bands in the
nineties and now, the I mean home studio recording just
(04:24):
evolved by leaps and bounds. So it started off with
me approaching Ian to have him mix and masters some
of my band's old tapes, and then after that it's
during COVID I thought, oh, you know what, maybe I'll
finish recording one of the songs that I never got
to record back in the day. And then the bassis
(04:47):
that Ian put me in touch with Jerry King, who's
been on a host of different groups that he can
also tell you about, said, you know, you should probably
do an album. All right, album, But that's uh, that's
my side of it. I and you can fill in
the gaps I missed.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, so you were in my chat rooms when I
did Prog Rock Deep Cuts, my second, I guess radio show.
I'm now on my third, but back when I did
my second radio show, and that would have been when
I was on either prog rock dot Com or House
of Prague. And if I remember, you always had Henry
Spencer from Eraserhead as Beaker from the Muppets. Wasn't that
(05:29):
your Yeah? It was just like all my cross cultural
references pop cultural references were converging, and uh, my show
was a little bit odd. I was just as likely
to play some sort of avant garde jazz nonsense as
(05:49):
I was to play some Beatles tune or a pop song.
So I did. I thought I was not necessarily the
obvious choice let's say, uh, to produce Derek music. But
when he reached out to me, I what appealed to
me about it was that, you know, I had been
doing again, you know, in my production work. I had
(06:11):
found this niche doing a lot of like avant garde
bands working for Qunai Form record label on Washington, d C.
Which I absolutely love and I still work for them
to this day. But what attracted me to the Reefer
Stramas music was the fact that it is hooky. It
sounds like arena rock music from the eighties, and it
(06:33):
reminds me of when bands like Asia emerged, where you
had these great musicians who were playing Oh.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I remember Asia, They were terrific. I loved them.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, And I was thinking, you know, if I can
do that really esoteric stuff on one hand and then
also show you know that I have a passion in
love for this more we'll say accessible stuff, that that
just makes me a richer producer and engineer. So I
was happy to take on the challenge, challenge to show
(07:06):
that I was capable of doing it. And after we
made the first record, Derek, I think I think both
of us expressed some disappointment with that first record, the
one it's called de Copage, and we kind of agreed
that I should produce the following record. So starting with Interase,
(07:26):
which was the second record, and now onto this new one,
I took over as the producer.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Okay, so you had gigapage interest and you also had
was it from the sublime to the ridiculous? Was that
the third one?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's an EP?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I believe I was trying to clarify that that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's an EP. The the upcoming record, which
is coming out in June, is called Maury's Rock Boutique.
But our first single is out from Maury's Rock Boutique
and it's called Hell or New York City. And I
think we're gonna be talking about that a little later
in the program.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yes, yes, I right, and will be certainly do that
and and the and you've been a producer, engineer, and
how did you first get started?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, I went to college for it music technology as
well as public relations, and so I was working in
a studio as part of my senior project. And I
produced two records my senior year, actually three, but anyway,
one of them was particularly strange and interesting, and it
(08:33):
was called coloratura, and that's sort of what I chose
to continue with after college. And following college, I built
a studio at home nice I called Shed Sounds out
of an old shed that I you know. With the
help of my uncle and some uh some folks from
the building company, we were able to outfit it with plumbing, electricity,
(08:57):
and it was heat, heat, and water and all that stuff,
and so it was like a little house. It was
like a tiny home. But right after I built that
is when the pandemic hit. So it's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
So I had to rethink my whole strategy because I
wanted to record people, you know, and so somebody I
(09:19):
knew from just the bars locally back when I lived
in West Virginia said that he had a friend in
Pittsburgh who is doing audio post production. He doesn't do recording,
he just does post production. So I actually started out
in post production, and that's probably the area where I'm
(09:39):
the most comfortable with. But I think I may have
told Ferguson that. See, at one point we had two
Derek's in the band, so I had to identify them
by last name. But at one point I told Ferguson
that it was always my dream to produce, because I
grew up being a fan of people like Alan Parsons
(10:00):
and later on like more recent artists like Stephen Wilson.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Uh huh. And then how'd you guys first meet? Exactly?
So I was trying to get like three points and
how did you exactly? Like first meet? To make contact?
Wasn't a chat room the radio show or you'll be
approached to music the chat room?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah? It was the chat room for my Progret Deepcuts
radio program. And I guess Derek must have friend requested
me on Facebook. And when the pandemic rolled around, I
don't remember. Did we communicate at all in between the
radio show ending and you having the material? Or was
it you came forward with material and then you know,
we've developed three records out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know what it was? I had, and I had
been carrying around for at least twenty years, some of
those big, thick analog studio tapes that my band in
the nineties had made, And I think I reached out
to you because you mentioned that you were doing it
agree in building a student and all that sort of stuff,
just to say what can I do with these tapes?
(11:06):
Because I you know, I'm vaguely aware that magnetic tapes
don't last forever, and I'd like to salvage this music.
And I think you had said, if you find a
studio that has the equipment to convert them to wave files,
then you could actually mix them and turn theming I
could hear and all that sort of stuff. And so
(11:27):
then when I decided to try to record some new
music during the pandemic at home, you wear the natural choice.
And all the musicians on the first album actually resourced
during the pandemic internationally using Fiver, which.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Is not to mention a lot of that you played yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Or one of the things that we wanted to just
sort of improve upon in the on the following following albums.
I mean I would I would rate myself on drums
the other stuff. I's just I should just stick to
writing as opposed to playing. So with each album sort
of improved up. The quality of musicians on each album.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Is certainly a fantastic And I and you cover some
of the influences that shaped your some of the favorites
you grew up at, Derek, how about some your favorites
that you grew up with, You.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Know, it's interesting. I never really thought of myself as
being a fan of specific producers, but in later years
I came to realize that so many of so much
some music that I liked was produced by Bob Ezrin.
Just so he was was a huge influence on me.
(12:47):
Obviously we just lost ace rely, so I'm thinking particularly about.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Oh that was that was sad.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, for someone of my age, you know he was.
He was pivotal early influence, uh kiss in general, and
then later on I got very intopressive rock, and in
particular you can see behind Ian b about the jet
Row Tal.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Uh, you're all, oh, that is so cool. I love it, Yes, jet.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Rotal, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Yes, Genesis, Smmerson, Lincoln Palmer. That's
but I think something Ian said earlier about, you know,
the music having hooks. I love progressive rock. That's my
that's my genre. But I got to half my hooks.
You know, music that that that sort of just uh
(13:45):
is very serious and dry and just too esoteric. Uh.
Something that you know Ian and I try to do
with Reeferstremis is we always try to keep stuff grounded.
And uh, Ian's a big fan of Frank Zapp On.
Obviously he humor was an essential part of his whole ethos.
(14:06):
So that's that's that's something you hear a lot in
the reefus.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Trams music and one band maybe think it was King Crimson,
seems to be the top of the prog rocks King Crimson.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I love King Crimson. I don't know how you feel,
because a lot of times I thought I'd bring this up,
like a lot of times, I'm coming from a more
experimental side of things, because that's that's usually where I live.
And I think that a lot of what makes Reefer
Stramus special is that me coming in with what you know,
maybe Derek would call esoteric influences and him coming in
(14:41):
with those hooks and more hard rock things.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Right. And certainly it did as well too, and we
got some music as well besides Hello New York City, Lakeview,
Samurai and more about Maury's rock Boutique. There's also some
other music. We'll talk about that with Reefer Stramus is
Ian Bay about the p User Engineer and Derek Ferguson.
