Ska, Filmmaking, & PBS | The Ska Podcast Mini Series Episode 5

Patrick Boberg joins this week to talk about his ska journey, playing in bands, working in the world of film/video, and crafting the delicate tune that would become this podcast's theme.

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Mini Series Episode 5

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hello and welcome. My name is Tom, and this is the Ska Podcast, a podcast about ska, and you're listening to episode number five. And this week I'm not alone again. I have another special guest. And if you can't get that super, super catchy intro song out of your head. Last week I had Mike Alvarez here who recorded it and performed it. But today, today I have the mastermind behind the untitled ska podcast theme song, which would be Mr. Patrick Boberg. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Thank you for having me on. Flatterly will get you on a podcast, I guess. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yes, yes, at least with me, because I am shallow. Um no, but I'm so glad you're here. Uh we have this is the first time today is the first time that we've spoken in like face-to-face, quote unquote. But um, we've been talking online via like messages, comments, Discord, all that stuff for a while. I don't know, like a year or so probably. Um, because I think you were the one that started the whole ska cast thing, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Uh yeah. Um it's kind of been funny listening to the podcast and you talk about it, and you're like, I don't remember where it started, but we were doing a couples table, you and your wife and uh Heather, your other podcast, one of your four. And uh and you said somebody mentioned ska and asked uh you know something about it, and you derailed it. And I was like, oh, that was that was me. I remember asking. It was like the first time I was watching because um your studio is just too cool, by the way. And um what the first thing I watched you produce was, or that you had had produced was a walkthrough your classroom and your home setup. And I shared it with, I have a bunch of teacher friends, and I shared it with them and said, Look at how cool this setup is. You need to get, you know, an Akai mixing board and all that stuff. Uh and uh and then I realized, wait a second, there's aquabats on the wall. And uh so I watched the couples table and said, um said, Does Heather like Ska as much as you? And you know, the rest is history. I that now the ska podcast exists.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yes, I know we could have gone, we could go down and like find that exact sample, but yeah, that is exactly as I remember it, which is really funny because there's like it is to the point of obsession in in this room. There's a lot of stuff on the walls, but I mean, I don't know, eighty percent of it is Aquabats related, uh, which kind of looks insane, but I like it so much. And it's funny because it has nothing to do with my YouTube channel, and every once in a while people will be like, hey, I just saw those posters in the background. Like, I really like this. Do you and it's really cool. So it's like um, you know, I don't know, it's like a litmus test for like who are the really cool people here. You're one of them. So there we go.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

The question I gotta know is uh on that wall, what isn't Aquabats?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Is there anything that's ska that's uh that's ska?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

I mean not I'm not coming to this podcast like the most ska person on the planet. You love ska.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

I am wearing sunglasses that are real big fish checkered, but uh not that that helps in an audio podcast.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Um there there's a few like pieces of artwork. I have a signed thing from Chris Hadfield, who uh you know was at one point I think held the record for longest time spent in space. I have a poster from Conan O'Brien's like sh uh tour when he was canceled off TV and couldn't be on TV. Um got like a Jim Gaffigan signature thing and a couple other little bits of art, but otherwise, everything is if it's not Aquabats related, it's artwork from Parker Jacobs, who is the Bat Commander's brother, and in the universe of the Aquabats, he's the professor. Um, so a lot of a lot of the artwork is from him because I love him. And I don't know if you're familiar with Parker, but he's like he's such a cool guy. Um and it's crazy, actually. So he had a band in I think 1993 they formed called Gogo13. And they had they were they're the ones that wrote which ones did they write? Idiot Box. Oh wow, they wrote a couple Aquabat songs, and then um, and then the the Bat Commander, like his brother, started another band, and they just sort of like took some of those songs and then ended up recording them for their first album, and then ended up re-recording them again for like the Fury. So, like Idiot Box has like three or four iterations, which is crazy. Um, but Parker is super cool, and he he's like a really good artist, so he did a lot of like the album covers, a lot of different artwork, like website stuff, and like ages ago, I just bought some artwork off him online, and then that was like in 2004, and then we've just sort of been in like in each other's peripherals ever since, and to the point, the reason I'm going down this long road is because like four years ago, I got him to actually come and teach a two-day workshop in my classroom for my students, and it was the coolest thing ever because like we weren't just meeting each other, like hanging out, but like we were like working together on a thing. He helped him like come up with this big collaborative project we ended up doing. It was awesome. Um, the dogs even loved it, it was so cool. So, anyway, um that goes into like my whole Aquabats universe thing, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. Well, we could talk about today. I love talking about stuff, but I want to talk about you. Um because you do lots of interesting stuff, and the more that I've gotten to know you, sort of, uh, over the months, it's like you do video stuff, you do YouTube stuff, you do music stuff. I mean, at least you're interested in those things, if not doing them at some level of professionalism. So for me and for everyone else, can you do like the quick LinkedIn bio rundown?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Sure. Uh professionally, like I mentioned your YouTube channel. Um I work for Iowa PBS, and right now is actually my lunch break, uh, so I could do this. And that means that uh I do a lot of video on all types of things, um, pertaining to the state of Iowa, pertaining to education, and some things thrown in there that are entertainment. Um, but uh outside of that, I'm also a short filmmaker. One day the dream would be to make a feature film. I'm not talking about making like an X-Men movie, although that would be beyond impossibly cool. It's just, you know, I don't live in California, it's not realistic. The the and so I make short, I just made a short film this past weekend, but I that's like what I love to do. So whenever there's like a new trick or something, I like to look it up online. And when the pandemic hit, and I was starting to do a lot of streaming for work. Um, I have a history with Wirecast where I used to do that for an old job. And I actually, when I lived in California for two years, I was the very first person to use the prototype of a U Live pack, which is um the streaming backpack that you hook a camera up to. It was pretty whack. I mean, it was it was this really janky Sony handicam hooked up with a very flimsy uh cord. It wasn't even um RCA, it was something uh like a MIDI, like firewire. I want to say it was firewire, but it plugged straight into a laptop that was on my back with a giant Anton Bauer brick battery that was converting that. So, you know, then I had the converter thing, and I was walking all around San Francisco um uh once during a protest, and a week later during uh another like the lead up to the Chinese Olympics, another protest. And I got sunburnt galore because I was so excited to do it. I'm going way down the rabbit hole again. It's part of the reason I like what you do, is because context, you know, right.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

