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John Feldmann of Goldfinger · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are certain guests that remind you why you start creative endeavors in the first place, like podcasts or bands.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And for me personally, this is one of those moments.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Long before Caught on the Mic was a twinkle in anybody's eye, I was standing in crowds watching Goldfinger tear their way throughout the Midwest.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was covering their songs in my own ska bands in the late 90s.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: And years later, I was watching my now 17-year-old son as a three-year-old begging me to play the she's the bomb song every time he got into the damn car.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Today I finally get to welcome one of my personal musical heroes and now good friend Goldfinger Frontman, legendary producer and hit maker, John Feldman.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: How the heck are you, my friend?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, dude.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: What an intro, dude.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's the bomb.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I tell you what, it was it was wild.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I would drop my daughter off at kindergarten.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: My son Liam and I would drive all over Omaha and you'd be like, Dad, she's the bomb song.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: She's the bomb song.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I heard Mabel more times in one hour than I'm sure you have.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about that, dude.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like there are some songs that I'm really excited to play, and other songs I'm like, here we go again.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you can take a guess where Mabel falls in that category.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, brother, um, Goldfinger has now been a part of people's lives for over three decades.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I can trace different chapters of my own life, like I said in the intro, through your music.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: When you look back at it, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Goldfinger journey?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just that question, it it pops me back to Bob's Frolic Room 3.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We were opening for DH Plegro, our first show ever.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a silver sequence like shirt buttoned up all the way that I got at Ardvarks, the store I used to work at.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I just remember looking out at about 50 people that I had invited from all my, you know, retail jobs I had worked up to that point.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone showed up for the$3 cover fee.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I just remember like, I am going to give this show everything that I've ever, like, every piece of angst that I've ever had towards the cops, my parents, the boss at the shoe store, everything.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't ever want to go back to working retail ever again.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that first show, I want to say was the end of 1993, opening for the drummer of the dead Kennedys, um, who has since passed on.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: That was, I think about that show, and I think about where we are now playing, you know, main stage at Warp Tour and you know, headlining festivals in Quebec City like we did last week.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's um it's a it's it's a journey that like I mean, I I feel like I almost willed into happening because I just um this is all I've ever known, man.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been in bands since I was 12, and you know, you I live in Los Angeles where it's just the cream rises, and you can you've got to be all in.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: There can't be like four bands, and maybe one of them will make it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be like this is the road, and I'm gonna stick to this road.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not to say that like you can't morph and change as you grow as an artist, but I have yet to find or work with an artist that has, you know, multiple projects in the beginning of their career.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this is all I have and all I'm gonna give to this one thing.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I'm gonna live, breathe, sleep, eat, and just that's all I'm gonna talk about.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's all I'm gonna do.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be outside of that no effect show down the street at the whiskey, handing out my little demo cassette tapes, handing out my flyers, wallpaper pasting all over Sunset Boulevard.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just all or nothing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and these days it's the same thing.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you just, you know, you you have social media rather than wallpaper paste, but it's the same pretense.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are constantly creating, playing, practicing, marketing, performing, like and then rinse and repeat the whole thing.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's crazy.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was just talking to another guest recently because I do think there is some of that brick and mortar, like physical type of promotion kind of starting again because people are wanting that tangible thing that they can touch.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think the wallpaper-paste culture is quite all the way away from us quite yet.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited about that personally.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, look, my daughter, my daughter collects vinyl, and she wants to hold something tangible for the her favorite artists.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, there's no gold finger in her collection, but we're gonna change that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I think people want to feel like they're part of whatever culture the artist is creating.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're absolutely right.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, cassette tapes are coming back, like there's so much stuff coming back from my youth that I'm, you know, I'm stoked about.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: My buddies and I, we we talk about the 90s specifically and how it almost felt like it was three different decades all crammed into one.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of the perfect storm for punk and ska, punk and ska adjacent type bands.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back now, did you feel like you were living through something special, or were you just trying to survive and tour?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I bet this is my the fourth band that I maybe third band that I've been in.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I started as a punk rock kid, and I remember we played my band was called Family Crisis, and we we really only toured a little bit up to Tahoe and back to the Bay Area where I was from.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we played a house party with Seven Seconds, which is this legendary straight-edge hardcore band.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we opened our set with Downpresser Man by Peter Tosh, which is as deep, like one-drop reggae as you can get.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was always part of my culture that had, you know, some kind of Jamaican influence to it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we we were really like a punk band, we still played reggae songs.