Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:24 All right. What's up everybody? This is Sam with Rowdy Alternative, and tonight we have, uh, James Ford, the, uh, lead singer and guitarist for, uh, them dirty roses. Uh, what's up man? How are you? What's
Speaker 2 00:00:36 Going on everybody? I'm good, Sam. How you doing?
Speaker 1 00:00:39 I'm doing good, man. Is it raining like hell where you are? Because we've had monster thunderstorms all day?
Speaker 2 00:00:47 No, man, it's been pretty good today. I've been outside fucking around cutting this damn tree up. We had a tree fall down in the backyard, but had a pretty day so far. I had to get out there and do a little bit of yard work.
Speaker 1 00:00:59 Right. Well, lucky you. I was worried that we wouldn't have connection today cuz we, we were under like, tornado watch and shit, but we made it work. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:01:06 We gotta watch out with them. Tornadoes. Boy.
Speaker 1 00:01:10 I know. Uh, Northern Kentucky, we ain't used to that. We not used to that.
Speaker 2 00:01:14 It's fucked up. We, we we're not either, but we've had a couple these past, uh, few years that it'll make you think differently about the old, the newscast.
Speaker 1 00:01:26 Oh yeah. <laugh>. But, hey man, it's good having you. I guess. Let's get on started here. Uh, let's, let's start the beginning, man. Uh, so what made you wanna, like, pursue music and what made you like pick up a guitar or singing? Where did it all start at?
Speaker 2 00:01:42 So, what made me wanna do it? We, uh, well, I, I grew up, we were all, um, athletes growing up and, um, we always played sports, stuff like that. But I know that our dad, um, whenever he found out our mom was pregnant with me, he bought, uh, a drum kit, same drum kit that Frank, my little brother, he's a drummer in the band. He still plays the same kit today. And, uh, okay. He always had it set up in the house, you know, always. It was almost kinda like, uh, fine China, you know, like, don't touch my drum again. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:02:20 Yep.
Speaker 2 00:02:21 And, um, but so drums is where I started music off the bat. And, um, and I've always listened to music when I was growing up, I'd always hear music with my headphones and stuff like that. I could always just see myself singing certain songs even though I never sang or anything like that. And, um, I've always just seen it, you know, I could feel it big time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, um, in all my bands, uh, growing up I was always, I played drums and I'd write songs on the drums and try and relay that to the lead singers and the guitar players and stuff. And, uh, they always quit. You know, somebody always gets a girlfriend, this or that gets a good job, <laugh>, and they gotta quit, you know?
Speaker 1 00:03:16 Yep.
Speaker 2 00:03:17 So I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna, I'll, I'll move to Nashville, I'll be a songwriter. How, how stupid is that? You know,
Speaker 1 00:03:26 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:03:26 <laugh> like naive I guess you'd say. But, um, right. Once I got there, I was like, yo, I called Frank and them, I was like, we gotta start like a southern rock band. Got to Frank was like, hell yeah, let's go. And then that's how it kind of started.
Speaker 1 00:03:43 How'd you meet the rest of the guys?
Speaker 2 00:03:46 We all grew up together, man. We've known each other for years. Yeah. We were all in different bands growing up. Uh, Frank and Ben have been, uh, Ben Crane, the bass player, and Frank Ford, the drummer. Frank's my little brother. They've been buddies since middle school, I think they met mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, and then we met Andrew in ninth grade. He was at Catholic school before that, but his mom was, uh, the English teacher at the high school. And so we met him in middle school? No, in ninth grade. Yeah. When we went to high school, he ended up moving over to the high school. So Andrew was always in the hardcore metal bands, stuff like that. And then Frank and Ben were the same age. They had their little band and, uh, I was a senior when they were freshman, and Andrew was in, uh, 10th grade and I had my high school band.
Speaker 1 00:04:44 Okay. So you all been together for a long time then, really? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:47 Yeah. Yeah. All
Speaker 1 00:04:48 Even before the band.
Speaker 2 00:04:49 Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Running around together for on the road, goofing off, stuff like that, taking little trips here and there.
Speaker 1 00:04:59 Right. Was, um, was like the southern rock route. Like I know, like nowadays at least, like, it's hard to come by like a solid southern rock band who do their own tunes, like their own music. You, you hear like cover bands all the time, which, nothing wrong with that either, but like, what, what made you choose the southern rock route besides like anything else?
Speaker 2 00:05:21 Uh, we didn't necessarily choose it. We were, I say Southern Rock now, at the time we were like, we were like, let's just make like alternative. We were just gonna do whatever came out mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know? Yeah. And then, um, and then it just ended up coming out kind of how it does.
Speaker 1 00:05:45 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:46 And then people put it in the southern rock or the country rock kind of genre, but, but yeah, we definitely don't try and do that.
Speaker 1 00:05:57 Okay. So it's natural.
Speaker 2 00:05:58 Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I mean, we're, we're trying to be as like, alternative as rock as we can go, you know?
Speaker 1 00:06:06 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:07 But it, I think we're just all from Alabama just comes out that way, you know, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:06:12 Right. No, I mean, and I, I'm gonna get into it in a, in a bit, but like that this last album you put out, like, the difference between that and your first ep, like, there's a big difference there. Like, like there's more diversity in everything, but, but let's get to that in a little bit. I wanna ask more about like, like what about like, your influences growing up that might've, like, pushed you to do at the time? Maybe the alternative thing or just in general, what got you going?
Speaker 2 00:06:41 Well, it's weird. Like, we've never thought about the alternative thing, like, we listened to that big time. But like, when we were first starting out, I know that when I was really young, um, some of the stuff like the Otis Redding mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, some of those type voices,
Speaker 1 00:07:06 Like the soul singers. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:07:07 Yeah. I was always just like with my headphones, you know how your parents are driving, you've got your little Walkman, you know?
