Latest / Caught on the Mike... / TWO FEET- Bill Dess

Transcript

TWO FEET- Bill Dess · Caught on the Mike...

0:00
SPEAKER_01: 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_01: Listener discretion is advised.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: Some artists create songs, others create mood.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Goofy, the musical identity of Bill Depp, has mastered the latter.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: Its blend of gritty guitar riffs, sultry bass lines, and emotionally heavy vocals has turned late-night introspective into a global soundtrack.
0:42
SPEAKER_01: From viral breakout moments to dark popping singles, like I feel like I'm drowning, Bill has built a signature style that's instantly recognizable and impossible to imitate.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: Today we get to the headspace behind that sound, the creative riffs, the evolution of its artistry, and the personal experiences that duel is music.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: If you're a fan of raw motion, raft, and dark cinematic production, you're in the right place.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: I am really, really excited right now.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: I spent the last two hours listening to my next guest's music.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: You may be familiar with his 2018 hit, I feel like I'm Drowning.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: It hit the top of the alternative songs chart at that point in time.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: He's got new music, he's got an amazing redemption arc story going right now, and I cannot wait to dig in.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Bill Dest, otherwise known as Two Feet.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, my friend?
1:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: How are you?
1:55
SPEAKER_01: Ah, fantastic, dude.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I was just listening to your music.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: How excited are you to get this new music out in front of the world?
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm truly overwhelmed excited, honestly.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: I this we we just put out a little uh EP, and we've got a bunch more coming out next year, at least two or three more, followed by a bigger thing.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: So are you gonna kind of transform this EP into a full-length album, or is it gonna be a series of EPs?
2:25
SPEAKER_01: How's it gonna drop?
2:26
SPEAKER_00: So um that's a it's a good question.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: We're working that out right now.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: But uh basically, yeah, EP, EP, EP, and then however they kind of line up, whatever songs work, we'll then I'll kind of pull them off the individual EP for like a compilation sort of album.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy how the new music industry works like that.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: You kind of have full autonomy in how you want an album to come out these days, isn't it?
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's much better, to be honest.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, I get why.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: There's been major changes in how they release music constantly.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: The album lasted for a long time.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Before that, what it was like double singles was the most common, etc.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: etc.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna always forever change.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Who knows how the best way to release music in 10 years is.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: But right now, for me at least, it feels like dropping like short collections of music and then combining them at the end is the way to like get it out with a true vision and um keep it up, keep the momentum up for as long as possible.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: It just seems healthier and the fans like it too.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, and and I I like how you personalize that because it is kind of a different strategy for different people.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: I know I've asked people the same question on camera before, and then whenever I stop recording, they give me a different answer off camera.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: They're like, I hate the new way we release music, I'd rather get my whole idea all out at once.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, that's typical artistry, right there.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, I truly like it like this.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I've gotten in trouble because I just say things that are well, what I've taken a little break the past few years, but when I used to do a lot of interviews, I would get in trouble all the time because I just say what I actually think.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh I actually think this is a better way.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: I I truly believe I I 100% believe you and trust you.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: And uh I I I honestly, you know, I I think that's the thing that people like about your music is there's a certain layer of authenticity that bleeds through everything you write and release, and we're gonna dig into that here in just a moment.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, as I told you before we pressed record, this is kind of past, present, future.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: So let's kind of jump into the past a little bit, your origin story.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: You're one of the rare artists who writes, plays, sings, and produces everything yourself.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: How did growing up in New York and your early musical upbringing shape that DIY multi-instrumental mentality?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, basically I uh when I started making music, I started off like almost composing as a kid.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the second I figured out that I didn't I I was in a lot of bands and that was always a nightmare.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Kids, everyone wanted to do their own thing, no one listened.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I just by necessity, it was like, okay, I can record the guitar, but now I need to, I'm you know, let's say 14-year-old me.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I can record the guitar, but now I want drums, so I had to learn the drums.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how to learn the bass, whatever, and I just that's kind of how I learned, you know, you look at I have a bass, a snare drum, an acoustic, like yeah, I yeah, so I just play everything myself, and uh I like it better that way, to be honest.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's what's funny, and I I say this with all due respect to anybody that like fights mental health adversity or neurodivergence of any sort, so because what I'm about to say is gonna sound crazy, but it sounds listening to your music is very reminiscent of what my tastes are, like a very manic depressive, almost ADD array of influences, somebody that could jump from a Gregory Alan Isaacov, Jason Isbel, to a Bill Evans trio to an atmosphere type mentality, different styles of music.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: Your music blends so many different styles and textures.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: When you first started releasing tracks, did you have a vision for that sound, or did it flow naturally through experimentation?
