Odds and Ends
BFG Connects With a Childhood Idol
BFG, Mark, and Spit discuss various topics including Spit's experience as a new dad, his career as a musician, and the challenges of traveling. They also touch on the importance of home and the value of online friendships. The conversation highlights the bond formed through shared interests and the positive community in the crypto space. The conversation covers various topics including the importance of family support in the music industry, the transition of the music industry with the rise of the internet, and the challenges of balancing work and family life. The hosts and guest discuss their parenting philosophies and the importance of supporting their children's interests and passions. They also share their favorite movies and the impact of kindness in their lives.
BFG, Mark, and Spit discuss various topics including Spit's experience as a new dad, his career as a musician, and the challenges of traveling. They also touch on the importance of home and the value of online friendships. The conversation highlights the bond formed through shared interests and the positive community in the crypto space. The conversation covers various topics including the importance of family support in the music industry, the transition of the music industry with the rise of the internet, and the challenges of balancing work and family life. The hosts and guest discuss their parenting philosophies and the importance of supporting their children's interests and passions. They also share their favorite movies and the impact of kindness in their lives.
Welcome to another episode of Odds and Ends. Here we're here with Mark BFG and our good friend Spitfunkolips, who we met originally on Farcaster a few months back I guess it's more like five months ago now or so, since I think I joined around February. But we've gotten to know Spit Funko you know pretty well over this past few months. Just an awesome dude, really funny guy, now new dad and everything, so doing that journey. Awesome musician who is a member of a band that I used to actually listen to growing up, which is kind of weird because, you know, obviously I didn't know him at all. So it's kind of cool to you know everything go full circle there. But how's it going, spitt? How are you today, man?
Speaker 3:I'm great gentlemen. Thanks for having me Pleasure to be on board. I'm a big fan of the show.
Speaker 1:We're excited to have you especially coming right off of vacation. I mean you made a special trip home for this.
Speaker 3:I did. We were going to stay. You know we're supposed to be in the Outer Banks. Still, I told my wife. I looked my wife dead in the eye and said babe, we got a podcast, we're going to have to pack it up.
Speaker 2:Yes, I wasn't sure if you were joking for a second dude.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like man. I hope you didn't call it early for this dude, you know it's actually even fun needed to get to, so I mean as far as the totem pole goes, not, you know, the uh, the odds and ends is right there with uh right yeah, you know, I mean if john jett wasn't opening probably be above, but yeah fair, true, fair.
Speaker 2:When are you guys going to that?
Speaker 3:dude. So we went saturday night. We, uh, my daughter a lot of firsts, um, obviously a new dad, um, as well as mark and my daughter first time putting her feet in the sand over the past week, first time being in the ocean, first time being in a pool and her first rock and roll concert.
Speaker 1:So a lot of firsts. That's awesome. Dude, How'd she do going in the water?
Speaker 3:She did great. You know she loves the water Since the day we brought her home baths um spitting up over herself peeing on everything she loves liquids. So that's very well.
Speaker 2:Dude, good, good for you, though we me and my wife, you know, we really we still haven't gotten to take our kid to to the ocean. And that's like I can't believe it, you know, and he's eight and all, and I feel bad that, but we just it's something we need to to this summer to go fly down to florida. But just a lot of stuff came up. My mom's or my, my wife's, uh, you know, grandmother passed away and all and kind of threw things into turmoil. But like man, I know, I feel like I'm letting my kid down here as a parent, not not bringing him to the ocean quite yet. What about you, mark? Have you have you brought? You know, her over?
Speaker 1:I think we're gonna do a pool for the first time on fourth of july, but we have a pretty dirty lake by us. There's an E coli meter on Lake Erie every day.
Speaker 2:I don't even want to go in that water. Dude, I don't know, man, I used to love swimming in lakes as a kid, but now I will not swim in a lake. I don't know if you guys are the same, but it doesn't have the same appeal.
Speaker 3:That seaweed is intense when it wraps around your ankles. Oh so gross In the fresh water.
Speaker 2:Well, now you always hear about the people getting like those brain amoebas that are like eating their brains from the outside too, and it's like I didn't worry about that when I was a kid man.
Speaker 3:Well, bfg, I just got to say Ed, whatever we're calling you here, you're an excellent father. I don't think you should be worrying about that. First of all, I've seen a lot of your posts and a lot of stuff you do with, obviously, with your boy and your wife, and anybody would kill to have a dad like you, and I know you said he's not, like, the biggest fan of travel. So it makes sense, man, he'll get there, you know, and that'll be another thing to check off the list when it comes.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's like I appreciate it first off, but like you know, it's. I was just thinking this the other day because I talked to my mom and I was like mom, just come out here, like I'll pay for your, we'll pay for your flights and get you and you know, her husband and everybody. And she's like I hate going up there. She's like I'm scared of driving up because, like so I'm like three hours from the major airport and you have to go all like no matter how you get into my place, you're going up like canyons and you know, winding switchback roads. Long story short, dude, like everyone in my family hates traveling, so we're all like stuck in all different places in the country and no one wants to go visit and we can't bribe each other to do it because it's like you know, I just want to pay for people to come see me. It's so much easier than like bringing a kid and stuff. You know, if you're offering to fly people out there.