It's totally good though, don't worry.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So, anyhow, uh and on top of that, let's see, music. Um I first picked up the guitar when I was 13. I'm a little older than you, I'm 38. Um, and uh I met a guy who played guitar and was super cool, and I was like, I've wanted to play guitar, and I finally you know bent my parents' arm to like get me the cheapest, crummiest guitar I could. And a couple years before that, I discovered Green Day at a sixth grade birthday party, and uh I was just sitting there and everyone's having a good time. As my friend opened up Dookie and put it in the CD player, and everyone's having a great time, and I'm just sitting there for like 39 minutes, enraptured by the best music I've ever heard in my life. And a couple years later, I went to a concert. Um, and you I think you and Mike had mentioned this on episode two of your podcast. It's like the liner notes and CDs in the 80s were like the discovery engine for anything. You know, this is pre-algorithm world where you had to read um those liner notes to be like, okay, so Green Day thanked the offspring or somebody else, I can't remember now. Yeah, and then you go buy that record, and then they thank Less Than Jake and MXPX, and you go to the show uh that's available to see any of those groups, and right then Real Big Fish was hitting. And I really liked sellout, but I didn't know anything beyond that. So I went to uh this outdoor festival called Dotfest, and I saw them and I saw the Urge, who um I don't really know this is one of those weird things where at the time I thought they were the biggest bands on the planet because I was so into them.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, they were your biggest bands.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah, real big fish had like a top 40 hit at one point, they could hit number 40, but uh the urge never really had a top 40 hit, but to me they were just as big and just as cool, except they're not as silly. But the reason I stayed such fans of them and eventually become other ska band fans is because uh guitar playing was in certain bands so exceptional. Like Aaron Barrett is a really good guitar player. Yeah, I mean I like less than Jake, but Krista Makes is not the guitar player that Aaron Barrett is. And then, of course, goes down the rabbit hole and I became an RX Bandits fan who are like the best guitar players in ska. And I started I started a couple ska bands. This is where the rabbit hole keeps going.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Yeah, I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

You know, um, over the course of time, I'm similar to other people who get into production audio or video-wise, um, one year for Christmas, the only thing I wanted was this Roland Br8 boss digital recorder. This is 2,000. And my mom said, you know, it's $500. And I said, I don't need anything for my birthday or Christmas or from any of my aunts or my brothers, any of that, you know, because my parents will buy their gifts too. So uh for one year, the only gift I got was this Roland BR8, and I recorded hundreds of songs on that thing, you know. And for the first up until college, I was a Green Day ripoff artist or Ruby Fish ripoff artist, but uh um it it I still have it. I've still got all the zip discs that it recorded to. It was it's um much like uh the handicam you tracked down for people who uh who follow your YouTube channel, is like this is the gem that I will never lose, never leave. I have bought on eBay the power cord because before micro USB and Lightning became the thing, if you didn't have the power cord, you're kind of screwed.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

So uh yeah, but I mean from then on it's just dancing between filmmaking and video production and and songwriting and and that type of thing. And it's hard to keep all those balls in the air, especially now that I have two kids. But uh, along the way, I just decided to start putting music for free on YouTube and uh start uh writing songs as video comments. You know, the uh fourth or fifth I've ever done. I have I have some questions about that, but well, let's let's stop my my rambling and move on to the show.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

No, I mean it's it's great because I like it's sort of the thing that reminds me like your story of my story and of other people that I've known and people I admire, even is like just sort of being interested in a lot of stuff and sort of exploring it all, and then eventually it kind of combines in like ways where you're like, I didn't I didn't expect to use this and this together, but hey, now it works. And I think that's I think that's super cool. Um I like that your access point was guitar, and then when you're talking about your recorder, it reminds me so much of when I when I was in high school and we were trying to like make our band, my friend had like a similar recorder, I forget which one it was, that belonged to his dad, who had played in like some 70s bands, so it totally just smelled like cigarettes and some all beat up and stuff. But uh, we had it, and and that was kind of like our main thing for like producing drum beats, recording loot, like whatever. Oh, yeah. And we did weird things with it. But what I have noticed is as an adult, I can go like, hey, I need a new microphone, or I even just want one, I'm gonna get this one. Hey, I need this device, that device, and I can just get it. Whereas as a kid, where I had no resources, if I finally got something, I had to really learn ever no choice but to learn every single thing about it. So if it was like a synthesizer or a software program or my guitar, like my one guitar or something, it's like I'm gonna know everything you could possibly know about this one thing here. And I don't do that anymore as much. Like I kind of wish that I did, but I definitely there's so many devices I have and so many tools that are amazing that I I only scratch the surface of because I can just like oh cool, let's get the other one and the next one, and that's fun. But like it's I don't know, there's something to be said for the like the mastery over a piece of equipment or something.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

There's there's an interesting thing about that, and I I've discovered, and this is like the very now versus 90s brain set or early 2000s, and that is Google and YouTube are a moment away. Yeah, like uh last night I edited something on Final Cut Pro for the first time in 10 years. And uh, you know, I I opened it up and I was like, I don't know how to do really, I don't know any of the shortcuts anymore, and they're not even the same from what I can remember. I don't know how to I really barely know how to export, but it's just like a YouTube thing for the couple things I need. I don't know the mastery of it. Like I used to be like I used to say that I was the best at a Final Cut Pro, which now at 38 is the hubris in that is pathetic. But um yeah, so the the whole world of figuring something out, being like I'm the guy who knows how to record this BR8 recorder at any time. Call me up for a hundred dollars, I'll come to your basement, record your band. That was the best thing in the world, and I would save every dollar I could at deliver pizzas in college to buy gear, you know, specifically for audio or video production, because for a while I thought I was gonna be a bit a music engineer, a music producer. And I actually have one tattoo on my lower back, which I kind of regret the placement because in early in college I was hoping to be a full-time musician and I was going the I'm gonna get tattoos my whole my whole back. Right, and then I realized after a while of there's so many better things to spend your money on, you know, and now as an adult, I I'm I I have goals like I'm gonna buy this FX3 that I'm using right now, right? So I'm not gonna buy the extreme uh uh ATM Pro. Yeah, so it's it's just funny how how things go and how you're so locked into something, and you let all these things go by, and then you don't cut you fall but but let certain things fall by the wayside. And I don't know, I'm cut on it.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

