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Nights In Stereo · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what it means to build not just a band, but a whole universe around their music.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, I was just listening to these guys EP not even 10 minutes before we started this recording session.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Today I would like the to welcome the band Knights in Stereo if I could talk right.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Johnny Rodrigo and Ronan, how the heck are you guys?
• 1:40
  unknown: Woo!
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: We're good, we're great, we're like that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things that I noticed about your music is you guys could fit in to about any type of modern rock playlist.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely love that.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I uh I I would have to agree, but also we have uh so many different influences and inspiration, so it's uh it's kind of like a beautiful melting pot of all different generations of music and eras of music.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I'm glad that it could fit into a more modern um sort of world.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I've it's come up several times on several recent episodes.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think pretty much every one of my most recent episodes, I would say as far as ten episodes back, but the era of streaming has kind of made genres almost borderless to the point where it is okay to kind of cross-pollinate from this pile over here to this pile over there, and music is just music anymore.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Would you guys do you guys feel the same way?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: I I like I really got into playing music in like the early 2000s and growing up on the East Coast, and I was in like kind of the punk hardcore uh scene and like really heavy on the core, like like fashion core and cowboy core and grind core, and like you could just throw anything and mix it all together, and um, I kind of feel that is happening again now with like beyond hardcore music and stuff.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, absolutely.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So let's why don't we take us back?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh how did three different musical journeys collide to eventually become knights and stereo?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: I used I grew up playing music, I know Rod grew up playing music.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Rod grew up on the West Coast, I'm from the East Coast, came out to LA on vacation.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: This guy spilled my beer in a bar.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Johnny beat the shit out of me.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: I beat him up.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we got into a For real?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like from New York, I'm like, oh, I gotta fight now.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: And him being like from California, he's like, Let me buy you a new one, pal.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, this guy might hook up with me.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's like the hardcore punk guy versus the West Coast ska guy.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty much.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we became buddies, we ended up becoming roommates pretty quick.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: I decided to stay in LA, and then we had like a living room with instruments, and we started writing music together, and uh always just for fun.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: And we wrote some songs and um we kind of met, I think, in the middle, like real estate kind of was like our middle ground of music.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's like how I think we really bonded.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's the band that really sticks out to me.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um Radio Radiohead, like some I don't know, some classics that have transcended.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think you were you were really into maybe like some of the faster Radiohead songs, and I was really into some of the slower radiohead songs, and then our music met in the middle with real estate.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good way to yeah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then Ronan moved to LA.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: We met at a dinner, just like four dudes, and it was me and him, and we never met, and then I was happened to be looking for a new apartment at the time.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: He was looking for a place to live, and literally we clicked and we moved in together.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I have this thing where I like meet guys that I like and move in with them really fast.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Barely really knowing each other, too.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then let us stuff you have a spare room.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I just had three kids leave for college at the same time.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've got three.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So one for each one of you guys.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Full house.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then Ronan and I lived together, but we never did music stuff.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: He just heard me playing music all the time in the room.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then during COVID, that's where it went down.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was just, we're all cooped up.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: I finally just had the time and focus to start recording demos and a mixture of stuff that like I've wrote, stuff that Rod and I put together.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Ronan comes over one day, he's like hearing stuff that I'm I'm writing, and he starts singing, and we're like, oh, sounds pretty good.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: This actually sounds pretty good.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's not terrible, and we got really stoked on ourselves, um, and then just we'll became obsessed, and we just started writing music.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but it's like again, after years of being friends, that we like finally started taking it serious.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: So the whole thing is based off the friendship, and and that's the basis of the band.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So love that.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, Ronan, what was it like for you stepping into this long-running friendship and then becoming a part of this collaborative creative endeavor?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: One of the most common themes, I think, of our band is that there was never really any um pressure, and uh it was always based in fun and uh just another excuse for us to hang out and get to like create, and yeah, especially during um the pandemic, like we were really craving for a creative outlet, and um, you know, I've always heard um all the stuff that that Johnny would jam around the the apartment when we first lived together, and it was just amazing.