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think by the time I put Goldfinger together, the end of '93, I really wanted to tap into that second wave, you know, madness specials, selector, English beat, like that culture.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to, you know, and and obviously Elvis Costello fits in there because he produced the special's first album.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that there was something bubbling underneath with the skeletons and real big fish and Buck09 and these bands that we were touring with.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like there hasn't been that really fast upstroke.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't really exist until third wave, you know?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I knew that it was something unique and special, and I felt like um we were part of an upswell that uh hasn't stopped to this day.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't choose I didn't choose ska, man.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ska chose me, brother.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, man.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Back in those days, I remember being the punk rock ska kid that would show up to all the slipknot shows when they were a local band.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, kind of tying into that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: One of the times I saw Goldfinger was at Dotfest in Des Moines, and we kind of shared that through text message when we were in a three-way message with our friend Ryan.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then later on at the Ranch Bowl in Omaha, uh, a place that's become a part of Goldfinger's history itself through an EP.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: What do you remember most about those smaller clubs and those touring years?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And how the hell did that EP even happen?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I remember I was friends with Sophia Johns, who had she ran like the alternative station, and she started managing this little band slipknot that you just mentioned.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like she's like, Can I have my little band open for you?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I it wasn't at the Ranch Bowl, but it was somewhere I think in Ames, Iowa, where I looked, I looked out right before you know we we went on stage, there's all these guys and coveralls and masks, and they opened for us, and I'm like, what the heck is happening?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I'll never forget Slipknot opening for Goldfinger back then in gosh, '96 or '97.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even maybe, maybe a little bit later.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, I mean, those shows, the Ranch Bowl was such a magical place because, you know, I I came up with, you know, my the band after Family Crisis was called the Electric Love Hogs, and we were like a funk, a funk metal band.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we were friends with 311.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: We shared a rehearsal space with corn.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were kind of, you know, part of that movement.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Deft Tones opened for the Electric Love Hogs.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was friends with all these 90s kind of like post-grunge bands.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I saw Slipknot, it just reminded me of that era.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this is, but gold figures always have this.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you listen to the the bridge of if only or SMP or Bro, like we have these moments that are heavy because that's part of my youth.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not like as an artist, you can't, I don't think anyone's just one thing.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: But we got we got so successful because of Here in Your Bedroom and Superman.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, we are.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, ultimately, look, we are a ska punk band, and and the knife, never look back, and uh nine lives are all very ska punk heavy records.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not trying to pretend like we're trying, you know, we're trying to compete with Slayer, but on the same token, like I love a good mosh pit.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I bring this up on every single podcast episode anymore.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: But do you find that one of the silver linings of streaming is people remove those guardrails more of genre than they maybe had before in the in the 90s and before?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I mean we're living in an era where people love, you know, kind of everything.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, to pretend like you're not a Taylor Swift fan means you're just kind of lying.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing with Nickelback, and the same thing with you know, turnstile.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like a great song is a great song, and you listen to these playlists on Spotify, you know, what whether it's a pop playlist or whether it's Marrow or whatever you're listening to, you're you're listening to the best of the best.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And your competition is the best songwriters in the world because you know, most artists collaborate these days, and so your competition is so much more fierce now with these playlists.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But conversely, like I'm I'm talking as a producer as an as an artist, like I've got to be like on my A game all the time.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: But for the listener, like the opportunities to hear so many different styles of music is is unparalleled.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because I I know I'm older than you, but when I was a kid, you had to pick a side.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: You had to be goth, new wave, rock, classic rock, punk.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it couldn't, you couldn't like like more than one style of music.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was a kid growing up, man, I loved pop music.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I loved the police, I love fucking George Michael songwriting.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: But could I admit that when I was sitting at a Los Olvidados show in fucking San Jose or watching The Faction, I would have been fucking shot.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy now because my daughter, she just recently started her own cover band, and I look at her playlist and she's got everything from no doubt to typo negative to the Smiths to Tyler the creator, and it's like, wow, like and and she can be open and honest in exactly what what you're saying is so many people made genre their identity back then.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's awesome to see everybody's influences so in the open, like a musician's are, because typically, whenever you talk to somebody and you're like, Yeah, I'm into this, this, and this, and they're like, Okay, what instrument do you play?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, dude.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, uh, the discoverability is is so much so much more wide open than it ever used to be.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And look, I try and embrace technology, I I try and embrace whatever's happening.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I who am like who am I to fight the you know, how the future looks?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like I want to be able to create music and feel like I mean, you know, I guess the AI disc discussion is a big part in this, you know, in the songwriter community, being that there's AI artists on Spotify.