Festival First Timers: Almost Monday

Some bands just need a shot, a shot at standing on a stage at a festival in front of thousands

and thousands of people.

It all started on the cafe stage at Bonnarooo for the Black Keys.

Who will be next?

Well first timers, from San Diego, California, almost Monday.

Our guest today on the What Podcast, which bands this year that matter, it starts right

now.

If you're new to the show, welcome.

If we've known you forever, welcome back.

It's the What Podcast, which bands this year that matter from two and a half parts of the

country.

I'm Brad Steiner, Barry Courter, Lord Taco on your TV screen, moving picture box and

in your earbuds.

Welcome back gentlemen.

How are you?

Look at the tan.

Very cool.

Look at that warm glow.

It's lighting.

Everything is lighting, man.

We get hooked up with Consequence and Barry, the first thing he does is install a tanning

bed.

Hair and makeup, hair and makeup.

Speaking of, that's a good looking dude you got working right there.

Yeah, you happy with it?

That might be the best.

I haven't been happy about some of the previous ones that you liked a lot, but that one's

pretty good.

You're rating my haircuts now.

That's what you're doing today and only today.

Well, the thing is, is that moving to a new city, by the way, if you don't know, I'm

in New Orleans, Barry Courters in Chattanooga and Lord Taco is an undisclosed location in

his Volkswagen bus.

I moved to New Orleans after being in Chattanooga for 20 some odd years and I had the same girl

all the time and she knew exactly what my head of hair needed to do.

Moving to a new city, this was the hardest thing that I've had to do finding friends.

That's easy.

You know, finding your local bar, finding a dentist, a hair guy, the hardest move you

can make.

I think the most excited I've ever seen you, you were about to drive from here to Nashville.

Was it?

I did.

Yes, I did drive from Chattanooga Nashville one time to get a haircut.

How much money?

We never, you never did disclose.

We don't want to talk about that.

We don't want to talk about that.

But her name is Chainsaw Betty.

So when you look up, is it chainsaw?

On the pantheon of people that cut hair right at the top, Chainsaw Betty, which by the way,

if you're in Nashville and you need a quick cut, go to her.

The reason why I like her is, and I didn't know this until like sat down, yellow wolf

owns the place.

And so when she sat me down and she goes, so how'd you find out about us?

Are you a fan of Wolfie?

Who in the hell is Wolfie?

What am I supposed to know about?

And so she had to say, Oh, it's yellow wolf.

I'm like, you know what?

If yellow wolf was cutting my hair, I don't think I'd be able to pick them out of a lineup.

I have no idea who yellow wolf is.

And you know, I'm very fond of my own hair.

I'm very fond of my own hair, but I cut my own for like 20 years.

And my, my feeling was it'll be fine by Monday.

It'll all agree right back by Monday.

And typically it is.

So we're on different universes in this regard.

You know, it's really, you can't even imagine, can you?

I'm feeling a tad ill.

I don't necessarily feel comfortable with this.

It doesn't compute.

The math doesn't add up.

You cut your own hair.

Yep.

I mean, I know we love Bonnarooo and camping, but you're taking this lifestyle way too far,

Barry.

How is it?

How is it that you got into Bonnarooo and got into camping and got more glammed out?

How is it?

You became a big guy.

Go man.

Go and go and blonde was the best thing I ever did.

That's what you call blonde.

I think the eyes are next, Barry.

I think the eyes are next.

I know, right?

I'm really excited.

So in, in, how do we get on?

Well, you know, you start talking about my hair and I just won't be able to stop.

If you listened to some previous episodes, you know, now we're part of the consequent

podcast networks.

You've heard us talk to deaf tones, which looking back on it, I want to do a whole episode

of just us talking about talking to deaf tones.

Wasn't that fun?

Um, let me honest with you.

It's, it's petrifying.

Oh, because they're, yeah.

See that.

Yeah.

That's in that we all have those.

I didn't realize you were that big a fan.

Well, it's one of these things that like, there are certain things that I'm not necessarily

comfortable about talking about.

Um, one of them is playing golf.

Um, and then there are other like bands that I just don't know how I'm supposed to communicate

what I like.

Um, like for instance, you know, something about me and not many people know I love the

band.

Yeah.

Oh, uh, Hootie.

Hootie.

Yes.

I was in the same country when I was 19.

Yeah.

So when I started to try and tell people that the bands that I listened to when I was a

kid with hooting the blowfish, neutral mo-co-tel, uh, deaf tones, they look at me like I'm insane.

So I just prefer not to talk about it.

So okay.

My moment was Brian Wilson.

Absolutely.

I, I couldn't speak.

I knew, and he doesn't, you're going to say Linda Ronstadt.

I'll be honest with you.

He doesn't do, Brian doesn't do interviews.

It was one of those.

I mean, I didn't know we were going here, but I, my brother, Bob is a huge beach boy

fan.

He's turned more people onto the real beach boys than probably the real beach boys.

We're not talking about surf stuff.

We're not talking about Mike love stuff.

We're talking Brian Wilson and the real beach boys stuff, Brian Wilson stuff, surf stuff.

Okay.