Speaker 1 00:07:14 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:07:15 And you're like, I don't wanna listen to what they're listening to, like, or whatever. I'm gonna put my little headphones on. It's like kind of the first time, like, I can be in my own little world here. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:07:25 <affirmative>.
Speaker 2 00:07:25 And I just remember being like, holy shit it, these guys are frigging, their voices were so, um, just in your face, like just mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what the fuck is this? You know,
Speaker 1 00:07:42 Whole Right. Shit.
Speaker 2 00:07:45 And then like, um, started going more towards our dad would show us all kinds of stuff. We were really lucky to have parents who like, were really good with, uh, at least had really good musical taste. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think all of our parents collectively had really great music taste. But, um, he would, you know, we'd be on a, on a, you know, in between baseball or this, or football, this or that. You got your buddies on like a road trip going to like whitewater rafting or something. Our dad would be like, no, we're gonna listen to Patsy Klein, you know, <laugh>. And everybody's like, oh man, what the hell? I cut this shit off, you know, <laugh>. But then like, by the end of the weekend on the way home, like, like 10, 14 year olds are fucking, I go, whoa. Walking. Yeah. <laugh>, you know, we're all singing it, you know, it was like, I don't care what you want, listen to now, this is what we're gonna listen to nonstop. And he would just put it in your mind, you know, to where it was just in there. But, um, back on the alternative type thing, we, we ne weren't necessarily alternative. I just think, um, when we all played, we would get all hyped up and it ended up being like, rock. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right. I've been in a room together, it's like, yo, dude, let's rock out.
Speaker 1 00:09:19 Yeah, sure. Uh, so you said you moved to Nashville. That's obviously a big step. Um, so how was that adjustment for you and if your band came with you at that time? Or was that like a huge adjustment? How was that like for you?
Speaker 2 00:09:36 It, uh, it was a huge, it was the first time I had ever moved off. Um, I was going to college a little bit, had, um, uh, music scholarship for the first time. Like I said, we'd done sports and I'd never like, studied music or anything like that. And the only way to get into the music classes to do music was to, um, get in the jazz band. So I started doing drums in the jazz band at the community college, and then started doing some stuff at, uh, Jacksonville State University. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but that's only about 20 minutes up the road. So I would drive back and forth and, uh, but then, yeah, like we, I had abandoned high school, had a little independent deal, thought it was gonna be the bomb, and that fell through. And I was like, you know what, I've got a couple buddies up in Nashville, Brooke Arrington, uh, uh, I can't even pronounce her her married name now.
Speaker 2 00:10:40 But then, um, we had grown up together, rode the bus together and stuff like that. She was already living there. And then, um, Drake White. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he's a musician up there. Yep. Badass. Our cousins, our parents went to high school together. My older cousin, uh, they were on the same football team, shit like that growing up. So I knew a couple people. He's the one who gave me my first job so I could get an apartment. Okay. And, uh, so I was already lucky enough to like know a few people kind of. Right. And, uh, I mean, I remember the first Monday, like, we were moving in on the weekend. As soon as our parents left from like moving us in, me and Brooke at our first place, we went to this thing at, uh, exit In, and it was, uh, the Johnson Brothers, which is, uh, Chris Stapleton's Rock Band or his old Rock. Oh, yeah. Check out the Johnson Brothers. It's the Yeah, for sure. But, um, I remember walking in and just hearing him sing, like, dude, his voice like, went through me, you know? I was like, oh, mm-hmm. <affirmative>, man, what am I doing here? I just thought like, oh, I'll move up. Like, I write songs, you know, I don't have to be a singer I've never sang before.
Speaker 1 00:12:09 Right.
Speaker 2 00:12:09 You know, I'll just be a songwriter. Eh, how hard can it be, you know, <laugh>, honestly. And like, yeah, I got put down. But yeah, it was a, it was a good time. And I was there for two or three years, maybe two, yeah. Two or three years. And then I called Frank and them. That's when I was like, yo, let's start a frigging rock man.
Speaker 3 00:12:36 Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:12:37 <affirmative>. And then they were just like, fuck yeah, let's go. Like no questions asked. I was like, all right, let's go
Speaker 1 00:12:45 That easy for 'em.
Speaker 2 00:12:47 Yeah. Oh yeah. That, I mean, it was no questions asked. Boom, let's go. Wow. I was like, okay, here we go. Let's do it.
Speaker 1 00:12:56 And then it was off from there, huh?
Speaker 2 00:12:58 Yeah. Yeah. It was actually, I hung up the phone talking to Frank, called Frank. I was like, Hey, dude, dude, we have got to start a rock and roll band. He was like, fuck yeah, let's go. I was like, all right, let's do it quick. And then I was like, shit, I need to like come up with a name. I need to write some songs, you know, I better if I, oh damn. Okay. Shit, I gotta get going. And so, yeah. That, that day whenever I called him, I was like, shit. So I was like, I better come up with a name. So then I started, uh, me and a buddy of mine, we were in my little apartment. I was like, let's go walk around Broadway, see if we can get some inspiration or something.
Speaker 1 00:13:45 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:47 Like, as you do, you know, I was thinking, this is stupid, but let's do it <laugh>, they do it in the movies. Fuck it. Yeah. That's
Speaker 1 00:13:54 How <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:13:55 You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, um, so we did, we ended up walking around on Broadway and, um, this guy was, uh, selling roses. You know how people do that? And they're buying roses for the girls buy a Rose
Speaker 1 00:14:10 All over Broadway, man. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:14:12 Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:14:12 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:13 So he was like, dude, they weren't even roses. They were like fucking stolen from the cemetery or something. <laugh> Davies, dude. They were
Speaker 3 00:14:22 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:14:23 But, uh, my buddy was like, how much you want? He was like, 10 bucks, man, just 10 bucks. And he was like, dude, I'll fucking give you 10 bucks, but I don't want them dirty roses. I was like, oh, shit. And then I was like, yo, that's the name right there.