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we would have music on all the time and we would bond on all different kinds of music all the time.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew we were kind of in the same flavor of of things that we liked.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then when we actually started like sitting down and recording, it just felt very natural, and I think that's a big reason of why we called the EP um we called it second nature, because I I do think it kind of fell very second nature to us.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um we just really clicked from from the jump.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then when Rod came in, it really completed the whole, I think, sort of world that is um nights and stereo.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, we've just m luckily always meshed, and it felt kind of effortless in a way.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's obviously extremely hard and um takes a lot of effort, but you know, we do click in a sort of second nature type of way, and I think because we are three best friends, um it makes it a bit uh easier to to um to get along and and to uh to create art, which I think is best made when you're making it with people that you trust and you love, and um that's kind of been our story.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think because Rod and I were friends for so long, by the time that I moved in with Ronin, and then like Rod would come over to hang out.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, like him and I are like so similar and we're such a lockstep.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then like the the immediate chemistry that I had with Ronan that it really just when he joined in with Rod and I, it was like like again, second nature.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: The chemistry was already kind of established, he fit into the puzzle.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's like we already knew him already, and uh we all just it it was yeah, it just was natural, supernatural.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Love that supernatural, great album by Santana.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Love that so the album dropped on June 18th, the album Second Nature.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like finally seeing your nearly two decades of friendship crystallize into a debut release?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing for all of us, probably in different ways, but like we started jamming in our living room 15 years ago, so and some of the some of the things some of the parts we wrote are on this on this album, which is pretty yeah.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, for me, that's the that's the craziest part.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: The one that's track three, that's the first song Rod and I ever really wrote.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: It used to be called Barnacle Bailey.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we used to jam, we would like come over from the bars and jam that at like three in the morning in our living room at full blast in West Hollywood, and we have like a cast of people kind of coming through and try to sing on it or try to play another instrument on it, and it evolved over so many years.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think I agree.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: When you like sit and hear this stuff, you can you kind of hear like our own growth, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because like we wrote this stuff so long ago, and now we're hearing it on a record almost two decades later, and you can hear like if you go back and watch videos of us in 2012 playing that in our living room and then hear it on the album, it's the growth is just very obvious.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I'm not the only one that used to have working band titles that were or song titles that were absolutely ridiculous.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ours were always like Mega Man or Final Fantasy references or obscure Masters of the Universe characters.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you should see a lot of my project files.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're insane.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have like insanity final, insanity final, final, final.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: You have all those too.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what's like when I'm editing a podcast episode.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, I've got six different edits of the same episode.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.mp4.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So looking back, do you guys feel like fate paid played a role in bringing the band together?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the fact that at least speaking for for myself, like when I met John, I I I didn't really know him.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's ironic because the people that introduced us are no longer in our lives.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he's the one that ended up being like a brother to me um all these all these years later.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the fact that you know we somehow sonically were able to make music together that uh we first of all enjoyed and and wanted to listen to, but were even able to.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I think that's definitely fate.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's it was very much meant to be.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I again, like if you asked us when we first met, or even when we're first living together that first year, like you you guys would eventually be in a band that people all over the world are listening to, I'd be like, there's no fucking way.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: That was never even a thought, you know.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's I I do think it's fit very very much, yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And like my beer in the bar, I mean, like how like meat cute can you get?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, there's just been so many, too many things like that with yeah, are just our whole history together.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: The beer, so little moments that just all add up.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just because I like to play the butterfly effect of all things, was there ever a moment when you thought music together wouldn't happen?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Not since we're talking about the entire time up until we started making it.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So is is John the common connector of the group?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: I like to call John our architect.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's like Luke.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: We all have a lot of, I mean, there's just three of us.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and John and I play all the music, so we're we don't have a ton of members right now.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so obviously we're all multi wear a lot of hats, but John is I like to call him the architect.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: He he keeps us together and and puts puts us in the right combinations and and moves pieces around in the right way.