So why don't you say that it's Brian Wilson stuff.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, nobody likes Mike love.

So in, in this will come up later.

It's so funny by the way, taco, short story.

One day I texted Barron's like, I've got an interview with a beach boy tomorrow.

And he said, if it's Mike love, I don't care.

Yeah.

I can promise you.

So it was my club.

So, so Brian Wilson is coming to Chattanooga and you know, I, like I always do put in a

request, I get this phone call saying, Hey, he'll talk to you in like two days.

You have to understand my family, my brothers are such fans that I knew I could not have

this conversation without reaching out to them first.

So I sent all three of them the same text.

I have an interview with Brian Wilson.

What should I ask?

Because I knew if I waited until after I would have gotten a litany, you know, why didn't

you do, and, um, all three of them took forever to respond.

The only answer I got back was why is Mike love such a Dick?

You know, it was a, um, it's a fair question, but you know, the guy, he, I think he gets

a bad rap.

He was a sweet, I think that being a multi billionaire, you soften up a little bit.

He was very nice to me.

I had no problem with him whatsoever.

No, he was nice to me.

I've interviewed him.

In fact, my daughter, who you've met, she answered the phone when he called her.

We dated nice, but she answered the phone when he called her.

So I mean, no, he, it was just, uh, you have to be a beach boy fan to understand.

And I don't feel bad saying what I just said, but cause that's what they said.

But, uh, that was the one I knew if I didn't, I was going to go completely Chris Farley.

You were in the beach boys.

What does, what does going Chris Farley mean to you?

I was going to do in Cartwheel's onto Latterman.

I was going to go Chris Farley, Paul McCartney.

So you were in the beach.

I get the reference now.

Yeah.

What was that like?

Yeah.

What was that like?

That's what, that's exactly what I was going to do.

I got, especially if you've seen him interviewed.

Anyway, that was mine.

Um, he, that was, uh, I had a good two years, man.

I got to interview Steve Martin, Martin short, Graham Nash and Brian Wilson all within like

a little bit, all people that would have been on my, on my list, never thought would happen.

So I understand.

I get it.

I don't where we went a hundred thousand miles.

I know, but I don't want to get, I don't want to get too out and ahead of ourselves, but

we might have one on my list coming up later on the season.

Um, I don't want to give anything away.

Might be a box checked for old Brad guy coming up soon.

I hope so.

So we love this episode.

If you're just now trying to figure out what the hell we're doing, this is essentially

a show that celebrates music festivals, music festival culture inside baseball, chitter

chatter.

What we like about this episode specifically, we do it each and every year for Bonnarooo.

The lineup is just packed full of artists that we don't know that we've never heard

of, especially when it gets into those, you know, I doctor lines at the bottom.

So what we decided to do when you're just like, start talking to some bands, so we don't

know and try and figure out who they're, who they are, what they're about.

And essentially it became Bonnarooo first timers.

So first time artists that have never played Bonnarooo and frankly, some of these people

that we've talked to in the past have never played festivals before.

It was so weird.

Two years ago we did two Bonnarooo first timer episodes and both bands ended up not playing

the festival.

So we talked to them before not playing a festival and they still haven't played a festival.

You just don't know how this is going to go.

It's one of my favorite things.

Well, I mean, it's the reason why we started the thing, the show to begin with was to talk

to and talk about bands that we had no, we didn't know anything about because frankly,

the first time, first year we did this show, the Bonnarooo lineup was not very good.

And so we had to spend weeks and months figuring out who the hell half of these people were.

It's not like the, the days of today where every festival lineup is incredible.

You know, it was a struggle in 2016, man.

It was a great idea.

And now a lot of those bands are favorites repeat, repeat.

I mean, I don't, that wasn't that year was it?

But, uh, that was, that was a, uh, that was a Bonnarooo led episode.

That was led into that whole sort of discovery thing.

And I think, I think that's where we landed.

That's what we love about these festivals.

Yeah.

Is the discovery part.

So today part one, I think that we'll have two parts for Bonnarooo first timers, but today

we've got almost Monday, almost Monday is really great though.

Almost Monday, they're starting to pop a little bit on the alternative charts and me being

a guy that runs an alternative station.

I'm very familiar with the kids of almost Monday from San Diego, California, which turns

out a lot richer of a musical city than you would anticipate.

I talking to switch foot a few months ago, I looked at him and I was like, you know,

there's literally no one from San Diego, one of the great cities in the country that we

all think of as paradise, not really the biggest musical pedigree.

And then they said, Oh, sir, no, no, no, no.

And then listed the dozens of people from, from San Diego that I had no idea about.

Now, what do you guys know?

Have you listened to anything?

What do you know about the kids of almost Monday?

Who legitimately might be dating your daughter, Barry?

Wow.

You, you, that hurt that, that, that young, the eyes.

Yeah,

the Russes Russes bus is older than these kids.

My bus is older than me.

I was, I was literally on the train with you until right then.

I don't know that I've ever been speechless.

No, I like them.

I like them a lot.

And what I love and you set it up just right.

This is in my mind, this is why what we do is so much fun is the discovery.

There's just, there's no way around it.

We, I love from the first day I ever set foot on that farm.