Speaker 1 00:14:38 Wow.
Speaker 2 00:14:39 10 Dirty Roses. And it, so it actually worked. Yeah, it actually worked. I was skeptical, but it it worked. Yeah. And so then we got the name the same day and it was on
Speaker 1 00:14:51 Hell. Yeah. So you're, I guess, are you like the, the chief songwriter of the group?
Speaker 2 00:14:57 I wouldn't say I'm the chief songwriter. I wrote, um, a lot of, a few of the songs. A lot of the songs that we started with, like, uh, cocaine and Whiskey and, uh, Molly and some of the, like that, that first ep, like Frank and Ben had never even been in a studio before.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 2 00:15:20 So like, that was the first time ever even being in a studio. That was the first time I'd ever sang on a mic or anything like that. So we were definitely green on that aspect. And I had a few songs in the Can, and I was like, yo, let's do this. This'll be our first kind of thing.
Speaker 1 00:15:39 Right.
Speaker 2 00:15:40 We'll put it on the internet and we'll see what goes. And then like, I, I never thought that it would go where it went, you know?
Speaker 1 00:15:49 Yeah. So what is your, like, writing style, um, when it comes to, like, do you sit down like in a room by yourself until you think of something? Do you play a riff? Like how does it usually go for you?
Speaker 2 00:16:01 It, it goes all kinds of ways. It goes all of the above. It depends. Um, the, the common theme I've found that whether it's sitting in a room playing a riff over and over, or, um, with a lot of stuff driving
Speaker 1 00:16:19 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 2 00:16:20 You getting that, that kinda, you forget you're even driving for a little while. Yeah. And then 20 minutes later you're like, holy shit.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:16:30 <laugh>, I don't remember that. Like, those past 20 minutes, you know?
Speaker 1 00:16:34 Right. Oh yeah. Whatev,
Speaker 2 00:16:35 Whatever that is. Whatever that is, is how all the really good ones, or are all the ones that I say the good ones to me that have come to me like that. And if I'm, if I can get to where I'm sitting in a room and I'm playing a riff kind of over and over mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you doze off, like, or you go somewhere else, you'd start daydreaming or whatever that is. And then next thing you know, like, bam and like downloads to you. It's weird, man. It's awesome though.
Speaker 1 00:17:13 Yeah. Damn. So, so the 2017, your self-titled a EP came out. Um, and I guess we'll just jump right into Cocaine and Whiskey, man. I, me personally, I heard that probably just like maybe two years ago. And, uh, I checked back today and that has like millions and millions of streams on Spotify, I think.
Speaker 2 00:17:37 What'd that, what's that have
Speaker 1 00:17:39 Here? I could pull it up just to get an exact number. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:17:42 I'm honestly curious. No lie.
Speaker 1 00:17:44 Yeah, I pull it up.
Speaker 2 00:17:45 I forgot what was recording right now. Should have asked you this afterward.
Speaker 1 00:17:49 No, dude. It's, we're kind of just winging it. <laugh> here. Lemme see. Yeah, we, so it looks like we're at 38 million.
Speaker 2 00:18:00 Geez. Hell,
Speaker 1 00:18:01 Almost 39.
Speaker 2 00:18:04 Fucking hey.
Speaker 1 00:18:06 I mean, like, cuz I checked back and I knew it was a popular song, but just checking back on it today, I'm like, holy shit, <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:18:13 That's why. Yeah. I didn't know that. I was thinking it was gonna be like 14, 15. No, man,
Speaker 1 00:18:20 It, it's very high. So with, with that one, what's the story behind that? Is there a specific story or is it kind of like one of those songs you didn't expect to do as well as it did? Or?
Speaker 2 00:18:34 Well, um, no, I mean, it was, um, I was sitting around at the house. I was 19 or 20, something like that. I was in, I was going to Jacksonville State, it was before I had moved to Nashville and I was on my way to a party or something like that. I was about to get picked up for a party. I was sitting there with a guitar and I was watching like cops or something. And, um, I'm sitting there kind of playing, you know, dozing in and out. The cops pull up at this place, this trailer park, and they're like freaking out. They pull up and this couple out fronts arguing, fighting and shit like that. And as soon as the cops go was like, Hey, hey, you know, what's the problem here? And the people are like, well, this, they immediately start like talking to the cops. Like they're gonna get the cops on their side, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 00:19:30 Right. Well,
Speaker 2 00:19:31 This motherfucker did this, you know, okay, I'll arrest him real quick. You know, that type thing,
Speaker 1 00:19:37 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:19:38 But like, so they're just telling on each other back and forth, and it gets to where they go, uh, well this bitch fucking, she cheated on me, you know, this and that, and she's got my engagement ring. I've, I've da da da, I spent this much on it, you know, like 1200 bucks or something. And, uh, and the girl immediately is like, I'll give his ring back. He's keeping like $10,000 worth of my coke and the trailer right here. Soon as he gives that back, I'll give him his fucking ring back. I don't even care about the Ring
Speaker 1 00:20:14 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:20:14 And then I remember thinking like, what? You know, you,
Speaker 1 00:20:18 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:20:19 The cops looked at each other like, uh, <laugh>, you're under arrest, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:20:26 No shit. And
Speaker 2 00:20:26 So, yeah. Yeah. I was like, what the shit <laugh>? And then, so I was looking at that, and then I was like, oh, damn, I need to take a shower. I'm about, my buddy's coming to pick me up, I gotta go. So I'm in the shower. I was just thinking about that, like, how stupid could you be? Like, why would you tell him? What the hell? Right. So then it's like, give me back my cocaine. Like, and then the first thing thought in my head was like, give me back my whiskey. That's what people would want to hear.
Speaker 1 00:20:58 Right.
Speaker 2 00:20:58 And then next thing I know, I was like, out of the shower, like suds all over me. And like, I wrote that in about five, 10 minutes. Yeah. It just came
Speaker 1 00:21:09 Like, get some nuts.
