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Leanor Ortega Till: Five Iron Frenzy · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:30
We have Leonord today from five Iron with us. I'm so excited leon Or.
0:35
A couple of years ago we interviewed Reese and it was an incredible interview.
0:39
It was actually one of our bigger episodes, like when we've kind of
0:41
first began interviewing artists and everything. So it was a really fun time to
0:45
see the five Iron dedication come through. You guys have a cult following if
0:52
there ever was one. It's also funny because you keep saying five Iron.
0:55
It's five Iron frenzy. You don't have to say five Iron frenzy. But
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when you say five Iron, you just show how cool you are that you
1:00
really that's right, That's right. Yeah, you like, I feel like
1:06
I'm in the know when you call five Irons. Well, we even made
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a banner recently with just five Iron the audacity, right, oh wow wow.
1:12
Yeah, that's just like the Beatles calling themselves the Yeah, oh wow.
1:18
I didn't know that. I kind of wanted to make a banner that
1:19
said you know who we are, but that's maybe two coffee. Yeah.
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But it's kind of fun because every band could have it up because like when
1:30
you play, like this last weekend we had shows, we had Five Iron
1:33
and the Mephiscotholies were playing, and it's like that doesn't fit, but they
1:36
didn't have something to cover it. So if it said you know who we
1:40
are, it could fly for all bands. You know, there's a problem
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with that though, because most of the time, like when I go to
1:47
like larger shows and there's an opening band, they almost never say their name,
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and so half the time they're not on the they're not on the billing,
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they're not on the ticket, you don't know who they are, and
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they never say who they are, so you're left from like what band is
2:01
this? So you know, that's a good point because we used to have
2:04
a guy named Keith in our band and he's no longer in our band,
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but he would make it a point during a pause to say, I am
2:12
Keith from Five Iron Frenzy and we'd like to think and he would memorize all
2:15
the opening bands. And since he left, like, we don't do that
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anymore. We don't we don't think like we're rocking out. But he was
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very you know exact you're not. You're not being true to the scene,
2:27
is what you're saying. I think that we play with so many bands that
2:30
we've played with so many times, like let's I'm just gonna say this and
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I'm not gonna dwell a lot, but I'm not a spring chicken when it
2:38
comes to Scotch Show. It's like, like just said just the other day,
2:42
No, honestly, there was a guy on the side of the station.
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He was sweating. We're playing in Boston. We're a little bit late,
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we're running like five minutes late. He's freaking out. He's coming up
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to me and he's like, the countdown's going down. You know, they
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have like a digital a digital quock and you can see it's going down.
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He's like, I just don't want to be the bad guy. I do
2:59
not want to shut you down. And I'm like, well, I've been
3:01
doing this since nineteen ninety five. When were you born? And he said
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nineteen ninety four, And I think I made my point. I said,
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we will not go over if you have a curfew. We're pros at this
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point, dude, I thought you were gonna say that the punk part of
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SKA would come out and you'd be like, Nah, screw your your curfews.
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Here I'm doing I don't know at forty a forty six at forty six,
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almost forty seven, I'm like, I need to get to bed,
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I need to take my teven off am. I have barely enough time to
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take my shower and stretch. You know, they need more Mattenee scat shows,
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right, did you see? Jamie Lee Curtis said, yes, I
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did see. Yeah. What do you think of that? Would you go
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to a Mattenee show? Especially ska music? I mean that's like, that's
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like daytime music in my opinion. Yeah, I think honestly, like if
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it's inside, you can change the lighting so it doesn't matter. The only
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bummer about that is that, I mean, I like the idea. I
4:00
think the perfect time to go on stage is probably ten ten pm, not
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letting under this like one pm or midnight. Ten pm is like a nice
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headlining slot. Everybody's a little loosened up and it's warmed up by the opening
4:14
bands. I think if it's noon, you might want to go home after
4:17
a five Iron show and take a nap. That is so offensive to me,
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Like if people were like I saw five Iron went home, took a
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nap, how to walk with my spouse, I would like be like,
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forget it, I'm out. That's not scot No, that's embarrassing. No.
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I think I think that they just went so hard at the five Iron
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show that they had to go take a nap. You know, that's well
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they should, but it's called bedtime and it's ten o'clock. So and we
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play. We played just you guys know, like about when we headline an
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hour and a half, that is not a small amount of times, right,
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yeah, like even us we're looking at the set's going really like four
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more? Okay, do you feel that now? Like I'm sure, I'm
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sure, Like I'm sure, like when you were in your twenties, you
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would have been like an hour and a half. Great, But I think
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that my stomach, like recently, like we were you know, like with
5:08
saxophone you have to blow and blow out a law And I was like,
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dude, I'm using my core like there's a there is a this is and
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I do this. I'm like this is cardio. Like I'm hmmm, it's
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like I think you're doing a workout right now. Do you want to know
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something cool? So during COVID, there was a time where you know,
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we weren't playing shows, but I started working out on the treadmill and the
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last song like I would I would play would be every New Day because for
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whatever reason, because ours five Iron, that would be our last song.
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I would get this burst of energy, right knowing psychologically you just gotta make
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it through. So like when Every New Day would come on, I could
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just pump that treadmill and just make it in right, and it's like it's
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spiritual and it's emotional. That's very cool, that's awesome. Love it.
5:55
I love it well, Leonor let's talk about your history with Five Iron again.
5:59
We chatted a few years ago with Reese about kind of his personal history
6:02
with Five Iron, but I want to hear from your perspective. I know
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you were one of the original members, you know, nineteen ninety five,
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back in the day when you all started. So yeah, let's go back
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to nineteen ninety five, and how how did you get personally involved with Five
6:17
Iron? What was the story there? Right? So in the beginning,
6:20
there was a band called Exhumator, right, why very metal? Have you
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guys heard this? Yeah, so like Reese, Keith Micah, eventually Scott
6:29
Nany and MICA's brother were an Exhumator and it was a metal band. And
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back then there wasn't a quote unquote Christian scene. But I was from a
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small town, tiny town called Pierce, Colorado, and half an hour away
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was Greeley. Another half an hour away was four Collins, kind of bigger
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scenes, and there were bands coming through that were Christian, and so I
6:48
would go and hang out backstage. Well, Mica Ortega, who was an
6:53
exhumator and also five Iron is my second cousin and so yeah, so he
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our grandfather's are brother. Okay, so it's a family band. Yeah yeah,
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so and I knew him. You know. We went to church camp
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because I don't know if you guys have this, but most of our family
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went to the same denomination. Kind of church was was four Square Church.
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Have you ever heard of that? Oh? Yeah, I used to go
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to What's what's her name? That started it? She was like McPherson,
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Yes, she There needs to be a documentary made about her. There needs
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to be a Netflix documentary. I could play her. I could totally play
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her. Anyway. There we go back to that anyway here first Netflix,
7:30
Yeah, I'll reach out. So the idea was that we were all,
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you know, going to the same church camp. And when Mike and I
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met each other at twelve and thirteen. We did not know we were related.
7:41
Oh wow, Yeah. I was like, your last names Ortega.
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He's like, your last names were Tega and I was like, I'm from
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Pearce and he's like, oh, I'm from Denver. And then like in
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the third day, he's like, my grandpa's Johnny and I was like,
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oh, Johnny's paying body shop Greeley, and I'm like, my grandpa's his
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brother. So yeah, anyway, there was no hold up, this is
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church camp. There was no kissing cousins kind of scenario, was there,
8:01
No, A right, no, no, but definitely, uh, I
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thought he was cool. I thought he was rad. One of the first
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men that I ever met that embodied Jesus if that makes sense. Yeah.