I mean, that was 20 years into my, whatever career you want to call it already.

Everything felt stale, whatever.

And just this discovery is wow.

There's all these great bands and all these things I've never heard of.

Some of them were going to go on to do great things.

Some not, but whatever.

That was the fun part.

So by the way, you know, binary first timers is how we found war and treaty.

But when you, when you, when you get a assignment or if you get an artist that calls you and

says, Hey, I wanted to interview with the paper.

How many times do you say no or just ignore it?

Yeah.

90%.

Yeah.

See, that's the problem.

And, and I think that I, a couple of years ago, I'll say a terrible story and I'm going

to get you a little guessing game here.

I worked at a top 40 radio station in Chattanooga and there was a really, really young kid who

was on a major label and they said, are we going to bring this kid by if you want to

meet him and do like a small thing at the station?

You know, he's got this sort of mediocre hit.

Would you like to at least have him there?

Have some pizza, have a winter to combine.

He'll play in your break room.

Well my guy at the time, my music director said, no thanks.

No thanks.

We are too busy.

Way too busy.

We too busy in Chattanooga, Tennessee doing radio.

Guess who that bright little kid was.

I have, I mean, I could go Bieber.

I just Bieber.

What?

I guess, right.

It was Justin Bieber.

We said no to having Justin Bieber walk into the building.

Why?

Because we just happened to be a tad too busy that day telling fart jokes on the radio.

He's already, he was going to bring pizza.

And he was bringing Papa John's.

We should have said yes, just for the Papa to be honest with you there at the garlic

dip, but we said no to it.

And it said to me at that moment, just stop saying no.

Just don't, you don't know who you're going to get when you can get them.

So if you can get literally at this point, there's going to be a point in our life where

nobody will talk to us.

I mean, if you remember, if you remember our conversation with Kristen and Jared repeat,

repeat it at camp nut butter who now do our theme song, which is awesome.

The whole topic of the show was they always say yes.

If you need us to play this gig, if you need us to go to the radio show, whatever.

So if Bieber and his people were, you know, if they're knocking at the door, I'm probably

going to say yes.

If they're just saying, Oh my God, that was a huge part of it.

That was the thing.

They were all.

Yes.

Everything is.

Yes.

I have been saying this for the better part of like three years to anybody that I meet

whenever they're like, Hey, do you want to go?

I was like, I say no to nothing.

I say no to nothing.

I forgot I got that from Jared.

It hit me in the ass the other day.

So I walk.

So me and my buddy went to the Pelicans game.

Excuse me.

We go to the Pelicans game and we come back and we just happened to be passing a guy's

house that he knows.

And so we're like, Oh, we'll call him.

We'll just run up to his apartment.

We get to his apartment.

It's like 11 o'clock.

It's after the game.

And he meets me for the first time.

He says, Oh, nice to meet you.

It's so great to meet you.

I'm like, Hey, Brad, it's like, you want to drink?

I say yes to everything.

I say no to nothing.

So he walks into his bedroom, comes back out with a vial of LSD and says, say no to nothing.

I looked at it.

It's like, it's Tuesday.

Who's doing this on a Tuesday?

All right.

We, we might need to amend some rules in this thing.

I'm going to let you clean this up, but whatever.

I said no, by the way, I'm just clarifying that.

I said no, it was Tuesday.

Is that why you said no?

I don't know about the rest of the days, but I said no, cause it was Tuesday.

All right.

So first up Dawson Cole and Luke from almost Monday.

Oh my goodness.

Look at this guys.

What's going on?

Hello fellas.

Look what's going on gentlemen.

Nothing much.

We just did this, this like live stream in our garage and that's nice to not be in there.

It gets super hot.

So enjoying the outside now.

Oh yeah.

The, the, the bright shining San Diego sun looks terrible.

That looks awful.

Huh?

Yeah.

What are you guys based out of?

Well, we are in, we say this pretty regularly.

We're in two and a half parts of the country.

I'm in New Orleans, Barry Courter is back home where I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

And then our buddy Lord taco Russ is in an undisclosed location and his 77 was folio.

So we don't, we don't really know where he is, but that's where us two are at least.

He could be anywhere.

Russ could be anywhere literally.

That's the idea.

In fact, in fact, he might be pulling up any minute guys.

So we got the look out.

Yeah.

You got, you got driveway I can crash in.

Yeah.

So the first thing that I'm going to, I'm going to bring up is, is, uh, Barry was really

complimentary about his own hair today.

Barry, a little jealous yet.

You're a little jealous.

I told you the kid had good hair.

This is a good show.

This is a hair show.

Oh, three of us got good hair.

Look at this.

We're getting killed here.

Barry, you're killing it, man.

And I'm just saying that it looks great.

Thank you.

Yeah, we should, we need to exchange, uh, tips and the hair care tips here.

I know Brad probably has a whole regimen that he can share with us.

So guys, guys, guys, dad cuts his own hair.

That's all we need to say.

Some of us are blessed.

Yeah, I'm, I'm just so, I'm so excited to talk to you guys because, um, you guys sort

of like found your way at least into my hemisphere so quickly and, um, so abruptly.