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We're here amazing multi talented Derek ferguson the drummer and
(17:12):
songwriter and also Ian be about the producer and engineer
of Reeferstramus's latest release, Morris's Rock Boutique on The Mic
Winners Show before we talk about more on net. You
guys had did some singles with Zombie Love Assumption and
also Emmaline, So tell us more about those.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Those are all from the last record, right, Those are
all from interast.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I believe so I mentioned Zombie Love Assumption if I
got that right, and Emmaline.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Suncian's Assuncion is kind of a nice lead into the
new album Morris Rockboutique. So one of my favorite places
to visit vacation wise and actually I'm going just a
couple of weeks before our appearance at HRH is a
Suncium in the Paraguay, South America.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Oh nice.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And during I guess it was my second visit there,
maybe my first visit, I was just saying, Wow, this
is this is really nice. I think it was like
probably the middle of December in Chicago and I was
down there and it was like eighty degrees in sunny out.
I think this is really cool. So I'm walking down
the street and I just started humming this melody and
(18:31):
I hummed it into into my phone so I wouldn't
lose it, so CEO and I think, oh, this is
this is really Yeah, this is cool. And so that
is a that's sort of an homage to the city.
And something very interesting happened with that song, which was
after I put it together and did the usual pr
send out for it, someone who works for Paraguay and
(18:55):
National radio contacted me and said, you know, it's love
rock news. We don't get a whole lot of rock
songs written about a sun sea and Paraguay. Could we
play this? And so I know, super honored to have
it played on national radio. And after that made contact
(19:15):
with someone named Maury who owns a rock boutique, actually
a rock store. It's called Maury Rock Store.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Is it is it like rocks or is it rock music?
I never quite knew what exactly the rock was.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
It's it's rock music. She's got all sorts of rock
T shirts and rock posters and very cool place, and
she made the first Then she remains our exclusive T
shirt manufacturer. So all of the Reefas Stramas T shirts
that ever been made have been made by her. And
(19:51):
we have a little you know, following in the sunsem
So I have all these photos of people in the
Sunsea and Paraguay going around with Reefustram's T shirts. That's
the name of our new album, Maury's Rock Boutique.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Hot. I like that and I think that's really cool
as well too. You also got the DEVI re turns
into a Suite and you also got Deathless.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Tell us about those, well, Deathless is a song which
has not yet come out.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
What's that going to be released?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I so it's saying, what is it? Nine minutes song?
Eleven minutes?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh yeah, it's ten minutes long. But you got to
play the whole Enchilada.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You got to play the whole enchilada. So being ten
minutes long, it itself probably won't be a single, although
we did take we took two and a half minutes
out of it a section that is called Goodbye America,
where that's that's actually coming out as a single. We
(20:53):
thought it would be fairly timely with all the political
stuff that's going on. But the whole concept behind Deathless
is there's a there's a there's a character in Russian folklore.
So a lot of stuff in refastramis Uh sort of
goes back to Slavic mythology, and we have a lot
of Slavic musical influences, and in this case, there's a
(21:17):
there's a character kushe best Maritny is his Russian name,
which is Kushi the Deathless. And it's kind of positing
the the idea that bad stuff happening in the world,
and in the US in particular. You know, it's almost
as if this character, who exists to do nothing other
than cause trouble, has somehow other managed to grab hold
(21:41):
and and and cause all this bad stuff. And uh,
the song has a rather ironic ending that I won't
uh ruin for anyone who might want to listen to it.
But that's that's that's what Deathless is all about. We're
playing that actually at h r H, which is going
to be uh in interesting undertaking. We're being joined at
(22:02):
the end of that by David Jackson from a Vandergraft generator.
He's going to be playing the saxophone part, which was
actually suggested live in the studio by him.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and we are talking about a song that people
aren't going to hear. But the story of that sax
solo was that we had to drop a member and
somebody couldn't show up for sessions, and so I had
this whole thing planned out to do with three or
(22:35):
four people, and somebody couldn't make it. So the person
who could be there was, of course the sax player,
and Derek Ferguson was there playing the drums, and I
just had this like five second idea to throw Mitch
Lawrence into the vocal booth to just kind of jam
with Derek on drums, and that kind of spontaneously created
(22:58):
one of my favorite, very favorite moments, not only on
this album, but I think on any Reforstramus album.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Oh that's really interesting. And here's one probably for the ages.
It doesn't have to be like around December twenty fifth,
I ruined Christmas and tell us about that one.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's yeah, it's it's an interesting one. You know, I'm
not I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs. I
love Christmas, I'm just not a big fan of Christmas songs.
You know, they're always just so when you think about
the experience that most people have family gatherings in general,
once again, probably even more so in sort of recent
(23:38):
American history with polarization and all that sort of stuff.
You know, it's just I think a lot of folks
have altercations and just bad stuff happened, you know, around
the holidays. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool and
appropriate to have a song that captured that aspect of
holidays and written from the perspective not of somebody who
(24:01):
feels that they are the aggrieved party, but from the
perspective of someone who knows that they are probably the
the instigator and the cause of of of altercations. And
there's you know, one of my favorite lyrics. It's like
I told you before, it won't happen again. It's just
(24:24):
every every Christmas say you together, and it winds up
being the same sort of thing and stuff goes sideways.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So yeah, it's more of that tongue in cheek humor
that we were kind of talking about.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yes, oh oh, definitely. Yeah, it makes one and just
you know, choke Mariah Carrie, if you hear again, all
I want for Christmas is you. I was at that point,
so it's like in there, Mariah, please, no, I want
my thing.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
So true.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Oh that's so true as well. And we'll also have
a couple of songs will be play it at the
end of the audio interview. We want everybody to do that.
Hello New York City and link for you Samui with Reeferstramus.
You listen to the Mike Wedners Show at the Mike
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(25:18):
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of Reefastramus after this time.
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Speaker 3 (27:08):
Right place, right time? Tuned into the Mike Wagner Show.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You heard me, We're back with em b About and
Derek ferguson brief astrams here on the Mike Wadner's Show,
and two songs would be playing at the end of
the audio interview. We did talk about Mary's Rock boutique.
The latest coming up along with the upcoming of Fest
in November, we have Hell on New York City and
(27:34):
also lake View Samurai. Talk about Hell in New York City.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
First of all, well, this is autobiographical, right, However, you want.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
To just describe it as I tell us about it.
It's your interpretation, not mine. It's your interpretation. Come on,
you guys can hash it out right.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
When we started, Ferguson sent me a collection of demos
and I picked the ones that were most attractive to
me that we would make out of the next record,
and among those were Heller in New York City and
Lake Pe Samurai. And I think what attracted me to
Heller in New York City is that it's got this
(28:14):
kind of driving engine behind it that reminded me of
a Frank zappatoon and specifically it was the New York
City Zappa New York version of a song called A
Pound for a Brown on the bus that you can
pick it up from there, Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
So musically it to me, it fits into a space
which is between something like XTC or The Police that's
sort of early eighties new wavish, almost beat, but time
(29:00):
signatures in the song change Left, Right and Center, which
seemed a lot cooler to me when we were recording it.
Then now I have to play it live because it
is by far the toughest song to play, and this
is the one that David Jackson from Vandergraft Generator plays
extensively on on the album. So I'll just I'll say
(29:24):
up front, I'm you know, we're going to be I'm
gonna get a chance to play with my one of
my all time idols live in the UK in a
couple of weeks, and I'm I'm sweating it because this
is this is going to be some tricky stuff. But lyrically,
the story is pretty simple. I was recruited in my
(29:47):
day job in the mid two thousands to work for
a bear Sterns excuse me, to work for a new
or company called bear Stearns, which nowadays I think is folks.
Folks know the from what happened in the Great Recession.
They were one of the first companies to implode, and
(30:07):
it's sim very much classic Wall Street. It was just
a very very very difficult environment. So I sort of
wanted to capture that sense of sort of being a
pressure cooker and you know the stakes that would be involved.
You know, I'm in software professionally, and creating software for
(30:32):
traders back in the mid two thousands was no walk
in the park. They would wheel a cart down the
trading floor at the end of every day, called the
Broken Equipment cart, and it was all of the screens
that had been punched and the phones that had been
slammed down and broken.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
We should also talk about the clarinet solo.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you tell that
story better than I do, Mitch performance y.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So Mitch Lawrence was a friend of mine. I'd known
his brother a few years ago, and uh, I was
at a party one time and Mitch just broke out
a saxophone and started a jam and he melted my face.