6:37
SPEAKER_00: That yeah, it was built up naturally through experimentation.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really have a vision.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: I think it's weird.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Looking back at my catalog, you know, at this point I have over a hundred songs as two feed, but I also have I've written and uh produced a lot of music that you probably wouldn't even know was me, but you probably know the music.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh I it fell together.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: I look back at it, it almost seems like it I had a vision.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a vision, it just kind of worked out the way it does.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh you look at a single person's body of work large enough, and there's like an no matter what, there's an overarching just connection.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Even Picasso, right, had all these different periods, the blue period, whatever, uh moving through.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: But like if you look at it all, you're still like that's Picasso, even if they're completely different colors and whatever.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: So what does your playlist look like?
7:27
SPEAKER_00: It looks exactly like what you said.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Like the most I don't I think I have like right now.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: If I check, I have like there's a a Debussy song, and uh then there's Jeff Buckley, then there's like some strange, some of this uh more odd radiohead stuff.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: I just literally anything, and then I'll have like pop and like Liz Ho or like whatever, because I find things that I find interesting in basically every genre, yeah.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: Do you do you feel that that is a generational thing that like younger generations are becoming more open-minded and viewing music as just being music versus like adapting a genre as their identity?
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think that adapting a genre as their identity that was big in the 70s, 80s, 90s.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I think that absolutely, yeah, that's dying.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: I think it's just whatever they happen to like.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: And okay, so when just I can give a reason for that real quick.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean you might find it interesting.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Um back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, right?
8:35
SPEAKER_00: There was no if the way you found music was through your friends, if unless whatever is playing on radio, you know, they tend to ignore that.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: They find it through their friends.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: So you join a scene, let's say you join the grudge scene.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: You the music that you're hearing and you're learning about through your friends, that's it.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: You you're just you become trapped in this little human social bubble, and that's why you hear that.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: But like now with the internet and uh you know random songs blowing up on TikTok, they're just so much coming at them that the that specific genre-focused scenes are definitely fading away.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's almost like a musician's playlist is now transforming to just a general, you know, civilian playlist, yeah, so to speak.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: So I feel like I'm drowning hit number one, as I mentioned on Billboard's alternative songs chart in 2018.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: What do you remember most about the moment you realized that song changed everything?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: That was a really confusing time.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the best way I can put that.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't I that was like this whole scene I didn't understand.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: That's I I love that it went number one.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: I was very surprised by that.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, I wouldn't say it changed everything or much at all.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: It just was it's like a marker in my life.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to put it.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: That was a confusing time for me, I'll put it that way.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a good response to that.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's that's perfectly okay because I feel like, you know, it was only seven years ago, but so much has happened in the seven years that it almost feels like we've lived three lifetimes since that happened.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: That's been a while in seven years, you can say that for sure.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: Well, let let's let's kind of get into that because I know a lot of your new music leans into some personal experiences.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: Um we'll call it your sobriety and rebirth era.
10:36
SPEAKER_01: That's perfect.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, um, you've been very open about hitting rock bottom.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, what part of your recovery journey surprised you the most or changed you as a person that you first I were able to recognize?