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Yeah, So we'll go into that later. But so basically, no,
8:20
just he wasn't a jerk and he didn't just like girls to be kissing cousins.
8:24
Right, I'm glad, right right. So anyway, so I knew
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the guys an exhumator, and I would be that weird chick like back then,
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I had like a blue mohawk and safety pins in my ears and just
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yea a couple. I was super punk rock, super punk rock and it
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wasn't It wasn't a phase, let's just say. And I was also super
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spiritual, very very very and so when Exhumator would play, I'd be backstage
8:48
and they'd like pray, and I'd pray with them. And one time they
8:52
were talking about they were gonna make a side project of Exhumator called five Iron
8:56
Frenzy and it was gonna be scaw and it was gonna be happy. And
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I didn't know. I barely knew Sky. I knew like Skank and Pickle,
9:03
a few different bands. And Micah said, my cousin play saxophone,
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she could be in the band. And Reese came up to me and he's
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like, I've always wanted to be in a band with a girl. And
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then Andy came up to me and was like, but do you love the
9:16
Lord. I was like, well, I'm a girl. I love the
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Lord. I play saxophone. Guess what. They never tried me out.
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So I joined the band and I started going up on weekends when I was
9:28
in high school and I sucked. They never asked They never asked me if
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I was good, Like, no, try yet. It was just like
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being our band and you start driving up and you're like, I'm great,
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I'm committed. And then like within like within about six months, the band
9:41
had a meeting and said in the in the mission statement of the band,
9:45
they said, we want to have integrity musically, and therefore, how awesome,
9:50
Leon or Jeff, We're gonna pay for your sax lessons. Oh that's
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nice. No, it's a way to say that I sucked. It's better
9:58
than and booted out of the band, right right, that's awesome. Yeah,
10:05
they saw yeah, yeah, yeah, And we all sucked in the
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beginning, Like I think Dennis was probably the only one who read music like
10:13
I went to high school band kind of sucked. It was high school year
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Micah Brad and me the trumpet player of the guitar playing the sax player.
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We all were graduating nineteen ninety five. So on weekends we would drive up
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and go write in Capitol Hill in Denver to the Nasty Nasty band House.
10:28
And nasty doesn't mean like emotionally or you know, psychologically. I just met
10:33
physically nasty, like physically nasty, and we practiced in the basement and started
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writing all those songs. And that's how it began. And how did you
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get Jeff the Girl the nickname, because I feel like that's got to be
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something that came on pretty early on right twelve years old, I was in
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a play at church camp. I was a tomboy. The character's name was
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Jeff, because you know, you do drama as at church camp, and
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I was a tomboy, and so the character's name was Jeff. And the
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youth pastor said, call her Jeff, she's such a tomboy. And I
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was like, yeah, call me Jeff. And then so my my church
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and spiritual world nickname was Jeff, and then it became Jeff the Girl,
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and then like I was Leonora in life, and that's a twelve Yeah,
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I think I think Prince should have done that instead of that cool symbol he
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did. He should have done Jeff. He was trying to get out of
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contracts. Yeah, how do you say Prince the artist formerly known as Prince.
11:24
Yeah, that's long. That is, by the way, if and
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when we talk about some of my favorite albums, that person might come up.
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So that the sneaky suspicion, how can you tell keep that in mind.
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We'll keep that in mind. So about a year or so later,
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after you guys started you ended up writing and recording your first album and then
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you know you've been doing that ever since. Uh yeah, what at what
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point did it feel like five Iron was like a thing that like uh like
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it what? It didn't feel like a local Colorado thing anymore? Like it
11:58
was like, Okay, we can get to are around the country. We
12:01
have a dedicated fan base. Like, at what point did it feel like
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that in your career? I will never forget. I think it was nineteen
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ninety six. We played at a place called the New Earth Coffeehouse, which
12:13
was a basement of a church in the rough part of Kansas City, and
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we had driven out there and we were going to play our songs when we
12:20
started playing Flowery Song and I think at the time maybe it had been picked
12:24
up by a Christian syndicate that was doing it in videos or something like that.
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I don't know how it had gotten out there, but at some point
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we're playing Flowery Song close to the end, because that's what you do as
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musicians. You saved your best for last, right, and the crowd started
12:37
singing back at us, and we almost stopped playing. We're like, wow,
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what they know our words? Like that was just we're looking around at
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each other like no way, and that started to happen, so that was
12:50
cool, and then I think, I mean the first year in Cornerstone was
12:54
nineteen ninety six and I was begging people to buy our We had made little
12:58
vinyl seven inches called It's Funny but not very creative, and it had Amy
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Grant on there. I don't remember, maybe I had the Old West,
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but I was like, there were five dollars and we needed to sell them
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to get gas money to go home. And I was like, I will
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give you an interpretive dance if you buy this stupid record. Right like,
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we weren't selling. I can't remember when we got bigger, but I do
13:20
remember by the time we got signed a five Minute Walk, Frank Tate,
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who was the owner of Five Minute Walk, booked a show at the Screen,
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which was another one of those you know warehouses in Conquered California. We
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got on stage and there was probably four hundred people there ready to moh and
13:35
skank and dance and crowd surf, and that was like, Okay, here
13:39
we go. So that felt like we had kind of made it. Wow,
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that's unbelievable. It's just has got to be one of those really interesting
13:46
feelings where it's like, you know, you work up to that point where
13:50
you work really hard, you're trying to write the best songs, you're trying
13:52
to play, you know, live as best as you can, and at
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some point it just happens. And for a lot of bands it doesn't,
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right, Like a lot of bands they kind of just fizzle out and it
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just never happens for them. But Five Iron is one of those bands where
14:05
it does happen and you become a thing. And here you are almost almost
14:11
nearly thirty years later a couple. You know, you're twenty eight years old
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now, yeah, thirty almost thirty years later, and here you are,
14:18
You're still You're still together, you're still playing shows. And that's just got
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to be like a really interesting thing to think back to when you were what
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you were you're prebaty close to, like eighteen nineteen when The Banker Star.
14:26
I was eighteen when I started nineteen the first year. Yeah, yeah,
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So like to think back to like when you were eighteen and to think that
14:33
you're still doing this, you know, after all those years, that's just
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got to be such a really interesting feeling, knowing what you probably felt at
14:39
eighteen years old, just starting your first band. Well, it's interesting because
14:45
I really early on, maybe like four years in, we would have it.
14:48
We were one of the first bands I ever knew that had a mission
14:50
statement. So we had a pastor and in the beginning we wrote out our
14:54
mission statement, which is not only like who we want to rock out to,
14:58
which was fifty percent secular, fifty percent Christian. I think you know
15:03
what that means for you guys, but for those who don't know, it
15:07
meant we would play clubs half of the time and venues and then half of
15:11
the time maybe the festivals or maybe the church is right. And then not
15:16
only that, but we would have musical integrity, be good at our instruments.
15:18
We were there to serve the promoters, not be served. So at
15:22
the end we would clean up the venue, help with the green room,
15:26
what else. There was just a lot of things on it. So every
15:28
January for several years we would get together for a spiritual retreat as a band.
