Travie McCoy

- Endless summer escapes start here. Travel the worlds of Netflix IRL. Inspired by fan favorites like Stranger Things and Squid Game. Brave the upside down. Face off with the front man. Play leveled up arcade games. Shop exclusive merch. And enjoy themed food and drinks. Beat the heat. Play, eat, and shop on repeat at Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. Bring your crew and save. Get your tickets today at netflix.com/house. - Every summer, you know, it started in the tent. Then we moved to Hurley stage. And then, you know, the next thing you know, we're headlining and shit. - Yeah. - It was a gradual climb, but we got smacked with a lot of tomatoes, man. - Of course. - But we took 'em on the chin and ran with it, you know? - 'Cause it was different at the time. - Absolutely. - Which is crazy to say now. - In fact, like, the cover of "As Cool As Schoolchildren" is kind of a metaphor for that. Like, on the front cover, you see this big, this chubby blue kid that's just smiling. All these kids are behind him. Ah! He's picking on him and shit. And then you turn the page, and he's still smiling. And like, why isn't he upset, you know? And then, the next page, everybody's wearing the same shirt he's wearing and has his hairdo, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah. - And like, that's kind of "Gym Class Serials" in a nutshell. ♪ Bad times, I don't wanna have bad times ♪ - So-- - Tell me how you broke your neck. - So, I took my homeboy out to dinner, and it started to get nice out, you know? In New York, like, when it gets nice out, when it gets 50, we think it's summertime, you know? So I'm like, "Man, let me ride my dirt bike." - You rode your dirt bike? - Yeah, I hadn't rode in so long, and I was like, "This is my chance." You know, I had just got home, I think, off the road, and so he drove his truck, I rode my bike. We had dinner, it was cool, and we're heading back, and I hit a patch of ice, and he was ahead of me, so he got to my crib, and he thought I'd turn around to get cigarettes, but I was in a ditch with my neck broke. Like-- - No. - Yeah, so, like, I had this, like-- - I'm so sorry. - That sucks, but I had this big-ass fucking RoboCop brace that I have to wear. - Did I hurt you when I hugged you? - No, no, no. - Okay. - I'm very precious with myself now. - Yeah. - But I do have to, you know, you ever watch "90 Day Fiancé"? - I have. - I feel like Big A-- - I have to admit. - You know, he has to turn his whole body. - Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Oh, that's-- - It's a bitch. - That's life-altering when you do something like that. - It's different. I mean, I've broken a lot of shit. This leg has so much metal in it, but the neck was different. At first, I thought I just skidded out. I'm like, ah, let me get up, and then I was like, oh, I can't move, and I'm in a ditch, and my bike's way over here. But, yeah, I was in the hospital for a minute, and-- - Was it in the city? - No, I live in the country, bro. Like, I live, yeah, kind of off-grid, upstate New York. - Oh, upstate New York. - Yeah, yeah. - Is that where you're from? - I'm from Geneva, which is considered upstate, but it's, like, more west. It's, like, near Rochester, Syracuse. I'm, like, an hour north of the city. So I got, like, I think I have, like, seven and a half acres. Got a little pond and shit. - Oh, that's nice. - Yeah, I grew up on a lake, so I grew up fishing and doing country boy shit. So, like, I'm back in my element, you know? I lived in the city for years. I lived in Miami for a little while. I never lived out here. I stayed with Pete out here for a little while. - Yeah. - And that was enough. Like, I think I was out here for, like, three months, and I was like-- - You guys were always close, right? - Yeah, yeah, that's big, bro. - Are you still close to them? - Absolutely, his son's my godson. - I love Pete. - Yeah, Pete's the best, man. - He's an interesting guy. - Very, very interesting. He almost killed me one time. - How did he almost kill you? - So we had this art show-- - Pete Wentz, who we're talking about. - Yeah, he's a true, he's a true. - You don't know Pete Wentz, who I've known and been friends with for a long time. - Forever. - I love Pete. - Yeah. - But he's, like, 101. He's interesting. - Very, very rare. - Yeah, rare guy. - So we were working on this art show. And when I was staying with him, we decided to start, I was working on this art, and he's like, "Man, let me get down." I'm like, "Let's just do a collection." So we started working on these art pieces, and the show is called "Without You, I'm Just Me." And we were working, and I was like, "Fuck this, I'm cashing out." And we were working in the room I was staying in. I fall asleep, and all of a sudden, I'm like, like, in my sleep, I'm like, "What the fuck?" And I wake up, and the foot of my bed is on fire, and Pete is just, Pete's on the other side of the fire, just staring at it. I'm like, "Motherfucker!" And I think he had took too much Ambien or some shit. - Oh, wow. - And thought he was Jimi Hendrix or some shit. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I grabbed the blanket, I'm like, "Motherfucker!" Like, that could have been a whole, and not only that, but after I put the shit out, I noticed that there was a big-ass can of rubber cement, like, right next to the fire. So that shit could have been bad. - That would have been bad. - Aw, man, I would have been cooked. I mean, he would have got it worse, but. - Thank God. - Yeah, it was bad. I would have been JoJo Dancer out this motherfucker, you know? - That's, when was that, was that, a long time ago? - This was, uh, hmm, I'm trying, I usually gauge it by who him and I were dating at the time. - Oh, okay. - So it was probably 2007, 2008? - Oh, okay, that was, like, almost 20 years ago. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Damn, that's crazy to think. - Isn't that crazy? - Wow. - Yeah, he had just moved to the hills, you know what I mean? - Yeah, he probably had just moved to town. - Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That house was dope, too. We had a really nice house. - It was hard as fuck to get to, man. - Yeah, those houses up there can be. - Fucking windy-ass. - That's the reason I could never live in the Hollywood Hills, 'cause getting down, up and down that hill. - Down and around, oh my gosh. - And those little narrow streets, like, was not for me. - Ugh, icky. Yeah, I knocked a couple of his rear views off. - Yeah. - A few times. - Exactly. - Don't tell him, though. - Did you ever live in LA? - Never. - No. - That was the extent of my, that was the longest time. - Wasn't for you? - Nah, nah. And it's funny, 'cause everybody thinks that we're from here. - Yeah. - Same with us. - I think it's because the, like the Cubist video, it's kind of like people's first look. - Yeah. - And we shot that shit out here. - Yeah. - So I think they just automatically thought that we were from out here. But yeah, upstate New York, whole life. - Always. - Yeah, I lived in Miami for a little bit, but. - In Miami. - Yeah, that wasn't for me either. - It wasn't for you? - I don't know. - What took you there? - Kool and Dre. - Oh, okay. - It's funny, it's a funny story, like, we worked with Kool and Dre on our third album, The Quilt. - Okay. - And they're like, "Yo, move down here, we can work all the time." I'm like, "Word." So I like started looking at places and shit. I moved down there, and like, I think maybe three or four months later, they all moved out here. And I'm like, "You motherfuckers." - You left me, you left me. - Oh my goodness. - Yeah, so, but I stayed, I stuck around for a little bit. Like I made friends and shit, but live on Sundays gets old real quick. - Yeah. I like Miami, I do. - Yeah. - But I also respect, like it, feels like it's too much for me. So when I, it's like Vegas, right? I go to Vegas for three days, and I go, and I'm not a wild animal, like I'm not. - Yeah, yeah. - But it's still like-- - I think we all have calmed down a little bit. - Feels like too much for me. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like the energy or something. But I also know that like DJ lives in Vegas. - Yeah. - But he lives off the strip. So he said it's a different thing when you live there. - Oh, you're talking about DJ Timby? - Yeah. - That's my brother. - I know. - Bro, you know we go back, back, right? - Crazy. - That's why I dropped his name. - Wow. - I thought you knew that. I knew. - I did. Well, you guys did the show. Didn't you guys do the show together? - We did the show together. - Yeah. - Ink Master. - Yeah, me and DJ, we both apprenticed under the same dude. We tattooed together. - Oh, you tattooed? - Yeah, I started my apprenticeship when I was 14. He worked at the Rochester shop. I worked at the shop in Geneva. But we would like, we'd switch shops all the time. Like I'd go out there and work. And, but yeah, DJ was, he was that dude back then. So like I knew like-- - Oh, he was a badass back then? - What? - Yeah. - DJ's crushing. - He's a really good, sweet guy. - Sweetest, sweetest. - He's got good character. - Mm-hmm. And I think it's those Rochester Italian roots. You know what I'm saying? - Yeah. And he's, I do think it's something like upstate New York. It's got a small town vibe to it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And I'm from a small town. So I do feel like we connect somehow that way. 'Cause I really do feel like, God, it didn't take me long to get to know him and really love him. And I really feel like he's super humble and he's got good character. He's a good guy. - He's a family man. - Yeah, he's a family man. Yeah, I love him to death. I fucking love him. - He's got a lot of badass guns too. - I'm sure he does. That's the funny part about him is-- - I feel like everybody I know in Vegas has like a shit ton of guns. - Well, I guess you can have them there. - I got some ninja swords though. Like come to my crib, you getting sliced up. - Ninja swords feel safer to me than guns. And you could really protect yourself with a ninja sword. - Cool, if you know what you're doing. - There are these new guns that are non-lethal. - Oh, I have a couple of those actually. - I actually think those are a great idea. - They shoot like the metal balls. - And they like, they break your bones. - They'll stop a motherfucker quick. - Right, and you could probably kill someone if you hit them in the middle of the eye. - Oh yeah, you could definitely take somebody out if you hit them in the right spot. - But in general, if you had like your wife or your kid or whatever, and they needed to use something to protect themselves, I would feel like they'd get in less trouble if they grabbed that. Even think about it, if someone took it from you. Like the main thing with guns is that someone takes it from you. - Table to turn real quick. - That's the thing is like, most of the time with guns is like, it's stupidity or accidents or you not knowing how to use it or whatever. So not, people not being comfortable, whatever. Not really training with it. So these non-lethal ones, I think, are a really good solution for that. - Yeah, they're fun too, just to play with. Honestly, like take them out back that can do a little target practice, and they're not loud, you know what I'm saying? so like neighbors don't wild out yeah because you live out there yeah do you like it love it i love it like i have a i have my art studio out there i like i have my recording studio in the basement uh my neighbors are hella far away so i can be as loud as i want yeah i got a little pond you know what i'm saying little bridge that goes over it it's cool because the crib's like like a quarter mile from the road so it's set back and uh what's really awesome is that like all you can see is like the three car garage from the road and the house goes backwards right so so it just looks like a garage you know i'm saying do you love your house love it that's nice forever home for sure i ain't going nowhere i feel that way about my house now yeah how long you been there only a year just a year yeah yeah as long as you make it home you know i mean like i think we're ready for that i think every house before that we had three we had three different houses for about five years each and you guys were here in l.a in the city we were like beverly hills gotcha before that i lived in glendale but then i met my wife and then we moved to laurel canyon then we moved to beverly hills and then we were there for like you know 10 11 12 years and then i was like i think we need more i think we need to move somewhere where we're like fully focused on the family and then we go into the city for work yeah and then we did that and that's when i think it all just like blew my mind i was like that's the way you have to live for sure like you said like go into going when you have to work and go back and keep the keep them separate keep them separate that's keeping separate the genius of upstate new york yeah absolutely i'm an hour and a half from the city you can go to the city if you really need to if there's an opportunity if there's something you can get there that's with la i can get here do great work do fun stuff but then get home and i feel like oh the only thing i that there is to focus on out here is my wife and kids and you know like being healthy absolutely be healthy try until you say try that's all you can do yeah all you can do is try you know i'm pretty healthy but like still could be better yeah yeah i could always be after this next shit man i've definitely been taking uh my health a lot more serious you know so technically it's healed it's healing endless summer escapes start here travel the worlds of netflix irl inspired by fan favorites like stranger things and squid game rave the upside down face off with the front man play leveled up arcade games shop exclusive merch and enjoy themed food and drinks beat the heat play eat and shop on repeat at netflix house at galleria dallas bring your crew and save get your tickets today at netflix.com slash house yeah yeah you might want to download that exxon mobile rewards plus app yeah are you the exxon tiger i am yeah you know new users can earn ten dollars in points five bucks after your first purchase and five after your second that's a lot that's a whole lot it is well hey you get on that download buddy i will loading download the exxon mobile rewards plus app and join today exxon trust the tiger for details visit exxon offer.com this episode is brought to you by chat gpt hey it's bill simmons from the bill simmons podcast have you guys heard about chat gpt work it's the new way to use chat gpt work gpt for bigger multi-step projects and when you need more than just answers give chat gpt work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets slides and structured reports get started at chat