Uh, and it's not like that for a lot of people, you know, not everybody, you know, programs

or radio stations.

So for those who don't know, almost Monday, give us the A, B's and C's who, who, who are

you guys and tell me what you're about.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for, thanks for having us guys.

We really appreciate it.

Or, uh, yeah, almost Monday, three, three friends.

We all kind of grew up together.

Um, uh, all grew up in San Diego.

Luke and I started playing music together really, really young.

And then I met Cole surfing when, um, I was around like 15 and we met literally like out

in the water and I came back to his house after we surfed and like met his dad and his

dad's like, well, Cole plays guitar.

And I was at the time, uh, like doing that show, the boys.

So I was telling him about that.

And then Gary kind of, Cole's dad was like, you guys should, you know, link up and maybe

try to do something.

And then we, uh, kind of started the band from there.

Uh, yeah, that's sort of where our roots lie.

And we, in the early days we were just playing a ton of, uh, like just shows, booking them

ourselves, like playing everywhere in San Diego, like the Casbah a thousand times, throwing

shows, uh, you know, at UNIV, the surf shop, our buddy's surf shop.

And uh, you know, ended up going to college all in San Diego and sticking together and

you know, really giving it a full shot.

Cause it's sort of what we call.

At any point did you say dad, do we have to do this again?

He's my friend.

Everybody I bring over, you gotta talk about playing guitar.

My friend.

What was the music that, uh, what was the music then that, that sort of you bonded with?

Um, I feel like at the time when we started the band, we were like, we didn't really

record music.

We were kind of just loved playing it live.

So we just like, we are a true garage band.

We just kind of like played music together and like, you know, made up some stuff every

once in a while, like tried to write songs at the early stages, but a lot of just like

kind of serve rock music and kind of stuff that a lot of bands are playing around here

locally.

It's kind of like where we started, I think.

Yeah.

We're listening to a lot of different, when I met you, you were listening to like a lot

of like classic rock.

Um, I don't know.

Okay, I gotta, I gotta ask cause I'm dad, granddad, whatever.

What is, what is, what is classic rock to you?

Cause I can, yeah, Brad's already loaded.

I can see Brad loading up here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Guys, if you say fog hat, he's going to have to cut himself off.

He's going to have to leave.

Yeah.

I'm betting it's not Aerosmith.

Let's go ahead.

Yeah.

I mean, I got Zeppelin like here.

Uh, I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm a psychedelic first.

Yeah.

Psychedelic for my man.

Nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

There's no wrong answer.

It's just, we're going to make fun of it.

No matter what.

Blink, semi-sonic, whatever.

Well, I find it to be so interesting that, um, uh, you know, I've taught, I talked to

switch foot about the same exact topic of, of bands that are from San Diego.

I mean, it's not like San Diego has the richest music history, right?

Uh, so, yeah.

And I said this to them and this is not an insult.

People in San Diego just have better shit to do.

You know?

I mean, like you literally.

What the heck?

That's why it's like sports teams, shows.

It's hard to get people places because they could go do six other things.

Our pod is open up though, man.

We're finally have a team.

We're at Silver.

Yeah.

Well, I know they're doing well.

I, I, I just like what you just said is the point.

Um, well, we could be playing music, but we were surfing.

Um, so we've got other things to do in San Diego, but when you look at the, like the,

the Pantheon of San Diego music, it's actually better than you think.

And that's what they reminded me of.

I mean, aside from RuPaul, mind you RuPaul, uh, Eddie veterans from the Tom weights is

from San Diego, blink when he too, of course STP.

And then my favorite Austrian death machine.

Whoa, Austrian death machine.

You just pulled that out of your rear end.

I'm serious.

Nice.

Good for you.

Eddie, Eddie Vedder is like from SDA, like, or he went to my high school.

So I mean, no kidding.

Wow.

That can surface, but you're right.

Yeah.

Shout out Eddie Vedder.

He gave us like the best music program after school.

Nice.

Nice.

Wait a second.

Hang on a second.

So what, just, just real quick, what, what school is it and what, what is the music program?

Uh, the school is San Diego Academy.

It's kind of, it's like the local public school here in like North County and San

Yudas area.

Uh, and he just like paid for this huge building that has like tons of music programs from

like like midi engineering and like music theory.

I was able to take a music theory course there and like full like as band and stuff.

I did that for a little bit.

I mean, this is at 16, 17 years old, right?

The building's fairly new.

It's probably like, I don't know, like seven years old or so, like six years old.

Do you think that you gained a lot from that program or do you think it's, you know, just

too, it was too new to, to, too quick?

They had like instruments and stuff too there that you could just use.

And uh, yeah, it took a lot of time.

Yeah, it was super nice.

Oh my God.

Is there, is there enough?

Is there anybody else that has been in that program that is in sort of a band now that,

that you know, the switch for guys.

Oh, didn't they get it?

Yeah, they're the switch of guys.

Didn't they really?

They're like 60.

Yeah, that's before the building.

Oh yeah.

They're not that old.

I mean, I find this to be really fascinating because, because first of all, I didn't know

it existed.

