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Unsigned518 - Episode 172 - Ryan Shaw of ShortWave RadioBand · Unsigned518

• 0:01
  Speaker A: He was born on a Saturday in 73. He loves punk rock music. Fighting the 13, jabbing the dazzle jazz rock. Now on the beat guitar with a short quick radio bass his motherfucking envy Scrolling. Look at motherfucker. Cuz here he comes, Andy Scrolling wearing his orange hat.
• 0:27
  Speaker B: Welcome to unsubscribe sign 518. I'm here with Ryan Shaw of Shortwave Radio Band. Oh my God. It is such an honor to talk to such a mega star like yourself.
• 0:39
  Speaker C: I can't believe I'm here.
• 0:41
  Speaker B: No, yeah, obviously everybody knows we're in the. We're in the same band and. And I. I asked you to come do this because I needed a guest real quick and you live like 90 seconds away from me. So I was like, ryan, come over and be my guest. Be my guest. But what we want to do because there is purpose, you know, obviously Short Radio Band just put out an album.
• 1:06
  Speaker C: Yes, we did.
• 1:07
  Speaker B: And you had a very strong hand in the songwriting on the album. And we do want to get like up to that point. But I kind of want to give you the chance to tell the story of Ryan Shaw up until Shortwave Radio band into shortwave radio band and kind of the process that went into the. The album. So I guess just like, you know, briefly. No, but no, let's like tell like your. Your kind of introduction with music.
• 1:44
  Speaker C: Sure. I was born on a Monday, naked as most of us are.
• 1:49
  Speaker B: That's sexy.
• 1:52
  Speaker C: My interest in music started pretty early. Took piano lessons at 8 years old. Music was always sort of ingrained in me. In 1996, when I was in sixth grade, me and a bunch of my buddies thought it would be cool to ask our parents for guitars from the JCPenney catalog for 69.99. So me and a group of eight guys got some guitars. We were super cool.
• 2:16
  Speaker B: We all fucking ate of you. Yeah, we all got played guitar.
• 2:20
  Speaker C: We brought them to school.
• 2:21
  Speaker B: You were a band of dudes that played the guitar.
• 2:24
  Speaker C: Yeah. That played come as you are.
• 2:26
  Speaker B: Okay, okay. But nobody like, nobody was like, yeah, maybe.
• 2:30
  Speaker C: No, maybe I'll play the bass. No, it was all just acoustic guitar. We didn't know any better. We were from Thai and.
• 2:38
  Speaker B: But by that you mean Taonderoga, New.
• 2:41
  Speaker C: York, New York, where I was in the fife and drum corps at Fort Taonderoga. Maybe you've heard of us. We've been coast to coast.
• 2:51
  Speaker B: You were you actually coast to coast playing drums? Yeah.
• 2:55
  Speaker C: Well, we did. We. And when I was in fife and drum, we got to go to the Ronald Reagan Library in Anaheim, California, and play there. Well, I mean, the library was cool. Anaheim was cool. Long beach was cool. We played every St. Patrick's Day in the Boston St. Patty's Day Parade.
• 3:10
  Speaker B: Really? How many years? See this? I didn't know. Hey, how many. How many years did you do this?
• 3:16
  Speaker C: All my high school summers of four years.
• 3:18
  Speaker B: Four years.
• 3:19
  Speaker C: So we'd go over there in March, right after 9, 11. We did go to. Down to Manhattan. It's called the Taekon Roga Ball. That's something that they do for the. The. Like a fundraising event. And we just marched down several blocks of Manhattan, and people were going nuts. They thought it was the coolest thing. So, yeah, I got to do some pretty cool stuff.
• 3:41
  Speaker B: So you kind of are a little bit of a big deal. Do you still have, like, it. Was it, like a kilt and shit?
• 3:49
  Speaker C: It was. We were 18th century continental musicians, so we represented the American side.
• 3:58
  Speaker B: Do you still have. Do you still have the uniform?
• 4:01
  Speaker C: You should see the butt. That's the best part. It's just this big, poofy, like, chef hat. It's great.
• 4:08
  Speaker B: Sweet. Yeah. You should bust that out. I totally will. So. Yeah, I didn't know that. But you. Your original, you know, after. Yeah. After the octuplet of acoustic guitar players, like, at some point you played bass, right?
• 4:22
  Speaker C: I did. So we had a lot of things going on simultaneously. We had grunge going on. We had fife and drum going on, and a reggae band. So when I got to high school.
• 4:32
  Speaker B: Wait, wait, tell everybody. Tell everybody the name.
• 4:34
  Speaker C: I joined the Zion Riders reggae unit.
• 4:39
  Speaker B: The Zion Riders reggae unit. Oh, yeah. A bunch of white kids had a taycan roga.
• 4:46
  Speaker C: Yeah, man, you don't start up nothing. They won't be nothing.
• 4:48
  Speaker B: But you know that. I mean, there's. I love reggae music as well. And you learned, like, a really solid foundation of, like, traditional reggae bass.
• 5:03
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 5:03
  Speaker B: Like, because that's the other thing that, like, I almost hate to admit is that you're a much better bass player than me. Like, I'm the bass player in the band. And I'm like, well, yeah, Ryan's a better bass player than me. And it's like, well, why doesn't he play bass? Well, because he's also a better guitar player than me. So, like, it just, you know, I'll just. I'll just hang back.