But no, that's just like getting older is fun. Because that's what I was talking to Mike yesterday, and we were after he was on this podcast, he is like, you know what, this made me want to really get going on a podcast with one of like who was one of our mutual friends in high school, and I was like, Oh yeah, what's he been up to? And he's like, Oh, he's good, he lives over here, he's still with like his high school girlfriend, they've been together for 20 years, and I'm like, Oh, that's like I mean, it's great, I'm happy for them, but like it freaked me out to hear, like, yeah, they've been together for like 20 years now. Cool, like that's why I don't think I could have kept teaching because at a certain point it would be like I would have students who were born when I was a teacher, and I would lose my mind because I just I couldn't handle that, but um I totally get that.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I I do a lot of uh high school sports once a year. I do a feature on girls basketball, and I have to go and interview these high school girls, and like I am so close to 40. And then at the other edge of that, they'll be more than half my age, and I'll be asking them about their experience and getting the same cry lines and all that.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

But yeah, so well, it's funny because uh you mentioned like YouTube and stuff. I was watching a video, then this is tangentially related. I was watching a video, I forget the channel, but it's a pretty large channel, and he's a guitar teacher, and he was talking about what he's noticed in his guitar students over the past like 20 years. Um, and so starting teaching in the like the late 90s to students he has now, and it was so interesting because it was what he said is the thing that has changed the most is how familiar his students are with the bands and the artists that they want to learn how to play their songs of, because it used to be they would come in with an album, like they'd have Dookie, they'd have all the liner notes, they would know every song. If the album had a secret song, you know, they would know where the secret track was, and they would want to learn all that stuff, and they'd have to break it down together if the instructor didn't know it. And then eventually it shifted to mix CDs because everyone had CD burners. And so instead of having a whole album, you would just have a CD that had, you know, your handful of songs that you liked, which means you might have like a real big fish song or two, but you you're missing you know three albums worth of songs that you totally don't even know exist. And then it got to the point where it was like students don't bring anything anymore, they just show up and say, like, I like this song, like pull it up on YouTube or Spotify or or whatever. And they don't even know who the artist is sometimes. They have to like Google the lyrics to see, like, yeah, it goes like blah blah blah. And uh I'm not I'm not being old man yells at cloud about it, but it's fine, but but the it's just interesting that like I used to know, you know, like just being really familiar with the band and when they come out with a new album, and when there is diff when there are different songs, and you kind of understand the journey of like, oh, this is a response to that. Like I can look at the Aquabats, look at the floating eye of death and the fury of the Aquabats, and go, okay, the floating eye is a response to like the crazy third wave sound of the fury, and then trying something different in like this experimentally new wavy sound, and then sort of bringing them together in like the albums that came afterwards. And you can kind of see, like, oh, this is why that happened, and you know, members left the band and they didn't have the same amount of 14 people on stage or whatever. Okay, I understand that, versus just every song like exists in a vacuum. Uh, and that's to me, that's a really like I don't know, it's just a thing, it's interesting, but I don't know if it's good or bad.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