But, you know, if, if you can like put a direct connection to, um, you know, Eddie Vedder

and that music Academy, I'm just letting you know, I mean, I'm not your manager, but opening

slot.

Um, so, uh, no, that's really cool.

And for somebody like him to do that, that's, that's amazing.

I'm still sitting here.

I'm a huge Tom Waits fan.

I had no idea he was from there.

I mean, so, so this, this, this all started, you know, for you guys relatively quickly

and not that long ago.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're all just, we, we, um, wanted to keep the band going after high school because we

just really loved it.

Um, and so Cole went to UC San Diego and Luke and I went to Point Loma Nazarene.

So we are still like actively doing the band while in college and, um, yeah, kept going

with it.

And then got signed.

We were playing this show in Santa Monica.

It was like one of the sketchiest shows of all time.

Like the show that you would want an A&R guy who's interested in your band to come to,

like the mix, there was no mixer.

Like somebody had to bring in this tiny little mixing board and it was in this like, uh,

airplane hanger with like huge walls and it sounded awful, but, um, like just the room

and everything.

And we're like, can the A&R guy come to a different show?

And he ended up-

Who is the A&R guy?

Do you remember who-

Mike Daley.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Daley.

He's over at Hollywood.

But, um, yeah, it was, I mean, from there on, we were sort of like, okay, like, let's

give this a real shot if, uh, you know, people are interested in helping us and, uh, yeah.

See, Brad, I reminded you earlier, one of the lessons we learned from our friends, Repeat

Repeat, when they came to Camp Nut Butter was always be ready.

You never know who's going to be in that audience.

You know, you gotta go hard, you gotta go strong and you gotta be ready.

What I'm learning from this, I need to learn surfing.

I just need to go surfing more.

Okay.

But this is really interesting.

So, so you, you, this thing happens all relatively quickly.

You don't, and correct me if I'm wrong, I might be totally wrong about this, but you

have a lot of shows under your belt and with the experience you have already, you're going

to turn that into a festival show and to double back on all of that, what does, do you have

any other festivals other than Bonnarooo ready to go?

Are you going to be on any other festivals and how's that all going to work for you?

Yeah.

Well, a few of the ones that we're playing like aren't announced yet, so I don't really

know how much we can kind of say it being unannounced, but yeah, we're going to be playing

some festivals this year.

Speak freely.

Yeah.

Which is.

Nobody listens.

We're, we were touring with a band called AJR.

We're doing it on the show.

I actually, in fact, long story short, not to interrupt, but AJR, they played my courtyard

in Chattanooga, Tennessee is their first ever radio show and then came back late.

It played a thing called the running of the Chihuahuas.

Ask Adam one day about playing a Chihuahua show and see what he says.

Yeah.

And just to be clear, Brett, when he says courtyard, it's about as big as the space

you're sitting in right now.

That's right.

Yeah, that's right.

So pretty cool.

Yeah.

They're great.

Gosh.

It's funny.

Yeah.

So we were on tour with AJR, we were opening for them.

And then obviously, as we all know, the pandemic happened and those shows were crazy.

Like we got, you know, direct support, which was huge for us.

Like their audience and their fan base is crazy.

So we played the first three shows of that tour and then it was picking back up in like

April.

So to be able to come back this year and like have some festivals and like figuring out

what touring is going to be like in the fall is, I mean, like we were saying earlier, it's

kind of the reason we started a band was to play live.

And it's kind of the main reason we love doing it.

So it'll be nice to get back out on the stage.

Well, with that being said, when you look at the, you know, is this like kids loving

music, what were the festivals you were going to in San Diego?

I'm guessing, did you go to Coachella at all?

I haven't been to Coachella.

There's a festival in San Diego called Cabo that we went to, like I think like every year

it was open.

Okay.

But have you ever heard of Bonnarooo?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

So what from the West Coast, from San Diego, what is your impression of Bonnarooo?

It seems kind of like one of the, like kind of like Lollapalooza, but for that area of

the country, I guess.

It feels like one in my head, the way I've always seen it is like, it feels like one

of the big three, like being Coachella, Bonnarooo, Lollapalooza.

And there's other huge ones too, but in my head, when I think of like an American, like,

you know, music festival, I feel like Bonnarooo is up there in terms of like iconic.

Let me ask it this way.

Cause cause this is kind of what we sort of do, but Brad and I and Russ are fans.

I don't know first whatever, but we also like talking about the industry.

So from your point of view, what, what do you picture this next season?

If you, if, if you will, is going to be like for you guys personally and then professionally,

what do you, do you separate the two or can you, you know what I mean?

Or what, what are you the types that sit and have like lists?

And here's what I hope to do.

Or are you just like, man, let's go see what happens.

Yeah.

I think a mix of both.

It's kind of hard to plan, especially if we've learned it just, you know, there's one, one

plan and then it completely gets changed to another plan.

And so it's kind of like, you know, you work really hard for everything and, but hold everything

loosely because you just, you don't know until you're on stage or, you know, in the car,

go into wherever, you know, so yeah, I think it's just crazy to think like it seems almost

like a different life last year when we were playing shows.

It's like, it felt like a weird, like fever dream of like amazing going around all these

little different places and people.