Speaker 2 00:21:10 <laugh>. Yeah. And then my buddy come pick me up, was like, you ready? I was like, listen to this bro. <laugh>. He was like, it's pretty good. Get some fucking clothes on, dude. We're gonna be like,
Speaker 1 00:21:21 <laugh> kind of wrote itself in a way, in the best way possible.
Speaker 2 00:21:26 They always do.
Speaker 1 00:21:28 Okay.
Speaker 2 00:21:30 They always do. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of songs that I, I look back on, like, there's no way that I wrote this
Speaker 1 00:21:39 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:21:40 It's just weird.
Speaker 1 00:21:42 Yeah. So, um, with the ep, did you record that in Nashville? Like, were you there at that time? No,
Speaker 2 00:21:49 No. We did that in, uh, Florence, but right outside Muscle Shoals, u n a Oh, the first, the first EP you're talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We did that like right outside Muscle SHOs in Florence there at a Noise Block is the name of the place.
Speaker 1 00:22:08 Okay. Did you get a chance to go check out Muscle Shoals?
Speaker 2 00:22:12 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Muscle.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 How was that? Um,
Speaker 2 00:22:15 Muscle SHOs is a shit. We've, we've recently, um, we haven't released anything yet, but it is coming. Um, some friends of ours that we met in Nashville, James Leblanc and Philip White. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, they're both just smash riders. Like if you look up their names, you'll be like, oh, okay. Fucking a Okay.
Speaker 1 00:22:40 So like, yeah, I'll make sure to do that.
Speaker 2 00:22:42 They work in, um, they work at Fame and Muscle SHOs.
Speaker 1 00:22:47 Okay.
Speaker 2 00:22:47 And so we, we write every now and then we'll go up there and we'll write some, we'll be there for like a week and we'll write and record whatever. Uh, I think James and Phillip have like a production thing going on, so it's like, we'll just get to like, do it the old school way or so, whatever we come up with here we go, here's a recording. And it's like, hell yeah, let's go. It's re it is really cool. And not to mention they're both like crazy songwriters.
Speaker 1 00:23:20 Man. That's exciting. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 00:23:22 Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:24 So, um, and then your new, uh, record you put out Lost in the Valley of Hate and Love Volume one. Uh, in your opinion, which I could get my opinion on any whatever, but I wanna hear what you think is the differences between your first release and this one. If you could pick out, uh, from your point of view, like the main differences or like the things you were striving to get to on this record. Uh, versus the last one.
Speaker 2 00:23:51 Yeah, yeah, yeah. After I give mine, you've gotta give yours.
Speaker 1 00:23:55 Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:23:56 <laugh>. I hear what you gotta say, bro.
Speaker 1 00:23:58 Yeah, for sure. I
Speaker 2 00:23:59 Feel weird talking so much. Um, <laugh>. So I know that from our first thing when we put out like that first ep, we were definitely weren't expecting anyone to even hear it, you know?
Speaker 1 00:24:17 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:18 We just thought, you know, whatever, we'll just do this cuz that's what you're supposed to do. And then people started, you know, it kind of whatever. And then so we were like, damn, that's not who. Like, we're way better than that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we really wanted to strive to just be more musical and more, more just better in every sense of the word. All around. Just be better than that first. Yeah. Release, which really wanted to be way fucking better than what we had put out. And, uh, and so we busted ass for like a few years. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to just, let's, let's just be, we played, I mean, we played live like crazy, still play live, you know?
Speaker 1 00:25:13 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:14 And that helped a lot. But like, we just grew together and we're like, all right, now let's put our fucking heads together and put out what we feel like is is decent for like, where we are right now.
Speaker 1 00:25:33 Right.
Speaker 2 00:25:35 Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:36 Okay. Yeah. So I mean, what, what I thought since you asked <laugh> there. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, uh, so yeah, when I first, uh, listened to you guys, obviously all you had out was the ep and then this is before even you started putting the singles out, which, how many were like three? I think?
Speaker 2 00:25:56 Yeah, we did, uh, four or five We did.
Speaker 1 00:25:59 Okay.
Speaker 2 00:26:00 It was, it was a few singles on the, you're talking about the new Hate and Love. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was pretty much everyone except for the last two.
Speaker 1 00:26:08 Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:26:09 Singles. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 00:26:10 Yeah. So, so for a while, I mean, like, I'm like, okay, these guys rock. Like, this is when I just heard the first one and I'm like, okay, now are they gonna put anything else out? Like, you know, just being a person who wants to hear music. So, and then when you finally started kicking them out, uh, I was just thinking, this sounds like it for me, it sounded a lot, like a lot different, um, in a good way. It, it's, uh, I think the production is crazy good. I don't know who your team was in that, but the production was insanely well. It was great.
Speaker 2 00:26:43 Joe Carroll at Treasure Aisle.
Speaker 1 00:26:46 Okay. Joe, Joe. Shout out to him.
Speaker 2 00:26:48 Yeah. Fuck. Yeah. He's a bomb dude.
Speaker 1 00:26:51 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:26:52 Joe Carroll, everybody at Treasure Aisle Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1 00:26:57 Yeah. But, um, yeah, so when the whole record came out, like it was, I'm not a, I'm not well versed in production terms or anything, but the, the production was great sonically, it sounded awesome. Uh, songwriting like matured a lot, I thought in that span of time, like in a great way. Uh, my personal favorite was a is um, you can't
Speaker 2 00:27:24 Oh, nice. Appreciate it, dude.
