Latest / Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest / Stream of Consciousness #73 - Benjamin Stewart - Slowly, Slowly

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Stream of Consciousness #73 - Benjamin Stewart - Slowly, Slowly · Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: We need to figure out it's coming to the birthday.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's another flight, pretty bad strike way to make it upwards with my brother in the back fine treat.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's where you find me.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now I gotta think about my wrist when I'm off.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now I've gotta think about everyone's not me when I'm speaking out of time with me.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Up and down, sleep on a peak on the cast in the parents.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alright everyone, we are live with Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going south of the border.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're going south of that border, all the way down under to Melbourne, Australia.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: My guest is someone who's carved out a distinct emotional lane in modern Australian rock.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's introspective, cinematic, and just unmistakenly, slowly, slowly, and we have the lead singer, Ben Stewart.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: His band has achieved nominations from the APRA, uh the J Award, AIR, and Rolling Stone Australia.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you know they're the real deal.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when you hear their stuff, it just slaps and it hits you right in the chest.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, Ben Stewart, good day, mate.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for taking the time.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing today?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good, thank you.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm super excited to have you on um from literally about as far away from each other as you can be.
• 1:39
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm sitting here in the middle of Nebraska and you're uh on uh pretty much the coast of Australia.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, before we talk music, I just kind of want you to uh tell the listeners what you looked like as a kid, just as a kid.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Were you uh into sports?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I know footy is really big down there, uh surfing, video game.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just kind of what did your childhood look like?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um my childhood, what did it look like?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I wasn't very much into sport.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um I have like a very competitive personality, but I just don't like my family never, we never watched it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: We never uh it was it just wasn't part of our fabric growing up.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, didn't um get too into sport, but the as soon as I discovered music, I think I was like 12 or 13 when um I first started learning drums, probably earlier actually, probably like 11.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that just like lit something in me, and then that's like all I've thought about since so like it's it's been like yeah, there's just been nothing else for me.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: I have zero interests in life other than music, and it's actually been a it's probably my biggest problem.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, that is that's funny.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like every musician I talked to started with the drums because, like I said, I talked to Jo John O and he started with drums as well.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I played piano growing up, so that was my first instrument, and uh I think it really helps me just learn other instruments so much easier, like having that piano background.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um so was there a a song or a group that when you like heard the drums play, and you're like, hell yeah, I want to look just like that.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, oh my god, I have so many early drum inspirations, but um, and it's something that uh like in our band, because our our our drummer Pat obviously obsessed with drums, our our sound, our touring sound person Chris is uh like our front of house engineer is a drummer, and so like in the van when we're touring, it's just like that's all we talk about this time.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: But um some of the early inspirations I have like Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers, I love his style, I think it's so iconic.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Then um and uh like Josh Fries, who's like a gun for hire in LA, who does he's done everything from like the Vandals to like a perfect circle to he recently like did a few years with the Food Fighters and he's like just incredible.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um Danny Carey from Tul um like John Theodore's time in the Mars Volta.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh yeah, just yeah, I'm a bit like the drum crazy.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: But the um yeah, so that was like big inspirational stuff for me early on, and then that I felt uh kind of separate from the I don't know what you'd say, like maybe the average drummer because I was so obsessed with the songwriting process and and lyrics were just like such a huge focus for me.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: And usually people who are like very uh maybe obsessed with um you know drums or like the I don't know the minutiae of like um like a musical arrangement, like you know, like a lead guitarist or something.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: They often have this story where they're like, I don't hear the lyrics, I just hear the melody, you know, I just play and I like the lyrics come to me later, whereas like I was just obsessed with the narrative and the story like really early on.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you know, writing out so many lyrics in like the back of my school books and things like that, and I just maybe felt I felt like a bit of an alien for so long because I was like I didn't know anyone that was like that, and then um and then I sort of just naturally became like a bit of a backseat driver in all the bands I was in because I was very into songwriting, and then it took it took a long time for me to sort of like step out from behind the drum kit and be like, Yeah, I write songs.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: So um I thought that everybody just had that that feeling, but it um I guess not.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, that's uh that's pretty wild because um yeah, you mentioned a lot of artists that I uh heard of.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um did had you happen to watch the Travis Barker documentary yet?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's on either Disney Plus or I haven't watched him, but I've yeah, I mean like yeah, huge eternal blink fan, and he played such a like that that band played such a pivotal role in my life.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, I've got to watch it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I've we've had I've had friends watch it and tell me to watch it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in in your vast amount of spare time, you should you should watch it.