You know, you mentioned learning by CDs and get and the guitar classes. I had a kind of thing when I started guitar, I took a year's worth of lessons, and at the time I wanted to learn Weezer and Um The Toadies, Possum Kingdom, and a couple other songs, and a couple of Pearl Jam things, and I quit, but um the lessons that is, but I was also in band at school in the marching band, and my best friend who I'd go on to be in a couple like three or four like rock and roll or punk bands with, uh, we were both Alto Sachs players, and you'd be out doing marching band things, and you got a lot of time on your hands, you're being really silly. And this is before I really fell in love with Ska, but I was into Goldfinger because I saw them, and uh their first album has a couple their second album has a lot more horns on it, but their first album, self-titled, has some, I think. I got it all mixed up in my head, it's been too long. But uh, you learn the melodies, you learn the lead lines, you know, and then by the end of that marching um season, we had gotten into real big fish, so all of a sudden we're saying we're doing sellout everywhere we go, and uh you know, the the lines to like um alternative baby or something like the really good lines, yeah. He was a better sax player than I was. So eventually when we started ska band, he was the head horn player and I was a guitar player. But man, that was that was one of the main reasons to get in ska for me was uh is if you're in band, I know this is mentioned by so many people who are in ska. Kid from the suburbs, finds ska, plays a horn, hey, I can be cool, you know, whatever. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, I mean, Mike and I were talking about that actually. It was so interesting in last week's episode about like the evolution of ska because it early on in like the first and second waves, we did a very broad overview, so it wasn't like definitive, but you're dealing with like a lot of musicians, especially in like Jamaica, and then later into like the UK, and you're dealing with people who are like they had been working musicians and then were being influenced by other stuff. And by the time Third Wave Ska rolled around in like the 90s and stuff, it was a lot of kids from band who like you'd been playing these classical pieces or these traditional marching pieces on a trombone or a trumpet or whatever, or an alto sax. And then now you're like, Oh, I could just sort of take that, go over here, and like play in like a punk band with it. That's kind of cool. Totally. Yeah, and that I I was never a band kid for some reason. Like I having been a teacher, I'm like, that's where I should have been. It's because I would have been good at music instead of like, I'm gonna leave school early and go home and like fumble around on my guitar with no guidance or direction or anything. But uh I also did get really good at my Casio keyboard that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Um but yeah, that that stuff's funny. And then the thing too is like uh I don't know why something you said, maybe it was real big fish and all this stuff, but I'm trying to find I'm trying to find a sample of some songs. So uh oh man, I'm gonna look up it's when you can trace things together and you like the more I don't want to say fluent, but the more familiar you are with a band and their catalog and stuff and how things are connected, um, then you can also like piece out stuff. So for example, Blink 182 on Enim of the State in the Party Song, they have the line where it says like and then in the backyard, some terrible ska band was something, something. And that's also the album that uh they recorded right after Travis Barker had joined after leaving the Aquabats. So when you hear them talking about terrible ska bands, you can't help but think, like, well, that's like a it's a jab at like the band. It's just a jab in a funny way. I'm trying to find a real big fish song right now. Um let's see, because yeah, you have someone like Travis Barker who is oh my god. I think it's all I want is more. I'm gonna play this and see if you can hear it. Or if I can hear it. No, nobody can hear it now. Um let's see, how does how does how does this work here? Uh old man tries technology, is what's happening right now. And I know everyone listening. Well, there's just anyway. What I wanted to do was there's a line in All I Want Is More from Real Big Fish, where it's like, someday she'll come back to me and I'll say. And then in Blink182's first album without Tom DeLong, which one was it? It was um I can't think of it. Yeah, I think it was California. Um, there's the same exact melody in uh in one of the tracks on there. Let me look up California. I don't know why my uh stuff there we go. It was in uh it's a song I love to play on the drums, but I can't think of the name of the oh, the only thing that matters. They do the exact same thing. Like someday uh maybe you'll come back to me and I'll say, and it's like I was like, that's a real big fish thing in the middle of a Blinkwin 82 song. Like it was the weirdest thing because it was the first time I heard that song. Like when the album came out, I was like, cool, new Blinkwing 82 album, I like it. And then it's a song I've never heard before, but suddenly in the middle I know a part of it, and I'm like, why do I know this song? And then oh my god, but I love it's like that's the kind of weird interplay that exists, and that stuff is fascinating to me. And that's where you find out, like, oh, this person also then played with this person and they did this, and they used to be in a band together. I mean, like going into like the Operation Ivy to Rancid to Tim Armstrong to everything else, like connection is um oh my god, I just I I love that stuff. And that was a point too that Mike and I brought up, or he brought up, that I had never thought of, which was looking back at like what was the first wave and the second wave of ska, it kind of became popular and then sort of died out, and those artists either like aged out or started doing other things, but the third wave group a lot of them are still around. Like you can go see real big fish like now. Uh, you know, like Mighty Mighty Boston's put out a record last month, like they're very active, and then so you have the newer people, so you have like SkyToon Network and like newer newer bands, which I don't know if it would be a fourth wave, but the other ones are still there too, which is sort of this weird new dynamic. So if you're super influenced by someone, they're also still an active musician, and I don't I don't know what that would be like because I've not had the the fun experience of like playing in an active band, but uh that seems pretty cool to be able to.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, you know, uh Jair from the Sky Two Network. Um I follow him everywhere, and then you know, the algorithm feeds you things, and of course, I follow and get notifications from anything real big fish. And apparently a couple years ago, their bands, his band is We Are the Union, Real Big Fish were on a tour together. He played uh at a couple shows uh with them on the stage, and I was like, you know, this is super cool, but it also got to be kind of a head trip because I'm sure he was a baby when they were breaking out.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah, well that's you know, yeah. I I think I saw that same video uh when I first went down the SCATU network rabbit hole when I discovered the channel at whatever when I don't remember when I discovered it, but I was like, this is so good. And it's interesting because following Jair on like social media, there's no shortage of opinion, which is I'm totally fine with, but it's so interesting to hear someone from sort of I guess a different generation. God, this is the old man yelling at cloud show. But it's interesting to hear like the perspective and the thoughts on the same genre and the same style as uh like what I don't know, it's just it's so fascinating to me. And I'm so glad though that it's like still around and it's still a thing, and people are really excited about it, even if there's not, you know, I don't I there seems like there's plenty of people who like it. I don't know. It's uh I just really like it. That's why I wanted to start a podcast about it.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Totally. I'm glad you did.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Well, me too, especially because I want to talk about you as a musician.