• 13:22
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And the connector, yeah.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like I knew Rod socially as well.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Met Ronan, brought them together, and just, yeah, we like created this Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants over here.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um the world shut down in 2020, you started layering Ronan's vocals over John's instrumentals.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: How did that strange time influence your sound and the creative process?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: No rules.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was COVID.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, yeah, I'm in this apartment in downtown LA by myself.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: I like just went through a breakup.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: My like ex-girlfriend moved out of the apartment during COVID.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I was just like, okay, what am I gonna do?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: I got all this gear that's sitting around.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have all these riffs for like a decade.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's put some stuff together.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, the music that we've all consumed for our entire lives, like the range is crazy.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like when Ron and I were living together, we really didn't know each other, and like week by week we'd be pulling like the onions back, you know, like the peel back and being like, oh, you love NERD?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I love that band.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: This one record from this one random year that's like we both happen to know every word to every song, right?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then In Search of, yeah, in search of.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's such a great album.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, Rod and I have gone to punk shows, we've gone to like we've seen like collectively, we've seen Frank Ocean, Bjork, Metallica, like we've seen so many bands, and then we get so stoked on it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: So now we're in the apartment, and just we're not doing it to start a band, we're doing it because like it's just in us and we want to make music.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: There was no like we all have like our own careers and stuff, so it was just let's have fun and make whatever we want to make.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's almost insane to say it out loud because I've said it a few times in private circles, but that's kind of the one weird silver lining of the whole collective consciousness experience of COVID was it pushed people to be creative again and find their layers of creativity.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, was it ever a challenge for you guys to stay inspired during the lockdowns and during that time frame?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't I don't know about inspired, but I think uh the biggest challenge we kept running into was just scheduling and just getting all of us available at the same time because we do all have extremely time-consuming jobs and and careers.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you know, it's it was just getting us together uh to write, to record.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know, luckily we would find these pockets of time and just like pump out music.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And luckily um when we do get into the studio or into a writing sort of vibe, we work fast and and we uh we're very locked in.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that that definitely helped.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like um the speed at which we record and write is actually pretty pretty damn fast.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that really helped us with our sort of situation of of um just having full lives, you know.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I now have a baby and still somehow managed to uh you know record another record and he pin putting out so yeah, it's it's amazing.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: What of your influences is the most obvious in this collection of songs in Second Nature?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, always Kings of Leon.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I hear that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh especially vocally, um he's he's my he's my number one Caleb Follow.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think it depends on the song.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think you can hear really obvious certain songs, like uh Dream is like minus the bear.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's like a huge influence of mine.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: I love that band, Dream, and and some people have texted me being like, Dream is a minus the bear song.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite song.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think like first time that has like a lot of Thursday.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like for me, I wrote like Thursday post-hardcore.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you listen to the bridge breakdown in that song, that's like a Thursday song.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the one I think is like a real estate vibe song.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a bunch of like we're on drugs in there.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: There's a bunch of everything from glass jaw to incubus, yeah, yeah.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: So those are all the names that get thrown around in the studio, but not I'd say as an influence, I think we hear it afterwards.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like listening, and we're like, oh yeah, that sounds like this.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So but I love the fact that your guys' influences come from such different directions.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're all kind of in the same family, but they come from such different directions where you have grittiness in this corner and kind of dreamy airiness in this corner, and you're able to mesh the sounds together.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it it seems fairly obvious who brings the gritty and who brings the dreamy.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: If one guy's inspired by Kings of Leon and the other guy's talking about glass jaw, hello.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love me some Daryl Palumbo, by the way.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got the glass jaw tat, bro.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: They're my number one.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I tell people that our band sounds like is if you snuck Kings of Leon into the warp tour.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you Trojan horse the kit Kings of Leon inside of a post-hardcore Trojan horse, like we're s we're we're like kind of like tricking you a little bit.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're like, oh, it's not that crazy, and then halfway through we're punching you and you can tell by our breakdowns and our outros, it's pretty crazy.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So break down the writing process for me.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do lyrics come first or do does the sound kind of set the scene?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh vocals and lyrics come last, actually.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's that's the the last sort of straw.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think Rod and I kind of demo riffs and parts, and we have like jams that we've done where we know some parts, but the structures aren't really there.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll demo everything at my studio, and then I'll sit afterwards and kind of play Tetris and like Architect, you say, and I'll just kind of like chop parts, repeat parts, and I'll build out a structure, send it back out to the guys.