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Here at Impact 89FM, our staff has the opportunity to interview a lot of bands, artists and other musicians. We're excited to be highlighting those conversations and exclusive live performances.
Live from the East Lansing Underground. This is eighty eight nine bringing you The Basement. As always, I'm your host Liv.
Speaker 2:And I'm Griffin.
Speaker 1:We have a band in house tonight called Must See TV. Would you all take a second to introduce yourselves?
Speaker 3:My name is Ty.
Speaker 4:My name is Bender.
Speaker 5:My name is Alassan.
Speaker 6:And I'm Bryce.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Only moments ago, y'all just described yourselves to us as emo folk rock.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that about right?
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Alright. Well, we can only describe it so well in genres, but if y'all wanna kick off the night, we'll just listen for ourselves.
Speaker 3:Cool.
Speaker 7:Come see me in locked in the arm of him. I know we're lost, but I feel so found in the arms of you. And I am home where all you are is next to me. Don't leave me down by the riverside where all the other trash is sorted through. Debts are gone and everyone you
Speaker 9:love is there for you.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Musty TV.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us. Hello.
Speaker 2:I just wanna ask, what's behind all the static, in this TV? Who are you? Where are you from?
Speaker 3:We're from Lansing and, surrounding areas in Michigan. We have been playing together for I don't know. We've all been playing together in different bands and stuff for the past couple of years. And, we recently just started this band together and had our first couple of shows in this last month. So been having a good time with it.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad to hear. Well, welcome to The Basement Show.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thanks, sir.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Of course.
Speaker 1:I do feel like it's kind of important to understand how we got here sonically. So, we here at The Basement like to do our deep dives. We like to do our social media stalking before we come to these sessions. And a lot of what I'm seeing, it seems like it's solo work, Ty, or like things from past groups.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I, for the last, I guess, like four years, I was working on an album called The Harvestmen. Originally, it was gonna be the name of the band and then I was like, well, I recorded I I it was all just like home recording stuff that I was doing in my basement and, and I just felt like, man, this is all this is all me. So I don't know if I can like put it under a band name. So I ended up putting it under, T.
Speaker 3:M. Morrison and I released that in January. So we have songs from that that we've been playing, but I found my writing style shifting, more for playing live shows and stuff so which, you know, means a lot more drums and a lot more, bass and individual stuff and more just feeling versus, versus, like, recording, you know. So this new band is kinda shifting away from the recording aspect of it and more to the live, and writing aspects of it. So we we actually just started recording an album, at Ryan Records and, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's gonna be cool.
Speaker 1:That's really exciting. Congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Could you describe for those of us who kinda like don't have this experience playing instruments or performing in front of an audience, what shifts between these two spaces? Like, what really is different about the way that you interact with your instrument in these two spaces?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Live, it's like completely about feeling and, like, if you're playing live, you wanna, like, move a crowd. And when you're recording, I found myself doing, like, a lot of writing as I'm recording. So I would come up with something, record it, and then I'd figure out what else to put on top of that. And it was a lot of layering and stuff.
Speaker 3:And, all of the stuff that we've been doing for the live it's mostly been just me like writing on an acoustic guitar and I come up with all of the chord progressions and the lyrics and that I can actually play it and have everybody else come in around it. So
Speaker 2:Nice. I I know, like, you said you're focusing on live recordings. Correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So where where are you recording? You said it was, what studio?
Speaker 3:Ryan Records. Okay. He's in East Lansing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Would any of you consider to maybe record outside or, do something with, the atmosphere around you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Definitely. That's very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I noticed you have a a raccoon on your head. What's what's the name of this hat? I that Russian hat?
Speaker 4:It's well, it's not Russian hat. Yeah. Russian hat would be Yashanka. This is a pioneer
Speaker 3:head or something. Yeah. Or Daniel Boone.
Speaker 1:Is
Speaker 4:that what it's called?
Speaker 8:Well, Dan he looks like Daniel Boone.
Speaker 3:Yeah. He looks like Daniel Boone, I guess.
Speaker 7:Whatever that is.
Speaker 2:Well, let's see.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's a statement.
Speaker 7:I think
Speaker 3:it's Allison's. So I'm just I'm just wearing it, but I have to give him the clout for having it.
Speaker 1:I yeah. I'm just now putting together that everyone has a hat here, so it would have been
Speaker 7:embarrassing if if not for the hat.
Speaker 8:Like you're
Speaker 3:not dressed
Speaker 8:up. You don't got
Speaker 3:the fit on unless you have a hat on. So
Speaker 2:So yeah. I know and you also mentioned you feel like you have a sense of community here in Lansing. I noticed you've, performed quite a bit of the co ops. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Recently Yeah. Specifically, on Halloween. How have those shows in fact, impacted you guys as a band? And
Speaker 3:It was really good. There's been, like, so many opportunities that have arisen from, like, those two shows. You know, shout out all the people at Bowie and shout out all the people at Hendrick. It really it really was a good place to have a show and there's always people watching.
Speaker 2:What specifically about that community do do does your band love about it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think, like, having people first of all, having, like, in, like, a queer community is always I don't know. It just feels so much better, than a lot of the other communities of music around around Michigan.
Speaker 1:Really? That's really interesting. I've never heard I've
Speaker 3:never heard Yeah.
Speaker 1:Someone talk about that. Because we talked to a lot of bands. Almost everyone is from Michigan.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's perspective that is kinda new. Like, how how is it different?