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I look at my daughter, like you're talking about, and she wants to know the story of how Sabrina Carpenter dated Olivia Rodrigo's boyfriend, and she wants like the history of where where in Los Angeles did Gracie Abrams grow up, and what is what street is she talking about in the valley with that BMW outside the gate?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like she wants to know all the stories about the human experience, and we'll never get that.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And look, I've you know, I worked with Jared from 30 Seconds to Mars a few months ago, and his voice was tore up and he couldn't sing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I used AI to, I wrote, you know, I sang all the parts, but I used AI to morph my singing into his voice, and it was great, but to use it as a lyricist is not something I'm interested in.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I mean, the core of my existence comes from creativity and my value, like as my self-esteem, comes through coming up with an interesting turn of phrase and a lyric and a concept that no one's ever come up with before.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And to try and cheat that, it's taking away from my human spirit.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh look, I don't know what the future holds for AI, but I just don't think my kids have no interest in um you know, seeing like a hologram of an artist.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what they're they want to go see the artist at a concert singing their words from their life experience.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, dude, that almost feels like a full circle part of our conversation, falling in the same line as handbills and tangible things that people can take back to their home.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like artistry is very similar.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: People want human storytelling, you know.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: The technology might be AI to an extent, but people still want that human element of it.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely agree with you on everything along those lines.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mentioned my son, he's 17 years old, asking me to play the She's the Bomb song every time we got in the car.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Of all the songs you've written, and speaking of the human element, are there any that still surprise you with how they've connected across generations?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, here in your bedroom was our first breakout song.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, K-Rock was the like the holy grail of all radio.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: We once we got added to that radio station when I was still working at Nana selling shoes, and I had my Dodge Colt with all the bad religion bumper stickers on it.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I remember the first time I heard it on the radio, and I'm like, holy shit, maybe I can quit my$6 an hour shoe job.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that song to this day is still one of those, because the song was written in probably 20 minutes after, you know, chasing a girl, and we finally got together on it on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote that song, and I I guess it must have been New Year's Day 1994.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so to this day, when that song connects with people and they sing back, well, you have changed, because I still feel it's like when when they sing that part back to me, I get goosebumps, man.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I touched something that someone else can relate to.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like a lot of times dudes don't sing about, like, you know, the idea that, you know, will you still feel the same?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Talking to the girl.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I just tapped into something that's just this global feeling of like, do you want me the same way I want you?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and that song is the one that um still to this day I I love.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, freaking out a bit, I feel like I really tapped into something special lyrically on nine lives.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that song just speaks to the, you know, am I am I crazy or are we all crazy kind of vibes, you know, because I'm you know, that whole vibe.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't know.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many songs that touch me in different ways when we play them.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and live is so much better for me than recording because I have an audience reaction and to see what they think.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we always like the last two years, we've been bringing like there's generations now of Goldfinger fans.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's some that are my age that have some of them have grandkids, and then there's the millennials which bring their own kids, and whenever they bring their kids, like 12 and under, I have them all come on stage to sing Mabel, which ironically is a song about you know Charlie's Wiener, which is funny.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're having a bunch of kids on stage for that.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like it just it's such a magical moment having these, you know, the next generation of Goldfinger fans singing back a song that was, you know, written in 1995.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny you mentioned Here in Your Bedroom because in my band that I had in 1998, we used to cover here in your bedroom, and we would go play all these small bars and high school dances all throughout Southwest Iowa, and there would be kids in other bands, and we would always pull up a visiting guitarist like from another band to play the song with us.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like that sense of community that can be built through a song, and specifically that one is pretty amazing, man.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like I I was I'm I'm doing a song that was inspired by Mirror in the bathroom right now with an artist I'm working with, and and it was like I I when I hear that song, I can still visualize driving in my friend's little VW Beatle over the 17 from Saratoga to Santa Cruz, you know, on on in a on a summer break, listening to the English beat on repeat, you know, and it's like those that's what music can do.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: It can, you know, transport you to a time in your life where things were different, you know, and sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's like falling in love song or a breakup song, you know.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what the power of music can do.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of spinning and closing the topic of nostalgia.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of bands kind of became nostalgic acts where you never stopped being a workhorse, whether it be in Goldfinger or producing or writing and just continually evolving.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: What kept John hungry over these years from the early days of Goldfinger to now?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great question, man.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I mean, I want to say, I don't know if I could write in, you know, some of my best material I've I've written, you know, in the in the back of our van when there's six of us packed in there, you know, living off Taco Bell and sleeping on people's floors.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like the idea of like swimming pool rock, like kids that grew up with a swimming pool, like what do they really have to sing about that I want to hear?