Speaker 1 00:27:26 Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah. The chorus on that. Uh, it is, it's an earworm man. That shit doesn't leave my head <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:27:34 That was one where I was sitting there and it was the first time that I had like, sat there with a pen and a pad and I was trying to get to that, that doze off area like I did when I was driving. And that was the first time. So then that was just there. Like, when I came to again, I was like, damn, what? This is cool. Yeah. So that was, that's cool that you said that. Yeah. So that was how that come about,
Speaker 1 00:28:11 Right? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:28:13 Yeah. Cuz I've, me personally, for whatever it's worth, like I've always been, I, I always listened to a lot more of the musical standpoint when it comes, like, versus the songwriting, but like, this one, like, it had me interested in both, you know what I mean? So it's like, and like it's hard for me to really do that. I, I'm just, cuz I'm just more interested in the music, so that's just kind of how I am, but Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the songwriting, like, I actually like, you know, listened to it instead of just listening like, oh, this, this riff is badass. It's like, okay, I gotta listen to the story too. So that was another cool thing. It was just, it was, it was a great release, man. Congratulations with it.
Speaker 2 00:28:52 Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we're well, like, and that's another thing is we're not like, we don't think of it that way. We're the same way. Like, we're fucking, we're we're ripping ass on this song, you know, whatever. And like, we just try to have at least a story, not necessarily a story, just like some kind of cohesive thing, you know?
Speaker 1 00:29:17 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:29:18 Like with, you can't, you know, that whole thing is like, everybody knows those people who, you know, like they've got some shit in 'em that they're like mad about or whatever. It's like, you know, you could talk to me if you want, but they don't want to. Yeah. They just won't do it. You know, it's like, you know, Hey, if you could, I'll try, you know, but, you know, if you could talk to me, we could fix his, but like, you can't talk to me. Okay, cool.
Speaker 1 00:29:48 You can't, yeah. It's just, all right. Yep. That's a very relatable subject,
Speaker 2 00:29:53 You know? I mean that's, and it's as easy as that sometimes, especially with a rock song.
Speaker 1 00:29:58 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:30:00 Like, people, people sleep on rock songs, but like rock songs can be very beautifully written in a, in the most simplistic way sometimes.
Speaker 1 00:30:10 Absolutely. Yeah. Percent.
Speaker 2 00:30:14 Because cause like you said, the feeling of the music, the riffs and the whatever, like, people sleep on that a lot on like, yeah. It's not all about the lyrics. Like, you know, that feeling that these, that these sounds are making you feel mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, that's a story in itself there.
Speaker 1 00:30:36 Right. No, that's, that's a great way to put it. Like, it just like, makes you want to come listen to it back if it, because like the New Rock, like in any, any band, it's like people who've grown up on like, classic rock like I did, and like you were talking about, you grew up on the oldies. Um, like when, when I first Pres was presented with like, these new bands and everything, it was like, all right. And like, I'm just, I was all stubborn. It's like, man, I just, I know, but it ain't as good as Zeppelin. It ain't as good as, you know. And, uh, <laugh>, I finally dove in. Yeah. I finally dove into it. And like, when there's like ability like, hey, I wanna replay that, or I want to add it to a playlist, it's like, this shit actually, like, that means something, you know?
Speaker 2 00:31:22 It Definitely, definitely. And, and I know what's exactly what you mean. Like, I had to break that shit when I was about 12, 13, like on the whole like, oh, this ain't the old shit. You know? Like, yeah, I'll tell anybody. And dude, I get ripped on all the time. Fucking, I had like, I mean, top 10 records, like Alanis more set, jagged little pill as far as albums from front to back, like that is fucking masterpiece. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. Uh, that third Eye Blind dude. That's funny. So that's another thing that, dude, we all come, like, we're in the, in this band, we're all just, we all grew up on it. We're just like, dude, but this is so fucking good, bro. Yeah. If you listen to every song on that thing, it's like, dude, the sounds, the fucking lyrics, everything. It's so good.
Speaker 1 00:32:25 Yeah. Real quick, the, it's so funny you say that because like the artist I meet and I've talked to, and it's, a lot of 'em are out in like the Texas scene, like them guys or like Oklahoma around there. It's like they all mentioned like, you know, the obvious like, oh, uh, uh, led Zeppelin four, whatever. And then they say Third Eye Blind. And it's just a weird, like, I never thought of it like that cuz like, and you, when you hear their songs, like for the first time, you're like, okay, it's like a pop rock song like that, you know, that nineties shit. But like, if you listen to the whole album, like front to back, like
Speaker 2 00:33:03 Yeah. If you're fucking something, dude, listen to that and tell me you're not fucked out. Who, dude. So people in Texas say they're not blind to
Speaker 1 00:33:14 Yeah. And like I've heard like just in passing like a lot of 'em. And that's for sure, you know, some guy, you know some guys out there I assume, right?
Speaker 2 00:33:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:33:25 Yeah. So like, I don't know if you listened to 'em a lot, I'm assuming you do, but they all, the whole Texas country shit, it's not country anymore. It's just Texas music. It's like rock, like co wetzel, for instance. Uh, Reed South, Austin Mead, all them guys
Speaker 2 00:33:42 Good. Yeah. Reed South Love Austin Mead love all the motherfuckers from Austin Mead, love all the days from CO. And them love all the guys from Reed South off. We played with them once, but didn't get to like, hang, hang, but they're fucking cool as shit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> ain't great. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:58 Yeah. But yeah, all them guys out there super friendly.
Speaker 2 00:34:02 Oh yeah, man. Oh, I love it. That's the main thing. Like, we're just running around meeting so many cool people. It's having a blast, man. It's so fun. I I really hope that we can all bring each other up in the, in like, just have like this new kind of
Speaker 1 00:34:26 Like a renaissance almost. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:34:29 Yeah. Good word. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly
Speaker 1 00:34:34 Right. Hell yeah. So one more thing on this, uh, uh, record. Were you, how, I know it's only been out for like a couple weeks now, maybe one, two weeks. Uh, were, are you happy with the initial reaction to it with fans or any of your peers? Are you pretty happy with it? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:34:50 Yeah. I haven't talked to too many, like, uh, too many. There's a few, few, uh, peers, you know, that've been like, sweet sounds good, you know, this and that. But like, they don't wanna fucking blow our heads up, you know, <laugh>, we all keep each other grounded pretty good. Yeah. Um, but yeah, the initial, like I say, I mean, I don't really look at, um, I'll be honest, I don't really know too much on the, uh, how it's doing
Speaker 1 00:35:24 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Speaker 2 00:35:26 As far as like whatever, like Spotify or anything like that.