15:33
And this I don't think a lot of people know, like behind the
15:37
scenes. A couple times we went to Alaska, Hawaii and there was a
15:39
pastor that was flown out from five minute walks, spouses would come and it
15:43
would be a four day, intense, intense time where sitting on a couch
15:52
airing your grievances was the first thing. Do you have anything that you need
15:56
to say to somebody in this room how they have hurt you or how you
15:58
have at them? So let's deal with that first, love, Yeah,
16:03
and then you know, going into the nature and having a one on one
16:07
with the Lord and talking to God about what you want to do. And
16:10
then by the end of those three or four days, we have one of
16:12
those you know, ridiculous big boards that says these are our goals is five
16:18
Oro and Frenzy. What are we going to do? What do we want
16:18
to do? And every year we conquer it. What do you want to
16:22
do? Oh, a live album, a tour, we want to go
16:26
to Europe, we want to put out this, we want to do that.
16:29
Every year it's just what do you want to do after you've after you've
16:32
gotten rid of all these intensities, like what is the goal? So I
16:34
think it wasn't as unintentional as people might think, Oh, we're just rock
16:38
stars. It's like, no, you have to do ABC and D to
16:42
get to a to you know, X, Y and Z. You have
16:45
to you have to be okay to leave your family, your homes, your
16:51
churches. Sometimes your spouse is to tour for months on time. You cannot
16:56
have another career. You have to frame my case and Reese's case in a
16:59
lot of case, leave college, put it on hold. You have to
17:03
agree to live on a nasty, nasty school bus for years out of you
17:07
know, you know, sucking down Benadrill so you don't die in the night.
17:12
But with the point being like, if you want to make this happen,
17:15
you're making it happen. It doesn't just happen, is I guess my
17:18
point? You know, it seems like a very different train of thought than
17:25
what maybe most bands kind of came up with. Most bands are just flying
17:29
by the sea of their pants, right, I mean you got well,
17:32
I don't know. I think the ones that are big get labels, and
17:34
the labels tell them what to do. But in this case, we were
17:37
controlling the conversation. Sure, you know, it almost kind of has like
17:41
a corporate kind of feel to it. And I'm not saying it is corporate,
17:45
because it's way more healthier than that. I would say, just just
17:48
judging by the way that you're talking about it. Sure it wasn't corporate,
17:51
but you know what it was, It was intentional spiritually. It started out
17:55
like these days, you'll hear the rhetoric and I'm I'm not one to say
17:59
that it's a bad thing, because honestly, we might fall into that category
18:02
now so many years later. But it wasn't we are Christians in a band,
18:06
but we were mission based young people deciding our own fate and what fruit
18:12
we wanted to produce. Nobody was telling us. It wasn't top down,
18:15
it wasn't a label, it wasn't a church, it wasn't our parents.
18:18
If anything, they thought we were insane. We were deciding what we wanted
18:22
to do to make the biggest effort possible and the biggest impact. And it
18:27
wasn't always quantity. Sometimes it's quality. Do you want to hear something cool?
18:33
Yeah? Okay, So this is called the robin hood theory. Did
18:36
Breese tell you about that? I don't think, so we won't recall that.
18:40
Okay. So you know, years go by and you're starting to get
18:42
this pattern and basically there's a circuit of bands that toured during the summer for
18:47
Christian festivals. They all go. It's like Reliant, k, Newsboys,
18:51
Audio Way Pod, all these bands. We get to know each other.
18:55
We're doing the circuit throughout the United States, hitting all the big festivals,
18:59
hanging out back stage having a good time. Right. Well, those festivals
19:03
pay pretty well, they really do. And so we knew that if we
19:07
did those festivals through the summer, we could pocket some of that money and
19:11
then in the fall we could do bar shows or club shows not announced.
19:18
You know these days you call it social media. We didn't have social media.
19:19
But the point was not you know, putting it out there and we
19:22
could pay ourselves out of the money we already had. So it's the robin
19:26
Hood theory where we would charge top dollar to the Christian fests so we could
19:32
pay ourselves when we played like the Open Mic and you know, the Captives
19:36
Club, Sanders Dump Club, Right. And the point was it's not that
19:40
this is our amount that we need to make. It's like, we need
19:44
to make that amount from you because later we're going to be doing you know,
19:47
some of this the fifty percent secular touring. Sure, there's so much
19:52
professionality going on here and intentionality. I love it, it's brilliant. Like
19:56
I feel like so many more bands would be way more succes asshole if they
20:00
if they went the same route. But that actually kind of draws me into
20:03
another question here. Sky music, especially Christian Scott music, was definitely a
20:08
phenomenon, especially in the late nineties, I would say mid to late nineties,
20:14
and Christian Scott music in general definitely had an over exerted influence compared to
20:22
the rest of Christian music, and at least in my opinion, right it
20:25
was cool, it was good in comparison to other Sky bands. So I'm
20:30
curious what your thoughts are on why you think Christian Sky in particular had so
20:36
much better understanding of what culture was like and reaching that culture as compared to
20:45
other Christian artists. Well, one thing is right from the right from the
20:49
gate. You know, if you listened to Five Are in Frenzy nineteen ninety
20:52
five, actually even before well, yeah, nineteen ninety five, when a
20:56
release in nineteen ninety six, our first song out the gate was yeah,
21:00
which is the whole like about indigenous genocide? Yeah, it's talking about manifest
21:04
destiny and how much crap it is, like we say, by God,
21:07
this is our land. The Lord has given us this, so we are
21:10
going to suppress and reclaim the land and the indigenous for Jesus, right.
21:17
And this is where I get a little feisty because and I am Mexican American,
21:22
just so you know, and I you know, I'm also Spanish.
21:23
But I think that ska music from the beginning, if you understand SCA music
21:27
going from Jamaica then going to Europe, has always had a social bent,
21:34
a social call, a social intentionality, I guess, is the word about
21:40
unity, about the scene, about the working class. And so when five
21:44
Iron came out, it was no different. It's not going to be just
21:45
about Jesus. Jesus is cool, but Jesus is cool because he gives a
21:49
damn right. Jesus is cool because he gave his life, and his message
21:52
is all about the underdog, the meek, inheriting the earth, et cetera,
21:56
et cetera. And so we took that and really ran with it.
22:00
It wasn't intentional, it wasn't talked about the lyrics, but when they were
22:03
offered, it was like, yeah, this makes sense. And so I
22:07
think that that's why Christian Ska really got on the charts is because it was
22:14
different. It had the message of Jesus, not just musically but lyrically.
22:19
And I think that people that were listening, especially people on Christian bookstores with
22:22
the headphones on and their parents didn't know what they were listening to because their
22:26
parents were like, Oh, go to the Christian book shop. Yeah,
22:29
pick a CD. They're all safe at this point, they're all safe,
22:32
and the kids like, oh wow, and listening about you know, how
22:37
can I save the world on cup of soup and student loans kind of is
22:42
the same age as these kids, and they're going, I want to do
22:45
something for Jesus, but I'm broke or I'm dumb, or I'm not taken
22:48
seriously whatever. And I think that that kind of is one of the reasons
22:52
Five Iron and some of the SKA bands started to make an indent in the
22:56
scene. Yeah. I mean I had a tweet was it a couple months
23:00
ago now, where I basically I said, it's amazing that many youth group
23:03
kids first learned about the genocide of Indigenous people from a Christian ska band,
23:10
Like, it still blows my mind that for a lot of people, Yeah,
23:14
especially US youth group kids, where we wouldn't have learned that typically probably
23:18
in our like social studies or history courses. We're actually learning it from a
23:22
SKA band. Like that just still blows my mind and I find it both
23:26
kind of hilarious but also like I'm so appreciative a five iron for that reason.
