Latest / Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest / Stream of Consciousness #71 - Johnny Manchild

Transcript

Stream of Consciousness #71 - Johnny Manchild · Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest

0:24
SPEAKER_01: Alright, everyone, we are live.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Sitting next to me here today is Johnny Manchild of none other than Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: We're recording this at the Edge of the Universe Cafe in the Benson neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you, me and Johnny both are enjoying a pretty good cup of coffee right now.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: In just a few hours, Johnny's heading across the street, 400 feet to be exact, to play Reverb Lounge.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: So this is truly a pre-show hang.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Johnny's been carving out one of the most unique lanes in indie music, blending jazz, punk, theater, and raw emotion into something chaotic and completely his own.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: And his new album, Side Effects, is being talked about as his most ambitious and unfiltered work yet.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: A manic genre blending explosion that feels like a psychological spiral staged as a rock opera.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Johnny man, thanks so much for sitting down with me today before the show.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
1:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing good.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, having a good coffee at the edge of the universe.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a really nice day outside, and we are down to the last two shows of tour.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm I'm vibing.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: That's so it's so cool.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: I love this neighborhood.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: You can really just it's kind of it's kind of eclectic and it just has this buzz to it.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: It's really it's really fun.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: I always enjoy coming out here.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: So uh second to last show, like you mentioned, so you're vibing.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: I got to imagine there's a little bit of exhaustion, um, excitement.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh just just what are you feeling right now heading to the stage soon for basically the second to last time on this tour?
2:05
SPEAKER_00: There is definite uh close to exhaustion.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: This tour, I uh I live in California now with my wife, and so I had to I went to Oklahoma to start rehearsals on July 5th, and we started this tour on July 25th.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: We had uh about a week and a half in between the East Coast and the West Coast leg, where I was still in Oklahoma, so I wasn't able to go home, just wasn't enough time, and we had to rehearse with the other bassist that joined us on this leg, and so I've I've been away for it's gonna be about four months, I think, before I get back home.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: So I am I'm just as I I have no uh it's not a new experience for me to put on a good show even when I'm tired, but I'm definitely tired, that's for sure.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Um we're getting there.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: But no, and then uh Johnny just came in from Denver last night, so he's got that Rocky Mountain high.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Um well, maybe literally, but mostly for you.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: I almost passed out from the altitude of my breath.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I bet.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: So uh I kind of want to start at the beginning because your story is a little bit insane for those who don't know.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, most kids at eight years old, when you joined your first band, are you know picking their nose and playing hot cross buns on a recorder, and you're literally joining a band.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: So, like, how does that how does that happen?
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Because that's I don't wouldn't classify that as normal.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: I was still picking my nose, but like I um I was going to this let's see, I had started taking lessons with this guy, uh Dean Brown, and there's a place in Oklahoma called Charlie Rails where they had bands, and I was in a cover band.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: My dad was playing guitar, and we played like Nirvana and Green Day and all that stuff.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and I did that for a bit.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Um I had been playing drums for like three years, but when I was eight, that's when I started taking lessons.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, that was technically the first thing.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: The first original music wasn't until I was ten.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Um that's when I joined a band playing like their own songs.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's I just I had been playing drums since I could have thoughts, I guess, and I just kept doing it.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's uh like I said, I I started playing piano around age six.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: And I mean I I really was pretty good, but I don't know, maybe it just wasn't the scene or if I didn't have the ambition to ever do something like that.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: I just think that's really neat.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: Um so outside of being kind of a a little bit of a child prodigy, um what else were you into?
4:31
SPEAKER_01: Were you into uh the arts?
4:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh were you into any sports or just kind of uh no I was How would you describe yourself at that age?
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: At that age.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh I was a weird picking your nose, picking my nose, yeah.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: I was a weird kid.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: I like my dad played guitar a bit, my mom didn't really play music, but both of them were very they were fans of music, that's for sure.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: And so that I think came in from a young age.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: I adopted, and they were only 16 or so when I was born, and so that generational gap wasn't as wide, and I kind of inherited their tastes, and I I think that was something, even at eight, I was already a really big fan of music, and I had been for a while.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, I I know that I was extraordinarily high energy, that's for sure.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I listened to a lot of stuff.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really have a filter on what I was allowed to listen to either, so I kind of took everything in.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I just didn't really like the music.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I I think there was a point where I wanted to do uh I had gotten really into like special effects makeup of film.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was uh that was something I was into for a bit.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And so there was there was definitely some stuff with uh Android film and art and all that, but music was always the main center of my attention for sure.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't want to talk about because I was definitely a little bit of a band geek in high school.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know, were you a band geek too in like actual band classes?
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So you did both kind of your what did that look like?