Speaker 1 00:35:30 That's not a, a bad thing though.
Speaker 2 00:35:32 No, no, no, no. I feel like sometimes I feel kind of like, eh, I should check that out, you know? Yeah. But like, people tell me, you know, they're like, yo, this song's got like, so many plays. It's like, damn. No way.
Speaker 1 00:35:45 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:35:47 But like, um, but yeah, I, I, uh, it seems to be having a, a decent reaction the past four or five shows we've had like hell of a note, for instance, the acoustic song at the end. Yeah. Like, we've never played that thing live. Nobody's even really ever heard that. Like, except for like, on a demo on our phones, like buddies. Yeah. And then past four or five shows we've had, we've like closed out the set, uh, with it. And like, everybody's singing like every word. It's kinda like, what the fuck?
Speaker 1 00:36:31 So it's doing pretty good then <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:36:33 Yeah. It's crazy. It's wild. Yeah. It's cool. It's like no frigging way,
Speaker 1 00:36:40 Right? What's
Speaker 2 00:36:41 Happening? Yeah. I just keep going like, what, what is happening right now?
Speaker 1 00:36:47 Yeah. I gotta imagine, man. So, uh, one more thing about this one. Um, what is, obviously it's volume one. I'm assuming it's gonna be a volume two. Yeah. Uh, and don't give away anything obviously that you don't want to, but like, is there like gonna be a theme that it follows? Or is it just like another collection of songs or
Speaker 2 00:37:07 We're we're following? We've, they'll be following a theme to be honest with nuts is like, we didn't follow a theme the first one, and then it ended up that way. And then we started writing this one and got done writing and then it's like, this, this has a theme too. It's like, we'll just do this on volume one, volume two type.
Speaker 1 00:37:38 Okay. We're,
Speaker 2 00:37:39 We are, we're thinking we want it to be a collective type deal, but we'll see. I mean, who knows? It's definitely gonna be a volume two
Speaker 1 00:37:51 Or we could just leave it one and make it a mystery and have people like, where's fucking volume two at <laugh>?
Speaker 2 00:37:59 No, no. I mean, we're gonna do volume two. Definitely, definitely Volume two, because we we're gonna have, uh, by the end of it, we'll have, uh, records printed, one side volume one backside, volume two, we're gonna do the final deal. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:38:19 Right on. Right on. Do y'all have, have y'all done any like, of that vinyl stuff yet, or? No, we've done
Speaker 2 00:38:26 A little bit of, uh, during the pandemic there was a few clubs that, um, were nice enough to let us do some, like, acoustic shows. And, um, we recorded one of 'em and printed it to vinyl.
Speaker 1 00:38:42 That's sweet.
Speaker 2 00:38:43 I don't know if we only had like, enough money to do like a few, like three, 400 maybe. That might even be more than, I'm not sure. Maybe 700. I'm not sure how many we have. I don't know if we still have any of 'em, but, uh, but then, yeah. But we're gonna, we're gonna get up in the, uh, vinyl game as soon as we can. Before that, we're still, we're gonna get some CDs printed asap. Those will be coming for everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:39:14 I'm a weirdo man. I, I'm, I'm out of all the physical media. I'm still into the CDs and I don't know why.
Speaker 2 00:39:21 Me too. I mean, fucking, just, how old are you? How old are you? Like 32, 31, 29.
Speaker 1 00:39:27 No, dude, I'm, I'm about to be 25.
Speaker 2 00:39:30 Oh shit. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:39:32 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:39:33 You got it going.
Speaker 1 00:39:35 Yeah. But yeah. Vinyls. That's popping, dude.
Speaker 2 00:39:39 Vinyls, we we're just making sure we, we've got some friends at Vinyl Lab in Nashville, Tennessee. They've, they're open, open up a state of the art deal up in Nashville. One thing we've found was like doing vinyls in the States and stuff like that. It's hard to get 'em printed to where over half of them will even work. It's weird. But we've got some buddies opening up this, they went over to Switzerland, they was going all over the place, finding the best, best way to do this. And, uh, they're top notch. They're in Nashville, Tennessee. Check 'em out vinyl labs.
Speaker 1 00:40:23 Yeah, for sure. But,
Speaker 2 00:40:25 Um, go ahead.
Speaker 1 00:40:28 Yeah, so, um, you talked ear, you mentioned earlier about like, you guys play live a lot. And that's obvious to me too, cuz it, every time I see a tour announcement on my phone, I have to like zoom in because there's so many dates on it. And, uh, it's like, like crazy. Like a lot of these guys I follow, like they to they all tour a lot. But you guys, it seems like it's almost overwhelming to a point. So like, does that ever go into your head like, oh my God, this, I know you have to do it, but like, are you ever like, holy shit, this is too much? Or is it, does it not bother you at all?
Speaker 2 00:41:07 No, I mean, you just got to, um, you just gotta, you've gotta accept. I mean, we've gotta do what we have to do. And luckily we're, luckily we all have great family behind us that supports us a hundred percent in what we're doing. All of our girlfriends, fiances, wives, every, everybody like that are right there behind us helping us out a hundred percent of the way. And, um, it, it does get hard. It does get hard though. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, um, you just have to, it's weird. You'll be sitting there all like, man, I don't really feel like it. And dude, you go out and then first thing, as soon as you walk out or something, you see all these people are just one person, just one dude that you've seen before or something. You're like, yo, you talk about this one time, you talked about last time. And it just, it just makes it better, you know, just Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just, I mean, you're trying to, we've got each other too, as a band, support each other through it. It, it does get, it does get a little bit hard, but, excuse me, you're good. But it, uh, it's not anything too, too harsh.