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I really enjoyed it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um there actually, I think, musically or not, I think it's a pretty cool documentary.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I want to back up even a little bit further to kind of what growing up in Melbourne is like.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to just kind of hear it in your own words, because I don't really know what you know growing up in Melbourne, Australia looks like.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because you were were you from the suburbs?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm from the suburbs.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, deep in the suburbs.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so like were you hitch and ride to the to the city looking for shows or just kind of just kind of talk about that a little bit because I'm just trying to understand you know that aspect.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, it's kind of like, geez, how do I explain it?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's um Melbourne's a actually a very big city in terms of its sprawl.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: So geographically, when you're out in the suburbs, you're like pretty uh isolated.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so like the east like where I grew up, like in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, like there was actually quite a big uh rock and hardcore scene growing up here.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we had like a couple of youth centers that were like uh particularly in the suburb I grew up in Croydon, there's there was an a youth center called Evie's Youth Center, and there were shows.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's a big room, it's like a 500 cap room, and there were shows there every couple of weeks.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was like a kind of maybe like the peak of like uh that emo hardcore.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what you're talking about, yeah.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so like I grew up like seeing so many bands and like seminal Australian bands that are kind of like may maybe never cracked overseas, but like were really big parts of our um our like musical landscape here, like Kiss Chasey, Getaway Plan, um, you know, uh Asperse Hurricane, like all these, all these kind of like bands from that era, and they you know, Body Jar, um even like their scar movement that was like kind of big, but but so like from the age of like 14, I was like going to shows all the time, and I ended up working at the youth center, um, organizing their shows um as part of like a ki a committee, like of um, and that was like my first age first taste of like being backstage and like cool, that's awesome.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so um although we were kind of like siloed in the suburbs, there was like quite a little thing going on here, and it was like, you know, I don't know, people who grew up in like Melbourne will in that era will kind of like laugh or cringe at that because you you'd catch the you'd catch the train in for like you know an hour to the city and s and like you know there were all these um emos sitting on the steps at Flinder Street Station.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: That was like a thing.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: See all these like kissed and you know the fringe like sitting on the steps.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was like such a crazy time in um culture here, and which I think was like kind of endemic all over the world, but um but uh I was lucky enough to live through that where like playing in bands was like the coolest thing you could do.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: What I felt anyway, but um yeah.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's really cool.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that was neat though, I guess.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because every city's a little bit different.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, so it was almost an hour, you said, to get there by train to get like to downtown.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: We were like, yeah, 40 minutes to an hour, depending on what train you go.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Geez, okay.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to get into the city center.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: So like, yeah, we're kind of it's it is a very sprawled city.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but but yeah, it's like I don't know, when you're growing up, you don't really think about things in terms of like the city.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like we we were more like how do we how do we get the band together so we can play um at lunchtime in the quadrangle?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like your world is so small.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So like I didn't really start thinking about that until later on.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't learn about like the cool hip inner suburbs like Fitzroy and and um and stuff until uh you know I was much much older, like 18, 19 out of school.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well that is so cool.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I uh it's on my bucket list to visit to visit Australia, but it's just so it's so far away.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't you be closer?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, tell me about it.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Trock touring.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Truck touring of cities, man.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so you you talked about a lot of the bands that you kind of looked up to.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I guess.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a pretty good mix then between like uh Western, like US or maybe British and Australian, or were you heavier on one side, or you just listened to what was good, I guess?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think I don't I think my like I had friends in high school who were really um influenced by like kind of UK stuff.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: So listening to a lot of like I felt like you know, the strokes or like um, you know, like what else was massive in that era?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, um the vaccines or Interpol or like the national or like I mean national or American, but like um just that kind of UK sound, I guess, uh uh like you know, Carano or like and stuff like that.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I I guess I learnt more American and I was definitely um much more kind of like interested in taking back Sunday or like oh hell yeah to that kind of thing.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I guess woven into that was like this Australian culture and it not only the stuff that was like maybe mirroring that um American scene, but things like you know, UMI or something for case or um Powder Finger, um Crowded House, like these Australian bands that kind of have their own thing that are not an American or a UK thing.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: And um I don't know, it's they're they're kind of like our version of you know Tom Petty or something, like and the or like if you were from the UK, like the like Tim Rogers or Paul Dempsey, that's like our Billy Bragg, you know, that's our like um so I think I think like that Australian scene really played um a role on like my songwriting too, which I love endlessly.