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I guess other kids with swimming pools maybe want to hear some rich kids' experience, but I I feel like I came, you know, my parents did the best they could.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I came from a middle-class suburban family, and you know, it was it was fine, but man, there was not a lot.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like we we ate spam, and it was just like it was kind of like the what all I knew.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then so I was just hungry to prove myself.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for me, it was proving myself to, you know, to me first that I can do this, that there is something better than just work, you know, working retail.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I I was selling yogurt door to door.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was, you know, my father who's you know told me I was never gonna make it in the music business.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had to prove him wrong.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: There was all these, you know, and teachers and other parents, and I you know, I wasn't the greatest kid.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I definitely like I was a derelict for sure, and if you know, which which is what the song's about, but ultimately.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I to this day it's like I'm still kind of like, is am I still worthy?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there's, you know, what do they say?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: The uh the the you know, egomaniac with the insecurity complex.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like one day I'm I'm like, dude, I just wrote the greatest song I've ever written.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the next day I'm like, man, I'm I'm fucking terrible at what I do.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like this artist hates me, and I I can't come up with an idea he likes.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So from one day to the next, I'm I just wanna um I just want to be able to create for a living.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess there's still that fire in me that just says I've got something to prove.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I don't know if that fire started at 12 or if it started at 40, but it's still there.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, dude, it's like it's kind of like the combination of imposter syndrome, and I wish I had written down the word today because I was actually reading about it today.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: There, there's this new anomaly of men like age 30 to age 60 that have this fear of not being successful, and it kind of drives their work ethic.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's kind of a combination of both things because I know I suffer from it too.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like it's like, man, why don't you relax a little bit and just calm down a little bit and take a break?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I have no time for breaks, I'm going to fail if I take a day off, you know?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, let me know if you figure that out, bro.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, yeah, I got my coffee machine right here, which is on is fired up on 10.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I got my Zins, I work out, I'm like cold plunge, I'm like full on 24-7.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, and the Goldfinger show, too.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I was thinking about, you know, Mike Ness is one of my heroes.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: The only band tattoo I have is a social distortion tattoo.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and I see him play live, and he's just so cool.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He just kind of stands there, does his thing, and I'm still like jumping all over the stage and crowd surfing and all that stuff.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, when, you know, at 59, when when can I just be the astute elder statesman?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but it's not yet, it's not today.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, God, I know that feeling so well.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, the clips, man, you throw a pretty mean punch.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I've seen the workout videos, man.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I like I want to stay fit so I can play good shows.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's you know, in the end of the day, like like we're talking about, like when it comes to playlists, like you've got the best of the best.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're on festivals, we're playing up against like some of the best of the best live bands there are.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be able to compete still, you know.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um as I get older, I still want to be able to compete as like a compelling live act.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I work out like I mean it.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, there is a video, and you can find it on YouTube, I think.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: I had it on DVD.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's Henry Rollins live at Luna Park, and he talks about Rollins' band playing shows with Iggy Pop and how he had to set up this workout regimen because he was gonna outplay Iggy Pop, and Iggy just got him every single time.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: It is one of the best bits I've ever seen.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you've never seen it, check it out.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I saw I saw Rollins open for the Beastie Boys at the um Universal Amphitheater, and and there was this Heckler, this huge Samoan guy right in the front row, just flipping him off, like chanting fuck you to Rollins the whole time.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Rollins had his microphone wrapped up on his hand like a snake, and he just goes halfway through a set, he just lets loose, hits the guy straight in the middle of the forehead, the guy falls backwards, knocks him out, pulls it back, doesn't miss a beat.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was this epic moment.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Rollins is a legend, dude.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Legend.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is amazing.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's get into the production side of things.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: At what point did you realize that producing wasn't just something you enjoyed?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was going to be another major chapter of your career.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it came from being a service, really.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I just I never had a like a mentor per se that was that kind of came in my life and said, like a manager or a producer.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when I found show off from their cassette demo, I uh I knew I could make them sound better just from my my little experience I had making the Electric Love Hogs record, making Goldfinger's first record.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I could make it better.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I reached out to the guys and I said, Hey, you want to come to LA?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's try and do a couple songs and see if we all get along together.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and it just it really came out.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to get some AR gig or become a producer.