• 5:24
  Speaker C: I go where. Where I'm needed. And there's certain tunes that I'm glad that you're singing on. I couldn't sing Sabotage.
• 5:31
  Speaker B: Oh, I could barely Sing. Sing. Sabotage.
• 5:34
  Speaker C: So I'll jump on for a song like that.
• 5:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, all right, so you've got the reggae playing bass, and when you, like, learned bass guitar, like, you learned it could. Like, when I learned it, I learned it, like, almost like a combination of drums and acoustic guitar. You know what I mean?
• 5:56
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 5:57
  Speaker B: But I. It's. I'm just now kind of getting the feel of, like, traditional bass quote, unquote lines.
• 6:05
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 6:05
  Speaker B: And you kind of learned that right from the start. Right.
• 6:09
  Speaker C: I was sort of forced into that. Usually I would just play the root notes like we'll do in any kind of punk song, like I do now. Yeah. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's awesome. But when you're getting into reggae and stuff like that, you'll. You get into, like, arpeggios and just knowing a scale and the. The notes that work in that scale. I'm not really a theory guy. I always am envious of theory people. You know, they're nerds, and I want to be just like them, but I just have never done it. I kind of know a bit of theory, but it's mostly by ear. I've always. I was taught to play the guitar by ear, so that's just what I do to this day. Right.
• 6:49
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I, like, lean on technology a little. Like, especially, like, now. Like. I mean, you've seen the app on my phone that, like, you know, that breaks down the tabs.
• 6:59
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 7:00
  Speaker B: You know, you can isolate the sounds and slow it down and loop everything, and that's how I've been learning.
• 7:06
  Speaker C: Very helpful.
• 7:06
  Speaker B: And. Yeah. And it's, like, going back and, like, checking out, like, old punk songs or old reggae songs or old classic rock songs or blues songs or whatever. But, like, that, like, I'm familiar with on, you know, like, I know the song.
• 7:23
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 7:23
  Speaker B: But I've never learned to play. Learning like that, just for fun has really helped. Like, you don't even know.
• 7:31
  Speaker C: Like, I've learned Max Maxwell, Murder. You are learning.
• 7:36
  Speaker B: But, like, I've learned probably 10 or 15 cover songs right by myself. Just, like, in the dazzle, then that nobody in the band even knows that. Like, I learned because it's not something that I want to bring to the band. It's just something to have at the ready. No. Just so you know, just almost like.
• 7:52
  Speaker C: Hey, I've always wondered how to play it.
• 7:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like, almost like to learn something new, to just be like. Like, there was this one Creedon song. Was it? I can't remember the name of It. But it said.
• 8:08
  Speaker C: Oh, like the Vietnam song.
• 8:10
  Speaker B: Yeah. Fortunate Son.
• 8:11
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 8:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. So Fortunate Son, the other day, I was just like, that'd be a fun one to learn.
• 8:18
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 8:18
  Speaker B: So I, like, busted out the acoustic guitar and spent, like, two hours, and I learned, like, basically the whole thing of Fortunate Son, and then I'll probably never, ever play it again.
• 8:28
  Speaker C: Well, I'm learning a lot tonight. I didn't know any of this stuff.
• 8:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like, nobody. And that's why I always say, like, in practice, at band practice, when people. You know, people be like, ah. Did anybody practice something? I practice all the time.
• 8:40
  Speaker C: And he's like, I'm exhausted. I did not know you're playing Fortunate Son all day.
• 8:45
  Speaker B: Because I don't. Not that I don't go anywhere, but, like, I like being at home. And when I have free time, I like being here. And part of that free time is usually grabbing my bass or, you know.
• 8:59
  Speaker C: That keeps you productive, you know.
• 9:01
  Speaker B: Yeah. Chop it up.
• 9:02
  Speaker C: Sweet.
• 9:04
  Speaker B: So I guess let's talk about. Because maybe some people don't know how you even joined the band, but, like, I'll. I'll begin it from my side, and then we'll. We'll pass it over to, like, your side of things, but, like, my side of things. It was. We were. It was. Abby had just joined the band. Maybe, like, a week or.
• 9:29
  Speaker C: It was like, a matter of weeks.
• 9:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was like, maybe a week or two. And there were some. Some things that had come up where we had gigs scheduled and lined up, and Lonnie might have to step away for a little. He had some things that he had to take care of. And he was like, I might not be able to make these dates.
• 9:46
  Speaker C: Right.
• 9:47
  Speaker B: And. And instead of cancel them, we were like, well, you know, maybe we can. We can bring in a fucking ringer. Because John was like, hey, you know, this guy Ryan that I've been playing with, it's like, really good or whatever. And then, like, it ended up being for moot, even before we called you because, like, shit worked out where Lonnie didn't have to. You know, he was like, no, I can make the dates. And we're like, well, let's just bring in another. You know, let's. We need, you know, another guitar player to, like, to feel like a traditional band, you know? And so John texted you and said, hey, do you know where my buddy Andy lives? And you were like, yeah, can it. You know, can you come by? You're like, okay.
• 10:31
  Speaker C: I think it was more, like, interesting development. Giddy up.
