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Sam Nelson Harris- X AMBASSADORS · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ten years ago, X ambassador, a record that not only interesting like Lenin game stands on 70.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now Frontman's stamp Delta Harris is looking back and moving forward all at once with DHS X, a reimagined version of the album that brings new life to these classics while celebrating the journey of the last decade.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, Sam opens up about revisiting the music that defined generations that surprises to find recording the songs in once underestimated and what fans can expect from the upcoming DHS X tour.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta start off with a little bit of an anecdote.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: About 10 years ago, fall 2015, I go out to start my car on a cold fall morning because it kind of gets a little bit cold here in the Midwest.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Car wouldn't start.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Long story short, I had to take it to a dealership and get a loaner car because I was supposed to take off to Colorado, Colorado Springs.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Six to eight hour drive from where I'm at, depending upon how fast I drive.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The car that they gave me had Sirius XM radio.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I turned it on to the coffee house station, and I heard this song like once every 40 minutes, and it became the soundtrack of that road trip.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: That song is a song called Renegades by my next guest, Sam Nelson Harris and his band X Ambassadors, who are releasing the 10th anniversary copy of VHS, VHS X.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited for it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sam, thanks for coming on the show today.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're so welcome.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I apologize profusely about that.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so sorry that you had to listen to that over and over and over again.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a core memory.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like anytime I hear it now, I think back to that time.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And my concept of time, maybe yours is in a similar boat since the pandemic and the whole pandemic experience.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: My concept of time is all over the place.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is completely screwed up.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think mine also coincide.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: My concept of time not only coincided with like not only did the pandemic screw with it, but I also entered my 30s in the pandemic.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as you enter your 30s, time starts to move a little differently.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: It starts to move a little faster, and then also like you find yourself kind of like feeling a bit of that groundhog's day feeling sometimes too.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, which hadn't really it's not like my life is any less chaotic.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: If anything, it's more chaotic.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: But for some reason, I still feel like, God, I'm still here.
• 3:34
  unknown: Right?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Still doing the same.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm still doing this.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was having a conversation with some buddies the other day, and we were talking about the concept of time and like um 1989 versus 1999.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: 1989, you would never hear the music from 1989 in a top 10 list in 1999.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the number one artist 10 years ago, right now, was the weekend, and I wouldn't even flinch to hear the weekend release a number one song right now.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's so crazy.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I heard somebody else say today, like when there they were a Gen Xer, and they were like, when we were teenagers, the Beatles were like old and like cool, and like we discovered the Beatles and we were like, wow, this is sick.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that was when Nirvana was coming out, and now teenagers are like Nirvana's like old, but they're cool.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: But Nirvana's actually now older than the Beatles were to Gen Xers.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's so crazy.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, look, we could spend the entire podcast talking about and how she moves.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I mean it's been it's been uh uh uh yeah, ten years since we put that album out, our first record out, and and it's it's blown by.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever imagine that it would have the lasting impact that it has?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I I I hoped that it would.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: I really I really hope that it would, hoped to the point of believing that it would, because I think you have to have a some some degree of of like narcissism, psychosis, you know, whatever you call it, you know, to do what what it what I do.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh um I definitely like you know we were young and ambitious and we wanted to make a big record and we did it, and it took a minute.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were at that point in 2015, we had already been a band for um probably seven years.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Eight years.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we started really like going for it in like 2008, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, just like rehearsing all the time, writing songs all the time, playing shows all the time, you know, uh, or as much as we could, as much as anyone would let us, which wasn't very often, so we mostly be just rehearsing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it had been a long haul up until that point, and so finally when it happened, it felt like, yeah, we deserve this, we earned this, we made this happen, and uh but then it it also does shake you up in different ways, you know, like it it was uh instantly a lot of pressure, and I I it was my first experience with like getting to the top of the mountain and just seeing another mountain and not being able to like look at the view.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's my first real experience with that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh it kind of fucked me up.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine it would have.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think it does.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think it does.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think it does uh to to pretty much anyone.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it took me a long time to to you know reconfigure my my brain and and kind of like, oh, all right, so if this is how it's gonna feel every time I get to that next mountain, where where is that satisfaction?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And where like where do I s how do I still kind of find that that um that drive to to um to really where where like why do I actually why why am I doing this?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it just always comes back to uh that little kid that I was, you know, in middle school, high school, even younger, who was like in my room feeling like I had something to say and and wanting to scream it from the rooftops and and hoping that somebody else out there felt the same way that I did because I felt very lonely.