Nest Sessions: Tim Kasher on Game Shows

[music] Start with an incredibly simple basic question that I think you can manage. Subtaining your name and sort of what it is that you do. Oh right, me, I'm Tim Casher, I'm a musician in the songwriter, touring musician. And you're about to go on to a soon, right? Yeah, yeah, in about a week. Thanks for coming here first. Yeah, thanks, sir. Let me. This is your rehearsal space, basically. Yeah, for the tour. Did you always know you wanted to get into music? Was that always a thing or was it a dive in a different direction? So I'm also a musician, I'm also a filmmaker, but I'm not ready or comfortable calling myself a professional filmmaker because I've made films haven't been paid. Yeah, you could call yourself that. I'm a hobbyist, I guess. But when I was young, I really wanted to be a filmmaker. And music was a more immediate release. It was just like, I just got kind of feverish. I had a keyboard and then a guitar. And then that kind of snowballed in a great way, in a very fortunate way for me, so I got to be lucky enough to be able to kind of pluck out a career. You also very good at it, right? And once you dive into that, I don't know about that. How old were you when curses start? I mean, maybe 20, something around there. Yeah, I think 20, I think I remember having the big 21st birthday and I was with some of the person guys here. My 21st was cursed. I had like a goth-themed party, like 10 people come. I mean, it wasn't like a good tip for me first. It was pretty lame, but I feel like Americans do 21st and are really like that big here, right? Yeah. There's supposed to be, yeah. I was on tour for my 21st birthday and we were at a show in Washington DC. Okay, you were a little cake, a little party. Yeah, they got me like a big bottle of wine. That's nice, saying me happy birthday. Yeah, yeah. And cursive was kind of taking off then, where was it at when you were 21? No, real, I think we were really just like writing our first songs and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So nothing is full obvious at that point. Yeah, my 21st birthday recollection is one of my best buddies and I throwing up in a neighbor's yard. But like in just such a triumphant way. Like we were laughing and just being like, "Well, it's my 21st birthday. We really are." This is what he do. Like we are messed up. Was it very clear to the neighbor that it was you guys? There's a friend's rental. And it was in the grass. It was probably fine. There was probably like worse things. We probably threw up on like dog shit or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Covered it up. And this is all Omaha Nebraska. There's an Omaha Nebraska. David, do you know anything about Nebraska? I know nothing about Nebraska. I've got no images of my mind. I feel as beautiful maybe and sort of a quiet pace of life. Yes. And I'm gonna back up because I don't know if beautifully might have just logged that out because that's like a courtesy. It's like a nice thing to say. Because I think a lot of people in the United States would consider Omaha to be somewhere that's not beautiful. It's like a genius. It's like great planes. It's the Midwest. It's like fly over. It's fly over country. But I'm here to say that you nailed it. Omaha, what people who haven't been to Omaha, what they don't realize is that it's actually a rolling hills. And it's incredibly green. So wouldn't you fly over it or if you fly in? It's actually really. It is quite a beautiful patch. It's along the Missouri River. And yeah, it's just like these like really nice softly rolling hills that a city was built on to. It's just tons of greenery. Yeah. And what are people mostly doing there? Is it what's kind of the thing? The, it's that gets a little bit dull. That's, it's, it's business. Like business would be kind of like the main export. Okay. But, um, you know, with like us musicians, we kind of like, you know, really plugged away at the top of the century. And, uh, and kind of made a little name for Omaha, for music. And that's nice. And there's some cool filmmakers. Alexander Payne came out of Omaha. So there's the, there is arts that exist as well. That's just the problem with so many of the cities in the US that, and I'm part of the problem. I live in LA now. But I bet, you know, like the artists do tend to go to the coasts. Yeah, they gravitate out. Yeah, but you're sort of saying, no, it's still, it's a great place to be. You love it. It is. And I'd be happy to live there now. It's not, there's really no. I've, it's just, uh, you know, my, my wife works out here in LA and I love LA too. I'm pretty easy going. I love wherever I look. Yeah. You see, you seem like you have an easy going energy about it. I have to say. Just try to, I just try to acclimate. When did you know that music could be a full-time thing? Was there a moment when you realized that this is going to be, this is going to work? Yeah, but I think it wouldn't have been until like the third curse of record. And that was in like the 2000. Yeah, right. And that was like a turning point for us where we put this record out, called Domestika. And we're out, you know, just out touring, like as we had been for the other two albums. But it was touring was a total slog, which like most majority musicians understand. It's a total slog. And, uh, but then for the Domestika album, it was this exweared and exciting thing where the little rooms were playing, we're now filling up and people were singing along. And we were like, yeah. And then that was the point, to pinpoint it. Where we kind of look to one another and we're like, is this like something? Is this working? Is this working? Yeah. Because I was, which was weird because I was very used to it, not working. The excuse of the show really is just for me to extract knowledge about American culture. And also to get to watch amazing musicians perform in front of me. Uh, but you, I understand have had a brush in with game shows. Well, yeah, where'd your love for game shows start? Probably really just in the most basic sense, just being a kid and just loving to play board games and just loving and then in trivia, you know, it was always a blast. But I think I also can credit, uh, my wife, Quinnid, who also like when we found each other, we were both people who love games. Right. And when you say games, like what do you mean? Like game shows on TV, like playing board, like what kind of games do we play? You know, like very bad. Like we play, um, I travel like with a