Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Setting Sail For Australia With PHILLY OCEAN From YACHTLEY CREW

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Setting Sail For Australia With PHILLY OCEAN From YACHTLEY CREW · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody. I'm Philly Ocean from the world's
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  Speaker 1: number one yacht rock band, Yachtlee Crewe. We are coming
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  Speaker 1: to Australia this May on our first international tour and
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  Speaker 1: we couldn't be more excited.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah for Mike, thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: Hell yeah, happy to be here.
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  Speaker 2: As you say, ro YOCHTLEI Crue the Titans of soft Rock.
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  Speaker 2: I headed to Australia for the first time ever this
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  Speaker 2: May for a run of shows, starting in Perth on
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  Speaker 2: May the twelve, and you hit Melbourne, Sydney and finishing
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  Speaker 2: Brisbane on May the eight age. So how you feel
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  Speaker 2: about it? Mate?
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  Speaker 1: We couldn't be more happy. I mean, we started back
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  Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. We've been doing this for eight years.
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  Speaker 1: We never imagined that something that we did just because
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  Speaker 1: we thought it would be fun would now be going international.
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  Speaker 1: You know. We started off playing small bars in southern California.
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  Speaker 1: Realized pretty early on that people love yacht rock. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, for those of you who maybe never heard
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  Speaker 1: the term, yacht rock has made up of all your
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  Speaker 1: favorite soft rock hits from the late seventies and early eighties,
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  Speaker 1: Artists like Michael McDonald Kenny Loggin's Little River Band, Steely Dan,
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Cross. Those kinds of sounds make up what we
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  Speaker 1: play in our show, and it's the best music. It's
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  Speaker 1: so much fun and it's super nostalgic.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we should point atty to tell you
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  Speaker 2: that it's not just like it is an entertainment show,
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  Speaker 2: but you guys are real musicians to playing real instruments
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  Speaker 2: the whole time.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean, that's what it's about. It's a live
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  Speaker 1: music show, you know, and it's super high energy. So
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  Speaker 1: people love to participate. They come out wearing their own
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  Speaker 1: captain's hats or navy blazers. They get in costume with us,
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  Speaker 1: and that's what amplifies it. Also they bring all their
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  Speaker 1: friends too. I mean we see people literally charter like
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  Speaker 1: those party buses, and they'll show up outside the venue
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  Speaker 1: and like twenty people all dressed like us, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: get off because they're ready to party.
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  Speaker 2: Fantastic. Man. Now you say you're being out for two
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  Speaker 2: thenty and seven eight, which eighty is this is your
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  Speaker 2: first time? Was Straya said? The big question is why
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  Speaker 2: have you neglected us for so long?
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  Speaker 1: We were just waiting for the in you know which
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  Speaker 1: we got and and you know it's it's not an
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  Speaker 1: overnight it's not an overnight thing. You know, we're really
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  Speaker 1: hard working. We've been diligently at this for a long
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  Speaker 1: time and just trying to find a way to get
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  Speaker 1: in front of more people. In the last couple of
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  Speaker 1: years post pandemic have just absolutely exploded. I think there's
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  Speaker 1: a real hunger out there for people coming together around
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  Speaker 1: something positive that they love and that they want to
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  Speaker 1: share and it's it's awesome. Yeah, now.
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  Speaker 2: You just lost me for a second. The being your
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  Speaker 2: first time to Australia or any country my life, do
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  Speaker 2: you do your research on what you expect at the
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  Speaker 2: ages coming cold and theseselves and type that's enough?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say, you know, research in terms of
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  Speaker 1: like we we have a full team of people who
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  Speaker 1: are you know, making sure that the tour is going
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  Speaker 1: to go off. You know, we also know that there
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  Speaker 1: are certain artists that Australia likes more than others and
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  Speaker 1: so we can kind of lean into that. We can
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  Speaker 1: you know, have our set list kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, way a little bit heavier. Certain artists
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  Speaker 1: that you guys made me know are that maybe didn't
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  Speaker 1: jump from like the States over to Australia. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: beyond that, I've been to Australia before. I love that.
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  Speaker 1: I have many friends who are Australian actually, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: I love the people down there. It's like America, only
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  Speaker 1: a lot nicer.
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  Speaker 2: That's why I did to describe it. The flip side
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  Speaker 2: of that is, we don't know what to expect from you.
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  Speaker 2: Are this so run us through a typical show from
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  Speaker 2: the Otley Kree.
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  Speaker 1: So our show is super high energy and we're all
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  Speaker 1: really really enthusiastic performers. So we've been described as like
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  Speaker 1: the kiss of soft rock. There's a lot of stage production,
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  Speaker 1: there's lighting and the show and how we do this
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  Speaker 1: music is just really high energy and a lot of fun,
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  Speaker 1: and so we want to get the audience involved. We
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  Speaker 1: want to get people singing along. You know, we have choreography,
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  Speaker 1: it's a whole show. And I would say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: not to sound you know, cliche, but the best way
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  Speaker 1: to find out what we're about is to come to
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  Speaker 1: the show. You know, you're going to experience what the
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  Speaker 1: energy is like in the room with us, and you're
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  Speaker 1: going to go down a trip through memory Lane, and
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be an amazing night for you.