gpt.com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans are there any treatments or anything you got to do for the pain or so uh i don't fuck with like narcotic opiates so i i take ibuprofen okay so you don't take any like heavy pain medicine no no i had a i had a terrible bout with that shit uh for like nine years you were addicted you're all bad that's the worst yeah yeah and it's it's them from uh from a surgery yeah yeah i won't go into who because addiction is deep deep deep in my family so i feel very protective absolutely of them in the way that like i understand like i have some i mean the one thing i've talked about on this show a lot is my my dad was an alcoholic which is is a terrible addiction because it's awful it's a strange one because it's everywhere and it's easy it's it's and people i think it's a little more socially accepted too like when you know like exactly like if you're on heroin oh yeah you're like i can see it's i can see it and go like i'm not going to support this yeah but if someone's drinking all the time it's a lot easier for all of us to just support and then every once in a while they have a a crazy episode where like everyone's he got crazy again they're like we we don't talk about it for a week or two and then we move on and then they function function function blow up have another crazy episode well that happened again i've dealt with it myself and then you're dealing with it your whole life where like it's just this like cycle the cycles are actually like closer together yeah with opioids which i've learned from my my personal experience with family and friends is it's a big long fucking cycle that it just gets darker and sadder for real for real and like like you you start to like you know one you lose all touch with your your morals you know i'm saying like shit that you swear you'd never do you end up doing like flying to countries with drugs that will kill you if they find drugs on you type shit you know what i'm saying like uh yeah there's there there there's a couple occasions where i'll you know i saw those signs like if you caught with drugs about to kill your ass like they must be talking to these motherfuckers you know what i'm saying they're not talking to me but like that's the sickness you know what i mean disease start feeling like you're invincible you know what i'm saying but it's always and then you know it gets to a point where it being fun dies real fast yeah and then it's become survival first couple years that's out yeah real quick yeah real quick and and i was i was never really like a i was never a social like i i always thought it was super pussy to be honest with you i was like oh my friends were gonna think i'm a chump if they knew they knew what i was doing so i always did it you know like locked in the back of the bus you know i mean like by myself but like you can't really you can't really hide shit like that when you're drooling on yourself you know what i'm saying in front of people like so i mean i feel like like my friends kind of they knew what was going on but didn't know didn't really know how to navigate and approach it you know until i came out said yo like when i feel like when it started effect started affecting like shows and shit you know what i mean we're like the thing you love to do the thing you know what i'm saying the thing the thing i've been blessed to do for a living and it steals it and not only that but it's like it's it's it's a very selfish fucking disease too very selfish you know like yeah you have a a squad of dudes that are dependent on you and you're dependent on this substance you know what i'm saying and like without that substance you can't help them yourself do yourself let alone yourself but you can't help them either you know and but yeah yeah i'm so so glad that shit is in the past bro yeah i'm so sorry what's that i'm sorry that's a lot of pain it's tough i only know because i've seen it with my own two eyes and i'm so grateful that i didn't get yeah i didn't for whatever reason i didn't get that i didn't get that thing i'm grateful too and i'm and i but i've seen it firsthand like my my best friend died from it my man i can't i can't even count on my fingers and toes how many friends so many people especially weirdly like from our world our scene like in the 2000s it was you were a little later than me but like we were together we were around the same time absolutely that was like peak opioid epidemic when you didn't know it was an epidemic like they were everywhere like it was like it was like this new easy almost like it was weird it was like more available than it was growing up and people were taking pills and like everyone knew someone who was like popping pills all the time like everyone knew and it was kind of like we didn't know what it was strange and we didn't know exactly like what it was essentially like and i think the fact that it was pills kind of safer yeah it's in your head yeah i'm saying but like because in the 90s i'll tell you when we were coming up in the band we started and we started in 96 we moved to annapolis and then there was like a bar scene and we were like we're gonna make it and there was a there was a band jimmy's chicken shack i remember jimmy's chicken shack oh they were on the radio we're like they were on the radio they're from there we're gonna go there we're gonna play and like that's where we started getting more in the dc baltimore and maryland virginia area like that was one little hub of like music yeah there's these bars and so we started going and there was open night mic nights and we moved up there and we were like playing shows and playing with all these bands and i know jimmy jimmy davies very well uh he was very supportive still to this day no but it was like a local scene and we were like oh we're gonna go heroin was huge wow it was the 90s so that was more like that was like kind of dark very very we didn't know about it because we were from the country and we moved up there and like we were playing parties and there was like straight up people like shooting up in rooms we didn't know i had no idea what they were doing straight up i was like if i binge i think some people here are doing heroin or some people smoking it maybe or it was like more blatant yeah pills felt more like you'd see people like give each other one yeah yeah and it felt it just didn't it wasn't as like didn't seem as dangerous in your face like dangerous seeming like you're not smoking something because there was crack there was heroin you could smoke and you could shoot heroin but it was like you would do that in private because it's it's not but then pills were like people would just pop past one and then yeah we had like oh and in miami they had the pill mills you know i mean like so it was like a a time where like oh yeah dude you just literally just go to a pain they were called pain clinics and you go to a pain clinic with a uh so you can go there with a x-ray from five years ago like here and they'll just give you whatever the fuck you want like for uh legalized drug it was insane it was insane it was insane it was insane they cracked things they deaded all of them like uh years ago but like people would go and get five or six prescriptions and then flip them you know what i mean and so it was it was madness in miami that was the that was the epidemic so scary i feel like that was like the the match that kind of like you know hit the wick and then shit just got bananas like