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, honestly, hitting rock bot what that that's part of the recovery journey, you know.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: That's probably that's the the turning point of it.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: I was in a hospital, I had just played a show.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I for the two months leading up to that, I was having trouble walking.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: I had to use a cane, I was still playing shows.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: I I had to go to the hospital.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I had beat I woke up with a fractured skull and face.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: I was beaten up on the street.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And they took me to the hospital, I'm in the hospital, and three doctors come in the room.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: My career and everything had been in shambles for three, four years.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: I was still touring and whatever, but like I wasn't going anywhere.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: I was just living, you know, I had hits, I had a large cult following, whatever.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Influential in the alternative scene to a degree.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: And the doctors come in the room and they're like, uh, your liver's failing, um, your kidneys are failing, uh, you're gonna be dead in three to six months.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: If if you live longer than that, there's no chance you live longer than a year.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: They just said it just like that to my face.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're like, Yeah, look, here's your liver that's like extremely fatty, it's about to fail.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: That's why your eyes are yellow.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, you're gonna die.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was like, it honestly, it felt like the desire to drink alcohol was just like lifted from my chest and do drugs, and um that started it, and my life changed then and there.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm still I I got so overweight from the alcohol and stuff.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm actually naturally a really thin guy.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm still losing weight, it's like rolling off.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Like every two weeks I lose another five pounds.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big guy too.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm like 6'2, 6'3.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: So like I was like 240 pounds, and yeah, it's like I just looked like I was dying.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, fans would meet me and like cry.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: Like I was like, oh my god.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that is that was it.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: That was the most turning clean of everything else.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Everything else since then has almost felt like a breeze.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, while you were kind of in the heat and in the midst of of addiction, did you have sober-ish days where you kind of realize that the happenstance and the consequences of what you were doing to yourself?
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Those were rather awful.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: That's when you quickly start uh chugging it down when you start feeling it.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: You'd you'd wake up with this like overwhelming sense of like, I don't know, just absolute dread.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Like, just like oh, like this crazy panic, you'd wake up with that, and then you just need to start drinking like right away.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, that would happen.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dude, it's uh it's kind of crazy, uh, you know, and just kind of finding mutual kinship here is um, you know, I I never fell into the grips of addiction, but around the same time, around 2018, oddly enough, you know, we were talking about 2018 uh a little bit ago, um, I found that if I would had a night drinking, just a night night out on the town or something, I would wake up the next day and I wouldn't experience hangovers anymore.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: I would experience a week's worth of anxiety and existential dread where I feel I would need to call everybody that I know and apologize for shit I didn't even do.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: And it was like that was enough to make me stop drinking.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: So multiply that feeling by like a thousand million.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Like I know exactly what you're talking about.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: I started getting that on the earlier stages, which I don't know your story, but it might mean that you were close to maybe getting a little out of control.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't know.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: But yes, but like that times a million, like it it was the most unbelievably powerful dread I could possibly have experienced.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, it's nuts.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: So how long sober do you have?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, about 11 months, and things are changing.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Things are changing, uh crazy, like just crazy fast.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Radio's starting to play my music again, that tours were ripping tickets, uh, the music's doing way better.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of the bigger artists are reaching out for for me to produce again.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, just the the rate at which things are changing, I think, you know, two years from now, with the at the speed at which it's moving, yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: I think two years from now is gonna be kind of crazy.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: I really, to me, honestly, yeah, I had I've had a very successful career.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I've been very, very influential in the alt scene from you know, people like Suburban saying number that he's had number one to YouTube, biggest influences is Artemis, whatever go on the list.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Um that just feels like that was all my entry and my actual career starting now.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: I've always been an adult artist, you know.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: I yeah.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you you're quoted as saying, getting sober forced me to rebuild everything, not just my life, but my art.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's let's dive into that part of it.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: How did sobriety shift your creative process when making drunken fits of a modern age?
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, for one, I actually like tried the biggest ever.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: I drunkenfits of the modern age, I just I I thought that was a really cool name.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It came to me like a dream.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: I actually found like half of that written out in a journal while I was drunk.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's really just um I hadn't actually written like in a serious way.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I had I would put out songs every like a couple of months that like you know I didn't really put my heart into them at all, and they did okay, whatever.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: But it the it's just like the the first music I made sober, I was like, I still want to put this out anyway, is like an introduction back, and that's what the CP is.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: The music that's coming up from next year, I mean, next year is really the main push.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, and things are gonna be rolling, but this is done really well.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm honestly very surprised.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, and there I just wanted to put out the first stuff I wrote when I got sober, and that happened to be those four five songs.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: So they're there and they live, and I love them, and yeah, but I it changed everything.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So go go on.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: What was was there was there is there a specific song in this set that is your personal favorite?
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love Where Did That Girl Go, the last one on the record.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: Yes, dude, I wrote down I wrote down two songs that really stuck out to me.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: Where did that girl go and nostalgia?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Like really, I love nostalgia too, yeah.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, perfect.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: So so what emotions or themes were at the core of the EP as a whole?
