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WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - Reggaelar People · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to WEHML Access, the podcast where we bring you in-depth conversations with the people shaping life right here on Eastern Long Island.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now every episode we're going to dive into the stories, the music, and the voices that define our community local leaders, the musicians you know and love.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout this summer, we're catching up with many of the performers taking the stage at the Great South Bay Music Festival, getting the inside the group on their music, their journey, and what they're bringing the patch out of the tier.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Next up on the podcast, regular people.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're performing Friday night at the Great South Bay Music Festival, part of the Reggae Night at all the stages.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It should be a lot of fun and had a great conversation with these guys, get to know them a bit, uh, their history, how they got together as a band.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: We had to a whole bunch of different topics.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh take a listen to WEHM All Access with Regular People.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, coming up on Friday, July 24th at the Great Seth Bay Music Festival.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it is a reggae night there, and a great bunch of bands uh fill the lineup this year, including regular people uh coming.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm saying that right.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I believe they start right just before six o'clock on that Friday, the 24th, and they're joining us in our virtual Zoom studio.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, want to say welcome to uh Brandon, Justin, and Vinny.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming on, guys.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having us.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Harry.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Your uh virtual studio is very nice.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: Very nice in here.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for for uh coming on and uh chatting.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I guess the I the reason why I want to do these interviews is kind of first to get to know the bands a little bit.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you guys been a band?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we have been playing uh my brother and I probably around like 2017, you know.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: We've like done different projects, but this reggae project started around then.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and right after the pandemic, we really picked up and we brought Vinny along and started to just really take it just as far as we can starting then.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: So right around the 2021, right outside the pandemic, we we started to really go for it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now forgive me, have you guys played the uh the Great South Bay Music Festival yet?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the first time or have you done it in previous years?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: The second time.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: We played last year the Jamalaya stage.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we're on uh we're we're like now in the middle stage area and we're playing a little bit later compared to last year.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So improvement.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Inching your way closer to the main stage.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's very cool.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Two more years and we'll headline.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to yeah, um well, congratulations.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: They they invited you back, which is a good thing.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you can grab tickets at Great South Bay MusicFestival.com.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the band's been around, you mentioned, like for a little less than a decade, and you mentioned the pandemic had a seemed to have a influence on kind of putting everything together.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, is this where do you guys come from musically?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is this where you wanted to go and how long have you each been doing music?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess we'll start with Brandon.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, so you know, I grew up a lot on like alt rock, and right around my brother's college days, he started to discover all the the bands Asyl Stupid, Sublime, all of these, and it had a really big influence on me in the sense that I picked up my guitar, I put it down, and when I discovered this, I picked it up again and I've never looked back.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I think, you know, I very much feel like I'm I'm where I'm supposed to be musically with it, and I'm very happy.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: What about Justin?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, you're welcome.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um I actually I started playing uh bass in high school.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, me and Brandon actually started out in like a pop punk emo group called Anything Goes.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that was a lot of fun, just like busking on the subway and stuff as like high school teens.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh basically I discovered uh in college, I discovered reggae rock, but I also discovered that I had depression, and it was nice to know that they offset each other really nicely.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Where it was like, man, summer's a state of mind, the beach is a state of mine, and if I could just channel that when I'm going through some really tough stuff, then I I could unlock a lot of potential.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so for me, that's when I connected with the music.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: I showed Vinny the dirty heads.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I'll let him jump in now, but yeah, it's been a while for me.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh musically I started um, I was pretty young.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was like maybe 10 or something, like middle school.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was in band.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like my mom was like, You're gonna be in band.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like you might hate it now, you're gonna like it later.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: She was 100% right.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't tell her that.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I played uh I played low brass in school, so I was playing like baritone horn, trombone, like not really trombone, tuba, tuba, stuff like that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started playing guitar hero and I was like, I want to learn regular guitar and put a lot of time into this not real guitar.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I started playing that, and then um honestly I play mostly keyboard now in the band.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'll do like whatever I need to for like certain songs, but I started playing piano during the pandemic.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I have a keyboard, why am I not learning it?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I just started learning it, and then Justin's been my best friend for forever.