• 10:35
  Speaker B: Probably that's actually in John vernacular, like.
• 10:39
  Speaker C: I know exactly what that means.
• 10:40
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 10:41
  Speaker C: I remember I had a four pack of Hattie Topper and Vocal Banger in the fridge, and I grabbed them both and I said to my wife Tammy, they're gonna ask me to join the fucking band.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
• 10:50
  Speaker C: I'm bringing beers.
• 10:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, we were gonna ask you to, like. And we had met, like, twice, maybe.
• 10:58
  Speaker C: Yes. When I came to see you guys shortwave radio band play.
• 11:02
  Speaker B: When we were just a trio.
• 11:03
  Speaker C: Yes. Playing at Bound By Fate right here in town.
• 11:06
  Speaker B: Yeah. And Lonnie had never met you.
• 11:09
  Speaker C: Right.
• 11:09
  Speaker B: And Abby had never met you.
• 11:10
  Speaker C: Right.
• 11:11
  Speaker B: And we basically, all four of us decided that if you said yes, that you were joining the band before and none of us had ever heard you play.
• 11:20
  Speaker C: I had never been to your house or anything. So I'm walking in and I've never been in the. It wasn't even named the Dazzle Dan yet. It was your garage.
• 11:28
  Speaker B: It was my garage.
• 11:29
  Speaker C: But it still looked much like it does now, being that it was dark, with different kinds of lights on.
• 11:33
  Speaker B: But there wasn't any. There wasn't any carpets.
• 11:37
  Speaker C: Oh, that's right. There was no carpet.
• 11:38
  Speaker B: There was no carpet. And were John's drums already set up?
• 11:44
  Speaker C: They were, yes. I'm walking through the front door. You guys are all at the other end of the room, speaking to me from across the room. It was very surreal and it was very, like, serious right from the beginning. And I'm holding all these beers. And you basically were like, so this is what's happening? And we were just wondering if you'd joined the band. And I said, sure, but would you like to hear me play first?
• 12:10
  Speaker B: And we were like, no, specifically, you.
• 12:13
  Speaker C: You go, no. John said you could play. And I knew from that moment, I'm like, okay, I can hang with these guys.
• 12:21
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But I do remember definitely being like, no, we're good. We don't need you. We don't need to hear you play. Are you in or are you not? All right, I'm in. We're like, cool. First practice is Monday. It's six.
• 12:35
  Speaker C: I was so excited. And we'll just figure it out as we go.
• 12:38
  Speaker B: And that's what we've been doing. And you hadn't played, like, in a band at that, you know, because you're. You're. How old are you now? You're 40 now you're 39.
• 12:46
  Speaker C: I can't remember. It changes every year. 41.
• 12:50
  Speaker B: Oh, you are 41. That's right. Yeah. That's right, you are.
• 12:53
  Speaker C: I'm right between that Gen X and Gen Y. They call us the Goonie generation. The Genials.
• 12:59
  Speaker B: I love the Goonies. Yeah, but you hadn't played, you know, because you are a dad.
• 13:05
  Speaker C: Right.
• 13:05
  Speaker B: That's two teenage. Still a teenager.
• 13:09
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker B: Is he 20 years.
• 13:10
  Speaker C: Still a teenage every year still their grade that they're.
• 13:13
  Speaker B: That's the other thing too is I'm like. I was like one of these days I'm going to be like, yeah, you got two teenage. Oh, what? They're. They're 25 and 27. Holy fuck. No. So they are still teenagers. But like. So how long had it been since you played in a band?
• 13:27
  Speaker C: Well, really it had been 20 years. But I did skip over the. The bagpipe band stuff that I did while I was living in Florida with my family. I was in a competition bagpipe band playing snare drum in the Fort Lauderdale Highlanders and simultaneously an offshoot band called the Ghetto Pipers where we would play in kilts and black T shirts, you know, basically for Jameson and money and rides home. We would do every halfway to St. Patty's Day, September 17th and St. Patty's Day. So that was a lot of fun. So those bands, if you want to call them bands and I, I would.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: Counts. Absolutely counts.
• 14:02
  Speaker C: That was the only musical thing I had done in 20 years. Like almost to the day 20 years. I figured it out when you know, I came was asked to join the band.
• 14:12
  Speaker B: So the last time you'd fifed and drum, right?
• 14:16
  Speaker C: I mean I would noodle on the guitar over the years. Nothing crazy.
• 14:20
  Speaker B: And I mean I say the same thing. I'm like I have never been banded, but like I played in a couple cover bands and like, you know, I've been playing the guitar since I was, you know, 16, 15 or 16 or whatever. I never stopped playing.
• 14:33
  Speaker C: Right.
• 14:33
  Speaker B: But like I never played for people. But yeah. So anyway, you hadn't played in however long. You didn't even have a guitar, right?
• 14:42
  Speaker C: No, we had to figure that out.
• 14:43
  Speaker B: We had to figure it out.
• 14:44
  Speaker C: You guys had one in the den and it was starting piece of.
• 14:48
  Speaker B: It was a piece of that. The. It was. The neck was broken on it, I believe.
• 14:52
  Speaker C: Oh dude, the line six Spider.
• 14:55
  Speaker B: Yeah and then we had a line six Spider amp which I still have downstairs that's. It's busted.