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just f I just love asking that question because I know growing up American, I didn't really seek out Australian artists ever.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um it just I don't know.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just I mean it's just not something anyone really did or I was from.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I've actually been looking at a ton of older Australian stuff.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've started listening to The Wafes, they're really they're cool.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned something for Kate, they're awesome, uh Silver Chair.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, Silver Chair, it's like yeah.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, because and it feels like I'm just listening to I mean the stuff I liked growing up.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would listen to Taking Back Sunday, Blink 182, uh Motion City Soundtrack, Fallout Boy, all that stuff.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a little poppier, but yeah, it's just good music.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really glad I I found them.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: So um that's great, yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think the only is it Paul Kelly?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was the only Australian artist I knew, like probably like two years ago.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, it's um there's yeah, it's it's it's cool though every time we we travel overseas and tour um and you tell people you're Australian or you're playing a band, they're like, oh my god, I love Australian music.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just like it's it's cool that we're kind of like on the map for good music.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know like bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and um and you know AML and the Sniffers and stuff are like really putting us on a global map, which is which is just unreal.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like we're just I'm just so proud about Aussie exports, um, regardless of the genre or if they align with us.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just we love to see Australians like just doing their thing.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's really hard to break out of.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're so as you said, we're so far away.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: So anyone that can break out of you know our little island and and get around and reach some ears across the world, like I'm just stoked.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been uh like the Smith Street band is great.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, uh Luca Brazi is incredible.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Terrible band.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Don't listen to Luke Brazi.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't like Luke Brazi?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're not they're like our best friends.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was like, I think they're incredible.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like when they covered how to make gravy on Triple J, was it or Lyca J or whatever that's called?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, that's so good.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: But they're they're a brilliant band, they're they're beautiful people, and uh yeah, they're they're they're one of the they're one of the best to do it ever do it.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So all right, so we kind of talked about you starting doing your drum thing, just hitting up shows in the suburbs.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when did you kind of get a group of people together and maybe start a band?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Was Slowly Slowly the first?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have like uh maybe your first try that maybe didn't work out?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or kind of talk to me how we eventually get to slowly slowly.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I yeah, I just I played in so many bands, um, drums, uh, and from the age of like, yeah, 11.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I think w when I first like uh got into high school in year seven, um there was like an older band that was in year twelve, and they found us in the music room at one lunchtime, and they showed us how to play um two songs.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: They showed us how to play the Good Child song.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um The Anthem Richards.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, lifestyles of the famous and um and they showed us how to play a song that was like part of the footy, then it was like part of the football campaign called The Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors, and it was a song that was would play like during footy montages on like um ads on TV.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then for the entirety of year seven, we would just every lunchtime go to the music room and play those two songs on the same.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um every lunchtime became like obsessed with perfecting those two songs.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then from there it was just like yeah, I was in the bands that like and I'm still absolutely best friends with like two of the members of that band from year seven.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: They're like uh my best, best friends.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um we played in a band then and we were doing because we were like listening to bands like Thrice and the Mars Volta and at the drive-in and like bands like tools that were like really deep into world building and like very you know, like, you know, like the kind of like like very um oh like gosh, like writing a story and then like a three-part song that had like you know a 12-minute intro and this, like we were like so deep into like that.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it was it was less about like writing um pop bangers, and we were like and and and the singer of the band, Gavin, who's like my my one of my best friends in the world now, um still, he went on to do like a degree in um contemporary poetry.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: He he he's done his PhD.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: So like he was our lyrics.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's pretty sweet.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we were just like, um, yeah, we would just sit down for hours and nut out these stories and how we were like crafting we were just the we were just the seminal garage band.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: We would spend all of Saturday, Sunday, like in a garage just nutting out these songs and the arrangements, and then we would spend every lunchtime during the week at school like um fleshing these out.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: We would like you know, draw intricate um grey lead drawings in like the back of our textbooks that were like part of the artwork that would accompany their songs, so like it was so involved, and like since then that has just never stopped.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've just been like that, and then it it it developed into my like my own bands and writing.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, I don't know, like it's it was like a switch got flicked then, and then it it never got turned off.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: So uh as I said, it's been like I've wrestled with it like my whole life because it's sometimes felt like it's like to my detriment how obsessive and stuff I've been.