17:48
SPEAKER_01: Were there sp specific moments in recovery that definitely inspired specific tracks?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Um nostalgia is like a mix of thinking what could have been one of the lyrics at the end is the drunken fits of your father.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Um which kind of lines up with the title a bit of the EP.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not very direct in my lyric lyrics, really.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I I like the intellectual like what makes a poem interesting is a poem's not direct, you know, you get hints of what it means and you have to put it together in your own head.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of how I like lyrics.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sometimes I'll tell just a straight up story if I sp if I really want to.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like I'm drowning as kind of like a straight just story.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: But uh this one is more piecemeal poems.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: I I like I have like you know, tons of lyrics.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I just I write all day, and so I kind of just grabbed a bunch from when I was uh drunk or in pain or trying to get sober, and those kind of became the lyrics to the CP.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Amazing, amazing.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, listening to your music, it has this sense of seasonality to it, and I've talked about this on I swear a hundred episodes of my podcast at the very least, is about how my personal t tastes kind of change with each season.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: And talking with Nate and like setting up this this interview and taking deep dive into your catalog, it feels like the right music for right now.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: Do you get that ever do you ever get that feeling?
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Man, you're a spot on the money with that.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly because the the next DP that's coming out in February is called Songs for February, and it's way more like you'll listen to that, and I'm sure you'll be like, This feels like February to me.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're exactly right.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's good.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we get each other.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: It's not just seasons, too.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, obviously there's a mental aspect of each season involved, but yeah, you're right on the money with that.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: See, the that's that's where I kind of trick people whenever I talk about that, because seasons don't have to just be calendar seasons.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Like you have seasons of life as well, like seasons of personal development, seasons of going through things, and you can hear the overarching narrative of like coming to terms with what you've just gone through and what you are currently experiencing, that sense of rebirth.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Am I off base with that?
20:25
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not off base at all.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: You spot on.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, for just diving in.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you have a you you love you love music, clearly.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, say you got you got, yeah, that's exactly right.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's talk a little bit about your relationship with fans.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: You've built one of the most loyal fan bases in alternative music, millions across Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and more.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: How has sharing your vulnerability affected your connection with your fan base?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Man, you you're you're good.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: You ask good questions.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm literally like, that's a bad question, I'm not gonna answer.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, okay, no, these are all good.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm a manic depressive, right?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: So I yeah, yeah.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: So like I'll just like I I I always share.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Um and when I I started my own independent label, I'm distributed through Sony, it's doing very well.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: But when I was signed to a major label, they fing hated it that I would like just like tweet how I was feeling, say how I was feeling, anything like that.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just I kept doing it, and it seems to have connected with fans um in a crazy way.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I have, yeah, I have you I didn't talk about myself, but you said it.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have one of the most loyal, strong fan bases in alternative music for sure.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: And they seem to be growing.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know, I get people sending me like incredibly personal stuff, and if I can tell that they're not like making it up to try to get me to respond to them, if I can tell they're really sending me like a true story, I get thousands of messages every day.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: So I can't read them all.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: But I do go through and if I see something like that, I will respond and start a conversation and talk to this person.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a great question.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a tough question.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: I love the people who do that.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I love my fans.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think being super honest and oversharing has just made them connect with us more.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I think with AI artists hopping off and having like number one records on the chart, the more you can just be honest and be fucking human, the better in the future too.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's I I was gonna go there.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say, you know, for all the shit we could say about social media and parasocial relationships at large, I think that's something that's changed as far as the industry goes, where maybe the old guard doesn't understand it as well as the new guard.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: Like being honest and being vulnerable actually engages people more because people can smell bullshit from a mile away.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's exactly that's exactly right.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: I think they're gonna hold, they're all gonna change.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Share everything about the I'm sure the major label starts, share everything.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: When you have a tough who, make sure you let them know that it was a hard one to get in that app this morning.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, like literally, make sure everyone knows you're a fucking you.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I can you're a human.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Please do.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy because you know, we we came of age in the TMZ era, which the the scary side of it, not to contradict myself, is how far are we, how far are we away from major labels constructing uh catastrophic moments for the sake of engagement.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to think about that shit, man.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: That's just that's pretty fun though.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: I love that you're going there.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: But um well, brother, brother, I gotta tell you, man, anytime somebody does my podcast, usually we leave best friends.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: So that's why I'm going there.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: That is crazy, man.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: I I hope, I mean, I'm sure that'll happen, yeah.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: But I hope not.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, but plus, you know, life is interesting enough.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, if people are just actually honest, people are gonna find the most mundane things about your life interesting because you have friends, right?