i've had people close to me that i knew were they had a surgery they got on oxy that's the age old that's the age old fucking and then they got hooked and then before you know it they're like i hurt my foot again and you're like did you oh man i'm so sorry that's giving you so much trouble and you're like it takes you a few years actually of starting to see the pattern yeah yeah hospital hopping and shit yeah and then fast forward there's people i know that are still alive doing heroin which is crazy it's insane especially now with this fentanyl shit you know like it's crazy i'm glad i missed that whole that whole era actually i caught the tail end of it believe it or not they they there's a a company that used to make uh i got the name of the company they used to make fentanyl lollipops bro like yeah great flavored fentanyl lollipops for like older people that's crazy yeah i will say that i got this feeling um so i i want to move on from it in the sense of what it was because i got just felt really sick because it makes me feel really like dark and sad yeah yeah and um you know i'm not a big fan of fentanyl but i'm not a big fan of fentanyl um i don't want anyone listening to feel like we're talking lightly about this because we're not not at all and you survived it and i've seen people we've both seen people not survive it and i feel sick about the heaviness of like those people that i knew that i i'm not talking about them lightly i'm just like but it's real it's real and i'm dealing with some of it still in the sense of like i'm in the music business so i'm in this every day and like i'm seeing people still get caught hooked in the lie of this thing this fantasy that like there's a lifestyle we need to live if we make music or it's so sad man i i never i don't i don't think i ever bought into that like i never felt like you were being a rock star yeah i never felt like it made me you know more creative or right you know or like it gave me an edge you just gotta put me to sleep man put me to sleep and daniel damn near killed me a couple times you know so yeah i never i never felt like i was doing uh what i was supposed to be doing you know like after my band had you know gotten some some success and shit i just felt like i had this fucking monkey in my back that was just harassing the shit out of me you know but i killed that motherfucker i'm really happy for you man i appreciate it man how do you like maintain your sobriety staying busy yeah staying busy as fuck you know and and also uh like being around good people you know that's the people that don't want you to do it that part you know so they always say like number one people places and things like you have to change all that shit and it's true it's true uh i tried a gazillion times to get clean ages ago and didn't i took i didn't take that to heart and so i stayed where i was at and i was cool for a minute and then you start getting comfortable you know i'm saying and like oh i can i could take one or two you know right and that shit spirals real fast yeah real fast you know but yeah people places and things man i have a i had to trim a lot of fat you know like a lot of fat there's a lot of hangers on which you know that shit comes with the territory but i love the squad i have now to death you know i'm saying and and they keep me in check for sure for sure for sure yeah the real journey is learning to for me has been just learning to accept and love myself in a let the art continue to kind of emerge and and when it does and then sometimes it doesn't absolutely and like be happy with the instead of being in purgatory that part i used to get so down when i got writer's block i felt like i was just wasting everybody's time and like everybody's waiting on me and i'm like of course you can't push it bro like you can't force it out you know what i'm saying and you do and even if it does pop you're not you're not fulfilled you're like fuck like i just farted that shit out you know what i'm saying like you're like sad with yourself and shit everybody's stoked like nah like uh yeah that's that's kind of like the i feel like that's the part of the push and pull of this shit you know what i'm saying like absolutely and i only share with people all the time because that's my nature it's not to get them to do anything different yeah it's more just i share because i feel like there's something super zen about there's a bliss fullness to acceptance agreed of just like yeah i don't know i don't know if we'll make another record yeah but maybe we will and if we do it'll be because we want to yeah and we'll enjoy it and i think it's something like feeling your way through and being happy doesn't feel good to be out of that race man like like yes having to put a record out every you know like yeah yeah yeah that shit got so played to me like but the the cool part of that is like having all these 20 year like yes year after year yeah yeah put in all that work and then 20 years later like every year or two it's your 20 year anniversary for that record it's bugged out man you guys have new music yeah man the new single universal language is out in july been a minute man i think it's 14 years since the last gym class record 15 years true and 20th anniversary of um paper cut chronicles that's cool that was last year that was last year as cool school children as this year's second album right so lots of 20 year anniversaries yeah next year's i think is the quilt and year after that is my first solo record i think it's yeah it's it's a trip it's a trip are you going on tour oh yeah what's this uh once we get this record mixed and squared away like hopefully i'll be gone till november like why club yeah that'll be good have you been doing any festivals or anything yeah we've been doing a ton of like one-offs and shit and rebuilding the squad getting comfortable with the new squad and shit uh-huh me and tyler are the the last original heroes standing in the standing yep but uh that thread is being pulled through it you know like yeah yeah it feels good it feels good um the other day uh san mateo that was like my second show back since i broke my neck um was dope then before that where the hell was that wichita and wichita was lit it was crazy it was really crazy it was a river fest like right on the water it was so dope and people showed up and showed out played a couple new songs and yeah it feels good man it feels good and especially you know since we made this record you know like i made this record on my time you know and there was not you know there wasn't label heads like you know in the studio like like pretending to like yeah yeah like give support but really like trying to make you sweat you know yeah like why are you here that's another that was another reason i moved to miami bro like because it was too close to the system you know what i'm saying i was like you get the fuck out of here bro like yeah all those little pop-ins and pop-outs i'm like and then you you and then you find yourself trying to like sell this shit that you're making like you know dancing and jigging and shit like man i am not about this shit at all like yes it just i'm not going to do an album listening in your label boardroom icky fuck that icky wow yeah unfortunately though uh this record i got to work with the homies uh i did a lot of the record with my boy asa jaconi from uh electric guest oh cool that's my little that's my brother man um aaron canada and uh my boy jared