• 15:01
  Speaker C: Yeah, but. But can be fixed.
• 15:03
  Speaker B: Oh yeah. And by the way, I say downstairs cuz we're not in the desert, we're in my wife Katie's office upstairs. Cuz it's pouring rain. And I have the air conditioned unit.
• 15:14
  Speaker C: It's a beautiful office. And Katie's flowers are awesome.
• 15:17
  Speaker B: It does. Her flowers are. She made all these things and grew the flowers. But yeah. So anyway, up till. Let's get. Let's just take a. A quick break and play a song. So do. Which one do you want to play first?
• 15:34
  Speaker C: Let's play Johnny Dope first and I'll tell you all about it when we come back.
• 15:39
  Speaker B: All right. Yeah. This is Shortwave Radio band. Johnny Dope is off our latest one frequencies. And this is one of two, quote unquote Ryan songs on the album. Songs that were, like, written by you and the rest of us just kind of.
• 15:53
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker B: Filled in some spaces, but basically they're yours.
• 15:56
  Speaker C: Did great.
• 15:57
  Speaker B: You did great, man. So this is. This is Johnny Dope. See if you can hear the influences of the Zion Riders. Right.
• 16:08
  Speaker C: And anybody that knows history from the fife and drum, too.
• 16:11
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you're right, it is. This song totally mixes the reggae band and the FIFA drum. It Johnny Dope Short Rover band. Be right back.
• 16:35
  Speaker A: John Nito, happy work now, boy. Get ready. Tie up them boots like that split now, boy Rock steady. The life you wanna live is yours.
• 16:53
  Speaker B: To choose.
• 16:56
  Speaker A: The sun is coming up right now what you gonna do? Boy, you ain't got time to lose.
• 17:05
  Speaker B: Lo.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: Grip that roll for yourself Together light up now Pull that ship through stormy weather Life want to live is yours to choose the sun is coming out right now what you going to do? Boy, you ain't got time to lose Sam, tie up bambooz Let that split now More Rocksteady. The life you wanna live is yours to choose the sun is coming out right now what you gonna do?
• 19:07
  Speaker B: All right, that was Johnny Dope. Frequencies are our first ever, ever album. And so I do want to talk about the songwriting, like, kind of in general, because it was a big kind of flip for us, the songwriting process, how it had been like the first couple singles to the album. But specifically, let's talk about what we just heard. Johnny Doe.
• 19:33
  Speaker C: Sure. If any of you have ever been to one of our shows, we play it at pretty much every show, so you probably heard it. I had written Johnny Dope when I had just joined the band after the band had released Someday before I joined the band. And there was a little ska part in there. And it made me think, okay. I mean, is this where we're leaning? Are we leaning? Are we trying to go that way with ska? Let me just try to Write something simple. 3. Three chords that'll go into some kind of bridge or something. So it wasn't anything I really planned. It just kind of came out of me. And I'm no poet. I'm no lyricist, right. So I needed to write about something.
• 20:15
  Speaker B: I just fucking, like, agree. You're like, I'm no poet. God damn right.
• 20:19
  Speaker C: I can barely speak. I can't believe you gave me a microphone. But anyways, yeah. So I had to write about something. And I go, okay, what do I know? All right, I'm going to reach back into the fife and drum days. There was a song called, hey, Johnny Cope, are you woken yet? And I always thought about it was this guy who got really drunk and slept through the battle the next morning. And it recently researched that, and it's bullshit. That's actually not what it is at all. There's actually sounds. Yeah. It was about some kind of battle from a long time ago.
• 20:51
  Speaker B: We should make a. We should do a video for Johnny Dope. And we should make it where you get so drunk that you sleep through the battle.
• 20:59
  Speaker C: Oh, we could totally do that at one of the encampments at Fort Ty.
• 21:02
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, let's do this. Yeah, let's do it.
• 21:04
  Speaker C: All right.
• 21:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, you heard it here first.
• 21:05
  Speaker C: Things are coming.
• 21:07
  Speaker B: All right. No, go ahead. So Johnny Cope smoked.
• 21:10
  Speaker C: Yeah. So I just literally just changed it to Johnny Dope. And I could. And I thought, all right, it's just this guy who, you know, he's got to get his ass out of bed. He's got to turn things around. He's just a stoner. He hates the way his life is going, and he just needs to rise up and rise above it and, you know, figure out.
• 21:28
  Speaker B: All right. I mean, it makes sense.
• 21:31
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, that was. Yeah, it was very early on, and, like, it was funny. You know, I want to talk about the. The songwriting of the rest of the album, but, like. Because, like, when we were. It was a trio, we did Don't Care. It was just, you know, me, Lonnie, and John. And then Someday was just me, Lonnie and John. But we had that synth, the horn part. Horn.
• 21:56
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 21:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was a horn part. And that was like, the whole, you know, like, fate of the band hinged just on our ability to say yes. Because, like, Dave put that. Dave Tayo, who produced it, put that little horn part in right, as a joke, like, oh.
• 22:13
  Speaker C: And you guys said, keep it. And so good.
• 22:14
  Speaker B: We were like, can we. Can we keep that?
• 22:16
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 22:17
  Speaker B: And he goes, well, let me tighten it up a little, you know.