Speaker 3:It's more fun. Everybody every it's the least judgmental places that I've ever been. Like, you know, you can
Speaker 4:Come from any walk of life, basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Right. They they're just so open to anybody there and you feel like judgment free zone type thing. You can just play whatever you want and the people will will like it.
Speaker 5:It's really nice to have someone come up to you after a show and be like, move
Speaker 3:to buy it.
Speaker 5:Yeah. To care about your art and that's really meaningful, I
Speaker 4:think, to me. Into music.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I love that feeling. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. And so that's just wonderful how the queer community can do that. You know? They and just how creative and, just how much kindness they can spend. I mean, do you feel are you comparing a co op to maybe just, like, a bar
Speaker 3:or just, like Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know, a wedding? I don't know.
Speaker 4:Even, like, local frats here, it's a way different atmosphere. Yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah. They don't
Speaker 4:It it's it's not at all even close to co ops in my eyes.
Speaker 3:You notice that there are also the queer spaces are the ones that are putting their time and effort into live music and a lot of what we're seeing in East Lansing and Lansing is like DJ's and stuff and there's no hate towards DJ's especially for like electronic music and stuff but a lot of the music it's like, alright we're playing the twenty ten's hits
Speaker 8:and
Speaker 3:we're just going through them all and everybody knows all the songs so we're gonna have a good time. But if everybody already knows all the songs then what's the fun? There's nothing new, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I mean, fact of the matter is it's just it's cheaper to do that. So a lot of places, like, they can't fund booking bands all the time. Right. Which is really what makes these spaces so special.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 1:It's just a pooling of everyone's resources. And I've I've found that I'm really quite spoiled by it. Like, I don't think I realized just how unique it is, until you get out into those kinda like those other places that haven't gotten to experience
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, people just listening to artists that they don't already know or Mhmm. Or being really uninhibited in public in that way. One of my other positions here on on campus is booking shows, but they're, they're through the university. So, like, they're university sponsored shows. It's pretty, above board.
Speaker 1:It's not quite as, totally In the mix. Free as as the co ops might be. Yeah. And I've found, like, something we struggle with is getting people to dance. Like, people are just so worried about being seen and and being, like, comfortable in that space.
Speaker 1:And that's just not something I encounter, like, at all in these third spaces we have. Mhmm. It's really incredible.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I would say, in response to that, it it's a lot of both the band and the community because the band just their job, I would say, is to get people moving and get everybody know, listening to the music and having a good time. Right? But it's the crowd's job to also enjoy the music and have a good time, you know? So so it's on both ends that you really need to be careful and Yeah.
Speaker 4:Make sure everybody's enjoying themselves.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Most beautiful. I I'm I'm really happy we've gotten this perspective and got a little bit closer to you, just like your next song.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 8:Oh, nice.
Speaker 7:That was there.
Speaker 8:Good one. Good one.
Speaker 3:Yeah. This one's this one's from the, Harvestman record, on Tia Morrison. So
Speaker 2:Let's get into it.
Speaker 4:Once again,
Speaker 2:you're listening to Mussey TV.
Speaker 5:Bye.
Speaker 7:You take me high. I can't let you. I can't stop. Please don't let me. Hope my body rides when I'm not with you.
Speaker 7:When this feeling stops, I'll be dead. Because I'll be in heaven. And when I'm down, and when I'm down, I will take you. So you can frown and stare it down the barrel. Oh, you have been fun now.
Speaker 7:I feel so close to
Speaker 8:you. And I keep my shirt on. I don't want to scare you off. You know that we
Speaker 7:could take off.
Speaker 9:I have never been alive. I have never been alive.
Speaker 7:I have seen the sunshine,
Speaker 9:but I have never been alive.
Speaker 7:How many tries will this take us? It's my first time. Please don't hurt me. I've never felt so pretty. You've had my life on you.
Speaker 7:You. Without you.
Speaker 9:I have never been alive. I have never been alive. I have never been alive. I have never been alive.
Speaker 2:That was wonderful.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:I have a very, specific I don't know if this is specific, but, you guys mentioned before we got this thing rolling that your sound is a emo folk rock. Correct?
Speaker 3:Somewhere in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I just had this question. You know, we've had so many bands come and perform, obviously, on the show, and there's just something that came to my mind. What do you when was the birth of emo? Like, we all have this, like, first stupid question.
Speaker 4:You asked the right guy.
Speaker 8:Think about it.
Speaker 2:It's like we all have this perception of, like, what emo is.
Speaker 3:You asked, you asked in the beginning if there was any, like, niche things that we could just like keep talking about. That's probably close to one of them but, yeah. I'd say like in the eighties like Rites of Spring Really? Was probably one
Speaker 7:of the
Speaker 3:first emo bands. It was an offshoot of, of hardcore and punk music. Post hardcore and emo kind of both went off of each other ended up mixing with each other and coming out of it in different waves but there's like five waves right now. Can't believe I'm talking about
Speaker 7:this but there's one wave in
Speaker 3:the eighties where it's like super hardcore and stuff and then and then the nineties is like where the Midwest emo sound came from, with like cap and jazz and stuff and, Sunny Day Real Estate. And then, and then, you know, the third wave is when things got muddied because it's the February Mhmm. And Myspace existed and emo became, in a more of an aesthetic and more of like a culture thing instead of a music genre which is totally cool but like bands like, you know My Chemical Romance and, and Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy and stuff they were you know getting called like emo when the emo music was not like that like they're they're, you know, pop punk or post hardcore or whatever it is, but, but around that time people were like listening to a lot of post hardcore music and that was the, that was the that was what was emo at that point.