who i did a lot of the the my last solo record with i'm so excited for for you guys to hear this shit man i'll make sure you i'll make sure you get a please early copy i hope so absolutely get some feedback not only your solo stuff but gym class heroes you're fucking awesome bro i appreciate you were you were ahead of your time i feel like you kicked doors down if you think about the early 2000s right every by the way i'm talking about myself yeah yeah okay i'm saying like we didn't know at the time we're all just in bands we're just trying to make it absolutely but like you get marketed and you're not even super clear sometimes on how you're being marketed or what you're just showing up doing and like doing a doom that the there was like a there was like a a certain kind of band it was like get the good charlotte out there get the like and i feel like that's not actually what you're doing you're not doing what um and and people say pop punk i see i just see it as garage band rock rock and roll alternative there's this like oh i just i just thought you guys were dope like period like i i i couldn't really put a a label on what you guys are doing and that was kind of neither yeah that was kind of the the statement the unspoken thing with us like we're just like let them make some shit up you know like but i feel like you you guys came out and you were different i feel the same about fallout boy i feel the same about i can name a bunch of of different like bands and artists that i feel like kicked doors down to make this what it if you think about what it is today there's no rules absolutely everyone's allowed absolutely no everyone's allowed to come it's a beautiful thing it's amazing so beautiful and that's how it should be when they took us into our first photo shoot and they had all these racks of punk type clothes and we were like look at all this free shit we start throwing it all out and then you see those pictures and they look like they look super loose but that was we were fucking excited we were like holy shit we've never had a dollar i think our first uh the first i think johnny well no it was ezekiel ezekiel was like the first brand that was yeah yeah fuck with these dudes they give you my clothes what and then johnny cupcakes like he's still it's still the homeboy you know i'm saying but yeah every boston show he was there with bags you know i mean yeah yeah well he's smart yeah that's that's the best fucking way to market your brand absolutely but anyways it was all so marketed marketed marketed and to me that's an important part of any brand or business or whatever is marketing i get it and the best marketing kind of happens organically but there's something to that like if i own a brand i'm definitely going and giving it to an artist if they'll if they'll wear it fucking all day but to me yeah you you guys are just originators i just feel like you guys came you invited more people in and i feel like now if you look at alternative music it doesn't look one way it doesn't sound one way it doesn't and that's the way it's supposed to be yeah and um i think you were a big part of that yeah i i agree with you i appreciate it absolutely thanks for the flowers my man yeah yeah just to just to kind of piggyback on that a little bit uh it was tough though you know i mean like when we first started playing shows with fall boy and shit like crossed arms like what the fuck is this what is it we didn't come here for this shit you know and then you come to the city the next time and everybody knows every fucking word you know what i'm saying so it didn't happen that fast but like it was cool to kind of see the tides turn you know from crossed and scowls to like you know like there was one tour in particular we did a tour with this band fear before the march of flames was fucking amazing tour where's creepy call remember creepy crawl that that venue i think it's saint louis i could be wrong creepy crawl i don't remember that one yeah i think it's saint louis but uh i just remember these girls like i could see like during our set they were just like kind of like mock mocking us like doing the like the rapper thing yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and i'm like okay but so i brought them on stage and like like next thing you know they're they're all twerking and shit like i'm like see you fucked around and found out now now you like this you know what i'm saying like yeah they're totally clowning us the whole set and that's kind of like how it was for years you know i'm saying like and we get on warp tour and they shove us in this little ass tent like in tim book two on the other side of the whole on the grounds you know what i'm saying like but people found us you know i'm saying and every summer and you know it started in the tent then we moved to hurley stage and then we're headlining the shit and yeah it was it was a gradual climb but we got smacked with a lot of tomatoes man but we took them on a chin and ran with it you know because it was different at the time which is crazy to say now you know what i mean think about it think about it it's crazy to say that yes it is but at the time it was different man and we took it on we just took it in stride you know we we knew in fact like that the the cover of sql school children is kind of a metaphor you see this big this chubby blue kid that's just smiling all these kids are behind him ah picking on him and and then you turn the page and he's still smiling and like why isn't he upset you know and then the next page everybody's wearing the same shirt he's wearing and has his hairdo you know what i'm saying yeah and like that's kind of gym class heroes in a nutshell yes and like you kind of watch the world uh come around you know and i i i'm always promised matt i started the band i always promised them like they'll come around they'll come around you know like if they don't them you're gonna keep doing this anyways you know what i'm saying yeah you know keep doing it anyways but what is your like feeling around like why come back to this even though you never really left it that's not what i'm saying but like every time you do this you're going to get a little older yeah you're going to get a little more worn down you're going to get a little like i feel like you probably have a similar relationship or view or world view on fame as i do yeah where i'm not interested not at all but i understand the thing i so i'm not angry at anyone when they like hey you're that guy from that thing and and they don't know me i feel like fame is on its way out the door though you know it's like it's like you i could say some funny and be famous right everyone's famous yeah it's like so the fame part has never really been sure it was cool you know being a uh you know at first coming from upstate and a fat kid that nobody with to having everything thrown at you yeah that's awesome but like i just feel like fame has gotten so it's become so cheap and it's been so watered down and it's not an achievement it's like it's not it's like every like before it was like you had your 15 minutes now it's literally 15 seconds you know literally one week you know what i'm saying so like like that's that's never been uh like i said it was cool in the beginning but it's never been the the mission i feel like but you are stoking those coals a little bit when you put a record out like that's what i think of like when i go okay i'm gonna have to promote this