unknown 27:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

I I'm curious to know just like your experience with bands and stuff, but I want to start off with by asking you about the the video comment, which I know wasn't intended to be a theme song for anything, but the video you sent was just you in your car, but you had a ukulele, you had you know mouth trumpet. Uh but I've I maybe you're just good enough where it was just sort of like an on-the-fly thing, but I feel like there had to be at least like five minutes of like, all right, here I'll put it together, or maybe like two weeks. I don't know. But um, no, I think you sent it to me the day the episode came up, so it couldn't have been that that long. But tell me about that. I want to know how that happened.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Well, uh, so when we were talking about recording this podcast, um I said, Well, I'm in the middle of moving from house to house and I don't have a lot of my equipment or setup. Um and that was the same point when I wrote that that thing. All I had was a ukulele because I had stored all my guitars at my in my parents' basement. Um so I I I don't know why. I mean, I listened to the Scott Pod, I don't do whatever it was your podcast, just the the enthusiasm project and uh you mentioned you know comments or whatever. And uh I I'm the type of person who there's a line in um Ocean's 12 where uh the basher character says says uh you don't do the same gag, you do the new gag, you do the next thing. So I like to I've done comments with you before on YouTube channels and commenting on Twitter things or whatever, and I was like, you know what? I anybody could just send in a an audio comment. I'm gonna send in a video comment. And you know what, just to spice it up even more, because I've been I've been giving you some heck about the Ska cast for a while, um, I said I'm just gonna write a silly song to go with it. And um the guitar isn't easy, but the ukulele is extremely easy, especially if uh especially if you have any idea about um theory, music theory, which I took a couple classes in college and it's always been kind of a minor hobby of mine. Um so I just I had a chord cheat in front of me, and you know, I was like, oh, this would go well. And within five minutes, I had the four chords. And uh I cheated it because when it comes to the what's up with the Skycast part of the comment, um, it's it's just the same chords except in you know Green Day style strumming. Or so it's just the same chords all the way through. And uh that was that was pretty pretty simple. The words were the hardest part because I wanted them to be somewhat rhymey and uh somewhat fun. So uh like uh H-E-L-L was the last edition. That was the last edition to uh the whole thing, and um, I don't know, it's just a piece of pride. You know, I'm not a perfectionist. I used to try to be, but um uh I I'm much closer to the it's good enough, and there's other things I need to do, and I don't have much time. Like I literally wrote the chords as I was cleaning up the basement and then wrote the lyrics in my head as I was driving to get sushi if anyone wants to go back and listen to the to the thing. So I scrolled them down real quick and I put them on the car dash, and then I put on the sunglasses so you wouldn't see me reading them.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Oh nice a little bit of a cheeky.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Okay, okay. I mean, I've I've always had fun with the with um just silly instruments. I love to play the mandolin and the ukulele now a lot because they're pretty easy if you know guitar, and they uh they're everyone thinks they're goofy. And yeah, I didn't guitar. You know, I taking acoustic guitar in the car to go get sushi was not an option. So and now it's turned out to be this hilarious thing. I love your reaction, and um, I'm glad it turned out so well.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Well, that uh that was the impetus because finally, because it was exactly it. Like, don't do the same, like you did that, so I was like, okay, I can't just come back with like a wise crack. I wanted to come back with more, which was like to answer your question, podcast is up and ready to go. And then that's what led to the whole Odyssey. So that was the like, okay, it can go from like a joke to a an actual thing now because of that. So it's like it was just super fun.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Um, and I yeah, when I think during the the next couples table, Heather asked you if it could be the theme song, and I thought, I don't know how that's a theme song, but it worked out perfectly. Mike is uh incredible. I well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Mike reached out and he was like, he sent me a text and he was like, Hey, could I use uh that song? And I didn't know what he meant, and I was I was like, Well, it's I know it's not like it sounds good in like the car recording, but I know it's not like professionally recorded. I was like, Are you gonna take like a sample or like voice? Like it's not separate tracks or anything. Yeah, and he was like, and so I asked you, like, hey, you know, if we're gonna use this as a theme song, I wanted you to have first divs because like it's your song. And you were like, Yo, I'm busy moving, so if Mike wants to do something with it, he can do something with it. And then I was like, Okay, and I kind of forgot, and then like three days later, Mike sent me this audio file with no context either. It's just like phone alert was just a file. Like, it's like, okay, and then I played it and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is perfect. I've listened to it a lot.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Um, since you sent it to me, I was like, Man, this is cool. Yeah, and then when I talked to him, it's live horns, live drums.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, because I that's I recognize I recognize his my very first video that I ever uploaded to YouTube. I think I talked about this with Mike, was Mike's me like filming his behind the scenes of he was like 19 and recording an album by himself. Um, and I I and I know him well enough, like I know his live drum style of playing, so I feel like I can identify it. Um, but the horns, like last time a while ago, I had talked to Mike and he was sending me some demo songs for his bands, and the horns were synthesized, but they sounded really good. And I was like, oh man, it's really come a long way from like the Yamaha keyboard that I remember trying to put stuff together on because they'll sound pretty legit. He's like, No, those are like live horns. And I was like, that is kind of the coolest thing ever to have an original song with like full everything, and uh and I I just loved it. It's like so perfect. And I never have to worry about copyright strikes, so you know, even better.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

You know, I uh I've put music online. In fact, when I started after I moved to California back to Iowa and had a house, I was playing guitar a lot more and busting out my saxophone and trumpet and things like that. Because you can be loud in house, whereas in an apartment, uh you know, that's why I have my drum set here. Yeah, it's beautiful, it's wonderfully lit and everything. Um God bless nano tubes. But uh I uh I mean I started writing ska songs like I hadn't written in a long time because you could be loud, and though I always had to do midi drums, but horns live. I mean, you should do some audio videos on how to mic drums. I know you probably have to learn a lot to do.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, I have to learn how to mic drums. That's actually on one of my lists because I have I don't have a good drum mic kit, but I have plenty of mics and mixers and stuff. Um and so I'm like, there's gotta be something I can do, but I just don't know how to that's been on my goal is like how the heck do I mic drums?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Yeah, pre-Youtube, I when I was recording bands all around the state of Iowa, I I had to read like recording for dummies, and one one really awesome demonstration book that came with a DVD. It is like start with one microphone, take your SM57 and put it behind your your floor tom, and then uh, you know, it's like see how good that sounds because it's muting all the symbols. So for the longest time, that's how I recorded anybody's drums, and I try to do it myself, but I just couldn't keep a steady beat. It was sad, unless it's a disco beat. But uh um yeah, so uh I don't remember how we got there, but uh yeah, Mike Mike was incredible. I I I messaged him immediately and it's like all praise to you because a guy in ukulele can do pretty much anything that uh is easy with a mouth trumpet. I'm not strumming perfectly or anything, partly because I was sitting in a car, but um, you know, it's uh it's pretty cool, and I'm excited to listen to however many episodes you do and get a smile on my face whenever it happens.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah, well, my my plan is to do a run of 10 episodes and then try to go like, what the heck is this show? And then do more, but I won't know what it is until I do it. And uh um, but I'm also just having a lot of fun with it. So that's the plan there. But for instruments, because you talk about drums, ukulele guitar being easy. Um, like drums are interesting because I had wanted to play them forever, but lived in apartments and stuff, and then as soon as I bought my house, I was literally like, I'm just gonna count the drums as a house expense, like the same way I need to buy whatever other necessities the drum set is that. And so I finally got drums, so now it's been like I guess it's been almost six years, which is great because it's like, geez, if I had put that off more, I'd be I can now be six years into playing the drums instead of like just starting. Um but and and I'm by far from being an amazing drummer, but I've definitely like improved over the six years. And the crazy thing, especially like as an adult, there's not a lot of times where you you learn stuff new. Like when you're a kid and you're trying to do something, you you can't do it, you keep doing it, and eventually you do it, you're like, Yay! And with the drums, it'd be like there's just certain beats that I couldn't get, or certain, you know, you have to this arm does this and the other arm does that. And if you just keep trying, there's literally like a moment where like suddenly something will click and then you can just do it. And it's it's almost like in an instant everything falls into place, and those things were so rewarding when that would happen, playing the drums. It reminds me, because when you said the ukulele is simple versus the guitar, but I can remember having my guitar like in high school and trying to learn how to do like an upstroke and not getting like the Aaron Barrett sound, like how clean and how like you know, the just I couldn't get it. And then finally, like the first time I did it, and I just kind of heard it, and I was like, wait, that was that was it, that was it, and then oh, it just feels so good to do that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Um yeah, when and same thing here, that I was very influenced by the sound of turning the radio off, the guitars on it, not so much the follow-up um of why do they rock so hard, cheer up is very similar in guitar fidelity at times, but anywho, uh uh I was like, I need my ska guitar to sound like that whenever I record a ska guitar, because all too often, not to rag on a specific band, but like I I'd listen to bands, and if they had like the mustard plug guitar sound, or it just sounded a little muddy and a little loose with the strumming, I was like, I just it lost me. And I I mean that's some people I I always learn things about people, and I'm like, oh, you don't experience this the same way I do, because I've always been a bit of a um goofy optimist. But some people only hear like the bass or only hear the drums. Yeah, don't listen. They don't hear and like I hear the composition, you know, and then people are like, Oh, I'm a big fan of Buck O9. Um like, oh okay, cool, you know, they got some songs. I can't I can't really listen to that guy's voice very often, but like, what? But Real Big Fish was like the thing for me where everything in the band was right almost all the time until their fourth album, which I stopped being a fan because it was so pessimistic. But the we're not happy until you're not happy. But uh but uh it's it's the that's part of the reason I I like ska probably more than any other music because it's just so I've never been to a ska show or played one and then been afterwards and seen angry people. Right, you know, like I have been to so many real big fish shows and been to so many warp tours where they played, and everyone who went over there, even like crust punks, are like having a goofy time afterwards, or maybe they're just laughing at the people at a good time, but I don't care, you know? Yeah, a good time is a good time. I've gone to plenty of hard metal shows like uh you know Thursday and Hope's Fall and all these bands that were popular in the early 2000s, and left and been like, I feel like a fight's gonna break out at any moment.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