Speaker 2:That's that's interesting. So, you know, for must see TV, I mean, do do you relate more to the Myspace age, you know, the aesthetic? Or do you do you relate more to, you know, something from the eighties or hardcore or you know
Speaker 5:what I'm saying?
Speaker 3:I'd say definitely, like, probably nineties. It was pretty it was pretty soft, but there's a lot of, like, twinkly guitars and stuff and I really like that. There's a lot of screaming still I liked it I like the screaming, but then then a lot of the newer stuff I I love I love like Panic! At the Disco and My Chemical Romance and stuff I mean the the aesthetic is all completely there and I'm so glad that it happened.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I'm pretty sure, like, those bands even rejected the label of emo themselves. It's just kinda this, like Yep. Melding of things and I yeah. I think
Speaker 3:It changes.
Speaker 1:Muddled is the perfect word. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Muddled is a great word.
Speaker 1:What I'm really noticing about your guys' sound though, like, I I hear those influences. I hear it in the vocals. I hear it in some of the chords, but it's like, it's so much warmer of a sound than I associate with emo generally. Like, it's almost like a blues
Speaker 5:That's where the folk comes in.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Of course. Yeah. And, and I'm wondering, we sort of started on this track earlier with, talking about TM Morrison and, like, these solo projects and the Harvest Men, and then how that's that's now kind of transitioning into this group with Must See TV. Right. And we we hit on how, you know, now it's live and and you're tailoring your music more to that, but there's also three new people with you.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And how does that that change this sound?
Speaker 3:It takes, it takes a little load off my back because, like, you know, the first time it was like, okay, writing, recording, producing, mixing and mastering are all my job and I have to record all of the instruments except for drums because I can't play drums but, but now that I have three other people it's like okay now I just gotta come up with my part and then they can come up with or I can make them come up
Speaker 8:with it. Depends on the song. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You guys should you guys should, talk about that too.
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah. I think, I think we all bring something different and unique from our own, like, personal background and where we started playing music. And I think I kinda bring more of the bluesier Yeah. Folk stuff on the lead guitar. And that's that's just how I learned, with that as kinda my reference.
Speaker 6:And I think, you know, other people are influenced by a wide variety of of things we're all gonna bring
Speaker 3:in. There's not, like, much music that overlaps for this for the four of us No. That, like, we're we're all
Speaker 4:I mean, I I too. I listen to a lot of pop, and that's why I'm mainly influenced by Yeah. Influenced by Yeah. You know, I listen a lot of Jamiroquois. Shout out
Speaker 3:Jamiroquois. Go
Speaker 8:JK. Shout out, Mac DeMarco.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Mac DeMarco. Taking the words out of my mouth. But, yeah, those two have been probably the most influential, to my music career. And and, you know, I kinda give all that to them, you know, all my style.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Elsan?
Speaker 5:I don't know. I feel like for drumming, like, when I first started listening to music and, like, following bands and whatnot, it was like Duster and slowcore bands like that. So I think that's always been my favorite and sort of my influences, slowcore and shoegaze and stuff like that. So pretty straightforward drumming, but it's all about feel. So yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, it's it's funny. That's the case with so many of the bands that come through here, is that they are just all over the board with their taste in music. Mhmm. And
Speaker 3:I think that's how you make something original, though. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, if you if you get four guys who are all into are all into title fight, and then and then you and then you guys are all like, alright. Let's make a band.
Speaker 3:It's gonna sound like title fight, and you're not gonna be interesting. But, like, when you have four people who, first of all, like, have a I have a hard trouble naming, like, my influences because I feel like there's so many. But, but, yeah, we're all just, like, from different we all like different stuff. Like, I'm not very into into, like, proper r and b or anything, but that's Venda's niche and Guilty. And it it works.
Speaker 3:I think that that kind of base works on what we're playing, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's definitely interesting how, you know, personal experiences and how we're, like, raised and just, like, what we know is so important to your creation because it's, like, it obviously, you wanna be yourself.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:You don't wanna copy because it's, like, the best word comes out, like, what comes from your heart. And Right. It's I think it's really interesting how when bands come together, like I said, like Liv mentioned, like, everyone can bring something new. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, how what is your creative process? Like, do you know?
Speaker 3:So there's a couple of, like, different things, usually it's just that I have some like unresolved feelings that I need to work through and, I just kind of I don't know. I I start playing the guitar and I find something that I like and then I and then I come up with it. It it sounds so, like, boring, but that's just kinda how it is. But, I also get inspired by a lot of, like, media and stuff. I really like comic books and, after reading a comic book, like, nine times out of 10, I'm like, okay, gotta write a song about that.
Speaker 3:And, same with, like, movies and stuff. Just writing, like, from a perspective of a character, it it is so interesting to me. And you can make anything happen, you know. It's like it's just like writing books, you know.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting. Yeah. Speaking of film, I mean, if you had to score a film scene, I mean, what would that sound like? Like, and like what kind of genre? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is there a film maybe?
Speaker 3:Definitely. I mean, like, Everything Everywhere All at Once would be a sweet one to do or, like Hereditary. Those are those have some of the best soundtracks I've ever That's some
Speaker 4:good things.
Speaker 3:Ever heard. But, yeah, definitely super ambient. I'm really into Brian Eno and, like, a lot of other, you know, cluster and stuff and something something chill, something out there. Definitely.
Speaker 2:Have you ever seen I Saw the TV Glow?
Speaker 3:I no. I haven't. I saw I love Alex gee and I have not seen it. I've been saving it for the right time because I I I don't feel like it's the right time for me yet. I think I think there's gonna be a huge, mental change when I watch that movie.