And it's like, Whoa, like we're going to do that again.

But like at like, that was like a two and we're about to go do it.

So much, I mean, it can be crazy.

I think that you guys got to, now that I, you said it, you got a really good lesson

going on a few shows with AJR.

I mean, they've got a, they've got a festival like setup with that crowd.

That crowd is insane.

I mean, it might be because he's always in his underwear, but they're always insane for

some reason.

Yeah, they are.

No, I feel like those shows were like really good prep.

I feel cause like we played Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, like filled out, which was crazy.

And then like that venue in DC, the anthem and that place is, I don't know if you guys

have been there yet, but it's, I think it's a pretty new venue, but it was packed out

and we were like, Holy shit, man, this is huge.

There's a lot of people here.

Well, that's, that's kind of a racking, huh?

We've had guests on before AJR, I think.

And I know Paul Janoway was saying, Paul, it's like when they, when you do these types

of things, it sort of becomes, we can actually do this.

Yeah.

This, this is real.

You know, this might be a way we can make a living.

Yeah.

And it's weird.

I actually sort of get way more nervous for the little club shows or even like smaller

shows when you like, like, I remember we opened for Foster the People at the Soda Bar, which

is a really small venue and the people are just right, right here.

And you're looking, you're like performing singing into people's faces and you can just

see everybody's reaction to a bigger show.

It's a little bit more like, I don't even know what's going on.

There's just a sea of people.

It's almost like,

Not only, not only can they see, not only can you see them, but they can see you.

Yeah.

And it almost is like way too vulnerable.

Am I doing right?

Do I have something in my pocket?

Do they see my car keys?

Something feels very weird here.

Yeah, that's so funny.

I love that because if there's anything that would be nerve wracking to me, it would be,

and I honestly, I was this close, I talked to Offspring yesterday and I was this close

to asking them, I'll just ask you, is there any time that you say to yourself, am I good

at this?

All the time.

Because like, yeah, I mean, like even if I, I was this close to asking Offspring this,

but you know, I don't, I mean, it's Offspring, you know, they've been doing it for 30 years.

They don't give a shit if they're good at it.

But I would be very nervous sometimes if I asked, if I was like having to do this and,

you know, thrust it into this world where I've always wanted to be.

I mean, how I ask myself this question every day on the radio and I only, I tell fart jokes

for Christ sakes, but I wonder if I, I wonder how much self doubt there is for guys like

you.

Yeah, I, yeah, I was, I've talked to a few friends about this, but like the imposter

syndrome of like, I'm up here in front.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

They're going to, everyone's going to eventually figure out I'm not really, I'm faking this.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, it's this feeling of how long can I like pretend like, you know, you're supposed

to be, you know, entertaining people at this high level and there's thousands of people,

but I'm also like, man, I'm just Dawson.

These are just my friends from San Diego.

Like is this really great?

I think the way I've simplified it for myself is to kind of go back on you guys were talking,

but the Switchfoot guys, some, I'm sure you guys know probably the greatest dudes of all

time.

Sweetest, great, they're so amazing, but we were playing a show with them in San Diego

at the Del Mar or the San Diego fair.

And I was really nervous going out before the show and I got, John Foreman, the lead

singer was right there.

And I was just like, yeah, I'm nervous.

It was like one of, and this was like before, this was still when we were in high school,

I think, but I remember his advice was like, just go out there and you're basically like

a mirror for people, like your energy, your confidence, even you just having a good time,

having fun.

People kind of just reflect what you are giving off.

So for me, I feel that way all the time where I'm like, man, there's people way more qualified

to be up on the stage or entertain these people.

But at the end of the day, I mean, I think if you're having a good time and hopefully

you write some good songs and you just get out there and have a nice time, I think that

people want to enter into that time.

So I try to not overthink it and just try to get out there.

I think he just nailed it.

I think.

Yeah, I do too.

I think absolutely nailed it.

I've never put it, I've never thought about it this way, but it's a, it is a two way street,

isn't it?

I mean, it only works when it's two ways, you know, and I think probably as an artist,

a lot of people think I'm giving and they have to take, but they give back too.

So yeah.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, be a mirror.

That's really, it's really great.

Now, when it comes to your song, first off, thanks.

Thanks so much for taking some time out of the hot studio.

But when it comes to the way that you guys write songs, I will say, I mean, even, even

in this, you know, space that you're in, I mean, Barry, these kids just, it's hook after

hook after hook after hook after hook.

So I mean, you guys, you guys do, and believe me, by the way, people that write songs like

that tell me that they know the industry because this thing called call out and hooks after

hooks after hooks, really good for call out.

And that's a good, you really good research and radio.

So yeah, they're, they're radio made.

It's a radio made outfit that you guys have.

And I'm really excited for you guys.

And I'm excited to see it, what it becomes a Bonnarooo.

Now being right outside the studio, you want you could walk in and play something, right?

You're right there.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah.

I mean, our studio being our garage filled with is it, is it the garage?

Is that all it is?

Yeah, it's just a garage.

It's not that nothing fancy.

We we got out of LA at our producers living room, but our space is a little bit more humble

than that.

That's awesome.

No, that's the way it should be.