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just loved the band, wanted to take them on tour, and wanted their music to sound more like they sounded live.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because live they were amazing.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we played the Fireside Bowl together, and that's where I met them in Chicago.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, I got their demo.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: We did three songs, and it just turned out they loved it.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it, and we got them signed, you know.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Goldfinger's manager John Reese helped me uh get it to Guy Osiri, who was uh Madonna's manager, got him signed to to Maverick, and it was like, holy shit, this there's a whole other side to the music business that I have no clue about.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, they were the first band I got signed, then it was messed, and then it was the used.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And after the used, it just kind of broke wide open for me.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, because that list is long, man.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote some of them down.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's Blink 182, Good Charlotte, The Used, Story of the Year, Five Seconds of Summer, All Time Low, Sleeping with Sirens, Panic at the Disco, Avril Levine, so on and so on and so on.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Bro, that's a that's a pretty impressive list.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, when you consider artists that you are working with, do you ensure that you're a fan of their prior work first and just align yourself before you decide to work with them?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's gotta be a symbiotic thing.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've gotta have the respect of the artist.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, they've gotta, you know, have heard some of the records I've made to say, look, I I definitely do, you know, I do my thing in the studio.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like if the band, the band may not gel with that.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's a combination of, you know, can I make the can I make the band grow?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can I help them grow?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can I help create their vision?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because if they come in and they they're they're like, we want to make a concept rec a three album concept record, you know, I just gotta make sure that like we have the right songs, the right story.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I've got you know, of course, I always listen to the band's prior material, but most of the artists I've worked with I've been familiar with already.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like I've been around, you know, I've been doing this long enough that most artists kind of know what I do.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like, you know, pop punk is in my fucking bones, you know, and that's like I love that shit more than anything.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like I made Black Veil Bride's biggest album, and they are not a pop punk band, you know.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I mean, I had so much fun working with Brendan from Panic of the Disco, and I did, you know, New Perspective for Jennifer's Body, the movie, and then I did their Vices and Virtues record, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had in the studio.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew, I mean, I'd heard Panic of the Disco.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who hadn't at that point, right?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, heard, you know, I write Sins Not Tragedies.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that record was huge.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, my task was to help Brendan, who, you know, their guitar player had quit and help Brendan kind of like, you know, step into his own.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I really felt like I did that on that album.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have an immense sense of pride, and I absolutely love that about you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: I love the fact that you put your standards first in everything that you do, and you even mentioned that with your workout regimen and just your your work ethic in general.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's let's be honest for a moment.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is there an album or a track you've produced that you felt didn't get the attention that it deserved?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, freaking out a bit, goddammit.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: That should have been a bigger Goldfinger song.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's plenty of songs that I've put out.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a band called Arrested Youth that I produced, and actually the song The Kid I Used to Know, it actually is just about to go gold.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like it's not like you know, my friend Ian, who really is a rested youth, but there's a song called 98 Degrees.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's just one of the you know, one of the greatest songs I've been a part of that just it happens all the time.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: All the time.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, on that note, on the on the other side of it, like I love, I love my work with Five Seconds of Summer, and I'm really proud of the work we did.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But conversely, like I wish Neil Avron would have mixed the first album.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's my favorite mixer in the world.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And looking back, it's like it sounds like a pop punk record because that's what I do.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like, you know, sometimes I take on too much.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we all love the mixes, and it's you know, it still sounds great, but you know, there's sometimes I I wish I would have brought more people like like Rick Rubin really wanted to produce Goldfinger's first album.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was selling shoes and I signed a production deal to this guy, Jay Rifkin, that ran Mojo Records, which you know, I was locked into.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he wouldn't let Rick produce, he wouldn't let Rick take the production deal away from him.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Rick couldn't produce the first album.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there are some moments in time that, you know, what if?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: What if this would have happened?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that there are no mistakes in God's world and everything happens for a reason.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I was supposed to produce that first Goldfinger record and become the producer I am today.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: So when artists come into your studio, what do they usually think they need and what do they actually need?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they always need great songs.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's the the long and short of it, is every artist, because in at the end of the day, like song is king.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing that's gonna be your legacy, is the song.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if they don't have the song, and it's still the same today as it's always been, you know.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, whether it's you know, Bring Me the Horizon or Ella Langley or I mean, anyone is successful now.