Speaker 3:I think we've got a list of friends that want to come visit that dude?
Speaker 2:okay done, we'll talk about it for sure.
Speaker 1:Happy to, happy to man it does have to limit your travel like desire, being three hours from an airport, though dude, and like it does.
Speaker 2:That's not even the worst part, though I just I just get stressed. Man, like I don't like the act of traveling. I hate the act of traveling. I don't mind when I'm there't like the act of traveling. I hate the act of traveling, I don't mind when I'm there, but like the act of traveling itself is like a nightmare to me, dude. Like I just am, like on edge. I've tried everything. I've tried, like you know, like Xanax or whatever you take on the flights, no-transcript, isn't that the idea? Like shouldn't everyone want to love to be where they're at?
Speaker 3:Like that's the goal. You know you saying that I was thinking to you today, ed um, I was reading a book and I'm positive.
Speaker 2:You've read it. It's like the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. Have you read that book? See, let me just really quickly. I know I am an english teacher and all, but like I don't read, dude, there's like I read the books that I read in high school. I read the books that I read in high school now for my kids and I don't like my reading is like twitter or warpcast and stuff. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:I use the word I use the term book loosely it's mostly pictures. It's just, it's hard to explain, man, it's just, it's like a I don't know introspective, philosophical 10 minute read and mostly pictures. You know, it makes me want to read it to my kid. My cousin actually shared with me over vacation and you know, I think one of the points in the book is like we're all just trying to get home, like whatever that is or whatever that means to you. So that it struck a chord, you know, especially hearing you say that the idea is that you love your home and it's a place of peace and comfort and happiness, and uh, yeah, so of course. But then then again, you would also like to go to the beach and you'd like to go to Vegas and you would like to go to the Grand.
Speaker 2:Canyon. I don't want to go anywhere ever, but like, once again, it's like I have to do it for my kid, like I have to go places so that my kid has those experiences, but, like for me, I legitimately never need to go anywhere ever again never need to go anywhere ever again for now.
Speaker 1:That's why you're a good dad, though, because we struggle with this with one family member that never traveled at all, and so now they're later in life and they're so nervous to do anything. They don't ever want to leave their home, really, because it just makes them nervous and that's like.
Speaker 2:This is like slowly what I'm morphing into dude I'm about to like the butt. Bushes are getting like overgrown in my house. I'm becoming like the hermit dude. Every neighborhood had like the hermit the dude. Like oh man, don't, I don't know, we don't see that guy. Did you ever see like the burbs with Tom Hanks and stuff, like with the neighbors that are exactly dude?
Speaker 3:That'll be me man.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 3:I used to deliver groceries for, like this high-end grocery store out in I guess it's like Playa del Mar. It was basically like Venice right, it's south of Santa Monica when I was living in LA and I swear, like every house it was hermits, People that just don't want to leave. They're the ones that are ordering the high-end groceries and then they crack the door and they slide the dollar bill through the crack. I leave it on the porch. Don't look at my stuff.
Speaker 2:Dude, ever since, like no contact delivery became a thing, it's been the greatest thing in the world. Like I love not engaging with people at all, but at the same time, like You're so outgoing that doesn't make any sense. Well, see, that's the thing is. Like I get all my socialization normally at school, like with the, with the kids, you know. Like I'm literally in a class and Mark knows how this goes. Like I'm, you know, with these kids all day, eight hours a day, forcing them to reply for you, forcing them to reply for me, typing, working, you know, but like, but you know what I mean. Like and we're just and literally like the type of teacher I am in person, like I just talked to them about. Like store, I'm like, ah, dude, what'd you do this weekend, you know. And so, like, by the end of the day, I'm like, please, no one speak to me, I just need to. Yeah, you're dating yourself with that one spit man.
Speaker 1:Sorry, sorry, rewind. My wife and I would say like when we have a day full of patients and, like you know, you're in the hospital too, and staff and everything, like there's so many small interactions just of small talk. You know you have 50, 60 interactions of small talk throughout the day, like I'm just mentally drained from that and want to do nothing at night. Just the two of us will just go have a drink and relax. It's a lot.
Speaker 2:Is it? Is it like I mean it's very different but similar? Is it like I mean it's very different but similar, same, same but different? Spit Like when you guys have like performances and stuff like are you, when these are done regardless of like, are you just like drained, don't want to talk to anybody?
Speaker 3:Are you guys all amped up or like yeah, I think there's a, there's a process of coming down from something like that. It's funny, when you said, you know you can't travel, I'm wondering, like, could you be in a band Like you literally never stop traveling, it's all you do all day long, and especially for us. You know we weren't. You know we did fairly well for ourselves and we were really lucky and I'm very, you know, happy. We did what we did and the way we did it. But we weren't one of those bands in a bus with a driver. You know we were driving ourselves. Um, you know, for the good part of a decade, you know my father was our tour manager, uh, so he came with us and uh, him and I basically shared the driving with our drummers just the three of us out of like eight or nine people that we trusted enough to drive, you know.
Speaker 3:Um, so there is a process, but normally we were leaving the club pretty much right away because we had to drive to get to the next club. Uh, bands with a driver. They're sticking around and then when they they get back to the bus at four or five am, the driver takes over, drives them to the next town. Uh, for us it's like get packed up as fast as you can and get out of there. So as much as like for me, I'm super extroverted and I would love to stick around and sign every autograph and meet everyone.