You gotta get out of here.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

It's like whatever.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

So yeah, that's um there's uh the thing with Aaron's guitar playing that I have just never understood is and he does it live, but the way he can switch between clean and distorted, like effortlessly, and both sound perfectly clicker. You don't hear the click, and it's also like I can't do that because you know when I play my guitar, my clean tone sounds better when I'm on like the neck pickup, where it's fatter and thicker, and my distorted tone sounds better at the bridge pickup. And I don't know, like I can't, I just can't switch everything all at once. I don't know, I don't know how he does it. He's amazing, and I love him. That's what this is to say. Which also, so here's an even funnier sort of tangential story. Um, I saw Aaron recently on a stream because Scott from Real Big Fish, or formerly of Real Big Fish, is like on Twitch all the time now, apparently. Like constantly. Um, and he had Aaron on a while ago, and they were just like singing old songs and being goofy, and it was so like a request.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

It was great.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Oh, it was so good. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you sent you even told me about it. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

But I think you watched it before me though.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Yeah, but you immediately were like, here's it. But anyway, I uh I had family in Orange County. They recently like just moved away from there, but I had like some aunts and stuff there, and um, I was at their house maybe like two, three months ago, and I had to ask them a question because the way that you keep up with your aunts and uncles is through Facebook, because that's where they all live. That's the only reason I have Facebook. And that's another podcast. That's a whole yeah. And my aunt had posted something about like, oh, we're we're moving soon, so we have this stuff to give away. And one of her friends said something, but her friend's last name was Klopfenstein. I don't know how to say it, but it was Scott's last name. And I was like, that's a very specific last name. Um, and you're in Orange County, and I don't even know this person, but I was like, hey, uh, I'm so-and-so's nephew, and you don't know me, but like, are you related to Scott by chance? She's like, Yeah, he's my nephew. I was like, Oh, crazy. Um, and then I was at my aunt's house and I told them this. I was like, Oh, it's super funny. Like, I kind of like accosted your friend on Facebook because I think she was related to a guy from a band that I really like. And they were like, Oh, yeah, we had to help that guy move when he like came back from New York or something. And I was like, So my uncle helped you move. I was like, and they were just oblivious to who anybody was, or you know, they're just like, Yeah, he like played trumpet and he was like, uh, you know, he he didn't want to do anything that was gonna injure his hands. And I was like, Well, that makes sense. Uh I was like, that's so weird though, because I would have lost my mind to be able to anyway. These these are the things like I could, I don't know who I don't know who a big star is. I mean, I I guess I would be pretty excited if like I saw I don't know, Brad Pitt or something walk by, but I'd be like, that was cool, that's Brad Pitt over there. But like if Scott from Real Big Fish walked by, I'd be like, oh my god, what do I do? Like, I like I and those are the things that I get starstruck by, even though there's uh everybody's like very accessible and down to earth. But um, I'm curious about your time performing in bands. If you had any like whether it was a ska band or a non ska band, if you just had, I don't know, if you had any takeaway experiences or something stands out, or like lessons learned, or just I'm sure you have like stories for days.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yeah. Um, none of the bands I was in took off. Um we never committed. There's always somebody, this is uh, you know, there's always somebody. In a band who doesn't want to go on the road or is too dedicated to their their uh degree or a chicken like I was. And um and there's also uh a band, if you're gonna be a performing band, there needs to be somebody in the band who is the engine of booking shows. And uh I split songwriting duties with um most people in bands, and I'd sing in like my primary band, which only wrote a couple ska songs in high school. Um but they were my favorite to play, by the way. Uh but uh so I was in two ska bands that I talk about or mention um frequently, and one of them was called Pre-Shrunk, which I thought was the coolest ska band name of all time at the time.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

It works.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

Uh this was in high school, and we mostly took a bunch of songs that um I kind of wrote with friends in another band and added horns to them and changed some of the guitar parts to the upstrokes, the offbeats. And it worked out all right, but they the everyone quit the band when I spent too much time with my girlfriend. Cut to a couple years later, and that girl's out of the picture, and I joined another ska band that um I played a show with, and their guitar player wanted to play trombone the full time. So I um I ended up spending four years with them, but they were called the Evil Geniuses, and we recorded two albums in Iowa, and the whole angle was kind of mix the Aquabats Nerdery with the Blue Meanie's Edge. And I was all about that because like um Smash the Magnobox is like one of my top five um Scott songs, period. It's um it's people who don't know the blue meanies, they're kind of like a mix of the dead Kennedys and pick third wave Scott Band of your choice. Um, but uh so every song was either kind of about being a geek or a nerd and girls reacting or comic books, or kind of the ones that I wrote the lyrics to were kind of like flippant versions of Real Big Fish songs. Um, one was about um how uh metal is so into their scene and kind of ridiculous, yeah. Uh but uh it was it was the most fun I've ever had performing music, period. Like I said, I I've guested in other groups and played dedication shows where you cover a bunch of songs and you think it's gonna be fun, but it's just kind of uh there's always kind of like a rude edge to straight punk. The only the closest would be Blink, I guess, and yeah, there are people below it. But Blink always had the goofiness of a ska band, at least Enamon before. And I was a I still am a massive fan of Dude Ranch. I think that's their best album. But uh the Evil Geniuses was me being Aaron Barrett in an Aquabats style band, um, without singing as much. But uh yeah, we we had so much fun. We opened my band and Evil Geniuses opened for Five Iron Frenzy one time.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Oh wow, cool.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