23:32
Well, so interestingly enough, two different things I want to mention.
23:33
One is, so, there's a guy that wrote a book called in Defensive
23:38
Ska and it came out a couple of years ago, and it's it's thick,
23:41
it's a novel, and it shows all the stories of you know,
23:44
all the bands in the United States nineties SKA that we're doing so many things,
23:48
and he interviewed us and we have a little blip in it. That's
23:49
cool. But he recently reached out to me and he's making volume two and
23:53
he decided he wants a whole chapter on Christian SKA. Oh cool. And
23:57
that's because as this came out and as more conversations were talked about about the
24:03
nineties SKA movement, he realized that the Christian SCA scene, just like what
24:08
you asked, was a lot bigger and made a lot more of a dent
24:12
than even people that aren't in the Christian world might even understand, like they
24:18
may take it for granted that when we played Warped Tour, we had a
24:21
little crowd, but those crowds were also like, well, what other SKA
24:23
bands are here? Not what other Christian bands are there? Good luck with
24:26
that, You're not going to find that. But they went to other SKA
24:30
bands. And sometimes I'm on forums now and people are like, how'd you
24:33
get into Lesson Jake or how'd you get into Mustard Plug? Well, I
24:37
heard five Iron Frenzy at my church, and therefore I made the connection to
24:41
SKA. So I think that the Christian scene insiders supertones us Bob. I
24:48
mean, I can't even name all that. There was just like a handful
24:52
of different bands, but they did have their own little place in their own
24:55
little scene. The problem was the problem was like anything hardcore, like anything,
25:00
you get a bunch of kids that you know, quality take quantity takes
25:04
over the quality, and you've got a bunch of kids that are like,
25:07
oh, my'm marching band. I can do this, and it's like maybe
25:10
I thought I could too, but you know, they had to give me
25:11
lessons. Yeah, I feel like the closest we've seen to the influence that
25:18
Christian SKA has had on its genre. The only other like similar thing that
25:23
we've seen I think of that is like two thousands metalcore. I mean,
25:26
we had like a lot of those Solid State bands were massively influential in that
25:30
genre outside of just Christian metalcore. But I feel like SKA was the precursor
25:37
to that where Christian SKA really did have an influence on the general SCA scene,
25:41
and that's super rare for specifically Christian music. Well, let's just go
25:47
to another precursor. Let's go to another precursor to me. When I grew
25:49
up as a kid, I didn't I wasn't raised with Christian music. So
25:52
it was records with my dad. We had a music room when I was
25:56
growing up. We had instruments, we had ms. We just rocked out
26:00
my dad and I. My mom was in college, and a lot of
26:03
the Motown a lot of the first you know, Marvin Gay singing about don't
26:07
go and talk about my father, God is my friend, sam cooked Al
26:11
Green, all these spiritual Motown sexual guys singing about Jesus, gospel music going
26:18
into white people's homes. This is the precursor too for you know, African
26:25
Christian African American Christian music. And it's just it's so funny because people are
26:30
like, well Christian music, You're like, and I'm like, well,
26:32
if you're gonna make a mix, it's gonna be nasty and spiritual. So
26:34
you might want to watch out because I'm gonna give you it all. And
26:37
even going as far as to say Leonard Cohen, like Leonard Cohen became,
26:41
you know, very spiritual in his books. The problem is they make compilations
26:45
of his books and they're this big and they're like this much that is like
26:48
g to the Lord, and this much is like are like two girls,
26:52
and then this much is like X and they just make oh, here's this
26:56
compilation. It's like, oh boy, you've made Wow. So let's talk
27:03
about kind of where you all are at in your career now. It's been
27:07
a couple of years now since you wrote and recorded your last album, which
27:11
is an incredible album until this shakes apart, and we just Cullen and I
27:17
again, we chatted with Reese about it a couple of years ago when it
27:19
first came out, and just such so incredible. But again it's been almost
27:25
thirty years since you guys first started, it's been twenty eight years. Like
27:27
where like when you look back or when you think about where you're at in
27:30
this in your career now with five Iron, Like what are what are some
27:34
of those initial thoughts, like do you have like senses like a sense of
27:37
pride or like, hey, we haven't we haven't finished this yet, like
27:40
there's still so much more out there. I don't know, Like I'm curious
27:41
about those initial thoughts are when you think about where you're at right now.
27:45
I still think a lot of those songs are good. I still think a
27:48
lot of those messages are good. And it makes me sad that there's so
27:52
much bullying and difficult times for kids these days. And I want to be
27:55
like, why isn't Sucker Punch played at school rallies? Like some of these
28:00
songs that we wrote. I still feel have more to give, more to
28:04
give the new generation. And so what's hopeful and what's happy is that the
28:07
older generation, not you guys necessarily you guys are still kind of young,
28:11
but I'm talking about guys in their forties and fifties. People in their forties
28:14
and fifties now they're showing their teenagers this music, and I'm thinking to myself,
28:18
good because it's a good message still, like like they may not understand
28:22
the music as much, but the message, I think is still powerful for
28:26
anybody of that age. And when we play concerts, I'm looking at kids
28:30
that are younger and I'm like, you gotta know, you gotta know you're
28:33
okay, you gotta know you're gonna make it, like like all the things
28:37
that that we talk about. And then we get more mature when we put
28:40
out engines of a million plots, and more mature when we put out until
28:44
this shakes apart. So that's for people, our age going, your voters,
28:48
your consumers, your neighbors. You're in the corporate world. You know,
28:52
whatever you're doing, you are pastors. You are the people that are
28:57
controlling, control all of it, all of it. How we treat each
29:02
other from the top down. And so I'm hopeful that they'll listen to those
29:06
new lyrics and say, how can I consider something from another point of view
29:10
and how can I consider that I might not be correct? And how can
29:14
I not give up all about God and Christianity? That is good? All
29:18
that is good because certain politicians or issues or struggles or things have pissed me
29:26
off. How can I hold on to what is good in spite of the
29:30
negativity I see? And stead of being like, oh, I'm not one
29:32
of those Christians, count me out. No, no, that is a
29:36
cop out. And I get really mad about that. I get really mad
29:37
about that when people say it's too much now, because I'm thinking kind of
29:41
what we talked about, was it not too much for the indigenous person to
29:45
accept Jesus that they were be rated under the guise of or stolen items under
29:49
the guise of, or assimilated under the guise of for Hispanic Christians, for
29:56
you know, African American Christians, all these people, you know the places
29:59
where missionaries go. You want them to come to you. And now it's
30:03
too much because it's embarrassing, give me a break. Like that is what
30:07
really kind of makes me mad. Do you ever think about the fact that
30:12
five iron in like the Christian world is sort of like rage against machine in
30:18
the fact that like, you guys have this very overt political and social message
30:22
and you still probably have like fans out there that have no idea that those
30:27
are actually in the lyrics. Uh, And I don't know if you've seen
30:30
the whole meme of rage against machine fans that are like, wait, they're
30:34
communists or whatever, and it's like I liked them when they weren't political.