And uh, ever since then, I've kept tabs with Mitch
and and you know, we exchanged phone numbers and stuff.
And when Ferguson was looking for a sax player, I
(31:25):
introduced him to to Mitch Lawrence. So we were talking
about doing this New York City thing, and uh, Ferguson
had this idea to spoof the Gershwin, Right, what what
is that? Playing Rhapsody in Blue. Of course I've played
Rhapsody in Blue. I shouldn't know what it's called anyway.
So we had this idea to spoof Rapsody in Blue,
(31:46):
and Ferguson said, you know, we're gonna have Dave Jackson
play saxophone. I said, but Ferguson, that's a that's a
clarinet on Rhapsody in Blue. And so we called Mitch
because Mitch plays in a polka band. He's like, they're
playing metal, or he's playing prog rock, or he's playing.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Polka, and I think that's a good one right there.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So well, they never converge, you know, it's never all
the same thing.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But well you never know one day, never know.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
A little bit of the song.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Right Well, I was going to say that it was
kind of my idea to feature a clarinet because I
couldn't think of a relevant example of a clarinet being
featured in a rock song. Now Mitch did. He brought
up Breakfast in America by Super Tramp, which is a
song that I love and I don't know how I
ever forgot about it, but anyhow, it just struck me
(32:37):
as a very unique idea. I thought, we gotta we
got to follow this this unique idea. And so Mitch,
you know, the mics are set up, we're rolling, he
breaks the clarinet out and he does that run pretty
much without a warm up. And our engineer, who is
a clarinet player in high school, three his hands up
and said, I'm done. I'm out of here, man, Yeah,
(33:03):
I quit.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
It was It was really amazing to watch Mitch in
the studio. He was just, uh, you know, it's just
a phenomenal musician and kind of folks like that from
time to time, right, you know, you're just sort of like, whoa,
that is some amazing skills.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Oh my gosh, it had to be and plus and
plus David or Derek the one that really resonated with
you the most. Lakeview Samurai and tell us more about
that one.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So I live in lake View, Chicago, about a fifteen
minute walk from Ridley Field, I would say, and there
is no word of lie. Well, maybe I should back
in the story a little bit. Yeah, start this way.
So there is it's a colorful neighborhood. It's it's it
(33:58):
is very ecliqu there's all sorts of stuff going on
in Wrigleyville at all times to the extent that we
recently had an article in Prog magazine about Briefa Stramas,
and the photo shoot for that was me dressed up
like a wizard, which was our pr person's idea, and
(34:20):
the photographer wanted to do this outdoors on one of
our busiest intersections at noon on a Friday. And I
thought to myself, Ah, this is going to be embarrassing.
And you know, I go out in this wizard outfit,
no one notices me, and even remotely it's just you know,
as oh there's a wizard I find just going through business. Anyhow,
(34:40):
there is a gentleman in our neighborhood who I have
seen on two occasions, and my wife has seen him
at least once, so I know it's not a hallucination.
Who is dressed like a samurai. I mean just the
whole kit, kle, the hat, two swords, two katama swords,
terry guns in Chicago, but you can carry two massive katanass.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, this guy has to have a song written about him.
He has to be immortalized and fair exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
And I thought, you know the other thing about Lakeview
is it like many neighborhoods, is you know I guess
absolute neighborhoods sort of a lot of gentrification. So you know,
you've got the original folks who have been here when
it was eclectic, you've got the new folks who are
sort of, you know, the gentrification woman. So what you
see in the lyrics is this juxtaposition of the status
(35:36):
symbol items of gentrification against the traditional items that that
samurai would carry. So, yeah, he's got the katana, but
he's also got his you know, lulu leggings, and you
know he's got the he's got the helmet, but he's
also got his his ear, his apple earbuds on underneath it.
(35:57):
So that's what you hear in the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I like that and that's so amazing. And I'm here
with Refastramis, Derek Verson, m be about on Mike when
your show and guys, if there's some other songs you
want to talk about feel free too?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So what else? What else do we have in the
offering here? What are you playing in the UK?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, so we are playing.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Just get You don't have to say everything, but like
what's Yeah, you mentioned hell or in New York City,
but what's another one you're really excited about.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Tonight? All right, so we got to talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Five oh sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
So we have a song which is called tonight tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight,
and I'm I'm super proud of that because I have
noticed that there are you on too, like the Escat
Music Registry where all the everybody who writes songs registers
them on this place. That's how you get paid your royalty.
(36:58):
There are a million songs called tonight. It's five hundred
thousand called tonight tonight. Genesis had a very famous song
called tonight tonight tonight, and Jenny.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
And later in a michelol commercial, I remember Jessie very well.
I love that song, even going back to Peter Garbriel
loved exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So they had tonight, tonight Tonight. There is I think
there's a handful of artists on ASCAP who've done songs
called tonight tonight, tonight, tonight. But we're the only band
that has that extra twenty percent of tonight.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
And that's over a fellow Chicagoan, right, because there's Billy
Corgan with tonight tonight.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You're right, Yes, we're what two and a half times
more tonight than.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Remember when we were in the studio And when I
told you about the feel, and I was talking about
Jimmy Chamberlain and I was like, listen, when is it
for Ferguson? Is it tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (37:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Is it? Was it yesterday? No, it's tonight. And so
when you play the drums, it's got it like it's tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
It's yes. And this is one it's it's eight minutes
we're gonna be playing that, and it's it's it's coming
along nicely. It's uh. It does feature at the end
the heaviest I think Stramas has ever been. There's there's
a riff at the end that just they'll just knock
(38:24):
you over where you're at.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
That is certainly amazing. In the meantime, where can you
find all your music at your layers releases? And what's
your website?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Guys, websites refastramis dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You want to spell that?
Speaker 7 (38:39):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, R E F E S t R A m
U s dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
You want the spelling me?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
I love the band's name, yeah, uh, And you can
pretty much all of our music is on all streaming
services now. So where streaming music?
Speaker 8 (39:00):
You get our stuff in band camp and band camp yes, right,
you got that right, and we're here with Derek Ferguson
and ianb about a brieflest Tram is here on the
Mike Winters Show and just a few of our things.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
And before we get to that, tell us about your
upcoming Festiva come out November.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Yeah, Friday, November fourteenth, that's Friday. We are performing an
hour long set at the HRH Prague fifteen Festival in
great Yarmouth, England, UK. Super fun stuff, opening for Asia
(39:37):
and Focus and Curved Air, and we will be joined
on stage for a couple of tracks by David Jackson,
formerly of Vandergraft Generator and Alex Hutchins, who is the
guitarist who has been one of the guitarists for Steven Wilson.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yes as Suture on the Home Invasion Blu Ray.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So if you're in the area in November, we would
love to see you at the concert. And it is
our European concert premiere, so super super exciting.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Stuff, all right, we'll certainly have it by. Check that out.
And also what else do you guys have coming up
to wrap up twenty twenty five and going to twenty
twenty six and be on what else do you have.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Going on, are we going to release a single a
month or what's going on with that?
Speaker 4 (40:31):
Well, oh, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
No, we're trying the modern release strategy of releasing a
single every month between now in June. Then in June
we're putting out the album. So we've got yeah, new
music every few.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Minutes on Melodic Right, Melodic Revolution Records.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Melodic Revolution Records. Yes, Nick Katona's label out of Florida.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
All they's changing his name to Nick Katana after Lake
Pew Samurai. We talked about it.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I love it, Yes, we do love it. Indeeda as
well too. And who you consider biggest influences in your careers?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
You want to go first, Ferguson, you want me to
take that one?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Biggest influencing careers?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Boy, music career? I would imagine, yeah, music career.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah, you know, I was gonna say before I already
named a few bands, but boy, I did Procol Harem.