Stay right there.

Guys, I'm so, I'm so happy you joined us.

I really am.

I'm so glad that you're a part of this and we're excited to meet you at the farm of Manchester

and probably at some other festival along the way that will not be an intro.

Yeah.

I don't want to get in trouble, man.

I don't know what I can say.

I mean, who is the, who is the band that linked the line up?

Do you could you do that?

There's a band, one guy that released the Bonnarooo line up really early and it caused

the entire festival to have to announce the lineup early and it was like, um, do mock

tar.

Um, you could be that guy.

You guys, I tell you what, I think it's working out in his favor from everything I've seen.

Everybody loves him.

Yeah.

He's doing good.

He's doing great.

Okay guys, we'll see you at Lollapalooza.

All right.

So, uh, I'm kidding.

I don't know that I just said that.

I don't know if that's true.

All right.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Enjoy San Diego.

Life looks tough.

Thank you.

Almost Monday on the what podcast, which bands this year that matter?

The episode today, festival first or is it Bonnarooo rookies?

I forgot the name of the show, Barry.

First timers, first timers, first timers, festival first timers.

Just like you, it's your first time.

Feels like a first day.

So, um, the almost Monday kids, almost 30 when you add up all their ages, they, uh,

are a young group.

They are young kids.

And you know, I've gotten to that age, Barry, where, you know, I think I used to be really

angry about young people's success.

Now I think I just don't care.

Um, now I just want them to do whatever they need to do.

But boy, there was a point in my life where I really didn't like when kids are successful

and those kids, they got it.

Those kids got it.

You set me up for such a classic dad, grandpa, old guy thing.

Yeah.

I don't even care anymore.

I quit thinking about stuff like that so long ago because they don't care.

Oh, you're, you're 16 and more successful than me.

That's about right.

Yeah, no kidding.

Yeah.

It's every one of them.

Now, every one of them have this, this beautiful life that is just, you know, curated by an

Instagram feed.

It's just perfect.

I mean, the, the kid's name is even perfect.

I mean, he's even got a great name.

He's cut out of an Instagram thing.

He's tailor made for this.

Uh, here, I'll put this in your, your, your thoughts.

There are certain phrases that when you start any sentence with, it's never a good thing.

And one of them is when I was your age.

Yeah.

Did I say that?

No, no, but you will.

And that's what I mean.

I am.

I try to avoid it.

I remember when, when I was your age, you kids, Barry, what, what were you doing when

you were, when you were my age?

What were you doing?

40.

I was coaching baseball.

Wait a second.

Wait a second.

That is not true.

You are way off there, pal.

Way off.

Yeah.

40.

I was coaching little league baseball.

Barry, I am not like, what do you got two months?

How much you got to go?

You know, we can readdress this topic at Bonnarooo, but for right now, right now we got 39.

I thought so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was coaching little league and whatever.

Um, is it?

Well, nevermind.

I'm not.

I'm not.

Um, here's the great thing.

Watch this.

Watch this, Barry.

Watch this, Barry.

Lord taco.

What were you doing at 39?

Uh, I was doing this show cause I was just two years ago from it.

Yeah.

It's drinking PBR.

Sure.

Yeah.

Drinking PBR.

Yeah.

So you can still do that at my age.

It's good point.

They were good kids, man.

I say all this in jest because I do think that they have it.

They've got it.

They feel like they've been, you know, cut from central casting.

They were brought in and dropped right there straight from central casting.

We need good looking, uh, young pop rock stars.

You're hired.

They got it.

I mean, I love it.

You know, what were you doing when you met?

We were surfing.

We met, we met on a wave in the ocean, went back to his house and his dad said, Hey, he

played cold plays guitar.

Yeah.

Come on.

That's a movie.

Eddie better, Eddie better, you know, is, you know, school equipment that I learned to

play on.

It is a, it is a nineties movie starring Freddie Prince Jr.

You're exactly right.

Yes.

This was Freddie Prince, Keanu Reeves, and then some, you know, kidney you'll never see

again.

But yeah, that's exactly what it is.

And it's good.

I like it.

Yeah.

They're good.

I, I, you know, old guy me loves it.

I thought it was great.

I can't wait to see him.

And here's nice.

It was great.

Here's the crazy thing.

The conversation went so well, we've run out of time for Devin Gaffillion, uh, which is

very sad, but luckily we'll have him next week on the, uh, the what podcasts.

And if I can, what are they called?

A callback, the HR connection with those guys.

I mean, that's awesome.

AJR friends of the show, friends of Brad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Go back.

If you guys, uh, if you haven't heard it, go back and listen to that episode.

They were great too.

I love it.

Yeah.

I mean, AJR is one of these things where like, I, I, I mean, I, I hear it.

I just was not expecting it to be like a real thing.

You know, it's, it's hard.

It's hard for me to like change my brain from seeing them, you know, hang out at my, in

my radio station, you know, conference room eating Papa John's.

And then all of a sudden say, yeah, I can see them in front of 30,000 people of honor

room.

Which was great.

That show was massive.