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So I went to uh a school called Class in School of Advanced Studies, and so I was um you start in sixth grade and it goes till senior year, and you're all in the same school.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh the only difference is you have different lunches, like the lower grades and the high school.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: But um I auditioned into the band class, um, and I actually screwed up bad the first time, and then I got to try again and it went fine.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: And I auditioned in as a percussionist, I got accepted to the school.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: It was like a magnet school, so it wasn't technically in the school, the public school system, but this was a really lucky place to be.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: Um basically there's a visual performing arts program or an international baccalaureette program.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: So all the smart kids and all the hippie creative kids.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And I was in the hippie creative kids.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And so I took a band from sixth grade all the way through to high school.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Um I ended up joining the jazz band in high school as well.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Um I actually started on guitar because the drummer hadn't graduated yet.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Um so I played guitar for a year or so, and then once he graduated, I took over on drums.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Um and that school was really special.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Actually, that's why that's the only reason I play piano, is because you know I had to wait after school until my parents could pick me up, and they had like upright pianos all over the hall.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: So all around the school.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: So cool.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And so I would just play piano.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Um and that's how I started playing piano.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's the perfect instrument.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: I love the piano.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Or I I have a lot to say about the piano.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Like I love drums, I love bass and guitar, I love playing all of it, but piano to me is like the entire orchestra is in front of you, arrangement-wise and music theory-wise, working with harmony and melody, it's all very visually accessible.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And then also outside of electric piano and piano, you've got synthesizers, and then you're getting into this whole other territory of like sonic textures and stuff.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the keys are cool.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: The keys are really cool.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: I I love it because um I was lucky enough that was my first instrument, and kind of like you explained, it's just the blueprint to everything.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: So I I can pick up a trumpet now and learn the trumpet probably five times, ten times faster than if you can visualize the piano in your head, the theory of everything makes more sense.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's right there, uh, I think.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like I'd view it like trying to play a chess game with just the numbers and letters versus being able to view the chessboard.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like seeing a piano.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: That's how I think about it.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's that is what I was doing how school it was, I guess.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I will say too, class in SAS, I think a great thing about it was being uh we had to choose, I was a VPA uh band major, but you could also be an art major or a dance major or an orchestra major or uh uh I think there's one other one, but I'm forgetting off the top of my head.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, like uh everybody was doing all this stuff, and I had like access to being like exposed to all that.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: So I just got interested in a million things, like very art-centered, uh, middle school and high school.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Um in a very I didn't know it at the time a very unique way.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we didn't have sports really, or anything.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Like we just weren't that kind of place.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a nerd school.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I I learned a lot there.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Um even when I wasn't going to class, I would ditch classes and go to Karen Stafford's art class and just hang out and like talk and like have tea and stuff.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Like it was a really good spot.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: And what's really funny is um I actually published my first book literally like two days ago.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: It went live.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and it is it's kind of Harry Potter meets uh School of Rock.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: So all these kids go to a little experience.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: That is so cool.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: I might need to pull it back and make your main character.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that is that you can't make that up.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's really cool.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: So um you're graduating in high school.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: I know at some point you ended up uh getting into the army.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: So do you want to talk about did you take a little bit of a hiatus after high school or what happened there?
9:58
SPEAKER_00: So uh I mean so that's that's where we start, I think, getting into the territory of like the uh thematic stuff of the first like Man Child songs is like this era, I suppose.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: But um, after high school, my senior year was pretty rough.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: A lot of stuff happened.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Just a just way too much stuff.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't realize it again until years later that like I probably had um the the number of like traumatic events that happened in such a small amount of time was fucking crazy.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Like looking back, it is crazy.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't even not all of it was directly to me, but it was just everything happening around me.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And the weird thing about that is when it's happening to you, but then also happening to everyone around you, it feels like it's just everything.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Like because it's one thing for it to happen to you, but then everyone else is doing fine.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: But like it literally felt like the world was just fucking falling apart.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Um I can't it's so much to even go into, but like it's stuff that would blow your mind, honestly.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Like even to think about happening within a three-month period.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: But uh so I wasn't doing well.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: I I was doing drugs, I was on a bit of a pill thing at that time.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: That was kind of what happened.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: I I I was drinking a lot at the time and like smoking and whatever, but it was really the uh uh like downers.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, whatever I could get, it was kind of all around the time I after I graduated.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd gotten to the point where like I had some friends that like really weren't doing well.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Some people were going to jail and being arrested, some people were overdosing, and it got to the point where I was like, you know, this is not working for me.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't uh I was going to community college because in uh Oklahoma, you've got the your first 60 credits are free if you're under a certain like uh income.