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So he was like, hey dude, we're doing a band thing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you can, if you don't suck, you can play with us.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, all right, cool, let's check it out.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So then yeah, I started playing with them.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, uh, in terms of reggae rock, like similar with uh with Brandon, that my brother was a big sublime guy, and he had like the CD when we were a kid, like it was like one of their greatest hit CDs or something.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he would just play it all the time, and I was like, this is awesome! Like, this is like really, really cool.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: So then when I found out two of my best friends are starting a reggae band, like that's pretty sweet.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Got into it, and it's been great ever since.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: What's it like working with brothers?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's the worst.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh no, it's it's cool.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: I saw I I also have a brother, so I understand the dynamic like decently well.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but no, it's it's it's good, man.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: They they get each other, they get along really well, like they they don't mind just being real with each other, and that stuff is so important, you know.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like a lot of times people won't just be honest and they will.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just great.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I I I honest to God would not have it any other way.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is the most fun I've ever had in my life.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hey man, me too.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you uh where did you guys grow up?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so we grew up in Queens pretty much.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: We bounced around Queens a little bit, but um that was kind of our upbringing.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: And Vinny was born in Brooklyn and then grew up in Staten Island.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we just say Brooklyn.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: We just say New York and we just say Brooklyn.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's the uh what's the year difference between the brothers, Brandon and Justin?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: How old are you guys compared to?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's about two and a half years.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm 34 right now, I'm turning 35, and I just turned 32.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, had you always done music together?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like how how I guess young were you guys when you first discovered the that you wanted to do this?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get this one to you.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um I just want to be in a band.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I wanted to, I mean, like even junior high.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I had like gotten a band with friends.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't sing or do anything, but I wanted to be part of a band.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, Yeah, I'll beat the singer.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you know, how that went.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Then high school came along, and I was like, I still, I still really want to do it.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I started playing with my brother right around then.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, like freshman year of high school, we kind of started.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's kind of always been that way, in the sense that I would learn very simple things and be like, Look what I could do.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Learn your chords, learn more stuff, we'll play together.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: But like, so I was always in kind of that sense of trying to play so that I could play with him.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, the second we did right around early high school days, there's always have sense.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I was just stalling to try to get better myself.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: So the fact that it worked on him is great.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you uh what do you remember about those early days of writing and rehearsing together as as brothers?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's that certain dynamic.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what was that like?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a really good question.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: I just I just remember, so our first song releases called Shoddy Left Me, and it was the first time that I think ever Brandon had come to me with like a skeleton of a song.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, dude, I just wrote this thing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Here's the chords, here's my verse.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I was kind of going through a breakup at the time as well.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, oh, this is really cool.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: I we used to like write, I used to write poetry a lot too.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I had like a writing muscle, and I woke up in the middle of the night and I just like heard what he had played to me, and I scribbled out like a verse on this paper because uh I guess I didn't have a smartphone then.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: I remember pen to paper.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's not, I'm not making it up.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: And the next day I showed it to him, and it took a little while to get all the words to fit into the musical structure that was provided.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: But that was like the first time that we had built something together that we could then show people and our family and be like, hey, what do you think of this thing we did?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: And they were always super like, it's the it's the best song I've ever heard.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're better than the Beatles, and we're like, dude, we're not at all, but thank you so much.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of helped us do more of that.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your your sound blends, I guess, reggae, rock, hip-hop.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, was that fusion intentional from the start?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Did it evolve naturally where you wanted to include certain things?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: How did you go go about that?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of defining your sound.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I would say, you know, from for me at least, it very much started with my love of the dirty heads.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was really, really big into them, and that's a lot of the style that they have, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: They like seamlessly blend a lot of the rock, hip-hop, and and everything together.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so it just so happened that way.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: When I was writing and started to perform, it just came out in that style.