• 22:19
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 22:20
  Speaker B: He goes, let me tighten it up a little bit. And then he tightened it up a little bit and was like, how about now? We're like, yeah, no, that's fucking awesome. And he was like, okay, yeah, sure, yeah. We were just like, no, that sounds fucking rad. Because he was kind of like, well, that's a happy. Because it had that little scar right Part to it. He was like, add some horns. Add some more natural, like. And we were like. And no, we're dead serious, right? You. Those horns. Yeah, but we were like, good. Yeah. So we're like, that's cool. Like, add the horns and then, you know. Or you have to know the story. But so, like, and then Abby. I mean, me and Abby go back 10, 13 years. I don't know what year it is. Yeah, probably 13, 14 years or something. We've known each other for a long time, and she's been playing trumpet her whole life. And I knew she played the trumpet. And so I was like, at this one show, Bound by Fate, we were like, it'd be funny to have Abby learn the part secretly.
• 23:25
  Speaker C: I would not tell anybody.
• 23:26
  Speaker B: Not tell anybody.
• 23:27
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 23:28
  Speaker B: I mean, obviously, like, Nick knew. Like, she would.
• 23:30
  Speaker C: The inner circle.
• 23:31
  Speaker B: She would know. No, literally. No, literally, Nick. Like, she told nobody.
• 23:36
  Speaker C: Oh, wow.
• 23:37
  Speaker B: Like, nobody knew. And she came over and practiced with us like, two or three times and. And learned the part and nailed the part. And then when we were playing at Bound by Fate, she just, like, grabbed her trumpet and, you know, we were like, hey. And at this point, we only had two original songs, so we would do two hour cover set, and then the last two songs of the COVID set would be our originals. Okay. And so for the last song of the night, we brought Abby up to. To do that.
• 24:12
  Speaker C: You know, you guys must have known, like, when you heard her playing the trumpet to. To the song for the first time, you must have known, like, holy.
• 24:19
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we're.
• 24:20
  Speaker C: This is real. Like, we're on to something.
• 24:21
  Speaker B: We knew. It was like we, you know, practicing. It was really great. But, like, it was after we played the gig, we asked her that night. We're like, hey, yeah, want to just join the band?
• 24:32
  Speaker C: You got to hear her play first.
• 24:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, we did get to hear her play first. But anyway, so we had those two songs and then you joined and I think Johnny Dope was like, shortly after that. But then so long, the Hopeful was the first one with all five of us.
• 24:53
  Speaker C: Yes. That we had actually recorded together.
• 24:56
  Speaker B: And so, like, the first three songs that were released as singles, the first Three songs Shortwave had were me songs.
• 25:05
  Speaker C: Like the ones that you wrote.
• 25:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, were ones. Ones that I wrote. And like, it kind of got into a. Like some people were like, like I was like the front man or something. And like, I, I was like, I'm not really that great of a song.
• 25:17
  Speaker C: But you are, though. Don't, don't discredit yourself.
• 25:20
  Speaker B: I'm not discrediting myself, but like, those songs are those songs because of like, Tayo and Lonnie.
• 25:28
  Speaker C: Right. John, I was there for the inception of so Long, the hopeful where you literally came up over to me and go, I'm going to hit these notes. And I want you to go. And it was all the same note. But what Tayo did was go, why don't we change the root note of that? Yes, but it all started with that. Your vision, you know, really cool.
• 25:48
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, but again, that was still kind of like a Blink 182 rip off.
• 25:53
  Speaker C: Oh. Oh. I mean, sure. Shamelessly.
• 25:56
  Speaker B: It's. If you listen to it and like, I don't know if you've ever. But you know how they have like, Anthem and Anthem 2?
• 26:01
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, definitely.
• 26:03
  Speaker B: That was written, I mean, that was written before Anthem 3. But like, it was basically.
• 26:08
  Speaker C: But even Dance With Me, the song we play, it starts with the same kind of.
• 26:13
  Speaker B: But I, I. It was that open.
• 26:16
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 26:16
  Speaker B: Dancing open string.
• 26:18
  Speaker C: So maybe we ripped it off a little bit, but at the end it's totally us.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 26:23
  Speaker C: You know, we get there.
• 26:24
  Speaker B: But like, my point is essentially is like, once you and Abby came on and we were like, solidified as like a five piece, it became like, really apparent to me, you know, with like, Johnny Dope coming basically overnight and then like a bunch of like, you know, riffs going back and forth. And I remember saying, you know, that you and Lonnie should link up together and start a, you know, text together and bounce song ideas, have each other because, you know, and so you two essentially. And I don't want to discredit like, Abby or John or myself in the, in the process of the album, but I mean, you and Lonnie did all the, the heavy lifting of it and it was like a very intentional, like, holy. Like we can, we can really do something cool, like, because I can come up with like, cool three chord, you know, three note things, but like, you two really brought your A games with, like, to, you know, the different guitar parts and this and that. So I guess, and, and you know, I always say everything's for my own curiosity, but, like, Literally, for my own curiosity, just because you're. You're my guest and I have. You have to talk to me.
• 27:41
  Speaker C: God damn it.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: But, like, how did that go right from the beginning, like, where you two were like, hey, let's. Let's write a fucking album. Go.