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the song is what people gravitate towards.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's the culture of the artist, and all of it matters how many Instagram followers they have and how often they're on TikTok.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it all matters, but the thing that matters the most is the music.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when people come to me, a lot of times they don't have the music.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's up to me to employ songwriters or lyricists or musicians to kind of like help guide them.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm always the guy kind of steering the ship in the direction they want to go.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're out there rowing the boat, but I'm trying to steer.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: They they come and they say, we want to make an alternative indie folk record.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then they come in with like a bunch of marshall calves and start shredding.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dude, this isn't what you told me you wanted to do, and I got to steer them back into the direction they told me, you know.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also psychology, it's trying to get bands to get along.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, you know, there's two people that really butt heads a lot in bands, and it's my job to kind of be the buffer between them.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's my job to get the singer to open up.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I've got three days with an artist or one day with an artist, and I'm trying to pull out of them, you know, the worst memory they have from their worst breakup or a terrible thing that happened to them as a kid to write about like these things that matter, and they don't even know me, you know.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that can be difficult, but in the end, that's my job.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's tapping into the emotional intelligence of a person, and sometimes it's just like sitting down and having a conversation like this, I imagine, and just kind of learning about the past, the present, and their future ambitions and getting that emotion out of them in that.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: We always start, yeah.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: We always start with like, you know, what's what's going on?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, what's your morning routine?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you are you in a relationship?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, what's what was it like with your parents?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where'd you grow up?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And like just kind of like navigating, like getting to it's like speed dating, you know, you're trying to get to know someone in like two hours, you know, during the coffee drinking session that comes before the songwriting session.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, you know what you should do one of these days, you should have an artist hold the pads for you while you're doing your I should I should hold the pads for them.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there you go.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the key, bro.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: You've stayed relevant through CDs, downloads, streaming, and now social media.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: What's one thing about today's music industry that you genuinely like, and what's one that you are happy to leave behind?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I like the idea that you can that you can write a song and it can be released the same day.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: That you don't have to wait till you mix, master, print the vinyl, and wait for that, you know, Tuesday for the song for the for the album to come out or the single to come out.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can literally record a song and be so hyped on it, you can put it out the same day.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's really exciting to me.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the part that I, you know, that I kind of miss is the record store part of it, you know, like the idea of discovering, I mean, record stores and and mtv to a certain extent, because MTV would have these genre-specific shows like you know, Headbanger's Ball or 120 Minutes that you would discover alternative acts.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And like I discovered The Smiths when I was um, you know, right out of high school.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: From there is a light that never goes out.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the video, and you know, Morrissey's not even in the video.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just this like silhouette of a girl like driving, you know, in a car, and it's and the song moved me so much.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: I went out the next day and bought the album.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so like terrestrial radio, record stores, and you know, MTV when it was, you know, obviously all about music.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those those things I I miss a little bit because there's so much white noise on the internet, and people don't, there's not really like uh, you know, people just scroll so quickly and they say like a like, the impression of a like lasts less than a second, but a t-shirt lasts a lifetime.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I try and convince artists that the most important thing they can do is go on tour.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Go on tour and go to the merch table.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you sell someone a t-shirt, they're a fan for fucking life, man.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: You sign that t-shirt, you take a photo with them.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that's the that's the real work.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, all the other stuff is cool and it's fluff, and and you know, to get signed to a major label, like it's like those monkeys in Superman that were like, you know, trying to, you know, bad mouth Superman.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's really what major labels are now, is just looking for numbers, the algorithm.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not really about like how how great the song is, how talented the artist is, how many likes do they have and how many followers do they have?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the musicianship to a certain extent with newer artists has gone on it downhill because it's not necessarily about building up a touring history and playing in a van for 10 years, which is why, like, the you know, the the real biggest artists, at least in rock, are still, you know, they've done that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like turnstile have done it for probably 12, 14 years, probably longer.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, and they're the the most relevant modern rock band there is, you know.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Same with Bring Me the Horizon, have spent time fucking touring.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, oh my gosh, dude.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: You hit on so much in that bit there because I think about things like routines that I have with my kids.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like when my kids were in junior high school, I've got three girls, they're all the same age.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: I got twin stepdaughters that are the same age as my bio daughter for my first marriage.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: They all graduated high school.