Speaker 1 00:42:38 Right.
Speaker 2 00:42:38 We all
Speaker 1 00:42:39 Keep Do you ever, like,
Speaker 2 00:42:41 Go
Speaker 1 00:42:42 Ahead. Do you ever get like, um, like tired of each other? Or like, how do you deal with that? You're just so close to these guys. Like how do you deal with like, okay dude, like give me like five minutes alone.
Speaker 2 00:42:52 <laugh>, every now and then. Yeah, we, we do. But I mean, it's, uh, we're so close. I mean, at, I know we, we've all been so close for so long that like, we know how it doesn't even get there. Yeah. You know what I mean? To where kinda like, yo, I know what this is about to be. It is. We all just can read each other's minds at this point. And like, if it ever does get there, that is something that needs to be said. And then it'll be said and it'll be done like that. It's, it's right. It's, it is pretty good. Never, never had a fist fight all in a band or nothing. They've been good.
Speaker 1 00:43:36 Yeah. Good. Sounds like you got a good support system with you band and family. So that's, that's always good
Speaker 2 00:43:43 When we have like a lot of our fans, we consider friends and family mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, I mean every, every there it is rare that there's not a show where we don't have like someone we consider like friend or family there.
Speaker 1 00:44:00 Right. And it's cool that y'all are like personable doing that. Like fans, that means a lot to fans. Even if it's just like saying, Hey, what's up man? Get a little handshake, a picture.
Speaker 2 00:44:12 Yeah. It means a lot to us. It means a, it means everything to us for
Speaker 1 00:44:18 Sure. So what about, what about when you're, um, off the road? Like is there anything you like to do? Like, just like hobbies, anything besides music or is it all music all the time?
Speaker 2 00:44:28 No, no, no, man. I like to, uh, I like to do all kinds of stuff. I like to, I like to bow hunt a lot with some buddies like to like to hunt. Hopefully I'm going Turkey hunt this Saturday. Uh, Ben Ben's a big fisherman. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Ben's a big hunter. Fisherman too. Uh, let's see, Andrew, Andrew is getting into farming and stuff big time recently.
Speaker 3 00:45:00 Okay. Andrew.
Speaker 2 00:45:01 Andrew mix his music and does a lot of music for other people as well, like mixing and stuff like that. He does other people's eps and shit.
Speaker 1 00:45:11 Okay.
Speaker 2 00:45:14 Frank, Frank is, he's big on some video games, trying to think about Evil Dead. Look him up. If anybody's got the online evil dead game or anything. <laugh>. Follow
Speaker 3 00:45:32 Frank. That <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:45:36 I wake up sometimes he'll be, that's not what all Frank does, but Frank, Frank is very active. But like I've, I've wi woken up before and like Frank's downstairs, like cussing somebody out or something. I'm like, what the fuck?
Speaker 3 00:45:53 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:45:53 And he's like on headphones, you know, talking to some guy somewhere. You've gotta cut his head off, dude. You gotta cut
Speaker 3 00:45:59 His head.
Speaker 2 00:46:00 But he is talking about a video game, you know, I'm like, holy shit. I didn't know what you were talking about.
Speaker 1 00:46:06 Yeah, I, I was listening before while I was like preparing for this, I was listening to some other podcast y'all were on and I don't, I don't remember whose podcast it was. I don't remember that. But it was, he was like, I don't know y'all. It was, I think it was like after a show and some people were like, interviewing you guys and your brother sounds like a goon man. Like in the best way. He just an absolute animal. <laugh>. Oh. Like some of the shit you talk about. Was this
Speaker 2 00:46:31 A workout? Was this a workout something thing?
Speaker 3 00:46:36 Oh,
Speaker 1 00:46:37 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the picture. It had like barbells on it. Yes,
Speaker 3 00:46:42 Dude. He
Speaker 1 00:46:43 Was talking to him about like the airport thing. He was puking and shit. Like every step he took <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:46:49 That's true. And, and actually we were in, um, we were Washington DC and the lady that, there was some lady who just walked by and was like, oh my God, you need help, you know? And uh, Frank was like, yes. She like helped his ass all day and like, um, we were out with Cody Canada in the Depart. Yes. And we were in Washington DC and that lady and her, a couple of her friends came to the show and I was like, wow, shit. She was like, you need a bag. You know, she was fucking
Speaker 3 00:47:24 With <laugh>. So I like,
Speaker 2 00:47:26 I wish, I wish I had a picture of me turning backwards cuz we were all sitting different, different aisles, different seats. And as soon as a plane took off Frank's Puk and everywhere, like, and there's these guys behind us, they're just like, yo, like, they've got like three puke bags in their head, like get more.
Speaker 1 00:47:51 They're
Speaker 2 00:47:51 Point like, dude, get this some bitch outta here dude. And Frank is like everywhere. It was hilarious.
Speaker 1 00:48:01 Hilarious man.
Speaker 2 00:48:02 It was so a damn video of that. That's just a reenactment of that. It was so
Speaker 1 00:48:12 Like a skit. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:48:15 Hey, seriously? Yeah. We put
Speaker 1 00:48:17 It on your album. Dude. Do those album skits and have him on a plane
Speaker 2 00:48:21 And start getting some skits, man.
Speaker 1 00:48:26 So, um,
Speaker 2 00:48:27 Got skits every day.
Speaker 1 00:48:30 <laugh>. Um, so what about some, like, I I know you guys play, uh, at least last year. I was looking like last summer. I know y'all played that. Uh, is it called like Firewater Festival? The Whiskey Myers Saint, yeah. That and just like all these like festivals that you guys be playing at. Uh, is there any certain one that like, sticks out in your brain like, oh man, like that was a blast. Like, I'll remember that for a long time.
