In this compelling discourse, I engage in an enlightening conversation with Danny C, a noteworthy member of the band The Veldt, as we delve into the intricacies of the shoegaze genre. Our discussion elucidates the historical context and evolution of this distinctive musical style, with Danny offering insights into his personal experiences and reflections on the genre's impact. We explore the nuanced dynamics of familial relationships within the realm of music, particularly the unique bond shared with his brother and their collaborative efforts. Furthermore, we examine the significance of artistic influences, ranging from musical to visual arts, and how these elements shape the creative process. Ultimately, this episode serves as a profound exploration of the intersection between personal narrative and artistic expression, shedding light on both the challenges and triumphs encountered along the artistic journey.

Takeaways:

1. The conversation with Danny C from The Veldt reveals significant insights into the dynamics of being a musician and the complexities of collaboration within a band.
2. Danny discusses the influence of shoegaze music on his work, emphasizing that while they were not founders, they played an influential role during its inception.
3. The dialogue touches on the evolution of musical genres, illustrating how past influences and current trends intersect to shape contemporary music.
4. Danny reflects on the importance of maintaining the essence of music, stressing that while technology evolves, the foundational aspects of songwriting remain critical.
5. The discussion captures the significance of personal experiences and relationships in the creative process, detailing how they impact the music produced and the collaborative spirit within the band.
6. Danny highlights the changing landscape of the music industry, particularly how artists navigate the challenges of promotion and distribution in the digital age.

See, you had to kick him out.

No, he's a twin.

And I. I love that I have twins as well.

Identical girls.

Yeah, so.

I saw that.

Twins.

Yeah, twins are interesting.

They're either really wonderful or they give you the blues.

And are they identical?

They're identical.

And they were girls, but in my side, might as well have had like 12 boys.

I mean, it was.

I didn't know if I was coming or going.

Yeah.

My God.

Anyhow, enough of that.

Hi.

Hey.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking some time to chat with me.

No problem at all.

Yeah, my pleasure.

I have a bunch of questions.

I don't usually run it where I'm just sitting here with a list of questions in front of me like nobody wants to do.

Like, well, maybe somebody wants to do it, but I don't.

But I wanted to start out by asking you.

Shoegaze?

Yeah.

What is it?

Number one and number two.

I'm not being funny, kind of.

How do you feel about being called like some.

One of the original founders of shoegaze and things like that?

Do you feel like that's a jacket you guys wear?

Like, how do you stand on that?

Because I saw quite a bit of that.

No, I wouldn't say we were founders of it, but we were around when everybody else was starting out, you know.

Someone always asked me, you know, am I influenced by other bands at that time?

And I'm like, well, I didn't really know about them because we were just starting out ourselves, you know, it's kind of hard to say, you know, I was influenced by, you know, my buddy Valentine when we were both starting at the same time, you know.

But in the end, you know, we all influenced each other, if you know what I mean.

And what does that term mean to you?

Shoegaze?

Because I remember I was into punk.

Well, it started with this dude.

You heard this man called Moose before.

I don't think so.

Well, Moose was a band that.

The guy is a guy named Lincoln Fong that does all the.

He did all the four ad engineering and co producing and some stuff.

And he did a lot of stuff with, you know, Robin Guthrie.

He was the main engineer for Cock for Twins when we were at.

He.

He went on to produce us, but he also played with Jes and Mary Chain.

He played with a band called Moose.

And Moose had an interview one time with a guy from the Enemy, which is.

Was a big magazine back then.

And the guy said that he came in with some.

He's look like a gothic kind of guy.

He has sparkly shoes on, but his.

His style of interviewing was to intimidate them.

And he says.

He gave me.

Says, oh, what kind of shoes are you guys wearing?

You know, hence the term shoe gaze.

No way.

It was in.

It was an insult to them, to.

You know, it was a.

Deemed as a boring thing, you know, to see people just do that all.

You know, if you're really into that kind of thing, you know.

But it was deemed a boring kind of thing, but it was a thing that was happening at the time that no one really knew what it was.

But they called it that.

But it didn't.

It came back something like that, you.

Know, with My Bloody Valentine and Cocktail Twins and that kind of a thing.

Kept playing with people in the past, you know, so we never really stopped playing.

So one day this guy said, yo, man, this is something.

They got called shoegaze.

I'm like, shoegaze.

And then, like, it was a.

Young kids liking to like that kind of stuff now.

So, you know, it's good to see that, you know?

Very good to see.

You know, it's just weird just to see, like, how it caught up, you know, we were.

We were deemed over with back in the late 90s, if you know what I'm saying.

Right.

You know, and you weren't.

Yeah, yeah.

No, yeah.

Because.

Because Seattle thing happened.

The boy band thing happened.

But you see, I always thought that the music had a chance to.

Didn't have a chance to expand because Robin Guthrie was working with this guy from this band called Seafield, and Seafield kind of was doing, like, remixes for him at the time.

And Robin never really lets anybody do anything with him at all, you know, but it became ambient and kind of like intrusive on kind of like.

Not drone, but kind of like, you say, like a remix thing.

He was heading there, and him and Liz broke up.

And I'm like, God damn, dude.

It was just almost there.