monopoly deal, which is not deals like little card game. So like, Quinnid and I are the type that when we go to a bar, we'll just like post up and like play cards. Yeah, right. We'll play Scrabble at home. So she's been on Jeopardy and it's really kind of amped up for her. She grew up, she grew up, uh, wanting to be on Jeopardy. Like so that was like the big dream. That was like the dream. That was the big dream. And she, she did it. I mean, that's incredible. It was incredible. How do you, like, how does one get on Jeopardy? It's a good hard thing to prepare for it too, because it's just general knowledge of everything. It's the most terrifying thing. I could think of nothing more hellish than to put me on Jeopardy. Because it's basically just a way that you see everyone sees how dumb you are and what you don't know. So I love trivia, Quinnid loves trivia. And I don't mind. And so also what I'm handling to is that we have like a, we started like a trivia show and stuff like that. And so I need to be really in the conversation like this. I need to be really positive and pro trivia because we ask people to come on. And some, we ask musicians to come on. So the show is called "Musical Pukes." And it's a music trivia game show. But there's anxiety. Absolutely. There's anxiety of musicians who don't want to come on and be, like, grilled and then, like, maybe look bad or look stupidly. And we're always just trying to convince people that it's just like, it's not, it's just fun. It's fun. We want you to do well. We're not trying to stump you. You know, like, we want to just have a good time. We just have some trivia. We want you to scratch your head a little bit and think, "Oh, I almost got it." But it's tough to come up with the question. To know like what. Yeah, what do people know when they don't know? Yeah, like, like, yeah, yeah. Wait, so rewind your wife dreamt of being on "Gipady." What's her name? Oh, Quinnid. Quinnid's story. So Quinnid just wanted to do this. How the hell did she make that dream a reality? Like, they didn't just let anyone on "Gipady." So she's quite, she's rather bright. And so there's a test. There's like an online test before that. There was probably just a written test. I think that. Really, I think he used to go and. There'd be like, yeah, like tryouts. But now it's an online test. Okay. And she was taking it for years. I think it was like once a year or maybe a couple times a year. And she just tried it and then she just nailed it. She, you know, came up on the test. And she'd asked the right questions and. How long ago was she on? To Alex Trebek. She got to be on when Alex Trebek was still around. I know, she's so proud of that. I'm proud of it, too. I mean, she. Well, she didn't do great. It was really hard. I'm always the first to defend her that. She was against these two young gentlemen who were like really good with the buzzers. The buzzers are no joke. Yeah, yeah. And you can see. She's one of the type of suppliers when you watch Jeopardy. She's like where you see her frustrated. Like she knows the answers. But she can't get in. You can't get in, you know? Yeah, completely. Yeah. Was that part of knowing that you guys were good matches? Like we all love games. Like we both love games. Or did that come later in the relationship? You know, I think that she might say it that way a little bit. I think that she feels like she fell in love with me because I'm fun and like, in because I like games. Oh, that's so nice. It's so nice. So I don't know how accurate it is, but. And when did you get the idea to have your own game show? When was that a thing? Uh, her and I just kind of, you know, been. throwing around ideas of like something that we could do together for quite some time. And I think I just kind of stumbled upon, so I'm a musician, and I'm kind of like, I'm a cog in the machinery, you know? And it occurred to me that musical pubes, like the concept of it, I was like, you know, if we had musicians on, and then kind of have it be, have it kind of a little more niche about being specific about music trivia, I was like, you know, who would love that, is publicists. That's kind of what I was thinking, and I'm not totally sure if I'm right about that or not, but I do, we have good report of publicists now as a result. But because I was thinking, when you put out an album, you have. You need to tell people about what is coming, you've got to get it to all these different people somehow. And you're just saying the same thing over and over again, and you'd have a few a day or whatever, and you have a lot of, you know, I've been through this a lot, and so it occurred to me, I was like, oh my gosh, what if you could kind of plug into that and be like, hey, this one, it's like, we will still plug it, we'll talk about the tour and we'll talk about the album. But mostly you just get to play a game. Yeah. And I was thinking, publicists would like that, I was thinking, musicians would like it, musicians would love it, because it's like, oh, so I get to, I get to check off like, hey, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, I'm that my publicist is happy with me, and I get to just hang out and play a game for an hour. You completely, and just you're not having to think about for trying a certain message, or the certain bullshit that you're having to say again and again and again, you're having a nice time, and an audience is watching, going, who's this person? I like this person. Oh, they're a musician. I might, they've got this album coming out. That was the idea of this show too. Completely. For our music series was like, we don't need to talk about the history of the band and how they started and the album coming out. It's, let's find that weird American topic that, yeah, they know about, yeah, yeah, yeah, still plug your stuff, still, and then like, let's show you use your super power at the end, but let's talk about game shows and Cheetos instead of. Completely, because talking about music, the music should stand on its own two feet, right? Talking about, I mean, it can be interesting, but it can get pretty fucking boring as well. Talking about the origin of the lyric and the world. Well, just to say, isn't that just the thing, right? It's just like, if you get into the weeds as musicians, you don't really know, I enjoy getting in the weeds, but there's that slippery slope, right? I've just like, you start talking about my theory or something like that and you just people are gonna start glazing over. Well, and there's enough, you're gonna have to do that anyways. So you're gonna go do it on 10 other shows. Like, go on "Song Exploder" if you want it to really dive into it. Yeah, which as a musician, I think that's like one of my favorite podcasts. Yeah, it's awesome. And it's so interesting. And don't, and we're not trying to recreate and beat that, because you want that go listen to our music. - That's our view on it, bro. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yes, we've stood but trying to beat Tiny Death. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Who's been one of the most fun guests you've had that was like quite a good, the good at trivia, or particularly bad at trivia, or just stood out? - Well, let's hear both. - Yeah, yeah. - Call people out. - Yeah. - So probably put them in a shame them. - Yeah, so probably the most fun, the first one that popped in my head as far as a really fun show we had is it's not out yet, but it's coming out in a month or two or something, but we had Shannon Shaw on, and is of Shannon Shaw and the Clams. And Shannon brought, so it's generally, it's like a three-person game or a two-person game or a solo game. We did three-person game with that. She brought Cody Blanchard, who's in the Clams. He's such just a really fun and affable guy. And also brought Seth Bogart of Hunks and his punks. And this guy is just, I don't know if you know him or not, but he's just so funny in the group. So the three of them are really tight friends. When I was, so it's finished and I was editing it, I had to edit out a lot of sections because there was points where it's like, they were just hanging out. - Yeah, yeah. - And it was so fun. - It's not being a game show. - And I even pointed out, I was like, this is like really fun for Gwinted and I. It's like we're just like a fly in the wall hanging out in your kitchen or something like, while you guys are shooting the shit. But it was really funny. It was great. It was just like, they're really tight and it was a really fun show, yeah. - Cool. - And who was the worst at trivia? - So just let their fear come to light. They go on a trivia show. They're afraid of looking stupid. - Yeah. - And now they're all them out for being the stupidest. - Yeah, I know, I want to. I want to. I'm trying to think, so what will struggle with sometimes? We, in advance, we've asked, I'm like, what, what decade are you most familiar with for music and because we're trying to kind of pinpoint like what can we and what cannot we ask? - Yeah. - It's like doing 60s jazz for someone that like 90s R&B. - And we definitely do stuff like that. Like we had King Tuffon and we asked some like kind of difficult questions about like older psych rock stuff. And he just got so easy. And I was like, okay, cool. But that's like a question we could never ask. - Yeah. - Yeah, most of the people that are on. But so the struggle we run into, we'll run into is I'm 51. And so I'm like, I have like a real, I know the 80s real well. I know the 70s pretty well. And I can really pull from that. But a lot of the bands we have on that are like, born in the 90s. Like the people, not the band, you know. And so that's good. That gets tricky. So we're realizing that we shouldn't even ask what we really need to ask people is, when are you born? - Yeah. - What era of music? - We need to know, like even if you don't like Whitney Houston or I'm familiar, but at least you know Whitney. - You know who this person is. - Yeah. - Wait, just for anyone listening along, just sort of going, I want to watch this thing. I want to engage with it. Where can people watch? - Sure. - Well, it's musical puke and it's just, it's a podcast. But we do it on YouTube as well. - Great name, by the way. - Thank you. - And it's really fun. - And we really tried to promote it as a game show. Well, 'cause it is a game show. - Yeah. - But by doing it as a podcast on YouTube, that's our way of making it incredibly DIY. - What were your main inspirations from other American game shows? Were you lifting from anything that you've done particular? - Yeah, you know, we actually try to like lift borrow from like all the different things that we watch. Like I love watching prices right and I'll try to think about like how like different little games they have and if I can like turn that into something that's like, I can't think of an exciting example, but really it's like, in Jeopardy for sure, we watch Jeopardy every day and it's certainly like borrow from Jeopardy style questions and Jeopardy is actually a lot of like the template. Jeopardy, is it not like kind of the template for most trivia? - Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, I feel like that's the key one, right? - Yeah. - That's where it will kind of begin. And then Moustache comes from Family Feud Steve Harvey. - All right. - This is actually. - It is, thank you for ringing and pointing out the Moustache. I'm actually growing my Moustache this month for a donation for a charity. - That looks really good. - Thank you. - I didn't get to change time. - It's always been there for a long time. - Yeah. - You know? - I think that Moustache, while Moustache is after certainly in like the younger generations, like I've kind of just come back and start a little. - Yeah, yeah. - I'm just being like a hip guy right now with my Moustache. But yeah, no, it's the donate, there's a company, there's a nonprofit called The Bay in Omaha, Nebraska. And it's a cool spot. It's like an after school place for kids. - Cool. And New Zealand, we have a thing in November, called MoVember and everyone grows in a mo, and it's for testicular cancer research. Do you have that here as well? - We got like no shave November. - No shave November, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were like New Zealand in America. - Is it for testicular cancer, too? - I don't know that it is that. - Okay, I'm pretty sure New Zealand is for testicles. Anyway, are there any new game shows? Is someone that loves game shows? Are there any sort of current ones or new ones that you're particularly excited about? Are you more just old school, jeopardy, family feud, that kind of thing? - No, so there's one called chain reaction that we were on actually. - Oh, what the hell? So you're just going, you've been on more than-- - Well, living out in LA is kind of nice. - Yeah, right, wait, so just wait, what game shows have you been on? - You should be on. - You should get us all game shows. - We've done, we've done, we've both done family feud. - We've both