I just I think they yeah, and just so under
they like us, had that aspect of sophistication but also
commerciality and just splendid it so nicely that you know,
(41:49):
folks that you can hum their tunes. And yet there's
so many different levels of nuance in them. I just
I'm gonna say procle.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Harm okay, and then how about you Jeff Rotaal you know,
Ian Anderson, Frank Zappa, David Lynch, Brian Wilson, so many
pro Haerum too. I was a big band, Alan Parsons Project,
Stephen Wilson, geez I could I could go on forever?
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Oh my gosh, I had to be a lot. And
what's the best advice you guys can give the a
by at this point?
Speaker 9 (42:29):
Just stay calm, you know, musically, if you're interested in
doing music, the advice I would say is be very
careful which playlists you uh, you get placed only because.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
If you mess up your algo and you get and
you and you get started being you know, advertised to
the wrong genres, it's a very difficult hole to dig
out of. So very practical advice.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
Samah right and died and a plus and plus. Ian,
I understand you've got some promotions you're gonna be You
got your own YouTube challenge. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, So I talk about a lot of music, a
lot of different releases. If any of your listeners are
interested in surround sound like five point one quadraphonic if
you're kind of talking about the old days or currently
Dolby atmosh I feature a lot of releases, you know
(43:29):
on those formats, do a little bit of prog rock content,
talk about Frank Zappa all the time, the new releases
that's coming out from the family, and you know, just
having a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Okay, certainly and did as well too. And uh and
where and where they locate and how can they locate you? Ian?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Well, just searched by my name Ian b about on YouTube.
Now there are two accounts with that name, which is
something I need to get to the bottom of. But
that's because I forgot the password on the old one.
But the current one is up to date. So if
you click on the page and you see uploads that
are like in the past week, that's the current one.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
All right. Well, have everybody check it out once again
with the multi time reefastramus Of on the Mic Waters Show,
Derek Ferguson and BMBA about guys, a very big thank
you time you guys been absolutely fantastic looking forehead soon
keeps up to date, keep in touch, Lav, happy back.
What's your website? How do people contact you? And where
can people purchase or check out your music? Derek? How
(44:28):
can people get a whold view?
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Derek? Reefstramus dot com always works, all right?
Speaker 4 (44:35):
And I how they get a hold of you? Uh?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
My email is public thanks to Derek. It's shed Sounds
Media at gmail dot com and you can find that
on the Reefer Stramas website.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
And what's the website again.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Retramus dot com, R E F E S t r
A n us dot com.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
All right, well, I have everybody check out right now. Guys,
very ba, thanks you tying you Ba a fantastic looking
fore him soon gives up today, keep in touch, laugh,
I be back. We're our besting guys. You death have
a great future.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Hell you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Thanks Mike, it's been fun.
Speaker 10 (45:18):
Hey by, shut up.
Speaker 11 (45:29):
When I awake next to same morning, I see a
hotel room again, but wake up, gone will sound.
Speaker 12 (45:38):
It's warning you're trying to find I'll never with all?
(46:01):
Why said rescue a random cyclist? Curtsy with a shower
when the ladd and toed me out If you should
fall all upon these streets, the York is down your
(46:25):
confience streets?
Speaker 7 (46:30):
Why said rescue me?
Speaker 13 (46:42):
I have spent the lastly towers watching as my.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Firms rectors wall.
Speaker 13 (46:51):
After this tale the free rings ever real elevators.
Speaker 11 (47:11):
I really do you have people like you? Rarely ski season, Yes, lest,
(47:55):
I rarely do people like a nervous noss me of
(49:52):
when he thought, I really do have people like when
him so I never scorning this season.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
To see you the moment.
Speaker 12 (50:10):
Maybe it's a clam again.
Speaker 7 (50:14):
The watwen the mother. Maybe Sam see lest the first pass.
Speaker 12 (50:39):
And when you say they sail everything you want.
Speaker 7 (50:43):
They see jelly for it seems my ms mom fo
the s the same one the side.
Speaker 10 (52:01):
Yes, that was walking. LA's bready nice and figure out
the weeklish back ellad him over. She looked at me
my clucking Anderson is Jory as she we get to
(52:25):
death Dead Brosan a track.
Speaker 7 (52:40):
Thank you, Summuri.
Speaker 10 (52:43):
So the link is by you by amating just come
from the.
Speaker 7 (52:47):
Full in a pie like you, summarize like you, SUMMURII.
Speaker 14 (52:54):
You'll commented on my body to all the byes if
you compede, try the risen all time lake views.
Speaker 10 (53:01):
Summuraiz from Downtownscoast Town.
Speaker 7 (53:16):
She were just fool.
Speaker 10 (53:19):
You were a freak out and rab nor.
Speaker 7 (53:25):
Capsters in our town. They call the cop and like
confar the shot of the shoes her material. If you
will think we do this to the.
Speaker 14 (53:41):
Lake View Summaraii sella Hundroflasiany guy, you mean Adam lake
View summarized than.
Speaker 7 (53:53):
You summarized babble.
Speaker 10 (53:55):
Jennifer he Canna Santa Ride.
Speaker 3 (53:57):
Could any take at.
Speaker 7 (53:58):
My something.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Like you sumerright?
Speaker 7 (54:19):
Did you want money?
Speaker 3 (54:42):
Makes you soumry.
Speaker 10 (54:46):
Like by good bye and say that he's got.
Speaker 7 (54:51):
Like you soumarade. Thank you so cry You can get
the money, don't guy, So you go back and try.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
The Mike Wagner Show is powered by Sonicweb Studios. If
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Speaker 6 (55:41):
Hey there, Dana Laxa here, American news anchor. Hey, let
me ask you something real quick. Why do you read
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Everybody, It's Mike from The Mike wider Show, powered by
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Erraena Wagner and check out the Mike Waders Show at
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ten countries, including Facebook, SoundCloud, Speaker, Spotify, iHeartRadio, also Apple Music,
Bits You roamban YouTube, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter
and TikTok. Today we're here are Two Wonderful Gentleman, a
Chicago prog rock band found during COVID nineteen and twenty
(01:35):
twenty by drummer songwriter Derek Ferguson and evolved from a
home steer project into and internationally recognized prog outlet. We'll
talk more about that, and they'll be in the UK
from November thirteenth through seventeenth playing UK's h r HM
Progfast featuring Asia's John Payne, Focused Life Signs and more.
(01:56):
And they have a loyal following on YouTube, Spotify and
all all the channels. And we'll be featuring a couple
of singles in just a Minute live Lace and Gentlemen
plus studios in beautiful downtown Chicago and Steubenville, Ohio. The
multi talented Chicago prog rock band with producer, engineer Ian
Baabout and Derek Ferguson, the founder and first drummer and
(02:20):
also the songwriter. The band is called Reefer Straamus. Guys,
good morning, good afternue and geting me. Thanks for joining
us today, Thanks having us, Thanks for having us, Mike,
which great to have you on. Barbara. First of all,
how'd you come up with the name of reefer Stramas.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's a word that my mom has used for years
to mean to rearrange oneself after some sort of like
you know, classic example. I like to use this. You know,
you go through tsa security and you know you have
to put all your stuff in the basket and goes
through and then you see all the folks that actually
(02:56):
put benches out for folks to reef amazed himself. So
that's that's the meaning.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
How do you like that? And I think that's great
as well too, So Derek, you're you founded the band
during COVID nineteen in twenty twenty or the drummer and
songwriter the grewup and and tell us how you first
got started.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So I was in a bunch of different local progressive
rock bands in the nineteen nineties and then, you know,
like a lot of folks, life sort of, you know,
intervened and you know, moved moved away from that and
had a career and all that sort of stuff. Still do,
but you know, COVID sort of provided an opportunity to
(03:42):
set back and do a little bit of stuff that
I never had time to do before, just because of
you know, everybody got to be home for a little
bit longer, whether we liked it or not, right, right,
And I had started listening to Ian's internet radio show.