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  Speaker 2: You mentioned the audience participation my life. What tricks have
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  Speaker 2: you got to get the audience evolved? What what do
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  Speaker 2: you do to get them get them up and far?
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  Speaker 1: And you know, for me as a performer, it's all
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  Speaker 1: about making sure that my energy is up and that
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  Speaker 1: I'm enjoying what I'm doing, because I think that's contagious
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  Speaker 1: and it's really easy with his music to do that. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, before we all have like our pre show ritual,
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  Speaker 1: we do like a hands in we have like a
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  Speaker 1: little pep talk, you know, we get our energy up,
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  Speaker 1: we get excited, we get ourselves amped up, and then
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  Speaker 1: we just go out there and we just give that
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  Speaker 1: to the audience. And I think that's what translates. I
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  Speaker 1: think that's what has gotten us to where we're at,
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  Speaker 1: is that we're just it's all about the audience making
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  Speaker 1: sure that they're having the best time. And so if
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  Speaker 1: we go out there tip top energy, ready to put
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  Speaker 1: on the best show that we can, I just have
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  Speaker 1: to hand it over to the audience and trust that
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  Speaker 1: they're going to love it and and they're going to
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  Speaker 1: be on board with it.
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  Speaker 2: Have you ever had any krad said of being particularly
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  Speaker 2: how to get gout and then what did you do
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  Speaker 2: to get them going?
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  Speaker 1: So every once in a while we get hired to
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  Speaker 1: play like a corporate event, and those are particularly challenging
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  Speaker 1: because people aren't there to see us. They're there to
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  Speaker 1: network with other people who are selling insurance or you know,
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  Speaker 1: they're there they're at a doctor's conference or whatever. So
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  Speaker 1: those are always the more difficult events for us to
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  Speaker 1: like get people dancing and singing and whatever. But it's
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  Speaker 1: also kind of a fun challenge because it's not like
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  Speaker 1: people are just showing up there to see us and
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  Speaker 1: they're ready to go. You know, there's an element where
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  Speaker 1: that makes it a little bit easier, right when people
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  Speaker 1: are there to see when they want to. So we
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  Speaker 1: have to work that much harder to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: the audience members in those like corporate events are having fun,
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  Speaker 1: and we succeed. I would say like nine point nine
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  Speaker 1: times out of ten.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, it's alcohol helps state on it.
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  Speaker 1: Alcohol is always a good help at our shows.
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  Speaker 2: So what did the idea actually? First couple of you
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  Speaker 2: said before that it started just as a bit of
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  Speaker 2: fun between friends, But where did they from.
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  Speaker 1: So our bass player and our drummer, they've been friends
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  Speaker 1: for a long long time. They kind of got the
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  Speaker 1: band started, and our bass player was just listening to
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  Speaker 1: a lot of this music, you know, eight nine years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and he was like, man, this is so good, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, no one's doing anything with this music. It's
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  Speaker 1: almost forgotten. And so he threw out the video. You know,
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  Speaker 1: what if we did something like this, What if we
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  Speaker 1: did something with this particular music for a little while
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  Speaker 1: and I just see how it goes. And so he
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  Speaker 1: and the drummer started kind of pulling the band together.
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  Speaker 1: They had some auditions. I auditioned for the band, and
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  Speaker 1: then we slowly built the show. We kind of figured out,
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  Speaker 1: like what do we want our vibe to be? What
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  Speaker 1: do we want our look to be? And we've been
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  Speaker 1: refining that for the last eight years and we will
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  Speaker 1: never stop. We're always trying to find ways to make
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  Speaker 1: the show more fun and more interesting.
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  Speaker 2: And so do you remember what point you said of
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  Speaker 2: step back and went looked at each other and when
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  Speaker 2: I reckon, we've done already.
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  Speaker 1: Yah. Well, I would say our first tour after the
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  Speaker 1: pandemic in twenty twenty one, you know, we didn't know
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  Speaker 1: if we were going to come back. After the pandemic,
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  Speaker 1: they shut everything down. We couldn't go out and tour,
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  Speaker 1: and we just decided to stay creative. So we were
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  Speaker 1: recording songs and videos. We're putting them out for our
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  Speaker 1: fans to see. And then in twenty twenty one, when
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  Speaker 1: we went back on the road, you know, things had
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  Speaker 1: barely just opened up here and there were hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: people coming out to our shows, and then thousands of
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  Speaker 1: people coming out to our shows, and then the next
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  Speaker 1: year was even bigger, and it was probably twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: two that we were like, okay, this has some serious legs,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And by that time we had a really
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  Speaker 1: great agent, we have an awesome manager, we have a publicist.