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're sending parts back and forth, and then we go in the studio and and kind of redo the Frankenstein that I put together.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: From a lyrical perspective, do you write lyrics from a real life experience, or is it just metaphorical?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: How does that come together?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's real life, and then if I can make it metaphorical, I like doing that.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, like our our second single underwater, like it's you know, it's a big metaphor of like when you're in a relationship with someone and you feel like you're drowning.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, really lighthearted stuff.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, like my favorite song on the EP, Dream, that's very much of like you know, when you're with someone and it feels like like it's it's a dream, and then if if they if they weren't there anymore, like could you ever feel that again?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a big sort of um common I guess common theme for me is like falling in love, falling out of love, breaking up, heartbreak.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um very unique stuff.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so yeah, and then uh actually Erica's song uh was my sort of love letter to John's wife, who her name is Erica, but it was from the perspective of uh Johnny's breakup when we first started making music in 2020.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of my um that was kind of my love letter and heartbreak letter to John and and his wife, who's the absolute greatest, and got him out of the rut that he was in.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh yeah, so I I I do like I do like, I guess, like metaphorical writing, but definitely based in real real um circumstances.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, considering that anecdote, does John and Rod help out with some of the the lyrical writing parts?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Not really.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think in the studio sometimes if we hear like like we'll problem solve together, if we're kind of surprised.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's stuck or it's not sounding right, then we'll we'll like wordsmith it or or kind of fix it together, but yeah, he owns he owns the vocals.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think what's cool is uh structurally, so he Ronin said that the lyrics and vocals come after the music, but usually we have a part or a collection of parts that's made that aren't written first and foremost for lyrics.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: So it we have to restruct we have to structure it after.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: So Ronin will sing over stuff that we wrote, and we don't necessarily have a chorus and like a pre-chorus and a traditional structure, and he'll just start singing over it, and then we we hear that structure after.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: We go, Oh, okay, now that we see what he is where he's going with it, uh, we have to add a chorus, and now it all makes you know it's it's not a struggle, it kind of it shows itself, it makes sense, but they you know they feed into each other.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I love big anthem esque choruses, you know, like we've all been to Kings of Leon concerts together, and you you're just waiting for that moment.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I like I really wanted to sort of incorporate that into our music and have these big choruses that everybody's gonna sing along to, and big outros, and um so yeah, it's um it's been really fun to write to whatever these guys bring um to the table.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And and luckily it's been really like um almost instant.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I'm very, very much touched by what they write and and um kind of inspired by it almost immediately.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've so far knock on wood, haven't had really any experiences where I'm like, I don't know what I want to say to this, or I don't know what I want to sing to this.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's um it kind of hits me immediately.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm definitely touched by um the music that they write.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it back in my day of doing it, it was very similar thing.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my guitarist would come up with a basic skeleton of the song.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I would write my lyrics and my pre-choruses and choruses, and by the end of the day, it might be a totally different song because of the phrasing and how we would change parts and restructure parts.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was a big like I always thought about things from the live show perspective.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, oh, we gotta have this tricky syncopated part right here, this pause where the music drops out and you don't uh expect it.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: What are are rehearsals kind of like that for you guys too, whenever you're rehear like writing these songs?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think so, or maybe more so in the in the studio when we're kind of more refining, like when we're jamming, we're really just kind of figuring out parts, but I think then when we're in the studio and refining, and we're like, oh, let's add like a pause and then punch and that like because I'm always like I I want the crowd, I want the kids to be like, What's happening to me?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like boom, like how do we get them to freak out?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think that comes more so in the refining part, yeah.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just I know it's just been my experience that sometimes I was less a singer, songwriter, and more of a producer that sang, you know, whenever when it came putting to putting that shit together.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about a little bit more in detail about the album.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Second Nature includes reimagined versions of earlier tracks alongside new ones.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: How did it feel to breathe new life into old demos while also creating fresh material?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: There's stuff from both of us, like we mentioned, that's 14 years old or so.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I think there's parts on there that John had since like he was 18 or something, yeah, like um reject parts from band old bands like in high school and college and stuff like that.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: That I'm still like, these are good.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: These gotta get used right.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: So um it's almost feeling like you're just kind of like they finally found their home.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like it always starts with a part, and the parts have floating around for a long time or a riff, and then um it's just nice to hear, like, okay, they finally found their home.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: They're safe with like a family now, and they're living on the album, and I can kind of just move on and start some new ones.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: So um these I feel like these the music lives inside of us, and it's just nice to get it out and have it live somewhere like finitely.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the is that right?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: It just definitely definitely lives somewhere now, and it's just nice to know that, and we can kind of just visit them and focus on some new stuff.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Was there an older track that really surprised you and how it evolved?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: The one?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the one the one.