• 27:53
  Speaker C: Well, it's fair to begin by saying that we had made an announcement that we were putting an album out before writing any of the songs. Single note, which take that however you want it.
• 28:04
  Speaker B: And that's how I do things.
• 28:06
  Speaker C: It can be stressful at times, for sure. But without that, I don't know if I would have had the motivation to say, holy, I need to finish this idea.
• 28:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'll.
• 28:22
  Speaker C: Him and ha. And him and ha. And. Oh, is this right? Oh, should we put this here? I didn't have time to do that.
• 28:27
  Speaker B: That's why, for the first time ever, important for me to be like, we have, like, we need to put it out there. Ultimately, we're making an album.
• 28:34
  Speaker C: Yeah. I think it was a great exercise for me personally, that I was forced to finish an idea. And with, like, Yellow, for instance, I go, okay, I've got these four chords. And literally, if you listen to Yellow, it is four chords over and over and over. That's a.
• 28:54
  Speaker B: It's three.
• 28:54
  Speaker C: It's. It's three majors in A minor.
• 28:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, you.
• 28:59
  Speaker C: For you.
• 28:59
  Speaker B: Yeah. You fucking nerds and your majors in minor. I was like, no, I'm still on the same note. I'm on the same note, man.
• 29:07
  Speaker C: But I mean, even. Even so, that was an interesting one, because I had sent TJ Foster the click track from a manual metronome. Like, an actual metronome. I was there from, I think, probably the 1970s. That definitely needs to be calibrated.
• 29:24
  Speaker B: It fell out of time.
• 29:26
  Speaker C: Oh, for sure. But we. But we kept it. And TJ just goes, I'm gonna figure this out. And he kept that original. So it's. If you put that. The recording of Yellow up to a metronome, it will be out of. Out of sync, which I think is kind of interesting.
• 29:41
  Speaker B: Me too. Yeah. And. And also another fun fact is that that acoustic guitar in the beginning of Yellow, which we will hear in a little bit, that's.
• 29:52
  Speaker C: That's also T.J. foster. We had originally recorded it as, like, a glassy, like, chorus type of shimmery.
• 29:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, shimmery, shimmery.
• 30:00
  Speaker C: And when he. Yeah, when he said it with the acoustic guitar, I was like, that's it. Yeah, that's definitely it. Yeah. He killed it.
• 30:05
  Speaker B: He killed the thing I like, too, is that there's a lot of. You know, there could be a lot of ego with a lot of things, you know what I mean? Like, that's your song and. Oh, we.
• 30:18
  Speaker C: I don't look at any of these songs that way.
• 30:21
  Speaker B: No. And I mean, again, on Walk your. What is it? Yeah, Walk your own dog, there's that. I mean, and I know it now, so everybody but, like, chill out, man. Calm down. The part in the beginning that you know, and you're just gonna have to go listen to it, if you want to know what I'm talking about. There's a little cool, little, like, bass solo thing in the beginning. And when we were in the studio, that song didn't exist, essentially, and Lonnie had written that part, and I was having some difficulty hitting it, and I was like, listen, we. You know, I can. I can sit here for two hours and I can learn this. This whole part.
• 31:00
  Speaker C: Right.
• 31:00
  Speaker B: Or I can just hand you the bass and you could knock it out in one take.
• 31:04
  Speaker C: Sure. Yeah.
• 31:06
  Speaker B: You know, and it was kind of like. Well, you know, that speaks to the. Yeah, I have no problem with that. Like, and I have no problem telling people, like.
• 31:12
  Speaker C: Yeah, there's no ego.
• 31:13
  Speaker B: The bass in the beginning of Walk your own Dog and at the end is Lonnie. And it was. Because I literally was like, I'm. I'm like, I'm struggling with this. Like, with this thing, and why waste the time?
• 31:27
  Speaker C: Exactly. And it makes for a great story.
• 31:29
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I crush it now.
• 31:32
  Speaker C: Yeah, you have it. Crush it.
• 31:33
  Speaker B: But I had to learn it. You know what I mean? I had to learn it.
• 31:35
  Speaker C: Well, if you weren't playing fortunate, son, all day.
• 31:38
  Speaker B: Let's just keep my chops up, son. That's right.
• 31:41
  Speaker C: Well, whatever you're doing is paying off.
• 31:43
  Speaker B: Keep my chops up. Yeah. I also want to start doing a bunch of, like, hip hop bass lines, like Tripod.
• 31:51
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 31:51
  Speaker B: Because they use, like, a lot of, like, jazz loop stuff, like fretless bass. But anyway, back to. Back to you. So, you know, you've started, you know, with Lonnie. You're writing these songs. Like, did you find. Because I know, like, you know, Lonnie's style and your style are definitely different because, you know, Lonnie's a classic rock guy and has his roots in, you know, rock and metal, where you've got reggae.
• 32:23
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 32:24
  Speaker B: You know, so how did the two, I guess, kind of things blend together to come with, you know, because there are elements of a little bit of both in everything.
• 32:36
  Speaker C: Right. I think a good example would be, like, Crash Site was our crash course of doing this.
• 32:43
  Speaker B: He.