Speaker 2:It's it's up there for me. I love that so much. So Well,
Speaker 1:let's take us into this next song that we have here, State of Disarray. What's this piece gonna be about?
Speaker 3:It's about the, you know, it's about a girl. It's just about, like, there's a people not lining up on the same path as you. And, and no matter how much you guys feel, it just doesn't work out because things aren't right. So but it's alright. You know?
Speaker 3:It's a it's a happy song.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to hear it.
Speaker 7:Water fills my soft hands. Take today. I hope to lay beside you makes me think of all the life's been passing by your big blue eyes, lost in tides and over shipwrecks. I'll make you mine someday on the line my heart's in time with all the melodies you came from. Say today, I love your face, but tomorrow, I love your soul.
Speaker 7:Celebrate by saying grace to all the memories we hold. Love belong. It's never in your bedroom. I want to. I need you.
Speaker 7:It's all a state of disarray. Nothing
Speaker 3:kills me any slower.
Speaker 7:My body breaks the further away that I am from you. Bitter turns into sweetness. I saved a spot for you. In this seat for two. Do you still want me?
Speaker 7:My heart is golden echoes. The scepter of distance is making me feel
Speaker 8:hollow. Me where I belong. I wish
Speaker 7:I was in your car still. I hope to just be you. It's all a state of disarray.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 4:All set.
Speaker 2:I have an interesting question that I just kinda thought of. Out of all of the music that's been created throughout human civilization from, I don't know, the renaissance to now Right. Do you think out of all of that music, the the number one driving force behind the creation is love or heartbreak or just about love? Like, do you think the most music comes from love?
Speaker 3:I think that music comes from the human experience. And I think that love is a huge part of the human experience. But I think that, like, you know, humans write songs about about
Speaker 4:Everything.
Speaker 3:Everything. And and, like, love of music is definitely like a driving force behind, behind, like, all music. Like, you're not doing this if you're not if you don't love it, you know?
Speaker 4:To be fair, there are a lot of songs about women.
Speaker 3:There are a lot of songs about women. One example.
Speaker 5:I feel like to just for me, playing music has always been about just being with my friends, you know.
Speaker 3:It is love of friends.
Speaker 5:Yeah. It's love of friends. It's a reason for us to get together and get off our phones and think about the same thing. Right.
Speaker 7:You know?
Speaker 3:It's yeah. That's another thing is, like, being in tune with somebody, we used to have like this jam band where everything that we would do was all, Improv. Improv. And something about that, the people that I was in the band with, it's like me and them are closer than I've ever been with anybody. Like there's no different feeling in the world.
Speaker 3:It's pretty much like the same as, like, telepathy. Like you're all on the same wavelength as long as you're doing it right.
Speaker 2:What is jam? Jam band?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Just like How does
Speaker 2:that word?
Speaker 3:Coming up with songs on the spot and stuff. Just like trying to create something completely new as a whole at all times. Now going in completely unprepared was our motive.
Speaker 4:Like, somebody will start out, like, Tai will play, like, an eight board or something. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, maybe Allison would follow-up with something. I'd be like, oh, I can play something over that.
Speaker 3:Right. And then
Speaker 4:start playing, then Bryce will be like, oh, I can play over this.
Speaker 7:And then you can
Speaker 3:slowly change the song as long
Speaker 6:as it always changes.
Speaker 5:There's lots of eye contact.
Speaker 8:Lots of
Speaker 7:eye contact.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 5:Signals and frowning and waving.
Speaker 7:Yeah. I do. Girl lovers. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I feel safe when they turn around and look at me. It's nice.
Speaker 2:So in this process of jam band, let's say you got you you know, you got a groove, but then you kind of, like, go off the rails a little bit. So, I mean, obviously, I'm I'm sure you guys record.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So okay. So you just go, okay. We'll go back to before it kinda turned into like a train wreck. Well, I'm not saying it would be a train wreck.
Speaker 8:I don't know
Speaker 2:what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:It happens every time though.
Speaker 3:It happens every time. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what may that's what turns into the next, like, the next part of the song. Yep.
Speaker 3:Like we were we were influenced by a lot of like kraut rock and stuff. So it was all very like like rhythmic and you can just kinda throw anything in there, you know, like it it's just a wave of noise and ambiance and like noise rock and even if it once it starts like sounding like blah just like everything slowly one by one you drop out and eventually you all come back together into something new. You know, it's it's really, there's nothing like it. It's crazy.
Speaker 4:Sounds like fun. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It is
Speaker 6:fun. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Still is.
Speaker 1:I wonder too the, the psychology behind it. Because you're talking about kind of this this feeling of telepathy, but I'm sure there's some, like, micro body language that you're just learning how to read without ever, like, expressly learning. It's it's just fascinating.
Speaker 3:Just vibrations, I think.
Speaker 4:I mean, as Alson put it earlier, you know, it's a lot of, like, eye contact, head movement, and just, like, feeling the rhythm.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 4:If if somebody's been going on for a while, you kinda look at them and tell where they're going with it. Mhmm. And you can build off that and it's kinda like a springboard process.
Speaker 3:If you know the people that you're playing with and you play with them enough, you end up knowing exactly what they're thinking about Oh, yeah. And what they're about to do and you can follow along with it. And it's just it really is like it's something completely spiritual and it's different. It's it's I've I've never really had any other experiences like it.
Speaker 2:It's like your own language. Music's the language.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Right. I mean that's what it was invented for. You know, back back when we first invented drums and stuff, it was just, you know, harvest season or or whatever it is. Just good times, bad times, it all just makes you all come together.