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: I th I mean as John mentioned it a couple times, with the one we played so many times and you know, so many inebriated states.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: And we all we kind of you know, we we played it in a lot of different vibes in like living rooms and at a pool party kind of thing, and um, but we always kept it so much the s the same, the structure, the way we played it, and then to make it a song with that that's not just instrumental with with Ronin, we restructured it and added to it and produced it, and you could you know you you you might be afraid of that, but it was actually turned out so much like it blossomed into something that's so much more uh adult like mature.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like it's more mature, it's and it's so much more beautiful than I could have imagined when we were playing it when we were younger.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's just beautiful.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: I remember one of the greatest compliments was when um Rodrigo heard the sort of vocal melody that I was thinking of for the one, and he was like, it it's making me emotional to hear like this actually come together with with words and and and and and vocals, and that means a lot because it I mean it means the most, really, because they've been playing it from the very beginning.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's like a precious baby, it's very precious, and you know, I I try not to think about that when I'm writing because I think it'll just like freak me out.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, that that's the greatest compliment I could ever get, is is you know, from from them who've had this for so long to be like, oh my god, this is like really beautiful.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um But also like it was only just the two of us.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: So now to hear it like to go into a studio after all these years and and have the ability to like, oh, we could do a second guitar part, and we never heard it with bass, and we never heard it with keys, and that whole ending part that that comes back and it's heavy.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we used to just jam that, but it wasn't definitive until we got in the studio and were like, let's actually add this part.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, that's yeah, it's all evolved and um into a great place that we're like all there's not a second on that album that I'm like not happy with.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're really proud of it, and we'd love like we've listened to it 4,000 times.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, we're very glad that we made something that we want to listen to.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think that's super important.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you guys kind of made the connection with how a vibe of an album can be impacted by its individual parts.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Fans connect not just with songs, but the vibe, the late night energy, the lo-fi visuals, behind the scenes content.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: How intentional is that world building, and how much of it is you guys just being yourselves?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if people know this, but Ronan's actually an actor.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh um I like Rod's been a writer and I've been a photographer and a video editor and all these different things.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I think just creating has is a bend.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Second nature, second nature, second nature drink.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that it is kind of natural for us to want to make stuff and put it out and share it, and you know, all the album art or photos that I've taken over the years that we sit together and we do the layouts and we do the behind-the-scenes videos.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's like, yes, it's calculated, but at the same time, this is stuff that we do anyway, and stuff that we love to do.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very much like in-house, you know, it's literally like we're in full control.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's also it's it's really fun and it's um yeah, it's like we get creative control.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's um yeah, it's really fun.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have done that really well because your visual aesthetic matches the sound of the band really well.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when bands kind of first launch with uh an EP or their first album and such, usually there's a disconnect.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes, sometimes like the album artwork, the band photos, and their their initial videos don't always tend to match what the sound that the band is going for.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys do that incredibly well.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, man.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: That means a lot.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's hard for younger bands to know right away like their identity and their voice, right?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that we're older, um, we've been friends for so long, right?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like we like our friendship has been established over a decade, and we have full-time gigs, and the you know what I mean?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so I think it was easier for us to kind of nail down the voice and identity because and again, like we're just doing this for fun, that's how it all started.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it all comes very naturally, and we're just being unapologetically ourselves.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: As John so eloquently pointed out, Ronan, many fans know you from your acting roles: 911 Lone Star, Orange is the New Black, American Horror Stories, Follow Me, which just came out.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how do you balance acting with music?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And how do those two creative outlets uh how do you find those creative outlets influencing each other?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, it is so different.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the joy I get from making music with my two best friends is like nothing I've ever felt uh as being an actor.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um first of all, there's just it just logistically, there's hundreds of people that control the overall product of you know what I'm doing on TV or a film.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: And here it really is the three of us and a producer who is also one of our dear friends.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah um and um you know, so that's vastly different.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know, honestly, like I was on a on a TV show um called 911 Lone Star for five years, and within that five years we were writing and making music, and you know, it was scheduling-wise, it's extremely difficult.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there would literally be times where I'm trying to come up with melodies in my trailer.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: I actually wrote the first verse to the one in my trailer.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um it I have a I had a shower in my trailer that like had really beautiful acoustics.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: So Johnny would send me the the song, and I'd I'd immediately got an idea.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it literally is the I mean it's the verse ever since I wrote it in the trailer.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of crazy.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, it just sort of came to me.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I would like run to the shower in my trailer, record a voice memo, send it to them, be like, Do you guys like this?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: It like it feels really good.