I. I could see where it was going, you know what I'm saying?

You know?

And then by that time, you know, people getting divorced and all this kind of kind of junk like that, you know, one.

One thing led to another, so.

And trip hop came into the fray, and.

Yeah, I came into the fray and I Began to work with a lot of DJs in New York at the time.

Working with this guy Carlos Best that produced Wu Tang Clan.

He did some work with them and I was, I became his assistant for a minute on a few things.

And I played guitar on that song called Shay Shay La Ghost.

Not, not you really hear it or I got paid for it, but I played on it.

But he goes, face me.

He's in the studio and look.

And like he was.

I came to the studio early and he was in there, right, With a big ass falcon on his.

On his arm.

He's watching tv, right?

And I came in for the session and.

And he looked at me, says, you work here?

I'm like, yeah, I'm working with Carlos in here.

Like, hey.

Shot my head off, you know, like, wow.

But working with him and then working on a few sessions, the house music sessions and stuff like that after that, you know.

Oh, oh, lyrics's lounge too.

Yeah, you know, you know Lucy's Lounge.

Yes.

Yeah, we did some stuff with Most Def too, that was never released really.

You know, some kind of shit.

It'd be like most defining.

That was some shoegaze stuff.

He did some stuff.

A friend of mine gave him a demo.

Right.

I don't know how he got a hold, but anyway, he's.

He's singing over one of our songs, you know.

Really?

You know, nothing he does surprises me.

Most is so creative.

Oh, this is so old.

But we never really put it out properly though.

I think we need to put that out at some point, you know.

That would be cool to hear.

It's definitely conversation piece.

Definitely.

But it's been interesting.

How do you feel?

Because you were saying they, they back in the day, they were like, you guys are.

You're done pretty much or you're not.

What?

Not relevant.

What, what.

What did they say?

And then how did you.

How did you get past that?

Like, how did you keep evolving?

By.

By saying this.

They said that.

Exactly.

I. I didn't really get the memo actually, to tell you the truth, you know, because I always felt like that soul music had a.

You know, I mean, if.

If you've ever noticed lately, there's not really any R B songs out there.

Just really singing to women, so to speak.

I mean, I like, I like soul music, you know, and, you know, I like that idea of soul, you know, I like songs about women and just, you know, being in love, that kind of junk, you know.

But it's very rare these days.

Unless you Punching a or something like that these days, you know, And I think it's a lost art, but rather than stuff down somebody's throat, it's kind of like flip it and make it kind of like.

Not shoe gazy, but kind of like kind of ambient, you know what I'm saying?

Ambient.

Some ambient, like, you know, like tricky or something like that, you know, that kind of vibe, you know.

But.

But that's the sound of the future, don't you think?

I think so.

I.

You know what I think is that I think we.

We got so caught up in doing all these.

The futuristic sounds and finding the new sound and all of this that we kind of got away from the soul of music.

And I feel like we went so far that now we're going backwards and.

Right.

And that all of that soulfulness is coming back here at home.

I listen to like the delta blues all the time.

I love the blues.

Oh, yeah.

I found myself getting tired of what.

What's out right now and going backwards and wanting to listen to old soul.

Yes.

Old blues.

Because that's where it started, right?

Yeah.

And so eventually you go back.

You go back to where it started.

And I think that that's what's going to go on, if it's not already.

We're going to go back to our roots, so to speak, as far as music is concerned.

And I think it's a good thing.

Yeah, I can't see going where.

Where's going now, you know, I mean, I, I don't know, man.

As.

As a.

As a woman, I'd be like, what?

Something that's really moving me, you know what I'm saying?

I'm like, what, you know, what's some stuff for me, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I, I don't get it.

You know, that's like you, you, you like this kind of.

You remember, you know, the Quiet Storm is.

Of course.

Of course.

I love imitating the Quiet Storm.

Dj.

Imagine that.

Imagine that a decibel, a thousand requires, you know, like, it's.

See, the idea was to make a band that could play like my.

Like, say, for example, like, you know, when you turn the TV on, it's static, but.

Yes, but, but it's a melody, you know, it's a cacophony of melody, you know, but somebody singing soul over it, you know what I'm saying?

Like.

Like Saucer Attack, you know?

I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, it's.

There's a lot of soul missing now, I think.

And what you were Saying, as far as women and music, I don't feel like they sing to us anymore.

They sing at us and they sing about us, but they don't sing to you.

And I think that's how I ended up again.

Like the old blues musicians, they said exactly what they meant.

You didn't have to try to figure it out.

If they loved their baby, you knew they loved their baby.

And if they were mad at her and whatever else, you knew that too.

But yeah, now they sing at us.

They don't sing about us anymore.

Forbidden frequencies.

Yes.

100%.

Yeah.

What's it like performing with.

With your brother?

Like, how.

How did you both end up musicians?

Number one.

And you came from North Carolina, correct?

Yes.

What was it like being you guys in North Carolina doing the music that you were doing, being into what you were into?

Oh, early age.

I mean, we're in different bands.

Back in the day, I mean, I played in church and he played in the juke joint.

Wow.

And yeah, and he played in the Jew joint with these older, older dudes that were like, you know, and, you know, they were just out of high school, something like that.