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it just I was clearly very influenced by it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so, more often than not, it's just that blend of that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Plus, you know, hip-hop is New York, it's just goes hand in hand.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: So we grew up off it, even if you're not listening to it every day, you're hearing it all the time.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, Vinny's just like a sound person, you know, like he's just trying to find the best sounds to throw in for the thing.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, so like it is cool because me and Brandon did have kind of a skeleton and a way that we wrote songs.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes you want to get all the people you care about in on a project, and it like makes things really messy.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but this just kind of added and enhanced it and gave us another.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Vinny kind of doesn't think about things in terms of reggae rock, he just thinks about things in terms of does this sound good or cool?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: And is it adding to the project?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: So so I just wanted to shine that out on kind of what you bring to the table all the time.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you ever hear a helicopter noise while we're playing live, it's it's Vinny.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: My that's my signature sound.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's my uh so you know, it's just always adding to it with school.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, that that's great.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone brings their own unique uh sound to this project.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: When did you guys because obviously you guys seem to be having a lot of fun with it, but I know you mentioned during the pandemic it kind of started.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: When did you realize this was a band with like real momentum, a kind of a future where you could go out and do these shows?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a good question.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, I remember we had done maybe me and Brandon had done maybe two or three shows right before COVID had locked everything down.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so we just kind of started finding our footing and we started kind of getting this feeling from crowds.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like immediately upon playing, like I said, with my family being so supportive, we felt like we were we had something that people wanted.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: People were like, they just are having fun up there, and that immediately was returned to us.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: So, like after that all started happening, everything shut down, and me and Brandon realized, like, oh, maybe we don't have all the time in the world to go away to college for four years and then come back and then practice for two weeks, and then I have a job in Brooklyn now.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so, like, basically, upon returning uh to being out and playing live shows, this kind of project really incubated.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: We were getting more and more motivated to do it, and then right as soon as we were allowed to, we locked in uh, you know, the supporting cast, and people have been really great at receiving us.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: If I felt like I was bothering anybody by like playing my music, I would probably revisit doing it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: It never feels that way, and everyone always is really kindly.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had that we had one show.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: We had like the Bowery Electric show.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we already like we were playing some decent like venues and gigs, and everything was going really well.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Good call.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: But there was like this one we played Barry Electric, it's not Barry Electric anymore, but phenomenal venue, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh it was we just had such a good crowd and turnout, and people were just having a good time, and we were just like looking around after the show, and it was just like it it I feel like for me specifically, and probably for us, it felt different.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, cool.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, this isn't we're not just messing around here.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we can if we try, we can maybe do something.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: The first show where some people were singing our words, and we were just like, You hear that?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh yeah, I think that was so high.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know the words.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: What the hell's going on?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so that was cool, that was a cool moment.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You've uh you've described your music as storytelling set to a reggae beat.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I read that and I was curious, how does how do you approach songwriting?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work with the three of you?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you guys sit down individually or together?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: How does that process go?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think you know, we we approach in a bunch of different ways.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think commonly I'll end up kind of writing something, not completely, but I'll usually start with like writing something, and it's usually inspiration from just life itself, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: So whether I'm going through something or just the state of things, I like to have we like to have songs that are party, of course, and are fun, but we also like to have songs that are kind of highlighting real things, you know, whether it's parties are real things.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, parties are real things too.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Don't listen, don't talk shit about parties.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so we um, you know, it really starts from there, and it's usually like I'm feeling away about something, and it just hits me like, all right, we'll try to put it into some words.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll bring it to Justin, who usually is like, oh, yeah, no, this I feel this way too.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's do something with this.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then we start to bring everyone together, and that's when we really start to kind of hammer all the pieces into place.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it'll often, and you know, we're very open, so anyone can kind of bring up lyrics.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just usually bring up a little first piece, and then that's kind of as the inspirational kickoff that makes us all kind of go to high gear and bring this through.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Brandon's definitely the Kickstarter.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I can then uh either help direct where something's gonna go or just add to it from my side of things.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um we our most recent song, even isn't anything about anything too deep.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: It lately.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a deep one.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's an exciting.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, uh a couple of songs that we've written and released have been old songs that Brandon wrote in 2017, 2018 before the pandemic.