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: And I was like super able to do that, so I did it for free.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: And uh I bought a year I did a year of that, and then I was like, this is not working, so I joined the Army.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I joined I joined the Army, auditioned into the Army band, uh, and then went to basic.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: And I was gone from like June 2014 to March of 2015, I think.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Um and so yeah, I I did that.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: I studied at the School of Music after basic training in uh Fort Sill.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: I studied at the School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: I learned a lot there uh as a drummer.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: The thing about the Army band too is you've got uh they call them MPTs, they're musical performance teams.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: And so you have what you might think of this is uh with the concert band that's like playing processions and ceremonies and promotions and all that, but then the MPTs are more uh community-facing and for troops as well.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And so you were thinking like rock bands, country bands, pop bands, Latin bands, and I learned so much about hand percussion and congas with uh Sergeant Kinonius and the Latin band, and then I played guitar in the pop band, I played drums in a rock band, and uh you know Sergeant Chin was my percussion instructor, and the cool thing about that, at least at the time, I I heard that after I graduated they brought drill sergeants back to the School of Music, but at the time they didn't have that.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: And they told us, like, look, like all of the you know, what's the word I'm looking for?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: The uh regulations, I suppose, on how we act and everything, those are still in place, but we can't let all of that get in the way of your education.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: We were here to be musicians and to learn, and uh and so yeah, we it really did like the military uh red tape did sort of take a second uh spot to uh or a backseat to the education itself, and I learned a lot there.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I graduated that with a Charlie One, which is basically um you take AMPAs, everything's got a acronym, but it's uh Army Musical Proficiency Assessment, and I got a 31.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you get over a 30, you get a Charlie 1, and you get a little coin, and you're able to go into like the European bands and stuff, which I didn't do that, but I I stayed in Oklahoma uh doing my reservist stuff, and I went to UCO for uh at the time for percussion performance, like with a classical uh degree uh because they didn't have the jazz program yet.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I started that in the fall of 2015.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So that's the army section.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And then I I got out in 20 uh 2019, I think.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, gotcha.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Or 2020.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I got out before COVID, I know that.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Um would you say, and we can kind of get into the juxtapos juct I can't say the juxtaposition that word a little bit later, but did that discipline help you at that time a ton?
14:36
SPEAKER_01: Like I I just can't even imagine you're talking about from going doing pills and drinking and all that to no bullshit at all.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, first of all, there's the detox of basic.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: That sucked.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so you get off everything, because obviously I'm not smoking or doing anything in basic, and and then also, yeah, you get a separation from the friend group that you're in.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: And that was uh I made a point to really not reconnect with a lot of those people when I got back, and I went to college.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: And like the whole thing I was thinking about was like I couldn't afford to go anywhere, which is part of why I joined the army too.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: I was like, fuck this, I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna join the army, I'm gonna go to school and do that thing.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Um and so no, when I got back, I was like fully the way that I saw it, I I still remember like the first day I was walking onto campus, like through the parking lot, I was just thinking about like the whole year after high school, and then all the basic training and all that, and I was like, I did all this shit so I could go here.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna fucking do this shit.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna really like put my whole ass into it.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: But and I think the first year I got made Dean's list, and then I was like, yeah, okay, that's good enough.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And I I stopped trying that hard on that part, but I I was still very into it for the music.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: But no, it it um yeah, the the the the discipline of it too, I think I carried on to everything after that.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Like I I became very type A B all of a sudden, like it it changed the nature of me a bit.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: Um and I had to unlearn a lot of things after the first year or so because they do make you a certain way, and it takes a minute to get out of that.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you if you want to get out of that, it takes a second to remember what you are outside of that context.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Because you are very uh gung-ho, I guess, for a minute after basic.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh I started college after that.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: So I want to move into um your first, I think it was your first record, Valencia.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, first EP graduate college.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: Um not yet.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh you're still you're still, yeah, that's right.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: You're still in college, and what made you, or first of all, how do you have the time to do that and then decide to So actually um so I had a band for a year that was the bassist in when I got back, and then that broke up in like February of 2016, and I was like, I hadn't ended it well.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Like I they tried to take some of my songs and they were being shitty, and so I was like, well fuck it.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna take my stuff, then I'm gonna do my own band.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Like I've got these songs that I've been writing and I wanna do them.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: So I uh I was in the jazz bands, but it was only a minor at the time.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh a year later it would be a major and I switched, but uh I went to the drummer in the jazz band, Ethan Neal, and I was like doing a jam on this with me, and I basically picked people, uh like got people, convinced them to jam with me, and eventually had a rehearsal, and uh that was the first thing.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: We worked on I think Annie and Good Goddamn is the first things that we ever rehearsed.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, I that started in March of 2016.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: I think our first show was in June.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Like I just really wanted to play.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Um and actually at the time I was um God, I was in the army, I was going to college, I worked at a liquor store, I was also managing a recording studio with my friend, and I had started the band.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't sleep like at all.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I was doing everything all the time.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh which I mean I was like 20, so it was easy.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: It was very easy to do that.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: You can just do it.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Um But yeah, and we I remember the first single was with uh Bryce Sabrik at the studio called the Music Group, and uh we were both military, and so he offered to do a single for a bottle of rum.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Nice!