And he was one of the younger guys in the band that sounded like Prince at the time.

So they would play all these adult places in downtown Raleigh.

Downtown Raleigh and in the backwoods and stuff like that, you know, and he'd be, you know, the front dude, whatever else, and he's getting away with it.

So he be coming home Saturday morning and I'd be going to church to play Sunday morning so as each other like that.

So, you know, and so then I went to play in church over there for like maybe about four or five months, something like that, you know, I just started playing, you know, and then maybe like the maybe, maybe, maybe six months I got fired for playing too loud, something like that, you know.

You know what you got fired for.

They were like, no, you can't play like them white boys.

I'm like, I like them white boys.

What are you talking about?

You know, I mean.

And I come with, I got a flying V. And like, oh, sorry.

Stuff like that, you know, like, you're fine.

And yeah, they're like, you playing too loud, son.

So that's the same time I was going to hardcore punk shows back in the day.

I was in a punk band called Sacred Cows at the time with some of my friend of mine, Rob Stewart and God Bless His Soul and a couple of other guys that played, you know, it would be the popup band that would play in between bands.

So play.

We play and like that.

In between the bands.

Between other punk bands, hardcore bands, what not.

You know, just make up stuff on.

On.

On this.

On the spot and whatnot, you know.

And there was.

Our first show was at a hardcore punk show opening up for band called Corrosion of Conformity.

How funny.

We had Mike Dean of Corrosion and Conformity was on the podcast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm actually getting ready to.

You know, he left the van.

Yeah.

No.

And he's playing now in North Carolina in his new band.

I know, I know.

Isn't that crazy?

But a small world.

I love Mike anyway.

I kind of grew up together.

What?

No.

Yeah.

Okay.

It was an interesting interview because he's so mellow and quiet, and so it took me a minute to really get to pull him into, you know, having the conversation.

But that's funny you said that.

Interesting.

A lot of talent coming out of North Carolina, apparently.

First hardcore punk show was.

Would open it up for them.

Neon Christ and Marginal man need the guy.

Neon Christ when he was saying change now.

Yes, the brother did.

So that's how vibrant it was back then.

You know, we got a.

We didn't even have a drum.

I did back then.

We had a drum machine back then, kind of like we do now sometimes.

But it was.

It was like, you know, you could really do anything.

You know, we weren't really like, you know, a hardcore band, but we kind of fit in with that kind of scene of people, you know what I'm saying?

They were embracing us because, you know, we couldn't go do that.

Do the stuff.

No.

The black club people, like, get the hell out of here during that time, you know what I'm saying?

So, I mean, it was.

It was a really good scene to be around at that time for what I remember, you know.

So I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church as well.

My family here in California.

My family, they're from Texas, Georgia, those kind of places.

Amen.

And I. I encountered more like.

I don't want to use the term haters.

Ration.

Hollow ration.

Anyway, I.

From my family, when I started to get into the stuff I was into, it was like they didn't understand it.

And I always had that feeling of not fitting in anymore once I got really into.

Yeah.

To.

To rock an alternative.

Did you experience that feeling as well in North Carolina?

Like, yeah, of course I did call punk white boy, you name it, I got all that.

Me too.

Now everybody looks like that.

Look.

Everybody looks like I did.

When they were calling me a punk and a faggot now.

You know, I was just saying that recently.

I.

Because I'm a little bit upper.

Upper.

My God, I'm tired.

I'm a little older than I look.

And so I was there, you know, I was always one of the only.

Who, me?

No, I wish I was one of the only people, quote, unquote of color.

That's what they call us now at some of these shows.

Do you remember the Palomoon Landing?

I'm not that seasoned.

I'm younger than you, but older than I look, so.

But I remember being the only one for a while, and then now these kids are, like, looking how I was looking back then when they were talking smack to me.

Right.

And now it's in and it's cool, and you could buy it at the store.

It's crazy, right?

Yeah.

I've been doing this.

I tell them all the time.

I've been doing this.

I just don't wear this on weekends.

You know, I'm on no weekend personality with the.

You know.

Yes.

That's interesting.

I. I asked that because I find that a lot of us have the same experience as far as that goes, where you're like, yeah, sucked.

It sucked.

And you're at this, like, really awkward, interesting phase.

And I feel like we paved the way for the kids now, right?

So that they could just go and be themselves.

Right.

They go to that online now.

We made it.

Yeah, they can.

We made our stuff.

They seem like, oh, I like how you have those spots and stains.

I'm like, dude, that's from when somebody's knee.

My.

My tooth, or excuse me, their tooth hit my knee.

And this is from when his boot barely grazed my head.

And, yeah, this.

This shirt wasn't made.

It was made from going to shows and being in the mix.

It wasn't worn.

It wasn't.

What do you call it?

Distressed?

It pre.

Pre worn.

Yeah, distressed.

He was distressed because I was getting jacked up in it.

That's why he was distressed.

Yeah, 100%, but.

Yeah.

What's it like playing with.

With your brother?

Oh, I forgot about that.

Oh, yeah, him.

You know, that guy.

It's okay.

I mean, imagine if you will, waking up with a.

With a.

With a rash that just won't go away.

I don't want to.

No, thank you.

No, no, no.

Or either.

Let me get another analogy.