even doing this show i love doing this show yeah but i do have to at a recognize that someone who doesn't want to be famous or doesn't want any recognition wouldn't do this yeah so it's counterintuitive to how i feel about putting myself out there in that respect i'm like if i'm going to go promote a record i'm doing the that show or i'm doing the today show or i'm doing so it's not someone who's doesn't want to be famous in that sense of like so it's also part of the part of the mechanics you know what i'm saying like i mean i wrestle with that yeah i mean in between in between the last gym class record and my last my last solo record i pretty much disappeared you know like yeah yeah just cooking up on my own you know what i'm saying like i feel that from when i moved upstate you know what i'm saying and then i was so so happy yeah yeah so happy and um yes now it's like it's now like the kids that came up with us are my age so it's like that rah-rah is dead you know it's like yeah it's just trap you know what i'm saying like and that's that's what i guess made things fun again for me it's like i feel like this the spectacle is over right now it's really about the music and and making memories you know yeah and like so yeah yeah there's a joy in it absolutely absolutely it's a necessity man like probably be doing this until my neck doesn't work anymore right you know there's probably a lot of new therapies for the neck man man i got this i i totally forgot i brought it i had this uh this cryogenic spray uh-huh and i put some you probably smell i smell like an old ass man i smell like ben gave right now but i sprayed it before i came and that's it's still tingling it feels so good i forgot i had this but um i sleep with this this neck brace on and i'm doing the big head all night and i have to stay still which is a trip in and of itself to like lay completely still all night bro how long are you here i'm here till friday there's a place please tell me about it i was trying to go to a spa yesterday okay there's a place that does it's called bioresonance therapy okay talk to me it's old it's old science but it's new uh kind of uh new agey in the sense that it works okay they're healing people they're still fixing people say it again it's by called bioresonance therapy and they use there's no shot involved they use electric oh you don't you don't i'm i'm out of here now and they use and they unsold it and they use light light and electricity they use light on you they put light on you they it's red light and it's like which you know is like mass no it's but they have that stuff but it's real dude it really is say one more time bio bio resonance therapy i wasn't right there's a guy i'll give you the i'll give you the information you can call him and he'll explain what he does word and he you can say i broke my neck i'm healing and he can tell you what he could or couldn't do he's not he's not trying to sell you yeah he's in fact i can connect you and i can tell him and you've worked with this dude i have fixing my stomach really insane you have stomach issues got stomach i've always had like stomach like crones or something no no just um to be honest it's like childhood trauma oh wow where my stomach has just always been in a knock oh bruh that's pushing that down and i had to work through that slowly it's been like it doesn't present itself in like a crone's way like i don't have issues but i have like chronic inflammation like i i and and it's been it's basically been like one of the major spots isn't it crazy how that can affect you man it affects you big time and then in other areas like my shoulder whatever and like these guys he's also got another guy who does like body work who like it's not massage it's like he knows points on your body and like works on them and it's real dude it's i thought ray key was bogus until i had that shit that's true that's real i thought that shit was bogus as hell and then i went and got it done and i could do this shit like any i remember i remember the lady asking me she's like can you tell me where my hands are right now because i'm on my back you know i mean i'm like yeah you're like on my ham hocks you know i mean like my love handles type shit she's like that's exactly where i'm at i was like and she's like where am i now like you're on my shoulders it's real it's so it's such a trip man so this guy has a a philosophy that the body can heal itself word up i feel like a lot i think that like a lot of uh i don't say new new age new agey it's it's the only way to put it because where we're from where i'm from it's new age you're like yeah out there in california getting your uh bio resonance but i've experienced it enough to believe and i'm not like they're not like some gurus or anything and they got the knowledge and they have this equipment and knowledge and it's also they can they also have this like proprietary stuff they have a vapor thing that's like you go in like the size of a sauna and you sit and it fills with this like mist and it has like 75 different antioxidants and minerals and you just take it in he developed this and you just breathe it in so it's directly into your lungs into your cells that's like the quickest way to like it's insane get in you too it's got magnesium it's got antioxidants it's got all this good stuff i usually sleep in a sauna and i'm like i'm gonna sleep in a sauna and i'm gonna sleep in a sauna about five to six hours that's like my average yeah when i did that i went home and that night i slept nine hours wow straight yeah damn and i knew that was good for my health absolutely if i get six i feel great anyways i think it might be worthwhile sounds like it to me oh brad you took it down right i'll give you the information let's get to some business let's get it tell me about universal language universal language so so for me the song is just basically i wouldn't say it's a song it's just probably is sounds like a love song it's breaking down it's basically saying like hey like first and foremost i dated a girl for two years from paris and there's a huge language barrier you know i could speak a little francois but you know you couldn't really go deep no i couldn't and and neither could she but but the thing is like we didn't have to for two years you know i'm saying like and it still wasn't surface you know i'm saying so you don't really have to speak a foreign language to get down you know what i'm saying but all in all it's a really strong song like and and summer's coming up coming up we had we had we had planned on putting another song out but this is like 11th hour joint oh yeah it just came out so ill yeah you're just like let's put this out absolutely i love that did you guys end up friends or what happened we we're cool okay we're cool that's good but um it was pretty cool with everyone i did i got to stay in paris for uh i got to stay in paris for like two and a half years oh that's nice yeah yeah one of my best friend q uh is out there as well but yeah it was an experience yeah it's a say the least yeah to say the least are you in a relationship now no i'm kind of i'm sure i'm window shopping okay it's a good place to be young successful bachelor you know what i'm saying eligible bachelor eligible very eligible very i like that that's cool heard up i would guess it's a different probably a different experience dating your 40s and it's new it's very new because i've never really been a dater like right i don't