done family feud. - True friends who are celebrity, whatever it's, you know. - You've both been on family feud? - Yes. - Wait, were you guys on a team together? - We were not on a team together. - Oh my gosh. - I went on with Reese Darby, the New Zealand actor. - Oh my gosh. - And he was on and so he bought me in as part of his New Zealand team. - Oh my gosh. - And I went with Rachel Billson. - I love it. - And that was the most wild experience 'cause it's like a finely oiled machine and you know, you arrive and suddenly you're suddenly just, you're doing it. You're recording and you're like, oh, we're doing it now? And it's happening. - Yeah, the celebrity ones are intense too 'cause they're also filming like eight in a day and then there's just like, oh, there's John Legend and they care much more about certain ones than other ones and then like doing the pickups during it. - Oh yeah, there was a point. - Rachel and I went to high five and we missed so they made us retake like celebrations. - Yeah, they're watching it. - Oh my gosh. - And watching it like a Hulk, right? - Yeah, and it's exactly what they did. - Biting with his producer as it's happening 'cause it's like, they've done this for six hours already and he's like, I don't wanna do this again and they're just yelling at each other. - Yeah, and he just like, see how we just like, fucked off at the end of our thing. Wasn't gonna meet him. He was gone, you know? - Oh, really? - Yeah. - You don't get to meet Steve Harvey. - I saw him, he had him in his big mustache for the buzzer, which might did not work. We got killed and the other team was practicing the buzzing beforehand and we were like, look at these nerds. - Yeah, that's what took you out. - Apparently, or that was the buzzer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So we've done family feud, what have you done? - Well, it's a chain reaction. - Okay. - I've tried to be on prices right and I even made shirts for me and my friends 'cause you know that that's as you're learning American culture. of the that really the most common, what people generally do is they make shirts to kind of be like, "Pick me!" I didn't know that Aaron Paul famously got on prices right like very early on and have like shirt made. Wait, so what do you mean? You make the shirt so that they take notice of you and then they say, "Come on the shirt." It's my birthday. "Pick me, Drew." Just things like that. Drew bear you. How is Drew going to see the shirt? What do you mean? Because prior, to be on prices right, it's actually really kind of exhausting. It can be a little bit grueling. I actually have some friends out in the valley who are just on it and they've kind of gave me, again, just like the whole spiel. But yeah, it's just hours of waiting in line at the beginning and while you're in this long line, these, you know, a little producer crew keeps going through and like talking to everybody. And they're asking you questions, but we're really doing this. They're trying to assess. They're looking at your shirt. I see. Right. You turn it all the day to get the job. Yeah. Right. Are you going to have the right amount of energy if you get pulled up on stage? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So my big gaff, I'm convinced, is, well, I know this is a big gaff. I had this super clever idea. I think this is, this is a good idea, but not a good price is right. Well, I made these really cool shirts. That was, so Drew Carey is the host and so I was like Drew Carey, Drew Carey. Okay. Drew Carey, Stephen King, Brian DeValma, you know, sissy-spacic, covered in blood. So I go online and I go to a, I hire a character artist, a caricature artist to do Drew Carey, covered in blood as a, as a prom queen. And I made shirts that said like, I can't remember what exactly it said, but so Drew Carey. Yeah. I get it. I thought it was brilliant. But I didn't even occur to me. It's like, I think they're like, yeah, that's really cool. We can't, that's the one. We can't put that on here. Yeah. We can't put it on here. Covered in blood. Yeah. This is horrific. It was a terrible idea. Yeah. No, it kind of was. Yeah. I mean, it's a great, I'd want to have that shirt that I could buy. I'll wear that. I can't even find mine anymore. I don't know where it went. I must have given it to someone. I think this is just a drill, right? Probably. I wish. I wish. In between, this is so frustrating too. And so as me is my buddy's staff and Roger and Aaron, and in my buddy Roger, who's also the drummer in the good life, one of the bands that I do, in beach, like during the commercial breaks, Drew Kerry loved, so could you love music? Yeah. Yeah. Drew Kerry loves music. And this is my buddy Roger's musician, who also happened, but he's like, he should be, he should have his own music trivia show because he's just lives in bridge music in cycle media. So they just would go off every single circle, commercial break, Drew would just be lined back to Roger and they would just like shoot the shit about like all this music stuff. And so we're all just watching like, well, let's take, but let's take this to the next level. Totally. But they didn't, they didn't pick any of us. I'm so sorry. Oh, it's frustrating. I'm deeply sorry you didn't get on that show, the one to get on to, but you did get on a game show that I've never heard of before. Yeah. Chain reaction. Chain reaction is a word association. Maybe it's the best way to describe it. Are you familiar with Chain reaction? A little bit. So there are lion in your girl elephant. I don't like that. I do. Yeah. You nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. Moving on. The word be coffee. So that's like, there's like seven words. I think there's something like that. And it's called be coffee, but it's not just, not just word association. It's like word chains. Yeah. You're trying to get from the top to the bottom, right? And there's a bunch of links. Coffee, coffee mate or coffee maker or it's like something like. And so, you know, is there's a coffee and the next one starts with B, the letter B. B. There it is. Coffee bean. And then there'll be bean. And then the next letter starts with C. Bean curd. Cream. Okay. Bean curd works. That's good. I was actually in bean counter for some really. Bean curd. Okay. And you end up at a final word. And then you kind of, yeah, and then there's the bottom word and they all kind of meet up and all the most work, you know, are attached, chained together, chain reaction. I thought chain reaction