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: And now that we've been playing music for so long and we have uh a foundation and we have a means to record, uh, we can pick up some of these older things and completely like put our new touch on it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: So our next song is actually gonna be called Way Too Drunk Again.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's inspired by true events.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um and we've uh we've brought we've brought a lot of people from the scene like kind of into this labor of love.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: We have uh Greg from Cashed Out featuring on it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: We have um Nick from Bally Who has done the artwork, so it's just like a real labor of love to the kind of good vibes of the reggae scene, and really we just want to help grow the scene and keep what makes it special intact.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Because I see a ton of things that are developing and people are getting more traction, and then it kind of loses what made it special in the first place because you're trying to cater to so many people and so many different things.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: We want to always be true to ourselves and what brought us into the scene in the first place, and that's true life, and then it's partying and kind of the balance of that.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you see it through the lens of me, which can usually be a little anger, and him, which can be a little lens of sadness, and it both combines to come, you know, the whole storytelling aspect that you see, it's you know life through those lenses and what that what that looks like to each of us.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: How do you uh balance um I guess you talked about a lot of serious topics there, um and having fun with it too?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: How do you balance the vulnerability with the lyrics and with the upbeat sound too?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make sure that you're not leaning in in a certain direction?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh I mean for me I'd say and well, we won't always do it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: What I'll try to do is uh I'll usually make the music very similarly happy.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It can almost be like very Bob Marley-esque, where you're like, oh, this is the best song.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want to like just sit and relax to it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then you like listen to the words and you realize that the words are very serious and not all that happy.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the song is, and so like as a listener, you can sit there and have a good time.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: But if you also are someone who really wants to pay attention to the words, you can and you'll come away with something else from it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we'll often do that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: There's songs that we have that are sad and they're meant to feel that way, but there's some where it's like, hey, we're gonna have this moment of reflection.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't want to, you can still enjoy the upside of all of this, right?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Which is still that we want to have fun at the show.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to bring everything down.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, we it's a it's a fine line that we have to walk, but I I do think we do it well.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: I just uh I'm really into grief for some reason.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like it just it's something that touches every single person.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think it's really special that we get to play this music, but also the three of us do a really good job on stage of talking and bannering with the crowd.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: We'll preface what a song is about, we'll invite you to dance it out and like reflect on your grief a little bit, and then we're back in, right?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's a very human thing, and I think we all forget to allow space for anything that feels even a little negative, and to have the people on stage saying, Hey, this is the time to let that out, let that go, and we're back.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: It can actually really help people, I don't know, heal what they're struggling with.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: And uh most of the time people mention that those are the most powerful moments when they see us live.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, hey, I cried because you talked about your grandparents passing and mine did recently, and that you know, that that also is something really uh important to hold close and to provide for for the folks that are listening to music.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious, Vinny, if you have something to add to that, because you your role with the keyboard, um kind of shaping the melody.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how does that work for you with the the layered textures that you knowing there's a lot of different emotions involved?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I think uh a lot of stuff that we do, um, like even before or like pre-production, whatever you want to call it, like we we kind of get to a certain point where we know exactly uh like what we're going for, what we're aiming for in a particular song.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it can be a bunch of different things, it doesn't have to be like a single answer, like a one-word, like this is gonna be happy or whatever, but it's just gonna be like a a feeling, a situation, a story.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then with that, that kind of just have like a lot of freedom to just explore and figure out what works.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a lot, I mean, there's like a lot of trial and error, like half the stuff so much error.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Half the stuff I do.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting there, I'm like, all right, I this is making me feel this is working this way, this is going well, but like maybe it's not fitting for the song, and then something else will hit and it's like, oh, this is like perfect.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is exactly I'm trying to convey it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of it is really, and like they'll they'll attest to it that even when I play stuff, I'm always just kind of just doing my own thing a little bit, but just trying to figure out uh find that like space that enhances what we're trying to do already, you know, and that could be through like super simple melodies through just the piano, it could be like random synth sounds, could be a horn, it could be a harmonica, like you know, anything that just makes it work.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I I I think we just kind of get each other, and it kind of makes it a little easier when we can do that, you know.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think being close definitely adds to that.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: For sure, for sure.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Friday night, you'll be performing early evening of the uh Great South Bay Music Festival.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious, uh, what goes into the set list putting it together and learning from last year too?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh kind of put how did how does it uh how are you guys approaching the night?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: Good question.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the Setlist guy.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, I still write all of our set lists with a Sharpie on on a pad paper.