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's that's it still, you know, like uh it's that's what drives me.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of leaning into that, what inspired you and the band to rework the VHS album into VHS X instead of just doing a standard anniversary re-release?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the standard anniversary re-release is fine.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it feels a little bit like a money grab.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: It feels a little bit like a like, yeah, like, hey guys, like we put up, we made the artwork purple, you know, like you can get it in purple.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I didn't really want to do that.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to do something special though, around the anniversary, not just because we felt like we should, but also because, you know, on this last tour for Towny for our last record, uh, I had so many people come up to us at meet and greets and before the shows and after the shows being like, you have no idea how important VHS was to me.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And not just like how important Renegades was to me, how important Unsteady was to me or Jungle.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're like how important VHS was to me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that was cool.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: That was cool to hear because I really didn't think that anybody cared about any other songs on that album other than just Renegades or Unsteady or Jungle, you know.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I barely thought that anybody cared about the record, period.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I was like, all right, wow.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: People really, really gave a shit about this thing when it came out, and it really did affect some some of our people.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to give this gift to them, and and in doing so, I was like, okay, I don't really like to half-ass things.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: I do it sometimes, and and I never feel great about it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: But as we all do, sometimes we all half-ass things.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: But when it came to this, I was like, I don't want to half-ass this.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: I want to try and like do something special.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea of re-recording everything was enticing because we did the first record with a producer named Alex the Kid, and and he was heavily involved on the production side and kind of like didn't really involve much of the rest of the guys in like the sonic texture of things.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was like him kind of pushing forward his sound and me fighting to get their fingerprints on it too, you know, whenever we could.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh that was a bit frustrating for me.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, all right, let's try and take this into our own hands and really like what are the choices that we would not only make just have made as a band, but more so like what are the choices that we would make now?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like how how would we want to contextualize these songs now as as uh you know a group of guys in our our late 30s?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how are we contextualizing these songs?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was interesting to me.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because I think that I always I always talk about the strange thing about a career in music is that unlike any other art form, you're constantly re-visit, you're constantly not just revisiting your early work, but re-embodying that early work.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I just watched uh Taxi Driver again for the for you know for the first time in a long time.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And De Niro's not like going back and doing Travis Bickle again.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's not.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe there's a sequel, but like even that's like a little different.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like you take the same character, but it's different circumstances.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: He came close in Cape Fear.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Came close in Cape Fear.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: But but it's not the same.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the exact same lines, doing the exact same shots, you know, the exact same way.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh and nor, you know, is uh nor was Picasso going back and like repainting his greatest hits in the same way, you know.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're not doing that in any other art form, really, other than music.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and that's why artists like Bob Dylan like to recontextualize their their stuff and piss off their fans because they're like they're like, I gotta make this interesting for myself because I'm doing it again.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're we take a slightly different approach.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: I I do want to evolve things sonically as we play them live and as we you know do them again and again and again, but I think there's something really kind of scary about going back to who you were as a little kid that or that that something is that is scary to a lot of people, but I think when you do it, it gives you an opportunity to kind of like give that younger version of yourself a little bit of a hug, which I desperately needed at the time.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh it was it was cool to to do that.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I I will say that I had a full-blown panic attack the day before we started the re-records because I was listening to the album and I was like, I hate this.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: I hate this record, I hate all these songs.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a terrible songwriter.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: I should never have tried to do this in the first place.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I sound like an idiot.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: I sound like I'm faking it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The imposter syndrome kicked in.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, like like to overdrive, you know?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so I I had to really like sit with that feeling for a minute before going back into it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: But then once we started, it was fun and it it felt like kind of taking ownership of it again and and uh um yeah, it was cool.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I have ever talked to a musician, and even being a former band guy myself who has listened to a past body of work that has hasn't said to themselves, man, I wish I would have done that just a little bit differently.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I wish the guy and musician I am now could have recorded those same songs.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And considering that, you know, revisiting hits like Renegades or Unsteady has re-recording those songs changed your relationship with those songs?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: I found a kind of um innocence in them that I have decided to look at differently.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think for a long time I looked at that innocence, that earnestness, as a weakness and as something that was gross and uh and embarrassing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I have come to the conclusion that that is just who I am and who I always have been and who I will be to some varying degrees.