Speaker 4:Put them down and start dancing.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yeah. Your earlier question kinda made me think about that in the subject of, love and its role in music. I mean, you can kind of abstract anything into end of the day being about love. It's about being moved by something, you know.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're not writing about a person, but you could be writing about your homeland and how beautiful and moving it is to you. And that's that's pretty cool. It is it is the human experiences just to to be touched and to feel big emotions, I think, which, is easy to get sidetracked from when there's a thousand things going on in life. So it's it's pretty cool that you guys get to be in tune with that and you get to, share it with others beyond
Speaker 4:Lots of people.
Speaker 1:Beyond just that.
Speaker 2:Are you telepathic, when you're, like, at a co op?
Speaker 3:It definitely clouds it up a little bit, but yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, the theory is is that, like, if it's gonna be good, you should always be tell I almost I always almost say telepathetic, but,
Speaker 2:I don't know if I said it
Speaker 3:right. No. I know. You did. You did.
Speaker 4:To me, imagine if you're, like, drawing a circle. Right?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 7:You have
Speaker 4:a clear circle.
Speaker 3:Should I
Speaker 2:do it right now?
Speaker 7:Yeah. You
Speaker 4:can draw a circle.
Speaker 3:Okay. I have a question.
Speaker 4:For
Speaker 3:audience at home, we
Speaker 8:should do
Speaker 3:a circle.
Speaker 4:But the more people you put into a room and the more people you put on stage Okay. Cloud that circle up more. And that's basically how that works. So if you have if you if you have, like, four people here, it's gonna be a little hard sometimes to tell Yeah. Versus, like, 10 or 15 people here.
Speaker 3:We definitely feel very in tune here Yeah. Because of how We're
Speaker 4:tight knit.
Speaker 3:Low key and close to each other we were. I think we were
Speaker 5:in a circle, though.
Speaker 6:Yeah. We usually are just facing each other.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4:When they say live in circles.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. Is it a common practice for bands to perform in a circle and look at each other? Because I know, like, bands perform to a crowd Right. On a stage. They look
Speaker 3:all I feel like a lot of bands, like, I mean, every band I've ever been in, we've always practiced in a circle and you can always you all look at each other and then when you're playing on stage, you're facing the, the crowd, obviously. So I've never I've never played in a circle on stage or anything.
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 3:It would be it could be fun.
Speaker 8:But it
Speaker 3:could be fun.
Speaker 2:But you're still all connected. Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Behind me. You know? Right.
Speaker 2:You're still in a circle Right. Here, but not physically.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 4:Like, Lee, I can I can kinda feel, Elsond's presence right now? Yeah.
Speaker 3:I know exactly what he's thinking.
Speaker 7:Cool.
Speaker 2:Where is a million miles from now here?
Speaker 3:Nowhere. Oh,
Speaker 5:it's the
Speaker 3:same letters. Nowhere.
Speaker 1:I mean, it really is. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Excuse me.
Speaker 3:No. That's good. Yeah. We, that was from the Tia Morrison album as well. That's the only two on the set that are doing that.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, this one was pretty fun. It's like, it was like it's it's like a concept song about someone who goes to hell and then their their lover is in heaven and then everything sucks.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, let's hear
Speaker 3:it. Alright.
Speaker 7:And we would be right there. We could go for a walk outside and all the hell fire. Don't love me now. I will never be anything but this stupid corpse. I smell like dirt rotting flesh of all the people that I've heard.
Speaker 7:Go, go away. Every second is another day down here, and I don't want them for you. The devil's looking for you. Oh, no. But I will climb out to you, my love and die a thousand times.
Speaker 7:I will breathe in the fresh, fresh air, and exhale the cyanide. And when we kiss, my eyes will close, and I will feel okay. And when we open my eyes again, I'll see nothing but decay. Don't love me now. I will never get out of this hell.
Speaker 7:This is mine. This is my craft. I don't wanna push you down into it. Go, go away. Body's frozen underneath this lake, my dear, and I don't want them for you.
Speaker 7:The devil's looking for you. Oh, no. And don't try again. After a couple more lifetimes, my sentences, and I will look for you. If they let me through that gate.
Speaker 1:I love the, like, the totally out of pocket lyrics. I hear what you're talking about now. I don't know if I would have, like, guessed that was the, the story of the song, but
Speaker 3:Just the worst things in the world.
Speaker 1:I love it though. I remember being a kid and, like, being so exasperated that all of the songs on the radio were, like, it's about a break up again. Yeah. It's about, like, how beautiful this person is.
Speaker 3:It's like it's got, like, a lot of really horrible imagery, but it's a it's a hopeful song. You know, like, it's in the end in the end, you'll get there. You know? You'll get out of hell.
Speaker 1:I love it though. And it seems like this is maybe not unique from the the research that I did. I get the impression you have a lot of fun with songwriting in general. There was one that was like Jesus is a zombie.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, there's there's some good ones in there. Gosh.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That was that one was like I was just like, I I read some somewhere like something about how the sun just went dark as soon as they crucified Jesus. And I was like, man, that would be scary. Imagine like the guy who did that and he crucifies him. He crucifies the guy that was saying that he was the son of God and then all of a sudden, the sky goes black.
Speaker 3:You're like, I really I really messed
Speaker 8:up. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then Jesus turns into a zombie and that's why he was resurrected. But There
Speaker 1:we go. That's certainly
Speaker 5:an interpretation.