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: But um, but yeah, that's kind of like my journey growing up with music.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, that really helps because I'm pulling up your lyrics to to my one of my favorite songs of yours.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: My computer's being slow, it's creature of habit, and I know it's kind of an older one, but I do think you have a pretty unique um I don't know in delivery as well when you're per uh recording these songs, but you do just such a good job of visualization, like I can picture exactly like where you are or how you're feeling, just to a T.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like what is this one?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bouncing up and down, falling asleep on a peach colored couch in my parents' house, inside out, you know, like everyone's like been there.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can just see it, I can visualize it, I can feel it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you just do a great job at that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And now I can I kind of see why.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're sitting there with uh you know, with your buddy every chance you can get doing stuff like that.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm very jealous because I don't think I could ever do lyric writing.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'm I oh man, I I think um I think that that that has uh I'm just so glad that I found my people in like without fans because I I often felt like maybe that unique way of seeing the world like growing up, it wasn't it like I f yeah, as I said, I felt like a bit of an alien because I was so moved by language, and yet um I couldn't find anyone else like me.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, other than like you know, I had a few close friends, like yeah, but um yeah, and so I'm just like so when people reach out to me and they say, like, God, this lyrics mean so much to me or whatever, like it makes me just so grateful that I found my people.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: I still don't take that for granted.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's yeah, it it it's it's awesome that there's people out.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: They're like me, so that's cool.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's uh and I mean there's so many other examples of that, but um let's see.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna get to well, actually I can skip through that because we already talked kind of about your songwriting.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think outside of the lyrics, like for me, when I'm thinking of, you know, you have your lyrics, is there a and I'm gonna get maybe a little too technical, but like there's obviously a feeling or a story or kind of a moment of what you felt like while you wrote the song or experienced the song.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: How do you tailor that to maybe a like what key signature it's in or uh kind of like the tempo and things like that?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the songwriting process I think is like I think we're like constantly trying to like demystify it because um you know, or like there's just these like it's like a constant waves of epiphanies because you you're like, oh, I think I figured out how I write songs.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like I do that every two weeks, you know?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like I can't, I can't, it's like the golden snitch in Harry Potter, like you just you can't catch it.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: You're just like flying around, you're like, I think I got it, like, and then you open your glove and you're like, I don't know.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I think like um it is a mysterious process and every time's different.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I've kind of I kind of like kneel at that altar now, and I'm like less less concerned with like trying to figure it out, and I'm just more grateful every time it happens.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: So um I can't tell you because every time's different and um I think I'm I'm more just trying to tap into uh I'm you just gotta like um maybe the maybe the the way of phrasing it is like when it's happening, you have to be cognizant of like oh it's happening.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna you get out of your way and you're just trying to be like this is cli I'm listening to the little voice in me that says it's clicking, like this is good, follow that feeling, and let's not get over technical, let's not try and intellectualize it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just like follow it, follow that feeling, and then at the end of the you know, at the end of that little like burst of light, you're kind of like oh it's in this key signature now, or like this is the tempo, or these lines came out of me.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, that really portrays how I'm feeling about XYZ.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so like and then in retrospect, you kind of like, yeah, you slap all these um technical um like uh markers on your work and you're like okay.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it never it never comes to you with like a bow on it wrapped up like that.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: You you yeah, it it is it's a messy process.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um you know one probably the biggest gift I I was given in life is like my blind confidence that it's just like uh and I'm and I'm my wife calls me like a a doer because I say I'm gonna do something and I do it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think there's um and I don't think, I just do.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that you know I d I didn't have like a lot of raw talent to begin with, but I've I've been really good at like following my nose and just like putting footprints in the earth and just trudging forward.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like um if there's any message I could give to like young songwriters or young creatives, it's just like don't think, just do, don't um don't get in your own way, don't try and overintellectualize processes, don't try and plan too much.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like you just do and you get out of your way, and then um you kind of make it up as you go along.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think uh for me, songwriting is still as mysterious as it was when I was 15.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I think if I if once that mystery went away, if that goes away, I don't think I'll want to do it anymore.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of like revel in the fact that it's I don't know what I'm doing.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I find it I find it like really exhilarating the process.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I really like that answer a lot.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's good.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I really do because I don't know how to explain it either, but I love when you were describing that and you know when you're playing or you're jamming, like you said, you're not thinking, all right, I'm playing an A minor.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're just feeling it.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're not, or oh my gosh, this should not be an A minor.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're not thinking to that at all.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're just I mean, you're not taking it too seriously, you're just feeling the music.