Speaker 3:It was kind of out of necessity that we just get in the truck and once you get in the, uh, in the rv, you know, man, we had some weird stuff. I mean, we listened, you know we would be chill, we had the lights on and we'd get our, our cereal out and we'd start watching the friends box set or whatever. You know, we just just uh, relaxing. Basically, we were big relaxers outside of playing the show, even though we're all like pretty extroverted. It was like all you can do just to get recharged for the next night when you're doing, you know, 300 shows a year. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, have you ever seen the movie Green Room? No.
Speaker 3:I don't know why. I mean, it sounds familiar, but probably just because it's two common words jammed together. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't think so it's got oh my gosh, who's the bald guy from X-Men in the wheelchair? Professor X, yeah, that actor, kingsley Ben Kingsley, is that it?
Speaker 3:I don't know it's, got him it's got like Anton Yelchin.
Speaker 2:it's about this punk band that goes on a tour to you know like they're. They're they're trying to get gas money, like they're just going from gig to gig, dude, like trying to make it whatever. And they end up getting booked at this place and they get there and they realize it's like this, like this white supremacist gig that they're doing that they're doing right and like it gets.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's an amazing movie, dude. Oh, did you see that's?
Speaker 2:why I wanted to bring it up was that was that in new jersey? Dude, dude you have. You have to look this up, dude. The movie is like one of my favorite horror movies it's. It's amazing, like you guys would really like it, I think.
Speaker 3:But okay, it's a horror movie. Oh cool yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah, dude it gets crazy. Like, sounds, like, like sounds like a reality TV.
Speaker 2:Dude, it might give you PTSD then because, like you know, I looked at reading the reviews and stuff, or like people's comments, and I've seen like one or two people be like you know I used to. You know this reminds me of like touring with my friends and like it's creepy. Anyway, check it out.
Speaker 3:I'd like to pick your brain on it some other time when you you know it god, I think it might have been us um, because we, one of the first shows we played when we were 14, you know we got signed pretty young. It was always a dream of ours and we, you know, we were all pretty hard workers and, um, we kind of made it happen. Uh, we left a lot of things, let a lot of things go. I played baseball, golf in high school. Our singer was like the quarterback for the varsity team when he was a junior. You know like we were, or I don't know sophomore sorry, but we were. We were all like we had a lot of things going, but we we wanted to make the music thing happen. So we left a lot of things behind. But when we did that, you know we got signed pretty quickly and one of the first shows we got before we ever got a major label deal, we were playing in in the baltimore city.
Speaker 3:Here there's a, there's a venue connected to the building where the, the courthouse is in baltimore city, which is kind of odd because it's like a skinhead bar. Apparently we we didn't know that, you know we're 14, but there was a band called messed and I forget where they're from. I want to say they're west coast, but it's like a, like a punk band punk, but they were like gutter punks and you know we opened for them. We had to leave, basically because we were underage and it's like you know, you had to be a drinking age to get in there. We're kind of standing outside, we're watching the show. We're like sitting by the door. They let us kind of hang out.
Speaker 3:And midway through MEST show, somebody threw a beer at stage and it hit the guitar player. So he immediately, like, without we didn't even blink he walks off the stage with his guitar and just starts beating the living shit out of him. Like right, you know, it's not even really a stage. Like the stage is the same height as the floor, it's just, you know, dive. And so we're like, oh shit.
Speaker 3:We're like, wow, man, this is like one of our first shows. We're like this is just how it is, like this is gonna be like this every night. This is crazy. And we're like. And so we're like we help them. I don't know. It's like well, we're 14, maybe not. Um, so anyway, they get back on stage, they start playing, the bar kicks the three or four guys that were together out. Well, we're at, we know we're kind of outside. They're finishing up the show and here comes this truck around the corner. Big truck raised up swampers, you know some, probably skinhead flags off the back. There's like 10 guys jump out of this thing, molotov cocktails like baseball bats. They just start beating the shit out of their tour bus, bust every window out of it, slashing the tires, and we're like holy shit man this is it.
Speaker 3:We made it really yeah, like fuck, this is gonna be. This is so cool, like our first night. It's always gonna be like this amazing. But, um, you know, our, our, our singer's dad is our manager, my dad was was our tour manager. They like grab us, like get the hell in the car. We're going home. No, we got to help them. No, you're not. Yeah, yeah, babies, get in the damn car. But it was like that man, there's skinheads everywhere. We got put on all these tours like hardcore punk scene tours, and we were you know the things adolescent kids want to do Like we. We had no ax to grind, we had good lives, we were just trying to have fun, and so Do you think?
Speaker 2:that's. Do you think that's like a sorry to cut you off, but like, is that like specific, more to to punk, probably Because there's so many? I okay, cause that's the place and you don't really know the locale per se and the clientele, and like for sure.
Speaker 3:But I think, as a band starting out like it doesn't matter what genre you are like, you'll take whatever show you can get. And the tours we got you know, because we had, we were pop punk. We were pop, a band that was like had pop punk. They put us on punk tours with actual punk bands and everyone hated us man. So our first year was brutal.