18:10
SPEAKER_00: So I got him a bottle of Captain Morgan, we did uh Annie, and then uh I think it was like super dirt cheap.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: We did the whole seven-song EP outside of that in three days.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, that was the first bit.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: That again, you can't make that up.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: I think Annie was the first song I ever heard.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Nice of yours.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: That's a it's it's beautiful.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a very beautiful song.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: Excited, that was pre-Army when I wrote that.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: It was like one of the first things I wrote for sure.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: Um so I like I love that a lot.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: So um I'm putting my my music geek hat on.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not gonna be able to keep up with Johnny, everyone.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even gonna try.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: But you know, you've got your early punk roots.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm just thinking in my head, I'm thinking, you know, grunge, power chords, drop D, just yeah.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: So you got that, and then you know, you have the army band discipline, which is kind of an entirely different spectrum.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then um now you have all this jazz, you know, jazz knowledge, you have all the percussion knowledge as well, and it all shows up in your band.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: I think it does at least.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: So, as I was talking to you offline, we were talking about the seven modes of music, yeah, and you were just like singing it from memory, like singing the different modes from from memory.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: That was so cool.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: So, I'm gonna put you on the spot and just do a little a little ditty just uh to hear how like how ingrained it is for our audience because like your talent just it's it's not that hard.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not the I mean there's easier ones too.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: There's like uh okay, so it's like uh you know the difference between relative pitch and oh perfect pitch.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: So it's it really is relative, as in like you've got things like I know uh blues dunno that's mixed Lydian, that's just your flat seven, and then Simpson's that's Simpson's like so that's your uh uh sorry, your Lydian right there, your fourth mode.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Um now the other ones I'll admit Phrygian and Locorean are the tough ones.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: And for that, like if it's Locorean, I think of a C skill, just like I'm not gonna sing a C by the way, don't have perfect pitch, but um Bum so da no no na na na na So just dun start on B.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Dunno.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: That's Locrean.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: The C major skill starting on the seventh.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I definitely don't have it like in I have to think about it, but I think uh the easiest way to understand modes is to have themes or motifs that use them.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Um like The Simpsons, that's the best way I can think of to think of uh Lydian as an example.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: You like the office?
20:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm Parks and Rec.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna see what mode that uh Oh god, I yeah, it's in my head, but I can't remember it enough to tell you.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, that's funny.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: But like like I said, I was dorking around with it.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: I think I was, I don't remember if I was in D.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: I might have been in D, but I ended up playing um Aeolian, and I just found myself like all of a sudden I sounded like the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Like it was so cool how each of those modes kind of has its own motif, like you said.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: It's really neat.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Aeolian I think is the that's the easiest one to wrap your head around if you're new to modes.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Because it's your relative minor.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: So it's C majors starting on the six, starting on A.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Um and so it's that one doesn't feel as uh what's the word?
21:48
SPEAKER_00: It feels inharmonic.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Like it feels like it's diatonic, I mean, sorry.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Um like it's still in the scale.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: The other ones feel a little out, but Aeolian and Ionian are very much the same uh sound, I guess.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to ask a question off the cuff.
22:05
unknown: Okay.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Where did you come up with the poor bastards?
22:08
SPEAKER_00: It's very specific.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because the the Manschild part was a nickname for my mom.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: But the bastards, that was I was uh when I wrote Annie, it wasn't called Annie at first.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: It was called like uh like Kitsch or something.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I had named it something like that.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I was playing it for our original guitarist, the demo, and he was like, Is this about Annie?
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, ah, you poor bastard.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds fake, but I promise.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: That's that's what happened.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Um that's why.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: Hey, so there's I like the name.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: There are some bad band names out there.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: This is not one.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about that.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to uh market, as for sure.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: My mom said she wanted a shirt, so so she'll be wearing one.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: Um speaking of fans, because I'm you gotta you gotta hook my mom tonight.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: That's your job when you're up there.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I can do that.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: We're out of shirts, sorry.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: But I can do that.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: She can make her own.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: She used to do that for me all the time.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: She'd get like a I'm sure she.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: I prefer handmade shirts anyway.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: That's so much cooler.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, for like sports and stuff, instead of going to the store and buying like whatever my favorite team was at the time, she'd just make it and get like an iron on the computer.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: I've been seeing JMPB battle jackets and I love it so much.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty sweet.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: It's cool.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: Um, so this is actually a perfect segue now into your fan base.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because they're kind of a little like you, they're they're not the most normal people in the world.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're tattooing your lyrics, they're making battle jackets, um, they're traveling across the country to see you, and you've got to talk about that 52 fan-hosted house shows in three days.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I mean, that's not a fan base, that's like a cult following almost.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: So could you just talk about your fan base and what they mean to you?