You know, like, we grew up together, the twin stuff in the beginning and whatnot.

And we didn't really think we were going to be working together at one point in time because we had different kind of ideas, you know, But.

But we really clicked together was when we wrote our first song together, which is called the Color Loves Blue.

And we dedicated that to a friend of our who just passed away not too long ago.

But the collaborative part is good, but, you know, it doesn't.

It.

It works sometimes.

And sometimes it doesn't work.

Sometimes, you know, but sometimes you got to be kind of.

I don't want to say diligent about things that we do, you know, because the choices that we make, song wise sometimes might be good or bad, but somebody have to accept what you.

What he thinks is good, you know what I'm saying?

So that's how things work sometimes.

You know, he writes most of the lyrics sometimes, and I write some of their lyrics sometimes, you know.

But Hayato programs some of the stuff.

No, no, no.

Some of the stuff that we come up with.

He programs all of it and we just give him the idea.

And then we'll like, you know, send things back and forth because we don't live in the same place.

But the band is basically just me, Daniel and Hayato.

And sometimes we use other people that we know.

Alex Cox, which is a original member of the band from the late 90s.

And we have kind of like, you know, a revolving door of people that come in, like Martin and Emory, you know, so we kind of keep it going, like, because it's like there's so many guitars on the.

On the recording.

If you know about the Cocktail Twins, right, You do, like, things like they layer stuff, right?

And when you layer some of the guitars, they do different things.

They create different kind of melodies.

So we try to capture the same thing live.

Because I record, I use about 10 or 15 guitars layering.

So sometimes it works.

Sometimes it does work, you know.

You know, depending upon if we rehearse or not.

So, you know.

But I like that kind of ambient kind of sound, you know what I'm saying?

Kind of.

You know, this is what I call the Quiet Storm.

That kind of ambient mix of guitar.

Yes, like that.

The vibrant kind of thing.

It could be the ocean kind of sound, but it could be just all feedback and distortion, you know, in that clown singing over.

It's not the clown.

Yeah, yeah.

I was going to say.

Because I know with.

With having.

Being a twin and everything, it works.

Out like that, though, you know what I'm saying?

You know, you guys are like magnets.

That's the best way I described it.

Either you're Coming together or you're pushing apart.

There's like no in between, like.

But I found that they either wanted to be really close or where they wanted to split and be their own people.

So it was really, really interesting.

They would fight all day long, and then when they would fall asleep, they would be laying next to each other when they were babies between, like birth and like three, all day, like, fighting.

And then when I would put them, I even one time put one on one side of the room and one on the other, and within 20 minutes they were laying holding each other again.

And it was so funny because then they would wake up and be like, get off me.

So I really think that it's interesting that you guys ended up, you know, in a band.

The band together.

Yeah, that's when.

What's 19?

Sorry.

1986.

That's a minute.

That's a minute.

Been playing that long, you know, So I don't know, I just, you know, I just never.

I never thought about doing anything else really.

I mean, I mean, it hadn't been a bit of roses, and then like, don't get me wrong, because, you know, I've been married, divorced, other kind of all that kind of junk like that, you know.

But one.

One thing I didn't lose sight of was my desire to create.

And sometimes it's not really on everybody's agenda, you know what I'm saying?

So you got to make your sacrifices and make your choices clear.

When you get involved with people that you, you know, you spend a lot of time with, it's not, it's not for everybody, you know, so, you know, people got lives, you know.

That's a good question that just popped in my head too, because you ever had to pick.

You pick between music and your.

And your partner, don't you?

Always, don't you?

Most of the time you pick the music, don't you?

I just said I was divorced.

No, that's.

That's why I'm asking.

You pick the music.

You.

You.

Music is your first love and your partner's your second one.

And, well, I mean, listen, I mean, I. I mean, like, I can't, you know, I used to hold grudges about things like that, but it's like you can't blame people for wanted a certain way of living, you know what I'm saying?

I can't, you know, be upset about that or really hold.

Hold it against anybody, you know what I'm saying?

You know, I mean, you come to know that.

Look, you should have made those amends before you got involved, you know.

You know.

You know, it's not for everybody, you know, but I don't have any regrets from, from, from then on about what I've chosen to do musically.

Right, right.

Music always wins.

I enjoy, I enjoy what I do now, you know.

So what are you guys working on currently as far as music?

Anything new, New releases, new recordings?

What are you doing?

Yeah, we just came back from the UK with the Chameleons and we've been working on like a two or three things that we've been working on for the last couple years now since the Pandemic, you know, we got like another record called Evergreen that we're going to put out and it's going to have like a couple of remixes by some people that we've been working with or, or just some gonna be.

It's gonna be amalgamation of mixes that we've been doing experimenting with over beats and stuff like that lately.

You know, more kind of like DJ culture kind of thing.

A little bit kind of like, you know.

Do you like Vaporwave?

What would be considered Vaporwave example?

Muzak.

Like kind of like Muzak, new, new Muzak as.

But it's a thing that.

It's kind of an old thing now.

But a Vaporwave is kind of like.

Well, these DJs incorporate kind of beats and things with kind of screw down tracks and 80s kind of music, you know, nice in a Japanese kind of nostalgia kind of video like that.