30:37
Would joke? Can we say I liked them when they weren't political, I
30:41
like them when they didn't speak up, or I like them we're just fun
30:42
and funny. Do you guys ever get that? But from like the Christian
30:47
world where it's like, like, where have you guys been since the first
30:51
song in nineteen ninety five was about indigenous indigenous jenicide, we do. But
30:57
it's but I'm okay, I'm okay those people to stick with us because now
31:02
we're writing songs about monuments, Now we're writing songs about LGBTQ people, Now
31:07
we're writing songs about a gun violence. And I think that if they can
31:12
stick with us, even if it challenges them, fine, challenge yourself as
31:17
much as you need. It's to me, it's not it's a no brainer.
31:19
Like I'm one of those dichotomy of people like right, Like I said,
31:22
my parents were born in the States, their parents were born in Mexico.
31:26
They were veterans, They love the flag and we're proud Democrats. And
31:32
when I learned that Christians could be Republican, I was confused. And when
31:36
the guys in my band could learn that Christians could be Democrats, they were
31:38
confused. And guess what, it's okay. It is okay. We come
31:42
from a different point of view. It's gonna be all right. Like I
31:45
just think that when you're raised a certain way, you think everyone thinks the
31:48
way you do. Yeah, but let's talk about Rage against a machine.
31:53
Oh my gosh, bucket list dad, I would love to see them.
31:56
I've never seen them, but live I was close, but then you know
32:00
the foot injury. But maybe someday. There you go, well, we'll
32:04
have to go together at some point because I would love to see Rage at
32:06
some point too. I'm a big thing. I am going to First of
32:07
US this year. Are you guys going, Yeah, awesome, I'll be
32:12
there there. Who are you excited to see Turnstyle? I just saw them
32:15
open for Blink one eighty two, and they're so good. I'm excited to
32:17
see further seams forever. I can sing all those songs. Unfortunately, because
32:22
of an ex boyfriend's mix CDs. The way Insiders are the good friends.
32:30
I think. Isn't Roadside Monument Are they playing? Yes, yes they are.
32:36
And also your former bandmates Seth we'll be playing with Yeah, yeah,
32:42
I look forward to seeing him and m XPX. Those guys are like I
32:45
mean MxPx to be honest, back in the day, Like in case someone's
32:50
listening to this and they don't know the five Iron story. We were a
32:52
band from ninety five to two two thousand and three, broke up for nine
32:55
years, then got back together. So in the back together we became really
33:00
good friends with MxPx and we have the same booking agent and play a lot
33:04
with them, and it's it's been cool because back in the day it was
33:06
like I knew of them, but I didn't know them, and they're super
33:08
cool guys. So why aren't you guys playing at Furnace Fest with MxPx this
33:14
year? Because there's next year? Oh right, there we go. Yeah,
33:19
you never know. I'm not confirming anything, but you know, we
33:21
played. What I have been told is that they don't usually like to book
33:23
the same artist two years in a row, and we played last year.
33:27
Yeah right, you know, but some people do it. So some of
33:30
the bands did maybe maybe, but last year I was such a fan girl.
33:34
I was freaking out over two bands, A Veil and Stretch Armstrom,
33:37
And I try not to because I'm like all these beefy dudes in black shirts,
33:42
like they all with the same, no offense to them. I mean,
33:44
I just I try. Like we're eating meals and I'm like, there's
33:46
like every table has like ten beefy or like skinny. Like there's the dude
33:51
with like the longbeard, kind of skinny and sallow. Then there's the big
33:53
dude with the tattoos. They're all wearing like I'm like, it could be
33:57
anyone. It could be anyone. It's literally any of them, and I'm
34:01
like I want to say hi to all of them, but I'm like getting
34:04
a little you know, I just love a Veil and I love Stretch Armstrong.
34:07
All right, let's talk about why you're here. You want to talk
34:09
about the box set that recently came out and we're so excited about it.
34:15
Actually, I met with Jason a couple of months ago, Jason from an
34:17
Original Vinyl, and he was like, I think it was right before it
34:21
was announced and he was like showing me. He was like, dude,
34:23
this is gonna be so awesome. It's gonna be like a dumpster and like
34:27
people can get like whatever vinyl they want, or they can get all the
34:30
records or whatever. It was just so cool. So yeah, let's let's
34:32
hear about the box set. This has just got to be really exciting for
34:35
you all. I think the first coolest thing is consider the technology. In
34:38
nineteen ninety five, we would record an album in two weeks, which is
34:43
it bad, but the technology just the sound, and you hear our songs
34:46
and they're good songs and you can say they're good. These are all gonna
34:50
be remastered. Yeah, remastered for vinyl, which means apex sound, which
34:54
just means don't you want to get a good sound system? Kick back,
34:59
La, look at your old pictures and think about all times hearing the songs
35:02
like they're supposed to sound like we recorded them. It just was impossible back
35:07
then, and now I'm very excited for people to hear how good we can
35:10
sound. It's not that the part was any bad or that we played the
35:13
performance was bad. It's just recording was substandard. And luckily we have a
35:19
lot of that from Misaki and he always tried the best with us. From
35:22
five minute Walk, but we can remaster everything. Secondly, the end is
35:25
near, and the end is here. The end is near. We're a
35:29
bunch of songs that got caught up in like you said, the word corporate
35:32
at some point, like all of the back end stuff with EMI or Warner
35:37
Brothers or who recorded or who owns it and who all that stuff to where
35:40
we couldn't release it for a long time. It was, it was held
35:44
up in well, we don't know. We're just the rock stars, right,
35:47
like what did our label do? We eventually bought back all our music
35:52
from Five Minute Walk, which, thank the Lord, they sold it to
35:54
us at a reasonable price. We wanted it so we can do what we
35:57
want to do with it. But the end is near. Was somehow published
36:00
and put out in a way that we couldn't So now finally people can hear
36:06
those songs, and there's some good ones, really good. Lastly, lastly,
36:12
there's a song we just recorded for until this shakes apart, no one's
36:15
heard. It's good. It's just when we work on the listing, the
36:19
track listing, sometimes there's a vibe. And these songs tended to be more
36:22
deep, more political, like you said, more change your heart change your
36:25
mind, and so the funny, crazy ones didn't all make it, So
36:30
it's fun. There's a song on there that's going to come out that nobody's
36:32
heard, and again some of the remastering of all this, And if you
36:37
don't want any of the final you can buy the Dumpster Box, which I
36:42
think is awesome because a lot of people come up to me and they're like,
36:45
you wrote back to me a letter when I was fifteen, or I
36:47
bought this shirt but it doesn't fit because it's extra small, or it's extra
36:51
large, and we don't dress like that now. So all the stuff you've
36:53
saved can go in this Momento box that looks like a dumpster. When you
36:58
open it looks like fire. Yeah, but it's only honestly, it's only
37:01
going to be available a couple more weeks, so it's limited pre order to
37:06
jump on it. You gotta get it now. Yes, Yes, how
37:08
crazy is it that you started off with seven inch vinyls and now you're back
37:12
to vinyls? You know, it is funny because we recorded that in our
37:15
house. We did the Everywhere I Go and we listen to those songs now
37:17
we're like, why so fast? Why did we have to. Like we
37:22
tried to play during practice, we tried to do All the West. Like
37:24
it's like, my head hurts. Why everyone wanted to go fast back then?
37:30
So fast? There's no groove. Now we get it. There needs
37:32
to be a groove. Right, that's right, that's right, right,
37:36
that's right. Uh. I'm really excited about it. It's really cool.