Speaker 3:It's not
Speaker 1:canon to
Speaker 7:the Catholic church.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5:I mean,
Speaker 1:I think what's worth asking here though is, like, it it just seems boundless the things that could inspire you. And this goes for all of you guys. I don't know how much of a hand you have in, the the lyric writing process but I mean,
Speaker 4:we go through the whole process.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's it's really just as far as lyrics go, I have a lot of trouble working with other people. When it once when it comes to like the music and stuff, it's a lot easier for me but it's hard, I think that, I have to make sure that what I'm writing doesn't sound corny and also kinda abstract and also telling a story and there's a lot of like random there's a lot of random stuff that goes into it, you know?
Speaker 2:Define a lyric that you might have written that was abstract.
Speaker 3:It's it's in a couple songs but it's it's like I'm a monolith, spatial awareness, collarbones, and the strength of a thousand men, to lift up the stone. And yeah. I get I like Bob Dylan. Ross,
Speaker 4:we have a Roscoe by mid or, yeah. Roscoe by Midland.
Speaker 3:He's always talking about Roscoe.
Speaker 4:I always am too. I love that song.
Speaker 1:What was, what was the hardest song in your repertoire to write?
Speaker 3:To write? Yeah. There's oof. There's a That's a question. There's this one it was the hardest for me to actually play so I wrote like a riff for it.
Speaker 3:So I I go to a lot of the shows in Lansing and stuff in the Lansing scene and there's like a really popping Lansing music scene right now and if you're not a part of it you should, you might want to be a part of it or something. You have the option to do that and, and I would think it's a good idea but but yeah. Anyway, so it's a lot of emo music, a lot of twinkly guitars, a lot of open tunings. And I was like, okay, I kinda wanna write something like that but more, abstract. And so it was like an eight minute song that we did, and it was mostly just like guitar riffs, with, like, breaks for singing in between.
Speaker 3:But it was so hard to play. It was probably the hardest or the most that I've worked on writing a song.
Speaker 2:I mean, as a band, do you tend to appreciate more of, like, an abstract or, or avoiding maybe the standard to follow, you know, what it means to write a song, like, with it when it comes to the structure? Like, do you do you like avoiding that and
Speaker 8:Yeah. Mixing
Speaker 3:yeah. I I I I can't like, I like I can't stand it. I I can't stand the
Speaker 4:We can't even see Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right. An a b a c, like, just verse chorus verse chorus, you know, like I I a lot of the times I won't have a chorus and if I do have a chorus it'll be different lyrics for every time the chorus runs around for the most part because I don't know. I just I also like I one of my for the first album at least that I did a lot of it was okay we'll write a song and the song only ended up being a minute and a half so we're just gonna make the other minute and a half, crazy ambient jam you know or noise rock, you know. So so that's always fun. But I hate I hate doing like a verse chorus verse chorus thing.
Speaker 8:Mhmm. Do you
Speaker 2:think there'll become a point where, you know, there there isn't a standard to how you structure your music or at least like if you go to school for it. I mean, like, on a commercial level, I don't know. But I I think it's just kind of boring. It's like, I I I don't like I mean, you probably feel the same way. I don't no one likes to be as an artist, no one likes to be told what to do or, like, how to, you know, create.
Speaker 2:I I don't think there should be a format for any sort of art and, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I think we're getting to a point in music where, I mean, obviously, we've been doing this since the dawn of time, but, we have been we have fallen into this trap of like European centric, music structure and, and I think that's on the way out. I mean like it's gonna take a while maybe not our generation, maybe not the next one but, at some point people are gonna be like oh everybody's already done all this stuff we gotta like figure something else out you know like that's the only way to like make sure that your music isn't a copy of somebody else's is just to put something in there that nobody else would do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you familiar with other music structure styles? Like, I I really am not educated in that area. Is there anything you could share about it?
Speaker 3:No. I don't think so. I I really it was never something that I, like, went and learned. It was just something that I was, like, I noticed from a lot of songs is that it's just the same basic things over and over again. And I wanted it to be like, okay, this song can have three songs bashed into one, you know?
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Like that's
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's like that makes the best songs. It just makes me think of, Leaving in My Dreams by the voids. It's like three full, like, great hook melodies.
Speaker 1:And they could've broken that down into three songs, getting some money out of it. But, like, they just put it all in one song, and it's it's a fun piece to listen to even if it's not, like, deeply moving. It's Right. It's just a fun song to listen to. And they very much broke those conventions.
Speaker 1:I think that's what we see, you know. That's why artists have secondary careers where they they go off the track of whatever got them fame because they just get so stuck in a track of, like, this is your sound. This is what you do. They have to, like, create something entirely new just to regain that that ability to experiment.
Speaker 7:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It has to be very,
Speaker 4:I mean, you still have guys doing, like, yacht rock. Right?
Speaker 1:Oh, please explain. What is what is yacht rock?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Well, yacht rock's like, Steely Dan.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay. Steely Dan's a
Speaker 4:big one. So, basically, a band got popular in, like,
Speaker 3:what's the deal
Speaker 7:with the deal with
Speaker 3:the deal
Speaker 8:with the deal with the deal
Speaker 3:with the deal. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Then a bunch of rich people are, like, oh, we like this band. Let's put them on our yacht because, you know, those are the people who listen to that music. So they put them on the yacht and they play for big bucks. But, you know, being silly Dan, you're stuck playing the same songs over and over and over and over. And you
Speaker 3:can't go out and do all the crazy stuff because you're stuck on all the popular songs that you made when you were when you were in your twenties and now you're in your fifties or sixties.