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of I I like that a lot.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's uh totally.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you listen to so many of your favorite songs, and you're like, This is the most obvious chord progression in the whole world, or this is this is so simple, it's the song is two chords, or you're like, This this melody doesn't move around.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the melody's three notes, or like, you know, and and you're like if you were in a songwriting session and you were writing that song, and you're like, Oh, it's too, it's too um simple.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: We need to, we need like you know, and then you I don't know, like I feel like you really um the more you know, it's it's like the worse, the worse off you are.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's why everybody's first album is sometimes their best.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm constantly trying to be more naive, or to be more childlike, or to be more um I'm trying, I'm I'm constantly trying to get back to the place where I'm just feeling and not knowing.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um I think that is that's where people misstep in music.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's like because you you think you've got to figure it out.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I know nothing.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm like, I'm still, I'm still every album is my first album.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to approach it that way.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can I can definitely hear that, and it's kind of like a TV show, you know, because like the first two, three seasons, you're like, oh my god, this is the best show ever.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get to like the fourth and the fifth season, and you're like, uh, why am I really watching this?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then like the sixth season and seventh season are just garbage.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's yeah, I can definitely see that in some people's albums where they try to, you know, fundamentally change, you know, their sound or try to make it more than it really is.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love when you mentioned, you know, kind of being naive and childish, but in a good way.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that was yeah, I love that answer.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably the best answer I've ever gotten from that question.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, there you go.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so now we're gonna talk touring and life on the road.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because like, I don't know, I I mean I've been on road trips before, but like I can't imagine in Australia people who don't like know how big Australia is.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Australia is huge.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like Australia is a massive continent.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um so for example, like let's say you're going from Melbourne to uh I don't know, maybe what Canberra or Sydney aren't those kind of two of the other bigger cities on that in that area.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, might have lost you.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can see you, I just can't hear you.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: You got me?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I got you now.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: That is the most Australian thing that's ever happened.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, just it just stopped working.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, my phone overheated because the sun is coming.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's only like 9.30, isn't it, in the morning?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: The sun coming through my window shield overheated my phone.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, that is you can't make that up, yeah.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll just all right.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we were talking about touring, but you yeah, you get set up.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Take your time.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: If that is that okay, you can hear me now?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can still hear you just fine.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, sweet.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, touring.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yeah, so uh we're gonna talk touring, because like I said, Australia is huge.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm just pulling up the map now.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: So say you're on tour and uh you're going from uh Melbourne to Sydney.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So like kind of on the map, you're like, oh, that's not that far, but like how far is that?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: That so that's like 10 hours in a car.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my lord, okay.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so like when we were young and you know, full of uh what is it, bright-eyed, bright-eyed and bushy tails, yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like we would drive up and play a show and then drive back straight after the show.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be like 20 hours in a car for one show.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um my god.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, Australia is massive.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: It is um it's uh it is hard like when you first start if you're not flying, because you you're driving everywhere and but I kind of like look back on those times in the car as like I'm very romantic about those times.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like you you I don't know.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think anyone that's played in a band, like some of your best memories are like the laughs in the van, you know, then um and not necessarily the shows that you remember.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the the friendships are akin to like a sibling or family relationship where you've seen each other like for such extended amounts of time that you really get under each other's skin in a way that's family-like.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so um uh yeah, I kind of I don't I I couldn't tell you that I would have it any other way, but it was yeah, a lot of time in the car and a lot of travel.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, good times.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna I'm gonna go off script here.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what all fast food y'all have down there, but okay.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you're you're you know, you're doing your tour thing, you're you know, halfway to Sydney, you guys are starving, you're kind of pissing each other off, you're like, all right, we need to stop to eat.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: What is the go-to fast food restaurant?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, when you're touring, like it's really it's really places that are open 24-7.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, I mean, that was and the only places in Australia that did that were service stations or McDonald's.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so um that's kind of it.