37:38
It's i mean, unoriginal. Vinyl is known for doing these really cool vinyl
37:43
rereleases and everything, but this has gonna be one of the cooler ones,
37:45
especially with that dumpster. And I forget what the whole story around that was.
37:49
I remember I was talking to Jason about it a couple of months ago.
37:52
But it's just like so cool that you can, like, you know,
37:53
get this dumpster and then just put your vinyl in it. I mean
37:57
it just it feels so five iron, yeah, five iron. And then
38:00
the other thing is if you already have the vinyl and you just want one
38:02
that's not a special color. I don't know if you've heard this in our
38:06
video we made, but we're going to reuse There's this piece on the end
38:08
of the vinyl that just gets thrown away, but they're going to take those
38:12
parts and just mix the colors and make our vinyl out of that so it
38:15
doesn't get thrown away. Perfect. Yeah, it's rat Yeah, so everyone's
38:21
gonna have a one of a kind when they buy those. Yeah. So
38:22
it's not it's not really a dumpster. It's more of like a recycle bin.
38:27
Yes, very tall. I like it. Good job, Jason.
38:30
Yeah, he's a he's a boss man. He's crazy. He reminds me
38:35
a guy smiling. He's cool. He's my bud. Yeah yeah. Are
38:40
you ready to go to top five? Okay, I'm ready? Yeah,
38:44
all right, all right, well you you said there was gonna be a
38:49
Prince on here and maybe raised all right, some five musical artists. Musical
38:52
artists, Okay, remember this is the most influential. They're not your favorite
38:55
necessarily. Oh influential. Oh now I got to change it. Yeah,
39:00
the ones that have changed your life. Yeah, well we're gonna start with
39:04
Prince. Because when I was like about I don't know, nineteen, I
39:07
think nineteen eighty four, I was about eight and my family drove to California
39:12
and it was in one of those trucks that has like a shell on it,
39:15
So I was pretty much getting poisoned to the whole drive. But I
39:17
had a little boom box there with batteries so I could sing. And do
39:21
you remember the song baby I'm a Star now, persons, Okay, it's
39:28
okay, it's okay. The whole concept is he's singing and and this isn't
39:31
the Prince movie two, which is definitely are just for everybody out there,
39:35
but and I haven't seen it at that point of course, but the song
39:37
talks about how he wants to be a rock star, he wants to make
39:39
it. He thinks he's awesome. And then later in the album he's talking
39:43
about the Lord and he's saying I will die for you, and and the
39:47
hand symbols in the movie is I what dieful you? And uh, it's
39:52
talking like from a point of Jesus Christ saying like I'm not your lover,
39:55
I'm not your friend. I am something that you've never understand. And Prince
40:00
were up. I think Jehovah's witness. But he had a spiritual background and
40:04
so he also did a song which is not on Purple Rain, but the
40:07
Purple Rain album was one of my top five. It's called The Cross.
40:10
Have either of you heard it? I am not okay. One of my
40:15
favorite spiritual songs of all time is called the Cross by Prince and most people.
40:19
It's very very under the gun to just check it out. Nice,
40:22
Yeah, yeah, number two, number two, let's hear it Metallica?
40:30
Yeah? Which album Metallica? Well, I think I don't and Justice for
40:35
All or I think it's a correct answer. I think it's tied. Although
40:38
one of my favorite songs is Fade to Black, which is and when I
40:42
got into them is when the Black album came out. But I had a
40:45
crush. My first crush was on a heavy metal guy that nobody liked in
40:49
high school. He was a senior. I was a freshman. He avoided
40:51
me like the plague. The only time I could hang out with him is
40:54
when I jumped the fence to go to his house on Saturday's to watch Headbinger's
40:58
ball. But then at school he would look at me and be like,
41:01
don't tell anyone. Is this because the metal heads weren't allowed to hang out
41:06
with the punks. I wasn't a punk yet. I was just a really
41:10
yet No. I had long, beautiful hair, I was cute. I
41:14
was a nerd, but I was cute right yeah, I wasn't. I
41:17
wasn't that yet, but I was a freshman. He was the seniors.
41:21
Put it that way. He's still my friend, but he really taught me
41:25
a lot about metal and Metallica. Just. I mean, in Denver we
41:29
had KBPI, which did Metallica mondays because nothing else mattered, and so on
41:32
the hour, every hour, a Metallica song played on KBPI, and it
41:37
could be like I know most of the words, like a lot of songs
41:39
by you know. I just I really think they're amazing. And recently this
41:43
year, Mica and Tricia and his wife Mike and the guitar plays for five
41:46
hour we went and they were showing the Metallica film. It wasn't a film,
41:51
it's like videos set to their new album seventy two. Did you see
41:53
that? I've heard it's really good. I haven't watched the year. Oh
41:55
man. We were rocking out, we were giggling, we were we were
41:59
like it was so good. Yeah, so Metallica. I would say,
42:04
I can't tell you exactly how they inspired me because I've only seen them live
42:07
once because I used to be a stage hand and I snuck in where and
42:10
I could have got fired, but it was worth it. But but I
42:15
but I think musically they're just so amazing and just so exciting, and so
42:19
you know, there's songs. You know, back in the day, we'd
42:21
make tapes and it'd be like three songs for a half an hour on each
42:24
side. I love. The thing I love most about Metallica is that,
42:30
like their lore goes deep, like like any like sixties or seventies band that
42:37
was like, you know, really really huge. There's not a lot of
42:39
metal bands that have lore like that, you know. Yeah, it's cross
42:45
cultural. It's just amazing. They're so good. Third, Yes, Marvin
42:50
Gaye. So, like I said, growing up, we had a music
42:52
room. My dad. He liked to have a few beers after work and
42:57
a couple of cigarettes. And we had this this little him in our house
43:00
that he had gotten probably from the dumpster, I don't know, but old
43:04
beer bar marquees kind of things like like posts. They weren't posters, but
43:09
they had meon so like the beer looked like it was bubbling, do you
43:13
know what I mean. So it looked like a bar. Like I was
43:15
a kid growing up in this bar in our house, and we listen to
43:17
records and Marvin Gay, like, what's happening, brother? You know what's
43:22
going on? All these lyrics about Vietnam and my dad wasn't in Vietnam and
43:27
a lot of his friends were, and he was a veteran from the Air
43:30
Force, and he'd get really emotional, get pretty teary. And that was
43:34
music that I thought it was really impactful, really important to have music that
43:38
could speak a message black white, any race to a generation about things that
43:44
are wrong. And then in the same album he has super spiritual songs where
43:47
he's talking about Jesus being his friend and God being his friend, and when
43:51
I think of the world, it fills me with sorrow. Little children today
43:54
are going to suffer tomorrow, and you're like, what the heck? It's
43:58
like ecclesiastic right there in a Marvin Gay song. And again the hits make
44:01
it put those subvert spiritual faith pieces where life is crap and yet right.
44:08
And I think that's what five Iron gets right. Is like on the same
44:12
album, you're gonna have something that's painful and hurtful and sad, but this
44:16
at the end, you're going to be like every new day in it up
44:19
like okay, okay, right, Life is this ugly, this nasty,
44:23
this hurtful, and yeah, if we have faith, it's gonna be okay.