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: My son is about to graduate high school, but I say all that to go back to the fact that when they were in junior high, we used to make an afternoon on Saturdays and we would drive to the local record stores.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it was awesome watching them pick through the bins and their sense of discovery and their connection to the artist.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how you knew when an act had created that sense of longevity, like watching my daughter pull a Fleetwood Mac album or my son pull a Sublime album or a Goldfinger album for that matter.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was always awesome, and that does matter so much.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: And even my own anecdote, and I probably should put it up here next to Bob.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a CD cover of Hangups that was signed by Goldfinger in 1998, where I had that moment with you guys.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's so funny, like Hang-ups being probably our our biggest overall record because of Superman, and uh and that record is so disjointed to me.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: I listened to like some records are easier for me to listen to in hindsight than others, and and that record just had there's some filler on it.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I I you know, um Dave God, what's his name?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: I forget the guy that mixed that record, but I was sitting next to him and he was this junkie, and man, he kept falling backwards in his chair when we were mixing the record.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there's some snare samples that are missing the snare because it just wasn't it just wasn't, you know, I know so much more now than I did then, but it still impacted so many people that record that I can't like you know, I can't throw it aside, but still like I'm the perfectionist that I am.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think about but I was my concept for that album cover, and a friend of mine, um Chris Christopher, painted that actually it's right here, bro.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: I got the original art.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is so amazing right there for hang-ups.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like uh I know that record means a lot to a lot of people, so I'm not gonna deny that.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's awesome.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Do you ever go back and listen to the first couple albums specifically now with your producer ears, your AR ears, and say, you know, maybe maybe we should do the Taylor Swift thing and re- re-record some of this, or anything like that ever cross your mind?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, we've we've re-recorded a couple songs.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: I had Avril sing on Here in Your Bedroom, right?
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had uh Simon from Biffy Clyro sing on Superman, and well, we didn't really promote it, it was just kind of like it's on the internet, but I haven't really gone back and thought I'm gonna re-record the album in its entirety.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I could, it's just a matter of time.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when do I what what time do I have to do that kind of thing?
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but uh I do listen to our records when I'm warming my voice up, preparing for shows.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I listened to the first record specifically, and I was definitely like uh I was trying really hard.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was like, there's this gruffness to my voice that probably shouldn't have been there.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: That I listen to now, and I go, man, I was listening to a lot of Rancid and Operation Ivy and the Clash.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my voice has definitely come a long way, and I feel like I've I've found my voice, you know, throughout the 32 years of Goldfinger's existence.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I can listen to our newer records a lot easier than the older records.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, what separates artists who have longevity from artists who only have one great moment through your eyes?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's really uh the work ethic, the determination, it's open-mindedness is such a big thing to be open to other people's ideas because it's like a lot of people make you know that that epic first album, and then the second album, you know.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: But songwriting is it's not real.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can study music and you can kind of learn.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, like I studied the Beatles and the Beatles.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to me, McCarty and Lennon are the greatest songwriters of all time, and you can kind of like figure out the songs, but and to put something together that feels like it's you and came from your heart, it's not really something that you can teach somebody.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the greatest songwriters that I've ever worked with.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I love Rivers, man.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think Rivers Cuomo is one of the greatest writers.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many great writers that I look up to that just have a tendency to be able to be open-minded to grow, to learn from others, and to watch other people make mistakes and learn from their own mistakes.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because, man, I've uh you know, I've tried to take on too much.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've made like, you know, two, three albums at the same time, and they never it never works out the same way as when I'm hyper-focused on making one album with one set of artists.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes less is more.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: If a young band in particular walked into your studio tomorrow with all the talent in the world and no roadmap, what's the first piece of advice you would give them?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said, it's really right, it's you know, trying to get hone in their sound.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what what is it?
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Who do they want to be?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, because ultimately, like most bands kind of fit into some sort of style.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like the great ones don't, right?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, Led Zeppelin the Beatles, 21 Pilots.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the great ones have all sorts of different genres, but you can still tell it's them, you know, whether it's the singer has it like Queen, like they have such a unique sense of style.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like if you're a band starting out, I mean, typically um, there's some sort of like scene that you're gonna, you know, like I've worked with young Blood, I work with Dom a lot, and he's created his own universe within his own career.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: And but he's a rock musician.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I couldn't imagine Youngblood opening for Gracie Abrams.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that wouldn't make sense to me.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, who are the bands that you want to go on tour with?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Go outside their show, hand out flyers, become friends with them, become internet friends with them.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like just tell them what big fans you are and and try and figure out a way to open for one of their shows.