Speaker 3:We played to 300 people flicking us off the whole time, throwing shit at us, cussing us out, yeah, but it made us tough. We had to learn the hard way right away and we were like, well, shit, we still love it, we don't care, we'll find our fans eventually. It's kind of what we just told each other and we kept going and we did. We had like a 10 year good, 10 year run. So, but it is those punk shows, man, like the, the northeast corridor especially.
Speaker 2:it's brutal, absolutely it's so cool, dude, and and I, for people who don't know, you know, his original band or his band that he's in is wakefield, um, and I bring it up just cause like it's interesting to me and I mentioned this before we had to restart it but, like you know, when I was in high school, graduated 2005,. We're all around similar ages, I think somewhat, and you know I used to love like Taking Back Sunday, the Starting Line, like all these kinds of bands especially. A lot of them came up locally too, you know, northeast of, of course, and and I and I knew I knew of your band, which was just so cool to me to randomly run into you on Farcaster and then a discord and become friends, that, like you know, a band that I, that I would have like done anything to, like meet or hang out with you know as a kid and stuff.
Speaker 3:Getting to meet later in life is just, it's just awesome.
Speaker 2:It's kind of cool. How like hey, for real, though you know, it's just awesome. It's kind of cool how like hey, for real, though you know, it's like uh, it's weird how time is like a flat circle with so many in so many ways, you know.
Speaker 3:It is, and it's such a small world man Like I feel like a lot of you guys that I've met through um, through crypto, really it's. You know, we've all some of the same interests, been to some of the same bars or shows, or you know venues, or it's just it's cool how you can meet people, um, that you could become friends with instantly. Um, you know, like you were saying today I think you made a post about there's like a handful of people you know, or more that you would send 10 grand to right now that you've never met before in real life. Just because you trust them, because you know them on that level. And that's been the coolest thing to me about being, uh, in crypto, you know, besides the all the other reasons you come here is just like it's so cool to meet people with those niche interests that you really connect with and it's like you feel like you've known them your whole life and you trust them more than a couple of your buddies you're gonna see, you know, next weekend down at the bar.
Speaker 1:So yeah, especially after just a few weeks on farcaster. You're like well, this is good enough, like we have some, that was exciting oh well, mark, especially, it's so cool to get to see you.
Speaker 3:Obviously, this is a podcast, but we're on video. I mean like meeting you sort of this is it's cool Cause we've been talking, you know, being new dads around the about the same time, um, and then just sort of being able to share a little bits of that journey, here and there as we've we've been going, has been really cool. Um, even super kind to me and um, you know, hopefully I've reciprocated.
Speaker 3:But it's been neat and hopefully we can continue to do it, cause it's it's such a cool thing. And, to you know, I don't have many most of my friends, their kids are much older and have grown up and they've moved on. So, like I'm experiencing these things, I feel like sort of by myself in real life with my, my real life friends. So it's cool to have other people that you really trust and you, you know, you appreciate what they have to say, uh, going through it at the same time. So, thank you Could you?
Speaker 1:yeah, could you imagine like we're both around the same age later in life kids, like if we had to go to, like dad support groups and, like you know, hang out with like 23 year olds about, you know, raising? A kid and their, their, problems, like it's been perfect to have this scenario. There's even a couple other guys in there having having babies right around the same time. It's kind of wild dude.
Speaker 2:There's a lot, I would say like four or five of you guys. They literally just had a baby within the past like two months, which is awesome, dude, and it couldn't be like a better group of people too. Like, if there's anyone I want to be procreating, it's the people in Discord that I like and that I would send money to that I don't really know.
Speaker 2:That's the people I want. But, to your point though, it's been so true, dude, and it's awesome that, just like the Internet in general, I feel like it's so cool to be able to make friends of shared common interests versus friends of proximity, which is the only thing we had before the internet and stuff, you know, and and not always the the friends of proximity aren't always the friends that you know you would have made if, if you had a choice. You know what I mean. So, um, meeting you guys has been awesome and and like Mark and I and Craig and stuff, and we we've only actually we thought about this their day. It's been like is it two years now or something, which is like like gross, but it feels like seven lifetimes in crypto.
Speaker 3:Yeah dude?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh, I know. Yeah, man, it's awesome though, dude and like and I was just thinking today too like we need to probably reach out to a couple more friends. If we know anybody like we have, you know anybody spit or mark that we can bring in like good people, you know, just to keep the vibe going it's been so easy to do that with farcaster, like just it's so positive, right.
Speaker 1:It's feel like it is like before farcaster and then afterwards. It's just two different timelines, like of meeting friends, because you're going there and you bought in a group of like 20 people within weeks and look how many people are still sticking around getting along like it's I don't know.
Speaker 3:It's been incredible yeah, I do have a question for spit yeah, I don't know what it's like, was it?
Speaker 1:did you really enjoy like traveling with your dad all the time in the in the band as a manager? Well, is it a good thing, a bad thing, like?