I guess it was probably back in about twenty fourteen,
(04:04):
twenty sixteen around there, And I mean, Ian can tell
you more about that, but just super fascinated to see
that between when I was last in bands in the
nineties and now, the I mean home studio recording just
(04:24):
evolved by leaps and bounds. So it started off with
me approaching Ian to have him mix and masters some
of my band's old tapes, and then after that it's
during COVID I thought, oh, you know what, maybe I'll
finish recording one of the songs that I never got
to record back in the day. And then the bassis
(04:47):
that Ian put me in touch with Jerry King, who's
been on a host of different groups that he can
also tell you about, said, you know, you should probably
do an album. All right, album, But that's uh, that's
my side of it. I and you can fill in
the gaps I missed.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, so you were in my chat rooms when I
did Prog Rock Deep Cuts, my second, I guess radio show.
I'm now on my third, but back when I did
my second radio show, and that would have been when
I was on either prog rock dot Com or House
of Prague. And if I remember, you always had Henry
Spencer from Eraserhead as Beaker from the Muppets. Wasn't that
(05:29):
your Yeah? It was just like all my cross cultural
references pop cultural references were converging, and uh, my show
was a little bit odd. I was just as likely
to play some sort of avant garde jazz nonsense as
(05:49):
I was to play some Beatles tune or a pop song.
So I did. I thought I was not necessarily the
obvious choice let's say, uh, to produce Derek music. But
when he reached out to me, I what appealed to
me about it was that, you know, I had been
doing again, you know, in my production work. I had
(06:11):
found this niche doing a lot of like avant garde
bands working for Qunai Form record label on Washington, d C.
Which I absolutely love and I still work for them
to this day. But what attracted me to the Reefer
Stramas music was the fact that it is hooky. It
sounds like arena rock music from the eighties, and it
(06:33):
reminds me of when bands like Asia emerged, where you
had these great musicians who were playing Oh.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I remember Asia, They were terrific. I loved them.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, And I was thinking, you know, if I can
do that really esoteric stuff on one hand and then
also show you know that I have a passion in
love for this more we'll say accessible stuff, that that
just makes me a richer producer and engineer. So I
was happy to take on the challenge, challenge to show
(07:06):
that I was capable of doing it. And after we
made the first record, Derek, I think I think both
of us expressed some disappointment with that first record, the
one it's called de Copage, and we kind of agreed
that I should produce the following record. So starting with Interase,
(07:26):
which was the second record, and now onto this new one,
I took over as the producer.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Okay, so you had gigapage interest and you also had
was it from the sublime to the ridiculous? Was that
the third one?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's an EP?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I believe I was trying to clarify that that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's an EP. The the upcoming record, which
is coming out in June, is called Maury's Rock Boutique.
But our first single is out from Maury's Rock Boutique
and it's called Hell or New York City. And I
think we're gonna be talking about that a little later
in the program.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yes, yes, I right, and will be certainly do that
and and the and you've been a producer, engineer, and
how did you first get started?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, I went to college for it music technology as
well as public relations, and so I was working in
a studio as part of my senior project. And I
produced two records my senior year, actually three, but anyway,
one of them was particularly strange and interesting, and it
(08:33):
was called coloratura, and that's sort of what I chose
to continue with after college. And following college, I built
a studio at home nice I called Shed Sounds out
of an old shed that I you know. With the
help of my uncle and some uh some folks from
the building company, we were able to outfit it with plumbing, electricity,
(08:57):
and it was heat, heat, and water and all that stuff,
and so it was like a little house. It was
like a tiny home. But right after I built that
is when the pandemic hit. So it's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
So I had to rethink my whole strategy because I
wanted to record people, you know, and so somebody I
(09:19):
knew from just the bars locally back when I lived
in West Virginia said that he had a friend in
Pittsburgh who is doing audio post production. He doesn't do recording,
he just does post production. So I actually started out
in post production, and that's probably the area where I'm
(09:39):
the most comfortable with. But I think I may have
told Ferguson that. See, at one point we had two
Derek's in the band, so I had to identify them
by last name. But at one point I told Ferguson
that it was always my dream to produce, because I
grew up being a fan of people like Alan Parsons
(10:00):
and later on like more recent artists like Stephen Wilson.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Uh huh. And then how'd you guys first meet? Exactly?
So I was trying to get like three points and
how did you exactly? Like first meet? To make contact?
Wasn't a chat room the radio show or you'll be
approached to music the chat room?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah? It was the chat room for my Progret Deepcuts
radio program. And I guess Derek must have friend requested
me on Facebook. And when the pandemic rolled around, I
don't remember. Did we communicate at all in between the
radio show ending and you having the material? Or was
it you came forward with material and then you know,
we've developed three records out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know what it was? I had, and I had
been carrying around for at least twenty years, some of
those big, thick analog studio tapes that my band in
the nineties had made, And I think I reached out
to you because you mentioned that you were doing it
agree in building a student and all that sort of stuff,
just to say what can I do with these tapes?
(11:06):
Because I you know, I'm vaguely aware that magnetic tapes
don't last forever, and I'd like to salvage this music.
And I think you had said, if you find a
studio that has the equipment to convert them to wave files,
then you could actually mix them and turn theming I
could hear and all that sort of stuff. And so
(11:27):
then when I decided to try to record some new
music during the pandemic at home, you wear the natural choice.
And all the musicians on the first album actually resourced
during the pandemic internationally using Fiver, which.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Is not to mention a lot of that you played yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Or one of the things that we wanted to just
sort of improve upon in the on the following following albums.
I mean I would I would rate myself on drums
the other stuff. I's just I should just stick to
writing as opposed to playing. So with each album sort
of improved up. The quality of musicians on each album.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Is certainly a fantastic And I and you cover some
of the influences that shaped your some of the favorites
you grew up at, Derek, how about some your favorites
that you grew up with, You.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Know, it's interesting. I never really thought of myself as
being a fan of specific producers, but in later years
I came to realize that so many of so much
some music that I liked was produced by Bob Ezrin.
Just so he was was a huge influence on me.
(12:47):
Obviously we just lost ace rely, so I'm thinking particularly about.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Oh that was that was sad.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, for someone of my age, you know he was.
He was pivotal early influence, uh kiss in general, and
then later on I got very intopressive rock, and in
particular you can see behind Ian b about the jet
Row Tal.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Uh, you're all, oh, that is so cool. I love it, Yes, jet.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Rotal, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Yes, Genesis, Smmerson, Lincoln Palmer. That's
but I think something Ian said earlier about, you know,
the music having hooks. I love progressive rock. That's my
that's my genre. But I got to half my hooks.
You know, music that that that sort of just uh
(13:45):
is very serious and dry and just too esoteric. Uh.
Something that you know Ian and I try to do
with Reeferstremis is we always try to keep stuff grounded.
And uh, Ian's a big fan of Frank Zapp On.
Obviously he humor was an essential part of his whole ethos.
(14:06):
So that's that's that's something you hear a lot in
the reefus.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Trams music and one band maybe think it was King Crimson,
seems to be the top of the prog rocks King Crimson.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I love King Crimson. I don't know how you feel,
because a lot of times I thought I'd bring this up,
like a lot of times, I'm coming from a more
experimental side of things, because that's that's usually where I live.
And I think that a lot of what makes Reefer
Stramus special is that me coming in with what you know,
maybe Derek would call esoteric influences and him coming in
(14:41):
with those hooks and more hard rock things.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Right. And certainly it did as well too, and we
got some music as well besides Hello New York City, Lakeview,
Samurai and more about Maury's rock Boutique. There's also some
other music. We'll talk about that with Reefer Stramus is
Ian Bay about the p User Engineer and Derek Ferguson.