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, once you've figured out your style, like um I think it's uh I think it's you know different for a brand new artist that just has a huge internet uh imprint to go out there and take their your internet presence and make it translate it to live.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've worked with The Paradox who I love.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've you know, Eric is such a talent, they're all such talented guys, but Eric is such a great singer.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like, who do they like they're on all these festivals, but they've got so much information thrown at them from their manager, from the label.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: How do we beat our, you know, how do we get more imprints than the last video we did?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's all like to me, it's about like how many kids can you draw at a headlining show?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you draw five people today, can you draw 10 people next year, and then a hundred people next year, and then a thousand people in four years?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that's the kind of growth that I want to see in an artist, and that's what I try and impress on artists.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: That it's about getting out there and meeting people, shaking their hands, taking a photo, looking them in the eye, and telling them how grateful you are that they came to your show.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Fuck yes.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: So between Goldfinger and everything you've helped create behind the scenes, your fingerprints are all over modern punk rock.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Years from now, what do you hope people say mattered most about your career specifically?
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hope I'm remembered as a songwriter first because that's what I started as.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I started writing music at 12 when I got my heart broken in eighth grade.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I mean, I really hope that you know I'm I'm remembered as a as a songwriter.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's why the legacy of Goldfinger is so important to me because I'm I write Goldfinger songs.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, as far as you know, my production goes, I mean, I have my you know, my favorite albums.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, California is definitely top three, the blink album that I've ever been a part of.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm so proud of that record.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, Mark Hoppas is one of the greatest humans I've ever met, ever.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Travis Barker is the most talented drummer I've ever worked with.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like I felt honored to be part of that journey on that album.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, there's some records, and you know, being, you know, having my imprint on the nights for Avici, you know, the music that I wrote for that song, like it's a really, really big deal to me, you know, and the relationships that I have with the Five Seconds of Summer guys and Avril, like it lasts a lifetime, like they're family to me.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, I I guess songwriting is the simple answer to your question.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, man.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you've made tremendous impact all over the world, you know, had experiences like none other.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: My closing question that I ask everybody that does the show, just because I love their different perspectives, is giving everything that you've experienced personally, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a loaded question.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta give it away to keep it, man.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can't hold I can't hold on to something I have by grasping.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to let it go to keep it, man.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to give it away.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to train young engineers, I've got to train up-and-coming producers, I've got to tell them what I know, I've got to give it away.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to like, you know, go out there and write with artists that I love, you know, for free.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do this, do what I do for free.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in order, you know, speak on panels, help help young artists, you know, for free in order to keep what I have.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end, it all works out.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like the money stuff, it's you know, my one of my managers told me, you know, if it's about money, go move to New York and work on Wall Street because the music business cannot be about money.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Has to be about the art, you know.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, man, it's about creating something that makes me get goosebumps, makes me cry, makes me angry, makes me feel something.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I can feel something, the world can feel something.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and if it's about that first, the money will follow, you know.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: But there's so many variables you cannot control.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot control like what's trending, you cannot control like what people you just have to put music out and hopefully it'll come back to you.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what I try and do is just convince artists that this song is good enough to release, that you've nailed something, it's really special.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: Stop overthinking it.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, that's amazing advice.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: The the whole pay it forward thing, it's such a great concept.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sir, I gotta give you some of my own word vomit here for a few minutes.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: I started this podcast six years ago after many years trudging through the waters of the music business myself, and I made a list of different interest sets in my life, you know, whether it be sports, entertainment, and music.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a list of five guests I wanted in the music category.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: For six years, you have been the number one on my list, and I am so glad we got to hang out and have this conversation.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: You have made a massive impact on my life, and I am so glad to now call you a friend, man.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, brother.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure, man.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's been super easy, super fun.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Bob Marley's the greatest artist to ever live.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: You've got him right there in the background.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: The greatest.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've got Bob Marley, the Beatles here, and I've got a Joe Strummer action figure on my sidewall that I look to for inspiration every day.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: But man, John Feldman, thank you so much for doing the show.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: The world's a much better place with you and it, my friend.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, man.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.