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then in between seasons is where we would really have to like make the most out of that time, which was usually like two months.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um but luckily, you know, I I I always say one of the biggest blessings of the show ending was I finally had full focus and time uh for the band, and whether that was writing, recording, um, so that was that was amazing.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they're so different, man.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I I love both very much, but I truly believe my happy place is in the studio with these two.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's like 12 hours, 14 hours flies by, and you know, you're like, oh my god, we just did that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it's it's um, I can't even imagine when we start playing live.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think um it's it's gonna change my whole world, man.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I see I see John nodding a lot there.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: I already know.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like the second he gets on stage, he's gonna that's gonna be his hard for you guys to kind of delineate between actor Ronan and frontman Ronan in this process while he was so busy with that show.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: I told people, I'm like, he's in his he's entering his Jared Leto era.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is being in this band is gonna be his best role.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I said this will be his best role yet as the singer of this band, and uh he's killing it.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: So not say that you're acting, like you're doing it, but like you know what I mean.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, just nice, man.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: I I like I like to say uh Donald Glover, but I'll take I'll take Jared Leto.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's yeah.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey man, I'm with you.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever we're done recording, I'll tell you guys a Jared Leto story when we're done recording.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: With second nature out in the world and a growing fan base, what's next for Knights and Stereo?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Tours, collaborations, maybe a full-length album?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we're literally right now in the process of rehearsing a sort of stripped-down live set.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh so that's gonna be whether it's like small pop-up venues or sort of these like recorded live sessions that are you know super popular right now.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then again, just write more music, um, keep creating music and uh eventually, you know, full-length album, play bigger shows.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we just want to keep going with this thing, and and you know, as long as people listen to it and are resonating with it, um, we're gonna keep going.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think uh again, like it's just the three of us.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: And like you heard how we wrote the album, right?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, or write these songs.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's a lot of just like gathering of parts, arranging it, and finishing it.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we're doing this stripped-down rehearsal just because it is the three of us.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have a full band and we kind of need to figure out how do we perform these songs.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, looping drums and acoustics and some effects.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think the goal from there is once we get that down, we can bring in some more members for some bigger life shows.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then we got a whole bunch of songs, like new soft stuff written and ready to demo.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's really just more about the time.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I think depending on time, like we'll see how we end up releasing songs in the future, whether it's a full length or right.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: I just heard someone saying that, like, he's like, I'm gonna release um Andy Williams from the band Every Time I Die.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: He's in a new band called Atomic Rule.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: And he was saying that what he wants to do is do like two songs a month, put them out on Spotify, and then at the end of the year, put them all out on vinyl, like on one big vinyl or something like that.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think depending on like our schedules, because I don't want to wait another like two years to put out an album.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what's just gonna be the workflow that we can get stuff out faster?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um everybody that I've talked to, uh, musician-wise, uh, they have a love-hate relationship with the new release model where you drop a song, three months later you drop another song.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: But there are other artists that would like to just get that collection out so the collection can kind of tell the whole story of a specific album.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's interesting to hear different perspectives and strategies for sure.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like I would love if we could take a month and go get a cabin and do a full album.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like that would be like that would be the way I could see us doing a full album is just being able to dedicate a bunch of time.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, jobs, families, all that stuff makes it difficult.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we're we're just gonna figure it out, I think, as we go from here with the new stuff.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's more likely for people to expect maybe like a two songs coming out of nowhere with maybe some music videos and content behind that.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um probably sooner than later than I would say like a full-length album.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: So more covers.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: We like covers.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: We like doing kind of a thinking about one right now.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we have uh one on YouTube um for uh The Killing Moon by uh Echo and the Bunny Man, yeah.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's awesome.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta you keep meaning to put it on Spotify, but the video of the cover is on YouTube, and uh we had a lot of fun with that.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to do more of that for sure.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think we should do a Spotify around the spooky season, like we always intended.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: So coming up.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so much very much the vibe of your background, actually.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it that that that kind of was always intended to be released around like Halloween time.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we'll probably drop it on Spotify around that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: So six months from now, let's just hypotheticals throwing it out there.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Six months from now, you guys have done some of these uh you know smaller stripped-down shows.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have a whole band backing you.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any dream collaboration or band that you would love to go out on tour with?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Taylor, everybody would say Taylor.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Come on!