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think nowadays you have like some 24 um restaurants like Guzman and Gomez, which is like a um Mexican place, but like um as a side note, like some of the funniest stories are like from the search after the show for food.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: And like just the just the strange scenarios you find yourself in.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think like whether it's in Australia or like, you know, when we're I remember playing in like uh gosh, there's so many stories, but like Birmingham over in the UK, and like you finish it, you know, by the time you finish at the venue and unload and get back to the accommodation, it's like midnight, and then it's like you all meet in the hallway and you're just like, Where are we eating?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: And like, and then you go on a mission and you always like encounter so many strange people a lot or like scenarios.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, I have a bit of romanticism attached to those late night um quests as a group as well.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: But um, food-wise, it's pretty bleak, it's pretty bleak after midnight here.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that sounds kind of like my wife and I in Ireland.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: We we were in Dublin, and yeah, after a long night at the bar, you're like, oh god, I need something to eat like now, but nothing's open.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, so they're the spice bags in Ireland.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, but um what would what did we have?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember what we had, what it was called, but Ireland was awesome.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you ever get a chance to go to Ireland, have you been to Ireland before?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we played a show in uh in Dublin.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: It was so dope.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, it's sick.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: I love Dublin.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh okay.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so now I'm hungry, so we're gonna do our little fun, our little fun segment.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um my phone is it keeps going to overheat.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: I might have to run inside the house.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no, absolutely no worries.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just like two minutes from home, but I was driving home and I was like, I didn't want to miss the nine o'clock if I pulled over.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: But is that okay?
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no worries.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: All right, give me five minutes.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, everyone.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: We had a slight change of venue.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Australia is so hot that it overheated Ben's phone in the car at 9 50 in the morning.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's all good.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, speaking of the heat, I'm going to put Ben kind of on the spot, and he's going to try to guess what some of these American food items are.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, the first food item, I I think you might get this one.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's called a sloppy Joe.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, I I know this because of um Billy Madison.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know you like them sloppy.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, so that it's kind of like a hamburger, right?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Where it's just like it's almost like mince meat that's slapped in a burger bun.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you got it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: I love I love sloppy joes, actually.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're really good.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh except like in growing up, they'd always serve them at the cafeteria and they kind of tasted like crap.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But homemade sloppy joes are really good.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna try one.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hush puppies.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, hush puppies.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds like a dessert.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, not a dessert.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I got nothing.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's from uh it's from the south here.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a corn meal and like herbs, and it's like put into a ball and you fry it.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like a fried corn snack almost, but uh they serve it a lot with like gumbo and all that kind of stuff in like Louisiana, New Orleans.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um absolutely terrible for you.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're delicious, but terrible for you.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, alright.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um a good favorite, walking taco.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: Nah, I mean, of course I know what a taco is, but the walking taco evades me.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um you get a bag of chips.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, do you have Fritos?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: What Fritos are?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, like a corn chip?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you get a bag of Fritos, and then you pour your beef and your cheese and your lettuce, whatever you want on your taco, and you just mix it all together, and so you're walking around basically with a walking taco.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you just eat it kind of with a fork.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so yeah, I think you should try that.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh if your wife is listening, that'd be a great dinner option.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, especially with this frantic lock style, dinner on the run.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there uh I don't know why I put this one on in here.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you get this one, I'm you're a rock star.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a different kind of rock star.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Funeral potatoes.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even say with a straight face.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I got nothing.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's literally called that because everyone always brings them to like a potluck or a funeral.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like if you don't know what to bring, you bring these types of potatoes.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's simply like hash browns, so like just kind of like sliced diced potatoes uh with a crap ton of like cream of mushroom soup, and you top it with like cornflakes, and it's that's just funeral potatoes.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's really nothing to it.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um it sounds like it would uh quell the pain of mourning.