Speaker 2 00:48:56 From this last, from this last year.
Speaker 1 00:48:58 Just any, any of them.
Speaker 2 00:49:01 The Firewater Festival was cool as shit, just cause it was cool for them to like, just ask us to be there. One, we're like good buddies with Jamie, the bass player. He's a fucking bomb. But, um, it was so cool because somebody, I guess had told Charlie Starr to like, check us out and so we were like first band of the day, whatever day we were playing. And like, we had come in from somewhere the night before. We, we roll in, you know, set up kind of, here we go. We're it is like one or two in the afternoon. It's early. Yeah. And like first off, the crowd was awesome, you know. Yeah. It was like we walk on like, people are there already like yelling. It's like, get outta here, you know, <laugh> and then, and then like look over and like Charlie sars over here checking us out, watching the show. It's like, holy shit. And then afterwards, like he talked to us, he's like super cool, super nice. He is just a really cool guy. Just so genuine type of person.
Speaker 1 00:50:16 Right. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:50:18 Easy to talk to and everything. It was just like, oh hell yes. I've loved you. You know, for however long. Yeah. It's cool. You're like even better as a person. Yeah. You know, and um, and so that was really, really cool. Then got to hang out with a bunch of buddies. Austin meeting them. Played that show. Yep. 49 Winchester. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, and um, so that was a really cool one. Uh, trying to think The frigging Mile zero Fest. Mile zero Fest was
Speaker 1 00:50:57 All Okay. Yeah. Game
Speaker 2 00:50:59 In Key West. Oh man. Hope, hope to God we can come back to that one. Cause that one's Aw, that was awesome. Everybody's sweet. So nice there. If you can make it out to Mazda Zero fest. Come on. Cuz It's awesome.
Speaker 1 00:51:16 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:51:16 Uh, go ahead.
Speaker 1 00:51:19 Yeah, I hear good things about that one. I, I always been want, I wanted to go to the firewall when I almost did, but it was the way my schedule lined up. I couldn't, but yeah. Are are y'all playing that, um, what's it called? Like born and raised?
Speaker 2 00:51:32 Born and raised, yeah. Got,
Speaker 1 00:51:34 Okay,
Speaker 2 00:51:36 So that's the same folks who do, um,
Speaker 1 00:51:38 Rock Oklahoma, right?
Speaker 2 00:51:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. My key <laugh>. But um, but yeah, born and raised. We did that one last year. That was fun as shit. I think we're doing it again this year. Hope so. Hope I'm not talking out my ass. Shirley <laugh>. Hopefully this year we're doing it again. Yeah. Don't get
Speaker 1 00:51:58 Us fact checked. <laugh>. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:52:00 Yeah. Don't do me like that, Sam.
Speaker 1 00:52:03 Oh, it ain't happening. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 2 00:52:05 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:52:07 Um, well man, uh, I appreciate you hopping on here with me. Sorry about the technical difficulties in the beginning, but we figured it out. Hey,
Speaker 2 00:52:15 It's all good, man. Hopefully, uh, you have to get us up in the studio. Where's y'all's studio at?
Speaker 1 00:52:21 So Ray, so Ray's rowdy is, uh, it's based in tennis in, uh, Nashville actually. So you're right there. Uh, and Nick's a guy who runs it and he does the in-person interviews with, uh, Kurt Oon, who's Luke Combs guitarist. They both do a, they do a podcast and have guys on and he's, he, he they love you by the way. Like he, he's busy tonight, but he would've hopped on for sure tonight to, he said that he wanted to, but he, it just became too busy for him, but Oh no,
Speaker 2 00:52:52 It's all, yeah, but Oh good. But
Speaker 1 00:52:54 For sure, I'll, you know, you you could hit 'em up. I'll hit 'em up. Like we'll figure something out with that. But I'm in, uh, northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, and I just do like the remote interview things and I write for raised rowdy and stuff and all that. So yeah, it's, it's kind of a, I'm in a rinky-dink basement right now, but we'll upgrade maybe, maybe I'll move to Nashville. Who knows? <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:53:19 Hey man. Either White, next time we're coming through we'll come and, uh, drink a beer with you.
Speaker 1 00:53:25 Yeah, dude. You, you guys were just in Cincinnati and
Speaker 2 00:53:28 I know man,
Speaker 1 00:53:30 And like I was, that was another, like, I was planning on, I think I hit up your manager, is his name Zach?
Speaker 2 00:53:38 Max.
Speaker 1 00:53:39 Max, yeah. Not Zach. And uh, and it was like the day of that show and like he said, I'm like, damn, like I can't, I can't make it. And then he said the Nashville show the next day. I'm like, oh, that's like a four hour drive and everything and it's whatever. But you should, I'm sure You'all. Hey, I sure. And
Speaker 2 00:53:58 Now just come out, dude. We got you bro.
Speaker 1 00:54:01 All right. I'll remember that man. But, uh, so, uh, tell people where they could find you on everything and like, if you have any shows or new music you wanna promote.
Speaker 2 00:54:12 Yeah, we're, uh, we're on uh, them Dirty roses.com. We're Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, eHarmony, farmers only, you know, uh, day date <laugh>, we're uh, we got pretty much all through April. We're gonna be in Texas. Y'all come check us out in Texas. We've got Katy, Texas, Fort Worth, uh, floors, country Store, Stephenville, Texas, Larry Jo Taylor Fest, um, couple things in Louisiana, Arkansas. Y'all just check us out, man. We'll, we'll be around. Check out the website or whatever you can to look at our, uh, schedule. Find a date. Y'all come see us, man. We'd love to meet you.
Speaker 1 00:55:07 Hell yeah, man. Once again, I appreciate it. Stick around once I sign off here, make sure all this shit gets uploaded. I'll explain it later. But yeah, so, uh, thanks a lot James. I really appreciate it. Everyone, this is James from them Dirty Roses and uh, we'll see you next time.