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: It I said this yesterday, it makes me feel like a a mom making a little snack because my my kids are about to go out there and crush it.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: They need energy for the day.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I still write the set list all out and then I'll put them together ahead of time.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we uh play a lot of different shows.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: We'll do like a half hour somewhere, we'll do three hours somewhere, but just to base off of like what we need as a band.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: And those three-hour shows have a lot of covers.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: So we have a large bank of covers.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: We basically kind of know what does well amongst certain like crowds and certain locations in terms of what people know.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: When you play a cover, oftentimes people just kind of want to sing along, especially if you're doing originals.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: But we also got a lot of feedback last year that people wanted our originals.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: And anyone who felt that way made it very clear to us.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: They were like, the covers are nice, the covers are good, you sound good.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Your music is uh it's fun, it's relatable.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: I was dancing, and you should lean into that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: So for these current sets coming up, especially because there's gonna be a lot of different eyes on us, we want to make sure that our original music is out there and we like to kind of at least help flow.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, sometimes we have like songs that are almost like metal adjacent in terms of like the heaviness of the riff.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you don't just want to like throw that out there, follow it.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotta kind of bring the crowd with you in terms of the flow of the songs and how they're progressing.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: So it's an original based set.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: We'll do a cover here and there that like if we're on the road for three days, we'll have one where Brandon sings, we'll have one where I sing.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: We actually have some covers that Vinny sings too.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: So, like they're the best ones to be amazing, and they're the best ones.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of what goes into my thought process of making a set.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's for uh, you know, the people to to hear and have a good time.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: We'll give them something they like and know, but also this is what we're about.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: Hope, hope, hope you rock with us still after.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: How does it uh how does it work uh as far as a band putting together?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because the albums are different these days, releases are different.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where do you where's your mindset as far as what you want to put out there?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think I saw there's an EP coming, or at least a song.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: You want to I would like to shout out our band manager on that one.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we are the three faces talking right now, but this is kind of a team.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um we have a manager, we have a driver, we have someone kind of helping us with our finances.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: So uh at least as it relates to this question, the manager has a lot of foresight and data and plans.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: We always sit down, either after practice, we'll grab a beer, talk about what the next couple of months are supposed to look like on behalf of everybody, and then come up with a really like ideal plan.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh this started growing a lot once we started treating it as our business, where the people who have to decide where it goes.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: And um it helps to have someone who knows market and strategy and can be like, hey, you should do this, because I'm never gonna record a reel and send I just it's just not my initial thought.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's great.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So looking forward to getting that out there.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've got something coming right before the festival and the performance.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we'll look for that on all the platforms.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're reading, I'll be out there uh July 24th.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: Also, the video we're dropping uh we should be dropping at around the same time as that.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh our buddy Jeff raised fist propaganda, he's helping us um film that video.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: There should be some reggae rock legend cameos in there as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: We've been just like recording snippets and going to shows and like meeting the best people, and then they hang out with us and we chat, and it's just been a dream these last couple of weeks.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Out of curiosity, how did you guys uh last question um get associated with the Great South Bay Music Festival?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: How do they how did they get together last year to have you guys perform?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that was actually um we had gotten to play uh some shows at Rockaway Hotel, um supporting the expendables and and bad fish, and you know, they were just amazing nights, but you know, we just we showed up, just did what we do, and and it it worked out.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have uh Ryan who works with GSB, and he had actually talked to us because of those Rockaway shows, and we were telling him, you know, we've been going there for years just as you know, visitors, go to see Soja and always go into the reggae day and everything.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, the second it was mentioned, we were like, please, I mean, what whatever needs to happen, we would love the opportunity to do it, you know.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so it just it was really just kind of being in the right place, right time, and just putting in hard work, and you know, the the rest of it took care of itself, which has been uh you know amazing to finally be able to be here and get to be back again.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's uh we're really excited for it.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: And the music isn't bad either.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's it's not bad, it's not bad music.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we can't wait to see you guys, Brandon, Justin, Vinny.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your time.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Regular people, uh, you can check them out online, all the platforms, and that Friday uh at the Great South Bay Music Festival.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Great South Bay Music Festival.com.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great show, guys.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to meet you out there.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Can't wait to see you there.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Harry.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the