Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 741 - Ava Maybee at BottleRock Napa

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PODCAST: Episode 741 - Ava Maybee at BottleRock Napa · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

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  Hey, this is Derek Verduren from Megadeth, and you're listening
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  to ghostcokemag.com. Welcome back to the Ghost Co
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  Magazine podcast, everybody. I'm Rose Ogier in today's
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  episode Keith, incredible real person live in person.
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  Can you believe it? I don't remember what time we
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  had live in person one, but it was at a festival I'm pretty
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  sure, which is probably why this one's at a festival to, Keith
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  reported with Ava. Maybe at Bottle Rock and now 23
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  year old singer-songwriter from Los Angeles who has some pretty
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  awesome parents. Lulu.
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  Her debut EP Orange Drive is out now.
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  What's up everybody? It's Kefi from ghostcultmag.com
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  and I am super stoked to be joined by Ava.
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  Maybe. How are you doing today?
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  I'm so good. How are?
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  You, I am so great welcome to bottle Rock Napa.
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  Thank you and what an amazing experience.
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  You played first thing today and you, you and your band put on a
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  terrific show. Thank you.
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  I know you had a brand new EP, you're going on tour, all these
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  exciting things, but just first set of the day, you know, I know
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  you also did Lollapalooza last year, so festivals are not new
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  to you, but it's always, you know, like an interesting
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  challenge. A lot of people did show up,
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  which I think was great. Which is amazing.
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  I was, I had my expectations were on the ground so that I get
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  it's only up from there and I was very pleasantly surprised,
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  very happy. Yeah, and you had some super
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  fans there who knew some of your older material, not just your
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  new album Orange Drive. But I was really stoked to hear
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  those first few singles. And people were singing along
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  and I kind of craned around the crowd and checked everybody out.
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  A lot of people, new, new converted fans, which is always
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  you want. And of course you have some
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  diehards, which is really sweet. Which is that's the goal, right?
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  They might have come just to see you.
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  That's so, that's so nice. That's so nice.
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  Including once again, shout out to Tisha and Martin.
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  With their bracelet. And they knew every word and
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  they were like into it. And I love seeing that.
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  I love music, doesn't matter what it is.
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  I love coming to bottle rock for diverse artists and stuff I
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  don't always get to cover. So this is a real treat.
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  And I've been following your work for a few years and I I
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  love the progression of the singles.
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  And also, you know, I really love what you do with your
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  voice. And, you know, it seems like the
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  material and your voice are just one, which is amazing.
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  Like you're very, you know, I can tell with your performance.
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  It's important to you matters to tell those stories you're
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  singing. About yeah, for sure.
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  I think it started out as like I just couldn't shut up.
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  And then it ended up just staying in the set.
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  And it felt important because I think I also love artists that
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  just put themselves out there completely of like, this is me,
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  like it or not. And, and I feel like it provides
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  important context for the songs because they're all very
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  personal to me. Right on.
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  And it's so hard, like right now, mental health, this needs
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  to be like the number one topic of trending in real life, not
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  just on social media because it's so overlooked.
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  It's so stigmatized still. And you know, musicians, we
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  always hear like, oh, the crazy rock person or the crazy singer
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  chick. And it's just, you know, we're
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  all little anxiety potatoes. I love that you talk.
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  I love puke. I love that you talked about
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  anxiety so much and other things just, you know, very self
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  depreciating and and real. And I think people relate to
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  that realness. I hope so.
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  I think that it's important, especially when there's like if
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  you're, if there's someone on a stage that is being very open
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  and talking about their mental health, I feel like it
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  encourages people that are watching maybe to be kinder to
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  themselves. And so that that's always why I
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  talk about it so openly. Word.
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  I appreciate that so much and I've been very, I talk a lot.
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  I always say our our DMS are open and I'm always really
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  appreciative of people coming to us with their issues because I
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  got mine and I'm not shy about talking about it.
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  And again, we just don't, we need more.
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  We need more people to do this just in their music with their
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  platform, whatever it is, you know, So new record is out, very
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  catchy, but I love, you know, it's clear to me that like
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  obviously you have a deep love for soul and R&B as well.
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  I know you grew up in a very musical family.
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  It's well known and your experience, but just because
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  this our first time meeting, who were some of the singers that
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  inspired you to want to sing? To want to sing in general.
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  Okay, let's see. To want to sing, I think I was
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  inspired by a lot of male singers because I've always had
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  a really low voice. And so it was always just like I
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  gravitated towards tenors. So a lot of like Al Green, a lot
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  of Stevie Wonder, a lot of Sam Cooke were was really what I was
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  gravitating towards because we had the same register.
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  And then for female vocalists, it was a lot of like Janis
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  Joplin, a lot of Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes, a lot of
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  who else even like Adele, because Adele was like so
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  popular when I was growing up. And so I always thought it was
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  so cool to have Amy True. Amy, I hear some Amy like a.
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  True Alto was was, yeah, that's that's what was around me at
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  that. Time right on.
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  That's awesome. And I love that you're going
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  down that road too. But also some, you know, there
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  there was the singer-songwriter stuff.
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  There's a little bit of rocking in there.
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  Like, I really dug it. Brittany Howard has a hardcore
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  band now, by the way, which I love.
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  And she's been here a few times both solo and with the Shakes.
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  So I'm a huge fan actually. And yeah, I love, yeah, I love
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  that you're kind of following in this path and like you're making
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  your own music. You shout it out.
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  DIY artists so important right now.