• 38:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then see, I don't feel bad doing this because I'm gonna switch and you're gonna give me some items, and I guarantee I'm gonna get zero of them.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna throw you another tough one, and you're like, what the hell is this?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ambrosia salad.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Ambrosia salad.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds like um wow, ambrosia.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a rash.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I got nothing.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so it's it's like a fruit salad.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: So like you'd put like pineapples and oranges and apples, but then you mix it with like a bunch of marshmallows and whipped cream, and then you put like food coloring in it.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: So some's like orange, some's pink, some's blue.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it looks almost like it's from like outer space, but it's actually pretty good.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know why I love fruit, so yeah, I'll try an ambrosia to alright, and if you say the one that John O did, it was like some ice cream you'll have.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what it was called, but he was like, This is the best ice cream ever, and I couldn't even pronounce it.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, give me a couple uh Australian food items to make me look silly.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh well, we have you guys have what's that thing that they make at uh the dessert?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have a trifle?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds familiar.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is it like kind of layered?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of a layered like bowl of gook with jelly.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, does it have oh jelly?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I was thinking like cream or something.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's cream, I think.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, that is like quite an Australian, like that's sort of like akin with like Pavlova.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you have you heard of Pavlova?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh nope.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard of Pavlov, he was a like a scientist, but I've never heard of Pavlova.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: They are not related.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: And um the Pavlova's like a cake with uh it's got some fruit on top, like a meringue, um, kind of icing, and it's kind of fluffy, it's kind of hard to make actually without it collapsing in the oven.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: But um that's a pretty Australian thing.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh gosh, um I don't know, like I grew up I grew up um I'm of Italian facet, so like there's um I grew up with a lot of that food in my house.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I wasn't totally privy to a lot of these like Australian classics that I've only found them I found them at my friends' birthday parties, and I'm like, what the hell is this?
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: But um, so I I'm not super versed in it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um maybe I am now, but I don't have a lot of like memories attached to a lot of these desserts.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: The I was trying to wrap my head around it because obviously it's the Vegemite or Vegemite.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, Vegemite, yeah.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I just can't wrap my head around what like what do you put it on?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I equival uh equivalent to like peanut butter, but like I I know it's not, so like I don't even know what you use it with.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like just this I would put it it's a savory spread.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you um I actually have one of my closest friends is the like head of Vegemite Australia, and so and and she is like the mastermind behind like Vegemite, and so I get a lot of and so I have it anyway, it's very close to my heart that Vegemite succeeds, not only from my national identity, but because of my vested interest with my friend.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: So um uh but yeah, uh Vegemite.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean like if you don't grow up with it, I guess maybe it's um it's kind of weird, like a yeasty black spread that is like so salty that it makes your makes your um eyes burn.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: It is for some reason it just tastes like being a kid for me.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of uh even if you did grow up as different um through it maybe like a different cultural identity in Australia, that is like the one unifying culinary uh yeah, that's like that's the one Jenga block that everybody has in their tower.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh, that's good.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um so okay, see, like I said, I I I know nothing about Australian food, so um but no, that's cool that you're from Italian descent because I love cooking Italian food.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the it's the best.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's the number one food.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually making like Moroccan food tonight for dinner, so giddy up.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, all right, so I want to talk about kind of your solo project next, because I I do see a lot of similarities between that and slowly slowly for sure, but there's obviously a reason you know you did it.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was that reason and kind of what do you want listeners to kind of feel when they listen to you know those records opposed to your band's records?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: I played a solo show the other night, and I was sort of when you play.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: show you never really think about what you're gonna say between the songs it just sort of comes out and I I I like um being in a state of mind where I just like whatever's whatever's in there just comes out and I don't think about it too much.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: And anyway this the thought came out the other night while I was in between songs because I'd been really ill last week and I just binge watched a lot of um the show called Alone which I don't know if you watch it but I think I've heard of it yeah anyway it's just like people out in the in the wilderness alone and they have a bunch of GoPros with them and it's how many days they can survive.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: The person who survives the longest is the Victor and they win a bunch of money.