44:28
Yeah, I like that. Also love the fact that you're a Motown
44:31
girl. That's absolutely And I get in a lot of fights because everybody on
44:35
tours always like beach boys or Beatles and I'm like, whatever, Motown,
44:39
who even cares? Well? We never get to talk about Motown on here.
44:44
So I just got to say right now that I think some of the
44:46
best recorded records of all time are the Al Green records. Yeah, his
44:52
voice, like, yeah, it's like he's sitting right in front of you
44:55
when he sings Al Green and Sam Cook. Those are the other very like
45:00
I say, hyper spiritual, hyper sexual, and I think that there's something
45:04
to that too. Who knows, maybe one of you guys will write a
45:06
book or something. Yeah, I think Mason's like, I don't want to
45:10
talk about this. I think All Green has been a pasture for a while
45:15
now, right, Yeah, Okay, that's what I thought. Ever an
45:17
Al Green? Uh that's number three right, so number four four? Okay,
45:22
The cure, the cure this is this might be the most eclectic list
45:28
ever. I'm a most eclectic person Yeah, you don't get a Hispanic chick
45:32
that's in an all white guy band for the most part that plays Scott.
45:37
I don't even know how. I don't even know how I got here.
45:40
My biggest fan if you look at my fan base on my Facebook is white
45:44
dudes between like twenty five and thirty five. That's not even my people.
45:49
I don't This is not my scene. The Cure musically holds up as romantic,
45:54
as sexy, as interesting their lyrics. I still get something out of
45:59
so many years later, and I will say I grew up in a tiny
46:02
town. My high school had about my class class and ninety five had forty
46:07
two people like fifty four except for pregnancies. It went down. So when
46:12
it was time for prom or homecoming or anything like that, we'd have the
46:15
DJ. It was usually a cute dude, like a little older in his
46:19
twenties, and he'd have, you know, Metallica, he'd have obviously he
46:23
would give Garth Brooks right, he'd have like ice cubes some stuff like that.
46:28
So my school was rap ACDC like rock like butt rock and country.
46:37
So there was people line dancing, There's people a heavy banging, heavy metal
46:39
banging head banging, and then there were people you know, two stepping and
46:43
you know, booty dancing, and there was no place for me. So
46:46
I would bring my own CDs and I would kind of flirt a little with
46:50
the DJ, and later I'd be like, can you play Hot, Hot
46:53
Hot by the Cure? Or can you play why can't I Be You?
46:57
By the Cure? And I would just close my eyes and get it to
47:00
my zone by myself because no one else is doing this. It could be
47:04
depeche Mode, it could be The Cure, it could be like Susie and
47:07
the Banshees, and I would just be in my zone, like I'd get
47:08
like out of every dance, I'd get like four songs just to myself.
47:15
I love this. You. You could have been a great saleswoman just trying
47:20
to persuade everyone to do what you want. That's great. They don't think
47:23
I'm cool. They thought it was a weird Christian New Waiver. Back then
47:27
we were called new Waivers. I feel like you've lived such an romanticized version
47:34
of American life. You know it's still romantic, like I shouldn't it be?
47:38
Shouldn't it be? Wai is wait till you see where I'm going you
47:40
should interview me in ten more years, dude, when my gray hair comes
47:45
in, I'm gonna be killing it. It's gonna be great. I love
47:47
it, Okay, I love it all right. Number five Oh Bingo boingozally
47:54
absolutely wow. I told you so Lingo Boingo when I first heard it.
48:00
You know, they are so eclectic musically, all the instruments going everywhere.
48:05
A lot of us in five Iron. Dennis introduced me to them more like
48:07
I kind of knew some of their stuff when I was in high school,
48:09
but he made me mix tapes and the sounds and like when you're listening to
48:14
like Giants by five Iron, right, like it's got some of the tom
48:16
waits, which I do love some of that vibe, but it's got like
48:20
weird, eclectic, interesting sounds, Like every sound matters, and there's humor.
48:25
There's humor created by the instruments, and I think five Iron does that.
48:30
You don't always hear that, but to have like an instrument do something
48:34
dorky is actually really creative and funny to us, like we get it as
48:37
music nerds, like, well, look at each other, like this is
48:39
so funny, and everyone's like do they get it or not whatever, But
48:44
yeah, Wango Boeingo still musically holds up when Danny Elfman made it musically like
48:50
still like, I think that he's brilliant. I think that horns the place
48:53
where the vocals sit, the place where the horns sit, the place that
48:57
there's only so much space in a song and you have to make every anything
49:00
shine. And we have a saying in five on when we write songs,
49:02
which is whatever's best for the song because we can fight. We can have
49:07
knock him out dragons like. I think there's a lot more lyrics. Reese
49:10
will say another thesaurus he wants to put in, and we're like, but
49:13
this part has to shine and then what about this guitar? Like and you
49:16
fight because the song is this much time in this much space, right,
49:20
Yeah, So io Boingo packs a punch in a tiny amount and lyrically lyrically
49:24
too very true. This is a great list. I love it great.
49:30
Since we don't really have a lot of brass players on here, I'm just
49:34
curious, do you have a like hero sax player. No, I'm not
49:42
into jazz and I'm not really into solo as I can't solo. If anybody
49:45
are my favorite people. It's Dennis and Brad because Dennis writes parts that are
49:49
harder for me to play, which makes me a better player. I mean
49:52
when he first wrote you know New Hope, I'm looking at him like what
49:57
the what? Why No I can't and he know as I can eventually,
50:00
or like so far it has so many horn parts. It's like it's doing
50:05
so many different things all over the place, but you get there because he
50:07
writes them and you have to be right. And then Brad, there's interesting.
50:10
Dennis is right on the beat if you know him. I'm a little
50:15
above the beat. If you know the Rabbit and the Tortoise. That's me
50:17
and Brad. I'm a little liked. And Brad is like super chill behind
50:22
the beat. If you hear a solo and every new day he's like he's
50:24
like wait back, but it's perfect. It's Brad. He doesn't worry.
50:29
He's just mellow. He's an introvert, but he goes insane on the stage.
50:34
And when we get in we call this when we get in the pocket.
50:37
When we get in the pocket and we're all playing this last weekend.
50:40
It was last Saturday. We were in Boston. We played at soul Fest.
50:45
We were playing the end of Every New Day that we had rewritten the
50:46
baa Da Da Da Da Da Da Da, and it was one of those
50:51
holy spirit moments where we're all It reminds me of Acts too, where it
50:54
says, you know, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone and they were all
50:57
in one accord. It happens with the crowd, happens with us musically.
51:00
And my eyes were closed the whole song, and I kind of regret it
51:01
because I wanted to see the crowd, but I was just in the zone.
51:05
And you hear them in your in ears and you're like, it's perfect.
51:08
It couldn't be any better, right, One last one, last question
51:14
for you? Sure have you? Are you a podcast fan? I have
51:17
a podcast. I have a podcast. What is it called. It's called
51:22
two Punk to be a Hippie and it's about my failed attempts at green Living.
51:25
I talk about owning chickens and gardening, Oh my gosh, healthy meat
51:30
and we got to get together and health. Sure. Yeah, I'm trying
51:35
to be a hippie. I fail, but it's that's what I talk about.