Speaker 4:Playing them over and over. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you think, you know, that that's funny you say that because I see a lot of these artists that, you know, are popular in the early two thousands that are, you know, still making a living off their catalog and their, what's the word? Dysography. Dysography? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whatever. I can't pronounce anything. But, yeah. And you can just see it in their eyes that they're so tired of that song. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Handful of songs that that they're almost like they don't have a choice. Right.
Speaker 3:They don't.
Speaker 4:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it's like I don't know. It's it's do you think they'll become a point where it's like they can say no and be like?
Speaker 3:Nah. You you sure it's either that or money, you know. And like if you're when that's why you don't wanna get famous, you know. It's because then you're forced into a box and nobody wants to be forced into a box.
Speaker 4:I mean, look what happened to Steve Lacy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, he was pretty underground for a while, made really good music. Next thing you know, he made a bad habit. That's all he's known for. Yeah. And he had his, you know, ten minutes of fame, and now nobody talks about him anymore.
Speaker 4:It's it's really messed up what the industry can do to artists sometimes.
Speaker 5:And Steve Lacy really hated his tour. There's so many videos. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4:Just, like, hating his face. He was like, guys, please He's miserable.
Speaker 2:He would go up there, and they would people in the crowd would only sing the
Speaker 3:The TikTok part. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That would crush me.
Speaker 3:No. It would. It would.
Speaker 2:Like, you you have a sold out show, and they're only singing
Speaker 4:Thirty seconds of the whole show, basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Fifteen, maybe.
Speaker 4:It's it's insane. I I mean, I could get into a whole rant about short form content how it's ruined our current generation. But seeing as I'm not 40, I'm just gonna leave it at that. You know, it's it's a real tragedy what happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Bring back YouTube. Yeah. True.
Speaker 4:Watch a watch
Speaker 5:a movie tonight.
Speaker 7:Watch a
Speaker 3:movie tonight.
Speaker 4:Well, it can't be.
Speaker 3:You may watch
Speaker 8:a movie tonight. Awesome.
Speaker 4:I'm the least have an interest in watching a movie tonight perchance. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Perchance. Watch a movie tonight. Watch the cube. Or no. Wait.
Speaker 3:You can't. You should or yeah. Watch
Speaker 4:the cube.
Speaker 1:We're not telling anyone what to do. We're not telling anyone what to think. These are the cubes. Movie, and it's out there. And It's
Speaker 3:out there if you wanna watch it. If not, that's alright.
Speaker 4:Please send us hate mail.
Speaker 8:Oh, man. No. You don't do anything. Yeah. Don't want to.
Speaker 6:Do do meditate. Or don't meditate. Do whatever you do or do not wanna do.
Speaker 8:Man, really. Can we play music? Can I
Speaker 7:ask you
Speaker 8:a question?
Speaker 4:Sure. Yeah. Of course.
Speaker 2:Who shall not be named?
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't even know. I can't name him. It's a brand of person that I meet met one time. That just happens a lot. Sometimes you'll you'll meet someone and then you'll, like, hang out with them once and then you'll, like, you'll get this inspiration from them and it's like, I'm never gonna see you again or anything but, like, you know.
Speaker 4:Hope you live a good life. Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I hope you give a little Mhmm. Good life, I guess.
Speaker 1:Is this the kind of person that, like, you meet on the couch at the back of the house party and you never see again? Or the kind of person where it's like you're a cashier and they come and dump their their life's trauma on you and then leave?
Speaker 3:No. It's like you meet them on the couch. You know? You guys have, like, a solid conversation for a couple hours and then, and, you know, that's that. You know?
Speaker 4:It's kinda like a
Speaker 1:Single serving friend.
Speaker 2:But why shall they not be named? Yeah. I guess we should listen. Yeah. Alright.
Speaker 2:Once again, you're listening to Must See TV.
Speaker 7:Place. Don't know you, but I feel that I do. Don't know you, but I want Can I feel this keeping my
Speaker 3:Thank you?
Speaker 1:I think that was my favorite so far. Really? That was such a fun one. Yeah.
Speaker 7:It was a little sloppy there, but No. Sorry.
Speaker 2:It was raw.
Speaker 8:Thank you. We're a jam band.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We're a jam band.
Speaker 2:Yes. Exactly. I you know, since you are a jam band, I wanna ask, is there any non musical skill that each of you bring, to the band that kinda make things run smoother?
Speaker 1:Oh. Or at least interesting.
Speaker 6:I I think we're all artists in different capacities other than just music. Yeah. I
Speaker 5:I bring a terrible nervous energy to every just all the time. Oh, what? But it keeps us on time
Speaker 2:and Okay.
Speaker 8:Things get done.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So True. You bring structure, time management,
Speaker 5:in in the worst way possible.
Speaker 4:Just pure panic, you know?
Speaker 5:Yeah. All the time.
Speaker 3:No. Alassan, actually, he, is an amazing, like, he he did he makes these clothes. He, like, bleaches. He bleach dyes them, and he Cool. He has made me some crazy stuff, and I love it.
Speaker 3:He he's a he's really talented.
Speaker 6:Really good artist. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would love to see it afterwards.
Speaker 3:I would
Speaker 2:have never met. What's your process of making this?
Speaker 5:Well, it depends. Sometimes I'll just Google. For a long time, I would, like, read articles about certain things. Like, a year or so ago, I was reading about, like, the KKK in Lansing and how they killed, like, Malcolm X's dad and stuff like that.