And uh that was really cool because that was when my other band was playing half ska music and half um punk punk rock and proto emo. And uh when evil geniuses played, it's like you always want to, it was a thousand fifteen hundred people show. It was the biggest show I ever played. And they this was just a sea of skanking people, you know. People who I assume everyone who listens to this know what skanking is, but it's the ska dance where you kind of kick your legs and punch your feet in the in in the ground in front of you like you're having a good time. That's uh I don't know. And uh it was like a high I remember when we came off the set. I was I was I told the drummer who was five years younger than me, but we always had a blast joking around. I said, This is the high point of my life, man. I was like, I've always wanted to be in a touring ska band, which is super hard to do, another thing to get into. If you talk to any ska person, they'll talk about seven people in a band, which is always the number I wanted to have in a ska band. Two trombones and two anything else. Uh but anywho, as like if you're playing to an audience and you're playing ska music and they're into it, uh you don't have to really worry about people getting into a fist fight unless you're the blue meanies. Or um I guess Rilly Fish early on, because they wrote that song in the pit was directly about that type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

That's what I was thinking about when you told me your song.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Yeah. So uh, you know, it was that's like still the best stuff in the world. I recently, a year or right before the pandemic, I played an alkaline trio show. Um, and there were a lot of people who are into it, and you know, I can sing kind of like um Matt does. But I was like, at the end, it was fun, but it wouldn't be like if somebody came up to me and said, Do you want to do I don't know, an urge tribute show or a real big fish tribute show? I mean, it's impossible to do an Aquabats tribute show because you need so many different instruments.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Uh I think that's part of the reason they probably have so many synthesizers and things like that. But uh that would be super crazy too. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

Have you ever been to a tribute show for the Aquabats? Is that a thing? No, California is probably possible.

SPEAKER_00 49:06

I've never been to one. I'm sure that it could be possible. There Mike and I in like high school college did want to start an Aquabats like tribute band, and we're gonna be called the Aqua Nots because we weren't the Aquabats. Uh but we never that's as far as we got with that idea. It's like we already know how to play some of these songs, but we need like a lot of other people.

SPEAKER_01 49:27

Um we uh we we covered I really was a main fan of the first album, and then it wasn't until years later that I followed up because there were you know, I didn't see him live. I've never seen the Aquabats live. Ugh. Um, but uh uh we covered in The Evil Geniuses um The Invisible Man, I think that's the name of the song.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

And um Captain Hampton and his crew, which was my favorite song for the longest time of theirs. Actually, my favorite song of theirs is uh uh I can't remember, is it just called Lobster Bucket? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I sing that song so often, and I learned the clarinet line. I have my wife's clarinet, formerly on my brother's clarinet, but I used to always go around going because I love the the musicality in that song is top.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

It's absurd. That's the thing too with them is you're like there's so much to love. Like the Aquabats played their first show the day that they formed. So, like that's like they became a band, and then that night we're playing like a house party show, and then because they wanted to book other shows, they wanted to book Knotts Berry Farm, but they didn't have any recordings yet. So they took Gogo13's tape and turned it into like the booking guy and was like, Yeah, this is us, we just changed our name, but it's us, and then they started playing some of those songs, uh, and then eventually got banned from Knott's Berry Farm for using fireworks because they used to do a thing at all their shows where like they would have fireworks strapped to their guitars, they would shoot fireworks out of their mouths. It was like really crazy, like flaming the Bat Commander used to do like fire breathing with like a tiki torch. It was all crazy stuff that you just like you can't do anymore. Um, but it was like quite the spectacle to see these things anyway. That's also why they're not allowed at Knott's Berry Farm anymore. Which to me, what I always loved when like people would make fun of me for liking the Aquabats and be like, that's like dumb, and they're all dressed up. Like, okay, if you think that like my chemical romance isn't also wearing a costume, like you're 100% wrong. Um, but also like the way that the Aquabats approach everything on their terms is like the most punk rock attitude that I've ever seen on like we're just gonna do this because we think it's funny, because we want to do it, because that and I that that is huge to me, but anyway, that's like I already did an episode all about that.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

You know, I I you've mentioned before like talk about shows and the back to the beach uh concert we went to. My parents lived in Simi Valley, California for 16 years from 2005 until 2020. They moved during the pandemic back to Iowa. And one of the biggest regrets of my life is I lived in California and I never went to a single ska show in California. I didn't have any money at the time. I was worked with three jobs. I worked there for two years, but I visited my parents over the course of those 15 years for so long and so many times.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

And I mean, Orange County, the the hub of third wave ska and real big fish and long beach is right there for our expandits. Um I never went to a show, and it's the biggest regret of my life. I didn't go to a single show in California.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

You could still you can write that wrong. There's still time.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Uh I guess, but I don't have the the house to go to for free place to stay.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

We have a house with a rube, so and we're relatively close to Orange County.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