Speaker 2:especially that mean right
Speaker 3:I mean, um, you know, like I said, we we got signed. Basically, we, we started the band. We were like 13, 14, we said we're gonna get signed within a year. Um, I'm sure a lot of you you know, you guys know the band good, charlotte, but we grew up with them. They practiced in my garage. Um, their drummer was our singer's brother, so we were very close with them. We played a lot of gigs with them. Uh, we saw them get signed and we practiced next to them and we're like these guys suck dude, like we watch them every day, like they're terrible musicians. They don't even write their own songs. They just, you know, they steal other people's songs and change the melody and like we can do that. So it gave us a lot of confidence seeing them do that. And you know, for saying that, like they are some of the smartest, savviest businessmen I've ever met.
Speaker 3:Benji and Joel, the twins, I mean they would use their own mother to get where they needed to go and they did that to a lot of people. But there's some lessons in there. You know, their father kind of left them for dead and they didn't have anyone else. Man, they had to like bond together and they did and it was a strong bond and they were super, super smart and savvy about the way they went about being artists. But for us, you know, it was just. We came at it from a little bit different angle, like it wasn't a necessity. You know, it was just something we really wanted to do and you know, from there it's like everything else is a cherry on top.
Speaker 3:Yeah, having my dad around was awesome. I love my dad. My dad was my boss from the day I can remember he builds custom homes. I used to work for him. We had a really close bond. He was the coach of my baseball team, coach of my soccer team. We did everything together.
Speaker 3:I was very lucky in that regard, because being on tour is not easy. Man. The way the contracts are written, you're not guaranteed anything, even if it says we're going to pay you 20% of the door, 50% of the door, 15% of merch, whatever your contract says. Then you got to actually get the money. The first part's easy. The second part is difficult, especially if not a lot of people show up or if it's a down season or whatever the hell the case may be bad weather nobody wants to pay you, especially your little snot-nosed kid like get the hell out of my face. Yeah, so having your father there to be like well, actually, that's true, you're gonna pay us, I'm gonna whip your ass was actually pretty nice and, and you know, he was the first one to get us drugs in the new city. He's the first one to make friends and find girls to send back to the rv, like that's my boy man, my dad's the best man, my wedding we're super close, so for most people that probably sounds like a nightmare scenario.
Speaker 3:For me, it was ideal, absolutely ideal.
Speaker 2:That's exciting did you ever like so just talking, you know what you mentioned with the other band and everything like did you guys, um, in wakefield, ever sit down and like, have and make like a conscious decision to be like we're going to do it, what we think of in the right way, like was that important to you guys? If that makes sense at all?
Speaker 3:I think in so as much as we are going to do as much as we possibly can and work as hard as we possibly can to to get as far as we can. We knew we weren't particularly musically gifted, like you know, especially back then. You know this is before the internet when we first started. So you know, you hear all these bands and there's a lot of great bands and maybe, if you know, one of the great things about social media is you can connect with your fans. You can find people and it's much easier now with the way the technology has evolved. You don't need a big studio. You can record a record in your house and it can sound great for, like you know, a small fraction of what it used to cost. But another part of that is like you're exposed to all these insane musicians. Like I could pull up Instagram right now and find 10 better guitar players than fucking Yngwie Malmsteen or you know who you name it. You name your favorite guitar player. There's people right now that no one's ever heard of. Like you just open your app and like they're amazing.
Speaker 3:I probably would have gotten discouraged, to be honest, but we didn't know any better. You know, the only thing we knew was these guys that got signed in my garage and they weren't very good. You know I love them to death. But uh, you know I think it was more naivete and just thinking like. But we knew my father owned his own business, our singer's dad owned his own business.
Speaker 3:We saw, hard work can actually get you as far as you want to go anywhere, no matter what you're doing, if you put your mind to it and you're willing to sacrifice. And that's what we did. We practiced eight, ten hours a day. We choreographed everything. We put football helmets on, we go in the yard, throw our guitars back and forth in the air. Like our whole show, down to the every second, was choreographed.
Speaker 3:And we knew it like the back of our hand. We could do it with our eyes closed and that's how we got signed is like, not necessarily the music, I mean it's okay, but we put on a show that, like, you would want to go see. And when, when record execs came out to see that they're like man, this is a cool, cool show, like we could probably do something with these guys. So it was more about. You know, when you say the right way, like musically, what does that mean Purist probably means something different to us as sons of made men. That's what it meant to us was like you work your ass off to get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I only brought it up because I've recently been watching this show on Netflix. I don't know if you guys ever heard of it, called Outlast. If you've ever watched Alone those kind of survival shows, it's along the same vein. But when I first heard it on I was like, ah, I'm just kind of bored, I'll put it on in the background.
Speaker 2:And all of a sudden, an episode later, I found myself glued to the TV because it's a survival show but there's like four teams, you know, and it just devolved into like a total like war between, like certain people were like we're here to win the right way, like I'd rather just go home than do what they're doing. And then other people were like stealing people's sleeping bags and like it's like sub-zero temperature and they're like plotting and like burning thing dude, they're like we'll burn the whole camp down, yeah. So like I don't know. It's just made me really kind of think of things lately because as I'm watching that, like the two people who were, it was like these two women I was like I hate these people, dude, Like these are the worst people, and it just kind of made me appreciate the people that are out there trying to you know, take it, I guess doing, taking a little harder path, but doing things you know in the way that they think is right. At least you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think if you have the artistic capability, then that's maybe a struggle that you have to have with yourself when you know, when you're you know, three 14 year old kids, man, like that wasn't even a thought in our mind it was just like let's work as hard as we can.