It's kind of like that.

It's kind of.

It's called Vaporwave, you know, and there's a couple of like mixes.

It's kind of morphed into all this new DJ culture stuff now where they're doing songs now of their own, actually playing, playing things, you know.

So that's what I listen to a majority of the time.

It's Vaporway, you know.

There's a lot of things.

Yeah, and there's not really.

There's not a lot of words.

No sounds, just sounds, you know, you come up with your own words just by listening to that kind of stuff like that, you know, it'll give you ideas, you know, we.

And it's like.

How do I describe it?

It's like it's a channel but they play this stuff back to back, you know, and it's like a stream of consciousness, you know, somewhat, you know.

And the beats come in and out or focus and whatnot.

And all I do is imagine like, man, what would it sound like if I put a Guitar to that right there.

Or either what if this beat, Something like that, or what if.

What if Nina Simone sung over this kind of guitar melody, you know, those kind of.

Those kind of ideas, you know, so it sounds like.

Sounds like it gets your creative juices flowing, so to speak, when you listen to it.

Yeah, I like stuff like that.

I like being creative.

I like doing stuff like that, you know?

You know, never stop.

You know, I think it's interesting that those people can.

Now.

DJs are selling out big, you know, arenas, and all they're doing is playing those different sounds and.

And tones.

Look at me.

Started.

You know what?

You know it's bad when.

When the DJ sounds better than you do in the band, right?

No, because I. I have a friend.

I hate that.

And they pay money to go, and it's just a DJ spinning lights and smoke.

And they're there for, like three hours, and they're dancing to watch them.

To what?

To listen.

I don't know.

To dance to it.

Like, I. I still haven't been grasped that whole concept yet.

This is one that's just one thing.

But I wouldn't stand there and watch him.

I mean, I know.

I don't know.

You know, I don't feel like I'm some old dude, but I'm some old dude and I wouldn't be standing there.

Yeah, I don't.

I don't.

I. I haven't wrapped my mind around it yet.

I've been invited to go to hear someone play.

Are they playing?

How do you hear a DJ play?

What is that?

I don't know.

Yeah.

What is it?

Right.

But I think that's interesting.

It seems like those sounds is what kind of motivates you and gets you creative and wanting to.

Well, these days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You.

What about me?

What gets you motivated?

I like sounds, but I like.

I like words.

I like words, too.

And I think I'm in my feelings a lot.

I'm in my feelings a lot.

I. I feel how I feel, and then my logical side comes in and I try to dissect why I feel that way.

It's like something I do.

I'm angry.

Why am I angry?

And then I just take it all the way back.

And usually I'll figure out, like, what's really the root of whatever it is.

And I get a kick out of that.

Believe it or not, that also might be a in your head Gemini thing.

I don't know.

But I was gonna ask about the double guitar.

I'm, like, fascinated with it.

I Think they're beautiful.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Why do you need two at once?

What.

What is the idea behind the double guitar?

I think they're beautiful, but because I'm.

Lazy, I don't want to take.

Bring along two separate guitars.

That's not it.

It can't be the only reason.

No, no, no.

I wanted to see.

I had wanted this vintage double neck, right.

But I can't afford them.

So they made these things called Tel Stars, which is Japanese vintage guitars like 67.

So.

But they.

They come with a bass neck, right.

So I just kind of afro engineered it and put a 12 string neck on it.

On both of them.

Right.

And you know, kind of made it my own kind of thing, you know, because you know, I'm like, okay, what can I do to make this look as vintage as I can?

You know, these.

My imagination, right.

And so I just used it and did that, you know.

So we made both of them like that.

That's neat.

And you play it all.

Do ever put it down and just play a regular guitar.

You pull out your old flying V like or you.

That's your.

That's what you play all the time.

No, I don't.

I had it, unfortunately.

I don't have anymore.

Unfortunately.

But I play any number, any number of them.

But I just took the double neck because I couldn't afford to take another guitar.

It worked out all right.

But I have maybe like 18.

So out of the 18, maybe I use the Jaguar the most though, you know, my Jaguar and my Fender Mustang.

Nice.

But the double next.

Yeah, I'm.

I'm actually.

I'm actually kind of.

I'm making a.

Do you know what the EBO is?

I think I do.

You hold it in your hand.

It's like a vibrator.

It's like you cut it on, there's a light that comes on.

Yes.

You put it on the string, it vibrates.

Okay.

So I'm gonna put a. I'm gonna put a pickup that's made to.

To activate the strings like that by itself on the.

Interesting.

So.

So it'll activate the string when I play it.

So I don't have to have.

I have to hold it in my hand.

So I'm gonna eat like my face is gonna wire it for me.

He's gonna put it in.

So they have a little light on it when it comes on and stuff like that.

So I'll show you.

I'll show you.

Always updating it for fun.

Yeah, no doubt.

Yeah.

I always say there's something about guitarists and Their pedals and chords.

Pedals and chords.

I'm like, what are you talking?

Like, now I get it.

But at first I used to be like, what?

And now I understand.

There's like a whole fascination sometimes you guys mess with them.

You don't even need to be.

No, you need to be.

No, you don't.

If you.

If you heard one delay, you heard them all pretty much.