24:20
SPEAKER_00: That tell you about your day.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: It's rather mundane, but you're still interested because you care about them.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: So I I don't think that'll need to construct things.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: I just think they'll need to, they might start saying, you know, you don't have to seem so perfect all the time, whatever, and that's fine.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: But if they're studying like little, I don't know, like a false flag.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: The funny thing is, is you're laughing because you could see it happening.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: I can see that happening, yeah.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: So what advice would you give a younger artist coming into the industry right now with you know social media popping off the way it has, and like the music industry being completely redefined?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: I would tell them to talk as much to camera, to ex explicitly and and consistently and constantly post videos of them playing their instrument and singing, do everything that they can to show that they are a human being.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And if the music's good, then you know, that's that's really it.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Make good music and honest music, and I a good music can be anything, just be if I like it or not doesn't not determine if it's good or not.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: That's my personal taste.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Make good music, or I guess a better word would be quality music.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and um and and show that you can play it and show that you can sing it and show your face as much as possible, and that's it.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that's that's the best, most honest advice I can give.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, last one.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: This is actually the most important, I think.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh don't be a perfectionist.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Put out as much as you can, like, and just let it go.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: There's my favorite quote, Andy Warhol.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't think about art, just make art, put it out in the world while others are deciding if it's good or bad, make more.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: That's like just keep pumping out music, and that's it.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: That's all you have to do, really, in today's day and age.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to be signed to a major.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: If you keep putting out music, you'll grow a fan base, you start making some money from streaming, people will start coming to your shows, and you can live a wonderful life.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: Dude, 11 months of sobriety, like rebirth, regrowth, kind of reinvention.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: This is your first major tour since overcoming like big adversity.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: What can fans expect from set list energy to the person that you are now stepping on stage?
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, if they've seen any shows in the past like three or four years, they can definitely expect like a way better, way better show.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I can say that like as a the 100%, even if I changed nothing about the set, like it would still be a way better show.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: But um, this is gonna be we have a crazy show.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: This is a crazy new show.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've played a thousand festivals, I've seen every single act I can possibly see.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: I've helped put together other people's acts.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is a crazy show.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: And um I think in these rooms we're just gonna blow people away.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: You're you're close to Omaha.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: How far?
27:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm I'm in Lincoln.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm only 40 minutes away.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: I I go to Omaha all the time.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, come to our Omaha show, you'll see.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: It's like crazy.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: That is in March, ladies and gentlemen.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: The Omaha Nebraska show, I think, is March 18th, I believe is what I wrote down.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: Get your asses to.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: I think you're playing at the slowdown, but get there and check this gentleman out.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: What can you tease about where your sound, headspace, and storytelling are headed for 2026?
27:57
SPEAKER_00: 2026 is going to be uh an extremely consequential year for two feet.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's what we call a building year.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Um the sound's going this the sound is going in a really crazy place.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, this EP that I just put out is special, and as time goes on, it'll mean a lot to fans who know the full story too.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, those are the first like five songs he wrote when he got sober.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: But the stuff coming out in January and February and beyond, um, is really just I don't I just unbelievably quality and beautiful and kind of reminiscent of like my my first or second EP, but like mixed with like sounds that I've matured into.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's like if you mixed cold play, radio head, and two feet.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like sounds like if you mix that into one band.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even joking, that's the best way to put it.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: That's someone said that the other day when I was showing them it, and they're some of the demos are and I was like, wow, that's an interesting.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess so.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm an American artist, I always have Americana aspects of my music, blues, guitar, whatever.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: I hate, I I I never give that up.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, I always have some aspect of American music in my music because I'm a fucking American.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's just like, yeah, it's I guess it's it's gonna be very interesting year.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm very excited to see what happens.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: No, usually with my music, I put it out, people are like confused for like a year and then randomly it blows up like a year or two later.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens with all my songs.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: Dude, you know, I I I mentioned him earlier.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: You know who another artist that is similarly like that is Gregory Alan Isakoff.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: You ever listen to him?
29:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: Like I remember when the stable when Pandora was a thing.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I'm I'm really going back.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: When Pandora was a thing, and and like the stable song was on like you would listen to Tool Pandora and the stable song would show up.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: You'd listen to like hip-hop radio, the stable song would show up, and I swear to god, that guy had built the most groundswell fan base that I've ever seen.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Some of that stuff is some of the stuff is pretty uh brilliant, honestly.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of it.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: I haven't dived too much.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't actually end up diving too much into anybody.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: I kind of don't want to because I don't want too much of it to rub off on me.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Um seems like a brilliant guy.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Brilliant guy.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned Jeff Buckley.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Are you you excited for that documentary?
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen the trailers for that documentary?
30:31
SPEAKER_01: I've seen the trailers.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I have not uh seen anything else about it.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: I I love I've always loved Jeff Buckley.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is interesting.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: I love Jeff Buckley since I was, geez, I don't know, like uh 13, 14 when I found that stuff.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And about eight years ago, I saw he finally had like a Spotify, and I was looking at it, and the songs had like three, five million streams, whatever.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Then the other day I was on Apple Music and I was checking out the charts, and I saw two Jeff Buckley songs on the charts, and I was like, what the hell?
31:02
SPEAKER_00: He's like top 10 now, like 30 years after these came out.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: I go to his Spotify, he's got like 10 million monthly listeners, he's got hundreds of millions of streams, and he's blowing up with young kids on TikTok.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: It's it's just unbelievable.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Like that, it's crazy.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: And and you you'll be shocked who he's blowing up with.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: And I I'm a father of I I have three teenage daughters, and like they're listening to like Jeff Buckley and stuff like my daughter, she'll listen to like typo negative, then Fleetwood Mac, and then Tyler the Creator, and then Jeff Buckley.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: You know.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's I there's actually I will say too, in the new music, there's a there's a bit of Jeff Buckley in it, too.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Actually, there's yeah, content.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: See, and and I'm not gonna lie, I kind of heard twinges of that in the EP already.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: It started in that EP, the one that you're talking about.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I started getting some of those sounds in there.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: You're you have a good ear.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: And in this there's just this EP button, that's stuff coming up, there's a like a fair amount more of it.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: You you'll even probably distinctly be able to pick it out.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, I gotta tell you, I have really enjoyed this conversation and getting to know you like this has been a blast, brother.
32:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: So my closing question, I ask every single guest that does my show because I love their answers and it's always unique to them.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: But what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
32:33
SPEAKER_01: Through from your experience, from my experience.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: I honestly it sounds done.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Just literally the nicest little acts of kindness.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, waiting an extra five or ten seconds while holding a door for somebody, shit stuff like that.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: I truly think that if everyone think about if everyone is like, I'm just gonna be like 10% nicer today, like yeah, in public, it would be like the best day on earth.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's it.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Really, just it's really hard to consistently and constantly be nice in its own way.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that be nice, be nice as you can.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: I love it, I love it.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: Tell my listeners and viewers where they can find you and your music online, my friend.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: All right, you can find me on YouTube, you can find me on Spotify, on Apple, any uh digital station you want to.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: We're everywhere.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And um, if you specifically want to watch the live performances on my YouTube or come to a show on the tour this year, North American Tour 44 dates.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: So we're probably playing near year.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, amazing.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely mean this.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: I get pitched artists all the time for my show, and I only book people that I seriously can invest myself in.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: I'm a huge fan of Two Feet.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: You will be too if you listen and watch some of his performances.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Drunken Fits of a Modern Age is available now on streaming platforms.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: It's a fantastic, small collection of songs.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Bill, thank you so much for doing the show, my friend.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: It's been honestly truly a pleasure.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: You're you're a really cool guy, so thanks for having me.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the world's a much better place with you in it.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: You too.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: What a great time recording that episode with my friend Bill, otherwise known as Two Feet.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're following Two Feet Music on Instagram.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Go to Spotify, wherever you listen to music, check out all of his new music, his old music.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: You will absolutely thank me afterwards.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: I want to give a big shout out to my friend Nate from Impulse Artists for helping set the interview up.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: While you are being generous with follows, make sure you're following Caught on the Mike on all social media platforms, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or visit me at www.caughtonthemic.com.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: For all booking inquiries, shoot me an email, caught on the mic, M-I-K-E at gmail.com.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: More things in the works?
35:09
SPEAKER_01: 2026 is gonna be a big year, and I appreciate you being here on the ride with me.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.