Speaker 3:But, you know, good artists borrow, great artists steal right, like that's every great, successful artist that I've really met. For the most part and it's not true for everyone they've had some form of that. You know, whatever it is, you know God, the business is just scummy man, like I don't really know how else to put it, and maybe not now that you can kind of do it on your own on the Internet, but back then it's like we were part of a dying industry and we saw the comet coming, you know, and we're standing there with's weird. I kind of wish we had come a little bit later, and you know, if that makes any sense, like I think, with with what we had, like the tools became much more widely available to just do your stuff at home, how you want to spend the time. Studio time back then was expensive, man. We we were, you know, lucky enough, thank God. You know, I don't know it's a double-edged sword, because I'm so happy that we got to play music in some of these hallowed venues and these hallowed spaces, these studios that don't exist anymore because they couldn't pay their rent. They were selling their microphones, like, while we're there, we were watching it happen, like cello, like we stood in the room. You know we're like Rage Against the Machine recorded their first album, and like the Chili Peppers and Weezer. And like you're standing there like Rivers played ping pong right here, like this is pretty cool and the sounds of those rooms like you'll just never get them again. So we are losing that and I'm happy to be a part of that. But, that being said, like that wasn't going to help us a whole lot. You know for what we did.
Speaker 3:So you put it. You know I've always told people this like they ask, you know, if they ask about guitars, like is it the type of guitar? Like is it the expensive guitar that makes you sound good? Is it the expensive amp, the boutique tubes? You know all this stuff and it's like really no man, if you get a good musician and give them a kid's toy, like they'll figure out how to make it sound awesome.
Speaker 3:They got something to say and people are going to want to hear it, regardless of what they're playing it on. So like that kind of translates to where we are now with the music industry Like you don't need all these people like sucking on you like a leech because they're providing you the means to get that big music video on that channel or whatever. You know you don't need that anymore. So I love that so much and you know I don't have the energy like I used to, so that sort of passed me a little bit. Now I just kind of do what I want to do. But you know, for a kid starting out in the music business man like this is such a great time to be alive to be doing that.
Speaker 1:Are you going to encourage your daughter to get into the music business? See what she likes to do.
Speaker 3:I already have her a guitar Hold on one second.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's sick dude, sick dude, cool man, that's awesome. It's awesome to talk to him, dude, about this stuff because, like, like I said, I was, I was a fan growing up, man, so it's like wow to get like this. I know just seeing you. Yeah, dude, it's cool oh, and there he is. Oh nice, that's hers.
Speaker 3:That's a cool guitar dude so it's like a little mini gibson made these only for a couple years. Um, I forget what it's called, but it's a little mini flying v. It's got a short scale neck so the little kids can get their hands around it. So I'm super stoked to get her playing this and get some videos oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Uh, what age would you expect her to start playing?
Speaker 3:um, I'm gonna wake her up in a second start getting her on her rudiments start getting her on her scales. Eat, you know, at least the minor blues. By what? Next week? How old is she?
Speaker 1:two and a half months I mean she's already traveling the world at this point, going to different sporting events and everything getting in the ocean.
Speaker 3:She's seasoned, so how about you guys? How do you feel about this? Cause it's something that I think about often is like you hear the stories of the greats man like Tiger Woods and and, uh, you know so many, um, fathers are always hard asses that are just like you're going to do this, you're going to do it right, or you're getting 12 lashings, you know, till you hit that note or whatever it is, and you see, like that can produce greatness, but obviously at a cost. Like a lot of these people are screwed up mentally and like in their social lives, right, I mean, what do you guys think about that? As far as, like, when it comes to your kid, like in the path they may choose for their career or any sort of outlet they may have?
Speaker 1:I feel like they need to have the interest and the desire themselves right. If they don't, they're just going to shut down. I coached baseball for all my five younger brothers, and so I coached them for like a decade almost, and every year there were kids dropping out who are great, because their dads would just get on them. They didn't enjoy the game anymore and then they didn't even want to play when it came to high school and everybody wondered why, like this elite athlete is done and they just didn't enjoy it. I think, as long as the kid enjoys whatever they're doing music, sports, like they may want to get better at it, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm in the same boat. I mean, I just want to support my kid with whatever he wants to do. Me and my wife talked about this stuff. You know, obviously, when we were first having a kid and one of the first things was, like I really hope he doesn't want to play football, dude, like I just don't want him to play football because, you know, because like the brain stuff, I've had concussions and and now I have migraines and I think that's to cross that bridge, luckily because he doesn't have an interest. But we were like, yeah, we'll support him. And you know, hey, just really quickly, I know this is kind of off, well, it's kind of off topic, but like, weirdly enough, dude, my uncle makes guitars and has like made guitar.
Speaker 2:He has like had like a factory in Japan for the longest time and I don't know I doubt you would know I'm looking him up right now to see him all, because he gave the one in the back there. Is that? See, I'm not an expert Is that like a fender or something like that? Is that something different?
Speaker 3:That's like a guitar aficionado no-transcript.