23:52
SPEAKER_00: So, two things.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, there's definitely a cult following.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: I won't even deny that.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, I've I've made a joke out of it on stage being like, you know, this is a cult, so we're recruiting.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: But they are also normal people though.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course, the people that are the loudest are gonna be very bright and showy and stuff, but like that's the thing that I find cool with uh talking about mental health and stuff, especially, the more open you get about it, the more you realize how common this actually is.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of the fan base, they're not like weird.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: It's uh definitely normal people.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Um obviously the loudest of them are gonna be the most flashy.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Right.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh yeah, I I very much enjoy our fans.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I've made this joke too, like 100 of my fans and a thousand of your fans, my fans will kick their ass.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Like we're like the fucking Spartans.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Um they just go hard.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they and I don't know why I I think I've talked about this before, I think that there was just a natural thing that happened through my own transparency that maybe allowed other people to feel comfortable with transparency, and it all I don't know.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people have met other people through this band, and like there'll be people who become friends and people who start their own bands, and like it's a very cool thing.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Um and I mean the the 52 show thing was uh that sort of that's the first time I realized like oh fuck.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know, I had no clue how insane, like I didn't know what we had.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: I'd never been on tour, I had no context in the world for it.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: But basically, I I put out this submission thing that was like if you pay 300 bucks, I will come to your house and play a show.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, which I thought that was a lot.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but yeah, in three days we got 52 submissions and I had to shut it down.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh god.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: So I literally I put together all these forms and set up these email threads with everybody so that we could do it safely, like get everything put together, and I told planned this tour.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: It ended up being 48 that we accepted.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Um 48 shows over six weeks, and like some of them were matinee, so we had twice, like two shows a day on some cities.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we went, uh, just my drummer and I for 40, I think it was 52 straight days.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Um actually, no, it was it was uh it was like six and a half weeks, and we were out six and a half weeks straight.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: First tour ever, um, playing all these shows, and it went nuts.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had people in Waleska, Georgia, north of Atlanta.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: It is like a barn set up with DMX lighting and a full stage.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: We had like 150 people there.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh man.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: We had all the everything from that to like Shepherds of the town uh doing like uh an opera house with an apartment above it.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Like we played in rec centers, you played in churches, we played in yards and back patios, like we played on a porch in Indianapolis, like 80 people in the front yard and lawn chairs, like it was all over the place, and it went great.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: And that was how I was able to get a booking agent because uh I was able to show, like, hey, this they're out there, they exist, and they're fucking crazy.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: So it was really cool.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: It was probably I will I will likely never do a tour like that ever again.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I can.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: It was so unique, and it was uh I think still off the cusp of uh COVID.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So everybody was looking for music again, and I had to explain what how shows even were to some of these kids because they just they didn't know what I was even what I meant, but it was cool, it was really unique.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Um so I'm gonna let you deep dive into your latest record side effects, is that's the one you're promoting now on your tour.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Um obviously there's a reason behind every record.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to speak for you, but I would imagine, you know, each record I mean it's is different, but you want to evolve and I don't know if that's the right word, but you want to put out better and better stuff as you go on.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's just I mean to me that's just natural is to, you know, improve.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: So what kind of for this album like what were your goals?
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, I w I wouldn't phrase it as better and better, because that's a you're gonna kill yourself trying to do that.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: I think it just has to because I don't know if it's necessarily better, but it's better to me.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's what I wanted to do.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: So I I'd say uh I want it to be more and more satisfying, I should say.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: To me personally.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Like it needs to feel like I did everything I could with it the way I wanted to, and this one did.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: I I felt really good about it.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And the idea for it really started uh in January of 2023, which was also scary enough.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: It was like three weeks before I went on this tour, this fit 48 show tour.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I was in the mental hospital for a week.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had like a really rough manic episode uh that lasted like a week and a half or so.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: And I like couldn't sleep, I was just freaking out.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: I had started to sort of lose touch with like reality, like heavy disassociation and incredible amounts of energy that was like hard to deal with.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, my mom ended up taking me.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I was there for about eight days.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: And in the middle of that is where Remember Me kind of came from.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember I was 28.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Or no, I was 27 still.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: I think.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh was that right?
29:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 27.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: And I uh yeah, I just remember thinking, like, I didn't think I was gonna be in this position again, and I really this is like not any way that I'd ever want anyone to see me.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: And it sucks.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: I felt like really uh there's a lot of shame in it, kind of.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, I had the that was where like the first lyrics of remembering came from.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: And I remember hearing that little bouncy intro thing in my head.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: That stuff pops in sometimes and it happened in the like community room, I guess, there.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and I think there was uh where it really came together, there's something they made us do called chair yoga, which is what it sounds like.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Like they don't want you getting too up and rowdy, but they do chair yoga to keep everybody active, which is just fucking miserable.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: But like it was so monotonous and so ridiculous.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was the sound of remembering at the beginning of it.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, uh after that we went on this tour and I got to meet everybody, and like the band was contextualized by the fan base that I hadn't met, and I got to talk about what had happened a little bit and talk on mental health and do all this stuff, and it got me thinking a lot about it.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: I think it put me in the headspace, and eventually this album kind of came together.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: I I had Remember Me and Medicine Dance, and uh I think uh uh Give Me a Reason was also one of the ones.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think once I had those three, it was clear that this was the direction of the record, and it eventually became side effects as a as a name.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's the that's the general uh growth of it.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that because when I'm listening to a record, I mean there's two things that can happen.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: You can directly to relactly relate you know to the song, like I went through something like that, or you can at least associate it with something.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what I love so much about music.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: Like, I know I'm a huge Jackson Anakin fan, I'm sure you know Jackson Anakin is.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, no, I've never had cancer and went through all that stuff like he's writing about, but I've been through uh, you know, detox and alcoholism sitting in a hospital and having those same types of feelings, so it's still it associates with me, even though you don't have to go like through the exact sure.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it's all human experience.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, like we all the exact reasons might be different, but like the nature of like loss and isolation is very much the same.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Like uh whether it's like loss of uh autonomy or loss of control, loss of somebody or something, like it's all very relatable shit.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've said this before too, like the process of me writing something, the song belongs to me while I'm writing it.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't really like letting other stuff influence it.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Once it's out, the song belongs to everybody else.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's so many songs I it doesn't really matter what it's about.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: What matters to me is what I was doing when I heard it and what I relate it to.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: It almost becomes more important than the writer's meaning is how it's received.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: And I know like with my songs, there are definitely people who they might not even know what it's about, but they know what it feels like, and they know what they remember when they think of it.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: And that is more important than whatever I wrote it about.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I think the act of relating to something is more important than uh directly understanding it.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Alright, listeners, we're gonna completely switch gears now.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be talking barbecue.
32:38
SPEAKER_01: Um so I actually don't know if I've ever mentioned where I'm from on this podcast because I've lived in Omaha so long now, but I grew up in Salina, Kansas, which is basically just smack dab in the center of Kansas.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean you grew up in Oklahoma City.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: Were you Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, or were you in the suburbs or Oklahoma City?
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: So um for those of you who have never been to that area of the country, there's uh I don't know not a ton, not a ton going on, but it we can have a lot of fun.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: But what we do get very serious about is barbecue and food.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna have a little barbecue battle, all lighthearted.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: So as I said, I'm Kansas, he's Oklahoma, and apparently I'm not involved in it.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: There's like it's Kansas City style versus Oklahoma City style, didn't know that was a thing.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but um so Kansas is known for their pulled pork.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: What do you think Oklahoma is known for?
33:33
SPEAKER_00: So I had to say brisket, actually, yeah.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: It's it's burnt burnt burnt ends, I'd say.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh but the thing about Oklahoma is it's like I don't think it's a battle at all because like the only thing I'm gonna talk about is one specific place.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: That's what I based my my answers on today.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Um because every city's got good barbecue.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Kansas City's got bad barbecue too, but I bet like everyone's got their place they think of when they're imagining this answer, but I'd say brisket.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Brisket and burnt end.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: We'll get more into the details later, but brisket and burnt ends.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: That's what I say.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you really can't go wrong with the work.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: They're both very good.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, like a burnt-end sandwich.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, are you kidding me?
34:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh so dry rub versus wet rub, just in general.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: There's no battle here.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're both good.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh they're both they're different things.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: I this is where it gets tricky because you're talking about a dry you can't pit those against each other.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: They're two different things.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: It's like talking about the Carolina style barbecue with like the vinegar base.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: You don't pit that against sweet barbecue.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: It's it's two different things.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Like me personally, I like a wet rub.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there's some really good dry rub out there.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: It's I'm I'm a big food fan, so I'll I'll say wet rub, but with all the love in the world for dry rub.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: That's fair enough.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm I I think if I had to pick, I'd probably say dry rub, but um I I do like wet rub too.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean here's here's what I will say is good barbecue doesn't need sauce.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: I do argue with that.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Um so regardless, like even if wet rub is your preference, it shouldn't need it.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: So this isn't even a battle at all.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: This is just personal preference.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: So you've got, you know, your barbecue plate.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: So you order whatever your meat is, yeah.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna say you're getting two sides.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: And these are the two sides you gotta get.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: What are you getting?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Apple pie, baked beans, mac and cheese.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: So that's not three things.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: That's apple pie, baked beans.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounds good.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: And mac and cheese.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: It is the best.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: It might sound weird, but it's it's very sweet and barbecue-y, but it's got this weird, oh god, it just it works.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then mac and cheese.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: I feel like you gotta have good mac and cheese.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Um that's my opinion.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: Are you going when you're saying mac and cheese, because I I like to cook a lot, are you going like super cheesy creamy or more of like the baked, crusty on top?