I mean, I remember them saying years ago and I think it was quay are from AC entertainment

that said, you know, the biggest show they probably have ever had at, at the witch stage,

which is the second stage of honor room was Mumford and son, you know, that, that one

show before they hit big and on the what stage there was 30 some thousand people on it.

You know, I think Cardi B probably got there two years ago, but man, that AJR crowd was

up there.

It had to be up there.

I don't know if they keep actual records of what they think estimated crowd sizes are

anymore, but my God, that crowd was massive for AJR and I never saw it coming.

It was fun and that's why this is fun.

So maybe almost Monday's next.

Maybe they're next, you know, maybe they're next.

And, and you know, in a completely different arena, almost Monday fit into that AJR space,

Devin Cofilli and a completely different artist.

I mean, just could not be a bit more 180 than, than almost Monday.

And I'm really excited to talk to him about the whole songwriting process for him because

he's doing it probably much in a much different way than those kids are doing it.

I love talking about this stuff, the inside baseball stuff.

I love it.

Yeah.

So the other thing about, uh, about the show and about Bonnarooo and we were mentioning

in the past couple of weeks, we actually have tickets to give away a sold out show, sold

out festival.

First off, I think that we all anticipated Bonnarooo to sell out.

I don't know if we knew it was going to sell out that quickly.

And then to turn out that we still have tickets.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't take them away from us.

Whenever you like have these, yeah, we don't, we sort of need those back.

We need those tickets back.

Yeah.

You were serious.

Yeah.

We now we don't have those and we have what camping?

Sure as hell.

Hope so.

Yeah.

For the, I mean, the ticket, the winners, it's nice.

I don't want to drop them at the waffle house and say, good luck.

You got to go there to the Starbucks right on the entrance there.

Right.

So this is what we're going to do.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Uh, taco remind me what the Twitter handles are.

Twitter is the what underscore podcast and Instagram is the what podcast.

Okay.

Why is it two different things?

Cause somebody took it on Twitter before we had it.

Oh, that wasn't my fault though.

No, no.

Okay.

Well, it was because you named the show, but, ah,

Damn it.

Uh, the what underscore podcast on Twitter.

So follow those two accounts and what we'll ask you to do is either tweet or Instagram

hashtag the what podcast, uh, send us a tweet, either send a tweet out there into the atmosphere

about how bad you want to go to Bonnarooo.

Maybe still us your, your camping set up, maybe show us, um, you know, a Bonnarooo memory

that you have on Instagram, a photo and just hashtag it, the what podcast we're going to

pull all of these hashtags together and then pull a winner probably the next four or five

weeks or so.

And that person will get two tickets and camping pass to the sold out Bonnarooo 2021 festival.

How about that kids?

Is that good enough?

I love it.

I love it.

I got it.

I got to say, Brad, I'm, I keep listening to Aquarius.

I love that song.

Do you really?

I really, I keep listening to it when we're not even doing this show.

Yeah.

Tell everyone to radiate.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

Jared's like, yeah, but it's not mastered.

I'm like, have you heard the show?

Exactly.

So, so if you missed it, Jared and Kristen from repeat, repeat Jared, repeat and Kristen

repeat got the whole band together, repeat, repeat, and, uh, did a theme song for us.

That's what you heard at the beginning of the show and you get to hear the whole thing

here at the end.

But if you want to download it, it's available at the what podcast.com they're totally, oh,

they said, just take it.

It's all, it's all yours and play it for all the parties, play it for all the, the camp

sites and make sure it's, um, you know, at least available for people to download because

you know, who knows?

They literally whipped it up in two hours.

I gave them an idea and then it was, they were done in two hours.

I love it.

Radiate.

I love it.

I love everything.

The horns at the end, which is an inside joke for us, but I still love it.

It's great.

Yeah.

The only two people in the world that don't like horns.

It's very, very strange.

It's a very odd thing.

We had this, uh, I, I said, you know, in New Orleans, there's a lot of second lines, right?

People are second lining, you know, for funerals for, you know, because it's Tuesday, Bowie

and who was the other one?

Yeah.

The horns are pervasive in the city.

And if you hear like the wife and I will just be sitting at the house one day, the windows

will be open.

You'll hear horns and we'll go running to the windows and the doors because we think

that a second line is about to walk by the house or a band is playing, you know, it's

like, it's like the call.

It's like the call of the wild in New Orleans.

And we just come rushing to the horns and you know, I'll always send them videos and

pictures of it.

And they'll just send me this.

Why?

Who hates horns?

Everyone has their challenges.

Very strange.

It's very strange.

I feel like there's a great, is there anything else we need to get to go download the song,

a rate review us on, uh, on your platforms because that really helps.

It really, really helps the consequence people.

This is a really for them.

They, uh, they really need, you know, those numbers and, and you know, God love them.

If you don't know, we're now on the consequence podcast network.

So rate review the show.

If you like it, if you don't like it, I would prefer if you just didn't write a review,

uh, to be honest with you, just skip that whole part and then enter the contest, hashtag

the what podcasts on Instagram and Twitter.

Anything else before we go?

Nope.

All right.

We covered it.

Devin Gavillion next week on the second part of festival first timers on the what podcasts.

I'll see you then.

Love you.

Be safe.