Speaker 2:I'm just kind of interested to see if yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm getting your uncle's number. So first you guys. So what you're saying is you're both raising losers. First of all, I'm going to go wake my daughter up and beat her right after we finish this, get to work, tell right after we finish this, get to work, tell her to start rosining up her bow.
Speaker 3:No, no, I agree 100. I mean my, my dad was a hard ass and I saw his father kind of beat it into him and he didn't do that with me, thank god. I mean he, he, he tried his best not to, let's put it that way. Um, sometimes you can't help it, but you know, that's all we can hope. Right is there? I guess that they're happy and enjoying what they're doing. But man, it's like how cool would it be to raise like the next? You know, that's all we can hope, right Is there? I guess that they're happy and enjoying what they're doing. But man, it's like how cool would it be to raise like the next you know great athlete or great at something you know, and like it takes, you know you have to. I don't know, I don't know. That's that's love, right? It comes out as as pain and suffering, and I don't know.
Speaker 1:I had one. I had one of my younger brothers he's like 10 years younger than me wanted to be that elite athlete and wanted to like had that drive and would come off the field and or after, like he, you know got out and be like, what was wrong with my swing there? How can I do better? Or like, how could I have fielded that ball better? And like, if you have a kid like that, like you and your dad you know. And like, if you have a kid like that, it like you, like you and your dad, you know out traveling. If you have that relationship, it makes it better and it's more enjoyable when they succeed, if they're truly wanting to like get better themselves. But I had another brother who, like wanted to stay home because he got sunburned. Right, you know you're not gonna like make that kid try to be as best as he can be if they don't want to.
Speaker 2:That's going to go the opposite direction see, with my dad like, uh, you know his, his stepdad was like abusive and stuff and like I I still remember to this day even. I still think there's a fist hole in the wall of my grandmom's door, of her house, of her bedroom, and that was there ever since I was a little kid, like, and it was from his stepdad, who I never met. But my dad would tell me that like his stepdad would come in drunk and then literally just punch him in the back of the head at the dinner table and like so my dad was very much like not like you know what I mean and very much like, whatever you want to do, I support you and and never pressured me for anything like that, so, which I'm thankful for is that your dad that we see in the fishing uh pictures?
Speaker 2:That's. That is my wife's dad. So, um, yeah, my, my, uh in-laws live in the same town as us. Uh, here my parent, my dad, lives in Philadelphia still, and my mom's down in Florida and everything so kind of split up, but it's not as you guys probably are. You are you close to family right now? Spit Like you guys live near close to your family, or.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're. We're about an hour and a half from my family and Heather, my wife, her family, is like five minutes away, so it's really nice, you need one family close.
Speaker 2:Definitely need them. Me and Mark talk about this. I'm like I don't know how people live away from their families. And now, like, can you imagine?
Speaker 3:With a kid, it's impossible.
Speaker 2:Dude can you imagine being a single parent in a town that's not like where your family lives either. Like, how do you even do this? Like? That doesn't even make sense to me. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:You could never afford it. It gives you a lot more admiration for the people who do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, the hell out of their hair dude, so do you have.
Speaker 1:Are you over at your in-laws all the time, or do they come to you?
Speaker 3:they come to us now, but we we've had to have the talk this week. You know my wife's going back full-time now and she, um, she runs, uh, health care practice and it's actually like, uh, it's a conglomerate. They left the umbrella they were under and they're starting their own sort of group now with several ENTs around the area. And basically the guy that they hired to do this got fed up. You know they wanted him to cook the dinner and they didn't want him to buy the groceries and for him, you know they were paying him a lot of money but it was like a pride thing and basically my wife was just under him and he's like, look, I'm leaving, this is your gig now. And she's like I'm having a child. What do you mean? So the day we got home from the hospital my wife went back to work. She's been working on the computer remote, she's been trying to piecemeal this company back together and basically they're making her, you know, executor of operations, like she's running a company now. So it's, you know, she got thrusted sort of into it. It's a great opportunity. She's super excited. We are very thankful and she's good at what she does and it's going to be perfect.
Speaker 3:But in the meantime we have a two month old and it's like I'm on the road all day and our in-laws are getting uh, you know to an advanced age. And so we're like, well, what do you do? I don't even know what to. So it's like, uh, obviously there's places that'll that'll take your, your babies. But it's like, do you really want to give your baby to a stranger, you know? It's like, so I'm at the point where I might just be like, hey, I'm going'd enjoy it. I mean, that's the discussion we're having. So this weekend I think we actually have to make that decision. I can do real estate, which is what I do now pretty much from home anyway. So I think that'd be actually pretty cool. I can sit home and play with her. So I'm looking forward to that. I know you guys, I guess you're kind of off right now, mark. He guess you're kind of off right now, mark. He says like you're off season so you're getting like summer semester.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're fortunate too that we took a year off from seeing patients, so, uh, we're not having to see any patients and it's summer, so we really don't have that much work. So, and we both work remotely currently, so it's all the everyday with the baby, which is nice. But also now they're trying to get back into things like we've created a Velcro baby and he literally can't put her down for anything, so somebody is always holding her and the other person is there taking a nap or trying to work out, and then we're putting work last. So eventually we'll have to move that up the ladder.