51:37
I have I have ten acres out here. I have a garden,
51:39
I've got dogs, I don't have hawks, five chickens and a garden and
51:45
just just trying, just trying. That's why I'm urban learning, right,
51:50
very cool. So the reason I asked about podcast, I don't know if
51:52
you've ever heard of a podcast called American Innovations, but they have an incredible
52:00
story on there about the invention of the saxophone. It's like it's like one
52:05
of the most it's one of the newest instruments in terms of that what we
52:08
consider, you know, regular instruments, not like electronic or anything like that.
52:14
And it is fascinating. You have to listen to I will check it
52:17
out or just go look up the history of saxophone. You'll have a blast,
52:21
okay, because it is. It's crazy. Yeah, very cool,
52:24
love it. What do you want to plug? Obviously, the Dumpster vinyl
52:30
set box set is out there in the world and people can go pre order
52:34
to that. That's first and foremost because it's limited time. So, Mason,
52:38
have you heard the Fast Feeling? I don't believe so. Well.
52:44
This is a band of me, Scott and Andy and I sing and it's
52:47
new wave Okay, yeah, a couple a few years ago. So we
52:52
were. I think we put it out twenty sixteen, like it was between
52:55
albums, and Scott is just so prolific. He had so many so was
53:00
like stacks and stacks and stacks, and Reese, you know, couldn't get
53:04
to them or didn't get to them. There were too many, and those
53:06
were the ones he didn't choose. So I started writing melodies and lyrics on
53:08
them. And then there's a guy from eleventy seven named Matt Lankson Yeah,
53:14
so he's in it too, so he so it's got Some of the songs
53:17
have drum machine, but a lot of them have Andy playing drum and Reese,
53:21
I mean not Reese. Sorry, not Reese is not in this,
53:23
which it's it's Matt, Me, Scott and Andy. And it's called The
53:27
Fast Feeling. So I want to plug that because but I don't want people
53:30
to rush. Take your time because you got to get the box set.
53:32
But when you get ready, look up The Fast Feeling. We still have
53:36
CDs, we have vinyl. You can just go to band camp and check
53:38
it out. And we have a couple videos perfect love it. I'm excited
53:43
to see that. I can't believe I haven't heard of that yet. The
53:45
thing is there's technology that makes it so I can sing, but I'm not
53:47
that good. Like like Scott even says, he's like, if you want
53:51
to invest a few years and learn how to sing, you can do that,
53:52
or we can use all this computer stuff. And I'm like, go
53:54
for it. So it's it's really cool. It's obviously it's very doctored up.
53:59
But there's a bit of like Berlin Joan Jet Boy idol kind of like
54:06
sometimes I go like aggressive and sometimes I go really pretty and talking heads a
54:09
little bit. Maybe maybe more pixies. Like Matt Langston came out and he's
54:15
actually a real legit producer, so he would teach me how to sing with
54:20
a void sing because I don't sing, so he would. He worked with
54:23
me and we put out a pretty cool album. I love it. I'm
54:27
in cool. We'll definitely check that out. That's exciting. Anything else you'd
54:30
like to plug, Well, I think we're gonna be holding auditions soon for
54:34
a new lead singer. Roper. Yeah, he's great. He's an awesome
54:38
singer, but he wants to tag team with someone. We've decided to be
54:43
a two main singer bands, so he can take off some of the songs.
54:46
And then so more of the songs that he wants someone to sing for
54:50
him are the ones that involves singing, so he can still do like the
54:53
rap kind of songs, but anything that really involves the high register, he's
54:59
he's older now, he can't do the high register. So we're really looking
55:02
for someone probably within the ages of like eighteen to twenty oh female, Probably
55:08
female because that's Reese's range. Sure, yeah, look, you're a female
55:13
that can really pull off Reese's lyrics and emotionality. You know, I really,
55:17
I really want you guys to have another another woman in the band.
55:22
But I think I can hit that range, no problem. I would love
55:28
pretty frequently. Collen, you're like, you're like the Rod Steward of podcasters.
55:31
Bro, I don't know, you're like all gruff. Oh yeah,
55:36
I'm down here, but your gruff is can be. But maybe, yes,
55:42
like I said with Scott, you can use computers, so maybe,
55:45
you know, maybe we could just honestly what we should probably do, because
55:49
we've started using tracks and a couple of our songs. And I'm not embarrassed
55:52
to say that, but basically it means, like I used to be like
55:53
a purist and I was such a brat back in the day. I'd be
55:57
like, oh my gosh, they use tracks. That is so embarrassing,
56:00
and now we use them for like filler stuff. Right, maybe we could
56:04
just put all the vocals on you know, tracks, and Reese could just
56:07
dance. He's really funny. You won't forget the lyrics and too, he
56:10
doesn't have to. He could just have fun. That's what I mean.
56:13
Yeah, that's really love it. Well, yeah, well we'll post about
56:17
the new The new auditions were we're excited for a new lead singer in five
56:22
Iron exciting. Guys are terrible, You're wonderful and you're terrible. I hope
56:27
it's American idol style, that's right. Yeah, who's Who's the Simon Cowell
56:31
of five Iron, who's just gonna be real good? Has a vein right
56:36
here. Even when I first joined the band, like when we were recording
56:39
uh upbeats and beat downs, he would be you know, you're in a
56:43
room by yourself recording and he's in the other room when you go and he
56:45
gives you that look in that veins popping out, and you're like, can
56:49
you ask Scott to leave? But I knew he was just like dunking down
56:52
under the desk. So the producer, he'd be like, that's flat,
56:54
tell her she sucks, like you know, but you knew he was in
56:58
there saying things I hate it. Well, at least he's got a better
57:00
hairstyle than Simon Cowell. It's all that matters. No hair is better,
57:06
I guess, yeah, exactly, Okay, okay, all right, So
57:12
I'll see you in ten years when I'm really killing it in my romanticized life
57:15
and we'll yeah, yeah, well we can do that. But also we'll
57:16
see you in like, uh what six weeks now? Yeah. Can we
57:21
make a point to get ice cream together? Yeah? Totalis Okay? Is
57:27
there ice Is there? Ice cream truck? It's not a try, it's
57:30
a little stand, and it's it's a little cone. It's a big ice
57:31
cream cone. Well, you you got my number. Let's let's make it.
57:36
We're gonna hang. Yeah. Well hang sounds good. Love, We
57:37
love it. Well, thank you so much for chatting more about Five Iron
57:42
again. Just an incredible band. There's a reason why I think you guys
57:45
won the CCM tournament, right, remember that calling? Ye oh yeah.
57:49
First I was thinking that we you know, we wanted to put out an
57:51
album called Worthy of the Bird, but we never got to that. So
57:54
yeah, CCM tournament instead of the real CCM, I get it. Yeah,
58:00
the second best. You all are beloved. It's just so cool to
58:02
see a band like Five Iron. You know, you've stuck, you've stuck
58:07
to your values all these years. It's just really exciting to see a band
58:10
do something like that continue to make unbelievable music. I do, I really
58:15
do think the last album was one of your better albums out there, and
58:19
so it's just really cool to see you all put out really really great music.
58:22
You guys are playing shows still, You're you're still rocking out and uh
58:25
and you're just you've stuck to those values and I mean that's just something you
58:30
really have to just upload somebody for. So thank you so much for Chatty
58:32
Moore about five Iron, your personal history with it, h and all the
58:37
exciting stuff that's coming out with five Iron right now. Thank you, guys,
58:39
and we will see you at forns Best and thank you so much for
58:43
having me on from five Iron, Frenzy and all of us. We say
58:46
thank you to all of our fans, and we will see you later, I found