But first listened to the Mike Wider's show at the
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We're here amazing multi talented Derek ferguson the drummer and
(17:12):
songwriter and also Ian be about the producer and engineer
of Reeferstramus's latest release, Morris's Rock Boutique on The Mic
Winners Show before we talk about more on net. You
guys had did some singles with Zombie Love Assumption and
also Emmaline, So tell us more about those.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Those are all from the last record, right, Those are
all from interast.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I believe so I mentioned Zombie Love Assumption if I
got that right, and Emmaline.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Suncian's Assuncion is kind of a nice lead into the
new album Morris Rockboutique. So one of my favorite places
to visit vacation wise and actually I'm going just a
couple of weeks before our appearance at HRH is a
Suncium in the Paraguay, South America.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Oh nice.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And during I guess it was my second visit there,
maybe my first visit, I was just saying, Wow, this
is this is really nice. I think it was like
probably the middle of December in Chicago and I was
down there and it was like eighty degrees in sunny out.
I think this is really cool. So I'm walking down
the street and I just started humming this melody and
(18:31):
I hummed it into into my phone so I wouldn't
lose it, so CEO and I think, oh, this is
this is really Yeah, this is cool. And so that
is a that's sort of an homage to the city.
And something very interesting happened with that song, which was
after I put it together and did the usual pr
send out for it, someone who works for Paraguay and
(18:55):
National radio contacted me and said, you know, it's love
rock news. We don't get a whole lot of rock
songs written about a sun sea and Paraguay. Could we
play this? And so I know, super honored to have
it played on national radio. And after that made contact
(19:15):
with someone named Maury who owns a rock boutique, actually
a rock store. It's called Maury Rock Store.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Is it is it like rocks or is it rock music?
I never quite knew what exactly the rock was.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
It's it's rock music. She's got all sorts of rock
T shirts and rock posters and very cool place, and
she made the first Then she remains our exclusive T
shirt manufacturer. So all of the Reefas Stramas T shirts
that ever been made have been made by her. And
(19:51):
we have a little you know, following in the sunsem
So I have all these photos of people in the
Sunsea and Paraguay going around with Reefustram's T shirts. That's
the name of our new album, Maury's Rock Boutique.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Hot. I like that and I think that's really cool
as well too. You also got the DEVI re turns
into a Suite and you also got Deathless.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Tell us about those, well, Deathless is a song which
has not yet come out.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
What's that going to be released?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I so it's saying, what is it? Nine minutes song?
Eleven minutes?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh yeah, it's ten minutes long. But you got to
play the whole Enchilada.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You got to play the whole enchilada. So being ten
minutes long, it itself probably won't be a single, although
we did take we took two and a half minutes
out of it a section that is called Goodbye America,
where that's that's actually coming out as a single. We
(20:53):
thought it would be fairly timely with all the political
stuff that's going on. But the whole concept behind Deathless
is there's a there's a there's a character in Russian folklore.
So a lot of stuff in refastramis Uh sort of
goes back to Slavic mythology, and we have a lot
of Slavic musical influences, and in this case, there's a
(21:17):
there's a character kushe best Maritny is his Russian name,
which is Kushi the Deathless. And it's kind of positing
the the idea that bad stuff happening in the world,
and in the US in particular. You know, it's almost
as if this character, who exists to do nothing other
than cause trouble, has somehow other managed to grab hold
(21:41):
and and and cause all this bad stuff. And uh,
the song has a rather ironic ending that I won't
uh ruin for anyone who might want to listen to it.
But that's that's that's what Deathless is all about. We're
playing that actually at h r H, which is going
to be uh in interesting undertaking. We're being joined at
(22:02):
the end of that by David Jackson from a Vandergraft generator.
He's going to be playing the saxophone part, which was
actually suggested live in the studio by him.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and we are talking about a song that people
aren't going to hear. But the story of that sax
solo was that we had to drop a member and
somebody couldn't show up for sessions, and so I had
this whole thing planned out to do with three or
(22:35):
four people, and somebody couldn't make it. So the person
who could be there was, of course the sax player,
and Derek Ferguson was there playing the drums, and I
just had this like five second idea to throw Mitch
Lawrence into the vocal booth to just kind of jam
with Derek on drums, and that kind of spontaneously created
(22:58):
one of my favorite, very favorite moments, not only on
this album, but I think on any Reforstramus album.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Oh that's really interesting. And here's one probably for the ages.
It doesn't have to be like around December twenty fifth,
I ruined Christmas and tell us about that one.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's yeah, it's it's an interesting one. You know, I'm
not I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs. I
love Christmas, I'm just not a big fan of Christmas songs.
You know, they're always just so when you think about
the experience that most people have family gatherings in general,
once again, probably even more so in sort of recent
(23:38):
American history with polarization and all that sort of stuff.
You know, it's just I think a lot of folks
have altercations and just bad stuff happened, you know, around
the holidays. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool and
appropriate to have a song that captured that aspect of
holidays and written from the perspective not of somebody who
(24:01):
feels that they are the aggrieved party, but from the
perspective of someone who knows that they are probably the
the instigator and the cause of of of altercations. And
there's you know, one of my favorite lyrics. It's like
I told you before, it won't happen again. It's just
(24:24):
every every Christmas say you together, and it winds up
being the same sort of thing and stuff goes sideways.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So yeah, it's more of that tongue in cheek humor
that we were kind of talking about.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yes, oh oh, definitely. Yeah, it makes one and just
you know, choke Mariah Carrie, if you hear again, all
I want for Christmas is you. I was at that point,
so it's like in there, Mariah, please, no, I want
my thing.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
So true.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Oh that's so true as well. And we'll also have
a couple of songs will be play it at the
end of the audio interview. We want everybody to do that.
Hello New York City and link for you Samui with Reeferstramus.
You listen to the Mike Wedners Show at the Mike
Wednershow dot compowered by Sondwave Studios, Brought you by official
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(25:18):
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back to the Amazing Derek Versus ferguson Ian b about
of Reefastramus after this time.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
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Speaker 3 (27:08):
Right place, right time? Tuned into the Mike Wagner Show.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You heard me, We're back with em b About and
Derek ferguson brief astrams here on the Mike Wadner's Show,
and two songs would be playing at the end of
the audio interview. We did talk about Mary's Rock boutique.
The latest coming up along with the upcoming of Fest
in November, we have Hell on New York City and
(27:34):
also lake View Samurai. Talk about Hell in New York City.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
First of all, well, this is autobiographical, right, However, you want.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
To just describe it as I tell us about it.
It's your interpretation, not mine. It's your interpretation. Come on,
you guys can hash it out right.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
When we started, Ferguson sent me a collection of demos
and I picked the ones that were most attractive to
me that we would make out of the next record,
and among those were Heller in New York City and
Lake Pe Samurai. And I think what attracted me to
Heller in New York City is that it's got this
(28:14):
kind of driving engine behind it that reminded me of
a Frank zappatoon and specifically it was the New York
City Zappa New York version of a song called A
Pound for a Brown on the bus that you can
pick it up from there, Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
So musically it to me, it fits into a space
which is between something like XTC or The Police that's
sort of early eighties new wavish, almost beat, but time
(29:00):
signatures in the song change Left, Right and Center, which
seemed a lot cooler to me when we were recording it.
Then now I have to play it live because it
is by far the toughest song to play, and this
is the one that David Jackson from Vandergraft Generator plays
extensively on on the album. So I'll just I'll say
(29:24):
up front, I'm you know, we're going to be I'm
gonna get a chance to play with my one of
my all time idols live in the UK in a
couple of weeks, and I'm I'm sweating it because this
is this is going to be some tricky stuff. But lyrically,
the story is pretty simple. I was recruited in my
(29:47):
day job in the mid two thousands to work for
a bear Sterns excuse me, to work for a new
or company called bear Stearns, which nowadays I think is folks.