Speaker 3:You guys were talking about this in one of the past episodes, about like and my wife says this all the time being in health care, like you know what's what's cool about having a wife in health care, especially with a newborn, is like I don't ever have to think about anything. Yes, um, my opinions are not needed. That's true or wanted. I just I say what do we do? What do we do? And she tells us and that's great, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Um gives me a lot of bandwidth for other things.
Speaker 3:But they were saying like you can't spoil a newborn, right is the saying. So it's like she crying. Whatever she wants, just give it to her.
Speaker 2:You know I'm like what is the cutoff like when?
Speaker 3:can we when do we start creating the?
Speaker 1:monster. I ask my mom that, like every time I see her, because she's she works in a NICU and she said the same thing you can't spoil a newborn yeah, it was your mom right yeah, and like every day like we feel like we're putting ourselves deeper in a hole but at the same time, like we're older parents where it's gonna be a one child, like why not give all the love you can, exactly.
Speaker 3:I don't really care. I feel like that's something you said, ed yeah, I heard you talking about with your son. Like why not, you know, once they're 18, like they're, they don't want you anything to do with you anymore. Like why not, you know?
Speaker 2:dude, there's like, I mean, there's so many different ways to parent, there's so many different styles. If there really was one method that worked, then we would all know it. Um, ultimately, I just feel like the best thing we can do is just love your kid as much as you can, dude, and then you hope to god that they meet good people and have good influences elsewhere. Um, I don't know, I don't ever like, is my kid spoiled like absolutely dude? Probably very much so, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:I want him to have everything that he wants and yeah, but you you have like almost a weekly story of he's spoiled with you and your wife, but he's not spoiled out in like the general public, right? He's nice to other people. Yeah, he has friends like. You're teaching him how to like be, you know, interact well with others, not just like a spoiled single child definitely that's so true.
Speaker 3:It's like.
Speaker 2:It's like spoiling them with your attention yeah, and like just different, just be nice. That's the only thing and that's the what we tell him too, being my wife. We're like dude, we want you to get good grades sure, cool, whatever. We want you to do this ourself cool, whatever. But the most important thing is that you're nice to other people, because that's how you're going to really get places. To be honest, you know what what I mean, as you guys know very well, I'm sure. And um, you know, he like he came back from camp and he got like the kindest camper Dude. We were like over the moon dude. That's like. And meanwhile, he's like I hate you dad, like, oh, I get all your money too long here, spit, I guess. Mark, do you have any questions or anything you want to ask him before we?
Speaker 1:we let him let me and I could ask him questions for hours, but I just want to say thank you for taking the time here to join us. You know it's been a long time coming to actually meet you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you very much, man.
Speaker 3:I feel like.
Speaker 2:I feel like you know somebody do you uh. So this is something. I would like to bring it back because I we used to do it, but I guess we haven't in a while. But spit, what are? Uh, give me two of your favorite movies of all time. And and why? Dude like just off the top of your head if you can't really think of it, because I know it's putting you on the spot there. But like, what are two that come to your mind, like I don't mind being put on the spot.
Speaker 3:I'm not a big movie guy, like, admittedly, like I don't know if I've never been diagnosed with adhd, but like I can't really sit still long enough for movies, um, which is weird because I could sit at a computer and record music all day non-stop. But I feel like there's a lot of like, there's some intricacy to that and there's like a lot of little things that you're doing and you're switching it up very often. But my favorite movie ever is Hook. It's not even close. I've got a huge crush on Tink, obviously, like from the moment I saw that movie. So every movie she's been in, like God, my wife will you know if it's on, but hey, you can leave it on this one, you know, yeah, I'm always giving her shit for like watching his old movies. I'm like, oh no, yeah, it's perfect, uh. But yeah, hook for sure is like my favorite. Um, god, I was. I was a big fan of um it's. I'm not gonna say anything serious, I'm sure like you know, is it serious movies that you love?
Speaker 2:no, no, no, they're never serious.
Speaker 3:No, not, okay good because serious movies kind of just bore the shit out of me.
Speaker 1:There's good ones and it's fine.
Speaker 3:But I'm like, I'm not into like the shot. I don't give a fuck about the shot or whatever or like the aspect ratio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, no, I don't like audience films. It's fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's fine, sure, and like the three ninjas too dude ninjas kick back or whatever strike back. Which one was it dude?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, dude, I used to love me my stepbrother. Dude, I grew up with a stepbrother. We're no longer, don't you know? Our parents divorced, but like we used to watch those movies, all three ninjas, and there was a big 90s karate thing going on, dude, like we love karate.
Speaker 3:Yes, love karate.
Speaker 2:Karate was everything though there was three ninjas and there was like something else that was. Now I'm going to have to look this up. It was very similar to it, but anyway, man, that's great Core memory unlocked yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you Well, thanks so much for doing this Um the book that I was saying earlier, but the One of the pages that really stuck with me and I was going to share it with you earlier. But it's like the mole asked the boy, what do you want to be when you grow up? And the boy says kind, and I thought it was pretty profound. Not many people think of that as a destination or, as I don't know, an outcome, but that is what else could you want to be, especially for your children or yourself. So you saying that earlier just really made me think of that. I had to pull it back up. Certainly appreciate you guys having me on. It's a lot of fun, that's awesome, yeah.