was thinking some sort of like physical game show with explosions and stuff. Like a mouse trap game. It's just like very, it's word, it's a word game. And it's words. And how did you go? We did like really well. Congratulations. That's so good. I said, I don't usually like to answer that question because I always like to be like, go find out for yourself. No, but you did really well. But yeah. Let's just say we did. We'll just say we did as best as you can possibly. Oh my god. Did you win something? Is the episode out? Oh, yeah. So it's actually old. Oh my god. So what did you win? So it's not, so it's, it's a game show network show where they don't, there's not usually like a lot like loads of money or anything like that. But it's still nice. There's a three person team. I think we won like 12 grand or something. It's so nice. I did. Congratulations. I bought a, I bought a guitar. That's great. Is there like a dream when you want to get on to? I have been thinking lately. Chain reaction was the dream. And the dream was complete. Oh, now you got to move the goalpost and find the next one. I haven't actually, I'm glad you brought this up because I was just the other day thinking like, I should just, I should put my, I should put myself back out there again. Gwyneth did. She was on the show. She moved, she continued. So she's gone three shows now. She was on a show called Split Second, which is a pretty fun show. So let me give the straight. So both you and your wife, you're both, you've got your own game show and you're both always trying to get on game shows. I know. Really, like this is, you're really like burying how batshit this is, like you're talking about this, like it's normal, but I'm really blown away by this, like making me up to how abnormal it sounds. It's really weird. It is like, I thought casually, like you've just been on one maybe a long time ago, but you're actively like still trying. Yeah. And both of you are in this together. So you're both enabling each other's insanity because in most relationships, I feel like one of the, one of the people involved kind of brings, keeps the other one in check. Whereas you're almost both fooling each other out. We're going wild, man. And she's winning currently. She's been on more than you. Yeah. Yeah. She needs to get back out there. I know. There was a show. I don't want to be on the show, but I kind of do. There's a show called the floor. Are you familiar with it? No. It's really, it's on Fox. It's like, this isn't going to get me on the show, but it's like really dumb. But there's something seems like compelling to be on that show. What do you do? What do you have to say the show and not say what it's about? Like, what's the aim of the game? Get on the floor. Firstly, why I don't want to be on the show though ultimately is because I think it would be really exhausting. Is it like the floor is lava? Is it like that? That'd be fun to go on though. Okay. So what's the floor? The floor is too many people. I want to say like 50, like a hundred people or something like that and they're all on this floor. There's great being floor. And then they, and then in the floor, all like is gets activated. I have lights and lights all around and then like, and the light will show up like under your feet. And like, oh, that's you, Tim. You're going to go up. You're the next. And then people go up against against one another. Okay. And they're picked from the floor and you keep picking people out and delicious one person left. What's still a little silly about it is that some is that the majority of the questions are like absurdly laughable. One of them is that I remember that I, it's insane. It was, well, there's a big screen. And so mostly it's just kind of visual or they'll show a still of something and you say what it is. Okay. One of them was things in a junk drawer and they go go and you, it's like, you know, one of the back and forth. So me first and they'll show I'd be like stapler, yep. And then you'll get paper clip scissors. I mean, just like, yeah, really a name, like, really, I feel like I could cope with this. Leave a little bit. Much more than jiffity. What's weird about though is that there are like, maybe a few or a couple of such things for the end, like ones that people are trying, topics that people are trying to avoid. And then so it'll go from junk drawer, which is like, so like, which is like six year old level, easy. And then it'll go to like, it'll be like, like leaders of Cold War, um, Eastern. Amazing. So they're like, what? So they're going to fuck you up suddenly. Yeah. I kind of like that. See if they get that category. Oh, no. Yeah. It's easy, right? The like competitive game show, because there's those like game show network, and now network shows got the wheel, the floor, no dealer, no deal. But then you've got like, uh, Squid game and survivor. So survivor? No. But should I? I mean, I love the biggest survivor, there's a lot, but it's a totally different type of game show. It's a competitive. Well, so we can show it. So we get super into the trashy shows that we all, I think we all kind of why I have like some trashy shows in our back pocket, right? And these are like, and these are like the reality, you know, reality shows, things is like that faster, right or whatever. Um, so that for us, those versions are competition shows, um, baking shows, baking, love baking shows, um, we're gaga right now about Ink Master. We're just like, just flying through Ink Master episodes. But yeah, competition based, their game shows, essentially. Have you watched, uh, culinary class wars? No. Should I? A cooking competition show on Netflix? It's incredible. The fact that it's sorry, um, sorry, United States that the word as we're learning about the America, that's okay. The problem with the game shows in this country is that they tend to, um, cater too much to the audience and just, you know, just be like, oh, we having a good time, aren't we? Is it? It's like, uh, what's nice about the great British baking show, the bake off is that it's so, um, it feels so authentic and they're not real fucking around with like, uh, trying to build too much suspense before they eliminate someone. Right. But yeah, culinary class, where there's no audience, it's, it's, that's what it sounds like in really good. - Probably just come in. - Just like pure competition. - Yes. - That's what I want. - And they take, Koreans just do game shows at such a different level than America, where it's like every cooking American