Folks know the from what happened in the Great Recession.
They were one of the first companies to implode, and
(30:07):
it's sim very much classic Wall Street. It was just
a very very very difficult environment. So I sort of
wanted to capture that sense of sort of being a
pressure cooker and you know the stakes that would be involved.
You know, I'm in software professionally, and creating software for
(30:32):
traders back in the mid two thousands was no walk
in the park. They would wheel a cart down the
trading floor at the end of every day, called the
Broken Equipment cart, and it was all of the screens
that had been punched and the phones that had been
slammed down and broken.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
We should also talk about the clarinet solo.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you tell that
story better than I do, Mitch performance y.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So Mitch Lawrence was a friend of mine. I'd known
his brother a few years ago, and uh, I was
at a party one time and Mitch just broke out
a saxophone and started a jam and he melted my face.
And uh, ever since then, I've kept tabs with Mitch
and and you know, we exchanged phone numbers and stuff.
And when Ferguson was looking for a sax player, I
(31:25):
introduced him to to Mitch Lawrence. So we were talking
about doing this New York City thing, and uh, Ferguson
had this idea to spoof the Gershwin, Right, what what
is that? Playing Rhapsody in Blue. Of course I've played
Rhapsody in Blue. I shouldn't know what it's called anyway.
So we had this idea to spoof Rapsody in Blue,
(31:46):
and Ferguson said, you know, we're gonna have Dave Jackson
play saxophone. I said, but Ferguson, that's a that's a
clarinet on Rhapsody in Blue. And so we called Mitch
because Mitch plays in a polka band. He's like, they're
playing metal, or he's playing prog rock, or he's playing.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Polka, and I think that's a good one right there.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So well, they never converge, you know, it's never all
the same thing.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But well you never know one day, never know.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
A little bit of the song.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Right Well, I was going to say that it was
kind of my idea to feature a clarinet because I
couldn't think of a relevant example of a clarinet being
featured in a rock song. Now Mitch did. He brought
up Breakfast in America by Super Tramp, which is a
song that I love and I don't know how I
ever forgot about it, but anyhow, it just struck me
(32:37):
as a very unique idea. I thought, we gotta we
got to follow this this unique idea. And so Mitch,
you know, the mics are set up, we're rolling, he
breaks the clarinet out and he does that run pretty
much without a warm up. And our engineer, who is
a clarinet player in high school, three his hands up
and said, I'm done. I'm out of here, man, Yeah,
(33:03):
I quit.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
It was It was really amazing to watch Mitch in
the studio. He was just, uh, you know, it's just
a phenomenal musician and kind of folks like that from
time to time, right, you know, you're just sort of like, whoa,
that is some amazing skills.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Oh my gosh, it had to be and plus and
plus David or Derek the one that really resonated with
you the most. Lakeview Samurai and tell us more about
that one.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So I live in lake View, Chicago, about a fifteen
minute walk from Ridley Field, I would say, and there
is no word of lie. Well, maybe I should back
in the story a little bit. Yeah, start this way.
So there is it's a colorful neighborhood. It's it's it
(33:58):
is very ecliqu there's all sorts of stuff going on
in Wrigleyville at all times to the extent that we
recently had an article in Prog magazine about Briefa Stramas,
and the photo shoot for that was me dressed up
like a wizard, which was our pr person's idea, and
(34:20):
the photographer wanted to do this outdoors on one of
our busiest intersections at noon on a Friday. And I
thought to myself, Ah, this is going to be embarrassing.
And you know, I go out in this wizard outfit,
no one notices me, and even remotely it's just you know,
as oh there's a wizard I find just going through business. Anyhow,
(34:40):
there is a gentleman in our neighborhood who I have
seen on two occasions, and my wife has seen him
at least once, so I know it's not a hallucination.
Who is dressed like a samurai. I mean just the
whole kit, kle, the hat, two swords, two katama swords,
terry guns in Chicago, but you can carry two massive katanass.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, this guy has to have a song written about him.
He has to be immortalized and fair exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
And I thought, you know the other thing about Lakeview
is it like many neighborhoods, is you know I guess
absolute neighborhoods sort of a lot of gentrification. So you know,
you've got the original folks who have been here when
it was eclectic, you've got the new folks who are
sort of, you know, the gentrification woman. So what you
see in the lyrics is this juxtaposition of the status
(35:36):
symbol items of gentrification against the traditional items that that
samurai would carry. So, yeah, he's got the katana, but
he's also got his you know, lulu leggings, and you
know he's got the he's got the helmet, but he's
also got his his ear, his apple earbuds on underneath it.
(35:57):
So that's what you hear in the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I like that and that's so amazing. And I'm here
with Refastramis, Derek Verson, m be about on Mike when
your show and guys, if there's some other songs you
want to talk about feel free too?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So what else? What else do we have in the
offering here? What are you playing in the UK?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, so we are playing.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Just get You don't have to say everything, but like
what's Yeah, you mentioned hell or in New York City,
but what's another one you're really excited about.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Tonight? All right, so we got to talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Five oh sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
So we have a song which is called tonight tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight,
and I'm I'm super proud of that because I have
noticed that there are you on too, like the Escat
Music Registry where all the everybody who writes songs registers
them on this place. That's how you get paid your royalty.
(36:58):
There are a million songs called tonight. It's five hundred
thousand called tonight tonight. Genesis had a very famous song
called tonight tonight tonight, and Jenny.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
And later in a michelol commercial, I remember Jessie very well.
I love that song, even going back to Peter Garbriel
loved exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So they had tonight, tonight Tonight. There is I think
there's a handful of artists on ASCAP who've done songs
called tonight tonight, tonight, tonight. But we're the only band
that has that extra twenty percent of tonight.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
And that's over a fellow Chicagoan, right, because there's Billy
Corgan with tonight tonight.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You're right, Yes, we're what two and a half times
more tonight than.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Remember when we were in the studio And when I
told you about the feel, and I was talking about
Jimmy Chamberlain and I was like, listen, when is it
for Ferguson? Is it tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (37:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Is it? Was it yesterday? No, it's tonight. And so
when you play the drums, it's got it like it's tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
It's yes. And this is one it's it's eight minutes
we're gonna be playing that, and it's it's it's coming
along nicely. It's uh. It does feature at the end
the heaviest I think Stramas has ever been. There's there's
a riff at the end that just they'll just knock
(38:24):
you over where you're at.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
That is certainly amazing. In the meantime, where can you
find all your music at your layers releases? And what's
your website?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Guys, websites refastramis dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You want to spell that?
Speaker 7 (38:39):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, R E F E S t R A m
U s dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
You want the spelling me?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
I love the band's name, yeah, uh, And you can
pretty much all of our music is on all streaming
services now. So where streaming music?
Speaker 8 (39:00):
You get our stuff in band camp and band camp yes, right,
you got that right, and we're here with Derek Ferguson
and ianb about a brieflest Tram is here on the
Mike Winters Show and just a few of our things.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
And before we get to that, tell us about your
upcoming Festiva come out November.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Yeah, Friday, November fourteenth, that's Friday. We are performing an
hour long set at the HRH Prague fifteen Festival in
great Yarmouth, England, UK. Super fun stuff, opening for Asia
(39:37):
and Focus and Curved Air, and we will be joined
on stage for a couple of tracks by David Jackson,
formerly of Vandergraft Generator and Alex Hutchins, who is the
guitarist who has been one of the guitarists for Steven Wilson.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yes as Suture on the Home Invasion Blu Ray.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So if you're in the area in November, we would
love to see you at the concert. And it is
our European concert premiere, so super super exciting.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Stuff, all right, we'll certainly have it by. Check that out.
And also what else do you guys have coming up
to wrap up twenty twenty five and going to twenty
twenty six and be on what else do you have.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Going on, are we going to release a single a
month or what's going on with that?