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And the show how it unfolds like in the first few episodes you're always like you find a few people there's generally the that you're just like oh my god this person is such a punish like you're just like I can't wait for them to get like diphtheria from the lake like I just oh yeah you know you're just like oh they're just like such a punishing individual um and then as you watch the show and people naturally become like vulnerable on this as the show um uh you know like goes along they everybody gets under your skin and you end up wanting everyone to win equally because as soon as people become vulnerable and they share their story they they become likable like once once you know everyone and so and and you can't help but become vulnerable when you're in such like a survival state on this show because it's it is a great show.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway it's very human like how you watch people sort of like unfurl as the show goes um and I sometimes think about my solo project like that it is the songs that you make on like day 60 in in the wilderness it's like it is like uncontrollably just like my inner monologue and they're not they're not um they don't go through like a um you know some sort of like process of being um culled down or cut cut into a cookie cutter or you know like um there's there's very little filtration and I think if you're if you're connecting with that my solo work like you really are seeing like um like uncontrollably like who I am and so the the the the songs that um that yeah whereas whereas maybe like slowly slowly I feel like has grown into a thing where I there is a a character element or like a caricature of myself that like steps up.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's the best discernment I can make between the two projects and I feel that's that's my to date that is my best explanation of the of the how the two are divorced.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: No that's really neat so there's um a band have you ever heard of the Wonder Years?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah so uh Dan Campbell the lead singer I think he actually is he the lead singer of the Wonder yeah so he has a side project called Aaron West in the Roaring 20s have you heard of that I have not heard of that okay so he has a side project there but it's like the complete opposite of you like he does that to be like a caricature of himself in this in like his solo side project.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I just thought that was kind of neat that you're doing like he's doing it the opposite way as you but they're both successful.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's good that's really cool.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy hearing that because I just delved into um your most recent solo album um and I why I'm awful with album names because now I just like oh yes and it yeah it's just so introspective and it's just refreshing to put on and just kind of it's almost like reading poetry or listening to poetry kind of to me.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I found it very refreshing.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: So before we sign off I want to give you the chance to tell everyone listening how to best support you um because there's more ways than just listening on Spotify because you're probably making like one cent per listen on Spotify if even that um so how can the fans support you where can they find your stuff um just maybe what's on the horizon and stuff like that well yeah I think uh uh I I don't know when this episode is going to air but like we're very close to announcing our new album with Slowly Slowly that's gonna be out uh early next year and that entire campaign like any support you know over whether it's pre-ordering the record or pre-saving songs and this and that always like helps us but um yeah I like I don't know just I think like some of the most value from the fans I get is like a lot of the online interaction.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I really like you know the inherent problem in in someone that needs to stand on stage and yell their feelings to be validated in the world is like I'm not um I'm not uh like I'm I'm aware of that.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like that that circular loop of like releasing things out into the world and then like hearing what people you know how that's affected people.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like because there's like plenty of um songs that have affected me over the years and I I don't reach out to the artists and let them know.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: So um as much as there's like yeah all these financial or like you know things that help like our our music business you know of like streaming pre-saving listening buying you know this it's great.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: I would I like just hearing from people like that is the thing that keeps me going most so if our music has like or my music solo or or the band has like affected you in any way like let me know about it you know because I I I I take great joy in that um feedback loop.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: So again you you're knocking these out of the park because uh this is what I've kind of learned throughout my podcasting is it was very intimidating you know reaching out to people that I admire um but 99 out of a hundred of them every time I talk to them they're people too they want to hear that you enjoy their work they can talk about fast food and Vegemite like um so no that's just great advice is and like I would love to hear like oh my god Dan that was a great podcast like I really enjoyed this episode like it just means so much and um and you just learn so much and culturally like being able to sit across from you a billion miles away you might even be an alien on another planet I don't know that's how far away you are but we're we're just people and that's you know kind of why I did this podcast so you knocked it out of the park and I really appreciate it.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh it please it's absolutely my pleasure and uh your album you said it'll drop early next year I'll definitely have this um edited and put out way before that um okay cool well I think we're announcing everything uh early September so um as long as it's after that I won't get in trouble.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: But the uh but um I'm so excited like this new record is like my favorite thing we've ever ever ever done I did it like you know like I did it I did it the old fashioned way this one.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is just like yeah as we were talking about like being a you know a teenager in the garage and like riding that way and just like this was my head against the grindstone just um there is no shortcuts taken with this record and I am just like I've never felt like this getting um the record back from like mixing and mastering like I am just like so excited.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah anyway.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah well I'm super pumped to hear that's that's for sure.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna I'm going to give you my official sign off and hopefully use these expressions in the right way I was kind of polishing my Australian slang.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so Ben uh I appreciate you heaps for jumping on today uh just just absolute legend uh so just again thanks for the chat your candidness and honesty I appreciated it I know uh my listeners will as well um so just good luck with everything coming up and uh we'll catch you next time everyone on Stream of Consciousness with Danny