• 32:44
  Speaker C: Lonnie, would send me a file of an idea that he'd have for a song, and it would be the bare bones of what you'd hear of Crash Site. And I would give him suggestions along the way. So it was 80% Lonnie and 20% me on that one. And really mine was just like, why don't you go to this. This chord at this specific time or try this chord or. Or I'd play him back something that I could hear in my head, like a little solo thing.
• 33:13
  Speaker B: And you were doing a bunch of that, like, over text, like little.
• 33:17
  Speaker C: Yeah, just like that memo thing from my phone. Yeah. I'm not really tech savvy with stuff. I used to be, but, like, I'm getting older and it just, like, happens. I think I'm like, yeah, I got that happen my food.
• 33:28
  Speaker B: I use this application on my telephone. So, yeah, you're going back and forth, throwing riffs back and forth. And then when do you look? At what point are you like, yeah, that's cool.
• 33:40
  Speaker C: That's done like 78 back and forths, maybe to 178. I'm not sure at all. It all varies. But we can. We sort of feel it out. And he'll send me an edited file and I'll go, okay, now we're gonna try this. Now we're gonna try this. And I don't know for real. That probably took us about a week. But we had, like, an idea at the time. We were thinking aliens for some reason. Oh. Because. Because Don't Sync was actually the first tune, and we were going with some sort of, like, aviation theme. We didn't know.
• 34:15
  Speaker B: That's because Don't Sink. And that's. That's true. I do have an Andy song, kind of.
• 34:21
  Speaker C: You do?
• 34:22
  Speaker B: Like, Don't Think. Don't Sink is my song. I wrote the. The most of it. Lonnie wrote the chorus and I wrote the verses or whatever. But. And I'll tell everybody that it's. It's about a very deep subject. I don't know if I. I don't know if I can get into it. It's. It's personal. It's really personal. This is very hard for me. I have a love for Microsoft's flight simulator. And I. I have. I have dozens and dozens and dozens of hours. I'm. I'm like. I think I'm up to, like, fucking 200 hours flying like Andy.
• 35:02
  Speaker C: What are you doing today? Flying to Portland.
• 35:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm flying to Portland, Oregon. From Detroit. I'm doing a Detroit to Portland. No, but anyway, that song that Don't Sing just came from the voice thing from a. From a small plane. Like when you're taking off and it knows you should be, you know, climbing, like, exactly. It makes a little alarm set and then goes, don't sing, don't sink.
• 35:29
  Speaker C: Does it say it like that?
• 35:30
  Speaker B: Don't sink. Yeah, no, yeah, totally. Like one.
• 35:33
  Speaker C: So matter of fact, I'm like.
• 35:35
  Speaker B: I'm like doing a perfect impression. Ready? Don't sink. Don't sink.
• 35:39
  Speaker C: Can you imagine? That's the last thing I know.
• 35:41
  Speaker B: Totally. You're like, lady, lady, will you at least like, just pretend that this is an emergency?
• 35:48
  Speaker C: It's actually kind of calming if you do die.
• 35:50
  Speaker B: But it does. It does have a little thrown in there. But anyway, that's where that song came from. And the aviation theme. Just because I'm like, I love playing flight simulator. Let's write a song about it.
• 36:02
  Speaker C: We didn't know if the album was gonna have a theme, so at that point it was. It was. That was the second song.
• 36:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, that was just written. Whatever.
• 36:10
  Speaker C: And then we said, well, we could put let's Run Away and Johnny Dope on there because they're not released anymore. Well, we got like half an album.
• 36:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, they're. They're released on live albums.
• 36:21
  Speaker C: Right.
• 36:22
  Speaker B: Johnny Dope is on our band shows live album.
• 36:28
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 36:28
  Speaker B: And so is let's Run Away. And then let's Run Away is also on the Jive Five.
• 36:35
  Speaker C: Right.
• 36:35
  Speaker B: Ep. But there are different versions or live versions. And plus the version on the. On the album is way different. But you'll have to go listen to that.
• 36:44
  Speaker C: Right. I'd say probably the easiest one to do was where we both started featuring jb, AKA Dirty Moses. Yeah.
• 36:52
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 36:52
  Speaker C: Because Lonnie basically sent me the riff and he goes, can you put a baseline to this? So back to the, you know, Zion Riders.
• 37:00
  Speaker B: You wrote the baseline.
• 37:02
  Speaker C: Yeah. And that took two seconds.
• 37:04
  Speaker B: Although it is me. It is me on the record.
• 37:06
  Speaker C: That is you.
• 37:08
  Speaker B: And. And I am happy to say there is no loops on the baseline.
• 37:13
  Speaker C: Really?
• 37:14
  Speaker B: I don't know if you knew that. Wow. There are no loops.
• 37:16
  Speaker C: There are a couple.
• 37:17
  Speaker B: There are a couple of punch ins. Like just a couple, like three or four, like, punch ins for like one kind of, you know, note that was a little too close to the. To the fret. And there was a little buzz or whatever. But, like, that is not looped.
• 37:31
  Speaker C: But you played it continuously.
• 37:33
  Speaker B: I played it continuous.
• 37:34
  Speaker C: So.
• 37:34
  Speaker B: So did John.
• 37:35
  Speaker C: Sweet.
• 37:35
  Speaker B: So, like, the drums and the bass on where we both started is a one take. Is a one take with just a couple. Couple little punch ins.
• 37:43
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 37:44
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 37:45
  Speaker C: I did not know that.