They only come out with a brand new one.

I'm like, okay, okay, all right, all right.

Then there's another one.

There's another one that's better than this one.

All right, all right, all right.

Well, this one does the same thing.

So there's so much out there that you can do.

But you know, when it comes down to it, it all matters.

If you.

What.

What kind of song are you going to write with it?

You can have many pedals as you want, but what about the song?

You know what I'm saying?

You know, there's a lot of bands that make a lot of noise out there, but you gotta remember some songs these days though, you know, And I think that a lot of.

There's a lot of good bands out there coming out there like that now.

You know, so my thinking, I have a. I believe that art, music and fashion go together.

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

Who are some of your influences as far as art?

Let's talk art.

If you were talking about a favorite artist that you see their work and it motivates you or inspires you.

I used to.

I used to live down the street from.

Well, I still live down the street from John Michel Basquiat studio in.

On 3rd Street.

I live in New York and just one of my biggest influences when I was in high school, when I was coming up, my art teacher told me, oh, Danny, there's just somebody in the New York Times I think you should check out.

There's this young black guy that's in lower Manhattan making a big.

Come up with his art.

You should check him out.

And she gave me the magazines.

Oh, John.

Michelle Basket.

He was still alive at the time.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, what not.

And I remember seeing him on mtv, MTV and whatnot, you know.

But when I lived down in New York, some of those same people from that congregation of his time was still living down there at the time.

You know.

A lot of the artists that were living downtown were just kind of fading out a little bit by the.

By the early.

But late.

Well, early 90s.

No.

Yeah, you're kind of.

Something like that.

Yeah.

New York was changing a lot.

It Was really getting kind of, you know, it's getting really kind of gentrified by the time we got there.

You know, I've been living there since 93 and.

Because the Hell's Angels were my neighbors at the time.

Oh, that's nice.

Yeah, it was great.

They say the block majority of the time.

Wow.

But they got bought out by NYU for a hundred million.

No, I did not know.

So how did you go from North Carolina to I'm in New York.

Like, how did.

Well, when we got signed, the polygram, we decided we wanted to go to live near the record company and be, you know, and be.

You know, handle business, you know, because we couldn't.

We didn't really have a manager at the time, you know, we actually never really had a manager, actually.

You know.

No, never.

No.

I mean, that's interesting.

Majority of the things that we've done people was done with auto manager.

And the people came to us.

All the tours from the Cocktail Twins to Juice and Mary Chain.

Pixies.

All the Pixies.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jesus, Mary Chain.

They.

They ask us to play.

You know what I'm saying?

Let's spend the decade from 88.

You open for throwing, you know, throwing muses.

Yes.

Global for throwing muses that time.

Fishbone a couple times.

Living Color, Spies, hr, You know, it was.

Yeah, man, it was.

We've been really lucky, though.

I can't.

I can't really.

Can't complain, man.

Really can't.

I'll be a miss to say that we haven't been, you know, we had some good, good, you know, breaks, you know, and we got a lot of bad breaks as well.

So I find it interesting that you said, I never wanted to be anything else.

You know, how long some people, it takes them to figure that out, that this is what they want to be and this is what they want to do.

I've always admired people that were like, no, this is just what I am.

This is what I do.

And I'm not doing anything else.

I. I admire that.

I do.

I. I feel like when I.

When I.

When you go on a date with somebody, you tell them what you are.

You're like, I'm.

I'm.

I'm.

I'm a musician.

Like, you just tell us that you just.

You branded or some like that, you know, but you gotta.

I mean, it's this decade of things that we're doing right now.

Yeah.

I'm surprised that young kids even have the stamina to be into music.

These Days and have their own ideas since they're influenced by so many things on the Internet.

I mean, our resources were less than theirs.

Right.

So we drew from different kind of things, though.

But they're.

But they're drawing for even more information than we ever had to be creative.

You know what I'm saying?

I do.

I'm trying to.

I try to keep up and I check out some newer artists.

And it's interesting.

When I'm listening, I hear a little bit of all of us, if you know what I mean.

I hear it in their music, just little pieces.

I go, hey.

You know, And I think they just kind of take little tidbits and throw it together and there it is.

But again, you have to have a good foundation.

Right.

To make something great.

And so.

You're right.

You're right, exactly.

Their foundation is.

Is us.

And so.

Yeah.

So you guys are recording anything new now?

You said you are?

Yeah.

Where are you gonna play next recording?

We're gonna play in April.

Gonna do our east coast tour.

Starts in Minneapolis.

Okay.

You guys coming out here anytime soon to the west?

Well, we're thinking about coming out to San Francisco.

Okay.

Play some cafes.

I didn't think about it.

Just kind of like taking a break out there.

Are you close?

Who, me?

To San Francisco?

Yeah, San Francisco.

In the car is about five and a half hours.

Oh, word.

It's about a 45 minute flight.

It's right over there.

It's not too far.

You said flight.

It's a 45 minute flight and it's a five and a half hour in the car.

I used to go up to the bay, up to Oakland and all those places and hang out quite a bit.

They had a hell of a punk scene up there.

And I used to go up there all the time, so it's not that far.

Cool.

I'll definitely listen.

I don't turn down any invites to go check out good music, so.

Okay.