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  Speaker 1: So now we have this whole team that's invested. And
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  Speaker 1: then we got signed to Jimmy Buffett's record label. We
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  Speaker 1: put our first album out on mail Boat Records twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, and that one's called Seize the Day, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, that was really amazing. We just there have
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  Speaker 1: been these mile markers that we've hit, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: it's just it's still going and we're just incredibly grateful
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  Speaker 1: and this tour to Australia is another one of those markers.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, man, I can't believe that we get to
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  Speaker 1: do this. It's really awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Way Now, just to clarify, like you do the songs
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  Speaker 2: faithful to the originals or do you put your own
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  Speaker 2: twist on them?
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  Speaker 1: Yes?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, which yess.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit of both. You know, this music
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  Speaker 1: is so well known, people have it in their DNA,
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  Speaker 1: and so we have to be faithful to the original.
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  Speaker 1: But also I would say we turn the volume from
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  Speaker 1: like a five up to like a ten when we
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  Speaker 1: do it. You know, it's definitely got a little more
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  Speaker 1: oomph than you might hear on the original record, a
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  Speaker 1: little more energy, but with that same musicianship and that
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  Speaker 1: same adherence to every note that's on those records that
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  Speaker 1: people will recognize. Is there well that.
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  Speaker 2: Being ad on magazine made I've got to ask you
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  Speaker 2: this question, Like, you play the soft rock kicks from
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  Speaker 2: the late seventies and early eighties, but there's also Bean Squad,
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  Speaker 2: Alice Cooper, Motorhead, and Van Halen that had a couple
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  Speaker 2: of softer songs from that era, So you ever thought
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  Speaker 2: about working them into the setlist.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're honestly always looking at ways that we can
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  Speaker 1: integrate interesting new songs that maybe are yacht rock adjacent
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  Speaker 1: to the set, and we've done that from time to time,
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  Speaker 1: but we have to stay pretty true to the genre
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  Speaker 1: because that's what people are coming to the show to see.
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  Speaker 1: So if we do that, it's like maybe one song
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  Speaker 1: a night.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a yay. Cool. Now, before I let you go, bro,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: we've got a new segment we've started called photo Bombs.
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  Speaker 2: So basically, I trolled on social media before I speak
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to here, picking out a couple of photos and just
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  Speaker 2: ask you a little bit more about him. That's happened
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  Speaker 2: too bad, mate, good, That's not the one I wanted.
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  Speaker 2: It's so the first one I found. This one here,
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  Speaker 2: it looks like it was a lot of fun. Tell
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  Speaker 2: us where we're here?
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  Speaker 1: Oh so this was actually that's our drummer and our
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  Speaker 1: bass player right in the middle there and their girlfriend
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  Speaker 1: and wives, and they were I think in Cabo with
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of friends. They just went down. We actually
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: had a little bit of a vacation. I didn't go
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  Speaker 1: on that one, but I know they had a good time.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure they remember the time that they had,
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  Speaker 1: but I know, they had a good time.
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  Speaker 2: Faith and then said I wanted I might like, technically,
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  Speaker 2: is it cheating if you've got a yacht rough band
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  Speaker 2: doing a tour on a bus.
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  Speaker 1: Oh No, definitely not in the States, because you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: we have so much land here. So yeah, that was
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: that was this summer's tour in front of it. It
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was the last day of our tour in October actually
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this year, and that was an amazing three week run.
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  Speaker 1: We had an incredible bus driver and honestly went really,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: really smoothly, and we had a lot of really really
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: positive feedback. So that was a special That photo was
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: taken in Dania Beach, Florida, which was the last day
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  Speaker 1: of that tour.
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  Speaker 2: And you're going to be busting, destroy are gonna be
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: silent or flying.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna be doing a little bit of both. We'll
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  Speaker 1: be flying over there. We'll be on a bus on
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the East coast, I think for some of those dates,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll be flying back and forth because you know,
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  Speaker 1: I mean like if we were going to drive across
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  Speaker 1: the whole continent, it would it would take us way
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: too long. And our gigs are pretty close together, so
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I think the most we have off is like one
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: or two days at a time, so it's gonna be
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  Speaker 1: a fast and furious tour. But we're gonna go over there.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna just absolutely blanket Australia with yacht rock and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: hopefully play two thousands of thousands of people. By the way,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: tickets are already selling really good, so we're very, very
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: excited about this tour.
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  Speaker 2: Mantasy Michael, thanks very much for you sim and seen
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the pleasure speak with you. You've convinced me to come
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: along the show, so I.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Feel, yeah, that's gonna be great. Man. Thank you so
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: much for the opportunity. We'll see you in May.