• 37:46
  Speaker B: I felt good about that.
• 37:47
  Speaker C: As you should.
• 37:48
  Speaker B: Yeah. All right. But anyway, I think we should kind of wrap it up because we're going really long and I kind of knew this was gonna happen.
• 37:55
  Speaker C: I mean, we're just chilling.
• 37:57
  Speaker B: We're just chilling.
• 37:57
  Speaker C: We're not even in the den hanging out.
• 37:59
  Speaker B: Oh. And you know, we should. Did you see my signature weed that I got?
• 38:04
  Speaker C: I did. Congratulations on.
• 38:06
  Speaker B: Well, it's not my signature weed, but, you know, it's.
• 38:08
  Speaker C: It's permanent marker. Is that what it's called?
• 38:10
  Speaker B: Permanent marker is the strain. Yeah.
• 38:11
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 38:12
  Speaker B: And they. They approached me because the. The colors were orange and it was going to be anyway, right. And Allison was like, oh, you know, would you be cool with like, you know, lending. Lending the logo and partnering up and, you know, have. Having this be a. A local stream for unsigned 518? I was like, are you kidding me? Like, yeah. And I did. I kind of didn't know, like, it was really gonna happen because, like, that a couple weeks went by, right. I just get this. I just get this Instagram video and I'm like, what the. There it is. It's like real. So I'm gonna go down there, that's 400 river and pick some up. Yeah.
• 38:52
  Speaker C: I'm excited to try it.
• 38:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, you'll. You'll get your. You'll get your shot. Sweet.
• 38:56
  Speaker C: I still want some soap.
• 38:57
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 38:59
  Speaker C: If. If anybody doesn't know, Andy made some bomb ass orange soap.
• 39:03
  Speaker B: Yeah. I do have enough to. To make another round, so we got to do that. And by orange soap, it was. It was orange. Like, the scent was orange. Cedar wood and weed.
• 39:15
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 39:16
  Speaker B: So it was.
• 39:16
  Speaker C: It was the perfect combo.
• 39:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was great. All right, but we should wrap. Wrap this up. But let's hear yellow and then maybe just tell us just a. Just a touch about what the song's all about.
• 39:30
  Speaker C: Sure. This song again, sort of written under duress, sort of to finish the album. This was a lesson in dynamics for me. Being that I've only played four chords over and over, I thought, okay, what can I do with vocal melodies and, you know, in the shower humming it along? Kind of came up with the guitar solo in the shower. And then I had to find those notes. So it was an interesting musical process to. To figure that out. I think the. The guy in yellow is also Johnny do. Probably. I think they're the same person written in the same vein, so we'll just go with that.
• 40:13
  Speaker B: Fair. All right, well, let's check out Yellow from shortwave radio bands and I'll be right back to wrap it up.
• 40:21
  Speaker A: Who this could be Chipping away my density Lord, I am loaded Believe me, I'm tired all these years I don't believe in anything My body is shaking all the same Lord, I am weightless and dreaming a crack up on the edge I cheek to in all the ceiling is yellow who thought that a piece can be Shift me away my density Lord, I am hopelessly dreaming like everyone I push and all I see is yellow I don't believe this moment every day I don't believe.
• 42:42
  Speaker B: All right, that was Yellow, Short R Radio Band. And Ryan, I want to thank you so much for making the trip from 2 1/2 miles away to the place where you come for band practice every Monday. I know it was really tough. And you had to drink beers. Yeah, I had one beer smoke Weeds while you were here.
• 43:02
  Speaker C: Delicious.
• 43:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, crazy, crazy. But I really appreciate it. But before we go, just like all my guests, I want to give you a chance to say what I refer to as your gratitude.
• 43:12
  Speaker C: Well, thank you, Andy, for having me over multiple times a week. Thank you, Katie Scullin, right, for putting up with a band playing in your.
• 43:23
  Speaker B: House every week and sometimes making that band dinner.
• 43:27
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, you the real mvp. And I gave you your Tupperware back from that delicious macaroni salad. So thank you, Katie. I want to say thanks to all you guys in Shortwave Radio band, my band mates love you guys. You're the best. A huge thanks to TJ Foster for this project. Like, he is amazing. I learned a lot hanging with him. It was super fun to hang with him. And my God, like, what a cool process. So thank you, TJ And Dave Taio, too, from working with Dave. A similar thing when we were recording those other things. I don't know if they know this, but I look at those as free lessons. You're teaching me stuff. Like, you're teaching me a lot of shit. So thanks, guys.
• 44:15
  Speaker B: It wasn't free.
• 44:17
  Speaker C: I mean, to me, I didn't pay anything out of pocket, so. Hey.
• 44:21
  Speaker B: All right. Well, he is Ryan Shah of Shortwave Radio Band. I am Andy scullin. This is unsigned 518. See you on the road. Unsigned 518 is produced and hosted by me, Andy Scullin. New episodes are available every week. Wherever you stream. If you'd like to help support the show, please like and subscribe wherever you are listening. Or you could buy me a coffee@buymeacoffee.com unsigned 518 if you would like to advertise on the show, send me an email at unsigned518mail.com and to be a guest on the show, reach out to me through Instagram at unsigned518. Take care of one another and I'll see you next week.