show, like pulled into one. - Culinary. - Culinary class wars. - Why is it class? - It starts with 80 black coat chefs, which are just like normal work at a little restaurant, like not notable, and then 20 white coat chefs, which have like Michelin star restaurants. - Okay. - So it starts off, like those are the two groups, the 80 immediately compete, go down to 40, and then start competing against the white coats. - Well, they don't even give the black coats names, they all have nicknames, they can't use their real names. - They have to like earn it. - It's intense. - It's intense, but it's, yeah. If you like cooking shows. - How many seasons? - They've only done two. I gotta check it out. - Before you share your favorite American snack with Robert and I, where do you think this came from, like both you and your wife, you love game shows, like were you raised with them or something? It seems like deep in your veins, 'cause I have no interest in them really, it's like if they're on or watch them, and going on family feud was a fun thing, but at no point was I thinking here's my dream. Now where did it come from? - I really, I think it's, I think it's as simple core as just being a kid and just, it's literally just games, but also I do like the, I just love competition. I don't actually watch a lot of sports by watch a little bit of sports, because I love competition. I just think competition's really exciting. If you really pay attention to a football game or soccer game or whatever. I mean, there's, there can be, there's like a, the drama. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, the drama. - You like drama. - It's big. - Control drama. - Yeah. - Is your kink. - It's gonna watch survivor. - Yeah, survivor's like, - I know, I know. - He was a strategy survivor. - I would probably be really a survivor. I just have never seen an episode. I've never seen an episode. That thing is like, probably on this 400th season, right? - They're currently 50th season. - 50th season. - An alley is next week. - My God. - God. - Are you on? - Are you on? - Oh, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. We watch. - We watch. - Rob, it's just we never Rob can talk about survivor. He will do. - Oh, yeah. - What snack have you bought in that represents America in your veins that I can put in my mouth? - Right, shall I grab it? - Yeah, please. I'm dying for a snack. And why is this your choice? - Cheetos, cheddar, jalapeno, crunchy, that's important. - Okay. - Oh, and also it has a nice new low price too. And that's why, that's why I like it. - Cheetos is a brand you'd like, or this particular flavor. - Cheetos, I think I'm probably a little indifferent too. You grow up in America and it's like Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos, Lays, Ruffles, they're all good. You know, they're all out of picnic and you love them all. So Cheetos, I don't think I ever liked them more or less than anything else. But when they nailed down this flavor, I just think it changed. It was a game changer for me. And so this is the one I immediately thought of upon discussing to discuss snacks because. - And this little guy, this little tiger is a Cheetos guy. You see that? - You don't know what Cheetos are? - No, no, you don't understand. I'm crazy. - No, I'm sure we do, but it's not like, I think Doritos would be like a bigger thing in New Zealand. - Cheetos are not, no New Zealanders going, I must have a Cheeto. - We're gonna get so many New Zealanders back. - Every time he does this. - I love making blanket statements about New Zealand operates. He was finding I live in just an entirely different place. - He did a whole lot of stuff. - So funny that New Zealanders don't refrigerate eggs and-- - We don't. (laughing) - We're gonna try a lot of New Zealanders that do. - But now my point is, this little tiger is the Cheetos guy. - Yes, that's the mascot. - It's like Cheetos. - So it's the Cheetos. I'm putting it all together. - His name is Chester. Chester Cheeto. - What's his personality? - Pretty clock-wild and cool, like where's Shades and he's just like really cool and awesome. I mean, look at him. - These are, he does look fucking cool, these are nice. - Not as much flavor as I was expecting, it's more mellow. - Agreed, I think, yeah, and also I can't, having gotten older, I can't really eat spicy things anymore. - It's like so me and I hate it. - It's so irritating. I grew up on spicy things. These are great because it's like the taste of jalapeno, but it doesn't stay with you. - What I like, I like a fluffy chip. I don't like a flat chip. Do you know what I mean? This is what I want. - Well, you got a fat and crunchy puffs. - Yeah, blow as mine. - Yeah, you might want Cheetos puffs. - You might want Cheetos puffs. - They're puffy, are they? - They like chip. - Blown up three times the size of the leg. - Yeah. - Yeah, like they're soft and pillowy. I don't want pillowy, maybe, but they're soft. Did you ever have-- - I'm glad you liked them. - Did you have a hot Cheeto phase as a teenager ever? - I-- - Or adult. - No, actually hot Cheetos tend to be a little, like you've got my flaming hot, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - They're okay, they're good. - That was like, they're actually a little too spicy. - There's like a junior high. - It's a way where everyone got real into hot Cheetos. - Oh, and they're hot Cheetos. - Yeah, they're soft. - They're red. - Yeah. - Wow. - And then the new generations, they love their talkies. And talkies are just really hot, man. - Talkies, I've been seeing everywhere. That's like for the younger people is the talkies. - The younger people, yeah. - Wow. - This is what I have to say to all you younger people who are addicted to talkies. I guess I don't want to make any major disrespect, but-- - You can. - I'm going to say, well, y'all I don't realize. You just said these, so nice. There's like the flavors subtle. It's nice. Talkies have way too much powder on them. That's there. There's a problem here. - Like, talkies are like try hards. They're like, it's like a try hard, like chip product. We're like, oh, it's like, it's like just cake it on. Like, oh, there's going to be so much spice on there and stuff like that. It just makes it all messy and weird, and it makes it harder to feel. - It kind of feels like a monster energy drink kind of a vibe. It's just like too much, too much, too much in there. - Monster energy drink, talkies. I'm 22 years old. - No, this is like a refined. The Cheeto is sort of a refined-- - Refined talkie. - We're going to lose our talking sponsor now. We're going to lose our talking sponsor. - Thank you so much. I am not a big chip guy, but these fluffy little clouds. - You can't be making some pubs, too. - Yeah, you got to try them on pubs. They have this cheddar jalapeno on pubs. - Yeah. - Health when you're eating these? - Not a lot, not a lot. - Not daily. - Let's be honest. - When there's a little tree-- - I do, or when you ever have a star tree in there. - I mean, I just try to, yeah. I mean, we don't got to, I'm too old. - I don't want this to be hanging out eating chips. - You're going to play us three songs. - Yeah. - I'm sure you're very blessed to have. Do you want to sort of explain what your first song is going to be? Just sort of kick us off? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I want to tell this little short story, too, that is called Spongies of Experience. And it's notable that I want to explain it because I wrote it over four days. It was a challenge that, it was a challenge that I have had in the back of my mind since I was a teenager. I'm gonna say 15, 16 years old or something like that. I'm like watching Elvis Costello conducting an interview on probably like a night flight or a USA up all night or just some kind of music video thing, MTV, I suppose. And he had an off-hand remark. He's like, "Oh, well, I could write an album. I could write it a pop album over a weekend." But he was talking whatever it was he was talking about at the time. He was like, "Oh, I was pouring over. I was working on this album over a pop album. I could write it over a weekend." And it just like stayed in my head. I was just like, "Huh." That's wild. - Imagine that. - I wonder if I could do that. And I've been holding that thought for 35 years or something like that. And so many days last year over Memorial Day, my wife was out of town and I just kind of saw that. I was like, I just had a free weekend. And I was like, "I wouldn't do it." So I did. It was really fun. It was really, it was really, it was challenging. It truly was a challenge. And I took it really seriously. I mean, like woke up, I mean, like woke up like, like almost like wide awake. Like, "Oh, yeah, I go." Like, and just started. And just did really long days. I don't remember exactly the best thing I did. Like four songs the first day, four songs the second day. And what I did, what the rules were, you have to write a game show. You made for yourself. - I know. - Seriously, just another game. It was just another game I created for myself. So the rules were, you have to write the composition. You have to complete the composition and you have to complete the lyrics. And that was the really taxing part. - 'Cause we like, both of those things are quite hard in different ways. - The composition, I don't wanna be too dismissive. But the composition is a lot of musicians out that we all know. It's like, that doesn't have to be too hard. I mean, it can be, 'cause I didn't wanna just write. I didn't wanna be like, G, C, D, E minor, there. That done, I had to be inspired by it. I had to believe that it was a song. So it still had to pass like that test in my head. I'm like, this is so bad listen to this, you know. - Are you coming into this with ideas for songs are ready? - That was part of the song. - I'm terrifying. This feels. - That is one of the rules. - Terrifying to me. - Blink page. - Yes, so intense. - It wasn't intense. I mean, it really was. It was just like four days all by myself. And that's all I did. I only did one thing. I mean, and I ate standing up. I'm not kidding. It was just like, just breathing, just the whole time. Just like, what am this is this thing? I gotta get this done. I got 12 songs done over the weekend. - Only shit. - And ended up releasing the album. And I ended up just putting all 12 on. I wanted to write more than enough so I could have some B-sides and kind of choose and really make like the right album. At the time, I wasn't even planning on releasing it. It was just kind of like, It's just the dApp. Like I'm done a lot of albums, so I'd just like I'd just the act of making an album, but this one's over for it Yeah, and you had had this idea and you hit for so long. It's like it's trying this thing. It's the right time So anybody signing just to do all 12 songs just because um, I think it's um, it's a capsule You know, it's just like that's these are that this is the weekend and uh, with kind of like warts and all because I I can't really like go to bat for all these songs that are on it, but I but the record overall it's like it's an interesting thing It's like it's it's an artifact. Yeah, you know can a oh and so that was the rules were again So composition and lyrics, but then I just spent over the coming month the months following um, I just kind of would I would tinker with air in there. That was that was all Oh acceptable because judges were like we'll allow this Yeah, yeah You can't over four days. I couldn't myself like a track or a record doing the guitar. I was just like that's not going to happen So I was like you can do that stuff later and um And so I did and then and then and I talked to a label uh born losers and they were just like yeah, we'll release this. I was like Yeah, okay, let's let's do it and we're actually it's actually not on streaming or anything like that because it's really it's a really nice thing It's really it's like a novelty thing kind of you know um, so I don't really need it I don't really need it nor do I want it on streamers or like that. I'm not trying to advance Well, how can we see people gonna listen to some songs now, but how do they listen to this record? I mean, you can get on band camp and you can we love band camp. This is yeah, this is great Um, and so we did and so the label did vinyl and CD cool But in so band camp is a resource. So yeah, I feel to go through that, you know And what song are you gonna play now? Oh, yeah, so this is um, good. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do the collapse as um a song in that was part of that Weekend notably. I think is that I think what's interesting about it So the the song I'm gonna do is about um my I've had my long collapse Left-long collapse twice. Oh, we should in this life. Uh-huh In this song is about the first time that I happened and I was back in high back in high school um, the problem I have is uh To those listening out there who are like oh, I've had my long collapse um lungs collapse sometimes Um, the problem that I have is uh, it's a disorder and I don't recall like the scientific name for it But when my lung collapse when my lungs collapse um, they don't heal. They don't heal themselves super scary basically basically long but basically you get a scratch on your arm and then it heals over you lungs Do that too for most of us like your lungs know how to heal themselves Well, I just have a disorder this not a major disorder just a small disorder that my lungs won't do that So um, it's scary you your lung will collapse and then you start Your chest cavities just starts feeling every time you breathe the air can't go anywhere. So it just starts filling Oh, um, so when I was in high school, I didn't know I had no whatever Doesn't even matter I was in high school if I was 70 years old if it never happened to you before yeah, you don't know what the hell's going on No, terrifying. So it just felt weird and I think it was like five days before I went into the hospital I finally went into the hospital because my heart was pushing up against my sternum. You're not like that no Yeah, I mean, I was probably like I probably was the my death day was the next day or something like that um, but you'll hear it all in Great. No, amazing. It's a really depressing and awful song. I'll say that to everybody. I'm sorry. You're gonna hear this song. It's really an awful song Um, it's really just uh, but anyway, I it's an interesting it's interesting to me because This is imagine you're you have a four day weekend and you're writing So many songs that you can this song I I did I worked out um, you know This song structure that I thought was interesting and I was like what do I sing about? Yeah, you were like going through a list of traumatic things in your life or I didn't have anything written down or written or anything like that, but I did but yeah, I think that in a moment of like What it was was like it's like you need something to sing about and you need it now. Yeah, what can I pull from? Yeah, you need an ally. I can't go on a walk and think about it. I think you don't really have time and uh, and so dead That's just like this song kind of feels like that and it's like, you know, that was a really traumatic time in my life Um, it's this song the structure of the song felt kind of story based. There was not so So I did it and it turned out nice like I feel like this is like I'm like really proud of this song. That's why I'm playing it for you guys Did it seem surprising that you hadn't written a song about it prior like did you uncover anything of like Why have I never written a song about this? Yeah, this is I want to think about this more. I think that's really interesting Um for 35 years or whatever 30 I guy'd never Afforded to me to like address this and yeah, I just never had written about it before and So I thought that was interesting too. He's just like well, I guess now's the time. It makes me think of um Was it like Chinese democracy that guns and roses record that he spent like 10 years on or something writing Turned out like a piece of shit in like four days. I can imagine if you'd given him like that four-day philosophy Yeah, what would it have happened? Yeah, it would have been fucking good probably. Yeah. I'm thank you. Yeah. Oh, thank you Oh The first it was felt Headed upstairs, but not in my chest A grasping for air Working a shift Moving a dresser the shortness of breath wasn't getting any better Jim claps out on the track running less The sun the sweat the collapsing overhead of all to succulent I play to god. There's something wrong. She blinked in mostly shrubbed off. I swallowed heart The aching spread rise in like a lawful bread this standing me I put on a film stayed up on the couch I couldn't realize I couldn't lay down Seconds ticked on Four in the morning. I wondered how it looks my right hand and right hand I climbed across the floor to find the stairs but they're too hard to climb I collapsed again The second time I said I'd be fine but no deep down inside It's over, over, over, over The sun finally rose. I still hadn't slept We stopped by the hospital for a few tests Doctors and nurses were running in circles So how did you walk in here how are you movable and now now now now they threw me down onto a bed They jabbed a knife into my chest some nurses cried One held my hand said look in my eyes as they stabbed me again It's over, over, over, over It's finally over It's finally over This is a brand new song this is called "The Boy Who Played a Dime Store Bass" Hoping to record it and put it out next year sometime you You gave her love, you gave her all his love It wasn't quite enough, not even close You left her at home, left her all alone No family, no support on foreign soil When she started making special friends It never drowned, it all would end The boy who played a dime star base Always off on tour, rarely there for her If there were cracks in the facade, he wouldn't let it fall apart The girl who always caught her own pains Says I'm too ugly, who would ever want me They tied the knot and shed her name They didn't last long, they rarely last too long Years went by, they started different lives Quite a few he tried, he's trying again One drunk at night, he dialed her telephone She answered her and called, he asked her why You never knew what love was for, till you were all revolving doors The boy who played a dime star base He had so much to give, yet he offered none of it The girl who always caught her own pains She's grown her hair out, she's a different person now The boy who played a dime star base He had so much to give, yet he offered none of it Okay, this is a forever of the living dead, this is off of an album I'd put out a few years ago called Middling Age Gonna cut me in half, a couple years of my past And the lights on my face, a couple years I've laid ways, and these fingers are rustic ears They used to point straight, but fee to become drunk in a pony body swish Let me into the good and the true, let the good stay at home, let the true out the road I don't know what to find out there, but I hate to be around, I know a truth can be so awful, but it's all we truly know The girl who played a dime star base He had so much to give, yet he offered none of it I hate to be around, I know a truth can be so awful, but it's all we truly know For ever I seem so far away, but for ever I seem so far away Forever I seem so far away, forever I'm always the downway now For ever I seem so far away, but I hate to be around, I know a truth can be so