36:11
SPEAKER_00: My favorite, it's not breadcrumb.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: It is gonna be more like a creamy cheesy, but it has like a a browned, uh, like burnt top.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: The cheese is like curdled and browned.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: That's my favorite.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, that's me.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: And I specifically I like spiral and rigatoni type.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: If you have that.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm also a big food person.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: I like cooking.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: We I I I could have an entire another podcast episode then with you on food.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: Very easily, yes.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm gonna go, I'm also gonna go baked beans.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: And I really appreciated baked beans when I went to Ireland on my honeymoon different thing because I ordered the beans, and I'm like, well, then it was with my breakfast, first of all, and I'm like, this isn't very good.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: It was like, it's it's not my thing.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I really want baked beans.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh so but baked beans for sure, and then I'm just a sucker for cornbread.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: I just love cornbread so much.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: Good cornbread is uh, yeah, it's one of those things because, like, yeah, there's a lot of pretty mid cornbread out there, but when you get the really good stuff, it is next level.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I can agree with that.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: And okra is another one too, I'd say it's pretty tender.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, to me it's baked beans and mac and cheese.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, speaking of cornbread, and I have to plug in my friend uh Gladys.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: She owns um a restaurant and catering business here in Omaha called Big Mama's.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: Her cornbread.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you'll never want to eat anyone's cornbread ever again.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: It's uh I wish it was closer because I would make you eat there.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: It is so good.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: So shout out to Gladys at Big Mama's cornbread.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: Hell yeah.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: Um we already answered this.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: The sauce philosophy is easy.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: A good barbecue should not need sauce.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: No.
37:58
SPEAKER_01: But um, and you kind of touch on this too.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: I really like that we I have a sauce in my fridge.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: It's uh more of a uh what what is it, the Carolina-based mustardy vinegar you want?
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Carolina gold kit.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, it's it's really good.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: And so, okay, look, like I'm a big sauce person, I love sauce.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Again, shouldn't need it, but like just because it doesn't need it, doesn't mean you shouldn't have it.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like good ice cream doesn't need chocolate sauce on it, but fucking put chocolate sauce on it.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's uh it's the it's literally the cherry on top.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: And if a good barbecue joint has like a couple different variations of their own barbecue sauce that's really good, that is bonus points.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Like you should have good barbecue sauce.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you just shouldn't need it.
38:41
SPEAKER_01: And are we going are you going spicy or are you staying pretty pretty mild?
38:45
SPEAKER_00: It depends.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't do spice too much.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I love buffalo.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm a big fan of buffalo sauce.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: I uh I also am partial to like a scotch bonnet sauce, like something like that.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh I tend to go towards the more fruity spicy stuff, like when it comes to peppers, but I uh generally speaking like a pretty tame sweet barbecue, like a honey barbecue or something like that.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: That's me.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Um so I know you had you said you had a hot take on some brisket bird end stuff.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: So the f the floor's yours.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm gonna I'm gonna have an even hotter take.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: There is one single place that is the best barbecue in the country, I don't care what you say, until you go there, and then we can talk about it.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Um but not even everyone in Oklahoma has been there.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: This is a place in Wellston, Oklahoma, about 30 minutes outside of Oklahoma City, uh, right off the highway.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: And it started as a little trailer, and now they've got a bigger place.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: But basically, you gotta get there an hour and a half before they open, if you want any chance of getting in before the food runs out.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: But it's called Butcher's Stand.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I can guarantee you they have the best burnt ends ever.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: But they also have everything else the best mac and cheese, amazing turkey, and polo sausage and a smoked bologna.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: They've got uh everything.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Like it is the best barbecue I ever had.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: And I've toured enough.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: I've been to Central Barbecue, I've been to Jackstag, and I've been to um what's another big one that I've been to?
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a bunch of places down in Texas that they talk about.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh also like all the big spots in North Carolina, uh, which is the biggest contender to me, is in North Carolina.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: But this place is the real deal.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: It is the butcher's stand in Wollstone, Oklahoma, and it is fucking crazy.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: And just as a funny thing, they give you a twinkie with everything in a wrapper.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, but and all they also, not that they need it, have like 10 different barbecue sauces.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: Um another thing, by the way, that I think every good barbecue place should have is really good sweet tea.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, butcher's stand, best barbecue ever.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh fuck off.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: If you don't agree.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: So I really can't name my favorite barbecue joint.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was doing some research and I found a place in Kansas City, it's called the Wolfpack or Wolfpack Barbecue, and they have this burger.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: And I know you're like burger's not barbecue, but it is ground brisket.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: So you already know, like that's gonna be delicious.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: Smash pattied ground brisket burger with the chopped brisket on top, onion rings, barbecue sauce, and they do an Alabama white sauce on top, which I have never tried, so I don't know.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: See, okay.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Something like that, that is what I would call like a novelty thing.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: And it might be really good.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: But if we're talking about a competition of barbecue, I don't think that's in the competition.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: That's a little too out there.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Um like I feel like you've got to start from a more traditional place.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: That does sound really good, but like uh, I don't know, I'd be curious to try that.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: Um I still say uh fuck everybody, butcher's damn.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, I might have to drive on down and give it a whirl.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: Um so good.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh they've got the apple pie baked beans.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh, speaking of food, I do want to talk about your pre-show routine eating-wise, because like if I I don't know, like if I'm you, I don't really want to go on stage and just have eaten like a massive meal.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh so like how does that work?