think i've ever been a dater i've never been a really been on an actual date i just always ended up in situations you know what i'm saying like but um yeah it's it's cool though like i wasn't very good at dating either i'm i'm awkward bro i'm awkward as fuck so like i need a certain level of comfort and trust before i can open up so usually like the relationships i've been in they've been friends right and started as friends first you know what i'm saying yeah i see that same and they've been like i i haven't had very you know but the ones that were bad were shitty shitty like shitty shitty shitty well we all need to learn from something absolutely yeah it makes for great material yeah yeah great songs it does yeah how do you feel about the state of uh music today like you're saying earlier you know like like how you know these these genres are kind of fading away you know i'm saying i think it's beautiful i think i think it gives people a lot more uh room to explore themselves and as artists you know i can't do this because i make this type of music you know what i'm saying like it's a freedom that i've always always had so it's cool to see other artists like you know step out and try try new shit but there's also a lot of the kids that were inspired by you know the tip of this yeah there's kids out here that are just making really really dope shit like do you feel like a lot of people are giving you your flowers like giving you credit like giving you the love that you uh deserve in fact someone actually brought me physical flowers the other day that's very nice physical flowers the other day in san mateo it was dope shout to my man finesse but yeah absolutely man like um there's a lot of kids that come up to me that you know are up and coming like yo like you know you walk so we can run you ran so we could walk yeah you know i'm saying and i hear story you know i get stories all the time like if it wasn't for this album like i you know i wouldn't be making it it's that's true i'm sorry i'm sorry all on your faces i like those shoes thank you brother they have a pair of golf shoes maubon made that are exactly that pair with just some texture on the bottom really yeah so i was thinking about buying them i kept looking at your shoes going like i knew i should have bought those shoes so comfortable man um when we look back at where we started the early let's just say the early 2000s for lack of wanting to like go deeper than that and without summing it all up because i'm not one of this like oh this wave of come back whoa what do you think all this really come back this emo music is amazing that's not how i see it yeah yeah like by the way i love when we were young absolutely biggest family reunion i love an emo night theme sometimes but the end at the end of the day when music survives and becomes what you could say is classic it means generations share it that's all it means it doesn't mean it doesn't mean that that one generation suddenly they started listening again yeah that's not how it works it's passed on and it's remembered and it's held dear yeah yeah to people and it's also other generations are relating to the message still you know it's a it's a trip seeing kids or you know they have fans who bring their kids yeah and now their kids are bringing their kids yep we see it at our show we see people who are seeing us for the first time that didn't get to see us back then we're seeing people who are going to shows for the first time who like rock music yeah and they just want to see a classic rock band word up and we're still young so we can put on a good show and actually we're better now than we've ever been because we're we have vitality like we we know how to do this better than we ever have for sure and we've been together since high school so it's like we understand what we're doing when do you guys start good show 96 so 30 years that's so crazy yeah so 30 years next year it will be your 30 year anniversary that's so 96 is our this year's our 30 year anniversary uh in april was our 30 year anniversary but it shows what we were doing that was kind of put in a box as kids making music and let's sell these kids right to these other kids yeah but dismissing the art as unimportant yeah yeah yeah and now i'm seeing the art still matters absolutely and it's to multiple generations and what it's doing is it's clarifying it's putting a crown on the art as relevant to life where it are and as timeless and that's the interesting thing is like when you go out and play a show it's better than it was i guarantee it for sure i think you know like it's like with anything you practice you know i'm saying like and we got damn near 30 30 years in yeah if we didn't get better we should probably quit you know we would have quit it's human nature to quit if you don't absolutely that's actually human nature human nature is is if if i can't get all the way up the mountain i stop trying because i can't get all the way up what's that what's that 10 000 hours or some shit to perfect or to perfect your craft yes how many hours is 30 30 years 30 years is many many tens of thousands but but the actual science of that is that 10 000 is an average there's multiple groups right there's the group of people that and i think the number is it 20 000 you're probably 10 000 hours okay so there's a group of people that'll get it in a thousand hours and there's a group of people that'll get it in 20 000 hours yeah yeah and the average is something like 10 000 yeah so likely really talented people who are inclined so like likely when you started this you were inclined to do it you're like i don't know i like that i just think i could do that and you do it and you're like on your first try or it was all right like i kind of made a song up my first try and then you did it again and the song was a little better there are people who are like i think i'm going to try to write a song and they can't get through it yeah and then they try again and they get through it a little further they try again and they finally write a song and it's not that good but then they try again and even those people who are like i don't know i don't know i don't know how many people can get there for sure but it's why it's important to let kids play for sure and then like agree 100 feed the interest because interest is something like our intuition and our our subconscious telling us like yeah there's something there for you you our subconscious kind of can see it yeah i'm very like i'm the last mohegan's i have three brothers and three sisters i'm the only one with that without kids yet so oh wow so i just borrow my nieces and nephews yeah yeah yeah but i'm i'm the last mohegan's i have three brothers and three sisters i'm the only one yeah yeah yeah but i'm i'm the last mohegan's i have three brothers and three sisters i'm the only I pay very close attention to what they're into. You know what I mean? When birthdays and holidays come around, I know exactly what to get them. And double down. And my niece, Farrah, she's always been into anime. So I'd buy her anime and toys and shit. And now she's like, I think she just turned 13. And I'm a visual artist as well. And she's smoking me when I was 13. And I caught on to her early. And it's just beautiful, man. Like you said, just to feed the interest. Well, imagine the effect you could have on a kid who's drawing. And you're like, hey, let's go to Blick. Yeah, yeah. Let's get some art supplies and