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh War Paint immediately jumps to mind, especially because they're like a true LA band.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've kind of been in their circles a few times, which is so bizarre.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think for me that would be the the first, first and foremost.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and uh very different, but cigarettes after sex.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Also very LA, proud LA band, and I'm absolutely obsessed with them.
• 40:48
  unknown: Yeah.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'll let you guys are good.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta think about it.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: That'd be so vibey.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: War paint cigarettes after sex.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a hot show.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think I would.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, this is a not the question, but I would love to play a chill festival.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Festivals would be fun, man.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: A fun festival would be great.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh Desert Days.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Desert Days.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Desert Days, yeah, great festival.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: So a war came out, Desert Days, too.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's not like the most known festival, which is really unfortunate, but it's amazing, and it's at Lake Paris, so it's like you're on this beautiful body of water with mountains, and then it's like war on drugs and war paint, and it's not a giant festival, it's like one of the most intimate venues we've ever been to.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um putting that out that war on drugs is a good one, I'd say that.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: That would be like a cool tour.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think that we kind of match the vibe of that of Peace Coast.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if like it gets heavy, we jam, but there's some you know, chill parts.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like any band like that, you know.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, I'd love to go play in Hellfest and Warp Tour, but I don't think that's really our our jam.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: But so like trying to just find the right bands that fit our scene, like or or collaboration-wise, like I don't know, like having Brandon Boyd on a track would be like legendary, like you guys singing together.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was just gonna say Incubus would be great with you guys.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh a band whose sound has really evolved from the early days is Thrice.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you I have yeah.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and like the newer Thrice stuff, it's like if you listen to Thrice in 2003, 2004, you're not listening to the same band if you listen to their more recent material.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's why I love that they re-recorded Artists in the Ambulance.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: You and we both! Yeah, man.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: That was like, oh, we all grew up and love these songs, but now they're a little bit like they fit like where we went.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, under Yes, and it fit the like Dustin's voice has aged into those songs so nicely.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: I like that they had the self, like like they knew that that album was so good and needed to come back and revisit that again.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, it's awesome.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, good call.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think Thrice would be great, also.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I could talk about this all day, like all that stuff.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, uh Deftones also, I think, would be sick.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 100%.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: And getting like Chino, like all my favorite albums, like Chino shows up on so many guest tracks, so might as well get him on one of our tracks.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be sick.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: And my wife's from Sacramento, so you gotta run.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you hope fans take away from this next chapter of Nights and Stereo?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: An incredible live experience, whether it's intimate and small or something big, but we just want because we know the feeling we get when we are going to a show and when we experience a show, and then when we leave a show, like we really want to be able to give that to our fans, and um, it's probably one of the most uh I know it's gonna be one of the most surreal magical experiences, and uh we just want to give them an incredible uh you know, hour 45.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Minutes or whatever it might be, but yeah, I'd love for people to be like, seeing Knights and Serial Live was one of the best shows I've ever seen.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I want people to say that.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my closing question it's my favorite question to ask.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: I ask it every single episode.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love the dynamics of everybody's response, and each of you can give me an answer one at a time.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And my question is given your experience, everything you've been through, what you're going through right now, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Music will set you free, man.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: Good music will set you free.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, especially music that might be a little challenging or complicated.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like it took me years to figure out how brilliant the earlier Radiohead albums were, you know.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I I think I think it's it's it's good for the soul, it's good for our minds, and it's it's a great way to understand people from all different walks of life and people that might not look like you or sound like you.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, music is music is everything, man.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'll just like kind of piggyback off that.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: I would just say like go outside.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: Go outside, go to a show.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Go to any show, go by yourself to a show, go alone, go with all your friends, take someone to a show, to a band that they've never seen before, go see a band you've never heard before, go to a local show, go to an arena show, just go see music.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think when you're in the crowd with a bunch of people, like this is like kind of what you said, and you're like watching a band, it's hard to think like that there's like hate and anger and violence when you're like in a crowd with thousands of people singing a song with some people on a stage, right?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then you like leave the venue, like you we all know that feeling when you leave the venue of an incredible show and you're sweaty, and you're like, that was so amazing.