As soon as I get some confirmation, we gotta make plans.

Let me know, we'll come check you out.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely.

You know, and also I think what I'll do, I'll send you a.

A link to all the new stuff that we're doing.

Please.

Yeah.

And I'll send you some of our merch.

Okay.

So the merchandise that we have, the designs are mine.

I drew them.

Oh.

I. I like hand sketch them.

And then I have a digital person that helps me like digitize it and.

And everything.

But those are all my actual ideas.

Like one of the shirts I got banned off Of Meta when it first came out.

Yeah.

Because it had the phrase Black Lives Matter in it.

The shirts say Black Punk Lives Matter.

If you look on my page, there's a picture of Walt Dirty Wall wearing it.

Yeah.

But I put out the clothing line came before the podcast.

That's what I was doing initially was just designing and drawing and things like that.

Definitely not a con.

An artist.

I don't consider myself one, but.

Yes, you are.

You talk.

What do you mean?

I'm artistic.

I don't know that I'm an artist.

But as an artist.

Yeah, as an art to watch everything that you do, you know, you have the art of talking to me and tell them, you know, asking me questions and whatnot.

You know, I don't.

I don't do that, so.

Well, you're doing fine.

So the other member of the band, not you, not your brother.

Tell me more about.

Yeah, tell me about him.

How did that happen?

Yeah, well, I had to came at a turbulent time when I was in the middle of my divorce.

And he came like, you know, at a time right.

Right when I needed a man, you know.

So he and I began to work on music together right after, you know, develop.

Stop playing a lot, you know, and we wanted to get another project started called Apollo Heights.

And that's right when trip hop and stuff was really beginning to take off.

And I began to work with a couple of DJs right when my brother moved back to North Carolina.

So what I would do it.

P. Diddy would have like a.

A mixtape that would come out every other Thursday or.

No, no, so every other.

Every other month, right?

You go to the block up here, right, and get a mixtape that had every new hip hop song that was coming out, but there would be remixes of them.

Like they would be all these independent DJs that would have mixes of popular rap song, but it would be like freaked out versions of them, right?

So I would take.

Take the tapes, right, and put it in a little sampler and play to them like that.

Like, you know, come up with ideas and like, you know, let it with a DJ sampler.

And.

So I began to get a new body of work together by that time, you know, because at the time I was listening to Tricky Massive Attack Porter said and yeah, and a More Chiba by that time.

And because I had to, I had the fortune of working with.

Working with massive attack on 100 Windows demos, the demos, 400 window.

I had to play guitar, okay.

And dude, with the grace, Liz Frazier got me that job, God bless her.

Soul, you know, all that stuff had influenced us at that time.

And I had to begin to get proficient on programming when I met him, you know.

So we did our first demo together, which is a borealis that you can hear on Maros.

It's a remix that we did together.

Our first thing we did together was that.

And he's really into soul music and whatnot.

You know, he is good at programming and he has a very good temperament between me, my brother and I, so I won't kill him sometime.

There it is.

There it is.

Yes.

He's.

He's a conduit, you know, he always says.

Well, your brother says, you know, that comes up like that.

So he's a mediator.

Yeah, him and his wife, Marie.

Marie helps out because she translates a lot of stuff.

Because his Japanese.

His English is horrible, and a Japanese is not that great.

Well, I. I can get around a little bit, you know, from.

So we studied a little bit Japanese for a minute.

Oh, wow.

1982.

We.

We started.

We.

Oh, we bought the Japanese curriculum to.

To our public school system.

Interesting.

We're in high school.

We would.

We were so much of a nerds back then.

Well, we still are nerds because no one was really into that kind of like anime stuff back then, you know.

So we got a scholarship to go to a Japanese class in.

At the university.

Local university.

Neat.

But unfortunately, I kind of dropped out and started studying punk rock stuff and start playing a lot.

So how did you get your Japanese member in the group?

How did you.

How to get them in the group?

Yeah, he just kind of hung out with us.

And that was it.

Yeah, that was it.

Yeah, we could hung out like, hey, man, you know, I was working on a few demos that.

At the time.

That transition time.

And he like, really liked the, you know, the vibe and it was really cool, you know, happened to be into that kind of music, you know what I'm saying?

So it worked out.

He was playing part time with another kind of.

I don't want to say.

It's kind of like a trashy Lower east side band.

This British dude, Thomas Wood Barrel, he was kind of like a.

How you.

How do you say.

It's like, not kind of Terence Trent, Darby rock kind of thing.

Anyway, he was into that kind of soul stuff.

Anyway, so it worked out pretty well.

That's neat.

Yeah.

I just was wondering how he fit in, like how you made it work or how he.

Easily, easily.

That's the Crux of the whole thing right there is our.

Our relationship with him, you know, is he holds it together between us.

So, you know, and like I say, it's a good conduit musically, you know.

Well, there's a.

There's a really good.

It's changing subjects really quickly.

There's a really good exhibit, a Basquiat exhibit here, and it's free.

Really?

It's free in la?

Yeah.

LA has some really.

And I mean, it's not like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I've never been, but they have some really, really great museums here in la.

But they have the baskets on exhibit and you can just walk right in.

It's pre.