get it in. Whatever you see, just grab it. Absolutely. That's how it is with all these. If that marker's interesting, if that pencil's interesting, if that canvas is interesting. And then what does that do? Well, it's a message. It means this is all obtainable. And none of it's weird and none of it's a waste of time. And then that message is all you need to light the fire. And then they just, most of the time, just start going. They're going on their own. For sure. She sends me, she has an iPad now. So she'll, every day I get like three or four new characters she's made up. And they all have like backstories and shit. I'm like, she's 13 years old. But imagine, but that's the artist uncle, right? So imagine the kids out there who don't get that message. Yeah. What artistic or entrepreneurial or athletic or whatever, what's the interest they have where they actually have some raw talent and it's calling them? Cause that's the nature of our subconscious. Is it like, it's drawn to it. It calls us to do something that we don't know we're good at yet. Yeah. Yeah. And we only need one person to feed that. For real, for real. And, and, and it's so crazy to say that, like my uncle got me into graffiti, into graffiti as a young kid. I remember he made, he made a denim jacket for me with my name on the back. And from that day forth. It was to the races. And that likely led you down the path. Absolutely. That you're sitting here. Absolutely. So thank you, uncle, uh, uncle Phil. We don't really get along too well anymore, but, but he was, he was definitely the, the, the catalyst. I totally understand that. Shout out to uncle Phil. I was coming up with an uncle name. I had an uncle Nanny who gave us a guitar. Oh, wow. And that was like, that was it. Honestly, he gave Benj a really good job. He had a really nice guitar and that was it. Yeah. We, we thought we could do it. Off to the races. That was it. So yeah, it's good. Good chat, man. Word up. Do we get everything? I believe so. Got the tour, got the album. I'm really happy for you. I appreciate it. I'm really, really proud of the sobriety, man. Yeah, man. It's, it's, that's, that's the hardest thing to beat. It gets easier and easier every year that passes, you know what I'm saying? Like maybe the first year or two that I was clean, I'd have like relapsed dreams and shit. Yeah. Yeah. Relapsed dreams and I wake up feeling like I did something wrong, you know what I'm saying? Like, but it's to a point now where like, I don't even think about it. And if, I mean, if I do end up in the hospital, I tell them right away, listen, I'm in recovery. I can't have no narcotic painkillers, you know what I mean? Like, or at least if I can't, I can't leave with any, you know what I'm saying? Like do what you gotta do here. But like, yeah, it gets easier, man. Grateful, man. I think it's really important for other artists listening to this. We have a lot of people that listen to this that are artists. And I don't know if they know where to start. Yeah. How to get that first step. It's just ask, it's letting people know or letting someone know you're struggling and just asking for help. And it sounds easy. It sounds, it sounds really easy to say, or it's just easy to say, but it's so fucking hard, man. It's so hard, especially like I was telling you, I didn't want anybody to know. Like, cause growing up, like we thought that people did drugs were like, wow, stupid. I grew up in like near Syracuse. And this is where like hard lines, straight edge kids, you know what I'm saying? Like, and all my homies were straight edge. Like, but, um, we always thought drugs were for, for, you know, people that, that couldn't, you know, deal with real, with, with real life. You know, I smoked the shit out some weed though. Don't get it twisted. I burn it down, down, down. But, uh, all that other shit is for the birds, bro. I don't know if I put that in the same category, but there's different perspectives on that. I, I I'm on the. Like, I think that mushrooms can be really, really powerful, helpful. Like I, I, I microdose for a while and I think that's really powerful. I think that those new, uh, natural, there's all these different plant based things that are helping people beat addiction and PTSD and all that stuff. I found some of that stuff was helpful for me and my like, uh, trauma helping me get past a lot of stuff, but there's a lot of perspectives, but I think that you can't get to the place. Where you can look at those things as medicinal until you get out of addiction. That part. And cause it's all blended together. If you aren't out of addiction, you can't look at a medicine because there's actual places you can go where people know what they're doing and they can help you have these journeys or these healing experiences, but you can't do it if you're still addicted. Cause it's, and it's so easy to replace one with another, you know what I'm saying? Like, well, I'm not doing this. So I'm about to go ham with this. And therapy is number one for me. Like you have to be in therapy. Absolutely. You've got to be going towards like health and wellness and self self-love. But you have to be honest in therapy too. Like, like, yeah, like my first year, uh, working with Dr. Millman, like I had to get to know him. Like, I don't want this, this little dude from Connecticut to know everything about him, but 13 years later, this motherfucker knows everything. And he's a good source of, uh, probably advice, not only in personal, but in like work, like I find my therapist sometimes we'll just talking about. Sometimes he's helping me work through a strategy because I need to work through it because it's something in my self-esteem isn't letting me get there or, you know, so I think it was, it's so powerful, but, um, I guess I'll say to wrap, I never saw you as anything, but an important artist and a serious guy. So to find out that you struggled with addiction makes me respect you more because, um, the fact that you could change. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So easily, yeah, I've always been very, very open, you know, in hopes that anybody, you know, like who listened, I mean, if you listen to our music, I've been super open about it, you know, and I've had kids come up to me and give me, you know, they're, they're from their 10 day tokens to five year tokens, you know what I'm saying? And sobriety. And it's cool to know that, you know, like at the end of the day, like my struggle helps hopefully help somebody get out of theirs, you know? Yeah. And that you deserve that you deserve the health. And happiness that you have. I think that you'll get some healing in the neck too. I hope so. Cause this shit sucks. Yeah, I can imagine. This shit sucks. But I think there's some answers out there. Word up. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna check out your, your man's. I think. Myocryogenic, whatever it's called. And also like look into the hyper and hyperbaric chambers. Oh bro. Yeah. Toby's all about that shit. Look into it. It will really help recovery. There's some real like proof that it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on it. Thanks for coming. Thank you for having me. Appreciate you, man. Appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Artist Friendly. You can also watch the episodes on Spotify. Spotify premium users get no commercial breaks on my show. Make sure to follow, like, and comment because I always read the comments.