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  Obviously we're at Bottle Rock and some of the biggest artists
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  in the world are here. But also it's cool that I have
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  discovered so many new cool bands from.
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  Here the whole point of festivals.
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  I really think that's what festivals are for.
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  That's exactly right. I feel like that's lost.
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  I feel like people don't take advantage of that.
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  Like I'm playing Warp Tour and everyone is so mad about the
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  lineup and I'm like, but the whole point of Warp Tour is to
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  discover new artists. It's it's a catch 22 with Warp
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  Tour because it's so iconic and it's also because all of those
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  smaller bands became some of the biggest bands in the world.
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  You just can't have that same kind of lineup.
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  But I am stoked. I was going to ask about Warp
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  tour. So buddy, I'm very yeah, no, I
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  helping me with my Segway is one of my favorite things any artist
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  can do beside make music and so and talk about DIY and also help
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  me with Segways. And so yeah, I really love that
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  you're on Warp Tour and again, you've become a festival old hat
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  to you by the time you get there.
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  But Warp Tour will be great and I know.
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  Stuff for warp tour? You know, it's, it's more about
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  marketing and nostalgia. Yeah, not the festival, but the,
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  the idea that like, well, we can't have 20 Green days.
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  We're not going to have these bands or even other bands like
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  Pierce The Veil. Yeah.
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  And and we came as Romans and and other bands.
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  That became sirens and all. They became big.
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  Big, big metal core bands. Yeah.
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  Because they were on Warp tour. Because they played at 1:00.
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  Yeah. In front of everybody else.
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  And I and I had gone to a bunch of warp troops.
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  And funny enough, when I've shown up at other festivals like
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  Bottle Rock or even metal festivals like Aftershock, and
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  I'll see people who met me at Warp Tour like 10 years earlier,
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  like, you know, Lil Czar and people like that were like,
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  didn't I see you at Warp Tour? That's in that same shirt.
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  I was like not quite the same shirt but similar.
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  Shirt, Sort of. Sort of a Hawaiian shirt back
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  then. So yeah, just super cool that
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  you're getting some exposure. You are supporting your new
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  album, kicking off a huge tour. Is this your first headline
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  tour? Yeah.
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  Wow. Yeah, yeah.
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  Nerves. Butterflies.
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  Both all, all the above. Very nervous, very excited.
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  I've done a couple tours, being first of three in direct
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  support. So I'm, I'm really stoked to
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  have it be my show and be able to have the full hour and curate
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  it and, and it's going to be really fun and I hope it's fun
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  and and also very healing for for the audience.
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  Nice work beside your awesome beret and obviously a bottle of
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  Tums if you have anxiety. Like what are some essential
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  things you brought with you? Like, I'm going to need this for
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  this headline tour to just to, to be alive on the roads away
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  from home for a while. Yes, I brought a lot of books I
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  like to read, so I bring a lot of books to read.
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  What else have I brought? I'm currently reading the Rick
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  Rubin book on creativity, which is great, and I like to read it
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  while I'm on tour as like an active reading type of thing.
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  And then I'm also doing the artist journey as well, which I
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  do for tour. And then I'm reading Poisonwood
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  Bible right now, which is fantastic.
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  Cool. I read a bunch of things at once
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  right on Crazy Person. I just read the Mark Compass
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  book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I read that
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  too, so. Childhood was very surprising.
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  I didn't realize it was harder. He had it harder than I thought.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I read that while I was at
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  Coachella. And then the book ends at
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  Coachella, which was so wild. Their comeback has been wild.
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  It's amazing. They're reunite.
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  Not quite a They've been back, they're come back, they're back.
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  Is major. It's hard to.
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  Do yeah, It's hard to do. It's hard to do.
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  Yeah. So that's awesome.
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  Yeah. You look, So you got the tour,
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  new album. Do you have some other singles
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  dropping you can talk about yet or is it a surprise?
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  You can't talk about new music yet.
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  It's a surprise. OK, but I the EP came out like a
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  week ago, so I can't even think about new music.
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  So. But I'm always thinking about
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  new music. Yeah, of course, of course.
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  No, I meant like, you know, it seemed like you played pretty
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  much the whole EP and I. Played the whole.
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  Bunch of your singles, so yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  I've released 11 singles and then the EPS.
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  So it's. Really.
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  Smart. It's been really great.
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  And then I was writing this next batch of singles and I knew that
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  it had to be a project and I was very.
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  Excited to took a whole shape finally.
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  Yeah, that's awesome. I love that you put it together
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  that way. We'll link everything in the
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  description so everybody can love it and get it.
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  And yeah, you know, thanks for hanging out with Ghost Co.
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  Welcome to Bottle Rock again. Enjoy the rest of the day.
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  Who else are you excited to see today before we?
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  Go I'm really excited to see Justin Timberlake.
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  I'm excited to see what he's going to do.
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  He's great live. Love it.
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  I mean, he's an incredible vocalist.
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  I'm very, very excited. And then who else?
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  Lauren Mayberry, who I opened for last night, is incredible
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  and she's on soon, so I'm. Going to go check out the end of
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  Sharon and I'm going to go check out Sharon Bennett and then go
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  check out Lauren Mayberry. Cool.
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  Even maybe. Thank you again for hanging with
• 9:59
  Ghost Cult. Thank you.
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  This has been another episode of the Ghost Cult Magazine podcast.
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  Check us out at ghostcultmag.com and follow our socials at Ghost
• 10:09
  Cult Mag. Tell the next time peace.