42:08
SPEAKER_00: Everybody gets mad at me for this because I don't eat before the show, and so it'll be like the whole day I'll have at like a granola bar, and everyone's like, you have to eat food.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't wanna, because I'll feel tired, and I'll eat after.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: And so I end up eating at like one in the morning, and it's it's not a healthy thing, but yeah, no, I have that problem.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want to have anything in my stomach when I go on stage.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's difficult to find clean burned food that you can eat sometimes.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just don't eat, and it's I lose weight on two.
42:36
SPEAKER_01: Like a yeah, all right.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: So, well, there it is, the Johnny Manchel diet right there.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's cold in our next year, is what it is.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: It's not good.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, we've had a lot of fun so far.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: Um and again, I'm shouting out Edge of the Universe Cafe.
42:53
SPEAKER_01: Everyone listen, this place is really neat.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: We've got like a a ship with a crow's nest, um, some sweet music, a lot of they've got absence.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they do, which is pretty cool.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: You guys gotta check that out.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: Um so, like I said, we've covered we've actually covered a lot of ground, you know, growing up, army band, jazz school, uh, the poor bastards, which again, I I don't mind the band story.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: I actually really thought it was nice.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: So um so is there anything that I haven't asked you that you want to talk about, or do you think uh you know maybe just makes you unique or oh maybe makes you tick?
43:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't know.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: I I'm uh I've learned I'm I don't know.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm neurotic and I'm um probably difficult to deal with.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: I could be stubborn sometimes.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm bipolar, so depending on which day you catch me, uh it can be super fun or super neurotic.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: It depends.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's everyone's got their things, and uh more than likely the stuff about me that does pop out, I'm probably not even.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Aware of.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not the best person to answer that.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: But I have no idea what makes me tick.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: I I love music.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: That's probably my North Star with everything.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: It just makes sense.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: Music and food, honestly, they're the same thing.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: They are both things that have been around since the beginning of humanity, and they are meant to gather people around, and it's a way to express yourself to others without even speaking the same language.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: And so to me, that's the one thing that's always made sense.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So that's it.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: That's that's my guide, I guess.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
44:29
SPEAKER_01: Johnny's North Star, Food and Music.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: I can live like that.
44:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: Um I also want to give you the chance to tell the audience how to support you because contrary to popular belief, you listening to songs on Spotify a hundred times gets him basically nothing.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: So how can people actually support you outside of just, you know, listening to it on like a streaming service?
44:55
SPEAKER_00: The best way, one, is to tell everyone that you can about it.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's honestly just a huge thing.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, come to shows when you can, but that's a rarer thing.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: So uh you can go to patreon.com slash Johnny Manchild if you want some BTS type stuff.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: I uh we've even got a Discord you can join.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: I talk about all kinds of stuff on there, post sheet music.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: Um we're on Bandcamp.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: Bandcamp Friday is an awesome thing to support if you uh do want to buy some music um and actually own it.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, I mean those are the main things.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I value word of mouth and just spreading the word of the band more than paying for anything.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's where I'm at.
45:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: That is a great answer.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: So um I can't thank you enough for being here.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: Um I know you're gonna crush it tonight.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: Reverb, and you know, to everyone listening, listen to their music.
45:50
SPEAKER_01: You can listen on Spotify.
45:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not uh bagging on Spotify, but uh not exactly getting a big paycheck from that all the time.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: So, like he said, go see a show, grassroots, tell your friends, tell your family, um, and just support other artists as well.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah um I think that's what I've come to learn through a lot of the artists that I've listened to is just the general support.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, this band is badass, and you can become friends and you can bounce ideas on each other.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: To speak on that, like yeah, I think it's not just me, it's everything.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: You really the economy of music has to be vibrant from everyone's perspective.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, people need to go out and see bands.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even my my favorite kind of people are people who have no idea who I am, but they saw that a place had a show and they bought a ticket just to go seal this up.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: That's fucking awesome.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: And like truthfully, it is more important that you support than it is that you support something specific.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Just do.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Go see stuff.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't, the stuff won't be there.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: I promise it'll go away.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: So everyone, this has been Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
46:58
SPEAKER_01: Johnny and I are gonna sign off for now because in five hours, well, probably more than five hours because he's closing, he'll be hitting the stage on an empty stomach.
47:08
SPEAKER_01: So I'll be on the lookout if he starts looking a little woozy.
47:12
SPEAKER_01: But uh, until next time, you guys, everyone take care of yourselves, and uh yeah, we'll see you next time.
47:18
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
47:19
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.