And it's interesting because they put him next to the Warhols.

Oh, yeah.

So if you're walking through, you're like.

You see the art kind of change, and then you're like, looking at Warhol.

Warhol, Warhol.

And then it kind of blends into to his.

It's interesting how they.

How they set that up.

I'm pretty sure.

Pretty sure his sister didn't do that.

I. I seriously doubt it.

I didn't get to catch it when they were touring around the one that the sisters put together, and I just didn't.

I felt weird about paying for it when I could see so much of it here and just walk in and see it.

Like, I had mixed feelings about it.

Did you see it, the exhibit that the sisters put together?

Yeah, down the street from where I lived at.

I live on East Village because they came here.

They came to LA with it, too.

Yeah.

Fantastic, man.

You know, it's just hard, I believe that, like, you know, like, they let him go like that, though.

You know what I'm saying?

You know, it's.

Yes.

You know, it's like something so close to meeting people like that, though, in that.

Actually, the guy.

The guy who did our first video, can't remember his name.

He was with him before he came to do our.

Do our video or something like that.

You know, Basquiat before, the Night before or some like that.

But we were all in the frame of people that, you know, like, you know, Delight, the group Delight.

Yes, of course.

You read the same management as Delight, and I got to play with Delight on a few things.

And then I played with Alternate T. You know who that is?

Alternate?

I do, yeah.

I played on some.

Some demos with her and.

And a few.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This song, Don't Mess With My Man.

Oh, Lucy Pearl.

Yeah, Lucy Pearl.

I haven't heard that in you in a long time.

Lucy Pearl.

I played a Lucy Pearl song.

I played on that remix and I played on Dead Prayer Song.

Selling dope.

Did you?

Yeah, for like.

For like that song.

That movie Slam.

Yes.

I love Slam.

That's the movie that made me fall in love with.

Yeah, brother man.

I was like, oh, man, this is the epitome.

All my friends of Black madness.

I was like, oh.

And now like, his whole aesthetic is a little bit different than what I remember.

But I.

That's.

That was one of my crushes growing up because of that.

Because of Slam.

All my friends are on there.

Really?

That's interesting.

All of them.

All that.

That little spoken word scene.

We used to have one called the Section.

Oh, no, it was a poetry section where it started off.

We used to call it 40 ounce Friday.

But then it got righteous and.

And nobody wanted to drink anymore, so we used to go up and pass around the book and report stuff like that you said.

Then it got righteous.

I love that.

That's awesome.

You're like.

Then they just cleaned us up and, you know, straightened us out.

Oh, my God.

That's interesting how you put that.

LA is back.

Johnny Taylor.

Hey, we haven't.

We'll talk about that after the recording.

I have a question.

Okay, go ahead.

Is it that time?

Well, it's my.

This is my least favorite part of the show.

It's the part where the DJ starts to say, well, you ain't got to go home, but you can't stay here and make sure you tip your waitresses on the way out.

We are coming to the point to where we are about three minutes to our hour.

So this is the point where you get to plug everything.

Where can people contact you?

How can people keep up with your journey out here?

How do people connect with you on socials?

Any upcoming.

Well, we talked about some of what's going on right here, but we'll probably create a separate clip for just this one part.

So this is the time to go ahead and reiterate.

Make the cell.

Okay.

We're touring in April with the Chameleons UK east coast tour starting in Minneapolis.

Then we're gonna have a release, hopefully in February of our next lp, Evergreen.

And hopefully for Record store day, there'll be another one called Look.

What was it?

Was it cosmic?

Oh, okay.

There's no man.

Well, I can't remember the name right now because I can't remember.

But anyway, it's gonna be another EP out and then we're gonna have like a couple of, like, live things we're gonna do too, on recording.

So that's what's about it.

And where can people find your music or find you if they wanna?

On Instagram.

Sorry, Instagram, Facebook, Bandcamp.

Especially Bandcamp.

You know, it's on Spotify, but they don't really pay us for that.

So you can hit band, camp up.

We really appreciate it, you know, and we have merch on it as well.

Look at.

Would you stop that?

Spotify gets the thumbs down.

Spotify gets the thumbs down.

Sorry.

It's just.

What it is.

Oh, man.

I don't know, you know, with.

With.

With seconds left.

I don't even want us get on that soap box right now.

I don't even want to.

I just don't even want.

I need a drink for that one.

Ah.

Oh, right.

Okay.

A few.

A few.

Man, you know, that's a whole separate episode.

That's a whole separate thing.

But you know what?

We're gonna leave on a high.

This has been an incredible episode.

Appreciate you stopping by and.

And sharing the stories and gracing us with your presence.

We really do appreciate it.

Making a little time to hang out with us here at the punkdemic podcast.

So until next time, everyone be kind to your mind and each other.

And we're signing off.

We out of here like last year.

There it is.

I should probably wait, like, two weeks to say that one.

That one was a little premature.

Just leave it alone.

We'll work on that.

We'll be better on the exit for 20, 26.

All right.

Leave it alone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

It can't be.

We can't do that.

That's not what the people want.

That's not what the people want.

Good day.

All right, I'm done harassing Amazon.

And all you guys that are listed, signing off until next time.

All right?

I'm pushing the button.

I'm pushing.