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, my uh the older I get, the more chips you get on your shoulder, the more jaded you get, the more beaten up you get, and that earnesty is is really I mean, that is your your uh your optimism is is is like beat to shit, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but yes, but I still bel but I still think that there's something for me that's important to try and hang on to it.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's something s tragic about it that I love.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I know so many people, myself included, uh, where you don't get enough space between a body of work to where you take it for granted.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes you have to force that space, and then when you revisit it, you can appreciate it again.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think going into actually re-recording the songs helped get helped that appreciation, helped foster that appreciation.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're going to be touring on this new re-release, or I'm sorry, reimagined version of this record.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: What can fans expect from these shows?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Will the performances mirror the reimagined versions or bring something totally different?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to be we're going to be doing a lot of the same stuff that we did in these reimagined versions on the on the record, but you have to also bring it into the context of a live show.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and I think for us that usually means like upping the annie a little bit and just making it a little bit more exciting, have a have like a little bit of a longer, you know, like bridge, you know, a little longer intro.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just have a little more fun with it on stage.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I have been whipping my ass into shape again for this tour because I'm watching these old old videos of of myself at at 26, you know, leaping and bounding all over the stage, and I'm like, all right.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta I gotta try and do that again.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I've been doing a lot of a lot of hit cardio.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not drinking this month at all, so that's I think gonna help a little bit with a vocal.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Good for you.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, taking a little break, take a little breather.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when you kind of talk about that perception, you know, you're gonna be playing to your hometown audience in Ithaca.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing two shows there.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: How has your connection evolved and what does it mean to bring this tour full circle back to where it all started?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, we just made a whole record that was all about upstate New York and and uh and growing up there, and I have so much love and affection for that place and for those people.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's funny, I was just back there uh a couple weeks ago because my brother, because Casey just him and his family just decided to move back there officially.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they now live in in Ithaca in upstate New York, and uh um still got their place out here in LA, but um they they moved there permanently.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Better for the kids, just you know, like uh and uh I was there for that week for a whole week, and the first couple days I was like, God, this is nuts.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I was in love.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, the air smells nice summer there, so it's beautiful, and like uh you know, the it's so green everywhere, and and there the air is fresh and the people are so lovely and the food is great, and you go to the the you know, the creek and like you know, watch my nephews run around in the water, and I'm in heaven, I'm with my my mom's still there.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then after like the third day, I'm like, alright.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when do I when am I leaving out?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: When am I getting out of here again?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I realized and I realized because I was talking to Casey about it, and he was like, this town is just too small for you, huh?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, it's not that, it's not that the town is too small, it's that whenever I am back here, I feel small again.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like a teenager again, and when I was a teenager, I felt small.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like I was like this this like caged creature.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to spread my little wings and fly, you know?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I uh I felt so insignificant in that town, and I and I hated feeling like that.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I fought very hard to get out of there as quickly as I possibly could, and I did.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you know, like, and it's it's to no fault of of any one b it's just like growing up in a small town.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I get it.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, yes, and I think also to a degree like just going back home period, you feel like you you you you you know uh you revert back to who you were when you lived there a little bit, and uh I didn't like that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had a similar experience, kind of the reverse culture shock thing.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in big cities.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: My dad worked for Mercedes-Benz.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: We were moving every two to four years until I get to high school and we moved from a big city to a small town of like 2,000 people when I'm in high school.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of like reverse culture shock.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the, you know, it wasn't the small town guy moving into the big city and getting culture shock.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was the big city guy moving to small town and going, what the fuck?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I get that feeling.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I get that exact feeling.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: When I go back for like reunions and things along of that sort, it's like I go back to feeling small again, and I'm like, I can't.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just it's not who I am now at this phase and season of life.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Don't like this.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I love, but I love upstate New York, and I love upstate New Yorkers.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like what in my uh the other day I was I was watching the um there's like a Bills HBO uh doc on on uh on HBO right now that uh um that's like the preseason, and I'm watching it and they're like they're in Rochester at training camp, and I'm like just I'm like Rochester, look, babe, Rochester! Yep.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my wife is from upstate New York too, so she's like watching me.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, Yeah, Rochester, I've seen like the Kodak building, and my grandpa.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also so upstate, dude.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: My my my mom's side of the family, like my mom grew up in Pittsford, which is right outside of Rochester, and all over upstate New York.