Speaker 4 (40:31):
Well, oh, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
No, we're trying the modern release strategy of releasing a
single every month between now in June. Then in June
we're putting out the album. So we've got yeah, new
music every few.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Minutes on Melodic Right, Melodic Revolution Records.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Melodic Revolution Records. Yes, Nick Katona's label out of Florida.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
All they's changing his name to Nick Katana after Lake
Pew Samurai. We talked about it.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I love it, Yes, we do love it. Indeeda as
well too. And who you consider biggest influences in your careers?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
You want to go first, Ferguson, you want me to
take that one?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Biggest influencing careers?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Boy, music career? I would imagine, yeah, music career.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah, you know, I was gonna say before I already
named a few bands, but boy, I did Procol Harem.
I just I think they yeah, and just so under
they like us, had that aspect of sophistication but also
commerciality and just splendid it so nicely that you know,
(41:49):
folks that you can hum their tunes. And yet there's
so many different levels of nuance in them. I just
I'm gonna say procle.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Harm okay, and then how about you Jeff Rotaal you know,
Ian Anderson, Frank Zappa, David Lynch, Brian Wilson, so many
pro Haerum too. I was a big band, Alan Parsons Project,
Stephen Wilson, geez I could I could go on forever?
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Oh my gosh, I had to be a lot. And
what's the best advice you guys can give the a
by at this point?
Speaker 9 (42:29):
Just stay calm, you know, musically, if you're interested in
doing music, the advice I would say is be very
careful which playlists you uh, you get placed only because.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
If you mess up your algo and you get and
you and you get started being you know, advertised to
the wrong genres, it's a very difficult hole to dig
out of. So very practical advice.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
Samah right and died and a plus and plus. Ian,
I understand you've got some promotions you're gonna be You
got your own YouTube challenge. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, So I talk about a lot of music, a
lot of different releases. If any of your listeners are
interested in surround sound like five point one quadraphonic if
you're kind of talking about the old days or currently
Dolby atmosh I feature a lot of releases, you know
(43:29):
on those formats, do a little bit of prog rock content,
talk about Frank Zappa all the time, the new releases
that's coming out from the family, and you know, just
having a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Okay, certainly and did as well too. And uh and
where and where they locate and how can they locate you? Ian?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Well, just searched by my name Ian b about on YouTube.
Now there are two accounts with that name, which is
something I need to get to the bottom of. But
that's because I forgot the password on the old one.
But the current one is up to date. So if
you click on the page and you see uploads that
are like in the past week, that's the current one.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
All right. Well, have everybody check it out once again
with the multi time reefastramus Of on the Mic Waters Show,
Derek Ferguson and BMBA about guys, a very big thank
you time you guys been absolutely fantastic looking forehead soon
keeps up to date, keep in touch, Lav, happy back.
What's your website? How do people contact you? And where
can people purchase or check out your music? Derek? How
(44:28):
can people get a whold view?
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Derek? Reefstramus dot com always works, all right?
Speaker 4 (44:35):
And I how they get a hold of you? Uh?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
My email is public thanks to Derek. It's shed Sounds
Media at gmail dot com and you can find that
on the Reefer Stramas website.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
And what's the website again.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Retramus dot com, R E F E S t r
A n us dot com.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
All right, well, I have everybody check out right now. Guys,
very ba, thanks you tying you Ba a fantastic looking
fore him soon gives up today, keep in touch, laugh,
I be back. We're our besting guys. You death have
a great future.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Hell you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Thanks Mike, it's been fun.
Speaker 10 (45:18):
Hey by, shut up.
Speaker 11 (45:29):
When I awake next to same morning, I see a
hotel room again, but wake up, gone will sound.
Speaker 12 (45:38):
It's warning you're trying to find I'll never with all?
(46:01):
Why said rescue a random cyclist? Curtsy with a shower
when the ladd and toed me out If you should
fall all upon these streets, the York is down your
(46:25):
confience streets?
Speaker 7 (46:30):
Why said rescue me?
Speaker 13 (46:42):
I have spent the lastly towers watching as my.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Firms rectors wall.
Speaker 13 (46:51):
After this tale the free rings ever real elevators.
Speaker 11 (47:11):
I really do you have people like you? Rarely ski season, Yes, lest,
(47:55):
I rarely do people like a nervous noss me of
(49:52):
when he thought, I really do have people like when
him so I never scorning this season.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
To see you the moment.
Speaker 12 (50:10):
Maybe it's a clam again.
Speaker 7 (50:14):
The watwen the mother. Maybe Sam see lest the first pass.
Speaker 12 (50:39):
And when you say they sail everything you want.
Speaker 7 (50:43):
They see jelly for it seems my ms mom fo
the s the same one the side.
Speaker 10 (52:01):
Yes, that was walking. LA's bready nice and figure out
the weeklish back ellad him over. She looked at me
my clucking Anderson is Jory as she we get to
(52:25):
death Dead Brosan a track.
Speaker 7 (52:40):
Thank you, Summuri.
Speaker 10 (52:43):
So the link is by you by amating just come
from the.
Speaker 7 (52:47):
Full in a pie like you, summarize like you, SUMMURII.
Speaker 14 (52:54):
You'll commented on my body to all the byes if
you compede, try the risen all time lake views.
Speaker 10 (53:01):
Summuraiz from Downtownscoast Town.
Speaker 7 (53:16):
She were just fool.
Speaker 10 (53:19):
You were a freak out and rab nor.
Speaker 7 (53:25):
Capsters in our town. They call the cop and like
confar the shot of the shoes her material. If you
will think we do this to the.
Speaker 14 (53:41):
Lake View Summaraii sella Hundroflasiany guy, you mean Adam lake
View summarized than.
Speaker 7 (53:53):
You summarized babble.
Speaker 10 (53:55):
Jennifer he Canna Santa Ride.
Speaker 3 (53:57):
Could any take at.
Speaker 7 (53:58):
My something.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Like you sumerright?
Speaker 7 (54:19):
Did you want money?
Speaker 3 (54:42):
Makes you soumry.
Speaker 10 (54:46):
Like by good bye and say that he's got.
Speaker 7 (54:51):
Like you soumarade. Thank you so cry You can get
the money, don't guy, So you go back and try.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
The Mike Wagner Show is powered by Sonicweb Studios. If
you're looking to start or upgrade your online presence, visit
www dot Sonicwebstudios dot com. For all of your online needs.
(55:23):
Call one eight hundred three oh three three nine six
zero or visit us online at www dot sonicwebstudios dot
com To get started today, Mention The Mike Wagner Show
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your image to the next level.
Speaker 6 (55:41):
Hey there, Dana Laxa here, American news anchor. Hey, let
me ask you something real quick. Why do you read
a book. You're buying a story, a thought, a message,
and a good book entertains and inspires. And that's exactly
what Missing by Award winning author me On Zia does.
I have his book right here, and it's based on
real events with relatable characters that hook you from start
(56:04):
to finish. I personally love this book. It's super powerful
and meaningful through and you can actually get it on
Amazon right now.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
The Mike Wagner Show is brought to you by Serena
Wagner's book The Sweet Sawmist, now availed on Amazon. This
book includes thirty exquisite pintings by well known and unknown
painters and King David Soalms The Sweets Aalmist gives us
a new perspective on his life in this book through
the songs he wrote. His time as a shepherd in
the field is where the book starts, and it goes
on to describe his complicated and turbulent relationship with King Saul,
(56:32):
as well as other events. It's a story of love, betrayal, repentance,
and more. It also offers advice on approaching God and
living a life that pleases him. Check out the book
The Sweet Salmist by Serena Wagner now available on Amazon
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Speaker 5 (56:49):
Thanks for listening to The Mike Wagner Show, powed by
Sonic Web Studios. List hit online at Sonicwebstudios dot com
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on SPREAKA, Spotify, iHeart Radio, iTunes, YouTube Anchor, FM Radio Public,
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(57:10):
Join us again next time for another great episode of
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