Speaker 8:Oh. So I
Speaker 5:was reading all these articles, and I was seeing all these really cool pictures. And so I drew some stuff from that. So it's a lot of reading and just making it, like, this whole process of, like, listening to the music, reading about the music, and then drawing the music. But for the shirts and stuff, it's usually people are like, can I get a cool dinosaur on this shirt? I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I
Speaker 8:put it on. So it's
Speaker 9:by request.
Speaker 5:By request. Yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah. I enjoy painting, on the side. Yeah. I like to do abstract kind of painting, and I like to read too.
Speaker 5:Cool.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's what's up. I I mean, I'm pretty creative, but my main, how do I put it, focus is in computers, specifically computer software and, well, video games.
Speaker 9:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He's a math guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I am, dude. I'm I'm big on math. That's basically my major financial math. It's it's not very fun.
Speaker 4:But, you know, whatever pays the bills and let's me keep doing this. Right? So so as long as I can continue being a nerd about some things, I can continue being a nerd about other things.
Speaker 7:Yeah. And I
Speaker 4:think that's important to me.
Speaker 2:Can you set up your own computer?
Speaker 4:Oh. Yeah.
Speaker 8:Of course. Yeah. I I,
Speaker 4:I just reformatted my SSD, I think, like, two or three days ago. It was a that means. It's I did a lot of nerd stuff and a pain, so
Speaker 8:I won't
Speaker 3:bore you. Drive. That's all.
Speaker 4:Yeah. It's it's a process.
Speaker 2:What about game design? Or,
Speaker 4:I I used to wanna be a game designer, but at some point, I realized, and this even goes back to what we were talking about earlier, if you do something you love for a living, you're gonna hate it. Mhmm. You know? I usually like to keep my work life and my hobby life and social life separate just because when they start to bleed into each other, it can create, good opportunities naturally. Right?
Speaker 4:But also, it can ruin some of the things you love.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. Do you think it's because of the maybe corporate or commercial or, like, expectation? Because I feel like when it comes to creating art, it's like if someone's telling you what to do, it's not you're not that's not art really.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I mean I mean, it's it's like, it's like telling a blacksmith how to do his job or, like, or, like, telling somebody how to do their job. You know, I I wouldn't I wouldn't go up to somebody and be like, hey. You need to do it this way when I have no clue what I'm doing. I don't make that music.
Speaker 4:You know? Right. Or or I don't make swords. So in that instance. So
Speaker 3:Not yet.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. I'm in training. Don't worry. No.
Speaker 4:Not actually. But, yeah. I mean, I just like to keep that separate. Otherwise, you know, it bleeds and it it just creates a mess.
Speaker 2:Okay. Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, that's a good I think that's a good starting point for a question because I really love to to know about, like, where do you think that joy and passion should originate from in life? Like, where should that come from? Should it be the simple things, or should it be, like, big pursuits and fulfillment?
Speaker 4:Whatever you can find it in, honestly. That was
Speaker 6:a that's a good find. If you
Speaker 4:if you go outside and stare at a tree and say, that's a cool looking tree, that brings you some joy. Right? I think that's normal. If you're if you're running around doing crazy stuff and that brings you joy, by all means, just don't get arrested. Right?
Speaker 4:So so I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh, you should only find joy in this or you should do this and that. Whatever you like, man. Just do what you like. Make something. Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's definitely helps. That brings the most happiness.
Speaker 3:Creation is the, is the biggest Yeah. Biggest piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Don't destroy.
Speaker 3:As humans Yeah. I feel like humans wanna create, and, you should, you know, do it.
Speaker 4:Well, we we're suggesting you should
Speaker 3:do it. We're suggesting you should do it. We're not no. We're not suggesting. We're telling you that there's an option to
Speaker 5:to create
Speaker 3:something and, I don't think there's there's not feelings like it. Like, the ability to create is a human thing, you know. Really beautiful.
Speaker 2:Do you think that's only for certain, people? I mean, obviously, we're all different.
Speaker 3:Right. I think everybody has their way of creating. And I think that I think that every passion and every job, not that everybody has a passion, but, I think every everybody who loves what they're doing, there's creation in it. Mhmm. There's, there's always even, like, making spreadsheets and stuff, like, it's some people find joy in that, and that's creation.
Speaker 3:You know? Mhmm.
Speaker 4:I I mean, I didn't even know how to play music, like, three years ago, honestly. I I learned from hanging out with Ty and all doing, I think, Wes at the time. Yeah. Yeah. We all played together in a in that jam band.
Speaker 4:And from there, I just, like, picked up music, you know, started on hand drums and eventually bought my own acoustics, started learning that, and then I got switched over to bass and here I am. Right? Mhmm. So so even if you say or think, like, oh, I can't be creative, try.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Put yourself out there.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's always that's always we've learned a lot that just, like, you put yourself out there once and it ends up a bunch of other things.
Speaker 4:It builds
Speaker 3:something you
Speaker 8:end up on the radio.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Right. And then you're
Speaker 3:on eighty nine FM.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Bryce, I wanted to ask you, going back to your abstract and fine art, is there, like, when you create are you the type of person that just kinda goes with the flow in the moment, or do you like to think in the big picture then start? Because, like, personally, me, I I think the best way to go into it is just with a blank canvas and just, like, let me see what comes out.
Speaker 6:Yeah. I I kinda do both. So sometimes I wanna do, like, an abstract kind of, like, geometric pattern. So I'll kinda have to have that in my brain before I start painting, and I usually do a lot of sketches. But sometimes I just like to do, like, little doodles almost with paint and fill a whole canvas up like that.
Speaker 6:And sometimes I do