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And my grandfather worked at the Kodak building, and and then my wife's side of the family, both of her parents are from um uh Green, New York, and and uh um a little bit from I'm forgetting the the name of it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, we're like real upstate New York, or I guess Western New Yorkers is what people call it central New Yorkers.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Take that small world and make it big again.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You've collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, like Eminem Rihanna, The Weekend and more.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: How have those experiences influenced what you bring back to ex-ambassadors and influenced that guy that goes back to Ithaca and maybe feels small again?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, honestly, they've just like really made my imposter syndrome even worse.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because like I never had any real interaction with any of these people, right?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Italy, like I've written songs for them that they've sung, and that's always the craziest thing when it's like I've written something in one studio, and then I get an email that's like, here's Rihanna singing your song back to you.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, this is the craziest thing.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Never met her, never met Eminem, never met The Weekend, but I've worked technically worked with all these people.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it just is another one of those weird things where I'm like, I guess, yeah, that's a that is legitimately a credit to my name.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And yet I have no it's kind of like watching your, you know, watching a thing of yours go viral on online.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, you're watching the numbers go up, and it's all just like it's like numbers, numbers, numbers, and you're like, cool, and then you're at Whole Foods, and you're like, you know, picking out some dried mangoes, and you're like, oh, they don't have the kind that I want.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like it's totally.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it doesn't really make sense.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So encompassing everything that you've experienced over the last 10 years, one of my closing questions, because I know we have to wrap this up because you are about to do a bunch of marathon phone calls, but my favorite question to ask every single guest that does the show is what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today through the lens of all these things you've experienced?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you can give yourself a little grace, you can find that.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you find that in yourself, you can also it'll help you allow that same grace to be given to others.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and it and it takes time and it's not easy, and uh um you have to remember that we're all experiencing the same kind of stuff in varying degrees and uh in different ways, you know.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: I always tell people if you want to learn about the world, invest in somebody else first, and they'll invest in you, and everything grows from there.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of along the same lines.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: So totally that that's fantastic.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you tell my audience where they can find this new release that drops August 29th and more about X Ambassadors and yourself?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can find VHS X, the 10-year anniversary reimagined version of our debut record on all streaming platforms.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be available on Spotify, on Apple Music, on Amazon Music, everywhere.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh on YouTube and check it out when you can.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and if you haven't gotten tickets to our tour, we're doing uh a quick three-week, three and a half week US and Canada run uh to celebrate this record.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in the US or Canada, check out xambassadors.com slash tour to get the dates and get some tickets.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to offer one kind of postscript.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: As I opened up with an anecdote, I'm gonna close it with an anecdote.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: The other night my wife comes down to the podcast studio and she's sitting with me and we listened to the reimagined version of Unsteady.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, man, we are going through it right now.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have three kids that we are sending to college all at the same time.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have twin stepdaughters and a daughter, and we're moving them three different directions all at the same time.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we felt it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like we not only heard the song, but we absolutely felt it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to take a moment and give you a personal thanks because I really needed to live in that moment.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much, my friend.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: That means a lot.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Means a lot.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: And uh congrats on your kids.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thanks, man.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I know it's hard.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can't I can't believe three of them going away at the same time.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely crazy.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's like crazy empty nester.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Empty nesters.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: We got one left, one left.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's a junior, he plays football, so we're good there.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: But Sam Nelson Harris, thank you so much for doing the show, man.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: The world is a much better place with you in it.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Come back and let's do a long episode sometime.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I would love that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I would love that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, thanks again.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, brother.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, I want to thank my friend Sam Nelson Harris of the band X Embassadors for joining me on the show today.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had to kind of keep it short and compact, but I think it was pretty powerful.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you check out their reimagining of VHS, VHS X, available on all streaming platforms on Friday, August 29th, 2025.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you give X Ambassadors a follow on social media.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And while you're being generous with the followers, make sure you're following Caught on the Mike as well.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can find me on YouTube, all podcasting platforms.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I need those YouTube subs.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can also visit me at my website, www.caughtonthemic.com, or shoot me an email, caught on the mic at gmail.com.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.