You guys are near Coachella, right? So um yeah, I don't know if Scott Band's ever played Coachella.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Anyway, the Aquamats have played uh Coachella. I didn't go because it's too expensive, and I did see uh a couple years ago, Golden Voice. It wasn't a Coachella thing, it was in October, but they did a I forget what it was called, but it was like a reggae festival, but it's at the same place, which is only a couple of miles from our house. And it was I got a free ticket to it because it was not as popular as Coachella, but Real Big Fish was playing there, and I was like, Real Big Fish is playing like 10 minutes away. This is amazing. And I went, I that was before like I knew Heather or anything, so I just went by myself and like was hanging out at like this reggae thing. And um, oh man, it was such it was it was perfect because it was such a weird mix of of bands and things at this at this festival. They had like two big stages, so it was like kind of a back and forth thing. And real big fish came on the stage, and um, there was like nobody in the crowd, like maybe 30 people. It was really small, and I was like, Cool, I'm like right here, they're right there. This is gonna be great. And Aaron came out and he's like, How many of you have seen Real Big Fish before? And like almost everyone there was like, Yeah, it's we're the only ones who are here is the people who knew who you are. Um, but before even one third of their set was over, that whole place was completely full. Um that's the power of them for sure. Yeah, and and it just got crazier and crazier. Then I was like, Oh my god, and and by the end, you know, it was completely packed. They did this amazing show, they said goodnight and left. And it was like, to me, that was that was 2017 or something. And I was like, still, people who have no idea who they are or aren't interested will be like magnetically drawn to them. And I mean it was packed, like you couldn't fit any more people in that area of that stage by the time they were done. I was like, this is this is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

You know, that happens with pretty much any ska show I've been to where they share the bill with a bunch of punk bands or metal bands. Um, the urge who I've seen the most ska because they're from St. Louis and they played in Timoy.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

Well, every time they play, you get the urge to go see them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

I know, it's true. Uh but uh I've they they've reformed and broken up again since. But I moved to Michigan in 1998 for my dad for a year, and ska was dead there. And this is where Musterplug was from, uh, Grand Rapids, Michigan. So I saw them a couple times, but nobody I knew was at the show, or even people who were near my age, they were a little older. Um, but I I pulled my friends to a free concert on the river in downtown Grand Rapids for the urge, and I think Splendor was opening up for them. That's why they went because they were a splash in the pan semi-one-hit wonder. And uh they all wanted to leave, and I was like, no, we came here for the urge, we are staying for the urge. And by the third song, the lead singer, Steve Ewing, is jumping off the speakers and doing like acrobatics and singing his brains out, and the guitar player is better than Aaron Barrett playing like Van Halen licks all the time. And by the on the drive home, and my parents' van, it's like six of us. Everyone's like, Man, that was incredible. I was like, let's turn on some urge because I don't care. I'll fuck that same stuff. But that's happened so many times with ska that um it's like somebody this is one thing that I as different as you and I. Um, when you tell a story about how you found you felt like you didn't have people who you know, and you found Ska and it kind of um was like, There's your people. Um I was always of the opinion that like um I didn't drink till I was 21. Um, I didn't like I always felt like you know what, I'm just gonna make my own fun. I I'm gonna be me. And then just through the power of you know sheer perseverance, people would become my friend, you know, be like that guy knows how to have fun on his own, and it just happened to be that way. And that was a dream as it gets. And if you're a banner nerd, that just magically happens as well because you're surrounded by them, and it's like whoever is the goofiest person in the group, I guess, gets to lead the pack. But uh, so it's mad the ska is just the natural uh thing that happens there.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

I'm surprised you didn't try and write your own ska themed song.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

You have much. Trust me, I had the thought, but but it was honestly, it was a good that's something where okay, so doing YouTube has helped me to not be a perfectionist when it comes to like video production, that kind of stuff. Um, but musically, I still have those things where if I record something, I want it to sound good, I want it to, I want to take the time and like I need to get over that there. And I wanted to do my own thing, but then when Mike was like, Hey, could I do it for you? I was like, Yeah, like which was also a good exercise in like letting a little bit of control go, and like, okay, I don't have to do every, every, every single thing, especially if the whole point of the show is like, hey, what a bunch of cool music that like brings people together. Maybe somebody else could like have their fingerprints on it too, because that's literally like the point. Yeah, but I I what I want to do, which I've been saying for a while and I just haven't gotten around to, is for YouTube videos at the end, you have the 20-second end screen where you can put up like next videos and stuff. Is I wanted to just record because I'm bad at writing songs, like full songs, but I can write riffs really well. And I was just like, oh, I just record a whole bunch of like different styles, goofy stuff, whatever, and the end of my videos. If someone's stuck around till the end, that's not gonna be the thing that like makes them unsubscribe. And so at the end, I can just have my own whatever kind of I want it to be. Um, I still will do that, I just haven't done it yet. At least I've done it on like one or two videos, maybe, but um, anyway, that's my like I I really, really want to. I'm using this podcast as an excuse to learn Logic Pro, uh, specifically so I can so I can get better at so I can do more music stuff because I've always done audition for my podcasts because it's so good for voice, but logic is so good for music, and yeah, so a lot of MIDI built in there too.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

So just plug in any of your MIDI keyboards and go to town.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

Yeah, that's I have so uh I have a lot of cool stuff that's not getting used now. But I know we're we're basically at an hour here. Um and I know PBS calls, so because they appreciate support from employees like you.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Yeah, I'm not about to do the pitch, but yeah, uh yeah. So well, thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

Oh, are you kidding? I appreciate it. I will put links in the show notes to like your website and everything, but is there anything uh anywhere people want to connect with you, follow you, uh anywhere you want to send them?

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Uh you can go to responsiblywild.com. That's where I link to all my plethora of random things that I do is on there. Um I have done a film podcast for eight years about, but it's just two white dudes who wanted to keep their friendship going via podcast.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Two white dudes with a podcast. I've never heard of such a thing.

SPEAKER_01 59:53

But uh uh yeah, so that that's called shared passwords. It's about streaming movies only. And um let's see, what else? Uh Pat Ba-Bomb, which I stole the name from Edgar Wright's uh Scott Pilgrim vs. the world, the sex ba-bombs. Uh but uh that's my my Twitter handle is Pat B O Bomb. And uh yeah, if you want to watch any of the short films I make, just uh search for tiny explosion short films on YouTube. They are pretty much absurd and written by committee. So I mean I'm the person manning the camera and directing, but that's because no one else can sequence images in the group.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

So I like absurdity.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

Cool. Thank you. Well, we'll have to have you back so we can dive into more stuff, but thanks so much. Uh thank you for listening. If you want to uh say anything to me or Pat, positive, of course, you can send text, uh audio or video to ska at high my name is Tom.com. And uh thanks so much for listening. I will see you or talk at you. I never know how to end podcasts. But anyway, happy times until the next episode.