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then you like walk two blocks from the venue and you're like, oh yeah, shit, like people suck, or like whatever it is.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the more you can go to shows and have that experience and and take that with you afterwards, we can heal a little bit.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_03: Totally uh couldn't agree more with with what you're saying, John.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mine is is you know, everybody has a story, every person has a story to tell, and maybe going through something.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um and the to what Johnny's saying, when you come out of the show and you're in a crowd with people walking to your cars, there's that before reality sets in, there's that time where people are are shoulder to shoulder, but they're kind of making jokes to each other, and they're a little they're so jazzed on the show that they're maybe a little more patient, they're a little more open to each other.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: And for me, it's that's everything.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's like um yeah, what John said, go to a show, watch other people enjoying something that they love, and you'll you'll feel like you understand them for a minute, you know?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, even like I I used to be when I was younger, I would see people driving in a car listening to music that I can't stand, and I would just like hate on it.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_03: And now I'm like, I see them vibing on something, and I'm like, that's not the music that I would put on, but the fact that they love it is so awesome.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_03: And if we could just all do a little bit of that with everyone around the world, we would just be so much more patient and loving with each other.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yes, yes, there's a there's a phrase that I use frequently on the show, and it's you are an individual, and so is everybody else.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the sooner we all understand that, the sooner the world becomes a better place, for sure.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny, you mentioned you guys all kind of hit on the same thing, and I did go to a show alone the other night, and I can a hundred percent echo what you're saying.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, former musician guy myself, I'm into every single style of music.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was a hip-hop show, and it was a big hip-hop show.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh the far side, atmosphere, Lupe Fiasco, and Cypress Hill.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so good.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there was one part during Atmosphere Set, he has got a few songs where I never thought it would happen, never thought it would happen with hip-hop, but I'm glad I had my sunglasses on because the lyrics hit me just right.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: My eyes started itching, you know what I'm saying?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something about a good musical experience is that it can touch your emotions like that, and you're having that collective experience with other people in the audience.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: So our friend Doug, he brought me to Warpain.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'd never heard of them before.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's a we love that band.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: And long time ago, took me to the show at the Fonda, didn't know who they were, and same thing, my eyes got real itchy, allergies were kicking in.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: I bought a t-shirt, I bought the vinyl, I didn't even have a record player.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: I bought the vinyl, didn't even have a record player.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: I just and and I was on a high for like a month after that show, and and you introduced them to me, and yeah, and it's one of our favorite bands of all time.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then on the flip, I went to like baby metal by myself.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: Someone gave me a ticket to that.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out James Garvick.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I met the coolest people, and I had one of like the sickest night of my life with like all these new friends, and yeah, it's just very rarely is it a bad choice to go do that.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, one of the greatest nights of my life was I went to see Kings of Leon at Madison Square Garden on my own, and in in a way, you almost are able to take in the music a bit more because you you're not really worried if the other person's having a good time or how their experience is, and you're really just like it's just fully in the moment.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, go see shows that.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: So tell my audience where they can find you guys, your music, all about you online.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: Nights and stereo across all the platforms, YouTube's, Spotify, Apple Music's, uh Instagram.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: Instagrams.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_01: We just got on TikTok, TikToks, which was which was a big deal for us.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh your local Penny Saver, the New York Times, uh, your grandma's basement.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_02: Just nights and stereo.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're everywhere.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I gotta tell you guys, I have really enjoyed this conversation with you guys.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would love to stay in touch, and the invitation's always open for you guys to come back.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for doing the show.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: The world's a much better place with you guys in it.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you so much.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having us.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: This was all super FICO.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, I want to thank my friends Ronan, Johnny, and Rodrigo, otherwise known as Knights and Stereo, for doing the podcast today.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you give them a follow on Instagram.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: Check out their new EP, Second Nature, available on all streaming platforms.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to it, enjoy it.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: They are a great band and even better people.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: While you're being generous with the followers, make sure you're following Hot on the Mike on all social media platforms, and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta grow that.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we wanna grow the show, we gotta grow the subscriptions on YouTube.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: Any help is very much appreciated.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can also visit me at my website www.hautonthemic.com.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: Email me caught on the mic at gmail.com for all booking inquiries.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you just wanna shoot the tip.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: I am Michael Clark.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.